Author: Daniel Libertz

The emergence of autonomous cars or highly automated vehicles (HAVs) impacts almost the entire population. Everyone, whether or not they own a car or not, uses the same roads that HAVs will be using. Whether they are in the HAVs themselves, riding a bike, on a public bus or even walking on the sidewalk, they have the potential to interact with the cars in some way.  Everyone will be effected by the introduction of HAVs to the mainstream. However, my audience in this case is the people who believe that HAVs do not have a place in today’s society. The two biggest problems people have with HAVs are that they are uncomfortable with humans not having control of something as dangerous as a car, or their job is at stake.  HAVs have the potential to effectively make truck drivers – who make up the single largest employer of Americans – obsolete.

The concept of kairos would best be used on the group of people who do not think HAVs should be on the road. I realize that there will be some transition period in which those people may be more uncomfortable on the road in the future than they are today and it will be very important that this period of time is as short as possible. The best way to do this would be to follow along with Miller’s view and to ‘ripen the moment’ when it is most advantageous.  For example, I have recently seen in the news, a dash cam recording of an HAV that saw an accident occur a few cars in front of it. Before I was able to react to what I was seeing, I was able to hear in the video the car sounding warning alarms as it began to brake as it safely avoided an accident. I would speculate to say that with the increase of HAVs on the roadways, there will be more of these type of news stories and videos that will surface. It is at this moment when my argument is strongest and is the time to reinforce my belief that HAVs are ultimately better for society.

For my campaign, the public I am writing to is high school aged girls that are starting to decide what they want to do in the future.   This is the audience I am trying to reach because the goal of my campaign is to increase the number of women who pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.  I think the best way to reach my audience is through social media and by partnering with schools and organizations that they are a part of.  Sheridan et al. defines kairos as “the opening or gap that allows passage to a goal or desired destination”.  The authors criticize the term “public sphere” because it implies that there is some sort of  restrictions or a defined network of the public.  I am going to use kairos to reach the audience I want because there is only a certain window of time where girls will be receptive to the idea of joining a STEM career.  I decided the best time to try to reach out to them would be while they are in high school.  This is because they have not made any decisions about their future yet, but they are beginning to think about what they want to do with their lives after they graduate from high school.  I think this is the opportune time to reach my audience because they are most likely already interested in some subjects that are related to STEM fields.  This is important because if their interests are encouraged throughout their high school careers, they will probably be more likely to pursue a career that is related to the subjects they are interested in.  I think that in this situation, finding the right time to reach out to my audience is extremely important.  I think that if I wait too long I will miss out on the chance to persuade the girls to join a STEM field.

To any author, journalist, or general writer, the use of kairos is extremely important. Kairos is a very complex term that can take on a wide and broad definition. Simply put, kairos is all about timing and placement. For any written text or form of media, the timing that it reaches its target audience is essential. If the audience receives the message too early, they may glance over it without much desire or impact. If too late, the audience may have already acted on the writer’s message. It is necessary to reach the desired public in the sweet zone where the topic is pertinent and not yet acted upon.

My topic during this semester is centered on the importance on immunizing newborn children. Therefore the public that I am writing to is comprised of mostly new parents and expecting parents. I know this is my public because this is the portion of the population that can take action on my issue. I plan on reaching them in my first piece through a brochure. The brochure will be conveniently located on a stand that contains other health related literature inside the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices and hospitals.

The idea of kairos was used in deciding how to distribute the message I am attempting to convey. Through putting the brochures in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices and hospitals, it will reach its target audience at the optimum time. Expecting parents will attend many doctors’ appointments during the pregnancy. This issue is extremely relevant to the expecting parents. Therefore they will read the material and be able to act upon this issue in the future.

The use of kairos within the brochure will also be prevalent. The timing and placement of the information presented in the brochure is extremely important in order to make the greatest impact possible on the target audience. This will be considered throughout the creation of the brochure.

Reading Response

I think that the writer is addressing the students. The reason for stating this is because the author indicates that the aim of using kariotic pedagogy was to create conditions within which the learners as members of various and overlapping publics and counter-publics can theorize their decisions regarding public participations (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012). In addition to the students, the authors uses public to refer to the private citizens,  such as recognized state actors who have come together to address the issues of common concerns. This is because the author says that the public sphere in this context, mediates between the private’s lives and ordinary citizens and the state. I also think that the author has used the term is writing to those individuals who are self-completing and self-regulating entities in the aim of expressing social practices that are complex, multifaceted, dynamic and which are occasionally chaotic and inelegant (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012). The public also means the subordinate group that uses their style stress on the dominant culture and too broad assimilation which will result in the death of multi-culturalism.

These audiences can be reached through education which is consistency to the Kairotic approach. The rhetorical education means that the readers are well prepared and to enhance its effectiveness, the school is started early where the infants are exposed to various practices and tools are demonstrated. As these children grow older, they get the knowledge, and they can practice different activities taught (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012).  School environment encourages several kinds of rhetorical practices from drawing pictures to writing essays to giving oral presentations. As the students get to college level, the rhetoric education is distributed across the entire curriculum, and they are motivated to read books. Another way of reaching the audience is by the use of networks which helps in understanding the way agencies are distributed between human and non-human factors (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012).

I agree with the author that these discussions are important to understanding multimodal public rhetoric and it also helps in connecting to the technology ad space material.  Another way is by practicing what they have learned about Kairos as a mean of understanding the ethics which are consistency to the postmodern model that put more emphasizes on the situational nature of ethics.  I think by using the term ethic the author referred to a set of an implicit understanding between writer and audience about their relationship (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012). Principles in this case not as answer, but a critical inquiry into how the author determines what is right and desirable; this question may lead to standpoint concerning what is suitable or desirable for a given situation.

The public sphere theorists have outlined a broad range of practices which can be accessed, the Kariotic approach to public rhetoric means to be aware of available options, the conscious possibilities, and constraints that operate at any given moment of action (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012). I think to exploit the potentials of multimodal public rhetoric; it is important to move beyond small models of single, universals public spheres. I also believe that public domain is an approach of avoiding the repeated awkwardness of describing something such a set of contested and complementary practical (Sheridan, Ridolfo, & Michel, 2012). And desire laden imaginary social phenomena that are brought through several rhetorical posts which may be addressed to strangers and occurring several times and in a different place at the same time in culture and material.

In conclusion, I like this reading because it gives an extended definition of two terms Kairos and the Public Sphere. The readers are given historical and important context for each of these terms and the reason behind their use. Using a social constructivist standpoint, the writers first define a kairotic method to public bombast as an approach that pursues to determine in each condition what kind of stylistic action is suitable. Within this account, they include features of struggle, agency, and morals.

References

Sheridan, D. M., Ridolfo, J., & Michel, A. J. (2012). The available means of persuasion: Mapping a theory and pedagogy of multimodal public rhetoric. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.

 

Rhetorical Appeals
After reading Bowdon and Scott, “A Rhetorical Toolbox for Technical and Professional Communication,” I learned many terms used in a rhetoric appeal. This paper addresses three terms which are used to represent the types of rhetorical appeals. They can be used for effective communication in our daily lives. These include ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos entails the development of a character in one’s writing to enhance the audience’s understanding. Logos involves the introduction of an argument in one’s article which the author either supports or refutes. Pathos helps in creation of an emotional appeal to the audience.
This is the most important aspect in persuading an audience. It involves the use of the author’s credibility and character in convincing the readers or viewers. The writer would bring out a character through his or her text or publication. It is an idea that the author invents to help communicate effectively. The authors can prove the credibility of their article through various ways as discussed. The first one is the demonstration of how they are well-informed about the subject (Bowdon and Scott, p. 41). Secondly, they need to provide citations of the authorities used in the subject. Thirdly, the writer should avoid grammatical mistakes because they can easily interfere with the powerful ability of the piece of writing. Finally, one should be able to understand the problem at hand through the provision of the most appropriate solutions.
In my coursework, I will apply this idea by utilizing character development tactics when writing my main article and term paper. This will assist the reader of my work to be able to relate to the characters in the piece easily. It will also help him or her to get the real picture of the point or event I am trying to put across. I also learned that avoiding grammatical errors and using good citations will help persuade my audience, hence earning good marks.
This aspect needs to be used sparingly to avoid the disruption of the flow of the story. I will need to use it in the most applicable instances to avoid overdoing it.
This concept is used to appeal to the audiences’ emotions and values. The emotional appeal to the public enables the writer to establish a bond with the readers and at the same time, develop a goodwill attitude among the users (Bowdon and Scott, p. 43). Nevertheless, when applying pathos, humor can be of help to assure the motives of the audience accessing the article. The audience will also be able to evaluate the quality of the written text based on the values of its content.
In my coursework, I have learned that when writing texts, I should incorporate the emotions of the audience as well as their values. These are essential in establishing the desired bond with the readers of my editorial. The values will easily enable one to evaluate the quality of my work.
Pathos should be used in a careful manner because if overused, it may end up annoying the audience instead of establishing a connection between the public and the author (Herman, p. 100).
This is the final element which involves the introduction of an argument in a publication. If the audience agrees with the authors opinion, there will be no need to worry about the items being communicated. This shows the power of solid writing. If one can fully understand the part of the arguments and how they combine to come up with evidence, then he or she will be able to convince the audience easily.
I have learned that the application of logos in my articles will enable me to convince the audience using credible evidence.
If one has not mastered well the parts of the argument and how they collaborate to come up with credible evidence, then it will be difficult to convince the audience (Herman, p.102).
At the end of the book, I was able to appreciate the importance of logos, pathos, and ethos in writing of articles. They help in persuading the audience and making the people identify with the author’s position. However, the three tools should be used wisely. If overused, they might provoke the audience instead of persuading them to side with a particular argument.

Works Cited
Bowden, Melody and Blake Scott. “A Rhetorical Toolbox for Technical and Professional Communication.” 2003.
Herman, Jennifer L., et al. “Writing as Knowing: Creative Knowing Through Multiple Messaging Modes in an Engineering Technical Communications Course.” Creative Ways of Knowing in Engineering. Springer International Publishing, 2017. 99-120.

This summer I will be investigating teacher preparation standards, or lack thereof, across the United States and the impact they have on teacher retention and student success rate. Much of the debate surrounding education regulation has focused on student performance and curriculum standards while largely ignoring the role the educators play.

Addressing this topic in a persuasive manner can be challenging in the current political climate. As Bowdon and Scott acknowledge in A Rhetorical Toolbox for Technical and Professional Communication excessive appeals to emotions can lead to an ever more polarized and distrustful audience. This appeal to a person’s emotions and values is known as pathos; and it is a strategy widely used by the media today which has led to an emotional and skeptical public. My goal is to engage readers that span the political spectrum and demonstrate how improving educator training standards can benefit our nation as a whole.

To accomplish this I will need to establish an exigency, a common call to action, by using logos to reach the entire audience. Logos is an appeal based upon reasoning and logic, the simplest way to apply this is using facts. Unfortunately, simply stating facts is often not enough to appeal to an audience as broad as the American public, the facts must be presented in an accessible format so that they are easily retrievable by a variety of readers. To address the text accessibility I plan to summarize the most pertinent facts and statistics into an infographic and narrated motion graphic to engage the casual or busy reader through verbal-visual integration.

In addition to producing content for the casual or busy reader I intend to develop a much more in depth proposal that lays out in detail the supporting information such as developmental psychology research, teaching methodologies, and teacher training program results.

The third strategy I am considering using, an ethos appeal, poses a potential limiting factor. I have experience working and attending multiple education systems and have gained great personal insight and experience in this field. However, I gained much of that experience serving with a non-profit AmeriCorps program. I also gained much of my experience in private schooling. Providing the reader with that information may have the unintended consequence of immediately deterring readers whose values do not align with those of AmeriCorps or private schooling – causing an inadvertent crisis of pathos.

I am planning on writing about the potential harmful effects of radiation emitted from electronic devices throughout the semester. Although this issue can be applied to a wide audience, I will focus on the group that includes teenagers and young adults. This group has been bombarded with advances in technology; however, many people are unaware of the risks of overexposure to these devices.

From the work of Bowdon and Scott, I will be working with the idea of “Technical and Professional Communication as Rhetoric.” To express the concerns related to overuse of electronic devices, I believe it would be best to use persuasion as my primary focus. With that being said, I want to make my argument with a strong audience-based orientation as well. Relaying this information to millennials will be much easier through the internet and social platforms; how to persuade them is different scenario.

It would be beneficial to use the persuasive appeals that Aristotle identifies as logos and pathos. Since this is a technical topic, appealing to the audience’s sense of reason and logic makes the most sense. Since the topic reveals that electronics can be dangerous, I will tie my reasoning in with an emotional appeal.  

My definition of rhetoric is somewhat limiting because persuading millennials on social media is a real challenge. On Facebook, millions of articles circulate (from animal videos to food recipes); most with the intent of entertainment. I get the feeling that younger generations react negatively to being told what to do or how to do it. I have to structure my argument in such a way that the rational text and emotional appeal will evoke action from my audience, rather than simply telling them what to do.

I plan on using social media and possibly brochures to reach my audiences, as stated previously. I will try to engage with this age group more effectively by using viral memes, videos and additional social context. The best way to relate to my audience is to understand how they currently receive news/information and media that they are drawn to.

 

Logos, the appeal of reasoning and logic, is one of the three general means of persuasion that Aristotle describes in On Rhetoric. Logic is essentially the study the principles of reasoning, meaning that if the audience agrees with the reasoning behind the argument, it could possibly not need any more support. However, to make such an argument there must be a claim and reasons to support this claim. Those reasons must then be then backed up by evidence, which will be the most important part in passing my argument to the audience.

The argument I want to make is that America is running out of water. Water is the quintessential liquid – it keeps the food that we eat alive, it keeps clothes on our back, and most importantly, it keeps us alive. So, why are we wasting it? This is a question that has been constantly asked for years and has yet to have found an answer. Well there may not be an answer, maybe there is a solution. This is exactly where I will focus the attention of the audience. The appeal of reasoning and logic can be a crucial factor when trying to communicate this argument to the audience. If I could give enough evidence to support claim, I believe that the reasoning and logic of the audience would persuade them into changing the poor water habits and conserve more.

The second and most important of the three-general means of persuasion is Ethos. Having the proper character and the credibility can be a key factor for the communicator when trying to persuade an audience. Through my campaign, I plan to give the audience as much factual evidence as possible. It is important my character stays strong and does not compromise credibility along the way. Another important aspect of ethos is choosing language that is appropriate for the audience and topic. Using the proper language is important because using language that is too scientific can confuse the common audience member or being too aggressive can make the audience member want to back away. Forming a perfect medium will be the most effective way to portray this crucial issue.

In summary, combing both ethos and logos could prove to be beneficial when making a claim. It is important to be both credible and appeal to the reasoning of the audience. Perfecting these persuasive appeals could prove to be life-changing for both America and the world.

 

Often times, in order to communicate well, it’s appropriate to state the obvious, namely, declare what that communication seeks to do. Bowdon and Scott underline what they call a purpose statement, and they define said statement in the following way: The purpose statement is the line which “tells readers what the text is intended to do for them.” Without such a statement, readers and hearers alike may be left guessing the communicator’s intent. Explicitness is the fence which keeps an audience out of the bad land of ambiguity. To me, a purpose statement screams clarity and compels the writer or speaker to be fixed on what he cemented in the purpose statement post holes.

Regarding the practical nature of communication and my own campaign, I must be super clear about what my intentions are when engaging my selected audience. I must employ a purpose statement in my materials, so as to make the purpose for which I communicate with them obvious. In other words, I want my audience to know my purpose and, thus, I employ a purpose statement. My campaign will seek to make Bellefield Presbyterian Church aware of mental health issues facing the universal church and the world at large. As a seminary graduate and peer support specialist with UPMC, I plan to deliver a speech at Bellefield, a place where I will undoubtedly declare my purpose loud and clear. (This is a scenario I hope for. I am a seminary grad and pray for the stated position.) The speech may read like this:

“The purpose of this message is to make known the mental health issues that plague the church as a whole and the society at large. Many problems are tied to poor mental health, among the people inside and outside these walls, and if we are going to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ for the glory of God, then we must be aware of mental disorders that afflict many of us, so that we deal well with our fellow Christians and those we seek to reach with the message of hope.”

I could also use this “The purpose  of this…” format for a blog post or a letter sent to all who attend Bellefield.

Finally, regarding limits to this rhetorical device’s usefulness, sometimes people may get bored with the notion of hearing or reading a clear purpose statement. For some, it may take the “fun” of discovery away. People like their “Jiminy Cricket!!” moments when they realize the meaning of a message without the purpose statement. Another limit to the purpose statement is that in declaring the purpose for a speech or letter or blog post, this may leave out the possibility of allowing the message to be interpreted in a variety of ways. Maybe someone could see a bigger purpose than the one simply stated. Maybe a purpose statement limits the audience, instead of allowing their minds to be thinking more expansively.

Over the course of the semester I will be writing about the possible impact that autonomous cars will have on our society moving forward. Technology today is advancing faster than we can keep up with and that is especially true when it comes to autonomous cars.  We are already seeing Tesla and Uber already putting autonomous cars on the road today, but some people are not completely on board with their implementation just yet. There are still a lot of safety and ethical concerns that need to be addressed and discussed by the government, the private sector and everyone else on the road.

In the reading Bowen and Scott talk about Vincent Ruggiero’s use of rhetoric in the field of technical and professional communications. Ruggiero states that there are three types of ethical criteria when communicating: obligations, ideals, and consequences.  These three criteria are directly applicable to the discussion about the future of autonomous cars.  The companies that are in any way involved in the production of these cars have the obligation to provide a product that is safe to the public, as well as the obligation to clearly define the capabilities of the car. The government has the obligation to properly regulate and oversee their production, especially in the early years of their implementation. The ideal of safety has a huge role to play in the introduction of autonomous cars into the market. They have the potential to drastically reduce the number of accidents on the road and they could save thousands of lives a year.  Safety is a central theme in the business world and in the public space, highlighting it as a benefit of having autonomous cars could be very effective. The last thing to consider is the consequences of the communication.  If the obligations of the any party involved are not met or the ideals are off base, the result could be horrible. However, if the first two criteria are satisfied, the benefits of autonomous cars are endless.