Publishing Public Argument

Here is the link to my final Project 3.

AUDIENCE

1. Mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience currently stands on the issue (before reading/watching/hearing your argument) below: ←-------------------------------------------------x---|-------------------x--------------------------------------> Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly agree                                                                                                                          disagree

2. Now mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience should be (after they've read/watched/heard your argument) below: ←------------------x----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------> Strongly                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly agree                                                                                                                          disagree

PURPOSE

3. Check one (and only one) of the argument types below for your public argument:         ___X____ My public argument establishes an original pro position on an issue of debate.         _______ My public argument establishes an original con position on an issue of debate.         _______ My public argument clarifies the causes for a problem that is being debated.         _______ My public argument proposes a solution for a problem that is being debated.         _______ My public argument positively evaluates a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm supporting).         _______ My public argument openly refutes a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm refuting).

4. Briefly explain how your public argument doesn’t simply restate information from other sources, but provides original context and insight into the situation: This is a project about why addressing climate change is important.  I start off by explaining why climate change has taken the backseat and then transition into why it is a relevant issue to the everyday American.  A lot of the project includes my own personal narratives and what I have learned as a new student to the field.  I do not have intense research or worldly knowledge, but I still have the knowledge to try and convince the audience how important my field is and the lives it can save.

ARGUMENTATION

5. Identify the specific rhetorical appeals you believe you've employed in your public argument below:

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals                    ___X__ Telling personal stories that establish a credible point-of-view                    ___X__ Referring to credible sources (established journalism, credentialed experts, etc.)                    __X___ Employing carefully chosen key words or phrases that demonstrate you are credible (proper terminology, strong but clear vocabulary, etc.)                    ___X__ Adopting a tone that is inviting and trustworthy rather than distancing or alienating                    ___X__ Arranging visual elements properly (not employing watermarked images, cropping images carefully, avoiding sloppy presentation)                    ___X__ Establishing your own public image in an inviting way (using an appropriate images of yourself, if you appear on camera dressing in a warm or friendly or professional manner, appearing against a background that’s welcoming or credibility-establishing)                    __X___ Sharing any personal expertise you may possess about the subject (your identity as a student in your discipline affords you some authority here)                    ___X__ Openly acknowledging counterarguments and refuting them intelligently                    __X___ Appealing openly to the values and beliefs shared by the audience (remember that the website/platform/YouTube channel your argument is designed for helps determine the kind of audience who will encounter your piece)                    _____ Other:

Emotional appeals                    __X___ Telling personal stories that create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate                    ___X__ Telling emotionally compelling narratives drawn from history and/or the current culture                    __X___ Employing the repetition of key words or phrases that create an appropriate emotional impact                    ___X__ Employing an appropriate level of formality for the subject matter (through appearance, formatting, style of language, etc.)                    __X___ Appropriate use of humor for subject matter, platform/website, audience                    ___X__ Using “shocking” statistics in order to underline a specific point                    __X___ Using imagery to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate                    ___X__ Employing an attractive color palette that sets an appropriate emotional tone (no clashing or ‘ugly’ colors, no overuse of too many variant colors, etc.)                    _____ Using music to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate                    _____ Using sound effects to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate                    ____ Employing an engaging and appropriate tone of voice for the debate                    _____ Other:

Logical or rational appeals                    _____ Using historical records from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns                    __X___ Using statistics from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns                    _____ Using interviews from stakeholders that help affirm your stance or position                    _____ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position                    __X___ Effectively organizing elements, images, text, etc. so they make visual sense                    __X___ Clearly transitioning between different sections of the argument (by using title cards, interstitial music, voiceover, etc.)                    ___X__ Crafting sequenced images/text/content in order to make linear arguments                    ___X__ Intentionally emphasizing specific images/text/content in order to strengthen argument                    __X___ Carefully designing size/color relationships between objects to effectively direct the viewer’s attention/gaze (for visual arguments)                    _____ Other:

GENRE

6. Below, provide us with working hyperlinks to THREE good examples of the genre you've chosen to write in. These examples can come from Blog Post 11.3 or they can be new examples. But they should all come from the same specific website/platform and should demonstrate the conventions for your piece:

 
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

For the peer review process I reviewed Michael B and Chloe's drafts.  I will now be discussing my thoughts on the drafting process.

Unsplash, "girl" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded August 2015 CC0 Public Domain

1. Who reviewed my draft?

Casey and Sam reviewed my draft.

2. What did you think and/or feel about the feedback?

I was not surprised about the feedback.  My draft is pretty rough and I wasn't super confident about where I wanted to go with it.  After talking to Mr. Bottai and reading the reviews, I am basically in the process of rewriting everything I had previously written.  Everyone seemed to like the personal narratives I touched on in the draft, so I will definitely be going more towards those in the final draft.  It will allow me to create a much more personal understanding of the issue while still showing my credibility on the subject.  I was definitely struggling trying to find the balance between explaining concepts to the audience and writing an argument.  After a couple of weeks of avoiding coming off too biased or strongly about my opinions, this is a total 180 degree flip to only my opinions in a piece.

3.  What needs work (Audience, Purpose, Argumentation, Genre)?

First off, I will not be starting off with the Pope, he is just not as relevant to my opinion for the length of the piece.  My essay focus is going to be altered to talking about solely why environmental activism is beneficial and my personal experiences with the issue.  Instead of providing a ton of background and broad information, I will be able to talk directly to the audience about why this issue is important.  My argument was almost non-existent in my draft, so changing to a narrative will almost certainly allow me to focus on my main persuasive argument.  I also drifted to closely to the piece becoming a QRG, which again will be solved by personal opinions and lots of hopefully beautiful images.

4. How am I feeling about the project direction?

I am feeling a lot more inspired about what I can write for this project.  I was dreading revisions of this draft ever since I sat down to write it.  After the reviews and conversation I definitely feel a lot more interested in my creative argument and how I should go about writing this project.  Writing an opinionated piece and explaining personal stories and experiences can be a little more interesting than listening and analyzing hours and hours of Pope speeches.

Draft of a Public Argument

Here is the link to my first draft of Project 3 discussing the importance and positive benefits of addressing climate change and the human impact on the environment.  

It was written to mimic a National Geographic article in their online Environmental section.  This is a very rough draft that I will be continuing to work on in the upcoming week.  The pictures have not all been chosen or finalized yet, as I am still trying to find ones that I actually have the rights to use.  Please feel free to leave any and all commentary.

skeeze "sunset" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded 11/4/2015 CC0 Public Domain

Considering Visual Elements

In this blog post I will be considering the visual aspects of my upcoming project on the pope.

Visual Coherence

- What colors best reflect the visual-rhetorical tone of my project?
The National Geographic color scheme is a white background, black text with bolded subheadings, and very colorful contrasting images.  The images are the main focal point of this particular genre, which will be difficult to replicate in terms of quality.  However it will be easier to represent the crucial visual aspect of the genre, being the very simple outline with minimal graphic design along the sides of the page.

Visual Salience

- Is the theme or association that the image produces relevant to the theme of my argument?
The simplicity and clarity are definitely two concepts that climate change can be very distantly related too, which is exactly why such a visually clean article will help the audience.  News sources like CNN have ads and other articles plastered along the sides trying to grab attention from every angle.  National Geographic also uses the simple theme to keep the audience focused on one article and only one.

- Is the feeling or tone that the image invokes appropriate to the visual-rhetorical tone of my argument?
The feeling I am aiming for is storytelling.  If I lean too much towards QRG and an informational tone, I could lose half of my audience.  If I instead drift to an entirely descriptive fictional novel-esque language, I could also lose the audience.  This genre is a blend of the two and is perfect for my topic.

- If the image is a graph or chart, does it clearly support a major point of my argument, or is it superfluous?
I am aiming for selecting one or two informational pictures and two to three aesthetic or perspective photographs.  I have not found the set of photographs that I am particularly happy with, as they don't quite convey the messages I would like.

Visual Organization

- Do your eyes move easily from section to section in the order you intended?
In order to make a clear flow in the project, I have to dedicate myself to medium and small paragraphs.  In order to match the genre, I will have to split any paragraphs that get too information intensive.  I have not nailed out the entire draft yet, as this is a major issue for such a broad topic.

- Do the visual images help you move from point to point in the argument clearly?
The visuals are almost a break for the audience.  Instead of being presented with blocks of text, they are confronted with an awe inspiring or at least interesting photograph that should make the issue seem more real to them.  However, it also has to connect one idea to the next and not be an obvious tangent from the topic.  I am still working on finding the correct images for this task.

Visual Impact

- Is the call to action specifically developed?  Do they know what action they can take or what steps they can take?
My call to action is the main purpose of this project.  The one issue I've run into is conveying the right amount of information in the beginning of the project and presenting reasonable steps of action for the audience.  My article is rendered moot if my information makes no sense and I give the audience no clear options to make an impact.  That has been a major problem in environmental science as a field, as it is a complicated issue.  However, I will do my best to make my case as clear and inspiring as possible.

reynaldodallin "pope" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded April 2015 CC0 Public Domain

Project 3 Outline

In this blog I have written a brief outline of my Project 3 article for the National Geographic Environmental section.

Skitterphoto "trees" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded June 2015 CC0 Public Domain

Introduction: Think about your situation/Kairos
My overall purpose is to persuade the audience of the benefits of following the Pope's call to action.  Therefore I have to introduce the Pope's encyclical, speeches, and overall situation to make sure the audience is aware of the extent of the context.  The Pope works as both the catalyst of inspiring conversation in both my essay and across the major governments of the world.  My genre requires that the first section be written in a very storytelling voice and amount of description.


Major Supporting Arguments:
- Climate change effects the lower classes the most dramatically all across the world.  Changing the human waste culture is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to save lives and the planet.
- Changing waste habits can be done on the individual and commercial scale; simply monitoring and trying to reduce waste on any scale is a positive.
- It is a motion of charity, goodwill, and responsibility to help the entire population of the present and the future by trying to minimize the negative human effect on the climate.
- The many political parties could actually become united on an issue, which may eliminate some tensions and productive policy making.

Major Rebuttal Arguments:
- The Pope is a religious figure who should not be involved in such a political subject, which makes his argument invalid.
- The Catholic church and the world has other more pressing issues to deal with first.
- Climate change is happening at a catastrophic scale now, so humans don't have that big of an impact.
- The divide between the political parties is too great and nothing will ever get done.
- Climate change is too big to deal with.


Main sections:

I. The Pope
- Descriptive storytelling: The Pope's speeches and journey as the super pope.
- Explain why the Pope is such an unexpected advantage to environmental activism

II. How the public currently deals with climate change
- The national governments: why the political split is such a devastating blow to productivity and the lives of the lower class especially.
- The general public: why the public opinion and search of the environment has dwindled and why climate change is important to all ages, religions, political parties, demographics, etc.

III. How the public can and should help reduce waste
- What can/needs to be reduced
- How and why it can/needs to be reduced
- The importance of trying to help future generations and the potential to save millions of lives.

Evidence: (Starting point)
- Forbes data of news on climate change
- UN sustainable goals - Paris conference
- Crux: Catholic perspective on the Pope

Conclusion: Positive Consequences
The overall point of the project is to inspire people to look beyond the divisive state of religion and politics and realize that reducing the human negative impact on the planet will save lives.  Reducing waste is the most cost-effective and simply effective way to minimize dramatic climate changes in the future.  Although an individual might not see climate change effecting them in their daily lives, there are areas all across the world facing very real dilemmas.  I will be detailing these notes and other positive consequences in my conclusion.

REFLECTION:

I commented on Chelsea and Laurence's Project 3 outlines.  Chelsea included quite a few arguments and rebuttals in her outline, while Laurence's was a bit more short and sweet.  However both of them did have a very concise outline.  This shorter outline with the general process determined by the D2L assignment seems to have worked well for them.  I had been messing with the format to try to cater it more to my genre, to minimal success.  It was turning into a mush of planning and a lot of pre-writing before the actual project.  It has since been shortened, but after reading some other examples.  Hopefully I will now have much more time to spend on my actual draft.

Analyzing my Genre

For this project I will be writing a scientific article that could be found in National Geographic's Environmental section of their website.  National Geographic has found the balance between informing it's audience, inspiring awe with dramatic photographs and graphics, while still persuading the audience of the importance and benefits of protecting the environment.  Below, I have included examples of articles written in the style I will be emulating.

Example 1 - "How Melting Ice Changes One Countries Way of Life"
Example 2 - "What Antarctica's Incredible "Growing" Icepack Really Means"
Example 3 - "Rising Waters Threaten These Pacific Islands but Not Their Culture"
Example 4 - "To Take the Earth's Pulse, You Have to Fly High"
Example 5 - "Quirky Winds Fuel Brazil's Devastating Drought, Amazon's Flooding"

elektrosmart "yellow" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded November 2014 CC0 Public Domain

Social Context

Setting:
This genre is found in the online site National Geographic over a variety of different topics.  My particular project can be found in the Environment section of the website.

Subject:
The articles are all centered on the environment and cover new technologies, notable instances of climate change,  new laws and regulations, and anything else that connects to humans impacting the earth.

Who uses this genre:
National Geographic is a combination of photographers, scientists, and journalists working together to create a visually impressive, original, and knowledgeable article.

When/Why is this genre used:
The publications are meant to apply to all ages and backgrounds, in hopes of inspiring learning and positive change.  The national geographic is readily available in print or online/


Rhetorical Patterns of the Genre

Included + Excluded Context:
Social media and addressing the media are not often found in such articles.  The stories are only focused on scientific discovery, research, and events, generally not the public reaction on social medias.  These stories do not come out minutes after the event, like that of real time news sources like Huffington Post or CNN.  They are the result of long periods of researching and constructing the article.  All photographs and graphics were taken by National Geographic employees.

Commonly used rhetorical appeals:
I have found that National Geographic tries to incorporate all three in their stories.  Where scientific journals avoid pathos, National Geographic uses dramatic photography and inspiring stories to generate a real world connection to it's audience.  National Geographic spends weeks to months of time on ethos and logos finding scientists for information and traveling directly to the source of the problem for credible accurate information.

Organization:
National Geographic stories are almost equivalent to short stories.  Each article is very different, where one begins with simple background, another tells the tale of a disappearing island in heartfelt dramatic detail.  The articles do not contain one starting hook sentence.  The entire opening section must be incredibly detailed and captivating.  The shock factor of these articles is not a punchline, it is the gradual explanation of more and more context throughout the article.  By the end of the article, you feel like an expert on the topic, and are indebted to doing something about it.  Some articles are highly technical, and less focused on this dramatic story telling, but the content and original research is always just as captivating.

Sentence Style:
The sentences and paragraph lengths are all varied.  Each sentence length and type depends on what has to be conveyed and where it is in proximity to a graphic.  The entire article is designed to be very easy to read flow directly from sentence to graphic.  Some articles included bolded quotes in between sentences, others graphics, and others can even be larger chunky paragraphs.  It also depends on the context.

Word Choice:
The word choice is often heavily affected by pathos, as many of the articles include personal stories or research experienced first hand.  Field specific jargon is often present and must be explained in detail in order to remain relevant to the audience.


How do these Patterns effect Social Context?

Included + excluded individuals:
Social media, real time news sources, and images from other sources are not found in many national geographic articles.  Anyone included in an article generally has years of experience or is an individual directly effected by an event.  For example, one article covers Bill Nye's opinions on climate change and it's denial while another includes interviews and experiences with locals on an island disappearing into the ocean,

Roles of writers and audience:
The writers also must be incredibly qualified, as the job is incredibly competitive.  Whereas the audience is meant to be anyone and everyone.  National Geographic hires writers, photographers, researchers, and all of it's employees with the goal of creating 100% credible, factual, beautiful, and inspiring content for all ages.  By making it's content so high class yet relatable it allows all audiences to feel relevant and knowledgeable.

Values and beliefs:
The stated values of the National Geographic Society are to inspire it's audience to care about the Earth.  Some of their main focuses include geography, archaeology, natural science, and environmental and historical conservation.  Their stories all have cultural or environmental connections, and they believe telling inspiring stories, sharing beautiful photographs, and getting people out in the world and volunteering are the best parts of their initiative.  The society has several volunteering initiatives in sustainability, conservation, and education.

Most and least valuable content:
The most valuable content is the credibility, factual nature of the environmental articles, and method of storytelling to inspire the audience to action.  The least valuable information will be the source of the photographs and the visual layout.  Although I will try to emulate the style in which National Geographic creates their articles, I do not have access to such detailed and first person photography.  The level of photography and graphics is far beyond what I have available.  I will however do my best to try to compare to their high quality of visual effects.

REFLECTION:

I commented on Chloe's and Chelsea's blogs.  I think everyone's justifications for their genre choices are all very different.  I chose the National Geographic for it's inspirational vibe and creative writing.   Chloe chose a magazine article which will help garner a solid audience who wants to be informed on a topic they know.  Chelsea chose an active genre with a lot of flexibility to keep an already opinionated audience engaged.  I think my genre is proving to be more difficult than I had originally thought, but eventually, by the final draft, it will be worth the effort.