Journal 1

Greek life: More than just beer and togas: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,212629,00.html


1. What claim is being made?
“Several highly publicized incidents have drawn lots of negative attention to the Greek system.” For many Greek organizations on universities maintaining a well standing reputation is hard to do. This article tries to persuade the reader to see the Greek life in a more positive light. The claim for this article is to show readers that joining a sorority or fraternity teaches students time management and can ultimately help with the college experience including receiving good grades and giving back to the community.

What type of claim is this (claim of fact, value, and/or policy)?
For this article Ruiz is using value in his claim to make more people aware that the Greek system is more than just parties, and togas. He puts his opinions in this article, while still using pros and cons to back up his valued claim.

What types of appeals or evidence are used to support the claim?
Ruiz uses much evidence to back up his claim in the article. In his first few sentences he has used evidence from Chris Bullins the director of Greek Life. Bullins tried to let readers know that sororities and fraternities don’t encourage students to drink; they do more than just party and drink. He also states that hazing which is a world wide problem in the Greek system is not only found in Greeks it can be found in other organizations such as athletics. This article uses great evidence from directors at universities to students who have been through rush period, to students who had to decide whether or not they wanted to be Greek. Ruiz puts his opinion in this piece of writing, but he uses a lot of evidence from other sources to back up his opinions which is great. This shows that he values other peoples opinions and knows that when writing a good article you must have reliable sources to let the readers know its not just about the author.