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. 

http://www.someecards.com/

         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.

http://www.someecards.com/

            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.

Reading Between the Lines

           I’m sure you’ve all experienced it. That awkward moment when a person just does not seem to understand what you are saying regardless of how clearly you articulate it. It can be frustrating and annoying. Are we to blame rhetoric for not being clear enough, or are we to blame society for having the idea of “reading between the lines”. I think it would be a pretty even split between the two; some misinterpretation comes from poor rhetoric, but a good deal also come from the notion that rhetoric can deliver hidden or subtle messages. (I’m pretty sure there is also a third category, that being the person is stupid/oblivious. That, however, has very little to do with rhetoric, and is a discussion for another time.)

http://www.someecards.com/

            Reading between the lines, or the art of subtlety is a great rhetorical tool. It is powerful. You can hint at things that are taboo or disrespectful in nature, without coming off as rude and ruining your credibility. It has a shock factor that makes the audience pay attention. The obvious example that comes to my mind is Phil Knight’s speech at Joe Pa’s Memorial Service. The speech had rebellious and accusatory portions that were nicely wrapped in a blanket subtlety making it more acceptable to say. The audience had the, fairly easy, task of reading between the lines of his speech. In between his words was a powerful message of wrongdoing and blame directed towards the hierarchy of Penn State University. The subtlety of his speech made it extraordinary. It engaged the audience because it continually made them think about what he was saying to get the real message.

            So, while subtlety is common in our society, and occasionally causes problems, it is a great rhetorical tool. It is powerful in that is not obvious, yet there for anyone to find. 

This I Believe

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/04/cumberland_valleys_artificial.html

Fun Fact: This is the actual field in the story! Who knew our turf field was one of the first hits on Google. Enjoy!