Preliminary Thoughts

I have just selected the piece of media that I will be writing about in my rhetorical analysis paper and I believe that writing five pages on this advertisement will be somewhat easy given its message. This advertisement was first published September 9th, 2009 by the company called the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It is a black and white image of New York City, Twin Towers standing, with over thirty airplanes headed for every building. There are actually too many airplanes to count and every one of them is flying straight down toward, not only the Twin Towers, but all the buildings around them as well. WWF is attempting to make a comparison between the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami with terrorist attacks of 9/11 by having the caption state “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11.” I think this is an insensitive comparison between to two events as one was a natural disaster and the other was a deliberate terrorist attack from another country on American soil. I also feel this is insensitive to the families who suffered losses from the attacks of 9/11. They shouldn’t be so brutally reminded of the tragedy only eight years later while innocently reading a magazine.

The strongest rhetorical appeals in this piece of media would be pathos because it brings forth so many emotions not only for survivors and witnesses of 9/11 but also the survivors and witnesses of the 2004 tsunami. In a way, this ad draws out the emotions felt on the day of each tragedy which is overpoweringly a pathos appeal. It also incorporates logos when it gives the statistic that the tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. This is a logical fact making this a logos appeal. These rhetorical methods are not very effective for the message WWF is trying to make due to the extreme measures the ad was taken too. The words underneath the numerical statement are “the planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it" making the intended message to care for the planet and our environment. Unfortunately this ad backfired and ended up doing more harm to WWF, than good to our planet. Although the rhetorical methods used are not good for WWF’s intended message, they are good for generating a response out of readers through the use of tragic events and horrible losses.

I don’t think I will have too many roadblocks when writing this paper because I feel very strongly about this ad and the message it is conveying. My uncle has worked in New York City, in a building next to the Twin Towers, since the mid-90s and was unfortunately there on the day the towers were hit. Thankfully he caught a ferry and made in out of the city in time but I know a number of his friends weren’t as lucky. If this ad disturbed me, than I am sure if I were to show him, it would hurt him as well. Due to the fact that I have a personal story to help motivate me while writing my paper I don’t think I will run into any roadblocks.

Gender & Bathrooms

The average American doesn’t think twice about the sign on the door when using a public bathroom. This is because the average American is cisgender, which is when one’s gender matches his or her biological sex allowing them to have no hesitation when choosing the girl figure or boy figure on the wall. But there are still many people who might not have this peace of mind, making bathroom boy/girl figures demeaning and hurtful. After viewing some of the signs shown even I was confused and slightly angry at the assumptions made through something as simple as a bathroom sigh.

From what I have observed, as an American, are people in the United States have a very narrow and close minded view of how to construct gender. Americans construct gender and associate certain things with certain genders in a very hurtful, and often untrue, way. Girls are paired with the color pink, shopping, bows, skirts, small waists, breast, and vaginas. Men are paired with the color blue, football or sports, bowties, pants, broad shoulders, and penises. By using one, or several, of these categorizations in bathroom signs would be making the assumption that every male or female should wear pants or go shopping which isn’t always the case.

There was one bathroom sign showed in this blog post that caught my attention and silicified my idea that Americans have a narrow view of the differences in gender. This sign showed one figure thinking about shopping, which was the girl, and the other figure thinking about football, which was the boy. This bathroom sign simply says that it is a man’s job to watch football and woman’s job to go shopping. I found this assumption untrue because not all men love football and I know many girls who don’t enjoy shopping, myself being one of them. This conclusion could go the other way as well by stating that some women are into football and some men enjoy shopping.

Another sign that stood out was the bathroom signs from Iran posted in this blog. The man is shown as a regular figure but the woman is shown as wearing a long skirt and a hijab. This shows how important it is in that country for women to follow the dress code and cover their bodies and faces. If the American girl sign always has a skirt on and the Iran girl sign always has a hijab on her head then the only thing to conclude is that a hijab is equivalent a skirt in Iran. This came as a shock to me because I never knew how important the dress code for women was in Iran until I saw that bathroom sign. When a bathroom sign has a certain outfit on then one knows it is a major part of that countries culture and way of life.

Culture states that men and women should look and behave a certain way which is why these bathroom signs are the way they are. From an early age people were taught the appropriate way to behave and the appropriate things to like according to their gender. We are taught these things through our family, friends, and of course the media. Luckily I have never come across a problematic bathroom sign, but I could in the near future.

Rhetorical Triangle

There are no elements in this HIV ad that appeal to logos because there is no statistical data, scientific facts, or case studies mentioned. Logos appeals to logical reasoning and this ad does not seem to be focusing on the facts of this disease. If this ad mentioned the number of men and women who are living with HIV it would appeal to logos because that would be statistical numbers to get a point across to audiences. Another example of logos that this ad could have utilized is a chart showing the progression of HIV in the population over the past ten years. Both of these examples would relate to logos because it uses factual data to present a scientific view of the disease. This method is most effective in magazines related to science fields or mathematical articles because the readers would respond most to the data presented. Ethos, however, is very prominent in this advertisement due to the fact that the pictured man is stating that he believes in the value of responsibility when dealing with HIV.

Ethos deals with the moral and ethical values of what is being advertised and mentioning the character trait responsibility creates a very moral picture in the minds of readers. It motivates readers to become responsible as well and become motivated to take care of their own health. This is a moral reaction because it effects reader’s ethical beliefs of HIV health. Pathos is used slightly in this ad by trying to draw the emotion of responsibility and obligation to protect others from HIV. Readers may feel strongly, or have strong emotions such as sadness or hope, toward this ad depending on how HIV has affected their lives. If someone affected by HIV reads this ad they could gain hope by knowing that they could keep their health condition in check and prevent it from spreading to their partner. It also could give HIV patients courage to speak out about their condition and receive help or even give non-HIV suffers the courage to ask their partner to get checked. These are examples of pathos because it brings out emotions, such as hope and courage, from audiences.

Ethos is defiantly the strongest appeal in this advertisement simply because it focuses on being responsible when handling this health complication. It presents the idea that the “in thing” to do is tell a partner when one is infected with HIV instead of being ashamed and keeping it a secret. By presenting this very open ad about HIV it will allow people to become more open as well. The whole message is to state that it is a person’s ethical duty to stop the spread of HIV by being responsible and telling a partner before becoming intimate. I believe this message is effective because it speaks to everyone with HIV and encourages them to do their part in the goal to end the spread of HIV.

How to Say Nothing in 500 Words

Paul McHenry Roberts shed some interesting light on the common errors of writing. All of the points he made were intelligent and beneficial to students. Even though it was written more than several years ago it still holds truth for students today. It may even remind students today how valuable his seemingly simple strategies are such as the importance of avoiding colorless words and increasing or expanding one’s vocabulary. The topics discussed that caught my interest were avoiding the obvious content, becoming aware of pat expressions, and the meaning of colorless words. These topics grabbed my attention because I realized that I often use these unsuccessful writing strategies in my own work. On more than one occasion I have stuck to the obvious and modest answers to writing prompts, used more than one cliché pat expression, and snuck in the colorless word “nice” in my essays. I was already aware that I use colorless words and several pat expressions making my work sometimes corny and immature. These problems were mentioned by my high school English teachers and I have been trying to correct my errors for a while.

Reading Robert’s essay brought this subject back to my attention allowing me to continue working on my writing skills throughout this course. It reminded me of the errors that I usually make when writing essays allowing me to become more aware when writing in the future. This will help me continue to improve my writing strategies and techniques. Avoiding the obvious content was an error I didn’t realize I needed to fix, however; the more I read on this topic the more I noticed myself making this mistake. If I were to write an essay about college football I would have went for the obvious content such as how it affects a student athlete’s academic progress or how sports practices consume the majority of student athletes time making it difficult to obtain strong time management skills.

Hearing some of Robert’s examples showed me how to incorporate humor into my writing to give it more of a voice and unique style that would help my paper stand out amongst a stack of similar works. I found his reasoning as to why college football should be abolished, because “football stars hog all the beautiful women,” extremely funny and a point that would hold my attention throughout the entire essay. Another subject I found interesting and educational was the author’s strategy on how to decide what to write about. His idea was to write out the first topics that come to your mind and then throw those ideas away because every other student will have similar thoughts. This is a very helpful hint that I plan to use throughout my college writing courses and also within the workforce. In this present time in the workforce it is vital to standout on a resume in order to earn the job and writing in an unconventional way can help separate a single person from every other hopeful employee. Overall I found Robert’s essay enlightening and educational. Many students would benefit from Robert’s advice