Amazing Group Experience

This has been the best group project experience I've ever had at school.

Jenny, Kat, Francisco - All very intelligent, motivated, and friendly people. We formed our group off the basis that everyone was serious about doing a good job and I think it shows in how professional our final product turned out.

Our Group Blog! - handy tool we used to keep each other updated, share opinions, banners and logos. We linked a lot of items on the blog through Google Docs as well.

Required Work - The memos, time, group update papers, etc., really helped to make everyone aware of what was required of them and working smoothly. I really wish every class that had a group project worked like this.

All in all I think this was the most rewarding, least stressful group project I've had.

Tom Sumner's lecture/book publishing

I enjoyed listening to Mr. Sumner talk about publishing. He had some interesting views like the inevitability of coming changes. Personally I believe people can have an opinion on a subject even if its inevitable, but I do understand his "why waste time on an opinion" point of view.

I found one of his books that I glanced over quite interesting. It was the one that examines the use of written English. It had examples of Dan Brown's poor phrasing in the Da Vinci Code.

I had posted the question about if it meant the same today as it use to, to say you were published, but I'm not sure I really understood his answer. I believe he said it's easier to get a book out on the market if you're willing to cough up a lot of money?

The Persuaders

I thought this movie was very insightful. It showed how marketing works on the emotional level and what to watch out for. I gave my thoughts on the questions the author posed.

Is there something about Americans that makes them uniquely persuadable by advertising messages?

I don't believe American's are more persuadable than anyone else, I believe that we are in fact the opposite. America is the capital of capitalism, and marketing is the tool by which capitalism functions. Douglas Atkins points out that American's have been come very market literate because of how inundated we are by these messages. American's know very well when an ad is trying to deceive them.

What are the ramifications of a culture dominated by marketing and consumerism?

Douglas Rushkoff mentions that our culture has been replaced by marketing. We've become a consumer based culture. Instead of creating social bonds at church, we now bond at Starbucks or through branding. I would say that putting so much value into a material item is a bad thing, even if they are good values. Empowerment, going green, are great values to have, but not when your required to purchase an item to possess it. I believe this is just masking the value of possession with more respectable values, and is just covering deeper issues.

What might the future hold - where are the techniques of persuasion headed?

It looks like the future holds even more emotional based persuasion. Identifying the emotional bonds people create to words and ideas as they grow so they can be marketed to at an even deeper level. Marketers will try to use these emotional bonds to tie consumers to their product and to one another. A good example is the Harley Davidson example used in the movie.

Technical Writing

I've learned two key things from this course: rhetoric analysis, and precision.

It's become a game for me to analyze the rhetoric when I read an ad or hear a politician speak. I've always enjoyed breaking down books and movies and discussing them with friends. Now I can do the same with these other mediums. The value of rhetoric analysis goes beyond the social though, it has helped me to understand whats behind the messages.

I've also enjoyed the technical precision of writing memos. I've always hated wasted words and writing for the sake of filler. Being able to write a good memo will be important in any job I hope to have in the future and has already proven itself useful in other classes. Communication skills are key to social and professional relationships.

"Well ordered writing is the sign of a well ordered mind." (Unknown)

Media Kits

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium's Media Kits

Technical Writing Exercise

I reviewed Jenny Mockford's exercise.

Overall I thought it was great, very clear and concise. I liked how she put the key words in bold so the reader would focus on them. I also like how she used the word "please." There are some minor tweaks I'd recommend. Everything in bold, I'd also put in parentheses, not just the "Reconnect at Logon." Also, I'd in the first step I'd add in that contacting the network administrator is a way to confirm the server name.

Jenn's layout looks very professional.




My technical writing exercise is linked below.

Creating a Shared Driver using Windows 95

Rhetorical Analysis

I received another political email from BarackObama.com. I posted the email below with comments about the rhetoric it uses to create support for the President.

John --
(Not sure if this is Ethos, targeting my sense of self, or Pathos, trying to reach me on an emotional level)

Yesterday, the President stood in front of a gathering of House Republicans and took questions for more than an hour, urging them to put aside partisanship and work together for the good of the country. MSNBC described it as going straight into "the lion's den."
(Logos used facts to support Ethos targeting my sense of self as an American with the purpose of getting my support for the President. The last line uses all three parts of rhetoric, stating what MSNBC said is Logos, showing MSNBC's support of the President is Ethos, and "going straight into the lion's den" is Pathos meant to create emotional support for the President.

He was inspiring.
(Pathos)

We've highlighted some of the key moments and trust me, it's worth checking out.
(Ethos, sponsorship)

Once you do, please pass this along to everyone you know.
(Asking me to use my Ethos and by passing it along and supporting it)

This is the sort of honest dialogue and political courage that we all need to move our country forward. (Pathos and Ethos using buzz words targeting my sense as an American and stir patriotic emotions)

Let's do it together,
(Pathos)

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
(Logos)

P.S. -- There's our own Q&A session for OFA supporters with President Obama coming up on Thursday, February 4th. Click here to submit a question now:
(Logos)

http://my.barackobama.com/HouseVideo



I did actually watch the video, and enjoyed it. It was just over an hour in length and I recommend watching it if you are interested in politics.
(Ethos)