Blog Assignment #7

Locate the claim with reason in the essay and write it out in your own words. What are the counterarguments that the writer addresses? What types of evedence does the writer present to support his/her claim? Do you find the essay persuasive? Why or why not?

Arak Anthology(p33-36): The Publication of Your Personal Profile by Megan Ramirez

Her claim is that because of negative possibilities that anyone can scrutinize someone's private pictures and profile through Facebook or MySpace and those might damage his/her career, posting personal information on those websites should be considered carefully. Whether sharing personal profile is good or not has been controversial over years. Even though many people warn the users of its negative effects, users multiply rapidly.
While insisting on that point, she also addresses counterarguments. She mentions that when employers hire potential employees, Facebook and MySpace are useful because the candidates' personal profiles on the websites tell the employers whether they are acceptable. She states the usefulness and advantage of those websites, but she asserts that these good points can turn out to be bad for some people and that is why users should be alarmed the possible danger of sharing personal information. In other words, it offers a way to evaluate people for the employers, but users who share too much of their personal information are usually victimized. She also admits that social networking websites can be entertaining. However, she stresses that when it comes to privacy of information, it is inevitable to avoid the criticism. By addressing those counterarguments, she overcomes her potential objections. This is one of her technique that she uses in her essay.
There are several types of other evidences too. First of all, she uses credible statistics or saying. For example, she describs how many new users joined the web community every day by showing the statistics. She indicates an interview and the interviewee saying the negative side of those publication, it also suppots her claim objectively.
She also uses personal experience in her introduction. Her experience brings the readers to an awareness of the problem that how much the problem is involved in our daily life.
Moreover, she uses other examples to support her claim such as the case that took place at the University of Delaware and another case that happened to Miss New Jersey.
I find this essay persuasive, because of the evidences in her essay. From her introduction to her conclusion, her claim is very clear and coherent. She informs readers well that how dangerous the posting can be by showing the cases that employers might not hire the candidates due to the pictures or profile that he/she posted. Besides the jobs, inappropriate posting also affects one's personal life as one can see in her examples of RA at UD and Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo. These instances are supportive and those are directly related to the readers who go to college and spend a lot of time on "doing " Facebook and MySpace.