E-Portfolio

Welcome to my E-Portfolio!

My name is Reema Pangarkar and I’m a student at Pennsylvania State University. This e-portfolio is compilation of my best writings, speeches, and blog entries. I hope to look back on this portfolio and see the growth of my communications skills and more importantly my growth as a person. Literature gives us the unique opportunity to see our own personal views and values reflected in words. Writing, while mechanical in spelling, grammar, and usage, is also incredibly personal.  I hope that through out the course of my time at Penn State, and my future academic endeavors, my growth as a person will be reflected in my academic endevors. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments!  

The Link for my E-Portfolio

Going out with a Bang

               As I’m sure all of you heard Dick Clark has sadly passed away.  As I found out later yesterday many people don’t know who Dick Clark is. Honestly the only reason I know him is because of the TV show friends, Monica and Ross are obsessed with him and his rockin’ New Years Eve show. So now in my mind Dick Clark, uses the bridge of friends, to make me think of New Years Eve.

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            While I doubt anyone in my generation will feel any difference December 31^st 2012 when Dick Clark isn’t there to welcome us into the new year, it did bring up something important about rhetoric. The ending. ( I didn’t mean that in reference to Dick Clark’s death, but rather the end of the year…). I felt that this topic was even more appropriate considering this is my last obligatory blog entry. I feel as though a lot of emphasis is given to sentence structure, grammar, and information in the body of a piece of work. But when people read a paper or listen to a speech the things that stay in their memory are the beginning and the end. So what is the right way to end a piece of rhetoric? There are many different approaches but the worst way to end it is by a “well, that’s it!”. BORING. I like when people leave you with something to keep your brain thinking, or by tying the subject in with my life. I like when people have a catchy ending that is equal parts moving and thought provoking. I prefer to have my intro be broad, then get specific in my body, and then go broad again in my conclusion. The opposite way is effective too, and more effective in speeches (at least in my opinion). On New Years Eve we choose to go out with a bang: fire works, champagne and a kiss; why shouldn’t it be the same in rhetoric? 

Not Everyone drank the Koolaid

            I like realists, in my opinion they are more matter-of-fact people. It is the happy medium between everything in this world is meaningless and the world is made of rainbows and sunshine. I’ve talked about attitude in rhetoric before, but this ecard reminded me of something a little different. Attitude is how you reacted to a situation. This is more of an outlook, by knowing your outlook on life I can predict how you will react to a situation.

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            Today in class we talked about motivational speeches. I like motivational speakers, I’m not saying I need motivation to build up my self esteem, but I enjoy people talking about things they are really passionate about. It makes me see some good yet in the world. What I don’t like is when motivational speakers have to over optimistic outlook, like I said I like realists. You all know who I’m talking about. Those super peppy speakers, who try really hard to get the audience involved and participating. Yea them… I appreciate when people are passionate, but I don’t think over optimistic is a realistic attitude to have when giving motivational speech. You can’t go into a motivational speech thinking that you are going to change every ones mind, that’s not possible. You can however go into a motivational speech being a realist. If you understand that not everyone is going to take what you say to heart, but still get to some people and make the majority of people listen, then you’ve done a great job. As we, meaning my la101 class, start our motivational speeches, this is something I want to keep in consideration, my goal is too make people listen, and maybe do something more, not make everyone drink the kool aid with me. 

All the Small Thing

           No this is not a post about Blink 182, though there is much to be said about their rhetoric. One of the most annoying things is when people have a great idea in their writing or speech, but their execution fails because of little things. I once had to sit through an entire 8 minutes presentation in science class about organisms in our eco system. That of course is normal for anyone who ha taken a bio class, but what was abnormal was that the girl said orgasm instead of organism for 8 whole minutes.  No matter how good her presentation was no one could get past that one small detail.

            I’m sure everyone has seen some rhetoric where the idea and content is well done, but there are basic details that the audience just cannot get past. Whether it is grammar issues, or spelling, it is distracting from the point of the writing. I know I do this a lot, everyone does. It is easy to make mistakes with spelling and grammar, but it is when it because repetitive that it gets annoying. People have their own pet peeves, I hate when people say “I’m doing good” and my best friend can’t stand when people use you’re and your wrong.

            So while the elegant aspects of rhetoric are important, the small stuff is just as essential. Just because you learned about it in 3^rd grade, it does not make it any less important. 

Dress Well to Test Well

            Whether it is right or not, appearances do matter. The way you dress and present yourself gives off a vibe to people you meet. I am much more likely to take someone who is wearing a business suite seriously then someone who is in basketball shorts. Even if you try not to judge people on the way they look, it is often subconscious. Just today I was watching a video in my Econ class that proved that blondes got more money when they went door to door soliciting for charity. (I’ve seen first hand accounts of this). Regardless, if you want affective rhetoric than your appearance and the appearance of your visual aids need to look professional and well done.

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            I had a professor last semester who lectured for the whole class, which is to be expected in college. However he lectured off of a word document. Yes, he projected a word document on to the screen and blew up the font to 70 and read off of it. I found out later that semester that he typed up the notes 5 minutes before class, awesome. He was easily the worst teacher, and the most boring class I’ve had so far in college. He was a really smart guy, but the way he presented his material was sloppy and made it seem unimportant. No matter how interesting the information was I could not get past the fact that he was scrolling through a word document. Seriously? If he had put his notes on a power point or even just lectured them from personal notes it would have been so much better. The amount of effort he put into that class was minimal and it showed, by spending a few more minutes making his notes presentable he would have had much more effective rhetoric and captured more of his audience. 

Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home

            To say I love Harry Potter, might be an understatement. After all, it is a symbol of our generation. I grew up along side Harry, Ron, and Hermione and for that they will always hold a special place in my heart. It can be easily argued that they Harry Potter books are good, quality books (more like amazing and can never be out done, of course that’s harder to prove). Point being, they are good books that have gained a lot of popularity. Why is it that Harry Potter is a good book? I think that the answer can be found in the rhetoric and writing style of JK Rowling.

            First of all it is detailed, highly detailed; the castle was described in near accuracy to the place Rowling based it off of. Unlike Dickens who (in my opinion) bored us with his details of mundane things, Rowling explains to us every detail of a magical castle home to amazing individuals. All the wands, spells, creatures, and so much more are all foreign to us therefore the details are welcome. The characters have enough normal qualities so that we can relate to them. They are normal kids, who are starting at a new school, with new friends and enemies; for the most part they are just like us. It isn’t too hard for us to imagine ourselves going to Hogwarts (I don’t know about you, but my letter is still in the mail). In addition to the details, and the ability to relate to the characters, there is a common place that Rowling uses through out the story that has nothing to do with spells or potions or wizards. It is the idea that “good will triumph over evil”. This is not a proven common place, but it is a common place nonetheless. Rowling proposes this to us time and time again, and in every case it is true. Good always wins; of course there are causalities and bloodshed. However the important thing Rowling leaves us with is: we, with our actions, not our abilities, have the power to make sure good will win over evil.  

That Awkward Moment When...

            We’ve all done it, lets be honest. I definitely have, I know you have, it is human nature. You are walking by someone you kind of know, but not really so you look away, pretend to be texting, or flat out pretend like you they are invisible to avoid awkwardness. Being at Penn State with over 50 kids from my graduating class, this is a daily occurrence.  But really its better then awkward conversation; we weren’t friends in high school moving an hour and a half north did nothing to change that fact.

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            Nothing is worse then awkward conversation. One on one for 30 seconds is one thing but have you ever been in a situation with a lot of people when someone is speaking and it is just awkward? Maybe it’s at a wedding and the cousin who drank a little too much is on stage making an inappropriate, and flat out awkward, toast. And though everyone is smiling at him, you know they are all thinking “get this kid off the stage this is soooo awkward”. It happens because believe it or not, when speaking to a crowd or even one on one, there are things that are appropriate to say and things that are NOT. When working with rhetoric it is important to keep in mind what is appropriate to say and what is not. You do not want your audience to be uncomfortable. The appropriateness of your rhetoric depends on the situation, as does most things when dealing with rhetoric. Though only a few weeks ago I talked about the powers of subtlety there is a fine line between pushing the social norms and awkward.  

Sorry I Gave Up Religion for Lent

Lent is in full swing and you will undoubtedly hear the words “sorry I gave up _____ for lent”. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with lent, I’m not attacking the constitution of it either. I understand sacrificing something because Christ sacrificed his life for us. However I do question the motivation behind lent for a lot of people. Now days I think it is nothing more than a diet trend. “I gave up candy for lent; hopefully I’ll lose a few pounds!” That’s great that you are trying to lose weight, but I don’t think that can be called lent.

This comes to my rhetoric point that really doesn’t have a technical term, I call it passion. Do you believe in what you are talking about? Passion is hard to measure, but I truly believe that the more passion a person has the more effective their rhetorical analysis is. It is hard to have passion about an assigned speech topic, but in real life if you are arguing about something you are doing so because you have an emotional tie to it, passion. Passion is a key ingredient in effective rhetoric, especially persuasive rhetoric. Nothing feels better after giving a speech than being told by someone listening, “Wow you are so passionate about that”. Though it is hard to measure people can tell when someone is passionate about what they are talking about, as an audience you can feel the love someone has through their words. When you talk about something you do not believe in, you can have all the great elements of a speech, but still not get through to the audience. Ultimately your words need to go past words and into feelings in order to connect with the audience. 

Sorry I'm not Ivy League

          I think it was between December and February last year when college applications started rolling in and decision were being made. Who would go to what school? How did she get into that school? He only went to that school cause of his girlfriend? As high school seniors we tended to judge our friends on what school they were going to. 

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         A fair number of us went to Pitt and a decent amount ended up in Happy Valley. Then there were those kids who went to HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College). This may sound weird, but their credibility after choosing HACC went down a little. It is because we associate community college with a lesser intellect. Maybe they went there because they wanted to work too, or to be close t their family. How knows. The opposite was true as well. One of the kids in my class went to Harvard and his status was automatically elevated, suddenly he was so much smarter then us. He is a smart kid, but it is the perception that Harvard is a smart person school that changed everyone’s mindset.

        The education level is only one of the factors when establishing if someone is credible or not. Also factored-in is age, experience, believability and many others. Establishing creditability is especially important when delivering a speech. In speeches this is called ethos.

Ethos is one of the three main aspects of effective speech giving. Ethos focuses on the credibility of the speaker and how the audience perceives him/her. The more credible a person is and the more they prove that credibility to their audience the more ethos they develop. People are more likely to listen and be persuaded by a credible speaker. 

I Mean, We're Facebook Friends...

          This may have happened to me fairly recently, and by that I mean about five minutes ago. I was pursuing Facebook, procrastinating on my homework like every good college student does, and I clicked out the birthday icon and saw “Today is Dylan’s Birthday… Wish him Happy Birthday”. Now I consider Dylan one of my good friends, I’ve known him for probably 5 years now. In the old day everyone knew all their friends’ birthdays, just like they knew all of their friends’ phone numbers too. The dark ages, if you ask me. Clearly technology has evolved and we have a cellphone to store hundreds of numbers and Facebook to tell us when our friends’ birthdays are. Facebook, though it seems trivial, has greatly changed our society and has a very unique rhetoric to it.

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            First of all there is the infamous status. At the top of the page there is the empty box with the words “what’s on you mind?”. Usually I don’t fill in this box, mostly because what’s on my mind has to many profanities for an acceptable Facebook. As of late though I’ve posted my fair share of THON status, which I love seeing all over Facebook. What people write in this box is interesting. “What’s on your mind” is a fairly normal question to ask someone. However never would I respond to this verbal question with a touch THON status, that’s just weird. Similarly, posting a status that actually says what’s on your mind is equally weird. No one wants to know that you are wondering, “how on earth they built the titanic, did they start in the water, but then there would be water in it”, but I digress.

            This brings up a great point that the rhetorical situation is key. The same question asked verbally as opposed to Facebook requires very different answers.