Fabian Hernandez
WRD 111-001
4-14-2014

        My favorite website since junior year in high school is definitely craigslist.com. I buy and sell cars for fun, and see what vehicles that I can come out with in the end. i am frequently on this site, and until recently did not realize what the website did to persuade and inform. When you first enter the website and pick a city to look for things in, and type in something like "Camaro" you get a plethora of recent posts that contain that keyword and most are posts trying to sell their Camaro’s. There are no frills or anything flashy about the website at all. A drab white backdrop with blue text for the ad postings from the sellers is all that you are given when you get to this point. This really shows the simplicity that was intended with this websites creation. It was meant to connect buyers and sellers together to exchange goods and services. In addition to the simplicity in colors, another factor that contributes to the feeling of simplicity is the fact that every word that is on the screen is lowercase unless it is a post from a seller. This lowercase lettering creates a laid back, and careless attitude that the viewer will feel subconsciously. It makes the viewer feel like this is a recreational site, and not one for high scale business transactions or something of that sort. It is a site for the everyday hobbyist. It promotes a laid back experience to accompany your shopping or searching for whatever your hobby entails. For me it is cars, trucks and motorcycles. The actual postings by the sellers is another story. The seller can use bold letters in their posts, italicized characters, and upper and lowercase letters as well. This is all a way to convince you to click on their post, and potentially buy their vehicle or whatever they are selling.

www.craigslist.com

Fabian Hernandez

Ms. Hoy

WRD-111

2 March 2014

                                                             Image/Text Analysis:

In the NRA’s efforts to debunk the Obama administrations attempts at gun control measures, they use a powerful video. The NRA argues in this video that the American people should be thinking more seriously about the things we should allow for the safety of our children while at school, and that Obama is hindering that extra measure of safety needed for our kids. They make this argument by using color, and emotionally charged statements and rhetorical questions.

The audience of this image is more geared towards the family man/woman. It is really aimed at anyone with a younger kid that is in school. With all of the school shootings it is a real threat that it could happen to any school and potentially any parent’s kids. The intended audience is persuaded by the ethos that the NRA holds with being the powerhouse of all things gun related, and feel they know what is best. The advertisement is really tailored to this specific audience and plays on their fears and pits them against the president’s anti-gun agenda, and his decision not to have guns in schools to protect the children.

For my analysis I will be focusing on one image taken from the NRA’s video campaign against the Obama administrations reluctance to put armed guards in schools. The picture depicts two children playing baseball with tall grass in the foreground and an American flag in the background. All of this scenery is shown in an eerie black and white color along with the huge words across the screen in white, saying, “ARE THE PRESIDENT’S KIDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOURS?” The words, “MORE IMPORTANT” are written in bright red and clearly contrast the black and white image.

When the video poses the question to the audience, the NRA is actually using pathos to make the reader think about their own kids and how important that they are to them. The NRA is asking them a rhetorical question that makes them feel anger that the president may think that his kids are more important than their own. It makes them wonder why their own kids aren’t held as high as the presidents children. This almost automatically has the audience side with the NRA.

While the question is showing in the image, the bold red letters stick out like a sore thumb, with somewhat hidden intent. The red coloring of the words are used to obviously emphasize the importance of the presidents kids being, “MORE IMPORTANT” than theirs but the use of red really shows the intent of the coloring. Red is the color usually used to represent anger, sometimes evil, and is most notably the color of blood. This gives insight into what the true intent of the color choice red was. It was meant to make the audience feel anger about the lack of importance placed on their kids by the president. It is also used to reflect the blood that could possibly be spilled if something were to happen to the audiences kids while at school unprotected. It raises the awareness of the dangers of the presidents declining of the movement to put armed guards in schools. The text could have been any color under the sun, but the decision to go with red was thought out and thought about. Blue represents calm and tranquility, but what good would that do to persuade? 

Blog Post 3

Our topic speeches covered a lot of hot topics in the news. My topic was gun control, and I think that I did a mediocre job at delivering my information to the class. I was losing focus while I talked and couldn’t organize my thoughts into a coherent string of words. I didn’t think that I needed a notecard or anything to keep my thoughts organized for a one minute speech that I was so passionate about, but now I feel that I was wrong. I remember having so many ideas in my head and so many directions that I wanted to take my speech, but I drew mostly blank when it came time to deliver my speech. In addition to the lack of coherent thoughts that I possessed in front of the class, I was also fidgety when I was in the spotlight. I have never been good at public speaking, and this wasn’t a big surprise to me when I watched the recording of the speeches. Overall, I think that I delivered the main points of my topic, but there was definitely a lot of room for improvement and I will be working on that the rest of the semester.

WRD 111 Blog

1-24-14

                                                                        Post #2

One topic that I can think of doing my speech on currently would be immigration. I would want to do a different angle on it, like why they are coming over to the United States in the first place, or something like that. I would include the conditions they are trying to escape and the opportunities here.

            Another topic could be the legalization of marijuana. I would present the pros and cons found in the states that have already legalized it, and why it should or shouldn’t be legal. I haven’t picked a side yet.

            Another possible topic could be the NSA’s use of monitoring systems relative to our communications. I would present the facts of why they are doing, and show pros and cons. Is it necessary for our safety? Or is it too invasive? Should we try to stop it, or is it a step in the right direction for the greater good of the country?

January 20th, 2014
                                                                   Blog Post 1

When we drive down the road on any given day, we pass by numerous billboards off to the side, towering above most things around you. They are clearly visible, and present to you a product or service that can be purchased by you as a consumer. We may not realize the argument that these billboards present whenever we see them, but having one right next to my work has given me the time to examine them. The billboard by my work is an advertisement for the UK federal credit union. It shows a UK basketball player dribbling, and a portrait style photo of coach Cal. I didn’t think much about it before, but I can now see that the argument shown on the billboard is that the UKFCU is the best. Everyone loves the UK basketball team and we are the winningest team in college basketball, and they attempt to associate that with their bank and their services. They are arguing that they are the best.

There are also arguments in places that we wouldn’t expect or don’t really think about like in the packaging of products. There are so many facts and features that are showcased on a package for something. When you buy something, they don’t give an essay of why their product is better than a competitors. They give facts and features of their product as if to say that this is why you should buy this. I recently bought a GPS as a gift, and the packaging was saying that it came with lifetime maps, and that the GPS had an easy user interface, and was accurate to within a couple of yards. This representation of information is an argument to buy the GPS over another that doesn’t have quite the same features.

Another argument that I have found is just the everyday disagreement. On the surface, a disagreement in opinions isn’t seen as an argument all of the time, but it is in fact an argument. My run in with this form of argument was with someone at work when they said that iPhone was better than the Galaxy series of phones. Our disagreement was followed with reasons for our thinking and opinion. This was an attempt to persuade each other to think the way that the other was thinking. We were presenting an argument to each other to change their views.

The second to last argument that I have noticed is a newspaper. A newspaper has many potential rivals. It is easy to get information on current events online or numerous other places, so newspaper editors need to put a catchy title or cover story on. The Kentucky Kernel is no different in its approach. The newspaper argues that their newspaper should be picked up and read instead of other forms of current events. When the Kentucky Kernel puts interesting stories on the cover, they are arguing to read their paper.

The last thing that I saw that presented an argument was in a song title. The titles of songs are a recap of what the song is about, but more importantly it presents an argument to people of why they need to listen to the music. The title argues that the song is interesting and that it would be fun, or interesting to listen to. It peaks interest in the audience and argues for them to listen.