TOW #10- Denver Water

Denver Water is an industry that provides clean water to the communities within the city of Denver and surrounding suburbs. They often advocates healthy and limited usage among the community as to make sure the residents within Denver do not use more than they need. This image depicts an orange park bench with only the width of a single person available for seating. The white words on it read "USE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED." The capitalization and contrasting colors between the bench and the words allows it to pop out to the audience and grab their attention. Initially, the audience may only make the connection between the statement and the bench. However, once they read that it is from 'Denver Water', they then comprehend that the true message that is being stated is that the reader should only use as much water as necessary. Using the connection between the two allows the audience to fully understand the reasoning behind it. Had this been an entire bench and they used space to sit than they needed, the reader would be considered obnoxious, rude, or even greedy. The statement written upon the seat implies that is how the reader would appear if they were to do that with their water supply as well. I believe Denver Water did a brilliant job when executing their advertising methods. As their audience is assumed to be the general public, as almost everyone uses running water. Placing their advertisement in a public place on such a common, day-to-day item allows it to grab the viewers attention. It almost serves as a puzzle or a guide to lead the reader to the real purpose of the message written upon the bench. Not only is it a creative and witty way to state their purpose, but it is also very interesting and allows the reader to almost interact with the message themselves.

Tow #9- America, the Not So Promised Land

In ‘America, the Not So Promised Land’, Tara Zahra, a historian who studies nation, family, and ethnicity, speaks about the immigrant perspective on America as the so called ‘promised land’. She claims that, despite America considering itself the land of opportunity, many immigrants regret coming to America in search of jobs and safety. Several times, Zahra turns to quotes throughout her op-ed in order to make her statements. She turns to historians, economists, and immigrants themselves in order to get different perspectives on the matter. For example, Zahra uses quotes from Bosnian refugees who explain why they came to America, recalling “’We were afraid of poverty… We thought we wouldn’t be able to step out on the street because of drugs, murders, and similar things. We were afraid that there was no health insurance similar to what we had…’” Using the perspective of the refugees allows the reader to understand what America is like from a foreign perspective. It also allows them to provide reasoning behind what they chose to do. Also, as Zahra is not an immigrant herself, it allows her to develop ethos in her argument. Having the perspective of a person going through the experience personally allows the reader to develop a sense of sympathy. She also turns to history in order to develop a cause and effect argument. She says “In spite of the rhetoric of globalization, we still live with the passports and border controls introduced after the First World War. This system, a response to xenophobic agitation, created the current distinction between legal immigrants and “illegal” aliens. In 1965, the quota system was eliminated, enabling more migrants to come to the United States from Asia, Latin America and Africa. But it remains difficult for migrants to respond nimbly to changing economic or political conditions,” (para 13). Her main argument is that despite the elimination of the terms that we find were so commonly used throughout our history, it still develops a bias among the communities within America. As she must use several perspectives from outsiders, it seems that Zahra is attempting to address the American audience. Therefore, she can introduce them to a perspective other than their own. It seems that Zahra is attempting to take away the pride that America is using in attempts to cover up their biases against immigrants. Though I find the essay was well informed and filled with facts and different perspectives, I would have liked to see her add a bit of pathos in it. It was there, but had the potential to be expanded on a bit more, especially in an essay where it could have worked very well.

IRB Intro Post #2- The Lucifer Effect

What makes good people go bad? That question still rings around until this day. There are theories following this question: a bad history, lack of attention, need for love, etc. However, the director of the Stanford Prison Experiment, Phillip Zimbardo proposes his own ideas. Phillip Zimbardo is a university professor at Stanford University, teaching previously at Yale, NYU, and Columbia. He has been given several awards as an educator, researcher, writer, and service to profession. The Stanford Prison Experiment, for those who do not know, was an experiment performed in which college students were picked out and randomly given the role of either a guard or a prisoner. They had to behave as their role for two weeks in a prison simulation. However, the brutal transformation that took place among the ‘guards’ deemed the experiment unsafe, cutting it down to only six days. Analyzing his and others’ experiences with this vivid transformation, Zimbardo does his best to answer how or why this darkening takes place. As I hope to be either a therapeutic psychologist or a forensic psychologist, I am hoping to be able to turn to this book for the darker end of my career. This title caught my eye; I always thought that evil was something that was developed or created from something darker. A violent upbringing, the constant feeling of hopelessness, regret, a lack of attention, and much more are all examples of reasons that I have found that result in some sort of ‘evil’. According to the Bible, Lucifer was once God’s favorite angel. However, that all turned upside down when he became a fallen angel and became the one the Christian community recognizes as Satan. When we think of evil we think of Jeffery Dahmer, the Zodiac Killer, Hitler… Never once do we look up and realize that we may fall victim to a darkening one day.

TOW #8- Rethinking Narcissism by Dr. Malkin (Part II)

In a continuation of my independent reading book, Rethinking Narcissism by Dr. Malkin, he turns his purpose from educating the reader about narcissism to teaching them how to recognize and communicate with narcissists. He focuses on many situations that would involve narcissism: Narcissism among parents, siblings, significant others, or friends. He even considers whether the reader themselves is trying to understand how to handle being a narcissist. Typically, Dr. Malkin tends to use statistics, anecdotes, and a first person perspective in order for the reader. For example, he discusses a study in which they used the subconscious to identify how narcissists typically identify their behavior among others. He says “In the group shown the neutral pictures, those who scored high in narcissism gave the same response as most narcissists do when asked if they’re loving or caring of devoted or loyal people: essentially [they choose] not me.” (Malkin 1786). Essentially, his statement is describing that deep down they don’t really feel that they are superior to others, but it is the idea of making themselves look better that helps them thrive. However, the use of this scientific experiment uses logos in order to help back up his theories and statements, providing more to his already established ethos. In this particular section of the book, it seems that Dr. Malkin tries to put the audience into perspective by using terms such as ‘you’ and ‘they’. He tries to address the reader directly as he is trying to instruct them in personal situations. In instructions, Dr. Malkin says “Here’s what you might say to a narcissistic friend in similar situations: You’re my best friend. Whe you call my selfish, I feel ashamed, like I’m a bad person in your eyes…”(Malkin 1861). Putting the reader into a situation that they may have, or may need to deal with in the future, he is able to properly teach them directly what to say. Using words like ‘friend’ also help establish a general situation that the reader may be able to put themselves in. Overall, Dr. Malkin’s rhetorical strategies remain rather consistent throughout his book. However, his purpose alters from educating people about narcissism to instructing people how to deal with narcissists or echoists.  I believe that this book did very well when it comes to teaching his audience about this lesser known mental disorder, and that he does a great job keeping their attention using the many different rhetorical strategies throughout.