Excellence in Communication Certificate Sign-ups

You've heard me talk about the Excellence in Communication Certificate (ECC) a couple of times now in class.  As the semester ends, we're encouraging interested LA 101H students to sign up for the program now.  If you're in Schreyer, or if you're a Paterno Fellow Aspirant, I strongly encourage you to sign up.

You're more than welcome to put me down as your preference for ECC advisor--I'd love to stay connected with you for the rest of your time at Penn State!  But if you feel like you'd rather get some feedback from someone else, I completely understand.  (And I won't be checking up on who is assigned to other advisors, so no need to worry about any awkwardness should you choose to go elsewhere.)

So what does "signing up" mean?  Essentially, it simply means you'll be assigned an advisor to walk you through the process, and will receive occasional emails updating you on changes to the program.  You'll also have the opportunity to meet with your ECC advisor to discuss your work at any point until submission.  (Submission is usually second semester junior year or first semester senior year.)  Other than access to an advisor, the benefit of registering now is that you'll stay updated on the program, which can help keep it on your radar.

So I encourage you to read more about the ECC program, or to sign up at the link below:

Sign up here!

Sample E-Portfolios

Here's a set of links to some of the better portfolios we examined in class last week, as well as two (truly excellent) newly crafted ones.  Hope it helps as you think about your own!

As a reminder, some of these are for the Excellence in Communication Certificate (ECC), so the included components may vary slightly from what I've requested.  But they should give you a sense of how communication portfolios function overall.

Rose Monahan's E-Portfolio (ECC)
Marvin Johnson (LA 101H)
Ashley Conner (ECC--minor navigation concerns; otherwise sound)
August Dombrow (ECC--Very nice discussion/introduction; executes (mostly) black-and-white design really well)
Sara Battikh (Professional!  Lots here, but the variety is necessary for a Telecomm major)

PowerPoint Resources

We covered a lot of things about presentations today.  Several links are within the PPT itself, but I also wanted to give you a few other quick resources:

How to create a graphical agenda slide
Turn bullet points into multiple slides--with impact!
Very short slideshow on the psychology of bullet points and how to fix it
Different evidence types to use in the Assertion-Evidence model

Rethinking PowerPoint Design

View more presentations from Ben Henderson.

Motivational Speech Topics - Section 6 (11:15am)

Please reserve your speech topic by commenting on this post.

Also, remember that we'll meet in 014 Life Sciences this Friday, rather than Hammond (or Wagner.)  Life Sciences is between Thomas and Eisenhower Auditorium.

Motivational Speech Topics - Section 7 (2:30pm)

Please reserve your speech topic by commenting on this post.

Also, remember that we'll meet in our regular room in Thomas this Friday, rather than the computer lab.

Motivational Speech Topics - Section 8 (4:15pm)

Please reserve your speech topic by commenting on this post.

Also, remember that we'll meet in our regular room in Thomas this Friday, rather than the computer lab.  But we'll meet at the normal Friday timeslot (3:35, right?)

Monroe's Motivated Sequence

 Here's the PPT from Monday's class.  You also can find out more about motivational speaking from the assignment directions, or be doing a bit more research into Monroe's Motivated Sequence online--there's a lot written about it.Monroe’s Motivated Sequence Steps

Public Policy Institutes / Think Tanks

When considering possible policy recommendations for the upcoming persuasive essay, it might be beneficial to consult those who've thought carefully about the issue at hand.  Here's a list of domestic public policy institutes from Wikipedia.  And here's a list (slightly outdated) of the 25 most cited think tanks in the media, along with a one word label of their political bias.

Argumentation

We reviewed argument types, ultimate terms, and fallacies in class this week.  Here's the link to the exhaustive list of fallacies.

And, here's the PowerPoint I showed in class (controls are near the bottom of this post):
Argumentation - Types and Fallacies

More On Copyright (and Its Obsolescence)

Here's a collection of things I've come across recently that deal with what copyright gets right and wrong in today's media culture:

On why copyright might not be the best model for our current culture's engagement with creativity:
Blog entry by Timothy Burke, Historian at Swarthmore College






How Pinterest (and Tumblr and Facebook) dodge the copyright issue corporately by shifting the burden to the end user:

All Things Considered (NPR) story: Pinterest Wades in Murky Copyright Waters



Two phenomenal TED talks by lawyer Larry Lessig on copyright law, and what we originally wanted it to do (foster creativity), and why it now fails pretty miserably at doing its job:

Watch this one first!

Watch this second (if you have time and loved the first one)

Copyright and Fair Use

The following post deals with avoiding copyright infringement (a legal problem), not plagiarism (an ethical problem).  You may need to cite additional things to meet the standards of academic integrity, in addition to any attribution you may need to do to substantiate fair use.  Also, note that libel and slander are other matters entirely, both of which are not only unethical, but also usually illegal.

----------------------

Fair use is a justification for using a portion of a copyrighted work for certain--but not all--educational, news reporting, parody, or cultural criticism purposes without express permission.  (You may also choose to obtain express permission to use larger portions of a work, or to avoid any risk of lawsuit.)  So quoting a small piece of, say, a news article would fall under fair use.  Fair use may also allow you to use a significantly altered work, such as when a DJ samples part of a familiar song to work into a mix.  

Note that the fair use principle does NOT allow you to simply take someone's image from Google Images and use it, even with attribution.  You would have to significantly alter the image, and even then there can be legal disputes.  (You may recall a series of famous Obama posters from the last election, where his face is artistically rendered in red, white, and blue tones.  Yet even this altered image has been the subject of a lawsuit.)

We watched a couple of videos about fair use, which are available here and  here.

More information on fair use and the Creative Commons Licenses can be found at www.copyright.psu.edu.  I urge you to read over some of the material in the fair use and Creative Commons sections to help you further understand the things that you will and won't be allowed to use once you leave academia.  Currently, most of your use of copyrighted material for class projects is covered under the TEACH Act of 2002.   

Even though you may be legally covered to use copyrighted material for class projects, you still need to cite the material to meet academic integrity standards.  You can find some information about citing digital files on Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) here. 

Finally, see more about the intricacies of fair use in the blogosphere here.  (While there is some gray area, realistically most images you see on other people's blogs violate copyright law.)

Reading as part of the Invention process

Topic Selection

Selecting a good topic for an open-ended assignment can be a challenge, but there are many things worth pursuing.  For example, all of these topics are unique and narrowed, and there is ongoing debate about them in at least some forum:

• Negative effects of society’s expectation that everyone should go to college
• Evaluating the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility in light of the Japanese nuclear disaster
• The “CSI Effect”: How forensic investigation dramas distort jury perceptions of evidence standards
• Societal ramifications of unscheduled but potentially harmful drugs (like Salvia divinorum)
• Effects changes in the Motion Picture Rating System have had on perceptions of acceptable media content
• Language proficiency assessment for Arabic speakers in the military
• Psychology of alien abduction reports
• Rise in unclaimed bodies at morgues

To find a salient topic, consider browsing sources that provide in-depth discussion of contemporary issues, rather than relying on sources with mass market appeal.  A few of those I find helpful when looking for timely topics are listed after the jump.  (And here's a list of some key content farm sites to avoid (click here).

Rhetoric of the New York 9/11 Memorial

Here is a phenomenal piece about the failed rhetoric of the World Trade Center Memorial.  The author argues that the memorial is unlike those commemorating other significant events, like the Vietnam War.  Ultimately it atomizes, rather than individualizes, the deceased.  Its final message is nihilistic rather than rather than transformative, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of the exigence.  (That last bit is the contextual connection to the analysis, and why it could work for this assignment.)  A brief excerpt follows, but the whole thing is worth a read.  (It's an editorial piece, so he moves on to other topics beginning in the second heading; feel free to stop there.)

Men do not erect public monuments and memorials to serve as objective, dispassionate records of historical events. At their best they shape our consciousness of the past for the sake of our common life in the future. Therein lies the failure of the 9/11 Memorial. A quiet, peaceful place of repose amidst a busy city—it will be cherished by future Wall Street workers as a nice place for lunch on a sunny day. But its design serves no future, conjuring instead the blank, perpetual, unchanging power of death, and encouraging the atomizing particularity of personal memory.

Two More Analysis Examples

They may be written in essay (rather than speech outline) format, but these two examples have some really solid rhetorical analysis, with great thesis statements.  Plus, they balance analysis and description well.

(While I have the authors' permission to share them within the class, please don't distribute these copyrighted papers.)

Marine Corp Ad

HP Notebooks and the American Dream

12 Things to Double-Check for Your Speech

There are quite a few details to keep track of when preparing a speech.  To make sure you’re not missing anything significant, consider working through the following checklist for next week's assignment:

1. The speech is prepared in outline format—complete sentences or long phrases, with tabbing and alphanumeric labels, not using bullet points.
2. The speech (and bibliography, if you have sources) is printed, single-spaced, stapled, and brought to class on the assigned speech day.
3. Speaking notes, whether on note cards or on 8.5x11 paper, are designed for extemporaneous speaking: short words or phrases to remind you of what you want to say.  Speaking notes should be only 20-25% of your outline (or less).
4. No outside sources are required, but any outside sources you do have (other than the ad itself) are cited in the outline (in-text parenthetical notes are preferred), are listed in complete bibliographic format in a bibliography or works cited list, and are cited aloud in the speech.
5. The introduction ends with an analytical thesis and a structural preview of your main points, in that order.
6. The body contains 2 to 4 main points, joined by transitions (summary of previous point, and introduction of the next).
7. The thesis makes an analytical claim, not a descriptive statement.  (Identifying the existence of, say, logos in the ad is not an analytical claim.)
8. The analysis avoids the generic insights listed in the assignment directions.
9. The analysis focuses on how the rhetoric functions for the audience, not what the company may have intended.  (Sometimes ads have unintentional results, which could be worth analyzing.)
10. Any visual aids are either brought in on a flash drive, or can be quickly found online, preferably without you having to log in to an account.  (For a YouTube video, knowing the search term to bring up your ad  usually is sufficient.
11. Any PPT (optional!) is well managed: mostly images, minimal text, and includes blank slides when you want the audience to focus back on you.  It is permissible to have a single print ad displayed the entire time, though; the same image shouldn’t be too distracting.
12. The speech has been timed and falls safely within the allotted time, without needing to rush to finish.  (If you like, you might identify a few things ahead of time that you’ll skip if you find yourself running out of time.)

See an expert rhetorical analysis

Here's a notice for a talk this Friday by a very distinguished speaker in rhetoric.  He's doing a contextual analysis (as best I can tell) of the horror film genre; should be fascinating!  So if you're not in my class this Friday at 3:35, consider heading on over to Willard to see what should be am insightful rhetorical analysis.

---------------------------------
The Department of Communication Arts and Sciences presents


Kendall R. Phillips

Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies
College of Visual and Performing Arts

Syracuse University

President Elect, Rhetoric Society of America

 

“Cinematic Horror: Affect, Rhetoric, Politics”
 

Addressing the genre of horror from a rhetorical perspective, this paper asks, “what kind of experiences do horror films invite us to have?” Beginning with the notion that cinema is an affective site, the paper argues that these affective sites are what Foucault called "heterotopias.” Seen within this framework, the horror genre can be understood as inviting a certain kind of affective experience and in so doing opening a particular kind of political space.

3:35 P.M. February 17, 2012 

165 WILLARD BUILDING

Silko Essay Referenced in Friday's Chapter

Here's the essay referenced in Friday's reading assignment.  It might be worth taking a closer look to further clarify the difference between textual and contextual analysis:

Silko Essay

Analysis: Effectiveness, Ethics, Artistry

The ad analysis assignment is designed so that you merely need to make an argument about the rhetorical functioning of the advertisement in question.  But sometimes rhetoricians wish to go a step further and include a judgment--an overall assessment of the quality of a particular rhetorical artifact.

The three main kinds of judgments that can be reached concern an artifact's effectiveness, its ethics, and its artistry.  The last of these can be tricky for beginning rhetoricians; unless someone is well versed in the nature of the field, his or her sense of taste will be more idiosyncratic (personal preference/opinion) rather than an authoritative assessment.

Source: Ira Glass.  Layout is from an unknown Tumblr user.  (Tumblr is pretty terrible for keeping track of image ownership.)

For an example of moving from analysis all the way to judgment:

Although it's not quite looking at an advertisement, this opinion piece from The New York Times, engages in a (brief) rhetorical assessment of Wikipedia's SOPA protest of a few weeks ago, and judges the rhetoric to be unethical.  Now, for our analysis we'd likely also want to attend more to the specific features of the rhetoric itself. (How did the specific wording of the protest message contribute to their rhetorical goals?  How did the language / layout / use of black add to or shape the pathos appeal? etc., etc.)  But it does a nice job of engaging several elements the rhetorical situation, which could serve as a great (and necessary) foundation for the depth of analysis we're looking for in this class.

Section 6 (11:15) -- Claim Your Ad

In the comment section below, briefly describe your ad so that others know it's taken.  Don't merely give a link--we need to be able to scan the list fairly quickly.  (Although you're free to also include a link if you'd like.)  Be sure to read over the other comments first before claiming yours!

Example: Palm Centro ad. Text: Chaos / Order. Available here.

(Note that this is a fake ad created by someone for a design class.  To make sure you're addressing a real rhetorical situation in your analysis, do your best to ensure your ad was actually produced by the company or non-profit organization, and is not a fan-produced ad (or a spoof--notice that the tape is on the outside of the door).

Section 7 (2:30) -- Claim Your Ad

In the comment section below, briefly describe your ad so that others know it's taken.  Don't merely give a link--we need to be able to scan the list fairly quickly.  (Although you're free to also include a link if you'd like.)  Be sure to read over the other comments first before claiming yours!

Example: Palm Centro ad. Text: Chaos / Order. Available here.

(Note that this is a fake ad created by someone for a design class.  To make sure you're addressing a real rhetorical situation in your analysis, do your best to ensure your ad was actually produced by the company or non-profit organization, and is not a fan-produced ad (or a spoof--notice that the tape is on the outside of the door).

Section 8 (4:15pm) -- Claim Your Ad

In the comment section below, briefly describe your ad so that others know it's taken.  Don't merely give a link--we need to be able to scan the list fairly quickly.  (Although you're free to also include a link if you'd like.)  Be sure to read over the other comments first before claiming yours!

Example: Palm Centro ad. Text: Chaos / Order. Available here.

(Note that this is a fake ad created by someone for a design class.  To make sure you're addressing a real rhetorical situation in your analysis, do your best to ensure your ad was actually produced by the company or non-profit organization, and is not a fan-produced ad (or a spoof--notice that the tape is on the outside of the door).

Thesis, Preview, and Analytical Sentences

Click the left or right arrows to see the slideshow.  Click on Full Screen for a larger version. 

Thesis, Preview, And_Analytical Sentences

Speech Organization

Click the left or right arrows to see the slideshow.  Click on Full Screen for a larger version.

Organization - Intros and Outlines for LA 101

Topics and Rhetorical Devices

Last week we discussed several elements of classical argumentation (the Invention canon of rhetoric).

Here is a nice collection of some of the classically understood topics (common argument formats; ways of thinking about relationship between data).  Note that the three kinds of persuasion we discussed (forensic (judicial), deliberative, and epideictic (ceremonial)) are also listed here as special topics.  Aristotle noted that there was something unique about how we approached these three ways of conducting arguments; hence, the "special" label.  (If you're looking for the primary source--and it's worth perusing--here's Aristotle's treatment of the topics.  I've linked to the (short) first chapter here, with links following to the other chapters.)

Also, I briefly mentioned that rhetorical devices might be a source for kick-starting deeper analysis.  The wikipedia link on Figures of Speech does a nice job of laying out many of them.  Consider, for instance, synecdoche, in which a part stands in for the whole ("Can you give me a hand?" doesn't really only want a hand...)  How does this shape our understanding of the topic at hand?  Or there's erotama, the technical term for what we often call a rhetorical question.  (Most questions are at least somewhat rhetorical, but for some reason someone decided these were especially so.)

It'd be worth your while to at least click through the lists of topics and devices to get a sense of the richness that close rhetorical analysis can bring to a subject.  I'm curious to hear what you explore!  (And if you find any favorite terms, feel free to comment on them below.)

Rhetoric of the Buffett Rule

I've encountered a number of interesting tidbits about this past week's State of the Union Address.  Here's an unusual analysis (sometimes rhetorical) from The Atlantic's James Fallows.  If you missed the speech, and would like someone to guide you through it, Fallows' annotation might be helpful.

While context matters, sometimes examining words themselves can be a useful tool of rhetorical analysis.  Here's a graphical comparison of keyword frequency in the last twelve SOTU addresses.  (This year's big winners: Taxes and Jobs.)  As you might expect, the current president chooses different words than his predecessor.  

Source: Saul Loeb/Associated Press

Most interesting to me, from  rhetorical perspective, is this piece, again from The Atlantic.  It points out some very peculiar use of numbers when people compare Warren Buffett's tax rate against that of his secretary.  (Frequent comparisons have been made (by Obama, Buffett, and others) between Buffett's effective tax rate of 17% and his secretary's rate of 35%.  Buffett is the third richest person on the planet, and the principle that he shouldn't pay a lower rate--that it's an injustice--was dubbed by Obama as "the Buffett Rule.")  The point being made about disparate tax rates still seems worthy of response, but the creative use of data does hurt the ethos of this argument.

The Rhetoric of Firing Paterno

You may already have seen this, but the New York Times today published a summary of conversations with a third of Penn State's Board of Trustees explaining their actions during the first week of the Sandusky mess.  Although the interview/event likely was orchestrated by the board's PR firm, it does certainly clarify some previously murky details; likewise, the board members' recollections strike me as sincere, even in the midst of other probable communication objectives.  (You are free to disagree, of course!)

So perhaps you could blog about the rhetoric of their stories, or their use of this interview (itself a rhetorical action--in addition to content, the fact of the event itself is designed to communicate), or about the responses you might see to it on Facebook today.

Source: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Or if you're looking to compare two reports against each other, you might consider this report from a former trustee about the flawed nature of the board's governing and oversight structure, which he believes created an institutional culture riddled with flaws.  He blames these systemic cultural forces for any potential shortcomings in the way Joe Paterno handled the Sandusky situation.  Keep in mind that he does not currently sit on the board (although he's running in this Spring's elections), that his experiences with the board are historical (so some things might have changed), and that his explanation came out before the Trustees had their NYT conversation (so a few of his conjectures about details turn out to be inaccurate).    It's long, but as a concerned student it's a perspective worth knowing.  And it could make really good fodder for an RCL blog entry on its own.

Writing Resources

If you're interested in receiving peer tutoring from advanced students, consider dropping by (or setting up an appointment with someone at) the writing centers on campus.  Information is available here.

Some RCL Blogs to Browse

Perhaps this should read:
"Your informed opinion counts!"
But you get the idea.
Source: neighborhoodnotes.com

Your first posts to your Rhetoric and Civic Life blog are due by the end of Thursday and I wanted to point you to a few successful blogs from last semester.  You'll see that the most recent entry is about the e-Portfolio, but the others are, on the whole, very good examples of either an engagement of rhetoric in action, or else an analysis of civic engagement encountered by the blogger.

So feel free to browse through some of these to look for topic ideas.  You may not know all the terminology yet, but the earlier entries should make good sense all on their own.

http://sunrhetoricandciviclife2011.blogspot.com/

http://boyntonrhetoricandciviclife2011.blogspot.com/

http://rcljohnson.blogspot.com/

http://rclgregory.blogspot.com/

http://rclsvr.blogspot.com/

http://rclgeorgeinglis.blogspot.com/

Finally--and I'm sure you've already thought of this--be sure to re-read the directions for the RCL blog so you have a sense of what we're aiming for.

Good luck!

The (un)Importance of Grammar

We talked this week about the modern preference for facts and certainty, while ancients far preferred opinion, or what we might today call collective wisdom.  And I continued to reflect today on all the attitudes wrapped up in the modern take on logos.

So when I came across this piece from The Guardian (UK) on self-appointed "language police," I was reminded of the potential negative effects of over-focusing on precision.  Not only does this column address written communication--something we'll cover extensively in this course--but it explores why some people might be drawn to a militant enforcement of what are, in some instances, relatively arbitrary rules.

As a reformed "grammar police officer" myself, the article reminds me why I used to care so much about the rules.  And while some of the arbitrary things still bother me (they just feel wrong), I now try to focus only on those issues that would lead to clear, concise, and vivid writing.  (Or those that would seriously compromise your ethos, like poor spelling or nonstandard usage of terms.)

So begin sentences with conjunctions!  End them with prepositions! Split infinitives!  And if you have a purpose for it--and the result is clear--feel free to break other rules from time to time.

(By the way, if grammar is a passion of yours, you could certainly select it as your passion blog topic.)

This I Believe Links, plus Jon Stewart on Crossfire

NPR's This I Believe site: http://www.thisibelieve.org
Local This I Believe examples: http://wpsu.org/radio/program/thisibelieve
(If I didn't play it in your section, I recommend "I Believe in Bananagrams" from a student last year)

Jon Stewart on Crossfire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE

Passion Blog Ideas

We'll talk more about passion blog topics in the coming days, but I wanted to direct your attention to several from previous semesters that most successfully tackled the blogging task.  Sure, there may be a missing image here or a dead link there (it IS a year later...), but they still represent good quality writing for the blogging medium.  Plus, these entries hint at the diverse range of topics you could choose to explore.

I've linked directly to the first entry for a few of these, since they lay out a clear objective for the blog.  But you can click through each author's blog archives to find more, or click on the top banner to get to the most recent entries.

A Little Sincerity (is a dangerous thing) covers the effects--often environmental--of our culture of excess.

The Mile 27 Experiment chronicles one student's decision to train for a marathon, and the semester-long journey that resulted.

So's Your Bass is a tutorial for those wanting to play the electric bass better.  Entries often provide direction for playing popular songs (with YouTube videos recorded by the author), or spotlight the technique of a famous bassist.  Plus, there's a widget at the bottom that lets you listen to high quality versions of the author playing along with a variety of tunes.

Passion via Cookie reflects on and applies (or mis-applies) the philosophy of one fortune cookie a week.

A Bromance in the Making explores the qualities of roommates, friends, and bros, using evocative anecdotes from the author's first-year dorm experience.  Hilarity ensues.

Welcome to LA 101H!

This website is the online space for your section of LA 101H.   I'll regularly post announcements, assignment directions, my own observations about rhetoric, and tips on how to get the most out of the course.


Feel free to explore the site using the links at the right.  More content will be added weekly, so be sure to bookmark and check back often.


Glad to have you as part of the class!


Ben