Joelle’s E-Portfolio

To be honest, I have no idea if what I’m about to suggest can even be feasibly advocated, but it’s the best idea I’ve had so far (which isn’t saying much). As I was writing up a lab report for Chem 213, I was struck with an urge to complain (yet again) about the disproportionate amount of hours I spend working for that class. The class meets in the lab for 6 hours a week and is worth 2 credits and. My chemistry class, on the other hand, has 2 hour and 30 minutes of lecture each week and is worth 3 credits. I know the theory is that students spend much more time studying/working outside of class for the chem class than they do for the chem lab, but that’s really not the case for me–nor is it for most of the people I’ve talked to. I put in so much more time for chem lab than I do for chem class, and I feel cheated every time I think of the measly 2 credits I’m going to be earning.

The mode of advocacy would likely have to be a proposal submitted to whomever at the university is in charge of assigning chemistry credits. For support, I would probably have to review credit guidelines and poll lots of students (and maybe professors). I’m going to have to do a little more research so that I can decide if such a change would be reasonable to suggest–my gut instinct is no. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to look into it now because I’ll be spending my night finishing this lab report and 3 hours of my day tomorrow running experiments. Woohoo.

The topic of my paper is most likely going to be parental leave in the US. I’m not sure of the specific policy details yet, but I will be advocating for the government to pass regulations requiring paid parental leave of a certain duration, rather than the current unpaid standard. (Part of the legislation may also require changing who the policy applies to; currently, many people are not covered by the act requiring unpaid leave.) Though I think it would be hard to directly apply another country’s legislation to the US, I will definitely pull from other countries (European, and especially Scandinavian). I think this topic is appropriate for the assignment because our current laws are inadequate and relatively underdeveloped—we are one of only four countries in the world who do not guarantee any paid maternity leave.

I’ve found lots of research already using the think tank search (this, this, and this, for example). I’ve also done some research for my CI blog. I want to look more closely at the economic implications of requiring paid leave (or of not requiring it), because I think that will have a big impact on the feasibility of the policy. The effectiveness will be harder to measure, but again, I think looking at other countries will be very helpful.

Chipping Teeth

When I was younger, I used to say that summer was my favorite season. Not because of long days at the beach, the smell of freshly-mowed lawns, or the familiar sound of the ice-cream truck. No, I loved summer because that was when I got to see my cousins.

Every summer my mother’s side of the family gathers at my grandparents’ house for a month. We’re a crazy bunch, rarely quiet but always laughing and playing, and I cherish every day I spend there.

As one of the oldest, it always seemed like there was a new cousin to meet. I have watched cousin after cousin grow up, marveling at the changes I see each summer. Isabelle is cousin number 13 out of 16. She’s a little fireball, both in terms of her hair color and her personality.

With so many family members spread out across North America, greetings at my grandparents’ house never lack enthusiasm. Suffocating hugs, skinned knees, and even black eyes have all been involved. But one of my favorites happened a couple of years ago, when Isabelle was around 5 years old.

As soon as she was unbuckled from her car seat, Isabelle ran into the house and came flying down the stairs, a huge smile on her face. I’m sure my smile was just as big. As she jumped up to give me a hug, we were both laughing, and her flying leap propelled her farther than either of us expected. Our teeth collided, hard, and the laughter quickly turned to tears and frantic phone calls to our dentist uncle.

Ten minutes later, minus a significant part of her front tooth, Isabelle was happily sitting on my lap, listening to me read her a story.

I’ve never regretted chipping Isabelle’s tooth, because regretting that would mean regretting our enthusiasm. I am sorry she lost part of that tooth, but I’m not sorry that I was so happy to see her. Plus, she looked so cute with that jagged tooth; I’ll admit I was a little sad when she lost it.

So even now, every summer, I greet my cousins just as enthusiastically as I did before because I believe in suffocating hugs, in skinned knees, and in black eyes. And, yes, I believe in being so excited to see someone that you chip her tooth.

This I Believe:

1) Chipping teeth aka being enthusiastic about seeing your family.

A few years ago, my little cousin and I were so excited to see each other that we ran towards each other. She jumped into my arms and somehow, in our laughter, our teeth collided. I chipped her front tooth, but I don’t regret it. Could be a good story to use.

2) Getting enough sleep.

This is something I really, really believe in, and something I practice wholeheartedly. Regardless of how much my friends make fun of me for it, I stick to my midnight bedtime. No idea how to make this one interesting yet.

I have a feeling my civic issues blog will end up being about education. Of the five broad topics, it’s the one that stuck out to me, and the one that I am most interested in. That being said, I really don’t know much about any specific, education-related fields, but here are a couple topics I wouldn’t mind learning more about:

1) Differences in education policy (at the primary/secondary levels)

I’m interested in researching America’s “decline” in world rankings, but I don’t know if I can write 5 good posts on this topic. I could make it more general by talking about differences in education systems not only globally, but also on a national level. For example, there could be a post about the effect of property tax on quality of education. This might be too broad, though.

2) College (in America)

As a college student, this topic is particularly relevant, and I can think of a few potential blog topics off the top of my head: the “necessity” of going to college in America; private vs. public universities; the cost of attending college; the cost of textbooks; American higher education vs. that of the rest of the world; and so on. (Again, too broad?)

I like my passion blog topic from the fall semester, and I still have things I want to write, so I’ll almost definitely be sticking with that. Regardless, here are a couple of other ideas:

1) Something with languages.

Maybe just languages I’m more familiar with (English, French, German, Arabic), or maybe interesting things about many different languages. I can totally envision a post dedicated to long, compound German nouns—those things are monstrous.

2) Hockey.

I think this was one of my original ideas in the fall, and I still haven’t given up on it, especially now that the Flyers have pulled themselves together.  Because seriously, Claude Giroux not making Team Canada? That requires some serious discussion.

I had a pretty good time blogging last semester (especially the passion blog), and I like to think I did a decent job with it. I like writing informally, and I think my writing style was inviting to read. I included a lot of embedded links to articles, which I will continue doing. I think I could improve by including more pictures/videos and finding ways to invite readers to comment. Additional note on the readers: I’m pretty sure a lot of my entries got a bit long/boring for my classmates to read. That being said, I found everything I wrote about interesting, so, theoretically, there exists an audience out there that would like it, too.

Option 2: Reflect on the rhetorical implications of two or three topics addressed in the assigned reading/viewing for today.

Sound—and more specifically, music—is one topic I think has a huge rhetorical implication. Like the tutorial said, sound affects the feel of your video. One song can evoke sunshine and rainbows, whereas another can produce deep melancholy. It’s critical to choose music that matches the mood of your piece. Obviously, then, it’s important to know what you’re trying to say with your video. It can definitely be a challenge to find suitable music, but the importance of audio cannot be understated.

Likewise, I think transitions—though often (intentionally) not consciously noticed by the public—also have rhetorical implications. Cutting from one clip to another is very jarring for the viewer. Transitions are really crucial because, when done properly, they allow the flow of the story to remain intact. This tutorial is brief and very basic, so the advice is just to add one of the preprogrammed transitions (a simple fade is the example used). I remember from our media training in the Knowledge Commons that a very common technique is to show a relevant clip to cover up the cuts in a person talking, say during an interview. (I think this technique had a name, but I don’t remember it.) In my experience, some of the preprogrammed transitions in video editing software are too showy and distracting, but in general, simple transitions go a long way. They link different parts of a video together, thus ensuring that the viewer focuses on the message of the video, not the choppy aesthetics.

The last regular RCL post and Thanksgiving break coming up, oh my! As I was browsing for bus tickets home, I found something that could make a suitable post topic: the rhetoric of Megabus. Megabus is known for its no-frills, cheap service, with tickets starting as low as $1. I’ve used this company many times to get from Philadelphia to New York City and, more recently, from Philly to State College and have been satisfied with their service.

What I want to talk about, though, is the advertising on the Megabus buses. Specifically, I want to recount my first sighing of one of these buses. Now, what really caught my attention (as it was supposed to) when I first saw a Megabus bus a few years ago was the giant yellow circle with the text “express from $1.”

Even the first time I saw those words, I knew they couldn’t mean that I would get a $1 ticket if I used Megabus. And yet, that’s exactly what my brain had interpreted from that very large, very bold proclamation. Eventually, I noticed the asterisk next to the giant $1 and my brain sighed in relief: “Aha!” it told me, “I knew there had to be a catch.” But then I followed the asterisk and read, “*plus 50¢ reservation fee.” Well, that’s not what I had been expecting…

So, I did some research and found out that the earlier you book your ticket, the cheaper it will be (with less popular routes also being cheaper than more popular ones). On every route, Megabus offers at least one (and normally not more than a few), $1 ticket .

Certainly, this advertisement is meant to elicit pathos rather than ethos or logos. Now, as Megabus’s name has spread, bringing along a mostly positive reputation, there is some ethos inherent in the company itself. If you have heard good things from others about Megabus is cheap, you are more willing to pay attention to their advertisements. Megabus doesn’t want you to think logically in this situation. If you were to think logically, you would quickly realize that there is no way for a company to offer everyone very cheap prices. One or two tickets, yes. But, you would realize, most of the tickets could actually relatively expensive, upwards of $60, especially during peak travel times.

Regardless, I think Megabus is on the right track with this ad. The $1 ticket is a staple of their company; it’s what they are known for, and there’s a reason this is the case. What better thing to pound into consumers’ heads than an assurance of the existence of a cheap product?

Here’s a link to my talk.

Preparation Process:

A lot of my paper translated over well to a TED Talk format, although I simplified many sentences. I still ended up using a lot of long sentences, though, and I’m not sure if I lost the audience with some of them. (When I listen to it, it sounds fine, but that’s probably because I know the material.) I was aware of this while writing my speech, but I found some statements hard to simplify. The big thing I really added was the introduction, which was my lighthearted attempted to create kairos.

I was a little hesitant about using the quotation that I did because of its length and formal word choice. However, I felt that it was very appropriate and thought that, when included in the right manner, it could definitely add to my presentation by adding some authority, or ethos. I put the most important parts of the quote on the screen in hopes that it would help the audience to absorb the words as I said them.

In my presentation, I tried very hard to reduce the amount of text. (The fact that I used only select, carefully chosen pieces of text makes the font gaffe extra annoying.) The only text I included was the quote I mentioned above, the recurring key phases (“emergence,” “acceptance,” and “decline”), and words already in the images I used. In fact, I even edited my first image to take away text because I thought it would distract from my introduction.

The simple flow chart I used (“emergence,” “acceptance,” and “decline”) over and over again was meant to emphasize the overall message. I centered my presentation on these stages to provide logos.

To prepare, I really just went over and over my presentation. In the initial stages, I made a lot of changes to my speech as I realized that some phrases didn’t translate well to a spoken medium. Even in my last few rehearsals, I was flip-flopping between a few certain words. I tried to make the rehearsals as realistic as possible by standing up and practicing intonations.

I probably could have worked on hand gestures a little more, and it definitely would have been helpful to go check out the One Button Room beforehand.

Explanation and Delivery:

I was kind of dreading watching the recording of myself, but I gave it some time, and like you said, it was better than I thought. Actually, if my face hadn’t been there, I think it would have been pretty great. That sounds kind of weird, so let me explain:

Speech-wise, I think I was pretty spot on. I had rehearsed a lot, and it definitely paid off because I remembered my entire speech with only a couple minor hesitations.

However, the recorded presentation looks slightly strange. In part, that is because it looks like I’m looking below the camera; I don’t remember who/what I was looking at, but it must not have been at the people standing in the back row.

The other part of this, which is my biggest complaint about my presentation, is my facial expression. Aside from the introduction, my face looked really static; it didn’t look like I wanted to be there (okay, I didn’t really want to be there, but I did like my topic so I could at least have pretended). It definitely would have looked better had I been smiling or looking more engaged. This is where practicing in front of a mirror could definitely have helped.

One thing that annoys me is the mess up with the text because I had specifically chosen a font (“Agency FB,” in case you were wondering). And because the text changed fonts, the sizing was off, and, in every place I had text, the text was too large and looked bad. I’m guessing it was a PC-to-Mac issue because it seemed like the computer in the studio had the same version of PowerPoint that I use. With this technical issue and the issue of my face aside, I am fairly satisfied with my presentation.

The topic of my TED Talk is hipsters. More specifically, I will be looking at the “mainstreamization” of hipsters and why this signals the decline of the hipster subculture. Essentially, I will be talking about the death of the hipster. Since this is a very relevant cultural issue, I think the audience, as young people, will find the topic especially interesting. I’m hoping to probe a little deeper into hipsters and maybe make the audience think about things they have not had reason to consider before. Unlike in my paper, I will not go into too much detail about past subcultures and the emergence of the hipster; I will be focusing on today’s hipster. Hopefully, the audience’s closeness to the issue will make it easier for them to make an emotional connection.

I suppose my ethos comes from the fact that I am a young person surrounded by this youth culture. However, I will also be referencing other people’s analyses in addition to my own experiences. In terms of logos, I will probably start off with a general overview of subcultures, then relate this to the hipster subculture, specifically. I will go through brief hipster history in chronological order including the rise in popularity of the hipster followed by the decline of the hipster. In the appropriate timeframe, I will be touching on the irony of the situation. Hopefully, this format will make my points easy to follow.

I think visuals could be helpful in my presentation. In my mind right now I’m starting off with a diagrammed picture of a hipster. I could also see myself using visuals to show a flowchart of the life cycle of a trend, contrasting definitions, salient quotations, and perhaps a collection of hipster “artifacts.” Although images could definitely add to the presentation, I think it would be very possible to make this short presentation without too many visual aids.

Last weekend, I came to terms with a harsh reality: the Flyers suck. (For those of you who don’t know, the Philadelphia Flyers are a professional hockey team who play in the NHL.)  I’d known it was true for quite some time, but it had taken me a while to accept it. This acceptance led me to feel rather depressed, so I wanted to dream about better days. I took to YouTube to watch some NHL playoffs commercials, which always elicit some type of emotional response from me. If it’s around playoff time, the commercials really amp me up and get me excited to watch some good hockey. Other times, the feeling is more of a melancholy happiness because the players’ emotions after they have won the Cup can be overwhelming. Here’s a good one from the 2010 Stanley Cup Final:

The commercial is a string of clips of Cup winners trying to explain their feelings right after having won, set to some background music. The scene cuts from player to player, from team to team, from years long ago to the most recent wins, but the situation is the same. In every case, the player cannot answer the question. One “Uh”s and another says, “It’s so hard to explain.” The rest are speechless. They wipe their eyes and mutely shake their heads in bewilderment. The commercial cuts to a black screen with the line, “There are no words.” This is followed by a brief flash of the Stanley Cup Playoff Logo.

This commercial is different than a lot of the others because it captures a different emotion. It’s not meant to excite people with portrayal of intense play. It doesn’t showcase the thrill on the winning players’ faces as the final game ends. Instead, it shows the players as they are struggling to absorb what has just happened. All three of these types utilize pathos, and all three are effective in eliciting a different emotion in me.

This particular commercial is especially touching because it showed manly hockey players in such a vulnerable state. Seeing stereotypically tough hockey players tearing up is an unusual sight. It reinforces the idea that the Stanley Cup is of such great importance to this group of people. The commercial plays on my devotion as a fan to make me emotional as well.