Design Arguments

     When you design an argument you need to make it so that is grabs the viewers attention. Visuals are a great way to grab your viewers attention so be sure to add them in you paper. On average 70% of readers notice the visual aspect, 30% notice the bold headlines, 5% read the body copy, 15% read the sub captions, and 10% of the readers view the signature. Keeping the reader interested is a very difficult task but is very important.
     Decorum is very important as well when writing, this is just means the appropriateness. THere are three different levels of decorum; grand or high style, middle style, and plain or slow style. Know what style of decorum to use in your paper is very important because it sets up the whole style of your paper and the audience that you want to attract.
     This chapter also discusses academic writing. When you are writing academic writing it is very important to use visuals. Be sure to discuss the visual and that the visual is the focus of the paper. When you insert the picture add a caption underneath it so that the reader knows exactly what the picture means and who it is by.
     After they discussed how to use academic writing the author discuss abstracts. When creating an abstract the writer must have a bio included. This is just where the author describes the type of audience they want to attract. The author then discusses how to design visual arguments and crafting a op-ad. An op-ad is simply just a opinion advertisement.
     Next the chapter discusses when you compose a website to hold your research information and paper the writer must first decide the type of audience they want to attract and determine the purpose of the website. Once these steps are accomplished the writer can decide what level of decorum they should use. After all these steps are complete they can crate a hypertext and a homepage.
     This chapter has showed me how to write different types of papers and about why decorum is so important. It also showed me that using visuals throughout certain types of papers are important as well because it keeps the readers attention.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 elaborates upon the element of design within an argumentative paper and other mediums of communication, outlining the three levels of decorum typically recognized in academia:

-Grand (or) high style: E.g. an academic paper

-Middle Style: E.g. a newspaper article

-Plain (or) low style: E.g. a weblog

and the author goes on to detail out the relevance of these styles as they pertain to their respective academic functions.

Contextually, images are noted to be functional in the appendix, the title page, and the body of the literary work, however, all of which serve different functions. The most adamantly noted comment was that, regardless of location, images need to be a) signposted via a textual reference to the image and then given a caption to explain the details and relevance of the image.

Following the discussion of the use of imagery, the chapter then goes on to the specifics of format. It begins with the abstract, but explains that (once again) multiple styles of paper develop the abstract differently. Scientific papers are noted to typically compose their abstract once the paper is written, as a synopsis of the work. Alternatively, argumentative papers will typically compose the abstract whenever is convenient for the writer, as it will (more often than not) simply present the grounds for the argument. Additional considerations on abstracts include- use of personal pronouns, the level of decorum, and tone.

The point following the abstract and bio makes a return to the visual elements of design and lists the typical attentive tendencies of a general audience ( and breaks the visual attention spans down by percent right next to the graphical representation of a written work).

The chapter then leaves the realm of design and move on to other forms of argument and persuasion, including opinion advertisements, parodies, photo essays (which simply invert the priorities of verbal emphasis vs visual), websites, etc. At this point in the chapter, the chapter ceases discussing the formal, generalized concepts behind design and begin laying out the formats of the different argumentative mediums which, while these mediums may serve many uses, don't necessarily cover much applicable information other than the specific construction of the above-mentioned mediums.

Chapter 9 in the Envision book.

I sat down once again and began reading the Envision book. This week is chapter 9. I enjoyed reading the section called selection. It talked somewhat about how to properly prepare for a speech with a time restriction. It gave multiple suggestions regarding if the presentation time limit is X the your should aim for this amount of time. I think that planning ahead and making sure that you, as a speaker, do not go over your time limit is important. Organization is also very important. I think personally that a presenter needs to figure this out, well ahead of time, in order to deliver a great speech. If the presenter does not have a basic structure he won’t be able to deliver an effective speech. I think that the flow chart is very important. The flow charts help the presenter to visualize what he is going to talk about and in what order. Practicing your presentation is also very important. It can help you improve your presentation and speech. Many famous people like Hitler, and Churchill practiced their speeches so that they could be more effective when giving their actually speech. Also another good idea is to be creative and not using the same ways of presenting. Using innovative multimedia to help support your argument is can also give you an edge while presenting. Rose Emerson used well timed video of her playing a game called Modern Warfare 2 which enhanced her speech regarding video games. These ideas can help increase the effectiveness of a presentation and I personally will keep theses in mind for future presentation.

My class observation

I left my dorm at about 4:45 and walked across the parking to get to the Robert Bell building. I arrived at the class room at about 4:50. I sat down in my normal seat in the middle row in the back. Once seated, I got out my laptop and powered it up. We passed in our interview papers, but I forgot to write my summary over the interview. I did the interview but did not realize that the summary was due that day. Ms. Evans asked me where mine was at and I said that I did the interview but did not due the response part of it. She then said just to get it turned into the English Departments office before 5 the next day. I thought man I dodged a bullet that day. Ms. Evans did a brief lecture on our papers and what we are doing with them. She also said that she posted links on the links page of our class’s website. We then read some of the drafts that other students wrote. The class got very quiet and began to read. Then after we read other students first drafts, Ms. Evans explained about how she is tagging journals and how we can see how many journals we have done. Randomly I can hear some girl to the right of me talk about how cute some puppy was. I thought that it seemed to be inappropriate talking about dogs when you should be more worried about class. Ms. Evans moved on off the subject about the journals and I missed how to get to the page where we can see how many journals I have done. The class moves on and we start watching videos. I am a Monty Python fan and have viewed many of the videos she was showing. Some side conversation broke out to the right of me once again, and then class ended.

Being Your Own Interior Designer with Writing

Chapter eight of Envision lectures on presenting arguments through a variety of designs. The levels of decorum presented at the beginning of the chapter gives the reader a better understanding of the argumentative levels of a written or visual piece.
Grand style, the first and most sophisticated style of decorum, uses advanced language and many rhetorical devices to move an audience. Many grand style written pieces can be found in scholarly journals. The second level of decorum is appropriately considered middle style.
Middle style is a little more laid back. It includes using some formal language and arguing at a comfortable pace. Middle style written or visual pieces can be found in newspapers.
The last style of decorum is plain style. Plain style doesn't use formal language and focuses more on simplicity and straightforwardness. It uses consequences or conclusions rather than detail.
The three styles of decorum are used depending on the formal and rhetorical needs of the audience. Chapter eight continues on to explain which levels of decorum are used in written and visual pieces. From academic writings to multimedia montages, examples and "how to's" are provided on the three levels of decorum.

Bob Dotson: Journalism Extraordinaire?

On Tuesday, November 1st, Pruis Hall filled with people intrigued to hear what renowned journalist, Bob Dotson had to say. Dotson spoke for a little under ninety minutes, until opening the field for question.
Honestly, I was quite disappointed in the speaker. Dotson started his speech off with a chimpanzee story that was supposed to be humorous, but only seemed to be humorous to the people in the first three rows of the auditorium. Bob's projection was horrible. He was difficult to hear and understand. The bits and pieces I could obtain from Bob's stories weren't amusing either. He would tell a story about someone he interviewed and would get too caught up in the "he said, then I said" statements. It started to get confusing, and it made me curious as to how he acquired an honorable journalism label.
Dotson may have a good reputation and a great career, but he is not the greatest public speaker. He struggled in keeping the audiences attention, often bragged about his career, and told his stories in a monotone, unorganized manner. For those reasons, I left the event early.

Evil Dead

Spencer Teeter

English 103

Ms. Tess Evans

November 1, 2011

Evil Dead the Musical

The “evil dead” is a musical about five teenagers going to an abandoned cabin for spring break. Once they get there weird things start happening and eventually all but one of the characters turn into zombie demons. The play was full of very mature content and even had a disclaimer in the pamphlet and at the beginning of the show, for example one of the songs in the musical was called “what the fuck was that” and another was “blew that bitch away”. A common theme in the musical was blood, adult language, and sex…lots of sex. Although the title suggests that the musical is morbid and scary in nature it was a rather funny play. There were a lot of funny sex innuendos and I’m pretty sure the most common word in the play was “fuck” to pull extra laughs from the audience. However there were darker images shown during the musical. There was a lot of blood spurting from body parts as they were being sawn off with a chainsaw or being hacked with an axe. About 5 people were blown away by a shotgun to add to the gruesome story line of the musical.

The room that the musical was held in was tiny and only seated around 40 people in one seating. This effect made the audience feel like they were in the cabin with the characters and it was way more personal and interesting. Everyone was on the edge of their seats wanting to see what happened next. Everyone was engaged in every scene and had plenty of laughs. It was an overall great experience for the whole crowd.