Monroe's Motivated Sequence

It's also covered in your book (and extensively online) but here is my PPT for Monroe's Motivated Sequence.

Motivational Speech Topics, Section 3

Comment here if your class normally meets at 1pm

Motivational Speech Topics, Section 4

Comment here if you class normally meets at 2:30pm.

Blogger Template Resources

Blogger Templates Searchable by Feature
120 Best Free Blogger Templates
Two Portfolio-Specific Templates

And although many of them require more advanced programming, or are written on different platforms, here are some portfolio examples to get those conceptual creative juices flowing: foliofocus.com

U.S.-Based Think Tanks

When considering possible policy recommendations for the upcoming persuasive essay, it might be beneficial to consult those who've thought carefully about the issue at hand.  Here's a list of domestic public policy institutes from Wikipedia.  Here's a list from the University of Michigan that briefly describes the topics and perspectives covered by most of the major think tanks.  Finally, here's a list (slightly outdated) of the 25 most cited think tanks in the media, along with a one word label of their political bias.

One more video example

You may be sick of these by this point, but I thought I'd send one more sample video project your way.  This one has some really nice things about it, like a fascinating topic, clever title slides, great research, strong analytical content, and a couple speakers with particularly expressive inflection.  But it also has a few conceptual and technical shortcomings: discontinuity across sections (it's clear that each speaker designed his or her own visuals), some generic and some overly abstract images, unexpected pacing changes (shot length varied significantly), different audio levels between speakers (recorded on different quality mics and in different rooms), and a few zoom/pan problems.

What were your reactions to watching it?

Lecture on Entertainment and Morality

I'm afraid I can't make this lecture due to another obligation, but this sounds like it'll be a fascinating talk.  If you do make it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.


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Arthur A. Raney, a leading media effects scholar, will present the spring 2011 Robert M. Pockrass Memorial Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday, April 4, in Foster Auditorium of Paterno Library at Penn State's University Park campus.

His free public lecture, titled "The Ongoing Morality Play: Media Entertainment and Our Sense of Right and Wrong," is sponsored by the Penn State College of Communications and University Libraries.

Dr. Raney is an associate professor and director of doctoral studies in the School of Communication at Florida State University.  His research examines the psychological processes associated with enjoying media entertainment, addressing the question “how and why do we enjoy what we enjoy?”  More specifically, he also explores the role that moral judgment plays in the enjoyment of dramatic, violent, sports, and interactive content.

His work has been published in many entertainment and media-effects anthologies, as well as Journal of Communication, Media Psychology, Communication Theory, and Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.  He is also the lead editor of Handbook of Sports and Media.        

The Pockrass Lecture was named after the late Professor Robert M. Pockrass, a member of Penn State's journalism faculty from 1948 to 1977. Pockrass, who specialized in public opinion and popular culture, served as the graduate officer and taught radio news writing for the School of Journalism, which later became the College of Communications. 

Congratulations. This is how rational human beings exchange ideas.

How to determine if you're having a rational argument.

More on the Creative Commons license

Here's a video explaining the purpose and procedures of the Creative Commons license.  It isn't required for this project--and may not be feasible--but it's something worth knowing about.

Note that to use a CC license you need to be using some combination of others' CC material, your own material, or brief elements of copyrighted works allowed under the fair use principle.  You can't use major chunks of copyrighted works and distribute your work under the CC license, however, because you'll be giving people permission to use every aspect of your work.  And you can't legally give them permission to use copyrighted works you've borrowed--even though you're allowed to use it under the TEACH Act of 2002.

Interview Permission Form

Here's a sample permission form you can use to obtain consent to use the words or likeness of interviewees in your video project: Permission Form

Sources to kick-start your brainstorming for the video projects

Selecting a good topic for the video projects can be a challenge, but there are many things worth pursuing.  For example, all of these topics are unique and narrowed, and there is ongoing debate about them in at least some forum: 

• Societal expectations that everyone should go to college
• Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility proposals
• The “CSI Effect”: How forensic investigation dramas distort evidence standards for jury trials
• Societal ramifications of unscheduled but potentially harmful drugs (like Salvia divinorum)
• Effects changes in the Motion Picture Rating System have had on perceptions of acceptable media content
• Language proficiency assessment for Arabic speakers in the military
• Psychology of alien abduction reports
• Immanent domain abuses
• Rise in unclaimed bodies at morgues

 To find a salient topic, consider browsing sources that provide in-depth discussion of contemporary issues, rather than relying on sources with mass market appeal.  Here are a few of those I find helpful when looking for timely topics:

http://www.theatlantic.com/  Excellent discussion of a wide variety of contemporary issues, with authors across the (mainstream) political spectrum.

http://www.slate.com/  Online-only publication, similar in many ways to The Atlantic.  Generally varied authorial perspective; left-leaning positions are slightly more represented.

http://www.salon.com/  Similar to slate.com, but slightly more pop culture driven.  (A bit more of the “what people want to hear” rather than “what informed citizens should know.”)  Still, some thorough discussions of serious contemporary social issues.

http://www.thenation.com/ If you prefer your news and commentary from the left.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ If you prefer your news and commentary from the right.

http://www.ted.com  Great selection of short video presentations from experts on a variety of topics.  The TED conferences that produce these videos are especially popular with early adopters, innovators, futurists, and people who just like learning things.

http://chronicle.com/ The Chronicle of Higher Education does what it says, and is a must-read for anyone looking to understand current trends in academia today.

http://www.pcmag.com While a lot of this is similar to what you’d find on Ars Technica or Gizmodo, PC Magazine has a nice Opinion section that often addresses the cultural ramifications of technology.  I especially appreciate the snarky John Dvorak.

http://www.hbr.org  The Harvard Business Review is a great source for accessible commentary on Corporate America, including issues in management, leadership, business strategy, and the economy.

Intellectual property, copyright, and fair use

The following post deals with avoiding copyright infringement (a legal problem), not plagiarism (an ethical problem).  You may need to cite additional things to meet the standards of academic integrity, in addition to any attribution you may need to do to substantiate fair use.  Also, note that libel and slander are other matters entirely, both of which are not only unethical, but also usually illegal.

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Fair use is a justification for using a portion of a copyrighted work for certain--but not all--educational, news reporting, parody, or cultural criticism purposes without express permission.  (You may also choose to obtain express permission to use larger portions of a work, or to avoid any risk of lawsuit.)  So quoting a small piece of, say, a news article would fall under fair use.  Fair use may also allow you to use a significantly altered work, such as when a DJ samples part of a familiar song to work into a mix.  

Note that the fair use principle does NOT allow you to simply take someone's image from Google Images and use it, even with attribution.  You would have to significantly alter the image, and even then there can be legal disputes.  (You may recall a series of famous Obama posters from the last election, where his face is artistically rendered in red, white, and blue tones.  Yet even this altered image has been the subject of a lawsuit.)

We watched a couple of videos about fair use, which are available here and here and  here.

More information on fair use and the Creative Commons Licenses can be found at www.copyright.psu.edu.  I urge you to read over some of the material in the fair use and Creative Commons sections to help you further understand the things that you will and won't be allowed to use once you leave academia.  Currently, most of your use of copyrighted material for class projects is covered under the TEACH Act of 2002.   

Even though you may be legally covered to use copyrighted material for class projects, you still need to cite the material to meet academic integrity standards.  You can find some information about citing digital files on Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) here. 

Finally, see more about the intricacies of fair use in the blogosphere here.  (While there is some gray area, realistically most images you see on other people's blogs violate copyright law.)

Submit "best of the blogs" links here

In the comments section below, submit direct links to your two best blog entries (one from each blog). 

Links to rhetorical artifacts for essays

As you begin thinking about your essays you'll want to quickly select a rhetorical artifact for contextual analysis.  I strongly encourage you to read over the directions again, but I've excerpted a small section here: "Identify a rhetorical artifact (or a closely aligned set of artifacts) that is interesting or complex.  This may be a speech, essay, ad campaign, website, building, art installation, memorial—you name it."  (Note that you should not just  re-analyze the same ad you're using in the speech.  If you broaden it out to an entire ad campaign, that would be acceptable--so there'd be some conceptual overlap--but it might be fun to pick something entirely new.)


Speeches make great fodder for rhetorical analysis, so I'm linking to a couple of really good sources for speech texts, audio, or video.


American Rhetoric - Definitive source for the most significant American speeches.  Start with the links at left, or search for something specific.
Famous Speeches - History Channel's speech archive includes presidential, war, civil rights, sports, and space exploration speeches.
Gifts of Speech - Women's speeches from around the world.


If you do elect to analyze a speech, I recommend avoiding speeches from movies.  The artificial nature of the rhetorical situation as constructed within the film will hinder the scope of your analysis.

Silko essay, as referenced in chapter 7

Here's the essay referenced in Friday's reading assignment.  It might be worth taking a closer look to further clarify the difference between textual and contextual analysis:

Silko Essay

Swagger Waggon (by Toyota)

This YouTube video is part of a series made by Toyota to market the Sienna minivan.  As you watch, consider audience, commonplaces, and ideology, as well as how ethos, pathos, or logos may be used.

Organization PPT

Here's the PowerPoint I used in class to talk about organization.

Organization PPT

This American Life - #1 Party School

Last year the radio show "This American Life" did a report on Penn State's #1 Party School status, among other things.  At some point next week we'll be looking at this recording in terms of audience, exigence, constraints, kairos, and the like.  I hope to at least listen to the first segment in class, but I think you'll find the whole thing... provocative.  At the very least, as a Penn State student you probably should know the perspective of others.

Click here for the broadcast.

Upload files for podcasts

www.zshare.net

Replacement chapter for those using old book

If you're using the older, first version of the textbook (yellow, rather than green), you'll want to download Thursday's reading assignment here.  It won't be quite as pretty as the one in the book, but the information is all the same.  Let me know if you encounter any difficulties!

(Edit: I made this document private again to avoid have a copyrighted work out there publicly.  Let me know if you need this chapter.)

Podcasting resources

There's a new page on the right-hand menu that lists some of the media and technology resources on campus we'll be using this semester.  For the audio recording (podcast) portion of the This I Believe project, I'd recommend setting up an appointment at one of the three main Media Commons locations.

You'll submit the podcast portion by posting it to your RCL blog (sorry, it won't replace your weekly posts).  The catch is that I'm not going to tell you how to do this.   It will be an opportunity for you to engage in some investigative problem solving.  So talk to other people, search online, and I know that you'll find one of a variety of ways to provide this content on your blog.

Some additional sample RCL posts

A couple of you wanted more clarification in terms of what counts as "good" RCL posts, so I thought I'd highlight some from other students (in different sections).

Rayna blogged about JFK's inaugural address, Patrick blogged about how a Nike ad echoes his struggle with motivation, and Kate blogged about delivery styles observed at a local poetry reading.

All three posts were, first and foremost, engaging.  They were focused, had a clear point to make (whether stated at the outset or the conclusion), and were just plain interesting.  They all tackled an instance rhetoric as it was experienced, and they engaged in analysis in addition to mere observation.  Finally, they embedded visuals (they didn't just link them), and they adopted a narrative style to convey their analysis.  (While not always appropriate, these last two take advantage of the best features of the blogging medium.)

Thoughts on initial round of blog posts

I wanted to give you a link to a blog entry by friend and fellow LA 101H  instructor Robin Kramer, who wrote up some great suggestions as her class is thinking about entries for their passion blogs.  I particularly appreciated #4: Make a Point.

As I reviewed the initial round of blog entries (for both the passion and RCL blogs), I noted that the stronger entries had a clear sense of purpose--these writers knew why readers would be interested in their thoughts and framed things accordingly.  If you're still not sure what you're trying to accomplish in your passion blog, I strongly encourage you to seek out others who are writing about something similar and see what catches your attention.  Modeling after other successful writers is a great strategy.  You may even find you want to link to one of their entries as you blog (and remember, any traffic from your link will show up in their stats, so this is a good way to get some exposure to a readership outside the class).

In many ways I viewed this first week as just a way to get acclimated to blogging, commenting, etc.  And although I'd say a third of the entries I reviewed needed some focusing, I expected this.  Part of the writing process is trying things out, seeing how they work once you've put them out there.  So if you're still a bit uncertain about "big picture" goals, or realized from the comments you received that things weren't clear, that's okay.  Use that to improve this week's entry.

Finally, there also were many really great entries this week, so I encourage you to browse through a few more of the blogs by your peers to see what others are doing.  There are a lot of creative, thoughtful, and engaging ideas out there!

State of the Union

Yes, that in-many-ways-awful presidential speech is coming up this week.  And the rhetorical situation is a bit different this year due both to the Giffords assassination attempt, and to the more explicit discussion of the role of civility in American political life.

Look for lots of punditry over the coming days--both speculation before and parsing afterward.  Here's one of the more interesting articles I've found on the issue  of SOTUs and our relation to them.  Worth a look!

Quality Blog Comments

Many people have written advice about good blog commenting, so a quick search should yield some useful advice.  These two entries are especially pithy--worth a look:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/how-to-write-a-blog-comment.aspx
http://bestbloggingtipsonline.com/10-reasons-no-one-notices-your-blog-comment/

Chapter equivalencies - 1st and 2nd editions

1st ed	2nd edition
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	CUT, replaced with “Kairos”
7	7
8	8
9	9
10	10
11	CUT
12	11
13	12
14	13
15	CUT
16	CUT
17	14
18	15
19	CUT
20	16
21	17
22	18
23	19
24	20

Martin Luther King Jr. [perhaps on civic engagement]

"Now, we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on."

This I Believe and Jon Stewart links from class

NPR's This I Believe site: http://www.thisibelieve.org
Local This I Believe examples: http://wpsu.org/radio/program/thisibelieve

Jon Stewart on Crossfire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE

The rhetoric of rhetoric

Much has been said in the past week about the tenor of our nation's civic discourse.  Early editorials and punditry placed some of the blame for the Arizona shootings on the tone of that discourse, especially remarks coming from conservatives.  Yesterday's remarks by Sarah Palin and speech by President Obama both addressed the issue of the civility and freedom of our speech, as well.

Bloggers on the left and right have chimed in, many providing clear rationales for their side's take on the issue.  One of the more restrained blog entries I found came from NYT politics blogger Michael Shear.  His post discussed the nature of Obama's and Palin's rhetoric, drawing out both the differences and similarities in their treatment of the issue, intimating that we'll see more of the contrasts in the coming year, as the next presidential election cycle ramps up.

Americans, for the most part, seem to think that there's been unhelpful politicking in response to the tragedy.  A Gallup poll Tuesday found that a majority of Americans think the issue of uncivil rhetoric wasn't a factor in the shooting, but is instead a wedge issue designed to make conservatives look bad.  Yet the poll also found "they are inclined to believe all major U.S. political groups are going too far in using inflammatory language to criticize their opponents."


So what, realistically, should be done about this?  Is it the nature of politics itself, as one conservative commentator (above) seems to imply?  Or has some appropriate limit been crossed, as others are claiming?  Or perhaps we're just expecting too much of politicians to begin with.  What do you think?

Welcome to our LA 101 website!

This website is the online space for your section of LA 101H.  It'll provide announcements, assignment directions, and ideas about how to get the most out of the course.

Feel free to explore the site using the page links to the right.  More content will be added as we go through the semester, so be sure to bookmark this site and check back regularly.

Glad to have you as part of the class!

Ben