November 2020

I chose the Budweiser Lost Dog Commercial for my rhetorical analysis. The commercial uses pathos in multiple aspects to draw viewers in. The commercial begins with an adorable white lab puppy busting through a pile of hay as a clydesdale horse friend and rancher walk in. The puppy then ends up running into a trailer and closed in. The trailer opens in an urban setting and the puppy jumps out. Then there are scenes of signs being put up for the puppy. The puppy goes through rain and shine to get back. As he finally arrives at a hill overlooking his home a wolf comes out with malicious intent. The horse stalls are shown shaking and then a trumpeting of clydesdales run to the puppy rescue.The ending features the puppy leading the clydesdales home to the rancher where he’s washed up the puppy. Then all ends with a happy reunion of the puppy, clydesdale friend, and rancher.

The commercial is an incredible example of how pathos can be used in advertisement. Most people have a soft spot for puppies so that immediately connects viewers with the commercial. That creates a strong draw into the rest of the commercial. The small puppy getting lost makes people want to help. It also draws them in even more to the emotional strain. As the commercial continues through the puppies journey it keeps people locked in. The use of pathos to hit peoples emotional center drives the ending to be so powerful. When people see the small delicate puppy standing up to a wolf it both shocks them and helps make them worry. When the clydesdales run to the rescue its an immediate overdose of relief and joy. It makes people happy and as the puppy makes its way home to be washed and reunited with its family people relax. This allows the focus to end with the Budweiser. 

The entire goal of this commercial is primarily centered around using pathos to draw people into the product. When you think about that commercial you think Budweiser. That can lead people to go out and get some. As well as hit those emotional triggers when they see the product on the shelf. What sets pathos apart is its emotional and effects you inside. That means in many ways it has a lot more control over how one looks at a product. In the end the key to this commercial working was its use of pathos to draw viewers in.

Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents 

Rhetorical Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Spring, 1997), PP. 264-279

Keith Grant Davie

 

  The article begins by talking about Ken Burns’s documentary, The Civil War. This discussion leads into the main subject of rhetorical analysis and how it’s used. It describes how it can be used when describing historical works like Burns. Burns describes how Bitzer, Vatz, and Consigny had articles describing rhetoric. He explains how they each had definition but if combined you come up with a better definition. The constituents of a situation are the exigence, the audience, and the constraints. It talks a lot about discourse and how it relates to different parts of the topic. It explains different aspects behind what discourse is about, why it’s needed, and its goal to accomplish. It then describes rhetors, Audience, and constraints in more detailed paragraphs.

 

 Compound Rhetorical Situations- Discussions of a single subject by multiple rhetors and audiences.

Exigence- The matter and motivation of the discourse.

rhetor(s)- Those people, real or imagined, Responsible for the discourse and its authorial voice.

Audience- Those people, real or imagined, with whom rhetors negotiate through discourse o achieve the rhetorical objectives.

Constraints- factors in the situation context that may affect the achievements of the rhetorical objectives.

In many works we have done its key to think about audience, constraints, exigence, and rhetors. Then apply it to the work.

 

What is the best balance of a paper to allow Audience, Rhetors, and Constraints to all be evenly applied?

Rebecca Jones:

“Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother With Logic?”, pages 156-159 and  “The Appeals”, Pages 166-168.

In Jones article “Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother?”, she breaks down the different forms of arguments. She explains how certain arguments don’t work due to an overly aggressive approach that makes it difficult to read as an opposer. This is done in part by a very funny cartoon. She also breaks down an argument not having enough strength which leads to it being useless. Then explains the point in which it flows well. In Jones article “The Appeals”, breaks down inductive and deductive reasoning. It goes through a series of examples to help describe and show these methods in use.

Deductive reasoning is the simple and basic form of reasoning. Inductive reasoning is the more complex form of reasoning with more elaborate aspects. 

It connects to my own work in that I’ve used these forms of reasoning. At the time I did not realize their true form but now I know.

What is the best way to decide wether to use deductive or inductive reasoning?

1. Dr. Mona’s actions helped bring a greater awareness to the medical issues and overall issues associated with the flint water crisis. This helped start change in the way of new pipes and precautionary measures.

2. When I was younger I watched a movie called The Cove. It was a bloody and truly heart wrenching movie for someone like me. It pictured the killing of thousands of dolphins in a costal Japanese cove. I couldn’t believe the destruction on these beautiful and highly intellectual animals. In order to try and help I wrote a paper about the issue and told many in my school. I was called Free Willy by coaches and students for my caring. In the end it didn’t matter because I stood for something that mattered and made people see it.

3. Stand up for those that don’t have the ability to escape poverty, abuse, racism, and other forms of struggle. Help all living things you feel need help. Be the person who speaks out about the real issues that many don’t want to see or feel they’ll be socially criticized for.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are often caused by things such as abuse, neglect, caregiver mental illness, household violence, racism, community violence, or other negative experiences. These cause children to have extreme amounts of toxic stresses. These stressors often times stick with children for extended periods of time. When children experience things like poverty racism, and violence it can heavily impact their development. It often causes disorders that lead to major damage of the body and brain. Those damages are often hard to overcome and lead to social issues. Not only do ACEs and toxic stresses effect social skills and health. They also effect ones ability to learn. Often times adults who experienced ACEs as children are less educated due to a struggle in that area. These stressors cause it to be difficult for many children to learn. These issues are both extremely detrimental to childhood development and are important to look out for.

1. There were a lot of really great advisory points that were made in the podcast. The two points of advice I believe will help me the most were “ Take advantage of fast track” and “Meditation Mondays are with Camp Best on Mondays”. Im really excited to try having a great relaxing time on Mondays. 

2. The thing I’m most looking forward to in collage is finding stability and having fun. What I’m least looking forward to is the harder work periods that come with collage. 

3. If there was any piece of advice that I would give to someone going into 9th grade its take advantage of it. Each and every day counts when you look back. There were so many times that i wish I had taken a break to do something incredible, so many events that I already miss, and so many people I will have only had in that stage of life. I was never someone who cared about school like I should have. I just wanted to get through it and move on. When covid took that second half of the year away I was overjoyed. That is until I realized at graduation that it was gone. The memories and people you’ll have in your life during high school will be ones you miss. I was blessed to experience to high schools that were entirely different. If I could go back and take it all in again. Trust me I would without hesitation.

Earlier this week in mindful Monday we discussed empathy and how we could be more empathetic. I went into the week with a mindset of trying to be more empathetic to those around me. I ended up having a big opportunity to do so. In my fraternity we had to vote on wether to keep or kick out a member. I felt really bad for him and truly felt his pain. I felt it so much so that when I stood and spoke, trying to argue in his favor, I could barley speak. I thought that everyone would feel the same empathy that I did and it hurt that they didn’t. In the end we lost him by just one vote. I was truly hurt and hated the entire situation. When I listened to the podcast and heard how people have become less empathetic, how people can be killed as if its a video game, and how a man was so brutally treated in his test it was awful. I understand that sometimes people deserve what’s coming to them. I just hope I can continue to live life with the mindset that they don’t.

Conversation

The conversation video was incredibly engaging. She started it off slow with some basic conversation topics. Then she said throw all that wisdom away and made it interesting. She explained how in todays world people are so quick to judge. Instead of talking there are kids sending over one hundred text a day. She also explained how there is rarely anything to talk about without conflict. The first point that really stood out was just being open to others views. Instead of judging and just trying to answer truly listen. That is such a hard thing to grasp at times but so important. The next point came in the form of a quote from the speakers sister, “A good conversation is like a miniskirt; short enough to retain interest, but long enough to cover the subject. I died out laughing at this with a friend. It’s such a witty analogy and so true. You have to keep interest but don’t make it too lengthy. I think if you put these into play you can really help your conversations.

Murray Reading Journal

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page	Donald Murray “The Makers Eye”
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words	The article breaks down the writing process from Donald Murrays perspective. It explains how writers go through the first draft looking for different grammatical issues. Murray then goes into styles of writing. He talks about how you have some writers that hate everything they do and others that love everything they do. In the end there is a bale between the both needed. He breaks down detachment and how it helps writers. He basically says that you can take input but don’t let it cloud your style. Writing is an expression of the writer not others opinions. He ends the work with an overview of the seven elements of writing and what they do.
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.	NA
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research? Â	It was a very broad writing paper. Things like going over your paper and blocking out others opinions have been included in other works.
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.	What is the most important aspect of keeping a piece of work ones own while still taking input from others?

Literacy to me is most importantly reading. I love reading and the worlds created through it. As a kid I was never a good reader. I often struggled to read which made me feel left out. Luckily I was read to often by my parents. My mom has told me many times that id sit for hours even before I can recall and listen to books. I find reading is always something I can fall on for inspiration in life or writing. Which is why my mom is such a big literary sponsor for me. 

My Mom is such an incredible person. She is an actor and when I was young a collage professor. She has so much energy and excitement in everything she does. This came out so much in her reading to me over the years. The building blocks of a play are the words that make it up. She was able to use books almost like a script. That really drove me to want to read better and helped me bring books to life. 

When I was a senior in high school my class was studying a play. My mom made sure I knew it in a big way. My living room became a play reading. My mom, myself, and various skilled actors she new all sat together and read. Each of us brought our part of the play to life. It was incredible to hear each part aloud. Each character had meaning and life. Which is all put together in the writing itself. It was an incredible experience that led to me making an amazing grade on the test.