E-Portfolio

Hello I am currently an undergraduate at The Pennsylvania State University with a double major in Political Science and Communications. I choose these two majors because the reason for my college career is to become a lawyer. I believe that if I know how the law became to be and how to effectively communicate with people through my writing and speaking I will be able to be the best at my profession. This year I have grown as a person, writer, and a speaker because of classes like LA101H and clubs like Mock Trial

My writing has increased a great deal during this year because I learned that what I think is an A paper others may think it is a B paper. In high school and grade school, I have always thought I was the best writer because I always got A’s on my papers. I never looked at any of the comments on them because if I had an A, how could I improve my writing? But this year it hit me hard. Papers that would have been A’s in high school turned into B’s, B-‘s and C+’s. I was completely shocked when this happened so for the first time in my life I actually read the comments on the paper. And most of the comments were the same, I needed to proofread, I needed more information and I needed more variety in my vocabulary. Looking back on all of those years, I wish I would have read those comments on my papers because they could have helped me with the harsh reality that I faced after just my first paper in college, everything that I write is not great.

One of the clubs that I am apart of is Mock Trial. It is an imitation trial. This showed me that practice can go a long way. I have a good memory when it comes to certain things but it is not so good with others. I never realized this before because I never had to deal with these problems before. In Mock Trial I had to be an expert witness. I thought this would be simple, man was I wrong. While practicing, I kept mixing up and forgetting lines to specific questions. I realized then that I was going to need a lot of practice which was new to me for speaking. When I normally wrote something I just read through it once before I presented it and just ad-lib where I got stuck. But since this was actual statistics I could not do that. I practiced and practiced until I had everything memorized which was harder than I thought it would be.

This year has taught me a great deal. But the thing that I will always remember is no matter how good one does something there is always room for improvement. 


Link To Darrell Simon's E-Portfolio

Too Much, Too Little, Just Right!

There is always a place where more is better but that is not on a poster. A poster is supposed to catch the attention of a person and make them want to read it. If there is too much going on than one will pass it and will probably never read it. But one does not want to be bland and not have anything on your poster because people will forget about it right after they see it. So how much is too much and how much is too little? In order to examine this I will need to examine three different posters.

The first poster I will examine is the one with Superman on the cover. This one is doing way too much. This is because you cannot tell the main point of the poster. When people are reading a poster they want something that will take less than 10 seconds to read and remember. This will take most people a good thirty seconds to read, look at the pictures, and understand what the poster is trying to say. Even though the poster might be memorable it has too much going on.

http://www.gigposters.com/posters/594.jpg

The second poster of just the writing is nice and simple but people will not remember it. Even though there is a little color it is mostly black and white. And it does not tell you what you will get. Buy a tin of Andrews what? This is the type of poster that people will read and not remember. Another thing that is wrong with this poster is that there is no store name, address or phone number on it. If someone sees this poster and want to buy a tin of what is being sold how are they going to know where to buy it at? This has way too little information so people might read it but will not remember it.

http://www.lecraic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/badpstr-small1.jpg

The third poster with the pencils is a perfect example of having just enough material on a poster. With the picture you see what the poster might be about and there is enough writing where you can read it quickly and easily. The picture makes the poster memorable because when most people have pencils they want to have them all facing one way because people like order and this poster breaks that order. The words will make people want to read it because there are not that many and they can easily go on with their day.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg244/joanwwy88/GoodPoster.jpg

Posters should have enough information to make it memorable but not too much that it makes it crowded.

Right Place, Right Time

“There is a right time for everything.” I have heard this saying multiple time and never really cared about it until I was ease dropping on an argument. They were arguing about some crushed chips. I guess the dude did it on purpose because the girl was heated. This argument was going on for about ten minutes and it had escalated too much more serious things like money and his ability to hold a job. Since I did not know any of them I thought this argument was hilarious until one of her friends whispered something in the girl ear. I have no clue what it was but the girl got even angrier and punched another girl who I thought was just a bystander. I just assumed that the two people arguing were dating and the girl that got slept was the main reason why the man was broke and always tired. After she punched the girl the cops came and she got arrested. If her friend ever heard “there is a right time for everything” then no one would have got arrested for assault.

This is a perfect example of kairos because she lost the time to tell her the information that she did when she started yelling with her boyfriend. She should have waited until she was thinking straight until she told her some news like that. She probably would have acted differently if she was not already heated but that was not the case. Remember there is a time for everything and that saying the wrong thing at the wrong time could lead to someone getting into serious trouble. So next time you are about to tell someone some bad news make sure they are in their right mind so they can deal with the problem in a sane way.

What Controversy?

Controversy is apart of our society. So would there be controversy if the government made a weapon that do not have to be manned, could shoot over one million rounds a minute and quarter of a million 40mm grenades a minute? You probably think that these types of gun only exist in movies or TV shows. You would be completely wrong.

When I was watching the Discovery Channel I came upon this video of this gun called Metal Storm. It was developed for the military by Metal Storm Limited which develops electronic weapons. There gun is different from other guns because the only moving part is the bullet. When you fire the gun an electric emissions system to sends the bullet out.

They also have made handguns that can fire three rounds within less than a second before the gun recoils. Another advantage to this gun is that this gun can never jam. A gun jamming could lead to severe injury or worse, death. This gun never jams because if one of the signals does not go through then the next round would just push the next one out.

Metal Storm also has sensors. It shows where one’s people are and where all of the enemy’s are. This allows the military to devise a plan on how to put the most hurt on the enemy with the least fire power.

So why does this affect tour life? There are many ways that it can, one is black market trading. People always want to make more money so they could sell the plans on how to build this gun. Also people who commit crimes here may be able to get them since they can get almost any gun with enough money. If a criminal had this gun then he would be able to commit any crime he wanted because this gun is deadly accurate and can rip through any type of armor.

What other things are the government making that you do not know about? Have they found a bomb stronger than the hydrogen bomb? Have they really stopped making bombs?

A Truly Sad Day

Pathos is an appeals to people’s emotions. They want people to act on it because they can relate to what is going on. Appealing to the sad side of people’s emotion is the most affective because it is easier to make people sad than happy or excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcBLYxCzFgw

In this Christian Children's Fund TV Commercial they do an excellent job of making the audience feel sad. This is because of the sad music, the somber voice of the man speaking, the conditions the children are living in and the children faces. During the whole commercial not one person smiled. They all were just sad and miserable. And the houses were just branches tied together with dirty sheets over them. Not one person had on shoes on and they were living in dirt. This would have people look back on their childhood and see that they had it good and make them want to donate. If a child see’s this commercial then they would want their parents to help them out because they would see how good fortunate they have it.

The point of this commercial is to get people to donate money for the cause of helping these less fortunate children out. They try and get the audience to feel bad for these children and make them do something about it. They do a great job at getting the audience sad because I know many people who have cried and donated money because of this commercial.

Another way that this commercial is supper effective is the times that it comes on, it is either before the children get up for school, Sunday’s or during Saturday morning cartoons. They air the commercial when everyone is most vulnerable which is a great strategy.

Every commercial wants the audience to buy an idea and the idea this commercial is selling is that you can donate a little money each week to help a child out.

A Speech: Ways To Give A Good One

Different people have ways of writing, practicing and delivering a speech. But the guidelines they use are mostly the same. They mostly use the same format, even if they know it or not, because it is the one that works. They just put their own spin on it because it is easier for them.

The format most people use for witting a speech is to first organize their ideas. This is because they want to know what they are going to write. They want to have solid points before they even start writing. If they do not have solid points then they would not have a solid speech. Formatting a speech does not just have to do with the topics of the paragraphs, it also have to do with the order the paragraphs are in.

The order of the paragraphs is always important because you want to have each paragraph to run smoothly. If the paragraphs run smoothly then the audience can understand the main point one is trying to make. They would not have to think how the speaker got to point A to point B then to Point C. This is something that would be easy for them to see. Delivering ideas in a way that the audience can understand the speech is one part of the speech but how one gives the speech is also important.

The main point of a speech is not the context, it is how the speech given. If one have a paper up in front of their face, studdars, or is monotone then the audience will stop paying attention. To avoid these things one must prepare for their speech. They have to read their speech over and over again. They need to know their speech and what they are going to say. If they do not do these then they will not be able to get the audiences attention and will not have an effective speech.

Those Tricky Little Ads

There are different types of ways one can make and ad, with ethos, logos, or pathos. They are all very affective if you use them right. You do not want to make an ad about milk and use Gabriel Iglesias. When one makes an ad there is a lot of thought that goes into whom they use, the colors they use, and the facts they use.

For logos, it is all about the cold hard facts and statistics. They do not have to be in much detail but people will understand. For the ad below, it says a clear statement. “This Bus Is Three Times More Likely to Choke You Than Run You Over.” This ad will have the audience thinking about it long after they have seen the ad. Some people will actually do research and see if the ad is true and if it is they might do something to get people informed about the situation. These types of ads want to plant a statistic in your head that grows into curiosity. Once someone is curious the ad has done its purpose.

Pathos is used manipulate your feelings. People always want to know that they did something meaningful while they were on this Earth. They want to change the world. The ad below plays off of that. In 1917 the United States declared a war on Germany; this is when this ad first came out. The color of the ad was red, white, and blue. This showed pride in one’s nation and it appealed to the emotion of the men who wanted to do something with their life but did not know what to do. This is because when you are standing in front of the poster, Uncle Sam is pointing at you and he says that he wants “YOU” which means that this was their calling. Once they feel emotionally connected with an ad the ad has done its purpose.

The Sneaky Use of Rhetoric in Everyday Life

When you see a billboard or an ad one sometimes just want to buy that product. This is because of Rhetoric. Rhetoric would have a different definition for every person you ask. One definition of it is the purposeful use of language and images.

Commercials do this all of the time to sell products. They take what the majority likes and tie it with their product. State Farm did this with Aaron Rodgers with the Discount Double Check and this happened with the group LMFAO for Budweiser.

The Discount Double check is when the agents at State Farm go through a costumer’s policy to make sure they are getting all the discounts they deserve. They incorporated Aaron Rogers into this by making the Discount Double Check his touchdown dance move. Because Aaron Rodgers just won a Superbowl MVP and had one of the “greatest” seasons for a quarterback of all time he was the popular guy and everyone knew his name. They purposely used him in their commercial because it showed two important things; the first was that he was a member of State Farm. Some people will pick where they shop at if an idol of theirs go their. The second reason is that have great costumer service to all of their customers. Normally when a celebrity walks in a building he will get the attention from every staff member but when Aaron Rodgers walked in he had to wait until his turn.

For the Budweiser commercial, they used the hottest group members out at that moment. Their national hit, Party Rock Anthem, was being played everywhere by everybody. People saw that LMFAO drunk Budweiser so they would want to drink it too. People want to be like their idols and what better way to do that then to eat, drink and wear the same things that they do. This was released on December 25 so they also incorporated Christmas and the NBA Finals Champions, the Dallas Mavericks, on the commercial because the new NBA season started that day.

Companies use rhetoric to sell their product. They get the latest trend and incorporate it with their product. This shows that their product is cool and makes us wants to buy it.

I Believe In True Friends

http://www.personal.psu.edu/dos5301/blogs/LA101H.mp3

The Power of Speaking

Speaking is one of the ways most people communicate. It is a way to get a point across, when people speak they can persuade people, inform them, or befriend them. Even if you have the best ideas in the world, no one will listen to you if you cannot speak well.

During the debates of Republicans are having they have to sound confident, know what they are talking about, and present their ideas in a way everyone understands them. They need to know how to communicate with the people they are talking to.

“We talk to other people because we live in a world with them. Even if, sometimes, we feel it is not worth all the trouble listening to other people and finding the right words to say back….” This is related to the debates the Republicans have because some of the questions that get asked are some that they do not want to answer. It could be because it is not about the Presidential race or it is a topic they are shaky on.

Newt Gingrich was asked a question to start off a debate about him trying to convince his wife to let another girl join them in their intimate moments. He got upset about this because this was the first question of the debate and it had nothing to do with what he would do if he was elected President. He did not want to say anything back but he had to say something. He had to speak to show his opinion on the question.

Many people get questions like this everyday. They are the question no one wants to answer but almost everyone has to answer because it is one of the ways that we show courtesy to others. When people get these type of questions they tend to have sarcastic answers to show the one who asked you, you did not like the question even though you did not feel like finding the right words to say back

The Power of Ethos

Why do most people overpay for the things that they buy? It is not because they want to or is it because they have nothing better to do with their money, it is because of something that all advertising companies do they use ethos. Ethos appeals to the trustworthiness of the person selling the product. 

Kobe Bryant is one of the most hardworking basketball players ever. He works everyday to get better at his game. Also many people like and respect Kobe’s opinion. So when Nike is trying to sell one of their newer basketball shoes, they use Kobe as the sponsor of it. Everyone knows that Kobe Bryant has reached heights in basketball that only a selected few has ever reached, so when he sponsor a commercial about hard work people will listen. 

But they also know that not all people watch basketball and not everyone cares about basketball so they also get many other people who are very successful like Serena Williams, Kanye West, Jerry West, Landon Donovan, Wang Leehom, and many more people that helps them to a more broader audience. They do not try to sell the shoe; they try to sell the Kobe System with the shoe. They do this because not everyone cares about basketball, but everyone wants to be great at what they do. With the people from different sports and people from the music industry trying to buy this product tells the mind one thing, the shoes help people go beyond success. This commercial shows that everyone can go beyond successful with this shoe. 

Ethos is a type of rhetoric that will allow people to think they are getting the best product on the market. This will happen because they think that if one of the greatest basketball players, wide receivers, tennis players, and soccer players need the shoe to be better, they nee the shoe too.

Rhetoric is a very powerful tool that people can use because it allows them to persuade other people of their opinion and try to give them some more knowledge.

This is Darrell Simon's Blog. I would like to say welcome to my blog. Here you will learn about my favorite thing and what i am doing in  my LA 101H class.