Alix Tucker's e-Portfolio
As an Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies and an Anthropology major, I get asked the question: "What are you going to do with that?" everytime someone hears it. Most people ask this out of ignorance of what the majors actually entail. Yes, the first is the study of classical literature but not classics such as Pride & Predjudice, moreso The Illiad and other ancient texts. Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies (CAMS) is the study of religion and beliefs. It gives us an idea of how and why people have done and created the things they have. My second major, Anthropology is the study of people. Basically its definition is what the major is. With these two majors, I learn a more complete, in my opinion, knowledge of the human race.
So what do I plan to do with this? I plan to enter into a field of the government that deal with foreign affairs. Without complete knowledge of humans, negotiating or understanding people of different nations require some understanding of that culture. Whether I work for the United Nations, or the federal government, this skill and knowledge is necessary.
This class, Rhetoric and Civic Life, hasn't helped my knowledge of other cultures, but it definitely has helped my knowledge of rhetoric. The leaders of the past were master rhetoricians. They moved whole nations to follow the laws, enter into wars, and in some ancient cases, believe in gods. Although I didn't learn how to do those things, I did learn how to effectively communicate with others. I also learned how to identify what a rhetorician, or speaker, uses to persuade an audience. They engage the audience using ethos, pathos, and logos. They use the exigence of situation to help persuade action. The kairos of a situation is used to show an opportune moment to act. All of these I can use in future situations to help persuade or understand the affairs of other nations.
I learned in this class that while rhetoric is defined as a means to persuade an audience to take certain action, it uses much more than just simple words.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
A Simple Text Message.
This week, my best friend had a dilemma. A dilemma? How does a dilemma involve rhetoric?
Well. Let's view the situation here. The boy she "likes" invited her over to his place to hang out, she's sort unable to do this at the moment due to a previous obligation, mainly homework and her Ben & Jerry and chick flick night. His text consisted of a basic: wanna hang out later? Or something along those lines.
She did. Trust me, she did. But she was restricted due to the um obligations. SO here's the dilemma:
How do you construct a text that says I want to, but I can't, but at the same time i dont care if you hang out with another girl, but yet know that you should ask me another time?
My response was that she was overthinking this message and she should just send "I can't tonight, but some other time. Sorry :(." But she was afraid that this would make it seem like she was blowing him off.
But how much information is too much information? How is it even possible to construct a message that can't be taken more than one way, but isn't too in depth? What is flirtascious, yet casually turning him down?
Oh the power of rhetoric, making words have a desired, or undesired effect.
Well after discarding the message "I can't because I'm having a chick flick night and doing homework, but you should hang out with someone else. Unless you want to hang out later?" I mean it got the message across, but does it sound needy? Does it sound like the message is trying too hard? Or should I add a frowy face? Or should I say something along the liines of a raincheck? Honestly, I'm still sticking with my original text that was to the point. But eventually we came up with:
"Yeah I would, but I can't exactly because I have homework, so you should hit someone else up".
Then came the waiting, while waitng she was reminded of this:
Just the first 30 seconds or so.
But what I'm attempting to get at in this story is that words, when not spoken, can have a whole other meaning, a meanig that wasn't desired. Trying to convince someone one things can be misconstrued, or a message that you thought was clear, might be confusing to someone else. Choose your words wisely, or choose you non-response wisely or you may end up like Dumbledore.
But maybe you shouldn't stress over simple messages like this too much, they're not really THAT big of a deal. Focus more on life altering speeches, like your motivational speech!
Well. Let's view the situation here. The boy she "likes" invited her over to his place to hang out, she's sort unable to do this at the moment due to a previous obligation, mainly homework and her Ben & Jerry and chick flick night. His text consisted of a basic: wanna hang out later? Or something along those lines.
She did. Trust me, she did. But she was restricted due to the um obligations. SO here's the dilemma:
How do you construct a text that says I want to, but I can't, but at the same time i dont care if you hang out with another girl, but yet know that you should ask me another time?
My response was that she was overthinking this message and she should just send "I can't tonight, but some other time. Sorry :(." But she was afraid that this would make it seem like she was blowing him off.
But how much information is too much information? How is it even possible to construct a message that can't be taken more than one way, but isn't too in depth? What is flirtascious, yet casually turning him down?
Oh the power of rhetoric, making words have a desired, or undesired effect.
Well after discarding the message "I can't because I'm having a chick flick night and doing homework, but you should hang out with someone else. Unless you want to hang out later?" I mean it got the message across, but does it sound needy? Does it sound like the message is trying too hard? Or should I add a frowy face? Or should I say something along the liines of a raincheck? Honestly, I'm still sticking with my original text that was to the point. But eventually we came up with:
"Yeah I would, but I can't exactly because I have homework, so you should hit someone else up".
Then came the waiting, while waitng she was reminded of this:
Just the first 30 seconds or so.
But what I'm attempting to get at in this story is that words, when not spoken, can have a whole other meaning, a meanig that wasn't desired. Trying to convince someone one things can be misconstrued, or a message that you thought was clear, might be confusing to someone else. Choose your words wisely, or choose you non-response wisely or you may end up like Dumbledore.
But maybe you shouldn't stress over simple messages like this too much, they're not really THAT big of a deal. Focus more on life altering speeches, like your motivational speech!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Take Back the Night
After passing the poster in the hallway of my dorm about 200 times, I decided to look at it while the elevator was taking forever. I noticed something called Take Back the Night, and after reading what it was about, I realized that this was an example of a group of people using the exigence of situation to motivate a change.
In this case, the problem is the violence that occurs while walking at night. The first Take Back The Night occured in October 1975 in Philly after a woman named Susan Alexander Speeth was killed a block from her house by a stranger. The walk is done yearly, across the world in such countries as Italy and Germany after over 16,000 rapes occured in Rome in one year. Obviously, in the years 1975-1976 there was a definite need for change.
It continued in England, where the Jack the Ripper killing were happening during this time.
The Take Back The Night campaign attempts to spread the word that this type of violence is unacceptable. While it started as a women only event, it has now broadened to include men that have been assaulted at night as well. Why can't we walk at night? Why is it dangerous? Obviously because people are getting attacked, but why?
This campaign holds walks in places around the world. In fact, next week this walk is occuruing here at Penn State in front of Old Main at 6pm.
Take Back The Night, or Reclaim the Night (as it was called in Europe), is trying to motivate people to take initiative and come and support this rally as they try to fight the violence that happens at night.
In this case, the problem is the violence that occurs while walking at night. The first Take Back The Night occured in October 1975 in Philly after a woman named Susan Alexander Speeth was killed a block from her house by a stranger. The walk is done yearly, across the world in such countries as Italy and Germany after over 16,000 rapes occured in Rome in one year. Obviously, in the years 1975-1976 there was a definite need for change.
It continued in England, where the Jack the Ripper killing were happening during this time.
The Take Back The Night campaign attempts to spread the word that this type of violence is unacceptable. While it started as a women only event, it has now broadened to include men that have been assaulted at night as well. Why can't we walk at night? Why is it dangerous? Obviously because people are getting attacked, but why?
This campaign holds walks in places around the world. In fact, next week this walk is occuruing here at Penn State in front of Old Main at 6pm.
Take Back The Night, or Reclaim the Night (as it was called in Europe), is trying to motivate people to take initiative and come and support this rally as they try to fight the violence that happens at night.
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