Speech Outline

Intro 

• “According to the FDA, hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of food, labor, and water are wasted each year as 30-40% of the food supply in the United States ends up in landfills” 
• SDG 12: responsible consumption and production 
• Here at Penn State, … (slides on the screen) 

Design 

• Starting on a superficial level, … 
• Bars covering important text 
• Font blending with the graphics in the background 
• Thumbs-down –> negative reinforcement 

Rhetorical situation 

• Considered the audience (Rose Bowl slide), did not consider constraints 

• Limited time 
• Spending a lot of money to be here 
• Negative reinforcement might not be well received 

• Ethos negatively impacted by… 

• Design flaws 
• Lack of sources cited / no mention of calculations 
• No positive reinforcement or suggestions to reduce waste 

• Just “What can YOU do to reduce food waste?” 

Kairos 

• Effective in terms of impacting students on a personal level 
• “This café. Your plates.” 
• However, easily ignorable 

Social Movement Studies 

• Exigence of sustainability initiatives and reducing waste 
• Perpetually negative tone 
• “Together we can make a difference” commonplace 

• Cultivating a sense of membership and alliance, but not mobilizing it 

Conclusion 

 

Essay So Far

Note: ideas in brackets will be expanded later, plus more details about specific slides will be added

Hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of food, labor, and water are wasted each year as 30-40% of the food supply in the United States ends up in landfills [1]. Here at Penn State, the university has taken a step to promote the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #12—responsible consumption and production—by installing screens to display food waste statistics in the dining commons. These screens alternate between displaying the pounds of food wasted for the current and previous day, and displaying previous monthly totals next to the projected waste for the current month. After thorough examination of these displays, both flaws and strengths of the visual design elements, utilization of the rhetorical situation, and deployment of social movement tactics become evident. Since the goal of ensuring responsible consumption and production continues to become more and more important as the global population increases, many other institutions and organizations are also taking steps to promote this goal, such as Global Footprint Network with their Earth Overshoot Day campaign. This campaign, which determines the date each year when humans have exhausted more resources than can be produced in a year, is effective in some ways in which Penn State’s dining commons displays fall short. Though each initiative operates in a vastly different manner, and neither is entirely productive or faulty, the Earth Overshoot Day campaign proves effective in terms of using kairos and establishing trust through ethos, logos, and pathos, as well as the use of a more hopeful tone.  

[P2: dining display visual elements] To begin on a superficial level, the visual elements of each display are the first aspects recognized by the audience. Specifically, the opaque bars along the bottom of each screen cover labels such as “pounds” and “month”, which prevents the audience from reading important contextual details—especially when students are only glancing at these displays for a few seconds. On one screen, the bar displays the commonplace “Together we can make a difference,” which is too platitudinous of a phrase to have much of an impact on the reader. In addition, the colors of the graphics depicting overflowing trash bins do not contrast enough with the chosen font, making the words difficult to decipher. There is also a small thumbs-down emoji on one of the slides which is an interesting addition to the display since it represents the chosen social movement tactic of negative reinforcement, which will be discussed in more depth later. Overall, from a graphic design perspective, the slides on the dining commons screens leave much to be desired. 

[P3: campaign visual elements + use of logos/ethos] On the other hand, the Earth Overshoot Day campaign (from here on referred to as “the campaign”) takes on the form of a website. The website showcases a sleek and professional design—a stark contrast to the appearance of the dining commons displays. Above all, the campaign explains how Earth Overshoot Day is calculated and provides sources for all statistics, thereby building a sense of ethos and credibility. The dining commons slides do not credit any sources; but it is necessary to consider how the abundance of space on the website is more conducive to citing sources and adding detail than the limited space on the screens. The campaign website has a lot more space to build ethos. Still, the slides could be more competently designed to incorporate the sources on the display in an aesthetically pleasing manner. 

[P4: rhetorical situation of dining display & campaign] On the topic of space and setting, the visual elements of the dining commons slides are impacted by their place within the specific rhetorical situation of the display. The Penn State dining commons screens and the Earth Overshoot Day share a similar exigence–overconsumption and production—just on different levels. Whoever created the slides that are displayed on the screen had the student body in mind as one of the slides claims, “Every day in the U.S., we waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl”, which appeals to the typical Penn State student’s affinity for college football. However, the designer fails to consider the constraints of the audience. Seeing as the screens are viewed by college students, the constraints are ___.  The slides display negative reinforcement. There is something off-putting about placing blame for food waste on us college students who can barely afford to eat substantial meals outside of the commons buffets. [expand] [campaign is better example-more hopeful, mobilizing] 

[P5: kairos] Furthermore, both the displays and the campaign take advantage of kairos by seizing opportune moments to raise awareness about food waste. [dining display (above trash/compost, personalized) vs. campaign (specific day, generates pathos)] 

[P6: social movement studies] [Perpetually negative tone] [“Together we can make a difference” commonplace] Cultivating a sense of membership and alliance, but not mobilizing it. The campaign, however, provides many resources and easily implementable suggestions. They even describe themselves as “realists” on the home page. 

In the end, [final comparison, important to recognize what works and what doesn’t]