Category: WFP Blog Posts Summer 2017

The topic I wanted to advocate for is the removal or limit of government funded school vouchers. If school vouchers are allowed to expand in the manner that Trump’s school choice proposal calls for, then parents with children attending public schools would be footing the bill for those with children in private or religious schools. As such, those parents with children in the public school system would be the public that I address. These parents are the perfect target as they have the right to vote or impose change, have the wherewithal to rally themselves to combat, and have a vested interest in the development and care of their child.

In the modern outrage culture, issues do not enter the mainstream unless new legislation is being discussed. Once a topic is presented to the public, those with even a modicum of interest can become engaged. This happens through a flurry of news coverage and social media shares. This has happened several times previously and include examples such as when Donald Trump announced his $20 Billion proposal to fund school choice during his campaign and when he nominated Betsy DeVos, a staunch supporter of school choice, as his Secretary of Education. These key times when the Trump administration pushes for school choice are the most opportune time to release condemning information. It is in this way that Kairos implies.

Kairos is a complex idea that deals with the timing at which an audience is engaged and placement of the author’s material. If the message is received too early, the audience will no understand the context in why it is important. On the other hand, if delivered too late, the audience may have already made their decision on the issue and currently have a fleeting interest in the issue. The perfect time to release an editorial would be when the education budget is addressed to Congress. This will correspond to when most people search online for more information about the subject after hearing about it on the news or from a friend. Partnering with a mainstream news site such as CNN could capture the most readers so it would be the ideal placement. Correctly utilizing Kairos will be essential to making my message more of a paramount issue rather than just the hot topic of the day.

Kairos is a word that cannot be easily defined, often having a definition based on the opinion of the rhetorical scholar. The given definitions included ideas such as “timing”, the “opportune moment”, or the sum of “contexts”. Well when considering the audience of a millennial generation, it may be important to consider the timing of the argument. The audience that I am targeting to talk about the water crisis in America is of a product of “perfect timing”. This millennial generation is at the forefront of their careers and can choose whether they could positively affect the current dilemma. By choosing an age group that is too young or too old, my argument to the audience may not take on a purposeful meaning. This would hinder the possibility of solving the problem. Therefore, I can compare myself to the analogy of the archer. I have an opportune time in which I can give my argument to the audience and effectively change their perspective on the water crisis, which also depends on the past experiences and training that I have received about the issue.

Shifting the focus to the public sphere idea, I must be able to have a “common ground” with the audience so that I am able to communicate with them effectively. This common ground is that I am of the same age group that I want to speak to. Being that I am a millennial myself, I am the most qualified to speak to this age group because I can relate with them. Using the social language of Twitter and Facebook and the meaningful language in my blog, I can present my argument to the audience in a way that we are now accustomed to. This may be the most effective way to reach the public sphere in question. However, an important part of the public sphere is having public-sphere participation. Without audience participation, my argument may not flourish and reach the entirety of the millennial audience. Therefore, if I combine giving the ability to participate to the audience, having a “common ground” on which I need to be able to reach my audience, and timing of the argument, my appeal to the audience would have the most effect.

The fine people who attend Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland comprise the public I seek to address. Do you know how I know they are a public? I know they are a public because I anticipate they will be attentive to my message in the steeple context. The three authors in Available Means of Persuasion underline there must be an audience to address for there to be a public, and said audience must be attentive, something I anticipate if these people, by their own volition (or without their arms a twistin’), attend the Wednesday night gatherings I seek to host on mental health awareness. Furthermore, Sheridan et al. emphatically suggest that kairos implies an “opportune moment” and not simply opportunism (or merely selecting to do something out of the blue without plan or reason). Kairos is linked to ethics (p.12) because ethics leads to action which calls for such a moment to address the ethical dilemma. (Thus, the prayer is that there will indeed be peace when that kairos moment comes. The Kansas reference in the heading was not opportunistic.) Holding that my topic is timely, I seek to engage a public, people who will clearly give attention to my message, in a space in which allows a “rhetorical performance” to take place, that is, in a public sphere where I and others can address our willing audience. Because of the pervasiveness of mental health ignorance in the evangelical church, the moment is an opportune one and not merely opportunistic, as defined above. Ethically speaking, there is an issue (or injustice here). There is a timely and ethical word to be spoken in that context to a church public which I anticipate to be attentive (since they volunteer their time to listen to my cause, something I have highlighted for the third time). The mental health awareness issue is an appropriate issue to address since many are being hurt by those calling themselves evangelicals. Awareness is necessary concerning this very morally-based matter. If indeed persons with mental illness are made in the image of God, then they should not be rejected for dealing with biochemically-based brain disorders just as much as the old women should not be scolded for serving purple JELLO. (Its not their fault they are cheap. They grew up post-Great Depression where they had to make their own soap out of chicken butt lard.) Awareness needs to be now, especially as Bellefield looks outward to a hurting world in need of the good news of grace in Jesus Christ.

The public I am writing towards is a segment of the population that is dissatisfied with their congressional representatives. According to a Gallup poll conducted at the beginning of the 115^th Congress, Americans’ approval of that legislative body is at 19%. Remarkably, according to CNN, federal legislators serve, on average, for over a decade. Counter intuition aside, there is a lopsided majority that is prepared to consume my message. I need to consider that having substantial leisure time to participate in the political process is not a privilege every American in that 81% can enjoy. My observation invokes the criticisms in the reading of the public sphere. Ideally (and naively) it is supposed to be an equitable, universally accessible, and egalitarian platform for discourse.  So, whatever technique I use to appeal and some of the ways I invite the public to involve themselves in the campaign will need to consider their finite time. Having limited opportunities to attract the public to this campaign is conflicting with the best practice of kairos. The understanding I lifted from the reading is that kairos is a tactic of waiting for or manufacturing the ideal conditions in which a rhetor can most effectively persuade their audience. It was challenging for me to separate the concept of a physical public sphere to what it actually is, but I didn’t necessarily agree with the assessment that it isn’t a place. I thought about the Internet and the platforms for connecting members of the public sphere there, particularly blogs like Reddit, or quasi-blogs like Twitter and Facebook. In our speech we say that we are on them, but in our minds we are going to them. Not unlike coffee shops or other gathering places, they are distinct spaces that we can navigate, entering and exiting whenever we so choose.

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.