October 2020

I enjoyed watching this video because it was not only informative, but it was entertaining. Celeste Headlee gave ten points on how to have a better conversation and how people do the opposite of the points she gave whether we want to admit it or not. Two points that stuck out to me was do not multitask and be brief. I have a horrible habit of letting my mind run wild all the time, even when I am sleeping. My mom could be telling me about her promotion she got at work and I will be thinking about what I want to eat for dinner later. And doing that, it leaves me daydreaming and it will show all over my face that I am doing so, and so then the person I am talking to thinks I am not listening. I am listening, just not all the way. And with my mind running wild, I tend to make a conversation that could have really ended in five minutes and make it last for 15 because I would start getting off track. Watching this video is making me take in consideration what I am doing in a conversation, so I can have a productive one.

1. I give the first student an A letter grade. They do well in getting their points across with the topic they chose. They mention how others might feel about Anonymous, but they do not go into much detail about it. They add a good comparison to her argument, but it was a little lengthy. However, they did not use a simple generic voice.

2. I give the second student an A letter grade. They have a great hook and build up to their thesis. They clearly state a counterargument about their topic of activists. They did not stray from their topic, and brought up good points throughout the paper. They also had a great conclusion that summed up everything nicely.

 

I chose this social media post to highlight a public figure’s honest review on the Black Lives Matter movement. Sometimes you can differentiate between a public figure’s view on this topic by what they post on social media and the caption they use. You ask yourself questions like: Is this to show concern? Do they actually care? Are they just posting a black screen? Was this a management move? I, therefore, wanted to analyze Harry Styles’s post on the matter. 

Harry Styles is a part of one of the most influential boy bands in the world, One Direction. He has his own solo platform and had multiple songs stay high in the charts according to Billboard Music, including his hit song “Watermelon Sugar”. Being the huge star that he is, he has quite the fanbase and followers who admire him; thus, him having 31.6 million followers on Instagram and 35.4 million followers on Twitter. With a movement like Black Lives Matter, what many black people would like is for someone of such a popular following to acknowledge what is going on and support the cause. 

With Harry Styles’s Instagram post, he used appeals such as logos, pathos, and ethos. The purpose of this post, I believe, was not to only show he supports the cause, but to educate his followers that do not know the true purpose of Black Lives Matter. He starts off his post saying how he does everything without fear because he has white privilege. When he starts off acknowledging what he has, it made the post more comforting. He knows that he is privileged and he owns up to it. This goes to him using logos as an appeal because he is stating facts about himself: he is a white man from the U.K. The entirety of the post revolves around the appeal of pathos. However, the ending of the post is what really appeals to emotions. He strategically put the following in all caps: “LISTEN, READ, SHARE, DONATE and VOTE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. BLACK LIVES MATTER.” He puts emphasis on how important educating yourself is, how the situation has got completely out of hand, and ends with the strong statement of Back Lives Matter. Also, what I have noticed is when he talks about educating yourself, he uses a commanding tone almost like a requirement. He applies ethos and his credibility simply using his platform. He knows he has a lot of followers and he uses that to his advantage.