Thoughts on the last guest speaker

I've never thought about writing or publishing a book, so I wasn't sure what I would get out of our last guest speaker Tom. To my (pleasant) surprise, I enjoyed his talk despite that I'll still never write or publish a book. Though, the idea of using Amazon.com or some other similar company would probably be my venue of choice.

The Persuaders

After watching The Persuaders documentary it made me glad that I haven't owned a TV for the last 7 years or so. I'm more of a literal minded person, so advertising's slant toward the abstract leaves much to be desired.

Even though it was nothing new to me, Frank Luntz's segment was particularly interesting. The idea of putting the right spin on an issue through little more than carefully chosen wording is fascinating and somewhat frightening. Simply changing the words used to explain a topic shouldn't depend on how artfully said words were chosen but whether or not a person agrees or disagrees with the topic. Have we really sunk so low?

Excerpt from an e-mail I received from Adobe.


Join us April 12th and make your mark
With the right tools, your creative horizon changes. A tree is still timber, but suddenly in a whole new way. Old ideas germinate again, and new ideas branch into unexpected opportunities. Welcome to Adobe® Creative Suite® 5—software that will allow you to reach more people, more effectively, in more places, with whatever masterpiece you can imagine.
Join us for the exclusive Global Online Launch Event, Monday, April 12, 2010.


Right off the bat, this advertisement goes for the heart with "make your mark". Human nature is to want to be noticed and set yourself apart from others. It's an effective hook.

I'm not sure if this advertisement was specifically made for the pacific northwest, but talk of trees and branching out is a very good metaphor.

Immediately after the headline, it states "With the right tools..." and after their colorful metaphor Adobe clearly states that their new product has the tools you need.

Questions for Laurie Harquail

What exactly is copywriting?

What are your weaknesses in writing and how do you get around them?

What got you started in copywriting?

Online Media Kit

Boston Globe Media

The Easy Way to Setup a Shared Drive in Windows 95

I chose to review Meadow Nelson's edit of setting up a share drive. Her directions are clear, concise, and even included graphics to lead the user. I have to admit as a long time Mac user, the original instructions didn't make much sense. After reading Meadow's rewrite of the instructions I know exactly what to do. Very well done.

Technical Rewrite Link

Link to the document

Rhetorical Analysis

This week's blog post is analyzing any random piece of writing for rhetoric. So, in the spirit of randomness, I'll be analyzing the back of this Sun Chips bag.

MAKING THE PLANET GREENER
Thanks to our Green Effect(tm) program, we awarded a total of $100,000 in grants to five ideas that will help make the planet greener.

The thing that struck me was the name "Green Effect" was trademarked. By doing so, they've added ethos to an otherwise logos statement. Since this short blurb is all about "making the planet greener," you could also infer that other companies that aren't doing the same are wrong, thereby building up their own ethos yet once again.

Reading Between the Lines

Tone in a written document is vital making sure what you say is what you mean. In a face to face conversation a person can pick up on the other person's body language and actual tone of voice. With writing, we have no such luxuries. The following is an email I received in my spam box. I have removed the names and contact information.


FROM THE DESK OF
THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF RESERVERED BANK
HEAD OFFICE PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA
DIRECT PHONE LINE:

EMAIL:

IMMEDIATE CONTRACT PAYMENT.CONTRACT:MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/009 We apologies, for the delay of your payment and all the inconveniences and inflict that we might have indulge you through. However, we were having some minor problems with our payment system, which is inexplicable, and have held us stranded and indolent, not having the aspiration to devote our 100% assiduity in accrediting foreign contract Payments. We apologies once again.

From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with the federal government of south africa your name and Company was discovered as next on the list of the Outstanding contractors who have not yet received their payments.

I wish to inform you now that the square peg is now in square whole and can be voguish for that your payment is being processed and will be released to you as soon as you respond to this letter. Also note that from my record in my file your outstanding contract payment is us $65,700,000.00 (sixty-five million seven hundred thousand United States dollars).

Kindly re-confirm to me the followings:
1) your full name.
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company name, position and address:
4) Profession, age and marital status.
5) A scanned copy of Work ID/Int'l passport.

As soon as this information is received, your payment will be made to you in a certified bank draft or wired to your nominated bank account directly from Reserve bank of south africa .

you can also call me on my direct number : as soon as you receive this letter for further discussion, do get back to me on this email

Thanks for your good understanding, hope to have your response shortly.

YOURS SINCERELY,

Executive Governor
REserved bank of south africa
direct line:


While I'm well aware this is a poorly disguised attempt to get my important information, I'll just be analyzing the tone of this email. I'll even do my best to ignore the poor grammar... "We apologies"? Egad...

The email starts out practically shouting at your face in all capitals "IMMEDIATE CONTRACT PAYMENT." This reminds me of a town crier shouting out the news headlines, either way it's annoying. From there we see a very apologetic paragraph about a "minor" problem with their payment system ($65 million is minor?!?).

Moving a paragraph down we see "I wish to inform you now that the square peg is now in square whole and can be voguish for that your payment is being processed and will be released to you as soon as you respond to this letter." We see here a passive voice, bordering on meek, somewhat ruined by an improper use of "whole" and "voguish." I find it odd that the amount supposedly owed to me is mentioned as almost a side note, "Also note that..."

So, poor grammar aside, the email as a whole is quite apologetic. Which is to be expected if someone owed such a ridiculous sum of money.

Link to the Defining Objectives Worksheet

Defining Objectives Worksheet

Rhetoric: When "Because I Said So" Isn't Good Enough

Believe it or not, class this last Tuesday was the first time I've been introduced to the term rhetoric. Never before had I known of, let alone defined, ethos, pathos and logos. I find it somewhat amazing that I've been ignorant of these terms that describe what people are bombarded with every day as they live their lives.

No matter where you go billboards, TV screens, radio, even logos on clothing are a part of our lives. Everything from the absurd to the obtuse, yet it all boils down to one of the three persuasive argument types. Ethos, appealing to a person's character or disposition. Pathos, appealing to a person's pity or compassion. And finally logos, appealing to a person's reasoning.

While it's easy for me to recognize the pathos (Just $0.50 a day can save so many children...) and logos (Buy our product because it has x, y, z.), I have issues determining what an ethos argument looks like.

It's a couple days later since I wrote the above. After a bit more research it seems that I should change my title for this post. Ethos really is just saying "Because I said so." Normally this isn't persuasive but since the speaker or company making that statement has a reputation for their character or products it becomes an ethos argument.

Writing and Me

When I first thought what I should write about I almost immediately remembered how much I enjoyed writing short stories. However, looking deeper I realized I never even wrote a short story just for fun. Maybe it had to do with a lack of direction outside of a classroom, but every single story I ever wrote was to fulfill some class assignment. Does this mean that I don't truly like writing? That question will require much more thought.

Test Post

This is a test to make sure everything is set up properly. If this was a real assignment there would be many more sentences after this one on the assigned topic. This is only a test.