Rhetorical Analysis

At first glance you do not even realize what is on the plate.  Upon closer examination the audience can see that is a very small portion of peas and corn.  The small amount of food is the only thing on the clean white plate.  A knife and fork lay perfectly aligned to the left side of the photo and a small glass of water rests at the upper right hand side of the photo.  Overall the picture is very bland and quite boring, but the meaning behind it is very complex.  The fact that a knife is even present it very strange because there is absolutely nothing to cut.  The portion is so small that it can not even be considered a meal and one can begin to think what person is sitting in the position behind the plate waiting to eat this very minimal meal.  This picture brings about a sense of sadness in the audience after they realize what this picture entails.  At first I did not even notice anything strange about the picture, but then my eyes were directed towards what was on the plate.  About six little peas and kernels of corn lay in two tiny piles parallel to each other.  

The title of this picture is anorexia, which I think is a very appropriate title.  This brings into view the large problem with women and girls self image these day and the increasing problem with the amount of girls with eating disorders.  This plate is just an example of something that is very wrong with the world.  The fact that girls starve themselves in order to become skinnier shows a very problematic view of women in the world.  Constantly, unrealistic pictures of models and famous people are paraded on the media for young girls watching to yearn for that type of body.  In a way this picture depicts not only a vast problem with the way that women view their body, but also the way that the media represents an ideal figure of a women.  The women on television and on the covers of magazines do not portray a normal women in the United States or even around the world.  This single picture can then be a small representation of the entire problem of anorexia with just minimal effort.

In Class Free Write: Rhetorical Analysis

The term rhetorical analysis has come about in about every single Literature and English class I have ever taken, but the exact term is not always defined correctly. When I first hear the phrase rhetorical analysis I begin to think of research papers. One must take information and research and go even further with it and truely pick apart the meaning of the information and what it means. Rhetorical analysis means taking all the parts of an argument and piecing their meaning together to see if it is effective in persuading the audience. An argument has many different piece and appeals behind, which we learned in our last chapter and using rehtorical analysis takes it even further. A good way to begin this process is to take the parts that are interesting to you or that are unique. This allows you to start unfolding the argument and analyzing it piece by piece. There is always an agenda to an argument, meaning there is always a reason the author wrote the piece whether it was to persuade or just for enjoyment there is always an idea behind it and information the author is trying to get out. One you analyize the parts that are obvious you can then look more at the detail of the work. You could examine the language the author uses and try to decide why they chose the words and style that they used. The style and word choice of a paper creates an overall sense and feeling of the work so it is often the most important aspect of a work.

Grand Cru's Logical, Ethical, and Emotional Appeals

The first type of appeal that comes to mind when thinking about my space, a wine store, is the logical appeal of the space.  One thing that seems very logical is how the wine store is set up.  The wines are on the back wall in a specific order.  The begin with champagne, then progress to white wines, rose wines, red wines, and finally ending with desert wines.  In the specific classification of the wine the different bottles increase in intensity of taste.  This is a logical appeal because the intensity of the wine can be proven with evidence and fact.  This also appeals to customers because it is an organized process that allows them to shop for wine easily.

The second type of appeal that I found at my space is a ethical appeal.  Since the store sells mainly alcohol customers must be over twenty-one.  This can be an ethical appeal when it comes to under age customers trying to frequent this space.  A second way that the store can be an ethical appeal is that is reveals aspects about the owners.  The way that they present the stores reveals something about themselves as people and not the owners of the store.  The walls are decorated in large portraits of European towns that are vibrantly colored.  This shows that the owners love to travel and it give an effervescent and energetic feel to the store.  The fact that the owners own a wine store also gives prospective into their lives.

The third and last appeal that I found at the wine store is emotional appeals.  The store appeals emotional to customers by presenting itself in an upscale social manner.  To the left of the entrance there is a wine bar that allows people to interact with the employees and other customers.  The customers can either taste small portions of wine or purchase a whole glass.  This appeals to customers’ emotions because it allows them to unwind and enjoy a relaxed environment.  There is also another area that has comfortable couches, which also aid to the at ease environment the owners have created.

In Class Free Write: Analyzing Visuals

In this picture you attention is initially drawn to the age of the girl smoking a cigarette. Without knowledge of the title, "Candy cigarette" you would initially think that this young girl was smoking. This is alarming because she looks to be about twelve years old, which is obviously too young to be smoking. My attention first goes to the young girl smoking because it is the brightest thing on the page. The picture is black and white with a lot of shadowing. The young girl smoking glows in a white dress, which makes her stand out compared to the background. Her stance also draws the reader to her with a type of attiude she is giving off.

That inital point of vision connects with the entire picture. After the first initial look at the picture you see another dark figure to the right of the photograph is an even younger girl with her back to the camera. You follow the girls face down to her hand where she is holding the cigarette and then you continue onto the younger darker figure. The only other white light in the picture is the sky, which gives the idea that this picture is probably taken at sun down or sun set. Perhaps these girls are sneaking off with their parents or older syblinings cigarettes or perhaps not. Another white figure in the background appears to be another girls body. It could just be lighting that looks in the shape of a body, but to me it almost looks like a body handing from the trees. This could be foreshadowing of what cigarettes could do to the future and health of this young girl smoking.

This image appeals emotionally because it is very rare to see such a young girl smoking. It also is almost shocking because you think of youth and young and vibrant and healthy. You do not think of attitude and defiance and smoking. This picture could stand for a variety of things. It could be an add against smoking or it could be an add for candy cigarettes. This works for an add against smoking because it shows a young girl smoking which has a shock value to it. If this is an add for candy cigarettes then it probably did not take place in America because I think the American public would not take a young girl smoking very lightly. This appears to be more of a European add. The girl even looks a little European. The purpose of this image could be its shock value in general. The shock value could really open the eyes of America to the rising epidemic of smoking. On the other hand if the audience knew this was candy then maybe they would think that they girl looked beautiful and sexy, which would appeal young girls trying to achieve this image.

In Class Free Write: Chapter 4

One topic in chapter four that I found slightly confusing was the topic of cultural assumptions and values. I was not sure exactly if the book was trying to tell us that applying cultural ideas to an argument was good or bad. At first i believe that is good because they are saying that the audeince would more likely support something that they experience or a common thought that the population holds. The part that confuses me is are there not people in America who do not agree with the same cultural ideas? Plus America is made up of many different cultures, is that not an issue?

The next topic that I did not fully grasp was the idea of degree. The book describes this as more of a good thin or less of a bad thing which is a pretty easy concept to understand. The part that I guess I found confusing was how do you apply this to writing you argument? The examples they provide allow me to better understsand what more of a good thing and less of a bad thing really means, but I do not think that I could think of an idea like that on my own at this point. How would I create my own statement using degree in my upcoming paper? Also it seemed as if there was not a huge deal of fact behind these statements and that some of the examples were more like personal opinion. Would this still appeal to my audience and get my point across?