Category Archives: RCL

RCL #4- Rhetorical Analysis Speech Ideas

I have one main idea that I’m pretty set on to use in my rhetorical analysis essay and would really like feedback on the idea. I was thinking of analyzing Miley Cryus’s Wrecking Ball music video.

I think this would be a good topic because she is trying to send such a dramatic message and change the way you think of her. There is also a lot of things I could talk about within her audience change and factors that changed her target audience.

She use to be known as a girl that just wanted a regular life and someone a teenage girl could look up to. Now that she has grown up her target audience must change in order to stay on the top and not fade into the past. Celebrities make extreme changes in order to get back on top. I think celebrities are good examples of using rhetoric and arguments to get what they want. I also believe that there is a lot to talk about when it comes to their looks and identities. Some older examples I think of when I think of celebrities that had to change their looks are Brittany Spears and Lady Gaga.

It is so interesting to see what extent people will go to stay on top and keep their audience large, whether it changes or not. Celebrities aren’t too concerned with who their audience is as long as the audience numbers stay the same.

Also most artists use their work to communicate messages. In my paper I plan on analyzing Miley’s lyrics and compare them to her older lyrics to understand what message she is sending her audience.

Overall I hope to analyze the change in Miley Cyrus in all aspects of rhetoric; from her audience to the message she is sending her listeners.

RCL #3- Pros/Cons of Speeches

Overall the speeches that I have heard so far have been very well thought out and organized. Only a few have lacked in some major aspects of good public speaking.

First I want to go over the aspects of some speeches that could have been improved on. The main thing I noticed in a lot of speeches is that some people do a lot of moving around, I will probably be included as one of those speeches after this Thursday. Although motion is a good way to keep the audiences attention, it can become distracting if it is over done. Another thing I noticed was that some people have had really good ideas but couldn’t quite figure out how to phrase them. They either just abruptly ended the sentence or they kept repeating the same sentence, just varying a little. Those were the two main things that I saw that could be improved on a lot of people’s speeches, these are also aspects that I need to work on while I’m speaking so I mean no disrespect to others that have to improve on them as well.

Now I am going to go over the positives of the majority of the speeches. First everyone spoke at the appropriate volume. Not too loud and more importantly not to soft. Too my surprise there hasn’t been one person who has talked too quickly that I can’t hear them. Second the majority of the speeches reflected on the main topic and reason of the speech, not very many people headed off with no direction as to where they were going. This class is doing a very good job at staying on topic and giving good support with their reasoning. Lastly, basically every has done great on time, which I know is one of the biggest concerns while creating these speeches.

I think my classmates so far have set a high standard for the speeches and I hope I can live up to them with my speech on Thursday.

RCL #2- Ideologies

As stated in our Rhetoric and Civic Life book, “an ideology is a coherent set of beliefs that people use to understand events and the behavior of other people; they are also used to predict events and behaviors.”

I would describe an ideology as an in depth stereotype. Ideologies are how you categorize yourself and other people based on what you know or assume.

One ideology that circulates around me a lot is the ideology of a team. There are many expectations from others when you are part of a team. These expectations are aspects of the ideology of being on a team. Some of these aspects include being friends with or respecting your teammates, always putting the team first, working together to achieve something that you couldn’t do alone, and having each others backs when you need it.

These are all things that people think of when they think of a team. Ideologies, or aspects of the ideology, can change over time or in different circumstances though. For example, the idea of always being a friend and respecting your teammates may change if one of your teammates isn’t a friend to you. You might alter your ideology a little, from being friends and respectful to teammates to only being respectful to them if a teammate is not friendly back. Someone could also change their view on the entire ideology of a team through life. They could go form thinking a team as their family to believing that a team is only something required by the activity but their individual success is what is most important.

Ideologies to me are in depth stereotypes, which can be right or wrong, but it is how a person thinks and organizes aspects of their lives. Without ideologies people would have no expectations for certain things or predictions on how something may turn out. Ideologies guide us through life, altering as we go, without them we would be walking blind.

 

RCL #1- Definition of Civic

Civic is a word with many different meanings. In my opinion civic has two parts to it, getting involved for the sake of the community and getting involved for the sake of the individual. These two aspects may contradict each other sometimes, but other times they may line up perfectly.

First lets start with getting involved for the community as a whole. Being civic includes volunteering and showing patriotism. It means putting the country or community’s best interest before your own. Getting involved in the community either through volunteering or joining community organizations is a great way to lead a civic life. I believe that being civic by putting the community first is built into a person starting as a child. It is taught to them through their parents’ actions and through school. When parents or teachers teach children to be “good people” they are implanting the idea that it is important to participate and give back to the community and the people in it. Being civic also means listening to others and putting their thoughts into consideration, sometimes though it is important to listen to one’s own thoughts. Which brings me to the next part of being civic.

Getting involved in the community for one’s own interest. This way of being civic focuses more on one’s own needs. Speaking your needs and wants is important. This way of being civic allows a person to express different ways to improve their own life, and in turn probably improve the community as well. Fighting for what you believe and what is right, even though it may not be the popular belief, is also leading a civic life. Many people including, Martin Luther King Jr., are considered civic role-models even though their beliefs from the beginning were not the popular belief. While they were trying to improve their lives, they improved the community.

Both ways of being civic try to improve the community. Whether someone is trying to improve the community for the community itself or for themselves, as long as they are trying to improve the community they are being civic.