Topic: Why music should be funded for residents in nursing homes with Alzheimer's Disease

Purpose: Music in the form of an MP3 player or iPod should be funded by the government for residents in nursing homes with Alzheimer's Disease because research has shown that residents with the disease show much more brain activity when listening to their favorite music. This cost of one simple device to play music should be covered by health care because it may be more effective than the drugs that the residents are receiving.

Audience: People who have family members with Alzheimer's Disease
                 The workers of the nursing home
                 People who work in health care and health insurance
                 Doctors who specialize in the brain
                 Music majors who would like to find a way to use their talents to help people
                 People who would like to donate their money, but are not sure where to give it

Context: The controversy would be that there are too many costs for the residents already and the people running nursing homes and insurance companies do not have the funds to buy the simple devices.

Definitions of Work, Career, and Vocation

To me, a career is something you are well versed in and spend a lot of time doing. It is usually an expertise one has and it is a broad category. My career at the moment is being a full time student. My life revolves around school and I spend long hours focusing only on that. I believe my title as a student is my career. The work I have in my life is my school work that I do in my career as a student or what I do to support the necessities I need in life. I babysit to make money. I enjoy it, but it is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. It is something I am doing just to get somewhere else in my life. I write papers, study for tests, filling out applications for housing and classes. What I consider to be my vocation is my calling in life. I believe my vocation in life is to help people. I do not find it to be my career or work because it is something I enjoy doing and believe I am meant to do. 

Purpose Statement and Design Plan

Abby Persicketti

Dr. Wielgos

College Writing II

Purpose Statement: The purpose of my rhetorical analysis is to show the audience how the creators of the posters of several Audrey Hepburn movies get across the plot of a movie using different elements such as the position of objects and words, color, and facial expressions. I want my audience to watch the movies after reading my analysis. I want them to also have a better understanding of why the posters were such a large part in making the movies successful.

Audience:  The audience is romantic movie lovers, Audrey Hepburn fans, and hopeless romantics.

Context: I am going to focus on three different parts of the posters. First, I will focus on how the text and typeface can relay a message about the movie. Second, I will focus on the facial expressions and body language of the characters on the poster. Third, I will focus on the colors and placement of everything on the poster.

The medium I will use is an academic paper on Microsoft Word with large images of the posters so the audience can see the details that I will be talking about.

The arrangement of the posters will be wrapped in the text that is speaking about them. The audience will be able to view the poster easily after they read the words talking about it.

Strategies:       Ethos: I will focus on the credibility that each designer of the poster has. I will research his or her history in art or school or the movie industry. This will help the audience know exactly who the creator is and what makes them qualified to make something as important for promoting a movie as the poster. The ethos the audience will be able to trust me and see that I am credible because I have seen all of the movie and I will also do my research on the creators of the posters as well as the time period.

Logos: I will analyze why the creator of the poster would do certain things on the poster. Such as, if it is logical to make a certain actors name larger than the name of the movie title just because he or she is friends with that actor, or if they did that because the popularity of the actor will draw in an audience to see the movie.  

Pathos: I will write about the effect that the certain color choices and words may have on the audience and why they will be drawn to see the movie. Many of the choices the creators of the posters make are to strike a chord in the audience to make them feel a certain way. Whether it’s a longing face because of forbidden love, or a smile because Audrey Hepburn is happy in the movie. There are plenty of ways the creator tries to make the audience feel using different elements of the poster. The audience will feel the love and the emotions of each story that I will be talking about through my use of imagery. 

The poster from the movie "Crazy Stupid Love" is based a lot on the faces of the characters of the movie. This movie looks like it was made a few years ago because the clothes are very current and so is the way the photos look. They look like they were taken with high definition cameras. The genre of  the movie that is being publicized by this poster is a romantic comedy for older audiences. The evidence I used was the title, of course, but also the photos. The people in the line of photos are smiling. Also, the largest photo with Steve Carell and the woman's heel on the table shows a sense of romance that is in the movie, but you can tell it will be comical based on the confused/shocked expression he has on his face. I think the designers used the colors they did to make it look sophisticated. There are not any super harsh, in your face colors. The visual path my eye follows through the poster is first Steve Carell's face in the large picture because it is in focus. Then it leads to the heel because you want to be able to see what Steve Carell is looking at. You could also say that your eye leads then to the title because it is in the center and goes from a thin to bold text. My eyes then follow the photos of the characters from left to right at the bottom of the screen. The eyes then go to the date at the bottom of the poster. The designers "ask" you to see the elements of the poster in this order because it first introduces you to the main character, then to the title, then to the rest of the cast, and then the date it hits theaters.The overall effect of this poster is to show that the movie is funny and inviting, but it also shows that it is not a movie that children should watch because of the mature tone of the colors and pictures.

Abby Persicketti

Dr. Wielgos

College Writing II

Purpose Statement and Design Plan

My purpose for this essay is to open the eyes of my generation and generations to come and show them that while Technology (mostly phones), while they may have benefits to society, are also hurting the social part of society when people are focusing on their technology rather than the people around them. A majority of mankind is becoming less social because they connect through a screen rather than sitting with one another in conversation. This can be harmful because when it comes to a time that they need to interact with others in person they may not be able to do it effectively. I have heard many times that people miss the “old days” of no cell phones where people got work done and were out and about with their friends and family instead of staring at meaningless things on their phone. I would have to agree that I miss my younger days of not having a phone. That is why this purpose is important to me, because I miss the sense of closeness I used to have with people when scrolling on one’s phone instead of talking was not an option. The people I will be targeting in particular with this photo essay is anyone who uses their phone regularly, specifically teens and young adults. I want my audience to see the things they are missing and to become aware of how they are when they are on the phone. Some people are so used to having a phone with them that they may not realize how much they are on it. I think the statement will come across strong because the audience will be able to relate since I am sure they have a phone. As a whole, I believe if we all become more self- aware of our phone usage we may become more productive and look at the world differently. This time with our head up instead of looking down at a screen.

The approach I am taking to this design plan is that I am using the Mesh slides PowerPoint provides as a nice background that looks techy, but will not distract too much from the pictures shown on the slide. The font I will use is SimSun because it looks very stiff and structured, and it reminds me of technology. The typeface is not warm or inviting and, therefore, this will cause a cold feeling while looking at the slides because the feeling I am trying to convey, is a sense of coldness that comes with using technology rather than having human interaction. The photos will show different scenarios where technology can distract the users such as playing a game of cards, eating breakfast, studying for a test or simply having a friend try to talk to you. The photos will be in color so they can stand out against the gray background. The captions of the photos will help the viewers to understand a little more exactly what is happening in the photo. I believe they will be able to tell the scenario without the captions, but the captions help the audience to see what the people in the photos are thinking or saying.

Ethos: I want my audience to see that I am someone who has experienced the distractive qualities of a phone. I took photos of real situations I have been in before and I think that makes me a credible source. My font is very professional looking and looks like an authoritative font, which will help the audience to take it more seriously.

Pathos: The photos look like they could be anyone’s friends who might not be paying attention to them. The audience will be able to feel what they have felt before when they have been in that situation.

Logos: The photos will show the ways that people can be distracted by their phones in a very logical way. I believe the audience will look at the photos and be able to make sense of what is happening in the specific example.

My Photo Essay

Reflection

My experience with this photo essay has been mixed. I enjoyed creating the essay itself and coming up with the purpose statement. I also think that I had a good, relevant idea for this photo essay. However, I am not extremely pleased with the quality of my photos because the camera on my phone is an older version. I think they are clear enough to get the point across, but it would have helped my credibility if the pictures looked a little more professional. Other than my photos not meeting my liking, I enjoyed the creativity I was allowed with this essay. Usually when I hear the word "essay" I get stressed out, but if every essay could be like this one I would not mind doing them more often. When we were first told about the photo essay I was apprehensive about how I was going to make my thoughts concise. Luckily, Dr. Wielgos was very helpful during each class and on Blackboard explaining the steps we needed to take to successful relay our purpose statement to the audience. Overall, I would say that I enjoyed this essay thoroughly and would gladly do another, with a different camera next time.  

Abby Persicketti

Prof. Wielgos

Purpose Statement

My motivation for this essay is to open the eyes of my generation and generations to come that while technology is interesting and useful it is also important to have a connection with people in the flesh.

This statement of purpose can apply to almost anyone. It does not apply as much to the older generation as much as the generation growing up in the time where technology is used almost anywhere and is a large part of our day to day lives.

I think this purpose is something everyone could share who uses technology frequently, which is a large audience around the world.

I believe this purpose is something I will be proud of sharing once I put it all together because I think it can be eye opening.

1.      List of audience characteristics: Children, teens, young adults, and anyone else who uses technology often.

People you let technology get in the way during social gatherings or keeps them from going to social gatherings.

Any ethnicity

Class can be anyone who can afford to have a phone or access to other technologies.

2.      I believe the audience will see good points in my purpose. They should be interested because a lot of people, including myself, focus too much of their phones and laptops instead of facing what is right in front of them. They might be disinterested, or hostile because they cannot imagine not having their phone with them all the time, especially

when at a social gathering.  

Context: The context of this communication is one that will most likely happen in a class presentation, or a conference about technology’s effect on society.

The place of communication can be in a classroom or maybe a small gathering. Perhaps they could also be reading my purpose while in the comfort of their own home.

The space of the communication might be in a school assembly because that would be where I could reach the broadest of my audience.

My statement of purpose: Technology (mostly phones), while they may have benefits to society, are also hurting the social part of society when people are focusing on their technology rather than what is going on around them.  

Writing and design can help get across an idea or message in a clearer format. Many people can easier understand a concept when there is a design to go with it rather than just spoken words. Writing is a strong form of communication because it gives the readers the means to go back and fully examine what is being communicated. When there is design added to that writing people will be able to feel more of what the author was trying to emote. The design pleases the senses of the reader and makes reading the writing more enjoyable. Images that go with a text can be used as a strategy to have a more effective rhetorical communication.

Blogs are something that I enjoy reading very much. Blogs help get out the thoughts and ideas of the writers without a publishing company or editor to prohibit them from saying something. I think it is efficient in communicating with others because anyone with internet access can read or set up a blog. I do not think a blog or "blogger" signifies any type of specific person to me. Any type of person can blog. They may talk about their secrets or emotions and have deep thoughts to share, or perhaps it might be a person who would like to inspire people. There are also humorous blogs, which are my favorite. I also enjoy fashion and beauty related blogs. Blogs can be helpful when it comes to teaching others new things or asking people for help with something. A blog could have a use for me. I would probably use it to document my time through college and tell funny anecdotes about my time here. If I end up moving away at some point for my job I would like to keep a blog to easily update all of my family and friends about what I am up to. Lastly, I plan on traveling as much as possible when I graduate or even before, so I would like to blog about my adventures while traveling to new places and what I recommend seeing.