https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d_IxFHW3jfhUfeCt4D7PP_3h5uBFO4J4JVfOpIajkpU/edit?usp=sharing

 

Link to google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FJwn2o6EpiteYfBH8T-T5AKxsWba6iMEcS97gDPhdyQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

November 11, 2016. I laid in bed watching Netflix before turning over and going to sleep. My eyes began to fall heavy and flutter shut. Suddenly I was no longer tired, and I was flooded with adrenaline when I heard a thud and my brother shriek “Mom!”. I leapt out of my bed and ran down the stairs to find my mother laying there, at the bottom. With pure panic we asked my mom if she was okay. With slurred and slow words, she said she was fine. Quickly we called our dad. Minutes after hanging up, my mom told us not to call him. With this statement, my brother and I’s eyes darted at each other. Knowing she had just forgotten what had happened less than a minute ago. Scared and on the verge of tears, my brother and I picked up the phone to call 911. Minutes later, our dad and first responders showed up with great concern. They loaded my mom into the ambulance and took her to the hospital to examine her head. With a million thoughts racing through our heads and tears of anxiety, we had to stay and talk with two officers about our mom’s drinking habits. How often did she drink? How much did she typically consume? Had it impaired her ability to function before? With a lump in my throat, I explained that my mom’s drinking was an issue. I had spent many nights taking care of her. I would carry her up to bed, force feed her water, etc. It had been an issue for a while, but it had never required outside help…until now. 

 

A day later, my mom was discharged with only a mild concussion. Fast forward a few weeks and with the intervention of my dad and some close family friends, my mom was taken to a rehab facility in the middle of a normal, warm, summer day. My mom’s best friend helped her pack her bags and took her to the facility. My brother and I went with my dad to his house, where I cried for hours in his arms. Reflecting on the countless nights I laid awake worrying about her, or carrying her up the stairs and taking care of her. These countless nights made me hate alcohol. I hated what it had done to my mom, and I hated what it had put me through. 

 

Years later, my mom had gone through rehab and no longer relied on alcohol. For me, it was time to focus on myself and spread my wings as I left for school, across the country. Away from everyone I loved and trusted, I was faced with the pressure to drink and party Thursday-Sunday. My past experience with alcohol and the effects it had on my life made me want to run in the opposite direction. But the peer pressure was high. All of the people I was meeting wanted to go out every night to drink until the sun came up, but that made me feel overwhelmingly anxious. I spent nights alone in my room feeling bad about myself because I felt like something was wrong with me because I didn’t want to engage in the typical ‘college experience’. Slowly, I began to find friends who had similar values to me and made me realize that nothing was wrong with me. I found that the college experience is not universal. It doesn’t have to be all about drinking and partying at any chance you get. It can be about more than that, and it is okay to stay in on a Friday night. My past with alcohol made me realize that the ‘college experience’ is not universal. 

 

I really enjoyed this assignment. I liked that I was able to pick a topic that I was interested in and curious about. I had also previously learned a little bit about the changes in the family structure in my sociology class, and this project allowed for me to connect the curriculums. The TED talk also made me dive deeper into some of the key events that influenced the change. By researching these events I learned a lot more on feminism and women empowerment, as well as LQBTQ freedom, which is something that I care a lot about. 

 

While I thoroughly enjoyed this project, I also ran into some obstacles. One aspect that was difficult for me was to organize the presentation. I had a hard time deciding what information should go where and in what order. Along with the organization, I also had to spend a lot of time thinking about how I would transition between each piece of information as well as how to connect all of it. Another big thing that I struggled with was my conclusion. In general, I suck at conclusions and for this project, it was hard for me to come up with a creative one that was engaging as well as encompassed the talk, as a whole. 

 

Although I had a hard time coming up with transitions and the organization of my speech, I think that I ended up doing a pretty good job on it. It took a lot of trial and error and thinking, but I eventually made it to be something I was proud of. I also think I did a good job on the hook of my speech by applying the concept to my own personal life, which in turn relates to the audience. Additionally, I think I did a good job on my delivery. I tried to be very casual but sophisticated sounding, and I also tried to pay a lot of attention to my body language and use my hands with purpose. 

 

I think that the worst part of my presentation was my conclusion. I didn’t really have any substantial information that I presented. I also just think it was kind of cringe. It’s also worth noting that I didn’t come into the presentation with a set conclusion. I had a general idea of what I wanted to say, and then I got flustered and stressed during the presentation and I just said dumb things. 

 

TED Outline  Oral content
Topic: Changes in the family structure
Purpose: To demonstrate how female independence has played a principal role in the changes of the family structure
Thesis Statement: Women seeking financial independence as well as having the option to not have children has dramatically changed the family structures within society.
Introduction Attention Strategy: ?? Orienting Material: Urbanization and industrialization and WWII caused women to seek employment outside of the home, allowing them to accomplish financial independence. Introduction of birth control and abortion allowed for women to have the option to not priotize child birth.
Body Urbanization and industrialization  https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/reader.action?docID=547402&ppg=20 Decline in fertility rates	Make image of how many women (as a ratio) were in the workforce
Conclusion

Abby Schaller 

Lori Bedell 

CAS

8 October 2021

Evoking Climate Change Action 

Climate change is a pressing issue all around the globe. In order to fix the damage that has already been done and preserve the future, civic engagement is critical. Greta Thunberg, a sixteen year old climate activist, speaks to world leaders at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. She urges world leaders to take actions in preventing further damage to our climate. Correspondingly, the advertisement by One Earth Only demonstrates to the general public that damage has already been done to our home and their help is needed. One Earth Only’s graphic and Greta Thunberg draw attention to the ideology of climate change and the prioritization of economic benefits through their appeals of intrinsic proofs and stylistic choices.

Both Greta Thunberg and One Earth Only utilize their platforms to harness kairos as climate change destruction becomes more inevitable. The destruction of Earth has been a topic of conversation for many recent years and Greta and the advertisement highlight the severity of the problem in an urgent manner. While they both develop their messages from the urgency of our Earth’s health, they approach it from different angles. Greta Thunberg has a more forward-looking approach, while the advertisement is more present and in the now. Greta addresses world leaders’ future plans of reducing greenhouse gases by 2050 in order to salvage our climate. She further discusses how “Cutting our emissions in half in ten years, gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control”. After stating this, she discusses how 50% simply isn’t good enough for future generations (Thunberg). Upcoming children and adults deserve to live in a world that is free from the haunting negligence of world leaders. This presents how Greta’s position is focused on the consequences that are coming. She is concerned about the future rise in temperatures, as well as future generations and the world that they will have to live in. While Greta builds upon the future of our earth, the advertisement focuses on the present. The image displayed illustrates the state that our planet is currently in, it is melting, smoggy, industrial, and overall polluted. The advertisement emphasizes these characteristics to demonstrate what damage we have already done to our world. Society has polluted our air, polluted our land, and polluted our water through their industrialization. The advertisement demonstrates that this pollution is a problem now. It is not one that is coming, it is one that is already here. 

The damage that has been done, or will be done, aids in influencing the audience’s emotions. Greta Thunberg and the advertisement work very similarly in appealing to pathos. Throughout her speech, Greta incorporates phrases such as “we will be watching you” (Thunberg). This statement instills a feeling of guilt and humiliation within the world leaders. The term “we”, referencing Greta Thunberg’s generation, emphasizes the fact that world leaders are now being held accountable by people a fraction of their own age. It also causes them to feel guilty through the idea that the burden of caring for our planet is now falling in the hands of children, rather than in their own. Their own failures have caused children to pick up the slack and take matters into their own hands which humiliates the leaders and leaves them feeling guilty about their negligence. Similarly, the advertisement appeals to the emotions of the general public in their statement “we are the world” (OOE). The use of the word “we” in this context causes the article to hit close to home for the audience members. It influences the public to see that they are the ones damaging the planet and they are also the ones responsible for fixing it. It instills a feeling of responsibility through opening the eyes of the audience to the fact that they are the root of the problem. Furthermore this leaves the audience feeling guilty because no one wants to be told that they are the reason our earth is dying. Greta and the advertisement manage to use the word “we” in two completely different ways but manage to instill a sense of guilt and responsibility within their audiences.

They manage to appeal to the emotions of their audiences through their stylistic choices. Greta and the advertisement alter their deliveries in order to appeal to their specific audiences through their tones. In Greta Thunberg’s speech she fights against the constraint of being a kid in a room full of powerful adults. In order to be taken seriously by world leaders Greta alters her delivery to be very deliberate. She pulls in many statistics and data to portray her knowledge on the subject of climate change and establish her ethos. Greta does this throughout her speech in order to be seen as more than just a kid, to get the world leaders to listen to her and her demand for action. This allows for Greta to develop a very serious tone to appeal to ethos and encourage world leaders to accept her argument. Likewise, the advertisement also develops a sense of seriousness with an undertone of hope. The advertisement reaches out to the general public to engage them in the act of salvaging our planet. The principal of the image is the Earth, which is full of pollution and seems to be melting. This image creates a huge sense of urgency surrounding climate change because of the current state of our earth. This urgency translates into severity through the idea of  “Only One Earth” (OOE). In the corner of the advertisement we see this statement displayed. This small detail adds a lot to the advertisement because it highlights the fact that we have one chance to live and save our earth. This further helps to establish the severity of the situation and encourage audience engagement. However, the blue background inspires a sense of hope. In the advertisement’s attempt to reach the general public and prompt a feeling of change. The advertisement utilizes both the tone of severity as well as hope in an effort to reach their audience and demonstrate that their engagement can invoke change. Greta’s tone of severity, which is reinforced through her appeals to ethos, effectively applies to the world leaders in causing them to take her seriously due to her constraint of being a kid. However, the advertisement combines the tone of seriousness and hopefulness to influence general citizens to act. 

Greta Thunberg and One Earth Only make similar attempts in reaching their audiences of world leaders and the general public. They seize kairos through their presentation of the damage that has been done to earth and the possibility of even more future harm. Their discussion of the severity of climate change evokes feelings of guilt and an inspiration to act within their audiences. Climate change is a real life problem. Everyday that we sit back and do nothing, we get closer and closer to the point of no return. World leaders need to act and so does the general public.

Works Cited 

PBSNewsHour. “Watch: Greta Thunberg’s Full Speech to World Leaders at UN Climate Action Summit.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Sept. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJs dgTPJpU. 

Klein, David. “Print Ads That Will Tug on Your Heart: How Emotions Improve the Effectiveness of Advertising.” Macromark, 14 Sept. 2018, https://macromark. com/blog/print-ads-that-will -tug-on-your-heart-how-emotions-improve-the- effectiveness-of-advertising. 

 

Topic: The issue of climate change and world governments’ priority of helping their economies rather than helping our planet. 

 

Purpose: To relay Greta Thunberg’s message to my audience and explain how she effectively reaches her audience through her rhetorical appeals. 

 

Thesis:  Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take action in preventing climate change, for the good of future generations, through the creative use of kairos as well as intrinsic and extrinsic proofs.

 

Introduction 

Attention strategy: Discuss how climate change is a real problem that is not going away unless we start to make real changes, before it’s too late. Begin to pull in the kairotic moment. 

 “Climate change is a real problem. Everyday that we sit and do nothing, we get closer and closer to the point of no return. Not only is this a problem for us, but it is an even more severe problem for future generations. Our children, our grandchildren, our grandchildren’s children, and so forth as long as the earth is habitable”

 

Orienting material: In 2019, at the time of her speech, Greta Thunberg was a 16 year old girl with a burning passion to advocate for our climate. Her speech was delivered at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City. At the summit, world leaders were gathered to discuss the topic of climate change and their goal of reducing greenhouse gasses to be net zero by the year 2050. 

 

Preview/thesis: Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take action in preventing climate change, for the good of future generations, through the creative use of kairos as well as intrinsic and extrinsic proofs.

 

Body 

1. Greta Thunberg takes advantage of the kairotic moment of climate change. She mentions that ecosystems are collapsing and we are seeing species beginning to go extinct. In 2019, July was the hottest month of recorded history on Earth, according to the World Meteorologist Association  With these issues at hand, preventative actions are needed, for the good of future generations.  

1. “Cutting our emissions in half in ten years, gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control” 
2. 50% isn’t good enough for future generations
   1. Future generations don’t wanna live in a world that is haunted by the negligence of past world leaders.  
3. C02 emissions are not going down, they are going up 
   1. World leaders continue to ignore science and ignore the real-life consequences that are coming, and they continue business as usual in order to prioritize their economies. 
   2. World leader’s goals of reducing greenhouse gases by 2050 are not good enough, they are still allowing for our climate to be further damaged. 

1. Greta Thunberg utilizes intrinsic and extrinsic proofs, to center the ideology of world leaders responsibility to younger generations.  
   1. Achieves ethos through her use of extrinsic proofs and appeals to logos. 
      1. Extrinsic proofs 
         1. Greta Thunberg fights against the obstacle of being a kid in a room full of powerful adults, and trying to be taken seriously. She utilizes extrinsic proofs through her ability of pulling in many statistics, as I mentioned earlier, that aid in proving that she knows what she is talking about. She has invested time in researching and becoming educated. It portrays that she is actually trustworthy on the topic and not just some kid. While being a kid proves to be a constraint for Greta, it also aids her in influencing world leader’s emotions. 
      2. Intrinsic proofs 
         1. She begins her speech by saying that she should be at school, not up on the stage. She should be learning and playing, as an innocent kid, but instead she has to take matters into her own hands due to the negligence of the world leaders. Instead of prioritizing her education, as a normal kid, she is having to do the job of world leader, because of their failure to do so. 
         2. Greta Thunberg incorporates very confrontational phrases into her speech, such as “how dare you” and “we will be watching you” to continue to build ethos in concretely addressing the problems. 
            1. Instills guilt and fear of the future in the leaders 
         3. While discussing this she incorporates very powerful facial expressions by scrunching her nose and sharpening her eyes, to portray emotion and seriousness. 
2. Conclusion 
   1. Summary statement- Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take action in preventing climate change, before it’s too late. As a kid, who should be in school, she has taken more of an initiative than the world leaders themselves. Thunberg proves to be a voice for her generation, and generations to come. Her advocacy acts as a form of humiliation for the world leaders to become more environmentally conscious.  
   2. Concluding remark- Climate change is real. It’s going to start to become even more of a reality and affect each and every one of our daily lives if things don’t start to change. World leaders need to act, civilians need to act, we need to act. Become environmentally conscious, get educated, and start taking care of our home. 

Reference Page

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/eye-of-the-storm/the-top-10-weather-and-climate-stories-of-2019/

 

Abby Schaller 

Prof Bedell

Rhetoric and Civic Life 

24 September 2021

We have one chance. There is no Planet B. This earth that we are living in now, is our only chance. If we continue to treat it as we have been, it will no longer be habitable. What will it take for people to begin to see that if we don’t begin taking more initiatives. But whose responsibility is it to get the ball rolling? Greta Thunberg’s speech and the image both urge community engagement to save our planet through guilt and the use of intrinsic proofs. → this is bad. 

Greta Thunberg, as well as the image, both take advantage of the kairotic moment of climate change. Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to take an initiative in reducing climate change for the future. At the same time, the image urges civic engagement in order to revitalize our earth. (How do I say this in more words) 

Greta Thunberg appeals to pathos in an attempt to instill guilt in world leaders for their negligence towards our earth. Her facial expressions and phrases such as “how dare you” and “we are watching you” allow her to portray the severity of the situation to her audience of world leaders. This leaves them with the realization that they have failed to preserve our one earth, and have failed to protect the future habitat of upcoming generations. This feeling of guilt is what Greta Thunberg acts upon in order to try and engage world leaders in the mission to save our planet before it is too late. 

Similarly, the image appeals to pathos in order to influence the general public to feel the same feeling of guilt. The image graphically displays and symbolizes how our negligence is costing us our planet. They demonstrate how the earth is smoking and melting in order to demonstrate the severity of climate change. By highlighting the severity of the situation and making it comprehendible to their audience, the author is able to cause the viewers to feel guilt over their lack of care for our earth. 

Ideology is a huge platform in which Greta Thunberg and the image build upon. The idea that world leaders, or common citizens, have an obligation to our planet in order to preserve it. As I mentioned before, the authors both passionately convey the message that the audiences are responsible for civic engagement in order to salvage our earth for the good of future generations. Greta Thunberg presents this ideology by confronting world leaders for their inability to execute any kind of preventative actions. She addresses them directly, and directly states that they are prioritizing their economic interests over the well-being of our home. Meanwhile, the image is doing the same thing. They are utilizing the ideology that the responsibility for the future and health of our planet rests in the hands of the civic. 

 

I dont know how to convey all of this thoroughly and make it not sound surface level.