Optional Prompt Week of 2/28 - Film or Book?

You asked, I listen. I'll try to provide optional prompts for your blog posts for the rest of the semester. Please respond to the prompt as a separate post, or it will not count toward your total.

Prompt:

(these questions are not to be specifically answered per se, but are meant to be rhetorical, that is, to get you thinking)

What do you like about your favorite book or movie? What sorts of rhetorical appeals is it making? How does the tone of the language of the book or the color scheme (for instance) of a film affect you? Does the book or film seek to convey a point of view or to comment on a particular subject? What do you think about those subjects because of the rhetorical impetus of the film/book?


A brief review:

A General Summary of Aristotle's Appeals:
 
The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's. The Athenian philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories--Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
 
Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique we will study, and Aristotle's favorite. We'll look at deductive and inductive reasoning, and discuss what makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up your claims. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough.

Why Are We Not Posting to the Blog?

It is kind of amazing how few of us are making blog posts. For something so important to our grade, we should be jumping at the opportunity for basically free points.  I mean, c'mon, I'm writing a blog post about how we are making blog posts.  We should be much more proactive about earning these points.  I know that in my own experience, I think about the blog posts when I am not around my computer, or when I am working on something else, but I don't remember to write posts when I have the time do them.  I think that in my own life, there are two main problems that contribute to this forgetfulness.  First of all, I am not very organized.  I'll be the first to admit that I oftentimes do not know when things are due.  I rely a lot on my friends to remind me what is due tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I don't see anybody in this class outside of class, so I don't have that luxury in this class. I should really have some sort of planner so that I can remind myself to do the blog posts.  Another problem that I have is that I procrastinate. I am one of the biggest procrastinators I know.  Unfortunately, that doesn't always work out for me.  Whenever I think about doing a blog post, I always think to myself that I'll do it later.  And that's I forget to do it, because I'm focused on other things.  What I need to do is be proactive, and not put off my blog posts until right before they are due.  Another problem that I have specifically with these blog posts is that I do not place enough importance in them.  I focus on other classes that I find more "important," or even other assignments for this class.  I work on getting those assignments done, and the blog posts just slip right past my mind.  This very thing happened last night, as I was studying for a test, and completely forgot about the blog, even though I had thought about it earlier in the day.  This will however, really affect my grade in this class, so it needs to stop happening.  Not only have I forgotten to write blog posts, but I also forget to comment on others.  It is simply baffling to me how I keep forgetting to get simple points like this.  Unfortunately, these are points that I cannot get back.  I can't keep doing this, and if anybody else in the class is having these problems, you need to shape up right along with me.

Commentary on the Article "The University is a Popular Culture, But it Doesn't Know it yet"

After reading the article assigned to us "The University is Popular Culture, But It Doesn't Know It Yet," I realized how much of it could be applicable to this class and my other classes in general. The author of the article stated how there is a disconnect between a student and his or her professor. This disconnect is due to the fact that the professor is very knowledgeable and researched in his or her field, yet many times the student has just begun his or her journey on learning the material. One example would be my organic chemistry and biochemistry classes. Many times when the professor explains a concept or idea, they are under the assumption that the students have a strong foundation of the background of the material. Realistically, the supposed to be known background was what students had learned/memorized from the tests before or from previous biology classes and it has completely left the students memories. Many of the concepts I personally have learned just this year so my foundation is still in its developing stage. The professors who teach these classes are usually have PHD's  and have a minimum of eight years of exposure and research in the field. Because of this they feel that the early concepts that the students are learning at the moment are easy, and forget or do not understand how difficult the concept can be to first grasp. Another example could be used in this class. I am taking this class my fourth semester of college, without having taken any other English class for over a year and half. Because it was an introduction level class, I assumed that the workload and work itself would be easier than the college level classes I took in high school. I feel that when I first started doing work in this class and receiving poor grades back it was because of a disconnect myself and the professor. I felt that there was some unspoken assumption that I had a strong English background and knew exactly what was expected of me. Unfortunately, I did not know what the professor presumed I knew, and that has caused a sort of discouragement in the class, that I am still struggling to move forward with. Overall, I agree with the articles thoughts on how the disconnect between professors and students can be a hindrance in actually learning the material. 

How to Write a Blog Post

Since I have had a difficult time coming up with ideas for writing a blog post, I decided to do some research on how to write an effective blog post. Although there are many ways you can go about writing a blog post, here are some tips I found most helpful to aid with writing better posts on our class blog.

 

First, it’s important to grab the reader's attention right away because you don’t want to lose the reader in the first few paragraphs or even sentences of the introduction. In my opinion, the hardest part of writing a paper, blog post, etc. is the introduction but there are a number of ways you can in which you can help get you started. Tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grasp the reader with a fascinating fact. Then describe the purpose of the post and how you will address the problem the reader may be having. This gives the reader a reason to keep reading with the hope of improving their work or lives.

In my opinion, the most important part of writing a blog post is understanding your audience. Before you begin writing a blog post, it is important to know who your target audience is. Sometimes your audience is a generalized group of readers, sometimes you know who the audience is composed of, and sometimes you are writing for yourself. Keeping your audience in mind while you write can help you make decisions about what material to include and how to organize your ideas to create an effective blog post.

 

Organizing your content will benefit the reader and the writer. Sometimes, blog posts can contain and overwhelming amount of information. The trick is to organize the information in a way that readers are not intimated by the length. You can separate your writing into sub-sections that to go into more detail. Using sub- headers will also make the content easier to read and less intimidating for the reader. It is important to use headings, and where appropriate bullet points and number lists. Breaking up your writing will give your audience something new to look at which will help keep the reader’s attention.

Lastly, you want to make your posts as easy to read as possible. The more engaging your posts are, the more likely they are to be read and the better your message will be conveyed. Reading online is different from reading a book. When writing a blog posts, you should use short paragraphs because really long paragraphs are harder to read online.

To sum up everything I just talked about; start with a captivating introduction, keep your audience in mind while writing, organize your content, and use short paragraphs. Doing this will help you write an effective blog post.

Here are some sources I used:
http://try.theblogbuilders.com/guide/?gclid=CP_U5_Dc6sMCFQEHaQodXl8ApQ
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-write-blog-post-simple-formula-ht
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/writing-a-good-blog.html

Importance of Mediating Language

A real life example I wintessed that related to this class involved my shadowing a neonatologist at Cardinal Glennon Hospital. The physician I shadowed works with a team of nurse practitioners, residents, and fellows. Therefore, it is a group effort when it comes to diagnosis and discussing the health of the patient. Because of this, there are many opinions and views regarding a patient and the method in which to proceed the diagnosis. I observed many cases in which a resident believed that a 28 week old premature newborn should increase on her feeds but the attending on the case disagreed. Due to the different perspectives involved, I also noticed that the language the physicians use is an important tool in communication with each other. When the attending disagreed, she kindly stated, "I understand what you're saying but I believe that...". This is an example of the mediating language we had discussed in class earlier. It is a polite way to acknowledge the view of someone else while also sharing personal ideas as well. This stuck out to me because it showed me that this kind of language is not only important in writing papers but verbally as well. It is important to be eloquent and fluent in a conversation with an individual because many of the times communication occurs through social media these days. It also showed me that mediating language is seen in a variety of aspects throughout society. It can be seen in different occupations, professions, and fields of interest. It is especially apparent in occupations that involve a group of people. This is because in order for a team to be effective, there has to be collaboration and respect for one another's ideas.

Anti Smoking Ads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5fV4jMplP4

Ive noticed that most Anti-tobacco, or anti-smoking ads generally rely on emotional appeal for their effectiveness. The video I linked is very graphic it shows a man rolling up blood and flesh and smoking it.  The purpose of this is to disgust people with the idea of smoking, and to illustrate the idea that smoking “rots you from the inside out”. This is an example of using pathos in an argument as it relies on your emotions to convince you that smoking is bad. Are these types of commercials effective in getting people to quit, or could there be improvements that could be made to these types of ads? In my opinion, there should be changes to these ads.  I think the graphic nature of this ad is effective that this ad as it gets your attention, but I think could have done more to make their ad more effective. The makers of this ad could improve the effectiveness of their ad by appealing to ethos and logos, instead of just pathos. To do this they should establish their credibility by saying that the U.S surgeon general approves of the message, or something to show that what they are presenting in their ad is valid and trust worthy. The ad attempts to use logos for their ad, by saying that toxins from smoking rot you from the inside, but they fail to back it up with any type of scientific study.

What do you think of this ad? Do you think the makers of this ad could have enhanced their argument by appealing to ethos and logos, or is the emotional appeal enough to make this ad effective?

Sleep; How Much Sleep do We Need

I recently read a study regarding sleeping habits. In the study the researchers proposed that we are getting too much sleep and that the idea that 8 hours of sleep a night is to much sleep. Before we had clocks or alarms or things to make us get up in the morning people would sleep for 2 to 4 hours then wake up for 2 hours and then return to sleeping for 4 hours. This would rejuvenate your body more fully than a straight 8 hours but with people packing each day really full and not allowing for enough time to get enough sleep we have reverted to a bad habit of sleeping for 8 hours. The researchers address pathos in this article because they talk to people who have performed the new sleeping pattern and they have described it as amazing and how they feel so much better and how they have more energy. People who sleep for 8 hours a night do not always have the same feelings towards waking up in the morning. Many times people who only sleep for 8 hours a night fall behind especially when they have commitments or have not planned enough time for sleep. The researchers also use logic. They placed someone in complete darkness for a month and this person reverted to the pattern of sleeping for 4 hours waking up for a few hours and then going back to sleep. They draw from this conclusion that our body does not want to sleep for 8 hours straight but we have trained them to function this way. It is important for us to remember to take care of our bodies. If we fight ourselves then we are harming our greatest asset to our productivity. Taking care of our bodies is the most important thing we need to do. If we let our bodies go we are sacrificing our greatest asset.

EA Responds To Worst Company In America Contest: We Can Do Better

The video game company called Electronics Arts, EA for short, has been won the worst company in America in 2012 and 2013 from consumerist.com. EA is the first in the contest’s history to win the award twice. EA has won this award for 2012 because its support of SOPA and the huge fan backlash about the ending of the highly praise and loved video game, Mass Effect 3. EA has won this award in 2013 because their many anti-consumer business practices like having messed up the launch of SimCity, bad pricing models, using DRM in their games like SimCity. DRM means Digital Restrictions Management, and is technology that is built into a product or service that aim to limit its range of uses after purchase. EA has a bad history with their customers. It is known for buying up smaller, successful developers and milking and sometime ruining the intellectual properties made these companies. EA charge consumers with microtransaction for the integral part of their game and not as a little additional content. It had sold to public deliberately incomplete games with $60 price tag. Peter Moore, EA's Chief Operating Officer, responses to the award with his article called "We Can Do Better". He address several of the major complaints about the company, but does not sound completely sincere. Peter Moore is somewhat lying about their many of the complaints and shift it on other things. If they are not lying, they are not giving any evidence to support any their claims. EA has missed a huge opportunity to properly apology as they have a great inability to hear their consumers’ complaints.
 Link to apology: http://www.ea.com/news/we-can-do-better
 

Has Attaining Jobs Become More Dependent on Rhetoric More Than Ever?

   In this day and age, many people say that in order to obtain a successful job one needs a plethora of connections in that field. The lucky ones are born into a family that serves as that connection, but for the ones who have to start from scratch, what is the best way for them to form those connections? These connections seem to be especially important in the present day with many jobs becoming scarcer and scarcer. After spending a few weeks in this class it seems to me that rhetoric may be the best way to go to pursue a career.
   I think that it is fair to say that most individuals who come out of college want to communicate that they need a job. I think what is really important today is how they convey that message. Like I mentioned before, having connections in the field one wants to work for seems to be one of the main reasons why individuals get the jobs they crave. In my opinion it is what provides the ethos in the eyes of the employer. Maybe it is the ethos that is the most desired part of the prospective employee nowadays. In contrast to this, the process of actually getting the connections seems to rely more on pathos. If veterans in their field have a positive emotional attachment to another colleague in the same field with less experience then I feel as though they will be more obliged to assist the less experienced individual to realize their ambitions. Of course in order to achieve this positive emotional response the newcomer will have to prove they are capable of performing well on the job.
   If none of these steps happened then I feel like chances are there is little hope to finding a stellar job. However I could be wrong, and there may be a few other exceptions to this process. So I guess my question is do you think that this is one of the biggest driving factors in the hiring process? Are there other methods in which one can attain their dream job without rhetoric?

Are Video Games Helpful to Students?

In today's world video games are seen as a bad thing because of all the "violence" in them. But studies have shown that there are physical and mental benefits to playing video games. Kids that play games on like the Wii for example improve their vision can be improved like differentiate shades of gray and shapes. 

There are also benefits for brain function as well. People who play action-based games make split second decisions 25% faster than people that don't play video games. People that play a lot of video games can multitask with twice as many things than the average person that doesn't play video games. 

Video games can also help people with psychological problems. A study done at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, researchers asked 94 people (all young people) that had been diagnosed with clinical depression to play a 3D fantasy game called SPARX and many of the subjects that were part of the experiment showed reduced symptoms of their depression. 

The biggest worry of parents is the violent video games. But Daphne Bavelier who is a very respected researcher in the field says that violent action games may actually have the strongest beneficial effect on the brain. 

Here are two links that are credible sources:

http://www.today.com/health/video-games-are-good-you-little-bit-1D80005579

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading-skills-practice/video-games-are-good-you

http://youtu.be/AWpsOqh8q0M

In Beyoncé's music video 'If I Were A Boy' it challenges gender roles. In the past, men have been seen to be the breadwinners and possess power, as opposed to women, who were believed to stay home and be more vulnerable. Times have changes and today's pop culture has begun to challenge these ideas. In the video, Beyoncé is put in scenarios men are expected to be in and points out social differences between men and woman while using the appeals of ethos,pathos and logos.

In her song 'If I Were a Boy', Beyonce challenges her bad relationship and makes a point that women are trapped in similar relationships and never question it. In the video, Beyonce looks into her unhealthy relationship in the mans point of view. By switching point of views, she develops an understanding of what it is like to be the man in the relationship. 

Beyonce uses pathos, the first of three appeals in her song through her descriptive phrases. In the phrase 'If I were a boy, I think I could understand, How it feels to love a girl, I swear I'd be a better man', by connecting to the audience's emotions and relating to others and unhealthy relationships. Beyonce utilizes ethos based on her credibility in this song. She is a well known pop star, and has a great influence over her audience. The third appeal, logos is based on facts from her own experiences.She uses reasoning and common sense in her song and lyrics.

That's How...

For anybody who watched the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago, you probably saw this commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPF-Juks2N0

I think this uses rhetoric in an interesting way. It uses emotional appeal (obviously, cause the kid is dying from heroin), but at the same time it creates a sort of sick humor with the music playing in the background. Definitely an interesting, and definitely effective approach to the subject. What do you guys think about this commercial? Do you like it? Or does it make you sick?

Here's a commercial with our favorite "famous person", Kim Kardashian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTwzsV3I3OQ

T-Mobile knows that anybody who's anybody knows Kim K. By including her in their commercial, there were able to appeal to almost everyone who was watching it. Whether you love Kim or hate her (probably hate her), you could relate to this commercial and you probably will remember it for awhile. Was T-Mobile's approach of including a famous person in their add effective? I think that by having Kim plug their data, T-Mobile increased credibility in some way or another.

Speaking of Arguing...

I remember being asked on one of the first days of class who had been in an argument before in their lives.  Everyone raised their hands because, we determined, everyone has different viewpoints and perspectives that are important to them.  Since then and because we have been discussing argument so relentlessly, I've found myself acutely aware of every argument I have been in since.  I've found myself, for the most part, to have a much better handle on keeping these arguments very civil and smart.  I think that this is mostly a direct result of knowing and addressing my audience by trying to understand what their perspective is.

Yesterday, I had a bit of a different argument with some friends that led me to question this line of thinking.  It was a very heated debate, and I am certain more than one of us left with hurt feelings.  It was a topic I am extremely passionate about and consider myself very well educated on.  But the problem was that because of this passion I was completely incapable of seeing and considering the reverse opinion—and she was completely unwilling to see mine.  

I know that understanding the other perspective is key in arguing, and I was aware of the nagging in the back of my mind telling me so as we continued to shoot biting comments back and forth, but I almost felt as if I was too close to the topic to separate myself.  Has anyone else had an experience like this before? Have you found a way to overcome it? Anger and passion are a key to argument, I think.  But it seems to me that you have to be careful not to have too much.

Do the same words matter all the time?

The reading below indicates that, "rhetoric requires attending to the contingencies and contexts of specific moments in time and the dynamics of human belief and interaction within those settings" (n.p.). That is to say, expressing one's self with rhetoric requires a close consideration of one's environment.  And so a question: is there any form of expression which communicates regardless of its context? If so, what is it? Why is this possible or impossible?

res/verba

logos/lexis

Rhetoric requires understanding a fundamental division between what is communicated through language and how this is communicated. Aristotle phrased this as the difference between logos (the logical content of a speech) and lexis (the style and delivery of a speech). Roman authors such as Quintilian would make the same distinction by dividing consideration of things or substance, res, from consideration of verbal expression, verba. In the Renaissance, Erasmus of Rotterdam reiterated this foundational dichotomy for rhetorical analysis by titling his most famous textbook "On the Abundance of Verbal Expression and Ideas" (De copia verborum ac rerum). This division has been one that has been codified within rhetorical pedagogy, reinforced, for example, by students being required in the Renaissance (according to Juan Luis Vives) to keep notebooks divided into form and content. Within rhetorical pedagogy it was the practice of imitation that most required students to analyze form and content. They were asked to observe a model closely and then to copy the form but supply new content; or to copy the content but supply a new form. Such imitations occurred on every level of speech and language, and forced students to assess what exactly a given form did to bring about a given meaning or effect (see Imitation). The divide between form and content is always an artificial and conditional one, since ultimately attempting to make this division reveals the fundamentally indivisible nature of verbal expression and ideas. For example, when students were asked to perform translations as rhetorical exercises, they analyzed their compositions in terms of approximations, since it is impossible to completely capture the meaning and effect of a thought expressed in any terms other than its original words. This division is based on a view of language as something more than simply a mechanistic device for transcribing or delivering thought. With the sophists of ancient Greece rhetoricians have shared a profound respect for how language affects not just audiences, but thought processes. Within the Forest of Rhetoric the close proximity between what is said and how this is said can be observed in the continuity between topics of invention (concerned with what is said) and figures of speech (ways of speaking). The figures (often disregarded as superficial concerns) turn out to be microcosms of the more substantive topics of invention (concerned with what someone says). For example, a figure of speech such as "synecdoche" (in which a part represents a whole, such as referring to one's car as one's "wheels") turns out to be microcosm of the topic of invention Division, which includes looking at how parts relate to wholes. One way to understand the overlapping nature of logos and lexis, res and verba, invention and style, is through the word "ornament." To our modern sensibilities this suggests a superficial, inessential decoration--something that might be pleasing but which is not truly necessary. The etymology of this word is ornare, a Latin verb meaning "to equip." The ornaments of war, for example, are weapons and soldiers. The ornaments of rhetoric are not extraneous; they are the equipment required to achieve the intended meaning or effect. Thus, rhetoricians divided form and content not to place content above form, but to highlight the interdependence of language and meaning, argument and ornament, thought and its expression. It means that linguistic forms are not merely instrumental, but fundamental—not only to persuasion, but to thought itself. This division is highly problematic, since thought and ideas (res) have been prioritized over language (verba) since at least the time of Plato in the west. Indeed, language is a fundamentally social and contingent creature, subject to change and development in ways that metaphysical absolutes are not. For rhetoricians to insist that words and their expression are on par with the ideals and ideas of abstract philosophy has put rhetoric at odds with religion, philosophy, and science at times. Nevertheless, rhetoric requires attending to the contingencies and contexts of specific moments in time and the dynamics of human belief and interaction within those settings. This rhetorical orientation to social and temporal conditions can be understood better with respect to three encompassing terms within rhetoric that are fundamental to the rhetorical view of the world: kairos, audience, and decorum. See Also Rhetorical Pedagogy Invention Style Figures of Speech

Top | SILVA RHETORICAE | Next Tree Enter | Search the Forest This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University Please cite "Silva Rhetoricae" (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Review of the First Three Assignments

The first three assignments were a real shock as to what this class was expecting and how much work and effort should be put into the assignments. I am not saying that any assignment should be given more or less effort than others or done haphazardly but for each and every assignment there should be careful composition. The most important thing is to answer the prompts.

For 1.1 and 1.2 we turned in 1.2 without receiving 1.1 back so I am going to comment on both together. They were both based around identifying issues in your community that you cared about and then identifying your role in it. This caused two bad assignments to be turned in. After turning in 1.1 and then having to turn in 1.2 without feedback no one had any idea that they did the assignments wrong, and therefore, at least personally, the day we got them back and had the talk about how poorly we did really scared me about how difficult this class would be. I felt like I did a reasonably good job of answering the prompt but I missed some questions and that cost me greatly. Now, knowing that answering every part of the prompt is the most important thing and not necessarily writing an amazingly eloquent and fluid paper I have focused more on that.

For 1.3 I spent a long time making sure I hit every aspect of the prompt and thoroughly talked those points out. It took a much more careful approach to identify the audience and the broad audience. I think that it is important to read the prompts before class to be sure any questions can be answered in class instead of being confused when working on the assignment and spending longer redoing the assignment because the prompt was not fully understood.

I will now be keeping on top of assignments and beginning them much further ahead of the due date so that after reading the prompt and working on the assignment I will have class time to have my questions answered.

Review of first three assignments

From the first few weeks of the class, the expectations were very different than I imagined it to be. As an intro level class, this class seems very different than previous classes I’ve taken.

The first three assignments asked to write about different issues we care about in our local community. We were asked to build upon this assignment and identify how the issue can affect us and identify an audience as well. I believe that the first three assignments were an unfair test given to the students. We were given almost no direction on how to approach this topic and how to begin writing for this assignment. The prompt was very vague as I thought that the questions asked were rhetorical questions to ponder and guide us through the writing. We were never told in class to directly answer specific questions in the prompt so it was confusing what to do. Also, we were not given a rubric so I did not know what I was being graded on. Therefore, when I received by grade back I was very confused on how I did so poorly due to the lack of directions and rubric. After receiving B’s and C’s on my first three assignments, it made me very worried and nervous for the remainder of this class. I felt discouraged about my writing afterwards because I never had a problem with answering a prompt before. Because many people performed poorly on these first few assignments, I believe it is a reflection of the assignment and not the students themselves.  

I believe that I know myself and have the potential to perform well in this class. I can only hope that I continue to improve and learn from my mistakes on these assignments. By the end of the semester, I hope to not only learn something from this class but have the effort be reflected in my performance. 

Reflection of this Class

This class has been a very different English class from the ones that I have been in before. I feel that my grade in this class at this point is not a true reflection of my writing abilities and willingness to learn.

   The first assignment was supposed to be a reflective piece about different issues that are important to us. I feel that there was not enough guidance, and for an introduction class there should have been more explanation. Some of us have not taken English classes in a very long time, and it would have been more helpful to make it more of a progressive learning class instead of immediately expecting us to know what to do. I feel that if the entire class does poorly on an assignment, it is not a direct reflection of the student. Also, if the entire class does not understand the directions, I feel that it was unfair to grade the assignment that harshly.

   The second assignment was turned in only a couple days after the first assignment, and it followed similar suit. Since we did not receive the first assignment, I did not see how exactly what was expected of me. By the prompt, I felt many of the questions were meant to be rhetorical and there was little to no guidance clarifying that issue. Because of this, I felt that it was graded quite harshly, especially for one of the beginning assignments. My grades on the first two assignments really discouraged me in this class, and created a more negative learning environment. I felt there should have been more of a progressive way of learning, instead of immediate expectations.

   The third assignment was better because we had more direction. The rough draft was helpful because I saw what I needed to work on in my paper, and there was more guidance. Because of this, I felt that I hopefully did better on this assignment than others. It was interesting to research different sides of an argument, and helped me see different perspectives. Even though this assignment was better than the others, I still feel that my writing has become more unnatural. I feel that directly answering the prompt word-for-word makes the writing forced, and makes the argument lack personal connection. I also think it would help if we had rubrics for our essays. I hope to only do better in my journey  in this class, and hope that I can improve so that my grade can reflect my effort.

Review of first 3 assignments

The first assignment, 1.1 asked us to identify a few things we care about, point out how these things are underserved, obstructed, or could be better perpetuated in our community.  The purpose for this assignment was to just get us to think of potential topics for our advocacy projects. At first I didn’t really understand what was being asked of me, until an example was given.  Overall this was an easy assignment that helped me narrow down what topic I wanted to choose for my project.

The second assignment, 1.2 asked us to explain what our role was in the issues we had identified. The prompt asked a bunch of questions, that many students, including me, thought were rhetorical, and just there to help guide what we were writing. So, I think that it would be nice if it was pointed out that these questions needed to be answered in our assignment.

1.3 asked us to choose a topic to write on for the project, and identify the audience for it.  I think that this assignment was hard in a way and easy at the same time. My topic affected everyone basically, so it was hard to show what exactly the audience was.  One part of the prompt I failed to understand was, “you will identify not only the audience for your final proposal of law but also your audience for your broad appeal”. I don’t know how to distinguish my audience for the proposal of law to the audience for the broad appeal.

These assignments built off each other which I liked. But some parts were confusing. If examples were included somehow in the prompt, it would have cleared a lot of things up

#Kony2012

I was thinking about times that rhetoric was incredibly successful in popular media, and I instantly thought of Kony 2012. That campaign swept the world in a matter of days, all of because its use of emotional and ethical appeal. More than 100 million people watched! Words can be powerful. The campaign was said to be an incredible success, but the organization was commonly questioned about their finances. Have you guys heard anything about what happened AFTER #Kony2102? What do you think about it? Was it helpful to the cause? Or do you think it took advantage of our emotions and the"invisible children" from Uganda?

Make Safe Happen: And Maybe Better Ads?

We discussed the Always #LikeAGirl commercial from the Superbowl, which I think and I have heard many other opinions thinking that it was very strong advertisement.  But not all the commercials were quite as strong.  There was one in particular that stuck out as not good at all.  And the more I've considered it and heard discussions on it--I think it was an issue of audience.

When you watch the Superbowl, whether you are in it for the football or not, commercials are key.  It is commercial season and if you discuss 'Superbowl', 'commercials' are sure to follow.  Through these two becoming associated, some standards have become expected.  And they very specifically demand funny commercials.

This isn't to say that I don't think serious commercials have a place in the Superbowl.  There are endless people watching, it is the perfect placement for PSA's.  There were many PSA's this year.  Domestic violence, drug abuse-- but it was all in the way they were framed for the intended audience that made those ads far more bearable than this. 

On the radio a couple of talk show hosts were discussing this and how it fell flat, and they brought the other heart-wrenching commercials up as well.  One mentioned that he thought that they were, in fact, made very specifically to target the changing audience.  He said he expects commercials to continue to grow in this way, and related it to the links we click and videos we watch online.  He said something along the lines of scrolling Facebook and seeing a post about a returned Navy vet saving a wounded dog from a sewer.  You click that over a cat chasing a laser. These clicks and views apparently are numbered and studied by advertisers to determine how and what they will show in their commercials.  The problem that I see with this is context.  Maybe the audience is the same, maybe you made a commercial that would tear people to bits and make them remember every word you uttered-- if they found it on the internet and could watch it in the privacy of their own room.

In any typical movie, television show, or book there is comic relief.  There are moments taken aside from whatever particular dramatic storyline is being told to give the audience a moment to breath.  I see the commercials in football as the same way.  They are the comic relief, they are that character who opens his mouth and you immediately bite your lip because you know you are about to start laughing.  The audience of these commercials expect to see something funny. 

The other PSA's didn't sugarcoat it.  They didn't pretend.  They came right out with what they really were and promised the audience that what they had to say was not a laughing matter.  This particular commercial presented us with a kid and his dog and some adorable animated daydreams and let us believe it was just like the others until the very end, where it shocked and startled the viewers.

I have watched this commercial endless times now to write this, and I still am not entirely certain what it was for and what the PSA was specifically about.  Maybe I am not paying enough attention, but I think that the shock value they went after distracted people from the true point they were trying to make.  I talked to my dad about it the day after; he thought it was about watching your kids when they are in the bath.  My mom thought it may have been am ad for some sort of poison control, and my brother told me that he 'didn't watch the ones that weren't funny'. 

Again, this is not to say that this was not likely advertising an extremely important PSA.  But it is the way they went about it, and the extreme to which they did not wage an audiences reaction impeded what they were saying and rendered the commercial as nothing but a shock.

Always #LikeAGirl

This video compares how little girls and young women respond to the saying 'like a girl.' It first starts with young women and little girls being told to 'run like a girl' or 'throw like a girl.' The group of young women begin to throw weakly or run with little intensity, compared to the little girls, who when told to do the same thing ran and threw with power and confidence. The point of this video is to show how a girls confidence is lowered during puberty, and promote confidence among all women.



This commercial uses pathos, because I feel like feminism is pressing issue in today's culture and more and more women are feeling empowered.