Write about potential issues for your Collaborative Proposal Group Project. First, choose 2 issues that you feel might work well. Discuss each briefly, including 1) Why you chose these issues, and 2) Who is affected by these 2 issues. Further, explain how you might go about reaching your target audience. Which rhetorical strategies might work best? What method might work best? What about visuals? Finally, how would you go about achieving these ends in this class?

We’ve read and viewed some challenging material this semester in order to further our understanding of how different types of people are making arguments for change. For this post, reflect on these people. Choose ONE (MIA, Riz MC, Jamison Green, Bill Maher, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, etc) and make some connections between their experience and yours. For instance, maybe you weren’t born in the Third World like MIA, but perhaps you can relate to class issues. Maybe you weren’t born transgendered, but perhaps you can relate to Green’s struggle to define himself. Write a personal narrative for your post that in some way connects to one of these artists.

Hopefully this will get you thinking a bit about the Collaborative Proposal Project…

Think of a person you feel is an effective rhetorician (this can be anyone – someone famous, someone you know, etc) and discuss the following. 1) Who is she/he? What methods do they use (where do you encounter her/his rhetoric)? In what forum do they use rhetorical appeals (the classroom, the football field, church, etc)? 2) Why are they effective? 3) How has his/her/their contribution as a rhetorician actually influenced or affected your life? What can you deduce about their methods? Remember, you are obviously a “member” of this already persuaded audience – were you always? 4) How might knowledge of this person and her/his methods help you produce an effective collaborative proposal that actually incites people to change?

Remember that we adjusted the due date for this. Please just have it posted by Tues., 10/20.

Use both the WHO website and Green’s Becoming a Visible Man. 1) How does the World Health Organization define “gender.” What is gender according to them? 2) How does Green define gender? Be specific by referring to parts of his text. 3) Why might Green feel the need to redefine gender? 4) Whom is Green’s target audience (whom might likely read his book?)? Why does Green target this audience? 5) Have you ever thought of “gender” as a “contestable” definition? What do you think about it now?

Choose the video of EITHER Riz MC or MIA then respond to the following. 1) Explain the argument made. Be specific. 2) Whom is the audience addressed? Respond to what you heard and saw in the video to find some “evidence” for this. Are you part of the target audience? What does the video make you think about? How does it make you feel? 3) Discuss why you think the rhetorician used this method – a music video – for her/his argument. How effective is it in terms of reaching the target audience? Does the use of humor cloud the argument? Make it stronger?  

For this week, feel free to provide a link to a video from your favorite musician or band. Post a few sentences about the point of view of this artist and WHY she/he/they appeal to you. What is their major argument?

Go to YouTube, FunnyorDie.com, or another site where people can post video clips, short films, and/or music videos. Choose ONE 2-3 minute clip that appeals to you in some way, then respond to the following. 1) Identify its target audience being as specific as possible. Consider, especially, if YOU are a member of this audience. “Young people” is not a specific audience. However, “Young people between the ages of 16-21 whom watch shows such as ‘The Daily Show,’ are on the left politically, and are not particularly religious” is more specific. 2) Discuss what you think the argument is. Again, be specific. What is the rhetorician trying to persuade the viewer to believe (or not believe)? 3) What is the primary rhetorical strategy used (pathos, logos, ethos)? Why might the rhetorician have used this as the primary strategy for this intended audience? For instance, is the rhetorician part of this audience? Is she/he making the argument as a “representative” of a group (For instance as a rep for PETA)? Discuss.

I am so excited about blogging with my class…

Find an interesting ad or other piece of visual rhetoric online that is EITHER an appeal to pathos or logos. Then respond to the following. 1) Where did you find it? What is it – an advertisement, a logo, a symbol, etc? Who (what company, person, team, etc) uses it and for what purpose? 2) Who is the target audience? Are you a member of that audience? 3) Discuss why you think it is an appeal to pathos or logos, and how it accomplishes this appeal. Be as specific as possible. Think about where you found it, what it looks like, and so on. Choosing something that appeals to you personally may be easier to write about! See if you can find a piece of visual rhetoric that reflects something about you and issues you’d like to explore on your blog.

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