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September, 2012

  1. RCL #4 – Logic, reduced

    September 28, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    The first slogan that came to my mind when we were told about this assignment was the Penn State t-shirt recently made about the NCAA sanctions against the football team and the school. The first day these shirts came out I remember seeing everyone already wearing one. They were a huge hit among the students here on campus. Signs went up in stores and restaurants everywhere downtown. You couldn’t walk two steps without seeing this slogan. It is a clever way to use Penn State’s WE ARE slogan and make it more effective in relation to the football chaos and everything that’s gone on in the past year.

    Although this t-shirt slogan WE ARE… PISSED OFF is very clever and catches people’s attention, what people are missing is the other side of the situation and why the team was punished in the first place. For most of the students, the sanctions against the team were an outrage, and I’ll admit I initially felt that way too. But after I thought about it more, I realized there was another side to this. The side of the kids that were hurt in the midst of the scandal. To them it may have felt like the university and the surrounding State College area were more concerned with the punishments to the Penn State football team than with what happened in order for these sanctions to take place.

    This shirt definitely got to the point and was a clever way to catch people’s attention. I see people wearing them all over campus everyday. I’m not saying I completely disagree with it, honestly I wanted one when I first heard about them, but I just think we sometimes need to take a step back and think about the bigger picture.


  2. Cory and Taylor Take New York

    September 27, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    We all know the Kardashian family and their show. Though, not all of us have watched it, we know that there are spin off shows, Kourtney and Kim Take New York or Miami, which usually ends with some crazy drama. This past weekend, my friend Cory and I took New York and ended up in our own sort of drama. We went to New York for the night to see the Bon Iver concert at Radio City Music Hall. For me, it was pretty much the first time traveling without my parents. This was a big step for me because I almost always travel with my mom and her not being there to make sure we knew where we were going or just pay for my food was pretty weird.

    It starts on Saturday as we take a 5 hour road trip up to the city. I feel so independent driving with my friend, going to the big city for the night. Every other time I’ve traveled to the city, it’s been with my mom so this was new for me. I think that’s why I feel so much excitement for this trip. We make it up to Hofstra University, where we stay with a friend, and realize we only have 20 minutes to get ready to leave before the taxi comes to pick us up for the train. We quickly rush to get ready and make it outside just in time to catch the taxi. We get to the train station and feel so cool buying our own tickets that nothing can phase us, or so we think. We get into New York and Cory is mesmerized by the big city as we step out into it, since she’s from Arkansas and doesn’t make it up here often. We walk to the concert and witness one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  After the concert, we go on a dinner date at Olive Garden and then to get dessert at Roxy Delicatessen and buy a huge piece of the best cheesecake we’ve ever had. Walking back to the train station to catch our train, we realize we bought the wrong train ticket and missed the 1:06 train. The next train didn’t come until 3 am. Already falling asleep in the train station, we decided, although expensive, to take a cab back to Hofstra. Arriving at the university, the driver shocked us with just how much the cab actually cost, A LOT more than we had anticipated, but we got back nonetheless. So after a wild night in New York City, we were exhausted and just wanted to sleep.

    Even though all this craziness took place, I still felt a stream of adrenaline running through me. I had never traveled on my own before, to New York City in particular. I felt really proud of myself for making it through a night in the city, even after everything that happened. It was a real life adventure and now we have a story about that one night Cory and Taylor took New York.

     

     

     


  3. WIP #2 – Reflection on Civic Engagement Speech

    September 24, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    Looking back on my speech, I feel really good about the artifact I chose and how I presented it in front of the class. I’m not a very confident speaker, so the problem wasn’t the formation of the speech, but rather the actual execution of the speech in front of everyone. This speech was also a little more challenging than I had first thought it would be. I picked my artifact, the Student Philanthropy Council here at Penn State, and while writing my speech I realized it was harder to be informative than be persuasive. I started sounding like I was trying to get people to join the council, which wasn’t the point of the speech. So I had to change it up a bit and sound more informative. I am proud of how it turned out when I changed it and was very happy with the points I made. I feel I gave the class a better understanding of what the council does and how the email the council sent out caught the reader’s attention to read on and learn more. I think I organized the speech well, too. I went from explaining what the artifact was in general to why a person would want to get involved with the council and what a person would benefit from it as well. I do feel my delivery could have been a little bit better, but I did the best I could while being very nervous to get up there and speak. Next time, I will definitely try to prepare my speech a little better and ahead of time because I didn’t feel as ready as I maybe should have been. So overall, I’m proud of the speech I gave and I put a lot of hard work into it. I hope that my classmates were able to obtain some good information about the council and how it is a great organization at Penn State.


  4. RCL #3 Response to Civic Engagement Speeches

    September 21, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    Over the past two days of listening to speeches on civic engagement, I think my perception on getting involved in the community has definitely widened. I feel that I have gained a greater sense of knowledge for all the different organizations and ways of giving back to the community in just a short amount of time. Before this assignment, I honestly really had never thought about civic engagement, but more about just getting involved. Now I have learned that while civic engagement does mean getting involved, it also means taking advantage of being a true citizen in our country today. I have heard about so many different organizations and ways to get involved, some as simple as clicking a link and applying online. I think the class so far has done a really good job of informing the rest off the class about the artifact they chose and how it benefits the community in some way. Some of the artifacts I am hearing about for the first time through these speeches and they all seem really interesting. These speeches have made me realize that civic engagement can mean a lot of things. It can mean applying to get involved in a specific organization or it can simply mean donating money for a specific cause. It can mean buying and wearing a support the troops ribbon around or choosing to not buy the ribbon but still support the troops. After listening to these speeches over the past two class days, I can honestly say I have gained a better understanding of what civic engagement actually means and look forward to the last day of speeches to hear even more.


  5. PAS #1 Every Day’s a New One

    September 16, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present. This advice is what I try to live by. I believe that life is short and in order to live a happy and fulfilling life, one should try to take on and learn new things every day. Through my passion blog I hope t0 convince other people to get out and try new things because that’s what life is all about! I think it’s healthy for people to get out and try new things, whether it’s just trying new food or even traveling somewhere they’ve never been. Every week I will write about something new I experienced and hope to inspire others to try it as well. I’ll pick something new to try or experience and then blog about it here. I’m also pretty interested in hearing some suggestions from my classmates. There is so much out there to do and I’m the kind of person that tries to  take advantage every opportunity that comes my way. Everyone has their own “bucket list” in life and this blog will hopefully push me to cross some things off mine that I’ve been wanting to do. I like to set goals for myself in order to get that ultimate feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. It’s quite an empowering feeling and just builds my confidence even more. I’ve learned to live life to the fullest and I hope people can come along with me for the ride.


  6. WIP #1 – Ideas for Civic Engagement Speech

    September 13, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    The artifact I have chosen for my civic engagement speech is based on an email I have received recently. It is the Student Philanthropy Council, specifically for students at Penn State and encourages students to get involved in philanthropy here on campus. This Student Philanthropy Council wants to increase the awareness of giving back among students and to get others involved as well. It strives for creating a legacy of philanthropy here at Penn State and just to get as many students as possible involved with such events in the community. I think this organization, or in this case council, is right for this assignment since that’s basically what civic engagement is. Getting involved in the community in some way for the purpose of bettering the community. This council is a great way to get involved in something that does help the community not in one way, but several and find a place for anyone to do something they feel great about. This council will show the rest of the community that students do care about what types of things go on in the community and want to help out when something or someone needs it. I think it shows that students are willing to help when it is needed and even in the cases when it’s not but do anyway just for the sake of community service. The Student Philanthropy Council is a great way to get involved on campus and feel good about yourself for helping others in need.


  7. RCL #2 – YouTube Delivery Analysis

    September 12, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    Miracle speech

    The YouTube video I chose to analyze is the speech from the movie Miracle. Coach Brooks gives his team a pep talk before the big match against the Soviets. This speech lasts about 2 minutes, but greatly emphasizes the delivery concepts  we learned about in class. Coach Brooks uses extemporaneous speaking in this situation since even though he probably has the main points of the speech planned out in his head, but not memorized down to the exact words he wants to use. You can tell just watching him speak he takes pauses to think about what he wants to say next and this ties into his dynamic speaking throughout it all. The team in the film, and even the audience watching the film, are so engaged in what he’s saying there is not much notice of the verbal delivery behaviors. This point is what makes the speech more effective in the long run, too. When Coach says “this is your time”, he puts such an emphasis on it by raising the volume of his voice along with the pitch and I think this is really where the adrenaline kicks in for the teammates. Even for me, I know I felt those goosebumps you feel when something gets you really excited and pumped up for something big. He made sure to turn around in the circle and address every one of the players, making sure they all knew they were all in it together. He had to make this speech catch the players attention and get them fired up to win, so in this case what you say and how you say it were both important to obtain the effect he wanted. Coach Brooks does a great job of avoiding vocal fillers, as well. He doesn’t once say um, like, or anything like that, but instead pauses and thinks of what he wants to say next. Granted, this is a movie and it’s scripted, but he no doubt pulls out a great vocal delivery to the team before the big game. Speakers like Coach Brooks do a great job engaging the audience and making people WANT to listen to what they have to say. Overall, Coach Brooks’ really showcased how to present a speech that engaged the audience, both on screen and off, and that what you say and how you say it are both equally important in this situation.


  8. Do the Right Thing Response

    September 6, 2012 by Taylor Kantner

    This movie really emphasizes rhetoric in many ways between many different people. The two brothers that work at Sal’s argue all the time, the older brother usually taking the win while the younger sits there and takes it. The older brother persuades his younger brother to do whatever he wants and think the same way he thinks about the community they work in. Another example is with Radio Raheem. I think he represents the rest of the African American community’s civil rights by just standing up for what he wants, which is his music, and his freedom to listen to it as loud as he wants. When he encounters the Latino group on the stairs listening to their boombox, the boys just end up turning their music off and giving in to Radio Raheem. That’s how persuasive he is throughout this movie. By the end, he has everyone supporting him to the very end when he meets his death by one of the officers at the scene. This scene shows how even a couple decades after the civil rights movement, some ideas towards people of different races has not changed. Mookie’s friend Buggin Out also knows how to use rhetoric to get people behind him to boycott Sal’s pizza. He persuades Smiley and Radio Raheem to follow him in his boycott, which ultimately gets Radio Raheem killed. Some commonplaces in this movie is the beliefs the elder brother at Sal’s has about the black community around him and tells his father he wants to get out. He judges them based on the way he thinks they are and how they are portrayed by others like him. His father has to set him down and try to make him realize this is where they have made their business and the community, although they may be different, are people too and deserve to be treated as such. This commonplace can go vice versa too, with the African American community bickering with the Italians, Latinos and Koreans in the area. Overall, this movie emphasized the power of persuasion, or rhetoric, and how much of an effect it can actually have on people of any race or ethnicity.


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