I chose to complete Question #2 involving Gabrielle Raley's article "No Good Choices". It took me quite some time to thoughtfully answer this question. Although I had both read and reread the essay, drawn a rough outline of my argument and answer, and reconsidered it several times, I still found it difficult to provide what I felt was a justified, adequate answer. There is so much to be said about the issue of teenage childbearing. When given a chance, one may not know where to begin, nor where to end. I suppose that this is where the mechanics of rhetoric comes into play. I found, through this exercise, that I often go for the "pathos" appeal. In most instances, I balance it with logic.

For this particular quiz, and on this particular issue, I let my emotion attached to it cloud and confuse my writing. I do not live in poverty. I have not carried or bore a child. I have had expensive, college preparoatory training. In other words, the desolate teen in Raley's essay does not represent me. But it represents many of those I know. I could live in a well-to-do neighborhood. I could afford to go to a college prep high school. I received support and education about sexual commodification. But why is that? Because my mother has gained an economic foothold that has left me advantaged. And how did she gain that foothold? Through her father, my grandfather, who was determined to send her through college (here at OU to be exact) so that she could do so in her lifetime. You see, I look at my family and see that I have been one of the few lucky ones who are not in the cycle of despair, yet my position allows me to observes others and see this desperate cycle taking place before my eyes. I see my friends who couldn't attend private schools drop out of disadvantaged public ones where they used our old books. I see them struggle with work at McDonald's. I see them become pregnant. I see them hopeless and regretful. That is where my emotion comes from. And it is from that emotional basis that I answered the question about teenage childbearing.

I am anxious to see how THAT turned out!