Monthly Archives: September 2020

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Please read this brief article by Caroline Kelly, “Keeping it Civil”.  In the comments below, please identify one piece of advice from the article that you think we would all be wise to adopt and explain why you think it’s important.   Describe an experience you’ve had in which you or someone else had difficulty keeping your cool while discussing something you both feel strongly about.   What happened?  Does this experience suggest any further insights into how to have these kinds of discussions?  If so, share them here.  Please share your comment by Monday, October 5th.

Orwell’s thesis is basically saying that the way we use English language has cause to the general collapse of our civilization. He also states that we can not be conscious action, do anything about it. Orwell believes that language naturally grows and it is not something we can shape for our own purpose. He expresses that politics and economy both have added to the decline of language. He insist that the language we use becomes “Inaccurate” because of our thoughts, and this makes it easier to produce inaccurate thoughts. Orwell states that this process is reversible. One quotation from Orwells essay is “Modern English especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble”. This stood out to me because when writing, we often compare our use of language, to those who we think use it well. However, how can we tell when the person we are trying to imitate, makes a careless mistake in their use of writing. I think that Orwell is trying to say that writing and bad habits, become a cycle, from listening and reading the same mistakes. One of Orwells examples of the categories of language that most disturb him are “Dying metaphors”. He insist that many of those who use metaphors, use them without knowledge of their meaning. The use of a metaphor that one has no knowledge of, mixed with incompatible metaphors are a sign that the writer is not interested in what they are saying. Orwell states, “Some metaphors now current have been twisted out of their meaning without those who use them even being aware of the fact”. I sometimes see this when looking at other peoples writing, where the writer knows what he/she is trying to convey, but it doesn’t make sense for the context. Language use and politics intersect greatly with each other , impacting the way people view certain things in politics. It is important that a speaker in politics, strays away from using the examples that Orwell states, that add to the decline of language.

1. We will be continuing to share and discuss the campaign ads you selected during our Zoom call on Wednesday.  Please take some time between now and Wednesday to preview your classmates’ ads.  If you have comments or observations about HOW the ads work and the rhetorical strategies they are employing to manipulate their viewers, please share them in the comments.  We are not discussing the issues themselves, but rather focusing on the visual, audio, and verbal languages of the campaign ads.

2. Please read George Orwell’s famous essay, “Politics and the English Language.”  You can find it under the “Texts” tab above.  Read the essay carefully, looking up any words that are unfamiliar, then, in a separate blog post, to be shared by Friday, October 2nd, do the following:

• In your own words, summarize Orwell’s thesis.
• Share one quotation from the essay that seems to you to be particularly significant.  Explain the meaning of the quotation and describe why it stood out for you.  What is Orwell saying here about language use?
• Orwell offers several examples of the categories of language use that most disturb him.  Choose one of these examples and respond to Orwell.  Do you see examples of this today? Does your own writing sometimes exhibit this language use?  Why or why not? To what extent do you find his critique to be valid?
• How do language use and politics intersect for you today?  Can you think of a contemporary example of a use of language that has been the subject of debate, misunderstanding, or obfuscation (deliberately making things unclear)? Please share it here and discuss the implications of your example.  (One easy example might be the differences between describing someone as being “anti-abortion,” “pro-life,” or “anti-choice.”  We can see clearly how each of these terms frames the position in a different way.)

3. Our next major writing assignment will be a Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech. We will start working on the assignment next week, but in preparation for the assignment, please start previewing this list of speeches I’ve gathered.  I have limited our selection to the last year.  You will need to use Google to locate either a video or a text of the speech.  If you would like to add a speech to this list, that’s great, but please check in with me to confirm that it fits our parameters.  For this assignment, you will want to select a speech that appears to you to be rhetorically interesting, not necessarily the speech you liked the best or that best aligns with your own political views.

Some Speeches to Consider:

President Trump’s Fourth of July Speech (2020)

Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention (2020)

Greta Thunberg’s speech at the United Nations

Any speech from the Republican or Democratic National Conventions

John Boyega’s Black Lives Matter speech, June 2020

Killer Mike, speech at Atlanta Mayor’s Press Conference, May 2020

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, speech about misogyny, response to Cong. Ted Yoho, July 2020

Mitt Romney, speech about impeachment vote, Feb 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCYN5MY5BHg

The audience for this 2020 campaign ad would be democrats, maybe young people as well. I believe this because Biden spoke on “healing America” and that is what a lot of people need right now. I also believe the audience for this ad would be young people because us young people are much into politics, given the circumstances we are in right now we are much more into politics, by circumstance I mean COVID, quarantine, racial injustices, trump…

This ad’s message is to promote “healing” to America. The argument this ad is making is that we are living through a crisis and we need leaders who will “heal” America. 

The feeling this ad evokes is awareness, hope, and healing of situations. It shows many pictures and videos from the last four months so people are aware of what this ad is speaking of 

This is a positive ad although it shows evidence of America in need of help I noticed that the sound that was being played in this ad sort of promoted hope. Also it speaks of how leaders will “heal” America which sounds pretty hopeful and positive to me, also it shows no gruesome photos or anything particularly negative. 

The visual elements of this ad contribute to its messaging because it shows visuals of climate change, such as homes and streets being overflooded. It also shows a short clip of trees on fire. Approximately thirty seconds after these visuals it shows Biden speaking to a man at a power plant and on fields where you see the sun shining and the grass green. The sun shining and the grass being green where he is speaking to another man is no coincidence, this is a visual representation of a better place (compared to the short clips shown a few seconds ago). You automatically see the change from disaster to a safe place where people are calmly speaking to each other. We also see Biden shaking another man’s hand which comes off as caring/respectful.

The persuasive techniques used in this ad would have to be ethos, pathos, and logos. I believe that all three were well employed. As we start off this ad we see logos, for example, stating the obvious facts… we definitely are in a crisis- climate, racial injustice, economic, and health. That is a fact. This Ad also shows us visuals to remind us we need help, In a way this is considered logic. Through the middle we see pathos which is a sense of emotion, we see pathos through a visual of people protesting with posters in their hands and hear voices stating “no justice, no peace”. This is obviously used to show emotion, and make us feel a certain way. Ethos is being employed by the word “leaders” being said and showing people shaking hands with each other which comes off as a sense of agreement/authority.

This ad has to be very successful because it used all three persuasive techniques. Also we are in a pandemic which means we really can’t do anything but just hope for the best we can get, which bidens shows much of in his ad.