Shawns Blog

 If you ask most people if they’re a good driver, they’ll say yes. Nobody really thinks they’re the problem, it’s always other drivers. But if that were true, driving wouldn’t feel so stressful all the time. In a place like Phoenix, it’s easy to notice how common bad habits are. People speed, ignore signals, and switch lanes without thinking, and most of them don’t even realize they’re doing anything wrong. A big reason for that is overconfidence and impatience. Driving becomes routine, so people stop paying full attention. Small things like checking your phone, not using a blinker, or rolling through stops don’t seem like a big deal, but they add up. On top of that, everyone is in a rush. Waiting at a light or being behind someone going the speed limit feels annoying, so people take risks just to save a few seconds. This isn’t just one city, it happens everywhere. That’s what makes it important. Risky driving has become normal, even though it can go wrong fast. Being a good driv...

  After reading both articles from The Arizona Republic , it’s clear that Arizona is pushing hard for more people to get college degrees. In “Ducey: Why Arizona needs more college grads,” former governor Doug Ducey argues that having more educated workers helps the state grow and compete economically. The second article, Earnings potential goes up a lot for Arizonans with college degrees   backs that up with numbers, showing that people in Arizona with college degrees earn significantly more over time. Both pieces rely heavily on logic and statistics, which makes their argument convincing, but they also feel a little one-sided. They focus on the benefits without really addressing the challenges that a lot of students actually face, especially financially. As a student and someone living in Arizona, this topic feels personal. I’ve seen friends and family question whether college is worth the cost, especially with tuition, debt, and the pressure of choosing the “right” major....

 Over the past decade, electric vehicles (EVs) have gone from a niche concept to a mainstream alternative to traditional gas-powered cars. Companies like Tesla  and Rivian  are leading the charge, but almost every major automaker is now investing heavily in EV technology. What’s fascinating is not just the environmental benefits, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also how EVs are reshaping transportation infrastructure, urban planning, and even the way we think about personal energy consumption. Charging stations are popping up in places that never seemed relevant before, like shopping centers and highway rest stops, making EVs more practical than ever. One of the biggest challenges for widespread EV adoption remains battery technology. Current lithium-ion batteries can be expensive and take a long time to charge, and battery disposal raises environmental concerns of its own. Innovations in solid-state batteries and fast-charging technology, however, promise to solve...

 For this blog entry I looked at a news report from CNN about immigration at the southern border of the United States. I also compared it to coverage of the same topic from Fox News . Both reports are supposed to be informational, but they show how news can still be slanted without clearly stating an opinion. The CNN report focuses more on the struggles migrants face and includes emotional stories about families. The Fox News report talks more about border security and crime concerns. Even though both reports include facts, the information they choose to show makes the story feel very different. When I watched these reports, it made me think about how rhetoric is used in the news. CNN uses more emotional stories, which is an example of pathos , because it makes the audience feel sympathy for the people involved. Fox News focuses more on numbers and security problems, which appeals more to logos , or logical thinking. Both reports also use ethos by interviewing experts or official...