Going Green: Revolution or Fad?

Within the past five years I have noticed a lot more people are trying to "go green." Anthropogenic influences on global warming has become a world wide concern and many companies have decided to help save the planet. Commercials tell us to do our part and buy fuel efficient vehicles, recycle our products, plant a tree, use re-usable bags, etc. Minimize your carbon footprint, if not for you for your children. With so much eco-friendly advertising by General Electric, car companies, and many more companies is it really a surprise that people are becoming more conscious about their waste? Is it because it is cheaper to own a fuel efficient car or installing energy efficient windows in our homes that people are being more environmentally aware? Is it because people are actually concerned with the threat of global warming? Or is it because going green is a fad? 

Commercials have a lot of influence over human behaviors. Especially when top dog companies advertise their products. Apple creates a new product and people swarm to buy it. Nike has some new running shoes so throw out your old one's because these one's can play music somehow out of the soles!  Does this same technology phenomenon occur when considering global warming? Are we more interested in the topic because alternative energy is the pioneering project of the century? Besides, if the big companies we idolize are going green, we should too! 

Let's examine some eco friendly commercials we've seen lately. General Electric is advertising how they are using alternative energy to power the world, inspirational and fascinating to us, we applaud their efforts. Then we move to automobile commercials, the top one being the Toyota Prius. Their car is advertised not based on the safety of the car, but on the fact that there are solar panels on the roof that use the suns energy to power the air conditioning. That's a cool feature right? Makes me want to buy it! Then we have Sun chips. This is not a commercial about the chip itself, but about the bag. We watch about 30 seconds worth of a bag gradually decomposing and a plant grows where the bag once was. This is cool, but why did Sun chips decide to focus their commercial on how environmentally friendly they are rather than how much people enjoy their chips? Is it because they're aware that if they are environmentally friendly and are utilizing new technology that people will be more inclined to buy their product? 

I only hope that being green isn't just a fad, and that people are going green not to show off that they are, but because they want to actually minimize their carbon footprint. So when you see a new product being advertised based on their environmentally friendly factors, ask yourself if you would buy that because it will help you reduce your waste, or just because its something new to try out. Hopefully some day company's won't have to advertise how eco-friendly they are because everyone will know that their products are good for the environment, if products can ever truly be "good" for the environment. 

Professional publishing vs. independent publishing

I am in the process of writing a book that I have been researching now for two years. I had dreamed of completing it by now, but that was an unrealistic goal for a full time student and part time worker. So the book remains written in my mind, but I am determined to take this novel from a dream to a reality. I have researched popular publishers in an effort to better prepare myself for publishing my story, and all seem overwhelming. When Tom mentioned instant publication through Amazon I became extremely excited. My story is one that won't be written for fame or money but for myself, so publishing one copy would be as big a success as publishing a thousand copies for me! Of course, I would be very proud if other people were to enjoy my story, but that is not my main goal. The dilemma I face is if I publish an unedited version of my story, will that hinder the possibility of someone else fully enjoying what I have written? Tom discussed the benefits of editing and the trials of it as well, that an author must be fully capable of handling critique and working with an editor. This seems easier said than done. I would want to have my manuscript professionally edited before publication, but for a story I intend on investing years on, will I be able to handle making significant changes to my story for the sake of selling my story? As I mentioned earlier, I am writing this story as a personal goal, and not for the profits it might create. Tom's lecture has left me with alternative options for publishing, and now I must decide (when the time comes) whether to take the easy way out and Amazon publish or seek professional help to make my dream a reality.

Die Commercials Die!

Was there ever a time when advertisements did not exist? And what does one consider an advertisment in the first place? Is it the "Sale" sign next to that gallon of milk you bought the other day? Or is it the coupons you recieve every sunday in the paper? Once upon a time I'm sure that was a companys dominant form of advertisement, but in an era of globalization and instant communication are these simpler, less in you face, forms of communication practical anymore?

In The Persuaders it is mentioned that Americans are becoming immune to advertisements. Tivo is allowing us to fast forward through commercials, and we have been so exposed to advertisements in almost every aspect of our lives they've become a background setting rather than center stage. The Persuaders went as far as to suggest American's stop advertising because they are not bringing in enough revenue. The problem with that is that company's are afraid to stop advertising because they will quickly be forgotton about. So we are at a point where a vicious cycle swallows billions of dollars, company's advertist more to stay in the game and less people respond to the advertisement because it's "just another ad."

As much as I want to live in a world where one hour of tv time doesn't consist of 20 minutes of commercials, driving past bright flashy moving billboards doesnt almost send me careening off the freeway, and I can watch my favorite tv show without wondering if the nike shoes every character is wearing is not a coincidence, I realize this is unlikely. I want to be that person who stands up against advertising, end this insanity that is becoming American culture! Unfortunately, as much as I hate being bombarded with advertisements I am a business major and will need to market my business in the future if I want it to stay alive. I just have to be careful not to get sucked into the world of advertising.

Professional Texting- Timing is Everything

I work in a restaurant with nine people in my department. It is a part time job and schedule flexibility is an excellent perk for college students. Everyone in my department has the freedom to trade shifts with one another, and this is primarily accomplished via the phone. We all have eachother's cell phone numbers and when we need a shift covered we typically send out a mass text to all employees in our department explaining which shift needs covering. Whoever texts that individual back first asking for their shift gets it. This mass texting can be helpful, but it has also proven to cause some work related issues.

When considering texting as a form of professional communication I have to consider all the reasons why this communication method can be considered professional. The text messages I recieve are work related, they are typically worded in a professional manner, and what sometimes occurs regarding the text messages has proven to cause some workplace conflict- depending on factors such as wording, timing, and frequency. A majority of students in this class have cell phone and texting abilities, and most of us have our phones near us at all times. Many of us have undoubtably experienced the 2 am text or phone call waking us up, and I doubt anyone truly enjoys being woken up by this, especially if its a text from a coworker asking you to cover a shift.

The recent professional communication I've had regards a situation similar to the one described above. When I recieve a text after midnight by a coworker asking me to cover a shift the following day, then again shortly after 6 AM because I haven't responded to the 1 AM text, my blood boils a bit. So naturally I respond "no I will not cover your shift, please do not text me during these hours of the day because I am sleeping." To me, this is a lot nicer than the "text me again and I will smash your phone into pieces" text I wanted to send. I recieve a text back (at about 8 AM when I am also usually sleeping) saying "I have you in a group contact and send a mass text to everyone in that group, it's too much work to text everyone individually, if you have a problem with it put your phone on silent, for real, like its not even a big deal." Ironically at this point I just laugh to myself at the absurdity of this person and drop it. However, when I am at work with this person there is obvious tension between us due to this texting ordeal.

Now that we are in a new age where texting has been incorporated into our work life I feel it is important for people to understand texting etiquette. The problem I have with these text messages wasn't what was said (initially atleast!), but the timing at which I recieved them. We have spent this class learning about what statements create underlying tones in professional writing, how to use ethos, pathos, and logos to convey messages to target audiences, etc., but what about the appropriate time to send messages using certain mediums? Email typically doesn't cause conflict depending on the time it arrives nor do letters. But what about phones?

We must consider texting as a form of professional communication and depending on what job you have, the timing of when we send these texts must be considered for it does have a negative affect on people, regardless of how well written the text is.

Classroom Exercise-Media Kit Analysis

Online Media Kit

Numerical Rhetoric

There is an interesting phenomenon about the human mind and the way it perceives advertisements. Everyone knows that $0.99 is much more appealing that $1.00, although we all also know how little a penny is worth these days, so what is the difference? Why do we become convinced to purchase, believing we're getting a deal, when logic tells us simultaneously that we are not? The answer, Rhetoric. 

Companies use logos to advertise appealing prices to the general public. If anyone has taken a psychology class you will understand how the brain perceives prices with a lower dollar amount as more appealing than a high dollar amount, and we almost completely do away with the remaining values in the number. It is similar to how we read words, as lnog as the frsit and lsat ltertes are in plcae, our mnid udnretsndas waht the wrod syas. We don't realize it, but we often overlook small details, such as the order letters are in, and more importantly, the value of what we purchase. 

Companies understand this phenomenon, and use it to trick the consumer into buying their product because they are a better deal that competitors. Is $0.99 really a better deal than $1.00? We know its not, but don't kid yourself, I'm certain everyone reading this has fallen prey to the $0.99 cent scam. Don't keep allowing your mind to throw out the numbers that come after the decimal, you'll be proving companies right by doing so. This issue becomes a battle of the logos, your logos vs. the business logos. You know $0.99 is the SAME THING as $1.00, you know that $7.20 is not $7.00, or that $9.80 is not $9.50. In the short run, this pricing manipulation we all do to convince ourselves to purchase something may seem ok, but in the long run, those cent values add up. 

So here's a suggestion, if you don't already have a piggybank, go out and buy one, or make one, and pay attention to the cent values, defeat the companies pricing! Put all the money you would have spent if you had allowed your logos to be overrun into your empty piggy bank. When you're ready, crack that thing open and find the true value of $0.01. 

Craigslist: The tone beneath the scam

I'm 99.9% sure that everyone reading this has either heard of, been on, advertised, or responded to an advertisement on Craiglist. As the majority of you have experienced Craiglist, I'm sure you all are aware that sometimes, bad people try to take advantage of you through Craiglist. I could have been one such victim. 

I posted an advertisement during the summer of 2009 in an attempt to find a roommate to live with me. I knew there were people who would be responding to my ad that were possibly going to try to steal from me, so I was very careful about who I met with. I used email communication as an initial screening test, if they sounded trustworthy I would agree to meet up with them for interviews. 

How to you discern trustworthyness in an email though? You have to search for tone in the written words. This was no easy feat, but after enough scam emails, there were common themes. 

First, all the scammers would portray themselves as normal, provide me with background information on themselves such as age, hobbies, how clean they are, and ironically none of them enjoyed having people over. By providing normal information about themselves, my attitude toward them was, "hey, this might be a potential roomie, they sound easy enough to live with." They developed trust by discussing normal, generic traits. 

Second: As soon as trust was developed, they would immediately begin discussing payment details, all of them were from another state or country and needed my house address to ship their car and belongings to me. They almost all insisted on paying for multiple months rent in advance to reserve the room. They would ask for my personal information so they would know who to write the check to, and then ask me to remove my advertisement because they plan on moving in ASAP. The tone went from a positive "TRUST ME!!!!" to another positive "I'LL TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING!" To a fool, this would work, but underneath what they were saying I understood the email quite differently. By analyzing the play in tone that the person used I was able to determine what the email actually meant: "LOOK, I'M JUST LIKE YOU SO LET ME MOVE IN, OH AND WE DON'T NEED TO MEET LOOK HOW COMPATIBLE OUR PERSONALITIES ARE, SO JUST SEND ME ALL YOUR INFORMATION AND LET ME STEAL EVERYTHING FROM YOU WHILE YOU'RE UNAWARES!" 

Needless to say, I never met up with the person who's email I will leave at the bottom of this post for anyone who wants to read it. I listened to the tone of the email rather than the words the email said to determine this person was a scammer after my possessions. Also, the grammer in the email didn't help this person betray me.  

ACTUAL EMAIL:

Hello Kat I'll be so glad if you can reserve the room for me and i really appreciate the breakdown details of the house, more about me from Huntsville, AL, USA, a quiet,clean,honest,responsible and easy going person to live with, I'm 5"7',straight, 26 years of age. I dont drink nor smoke but i'm cool living with people that do. I love to go on date but seldomly party. I swim for fun and sometimes play long tennis... i live with my Uncle here in AL,my Dad and mom's dead since i was a kid ,roommie i want you to know that i have no friends in the area except you for now lol....I am currently working on a research pertaining to my course work on culture and tourism. I hope to end my current assignment by the end of this month here in Alabama and focus on my new assingment to your States.. According to your mail, i will have to make a payment of $500 and reserve the room for me before my arrival, and then i will make subsequent payment thereafter as i plan to stay for more than 6months. So i'll client to see you'll get the payment prior to my arriving date....To be honest with you i really like the kind of person you are from your little description and if you have the picture of the bedroom available, kindly forward it to my mailbox. I am really okay with the place... I am planning to arrive on the 1st of next month so i will love to know if i can make the payment ahead of my arrival via business check,money order or personnal Cheque,Bank acctount ...so you will get the payment by next week and i can go ahead making arrangement for sending the payment to you, also i will much apprecaite if you can mail your information like,your mailing address ,your full name,your contact number as to appear on the payment. I will like to ship in my car,luggage,laptop and other materials for my research ahead of my arrival... I will also like you to remove the advert from the site b'cos i am ready to have your place rented..... Hope to read from you soon.

English 402 Class 1/26 assignment

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVW708E-0W4bZGZzNXQ2ZmZfMTQ1bXY3bTRyZ2Q&hl=en

Rhetorical Persuasion

In order for anybody to succeed, whether they can define rhetoric or not, they must understand how to use ethos, pathos, and logos in their everyday life. Rhetoric itself is a greek word, which when used in the english language is actually a form of logos, because for some reason, people who speak english are typically fascinated by foreign words. By assigning the class a blog on defining rhetoric, our professor has used logos to persuade the class that this assignment is scholarly, further promoting the students to spend some extra time on this work. 

I am certain that the majority of the world's population have no idea what rhetoric is, yet everyone has used it in their lives in one form or another. Communication is impossible without rhetoric, and therefore everyone who speaks or expresses themselves is using rhetoric to capture someone's attention. 

Ethos is in play when a person of reputation uses that reputation to persuade people that what that person is saying is important. When ethos is apparent, that person might not be using supportive information or emotion to enforce their topic, but rely solely on the power of their self. An example of an ethos driven work could be when the president of the United States makes an announcement, before he even speaks, in general, the audience is rapt with attention toward him, for he is the president, and therefore what he has to say must be important. 

Pathos is the most common form of communication through out the world, and also the most powerful. Pathos is the form of communication through emotion. Emotion is the only universal human language, which is what makes pathos so incredible. Two people who cannot speak the same tongue will know exactly how the other feels based on their body language. This is not to say that pathos is only expressed through body language, words also invoke emotional decisions out of us. Lets use the "Fund a Child" commercials we commonly see on TV, with the older gentleman and the starving children sleeping in shacks made of cardboard as a good example of utilizing pathos. The older gentleman does not give the audience data to back up his plea for the audience to donate their money to poor children, nor does he use his reputation (I can't even remember his name), but instead he shows clips of small children crying and starving without shoes in a muddy alley. This is all he needs to get a higher majority of the audience to donate to these children. Pathos, is often the best form of persuasion for this reason. 

Logos, is more typically used within companies or organizations. Logos is a person's use of logic and information to support what they are conveying. The reason logos is best used in companies and organizations is because data and information often do not make much sense to the general public, but for those who understand what the data entails, will be more easily persuaded to support or deny the data. A good example of when logos is best utilized is in Academia. In class, for example, you learn every single element on the periodic table and run an experiment on how two of those elements react under intense heat. Your write up may be trying to persuade the professor that those two elements may react to create a cure for cancer. By discussing scientific jargon in your paper, your professor may be more convinced that your results are accurate than if you were to base your write up on an emotional or reputational standpoint. 

I hope that by reading my overview and analysis of Rhetoric, for those people in the class that were a little confused on the application of ethos, pathos, and logos, and for my professor who wants me to understand rhetoric in the written world, this blog has successfully achieved what it was meant to. 

Writing

    Throughout the course of human history, unarguably one of the most important technological advancements ever designed has been the written language. Writing has allowed humans to spread their ideas globally, keep records of important historical data, as well as quickly advance the mind's capacity to learn. It is our ancestors explorations in writing that have led to the establishment of our political systems, education systems, and economic systems. Our ancestors have paved our path to not only learn and organize efficiently, but to continue innovating past ideas. With writing, humans have the ability to become a global community without boundaries. Communication through the written word is our vehicle, and we are the drivers. Understanding writing systems is the framework necessary to construct our vehicle, and determination as well as innovations are the necessary components for us to achieve greater feats via writing than we can even imagine. 

Pioneer Post

This blog has been specifically designed for a class I am taking at WSU. With that in mind, the following posts will be related to prompts given by my professor, to which I will be responding to. This post, in itself, is merely an experimental post, and is not an actual response to any prompts.