My original ideal citizen was a Christian, Democrat, college student, who liked to listen to lots of mainstream "pop" music. He liked watching sports, playing baseball, liked to watch 24 and read Harry Potter. After looking back on this, I realize, that these things are not necessarily ideal, but somewhat typical, especially of an American. The majority of people in America are have at least one quality of Jason's.
My new imagined citizen would be a little more unique. I would change his music tastes to something more genre specific, like piano rock. My new imagined citizen would like bands that express themselves through lyrics in a different manner than the norm, such as Deas Vail, Jack's Mannequin, and Falling Up. Also, I would change the fact that Jason likes 24, a very popular and common favorite among many. He would also be into Stephen King books rather than Harry Potter.
I learned a great deal about writing and research, especially when it comes to the course topic of rhetoric of service and activism. With these topics, the things you read dealing with them are written for a purpose. For most of these readings, there is a call to action. Therefore, there is a need to persuade the readers to increase their chances of the reader taking action. With this goal in mind, the author of these writings needs to use rhetorical analysis in order to better persuade the reader. With ethos, the author can establish his or her own credibility. With pathos, the author can lure the reader in with emotional appeal. With logos, the author can simply reason out a reason for a call to action.
With Jason, I chose to break him away from the typical norms of an American. With my writing, I can now incorporate new strategies that move my writing away from a boring typical research paper to a reading which is more sophisticated and powerful.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Organization Analysis – The Rhetoric of Activism
Performing your music to a new, more mature, college audience can be intimidating. At FSA (Future Songwriters of America), their goal was clearly to open these types of barriers to musicians. The experience was extremely fulfilling.
As it was my first time to the group, I was a little nervous. However, everyone was extremely friendly and introduced themselves.
The President, Tiffany, took the spot and began to speak about upcoming events. Afterwards, she started a very informal speech about how every performance is a "golden experience" for us musicians. She tried to convince us to take any performance available, as not only does it give us important experience, but begins to make a name for each individual musician.
I was emotionally swayed when another speaker named Ben spoke about his personal testimony regarding his musical situation which was very similar to mine. As he considered music his life as well, and was a big musician in high school, he said that he felt tied down in college. When being able to relate to this directly, I was definitely attached for the rest of speech. He encouraged us to continue attending the meetings as there would be more and more opportunities to get back in music again, even if our life is moving in a direction other than music.
My wonderful experience at this first meeting with FSA would definitely leave me telling my fellow musicians about the group. As a student organization that is looking to impact as many musicians as it can, my positive experience with the group can benefit them as well.
As it was my first time to the group, I was a little nervous. However, everyone was extremely friendly and introduced themselves.
The President, Tiffany, took the spot and began to speak about upcoming events. Afterwards, she started a very informal speech about how every performance is a "golden experience" for us musicians. She tried to convince us to take any performance available, as not only does it give us important experience, but begins to make a name for each individual musician.
I was emotionally swayed when another speaker named Ben spoke about his personal testimony regarding his musical situation which was very similar to mine. As he considered music his life as well, and was a big musician in high school, he said that he felt tied down in college. When being able to relate to this directly, I was definitely attached for the rest of speech. He encouraged us to continue attending the meetings as there would be more and more opportunities to get back in music again, even if our life is moving in a direction other than music.
My wonderful experience at this first meeting with FSA would definitely leave me telling my fellow musicians about the group. As a student organization that is looking to impact as many musicians as it can, my positive experience with the group can benefit them as well.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Self Evident
Normally, I don't like reading poems. However, Self Evident by Ani DiFranco is an exception. This poem has crazy swings in tone and changes the emotions of the reader from part to part. It was very deep, but completely understandable.
After doing some research on Ani DiFranco and reading the poem itself, I was able to get a good general understanding of the type of person she is. She is not afraid to express her feelings in words whatsoever. Controversial/touchy subjects are something she looks to exploit. She seems to have a very strong dream of America and the rest of the world.
The poem would definetly be a good read for any American. However, I feel it would favor Democrats over Republicans due to many stands on random issues expressed in the poem.
Throughout the reading, there are many examples of pathos. Emotions stirred for me as I read the part
"on the day that America
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please"
In this, she attempts to adjust the reader's emotions at the beginning of the poem.
Another example is when she is talking about the actual burning of the towers. This visual through words appeals to emotion.
There are uses of logos as well. She tries to reason throughout the poem that the dream of America has not been realized. She demonstrates through examples that America is not as different as it seems when compared to other countries.
"cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation"
I believe that her rhetorical uses really add to the poem as a whole. Her message is better conveyed using the evident Logos and Pathos.
The media has a relatable influence on how these rhetorical uses influence us as readers. As Logos is used by many corporations while the media uses a great deal of Pathos, we are subject to fall for this use of rhetoric.
My analysis is similar to others I have made regarding works discussed in class in that there has been a great deal of Pathos and Logos. However, I was unable to find much Ethos as DiFranco used first person to describe the poem itself. There was not an reliance on the reputation of DiFranco.
After doing some research on Ani DiFranco and reading the poem itself, I was able to get a good general understanding of the type of person she is. She is not afraid to express her feelings in words whatsoever. Controversial/touchy subjects are something she looks to exploit. She seems to have a very strong dream of America and the rest of the world.
The poem would definetly be a good read for any American. However, I feel it would favor Democrats over Republicans due to many stands on random issues expressed in the poem.
Throughout the reading, there are many examples of pathos. Emotions stirred for me as I read the part
"on the day that America
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please"
In this, she attempts to adjust the reader's emotions at the beginning of the poem.
Another example is when she is talking about the actual burning of the towers. This visual through words appeals to emotion.
There are uses of logos as well. She tries to reason throughout the poem that the dream of America has not been realized. She demonstrates through examples that America is not as different as it seems when compared to other countries.
"cuz take away our playstations
and we are a third world nation"
I believe that her rhetorical uses really add to the poem as a whole. Her message is better conveyed using the evident Logos and Pathos.
The media has a relatable influence on how these rhetorical uses influence us as readers. As Logos is used by many corporations while the media uses a great deal of Pathos, we are subject to fall for this use of rhetoric.
My analysis is similar to others I have made regarding works discussed in class in that there has been a great deal of Pathos and Logos. However, I was unable to find much Ethos as DiFranco used first person to describe the poem itself. There was not an reliance on the reputation of DiFranco.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Prompt 1: Facebook Project
So my ideal citizen has been created! His name is Jason Miller, he's one cool dude who set his privacy settings to nonexistent so stalk away!
In my own mind, I have an opinion of the "ideal" citizen. Although this may stray from the common opinion of what American's believe to be an ideal citizen, if I were to pick a random American out of a hat holding say 300 million people, Jason would come out.
Even though I don't consider myself to be a very typical or "ideal" citizen, I believe that I subconsciously took myself into consideration when completing this project. This, however, does not at all mean that Jason is just like me. In coming up with answers to the questions that Facebook asks about a person, I took into account what I believe to be common in America.
I chose a college male student because I believe that I have a good outlook on an ideal citizen in terms of this type of person. The picture of Jason reflects what a typical college student is going through every day-self realization. Jason is a Democrat and a Christian simply because I feel these are both the more common and easily believable traits of a person in today's America.
Jason, as with many male college students, is interested in Dating. As for Jason's activities, I believe this was based on my own opinion of a typical college student. If I were to collect a general list of activities of a college male from Americans, I believe that Sports and Partying would be at the top.
As far as music, I chose some quite popular bands in various genres. Again, I believe that America's ideal taste in music would not range too far from Jason's. Jason's favorite quote is one that many American's know, and has a little humor attached to it. All in all, the most important yet maybe not so "ideal" fact about Jason is that he is now listed as single as of 1:45 A.M.
In my own mind, I have an opinion of the "ideal" citizen. Although this may stray from the common opinion of what American's believe to be an ideal citizen, if I were to pick a random American out of a hat holding say 300 million people, Jason would come out.
Even though I don't consider myself to be a very typical or "ideal" citizen, I believe that I subconsciously took myself into consideration when completing this project. This, however, does not at all mean that Jason is just like me. In coming up with answers to the questions that Facebook asks about a person, I took into account what I believe to be common in America.
I chose a college male student because I believe that I have a good outlook on an ideal citizen in terms of this type of person. The picture of Jason reflects what a typical college student is going through every day-self realization. Jason is a Democrat and a Christian simply because I feel these are both the more common and easily believable traits of a person in today's America.
Jason, as with many male college students, is interested in Dating. As for Jason's activities, I believe this was based on my own opinion of a typical college student. If I were to collect a general list of activities of a college male from Americans, I believe that Sports and Partying would be at the top.
As far as music, I chose some quite popular bands in various genres. Again, I believe that America's ideal taste in music would not range too far from Jason's. Jason's favorite quote is one that many American's know, and has a little humor attached to it. All in all, the most important yet maybe not so "ideal" fact about Jason is that he is now listed as single as of 1:45 A.M.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)