What did I find?

I chose to use Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo in order to research my client on the internet. The results from each engine were almost identical. I learned many things about my client’s basketball career, including his former high school, the year he committed to play at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), the league he plays in, all of his stats since his first game as a Keydet, and the role he plays on the VMI basketball team.

What has surprised me about my findings?

Prior to searching for my client on three popular search engines, I was aware that he had an established name in the basketball community. That said, I did not realize just how popular my client is. I anticipated it being relatively easy to find information on my client via search engines, however, I did not anticipate my client being related to every link on the first several pages of results.

Which position do you play?

What are some of your favorite memories of basketball?

Do you have any leadership experience that might set you apart from your competition?

What are some things you would like to change about your digital image?

Which social medium do you use the most?

How would you describe your current digital image?

What is your favorite characteristic of your digital image?

After reading The Presentation of Self in the Online World I have developed a new approach for my project. My plan is no longer to simply suggest that my client start focusing more on making posts to his social media about his basketball career. Now my plan is to help my client do two things. First, I am now going to research ways for him to use social media to compare himself to his competitors. In doing this, he will create unity with his competition. Second, my client needs to show professional basketball scouts why he has a comparative advantage. I need to show my client the most efficient way to promote the qualities he has that are relative to the basketball court. By emphasizing his personal qualities on social media, my client will essentially be creating a way to display himself to scouts outside of one-on-one conversations and in-game play.

To help my client understand how to accomplish this, I am going to suggest that he use his social media to relate himself to other college basketball players that are also seeking to turn their passion for the sport into a career. Then, I will help my client use social media to set himself apart from others. While these goals seem to counteract each other, I believe they will effective in getting the attention that is needed to lead scouts to give him the opportunity that he is seeking.

As I proceed with my project, I intend to repeatedly ask myself, “how can this aspect of my client’s digital identity be improved stimulate the interest of professional basketball scouts?” With this question in mind, I will be able to create a list of changes to suggest to my client that will enable him to achieve his goal of playing basketball at the professional level. My advice is especially significant because my client wishes to enter an extremely competitive career field. If I am able to help my client manipulate his digital image in such a way that promotes his marketability, my role as the consultant will be a success.

Help Receive: “Presentation of Self in the Online World”

What does it mean to write a rhetorical analysis? Writing a rhetorical analysis is more than simply reading a text and summarizing the main points. In order to truly analyze a rhetorical piece, you must examine all of the properties of the text. Moreover, you must identify the decisions the rhetor made in creating each piece of the rhetorical text and discuss how those decisions create the mood of the text. For example, if the rhetor inserts a black and white picture of a pre-teen playing video games into the a piece about the negative impact that staring at computer screens for hours at a time has on eyesight, you must examine why that picture was used why it is in black and white rather than color. Perhaps the author used a picture of a pre-teen to appeal to a parental audience, and perhaps the choice to use black and white was made to set a dark, sad mood. After all, the author probably isn’t writing about something negative with the intent of making the audience cheerful.

After reading Chapter 9 of Compose Design Advocate, I realized that the idea of rhetorical analysis is to figure out how the text works. To do this, the chapter suggests writing down your initial sense of the piece’s purpose. This is only your initial sense, better yet, it’s a tool for you to reference as you read the piece. As you read, the analyzer should notice that the pictures, word choice, organization, etc., fit together in a certain way to create the piece. An analysis should describe each characteristic and how it fits with the others to create the purpose. In describing each characteristic, the analyzer should also explain what makes that characteristic rhetorical. I now understand that in order for a rhetorical analysis to be an analysis, it must address and explain each characteristic that the rhetor includes in the piece.

Help Received: Chapter 9 of Compose Design Advcate

After reading Herrick’s first chapter of History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction, I further developed my definition of rhetoric. I did not consider the negative potential of rhetorical discourse in my original definition of rhetoric. My original definition primarily focused on the artistic component without elaborating on the role that purpose plays in rhetorical discourse.

Rhetoric comes in many forms. Whether it be a TV ad, political speech, blog, etc., rhetoric must effectively communicate the author’s ideas. While rhetoric is seen in many forms, it is also used for many purposes. My original definition addressed the need to communicate effectively, but I left it at that. If I were going to adjust my definition of rhetoric, it would be to elaborate on purpose. More specifically, I would discuss one of the most common purposes, persuasion. Rhetoric is often used to persuade, and even manipulate the audience. I believe this is important in defining rhetoric because I believe inspiration forms the foundation of rhetorical discourse and few things inspire individuals to succeed more than the desire to persuade.

To me, rhetoric is the art of communicating your thoughts and ideas. It is composed of the individual’s idea, temperament, and style. The ideas are the foundation of the individual’s rhetorical discourse. I believe every rhetorical statement must begin with an idea or viewpoint that inspires its author in one way or another. An inspirational idea is key to the creation of rhetorical discourse because without an inspired author the discourse is not rhetorical. Next comes temperament. Much like how an inspirational idea is the factor that forms the basis of the rhetorical statement, the author’s temperament is the factor that uses the inspiration to develop a certain stance on the topic. Finally, rhetoric requires the author’s style. After the author develops a stance on a topic, the individual’s style is used to turn this stance into the discourse that is communicated to the audience.

Rhetorical Traditions I is the third class I have enrolled in while pursuing my minor in Writing and Rhetoric. While all three classes have made contributions to my perception of rhetoric, the class discussions and research I conducted while enrolled in the first class, Appalachian Rhetoric, made the largest contribution to how I define rhetoric. Major Iddings, the professor of Appalachia Rhetoric, aimed to help me gain a better understanding of the rhetorical history of Appalachia. However, before he could accomplish this goal, he needed to introduce me to the significance of rhetoric. His introduction promptly inspired me to dig deeper into role rhetoric plays in my everyday life. After a little digging, I adopted the definition of rhetoric that I have today.

Spanish for Business Reflective Essay

Reflections on Barnga

Reflective Tag: This artifact displays my thoughts an opinions regarding the Barnga game we played during the first month of class. To do so, I responded to several questions about what took place during the game, the role culture played in my reactions, and how it relates to real world scenarios. Barnga is based on Spades, a popular card game. The purpose of the game was to demonstrate the implications of poor communication. In my opinion, the game was very effective in achieving this goal because communication is a significant part of not only the Spanish for Business course, but the Spanish language as a whole. This artifact most relates to me three WeSpeke artifacts in that they were major contributors to my new understanding of communicating in Hispanic countries.

Travel Role Play Video

Reflective Tag: In this video, I played the role of a traveler purchasing a plane ticket from Kyle Welch, a sales associate at an airport. Recording this video gave me an idea of how it would feel to purchase a plane ticket in a Spanish-speaking country. Furthermore, the research I conducted prior to creating this video gave me a better idea of the specific requests I would likely make. I also gained a loose idea of how this process would actually occur. While creating this artifact, I learned about a specific product and the practice of purchasing the product in a Hispanic country. Similar to my other role play, this artifact required me to do research on a scenario I will likely experience in the future. The information and experience I gathered while producing each artifact will make undergoing the processes less stressful than it otherwise would be.

Role Play Video

Reflective Tag: In this video, Kyle Welch and I act out the inevitable interaction between a customs agent and an individual that is entering a Spanish-speaking country. Whether it is for business or pleasure, I will likely experience this scenario in the future. While recording the video was helpful in showing me how this interaction would likely take place, the research I conducted prior to making the video was the most education part. My research helped me understand the “who, what, how, and why” aspects of the process of entering a Spanish-speaking country. I believe it is important to be able to have a general understanding of how such a scenario would take place so I can help the process go as smoothly as possible. This video relates to my Travel Role Play video artifact because they both involved doing research on how to conduct specific interactions in foreign countries.