When it came time to write our researched argument, I was unsure of what topic to write about. I am still not really happy with my choice, but it was still a nice change to be able to write about a topic I’m actually interested in, rather than a book written in the 1800’s. Once again, with our multimedia argument, it has been enjoyable to walk around campus filming, rather than writing an essay about why students should choose Clemson. Overall this class has been by far my favorite English class that I’ve ever taken and has given me a new perspective on English courses in the future.
This semester has really flown by. The beginning of the semester and the first day of classes feel like they just happened, but at the same time with learned so much since August. The beginning of the year was very surprising to me as we talked about such modern examples of rhetoric all over our lives. In high school English classes, we focused on literature throughout history including writing from the Middle Ages. This class was a pleasant surprise for me as it was nothing like any English class that I’d ever taken. As an engineering student who prefers math and science classes, it was nice to finally enjoy an English class. While I still do not 100% enjoy writing, I loved being able to write about anything I wanted. In my visual rhetorical analysis, I was able to write about one of my favorite YouTube videos, a process that included watching the “Make it Count” at least ten times. Coming into the class, I had never looked at different advertisements or other forms of media rhetorically. It was very interesting to learn how we are influenced by the world around us.
When it came time to write our researched argument, I was unsure of what topic to write about. I am still not really happy with my choice, but it was still a nice change to be able to write about a topic I’m actually interested in, rather than a book written in the 1800’s. Once again, with our multimedia argument, it has been enjoyable to walk around campus filming, rather than writing an essay about why students should choose Clemson. Overall this class has been by far my favorite English class that I’ve ever taken and has given me a new perspective on English courses in the future.
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So far our group has not worked together very much, but class today was beneficial as we made a lot of progress in deciding the design of our project as well as what each of our group members will be doing for the project. With a video, it is harder to break up group work when only one person can really edit the video, and there’s not much to do other than that besides the flyer or brochure that we make in addition to the video. We figured out that we can divide up the work with writing the script, designing the flyer, editing the video, filming the video, writing the abstract and bios, and organizing the information for the flyer. After class today we have a very good idea of who will do which of the components of the project.
We figured out pretty quickly that Andrew was the best to edit the video, given his prior experience doing it. I chose to design the flyer, given the experience that I already having using Photoshop. We decided that we could all go around campus to film using the class time we have and also use that time to record the script. We have a general idea of the actual set up of the video now, we just need to get the exact shots that we need as well as write the script for the voice over for Ty to record. The research itself shouldn’t take that long as we just need to look at different statistics about the school as well as draw from our own experience at Clemson to argue why prospective students should come to Clemson. I found the process of writing the research argument paper much different than I had originally anticipated. I thought it would be very difficult to write eight pages and around 2000 words, but as I was nearing the end of my paper I began to look back on the process and to me, it did not seem that difficult to get to the required length of the paper. There was a time during the process that I thought I would need way more than 2000 words to properly close out my argument, but in the end that was not really the case.
Finding sources was the most difficult part of the process for me. When arguing a less educational topic, college athletics, it was difficult to find scholarly sources to directly fit in with my topic, and I found it difficult to think of other ways to tie in more scholarly topics into my argument. Another part of the process I found helpful was how much we talked about the paper in class and in the library sessions. I was expecting it to be put in the background once it was introduced, which was the complete opposite of how class was actually run. We talked about something related to the paper almost every day, and the group presentations about the different parts of the paper were also very helpful. Everything in class over the last month was geared towards pushing us to be successful on this paper. Overall I found the process to be pretty stress-free and not something that bogged down my workload week after week, like I was originally expecting it to. The process was long, but in the end I felt like it was a very well structured way of writing the argument. Going to the library today to learn about copyright laws and the library’s Adobe studio should prove to be very helpful for our multimedia projects. I had somewhat of an idea about copyright laws and what was allowed and what wasn’t, but it was nice to get a review and a more in depth description of how copyright law works. I already knew that copyright law didn’t apply to educational works but I didn’t know that it applied as soon as the project was taken out of the classroom. The segment of the lesson on Creative Commons was also interesting because I had never heard of that before. I didn’t know that the producer of content could determine the copy right laws put on it. I just assumed that they had to go out of their way to put copyright on their content, I didn’t know that it was directly put on it automatically. Overall the review of copyright law and how much of different sources we can use in our projects was very beneficial to the process of making our multimedia projects.
The tour of the library’s Adobe Studio was very interesting because I had no idea that the studio was even there. I didn’t know we had access to such technology like the green screen room and the sound recording room. I also did not know that we could rent out equipment like higher quality cameras and microphones to use. All of these features will be beneficial to us when we begin working on and forming our multimedia project. Hopefully we will be able to take full advantage of the studios, the rental equipment, and the Adobe Creative Cloud in the creation of our project. Watching movie trailers in class was a very helpful and entertaining way to see how other people go about arguing a topic. In this case it’s the movie producers arguing why we should see the movie. Looking at organization, ethos, pathos, and logos, and the sound used in the trailers, we were able to breakdown the argument that the producers made. Watching the “Catching Fire” trailer without sound showed how heavily it depended on both the dialogue of the characters and the music in the background. It built itself up leading to the climax of the trailer which is just the middle of the movie. Watching the trailers was a very fun way to learn about and review arguments, especially since the movies were some of my favorites. It was also nice to see other examples of how other people make their arguments.
Today’s class of doing presentations on the organization of a research paper was also very helpful to the process of writing my research paper. It was nice to be able to focus on the introduction paragraph in depth so I’ll be better off when it comes time to write my actual research paper. It was helpful to focus so much on it and be able to see the important parts of it. We were able to find what the introduction should include, and what it should not include. I also learned what good examples are to use as hooks, and the best strategies to entice the reader. It was also helpful to listen to the two other groups present so I could even further my understanding of how the research paper should be organized and what is included in each part. Watching the presidential debate and looking for different examples of pathos, logos, and ethos on Wednesday was very beneficial to me. I had some trouble finding pathos, logos, and ethos while working on my annotated bibliography and this was helpful to get more concrete examples during class to help me reinforce in my mind what they each are. It was also a fun change of pace to use the debate because it is very relevant and timely right now, which means none of the references are outdated. It was fun to use something so relevant to further our learning through using the debate because most of us already have strong opinions on the presidential candidates so it was different to look at them from an educational point of view and not look at whether or not you agree with them, but rather the way they are forming their arguments.
By looking at something like this and seeing and hearing the argument, rather than reading it off of a page, it is easier to pick out different examples of logos, pathos, and ethos. When you’re able to see the person say their argument and their body language as they do it it’s easier to see how they are attempting to argue. Listening to Trump and watching his facial expressions and hand motions really is different than reading his speeches off of a computer screen. You can really see his emotions towards the subject and the way he uses pathos to make his argument. He also uses logos through listing a lot of statistics to argue his point as well as talking about a lot his job history and career to create his logos. Hillary does not use as much logos, she tries to use pathos as well as using her career to form her ethos. Overall, I found this exercise very helpful in furthering my knowledge of logos, pathos, and ethos. I found our session in the library on Monday to be very helpful and beneficial to my research paper. By learning about the difference between popular and scholarly sources I realized that I need to find more scholarly articles for my research topic. I felt as if it may be difficult to find scholarly articles about a more recent topic like mine, an issue that has really become popular in recent years, but the session taught me that you can find articles that are only somewhat related to your topic, rather than directly about it.
Another method I liked was the idea of searching more broadly about your topic. This could help me if I exhaust all of the sources that come up when I search directly about my topic. It is also good because it could be beneficial in finding even more evidence for my argument. This broader search will also help to bring more people into the “conversation.” It is almost always better to at least look at more people’s views and arguments about your topic or a related topic. One of the things I found most helpful about our session was the comparison of sources to actors. You need a combination of superstar A-List celebrities and career actors in a movie, just like you need a combination of scholarly and popular sources in your argument. This helped show me that having all popular sources or all scholarly sources is not a good way to argue, the balance of both is necessary to create the best possible argument. Overall I found this session to be very beneficial in furthering my learning about writing research papers and finding reliable and beneficial sources. One thing that was very beneficial to my education this week was the 35 minute research challenge we did in class on Wednesday as well as reading and rating everyone’s papers. Having us have to complete this in such a short amount of time really helped to show me that finding reliable and helpful sources really isn’t that difficult. I felt that I was able to find two very good sources to use towards my argument that the class should chew orbit gum. This challenge also helped me in learning how to use my sources to reinforce my argument with evidence. By giving a random topic, like chewing gum, it also showed me that you can make a successful argument without having any bias towards the subject. At first the challenge of making up an argument in 35 minutes was intimidating but as we got into the time it was not all that difficult. I finished my argument with more than the two required sources and probably could’ve said more on the subject.
Reading and rating everyone else’s papers was also beneficial. By seeing how other people approached their topics, it helped me to learn other approaches that I can take towards my research paper. The rating part was a bit difficult because it was hard to differentiate the papers when reading them all in a short amount of time. They were also thrown together in 30 minutes so they were not always finished or checked over. I didn’t really find that any of the papers used their sources as well as mine. I may be biased but I thought I created the best argument off of my sources. This week I found it very interesting to discuss the different parts of an argument and how they, when put together successfully, can be persuasive for the author. I had never looked at an argument this way and thought about how a persuasive argument is persuasive because of each individual part, not just the idea on its own. Aristotle’s “Canon’s of Rhetoric” work together to produce a successful argument. The canon I believe is most important is arrangement. An argument cannot be persuasive if it is scattered and poorly ordered. The organization of an argument is essential to whether or not it is successful in persuading the audience to agree with the author’s argument.
Whenever I used to think of an argument, I usually thought of a debate between two people, but Aristotle’s “Canon’s of Rhetoric” applies to any kind of argument, including visuals. While discussing the different arrangements of an argument I thought of all of the ads I had seen that used these methods to argue their products. While I had noticed different arrangements in ads, I didn’t understand just how imperative they were to the author’s argument. So many different companies advertise their products using the “cause and effect” or “problem and solution” methods. Rhetoric has been all around me my whole life but so far this course and this lesson in particular have helped me to see how the images work to argue the author’s perspective. I also found the Toulmin model helpful because it simplified the argument into three simple parts. I believe it will be helpful in writing my visual rhetorical analysis. I never really thought about the idea that grounds and claims were only held together by an assumption, not actual fact. This underlying assumption is also somewhat confusing because it may be so obvious that we don’t even think about it at all. Talking about selfies was never something I expected to do in a college course. Looking at selfies as a picture that someone took to portray something about themselves is a lot different than what I’m used to just scrolling past them on Instagram. I never thought of looking at a picture that someone took of themselves as something that had a deeper meaning and conveyed a lot of things about the photographer. I never thought that anyone took selfies to bring people in and show them part of their lives. I never thought of selfies like the one described in the book that showed the photographer’s power, wealth and love of life. Even as a class when we looked at each other’s’ selfies I was surprised as to how much people could take away from each other’s selfies. From our selfies we saw that others were lazy, adventurous, outdoorsy and even loved pizza. On top of just learning about others from a single picture of themselves, we were also able to further our ability to analyze rhetorically. We were able to identify the three key elements in the author, audience and argument. The exercise in class of looking at everyone else’s selfies was very good practice at analyzing something rhetorically and a fun way of doing it. It was great to be able to learn more about some of my classmates while also progressing important skills for the course.
The review of pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos was also very helpful. While it isn’t very easy to find these in selfies, it is possible. Like “Sarabeth’s” selfie described in the book, she is able to convey her love of life from just taking a picture of herself. I did not go back and change my selfie because I’m wasn’t exactly sure how to convey these different things. But since looking at others in class I have a better understanding. Overall the exercise of using selfies to further our ability to rhetorically analyze was both fun and furthered our education in the course. |
AuthorMy name is Luke Boynton from Franklin, MA. I'm a big sports fan and I enjoy playing most sports as well. I also enjoy listening to almost any kind of music with my favorite genres being country and classic rock. Archives
November 2016
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