Advertisement Summary-MAC Viva Glam

Our advertisement is for MAC cosmetics, and it’s advertising their Viva Glam line.  The ad states that, “Every cent from the sale of Viva Glam lipstick and lip gloss goes toward helping women, men and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.”  It features Rihanna, as the main part of the ad, and celebrity endorsement.  She is wearing the makeup, and promoting the company and its charitable acts.  She is the main focus of the ad, and it is apparent because everything is dwarfed by her picture.  This shows that MAC is using sex appeal to sell their products, rather than advertising the charity more.  Although she is naked, it isn’t in a degrading way.   She is naked in a powerful way to show her strength as a human, which ties in with conquering HIV/AIDS.

Animal Cruelty Ads-- Questions

1.       All the ads were published by different animal protection/animal rights activist groups. These groups include PETA, Freedom for Animals, Mercy for Animals, and the ASPCA. 

2.       They are intended for animal lovers, and consumers in general who might be unaware of the animal cruelty caused by their everyday products.  They’re meant to persuade and raise awareness.

3.       The PETA and ASPCA ads are targeted toward animal lovers; we can tell this because they use terms like “your dog” and personify the dog by telling the reader he is “waiting to love you.” The other two ads are aimed at consumers because they point out specific stores and products that people use every day that sponsor cruelty.  

4.       The purpose of the ads is to make people aware that their actions, even inadvertently, can affect animals.  They’re meant to raise awareness, and get people to stop using certain products/shopping at certain places.

5.       These ads rely on emotional and ethical appeals, by asking the readers if they support animal cruelty.  They show upsetting images of dogs and animals to evoke emotion out of the audience.  It appeals to rationality by giving facts, and stating statistics. 

6.       The ads, as stated before, use upsetting images as well as bold text to grab the reader’s attention and make them listen, and care.  They use phrases like “Do you support cruelty to animals?” to make the reader think.

7.       They all catch the reader’s attention and make the audience think about how their actions/ choices affect animals.  Also, they disturb the readers.

Pg. 181-- Questions 1-4

1.  Melissa Rubin provides a lot of insight about this particular Coco-Cola ad from the 1950s. She not only includes a picture of the ad she is analyzing to allow her readers a visual aid, but as well goes into depth explaining each part of the ad. Including background information about what was going on in the 1950's allows her audience to understand her analysis better, an example being when she mentions how important the military was at the time due to the vast amount of wars going on and the vast majority of men being drafted. Then she points out the men in there military uniforms front and center in the ad obviously the most prominent in the crowd of "workers". Rubin has persuaded me to accept her conclusion due to her knowledge and explanation of what was going on around the time this ad was published.

2. Historical content is greatly incorporated in Rubin's analysis. Allowing her audience to understand  not only where America stood at the time but also other parts of the world helped get across her main points of the analysis.

3. Questions you might try to answer when analyzing an as might be:
              -What can we learn about the social norms of a culture by closely examining how that ad
                appels to particular audiences.
4. Many makeup ads today project the values, or lack there of, of the era we live in today. Women are pressured and told they won't be beautiful or find joy if they don't use a certain mascara, or lip liner. We live in an era where physical beauty outweighs internal beauty, happiness, and even goes to the extreme of outweighing the health and well being of a person. Who cares that you're compressing your internal organs? at least you'll have a defined waist line with your waist trainer! The Coco-Cola ad is much different from the makeup ads we see today.While Coco-Cola was trying to sell their product though making everyone believe taking a nice brake a drinking a refreshing Coke makes you equals with everyone including your boss, makeup ads today make women compete with each other for what the new norm of beauty is, or better said what's the newest product to make you beautiful.

Stay Sweet As You Are--Analysis

This essay fits the criteria of an analysis essay because it stays with a specific main point and analyzes 3 different ad campaigns that “convey the message that catching a man or becoming a wife is a women’s ultimate goal” as said by Doug Lantry while writing the analysis. While not letting his own voice drown, he includes many quotes from the ads which he uses as evidence that these ads target women and convey that they must use their products to attract a man, which would then allow them to finally be happy. Lantry talking about each ad individually to give his audience insight on them and then comparing them to one another helps establish credibility for himself and allows his readers to trust what he is saying. Including pictures of the ad campaigns allows the audience a visual aid to clearly show what he was analyzing. Throughout the paper he has a clear stance on the topic which is actively conveyed by his tone of the paper. 

Collaborative Activity 10.20.15

Writing analytically requires a different process than writing a narrative. We learned that you need to make sure that your audience knows background information on your topic and that you have a clear thesis. You need to have done thorough research on your topic before you start writing and make sure that you have enough examples to support your thesis. Also, you need to find a way to make your topic matter to your audience and make it relatable. You need to respond to counterarguments by using your evidence to negate their claims. In addition, it is imperative that you care about what you’re writing about so your readers will be interested in the topic as well. You can cite other sources but make sure to relate them back to your argument and not to use too many so your voice gets lost.

Mad Men

1. Throughout the story Heather Havrilesky's main insight is that the show Mad Men very realistically portrays the reality of the American dream, and how it is never accessible because Americans are always in a state of wanting more. In her analysis of Mad Men she states "Americans are constantly in search of an upgrade. Its a sickness that's infused in our blood, a dissatisfaction with the ordinary" meaning the American dream can never be reached do to the urning for more that is apart of the dream.

2. Havrilesky establishes her authority by sharing the knowledge she has on the subject with her audience. Talking about the characters, their backgrounds and the everyday troubles they struggle with, and the main point of the show allow the reader to understand not only what she is writing about but also proves she knows what she is talking about.

3. Pointing out main characters with problems that regular people, including her audience, have help her appeal to her readers emotions. When Havrilesky analyzes Betty's character the readers can relate through empathy and sympathy. Betty having very realistic problems that she suffers with through this series may relate to problems that some of Havrilesky's audience may have as well. Havrilesky talks about how Betty has no wisdom, survival instincts and compassion, casing her to be child like when dealing with problems, but then states "But what else can you expect from someone whose closest relations--overbearing father, paternal but deceitful husband--have consistently rewarded her for quietly, obediently playing along with their games?"

4. Since I was not familiar with this show before hand I must trust that what Havrilesky states about it is true, and due to her intense overload, but necessary, amount of information that she offers about this show she is very compelling and makes her audience believe and trust that she knows what she is talking about. Giving not only character information but also season breakdowns allows me to believe that I now understand the basic premise of this show. Due to its relatively modernized and realistic them I would say this might be a show I would be interested in.

Analyzing Consumer-Oriented Websites

Rotten Tomatoes vs. IMDb

As I was analyzing these two websites that compare and contrast different movies I found IMDb to be more helpful. On Rotten Tomatoes I found it to be confusing whether the tomato or green charm meant the rating was good, while on IMDb the rating for a movie is clearly shown by the number of stars it is given. I also found it very useful that on IMDb it would should you suggestions on other movies like it based on the one you were looking at. My changes to Rotten Tomatoes would be to make it clearer to the users whether a movie was rated good or bad. And even though I found IMDb to be more useful I would still change parts of its lay out in order to make it look less like a confusing blog and more user friendly. 

Analyzing Decisions

Decisions:	What Area of My Life This Affects:	Information Gathered Before:	Decision I made:
What should I eat for breakfast?	Health/wellbeing	·         How much time do I have before I need to leave ·         What are breakfasts I like to eat ·         Do we have any breakfast food in the house	Since I had no breakfast food in my house a little to no time to make something I went to Starbucks and picked up a breakfast sandwich.
What should I wear today?	Health, self confidence	·         What’s the weather like ·         How do I feel today (am I sick, or in good health) ·         Where am I going	Since I am no longer sick and feeling well, and it wasn’t too cold out, I decided to wear leggings to be comfortable at school with a cute shirt to still be stylish.
What/who should I hang out with this weekend?	Wellbeing, social life	·         Who haven’t I seen in a while ·         What’s going on this weekend ·         Who do I want to see the most ·         Am I feeling well enough to do something one of my friends wants to do	Since it is my best friends Robyn’s birthday this weekend I will be hanging out with her!
Should I go on a camps tour at OSU with my sister?	Future	·         Will I have to miss anything important in order to go ·         Is this a school I would want to attend	I decided to go on it with my sister because it is a great school and it doesn’t hurt me in any way to just go and tour it
Should I get sleep or finish my math assignment?	Health/wellbeing, grades	·         how tired I am ·         How will this affect my grade if I don’t do it ·         Will I be able to do my best work right now being in the state that I am in	Since I was very sick and needed sleep in order to get better, I asked my teacher for an extension on the assignment (we are allowed 6) so I could rest and heal.

Taking Stock of Your Writing

11.         What was your main point (thesis)?  “The Moral of the Story”?

The main point of my story was to show my struggles in middle school, once I joined agate, when it came to writing. In elementary school writing was always easy for me but once getting into agate I had to learn how to write differently which I really struggle with at first but with time I finally nailed it!

22.         Who was your audience?  What did you assume about them?  What “audience needs” did you have to consider in writing the paper?  How did you tailor your writing to them?

My audience is my fellow classmates and professor. While writing this story I had to include much background information about my schools, especially my elementary, to allow the audience to understand where I first learned how to write and why I wrote the way I did.

33.         What feedback or reactions did you get at various times while composing this paper, and how was this helpful?  What other kinds of input or support did you get from classmates, teacher, tutors, others?  Were you able to make use of it?  How, or why not?

My classmate gave me good advice to try and not repeat myself, which I had been doing a little in my writing. I also was advised to include some quotations and dialog in my writing, which I then did. This was very helpful because it allowed my story to come alive more.

44.        What did you find interesting about the process you went through in writing this paper, and what did you learn from it?

I found it interesting to be writing from my own point of view which is something I hadn’t done in a while. At first it was bit of a struggle to say “I” instead of the “he” or “she” I’m use to, but eventually I got it down and it became easy to remember to.

55.        What questions do you have for me about the paper?  (What part(s) of the paper would you like me to focus on?  What do you see as the paper’s strengths, and what areas are you unsure of?)

I am unsure of how I started the paper off, my opening sentence is not the strongest so it is something I will need to go back and look at. A strength in my paper is the paragraphs that I really explain the main point and purpose of why I was writing about this topic. 

Thoughts After Reading Other's Definitions on Rhetoric

After reading other's definitions of rhetoric it changes mine in the sense that I don't believe I included everything I should have. While I did mention rhetorical thinking I mostly stayed on the subject of rhetorical writing and determining the rhetorical situation when writing. Reading other's post and definitions made me realize that rhetorical thinking really starts with listening to others and then developing the rhetorical situation in your mind which is usually done non-intentionally, now being the age we are determining the rhetorical situation you are in when having a conversation is just something we have been wired to do.

Potential Topics- Literacy Narrative

Potential topics: Writing in elementary school vs. writing in middle school, Ap history class (how I learned to write differently)

Writing in elementary schools vs. middle school:
1) A clearly identified event: What happened? Who was involved? In elementary school I loved to write, it was a way for me to be creative and express how I felt. I had teachers who told me I would never have a problem with writing, that I would always succeed in it as long as I put effort into my work. Then I made the transition to middle school where writing was no long for the purpose of gaining experience and becoming comfortable with writing but now was more of a test, and way to be graded and prove that you had the skills to succeed in writing, basically writing was no longer fun. It turned into solely a means for a grade, and 9 times out of 10 you had to write what your teacher wanted to hear in order to receive that grade, which completely cut out the creative part of it I loved.
2) A clearly described setting: When and where did it happen?
First my elementary school with bright yellow walls, tiny chairs, and children’s art hanging everywhere.  Next the bigger school with the bigger chairs; the middle school. Instead of the orca mascot I had been use to for 6 years (K-5th grade) I was now starring at the huge panther mascot which laid on the floor. Instead of children's art there was more helpful things hanging on the walls like such as dictionaries, atlases, and maps.
3) Vivid descriptive details: What makes the story come alive? To include vivid descriptions and make my narrative come alive I will describe the setting of my class rooms by adding sensory imaging, how it smelt, what I tasted, and even things such as how the room itself made me feel. I will describe my classmates who impacted my story and most of all my agate teacher Mrs. Kragen.
4) A consistent point of view: Who's telling the story? Because this is a story from my life that affected me it will be written from my point of view which will allow me to include what I am thinking at times and how I feel about certain situations I was put in.
5) A clear point: Why does the story matter? This story matters because it had a huge impact on my life by making me the writer I am today and impacting how I viewed/view writing.

My 10th grade AP world history class:
1) A clearly identified event: What happened? Who was involved? In my ap world history class I had to learn a different type of writing than I was use to. In the beginning it was a struggle for me, in former english classes I was taught to write and expand on ideas on most papers teachers would give an amount of words or pages you paper would have to meet or exceed, that was not the case in ap world. My teacher Mr. Bernal would assign a paper or prompt and would tell us it must be less than 2 pages. We were taught to included only what was needed and nothing more.
2) A clearly described setting: When and where did it happen? I will include this in my narrative by describing the setting of my 10th grade Ap world history classroom and the library in which we used many times to work on projects, papers, and to find information.
3) Vivid descriptive details: What makes the story come alive? To included vivid description I will add sensory details in my writing by talking about emotions I felt trying to figure out this new type of writing that I was not understanding at first, and how I felt once I finally understood it.
4) A consistent point of view: Who's telling the story? Because this is a story from my life that affected me it will be written from my point of view which will allow me to include what I am thinking at times and how I feel about certain situations I was put in.
5) A clear point: Why does this story matter? The point of this story is to show that even when your older and have already learned and so called mastered the fundamental writing techniques, there is always the chance that a teacher will expect something different than what you were taught. This story also matters because it has made me the writer I am today and throughout my ap world class i learned many of useful writing techniques that I believe I will use for the rest of my life.

In Class Lab: Literacy Narrative

Vivid Detail: “Lydia climbed off the kitchen counter and waded through the deep water, dragging a small kitchen stool behind her. She positioned the stool in front of her linen closet, propping one foot on the stool and the other on the doorknob; then she climbed to the top self of her linen closet…Crouched there, she watched the water continue to rise. Her ceilings, she knew, were twelve feet tall. That water rose to above her height, then to above six feet, finally to about seven feet (pg.130 para. 8).”

Dialog: “Writing! Yeah, right! How did I manage to fail writing, and by half a point, no less? (pg. 1 para. 2)”

Sensory Description: “Entering the VFW hall, we were struck by a chemical odor of a cleaning solution so strong that it seemed toxic (pg. 128 para.2).”

Brainstorm:

1.       History day

2.       Agate

3.       Book reports

4.       Writing as a child vs. high school

5.       DBQs

6.       Ap history test

Consider your Rhetorical Situation:

5) Purpose: To fulfill the assignment

6) Audience: The audience is likely to have similar experience considering we’ve all gone through school and had to deal with hard writing assignments that we don’t always want to do.

7) Stance: My stance on this topic is that I no longer enjoy writing due to how harsh the assignments have become since being in middle and high school.

8) Media/Design: This assignment will be posted on my blog therefor it will be a typed narrative and I might include some picture if I feel it will help portray how I feel on the subject.

Generating Ideas and Text:

9) What do you see? First I see my elementary school with bright yellow walls, tiny chairs, and children’s art hanging everywhere.  Next I see the middle school, the big picture of the panther mascot on the floor, bigger chairs, bigger kids, less artwork on the walls and more assignment help such as dictionaries, atlases, and maps.

10) What do you hear? In my elementary school I hear kids, running, screaming on the playground. The sound of the rusty swing chains swinging back and forth as friends yell at each other to move out of the way to jump off. In middle school there is no running or screaming children, you over hear conversations of sophistication and once of gossiping teenagers. Then there’s the sound of the bell, greatly loved by all when it rings telling you that class is over, but 5 minutes late hated by many when rung telling you you’re late for your next class.

11) What do you smell? In middle school you smell axe from all the boys who strongly sprayed it on them and into the hallways.

12) How and what do you feel? In elementary you feel small, but free. You’re having fun, your classes are easy you’re a bright student who is told school will not be an issue for you, ever. And then you get to middle school and you don’t understand why you went from having 3 reassess a day to having none and on top of that 6 different classes a day with different students in each one and a different teacher. You fell like lunch is now your favorite and will now forever will be.

13) What do you taste? Minty gum is how you survive in middle school when starving and praying for it to be lunch time.
14) Describe each person: Mrs.Kragen was my 6th and 7th grade agate teacher, basically a smart class where you learned english and history, she had long brown hair which was messily thrown up everyday into a ponytail, pale skin and crazy eyes. She spoke loud, like really loud all the time! She would make up crazy sayings for specific things to help us remember them.
15) Recall (or imagine) some characteristics dialogue: "DON'T CHANGE TENSES" Mrs. Kragen yelled as she grabbed a chair a banged it on the table.
If caught talking or in some way disrupting the class all you would hear from Mrs. Kragen was "Go outside and count to 100" as she starred you down and sharply pointed outside of her classroom.
16) Summarize the action: In elementary school writing was fun, it was a chance to be creative and write short stories about what ever was chosen. But eventually 5th grade will end and you will have to make the transition, for me it was from being an orca to becoming a panther, Poulsbo Middle school is where I was enrolled the nest fall as a 6th grader. Not only did i make the transition to a different school but about 2 months into the school year i then made the transition to a harder class, agate. Agate was an advance program for kids who succeeded and were not challenged by standard english and history class. Changing schools and then changing classes changed how i felt about writing, the once loved subject which allowed me to be creative became a means of getting a grade and fulfilling requirements.
17) Consider the significants of the narrative: Since writing has become solely a means of getting a grade for a class I have learned to except that writing papers on subject that are uninteresting is now a part of my life and it will almost always be.

Thinking and Acting Rhetorically

To think and act rhetorically starts with analyzing a situation and then using your voice, whether spoken or written, to portray your own, and in certain situations other people's thoughts and feelings as well. Thinking and acting rhetorically starts with listening to what others have to say and/or reading a prompt or situation and then actively thinking about, discussing, and/or informing yourself on the topic at hand. If it is a collaborative piece you are writing brainstorm and listen to your teammates thoughts on the subject at hand. If it is a piece written on your own read over instructions, if they have been given, and then for both situations analyze the the rhetorical situation. Is there a specific format or genre you must use? If not, then what format will best allow your intended audience to clearly understand what you are trying to say. A specific audience you need to write to? Will your audience be interested by what you are saying? These are all things that help determine the rhetorical situation and questions you should keep in mind. In any rhetorical situation it is important to make sure you are informed, therefor doing extra research than what is given or said may be necessary.

Rhetorical Situations-Narratives

2) Our team agrees that the last sentence of the story summarizes its main point. One difference in our blogs was that some of us said that the story was mostly from either third person or Lydia’s point of view. We all used similar descriptions from the story to describe Lydia and the settings that she was in. In the last question of our blogs, we agreed that the magazine was geared towards health professionals and that the beginning of the story was about examining Lydia’s health, taking on a serious tone that fit the magazine well.

3) Brideau thought about her intended audience and her purpose in ways that chapter 2 described. Since she was telling the story of someone else, she had to stay true to what Lydia told her while also appealing to an audience. Chapter 2 helps us think about rhetoric while writing by breaking down everything that we need to convey to our audience.

5) In daily life we read, see, listen or tell stories. For example, while going on facebook we see tons of links to stories or news to read about other people’s lives. We also tell our own narratives to friends about things that are going on in our own lives whether it be something that just happened the day before or an event from further in the past. Every song that we listen to during the day also tells its own story.

9) Our group found that watching the videos on “It Gets Better” was more effective then written narratives (in the form of a tweet) because you can visibly see the emotions that they are feeling while telling their stories. That being said, our emotions and thoughts are more impacted when we can see theirs on camera.

12) Lydia’s story and TV news are both very different ways of telling a narratives. With TV news multiple people talk about the same topic to get different perspectives. Also, the video allows viewers to see the emotions of the people telling their stories. In contrast a written narrative such as Lydia’s story gives the authors perspective and leaves it to the readers imagination to visualize how things happened. At times the news can be written in paper form losing that visual connection that TV gives the audience. Or if a book is made into a movie, a lot of times important details are overlooked.