Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Presentation Zen

The first article iread awas about presenting "naked," making your speech the honoset, simple, and fresh. He gives advice at the bottom of the post on how to give a "naked" speech. It is a long list that i included jsut to show an example of how he gives advice to his readers.

• Be present in the moment. Right here right now. Do not be occupied with thoughts of the future, of thoughts concerning what the results of your presentation might lead to. Do not ask about origins and ends leaving the moment forgotten. When you are with your audience, all that matters is that moment.

• Don't try to impress. Instead try to, share, help, inspire, teach, inform, guide, persuade, motivate... or make the world a little bit better.

• Keep the lights on. Find a compromise between a bright screen and enough room light for you to be seen. Do not hide in the dark — the audience came to see you as well as hear you.

• Forget the podium. Move away from obstacles that are between you and the audience.

• Use a small remote allowing you to have the freedom to move around the room/stage as you like.

• Don't attempt to hide. What's the point? Do not be evasive intellectually or physically.

• Do not become attached to your software — if your computer crashes, screw it...the show must go on immediately, not after you have rebooted. Stuff happens, move on. Your message is far greater than the technology helping you.

• Keep it simple. All of it. Simple goals, clear messages, and moderation in length.

• Are you just a bit cheeky? Then that should show in your presentations too. Let your personality shine through. Why hide one of your biggest differentiators?

• Be credible.

• Do not use "corporate-speak" — speak like a human being. You can not be naked if you say something like "best practices" or "empowering a new paradigm."

• Think of your audience as being active participants not passive listeners ("Passive listener" = oxymoron?).

• Be comfortable with yourself being "naked." It takes practice and it takes confidence. The confidence comes with practice. Audiences hate arrogance and cockiness, but they love confidence...if it is genuine.

• Never decorate your messages or your supporting visuals. Decoration is veneer. Think design, but never decoration. Design is soul deep, decoration is "Happy Birthday" placed atop a sponge cake.

• Think in terms of what makes a good meal and good design. Think balance, harmony, variety...and content that leaves them satisfied and delighted, yet wanting more.

He gives disclaimers to hi advice though too. The persona is that he is a logical guy giving logical information. he knows what he is talking about and therefore we shold listen! I could definitely use his advice on giving naked speeches for my pecha-kucha speech.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

blog on political blog

Read two political blogs and then blog yourself on how to blog attempts to persuade. How quickly did it take you to figure out the general orientation of the blog? Comment on the usage of logos, ethos, and pathos. What about the use of images? Comments? Links? Think about adding to their comments if you are so inclined.


The first blog i looked at was "instapundit.com." This blog had titles of the posts made on the main home page. In these titles, a few words of key important woudl be in blue and were the links to other posts or articles. By doing this, the author draws atention to his main focus and potentially his own opinion on the topic. He attempts to persuade readers by providing them with information, but information targeted toward a particular side of the opinion. I saw very quickly that this guy was not a Mike Huckabee fan sine there were many titles disputing or mocking him. There wer a few images and lots of links.

The second blog was "The corner." This article was a bit harder to figure out. Actually, I'm still not sure i really know what the over view of teh bloggers is. There were some pieces that were clearly pro a certain candidate, like Romney, and others, like ones about MIke Huckabee, are a bit more mixed and confusing. There were some that said he was a better theologist than political leader and others giving mixed message about his speeches given. I think the blog attempts to persuade by giving the people an option to get their own voice out there. There was one blog taht said this, "Romney wins in a romp. Positive and substantive.," which very clearly gets the point and opnion accross of this blogger. The overall blog is a piecing together from many different types of people. There aren't many links or pictures, mainly personal blogs.

op/ed story analysis

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071206/cm_csm/ysalih;_ylt=A0WTUcdgblhHs7cAOwb9wxIF

blog it by identifying the types of arguments used and their effectiveness, and plan a short group presentation of the editorial to the rest of the class.

The story i read was about a guy from Sudan. He gives insight to his own personal life about how what is hapening in Sudan affects him here in America. The author talks about the power of association in how people would associate the knews that they heard about Sudan to him, because he was teh only Sudanese guy they knew. Becase he was born here and it was his father who immigrated here during the 1970s, he feels "ashamed" sometimes of his heritage. When radical events occur in Sudan all he wants to do is disappear because the connection peple draw from him to Sudan is all to unpleasant. The type of argument he uses is informal pathos. He comes accross as a regular guy dealing with a probem and makes one feel empathetic to his case.

fallacies

1. circular argument: " A viciously circular argument is one with a conclusion based ultimately upon that conclusion itself, and such arguments can never advance our knowledge."
2. slippery slope: A) non cuasa pro causa "If A happens, then by a gradual series of small steps through B, C,…, X, Y, eventually Z will happen, too. Z should not happen. Therefore, A should not happen, either."
B) vagueness "A differs from Z by a continuum of insignificant changes, and there is no non-arbitrary place at which a sharp line between the two can be drawn. Therefore, there is really no difference between A and Z."
"A differs from Z by a continuum of insignificant changes with no non-arbitrary line between the two.
Therefore, A doesn't exist."
3. either/or: simple contructive dilemna "Either p or q. If p then r. If q then r. Therefore, r."
disjunctive syllogism "Either p or q. Not-p. Therefore, q."
4. Post Hoc: non causa pro causa "event C happened immediately prior to event E. Therefore, C caused E."
"Events of type C happen immediately prior to events of type E. Therefore, events of type C cause events of type E."
5. anecdotal fallacy: personal experience/ story to prove a point
6. gamblers fallacy: "A fair gambling device has produced a "run". Therefore, on the next trial of the device, it is less likely than chance to continue the run."
ex "You have flipped a fair coin and gotten a run of seven "heads" in a row.
Therefore, the chance of "tails" on the next flip is better than half."
7. hasty gernalization: "This is the fallacy of generalizing about a population based upon a sample which is too small to be representative. If the population is heterogeneous, then the sample needs to be large enough to represent the population's variability. With a completely homogeneous population, a sample of one is sufficiently large, so it is impossible to put an absolute lower limit on sample size. Rather, sample size depends directly upon the variability of the population: the more heterogeneous a population, the larger the sample required. For instance, people tend to be quite variable in their political opinions, so that public opinion polls need fairly large samples to be accurate."
8. ad hominem: "A debater commits the Ad Hominem Fallacy when he introduces irrelevant personal premisses about his opponent. Such red herrings may successfully distract the opponent or the audience from the topic of the debate."
9. Straw Man: "In a Straw Man argument, the arguer argues to a conclusion that denies the "straw man" he has set up, but misses the target. So, the fallacy is not simply the argument, but the entire situation of the argument occurring in such a context."
10. Tu Quoque: "Tu Quoque is a very common fallacy in which one attempts to defend oneself or another from criticism by turning the critique back against the accuser. However, as a diversionary tactic, Tu Quoque can be very effective, since the accuser is put on the defensive, and frequently feels compelled to defend against the accusation."

PARAGRAH 1
I decided to go buy a brand new pair of ugg boots since I had read on the Vogue fashion website and talked to the Nordstrom shoe salesmen and they highly recommended the shoe. When I mentioned this to my friend Kelsey, she was aghast at the notion. She told me that her sister had a pair of uggs that only lasted for a month. After a month period of time the shoes leaked and started to fall apart. She thinks uggs are the worst quality shoe brand out there. She had to have toes removed because they got frostbitten when she wore the uggs in the snow and they fell apart. (anecdotal fallacy)

PARAGRAPH 2
There is no way I am going to side with you on this topic. You're saying that we should give less of the tax money to the public schools? How would we fund the schools without taxes? You don't pay for public school because it's required to attend. Without the necessary funding then the school systems would fal and students would not learn and become productive adults. How would we have a functioning society?

PARAGRAPH 3
I might go to school today feeling sick. But, by going to school feeling sick I might fail my calculus test. By failing my calcuclus test I could not get any good grades and then not get into college when I submit my semester grades. By not getting into college I will end up homeless on the street watching all of my successsful friends pass me by. Therefore, I should not go to school today because I am sick.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Malcom X

Finally, we’ll listen to Malcolm X’s speech Ballot or the Bullet and analyze it according to logos, pathos, and ethos. For homework, write a 500 word blog post that examines at least 2-3 incidents of each.

Malcom X uses logical reasoning to convince his listeners that he is a reasonable person. "’m a Muslim minister. The same as they are Christian Ministers, I’m a Muslim minister. And I don’t believe in fighting today in any one front, but on all fronts. In fact, I’m a "Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter." Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my personal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe; just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe." Malcom X is using ethos to show that he is a logical fighter just like the Christian ministers he mentioned in above paragraphs.
Malcom X also appeals to anger of other black people by using the threatening style to show the white leaders that 'their glory days are over.' "By the same token, the time when that same white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open, can send another negro into the community and get you and me to support him so he can use him to lead us astray -- those days are long gone too." He is threating the white leaders that their days of controlling the black people are over. What the white political leaders were doing angered teh black people as well, which is why he is appealing to their anger. He also appeals to anger by stating, "So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Anywhere we go we find that we’re trapped. " he uses a paragraph long explaination of the suffereing and pains that the black people face in Harlem, and elsewhere!
He uses logic to also say, "'Cause if you're black you should be thinking black, and if you are black and you not thinking black at this late date, well I’m sorry for you." This shows his reasoning and logic behind his own philosophy to life and religion. He is very blatent and bold about what he says.