Alas, we have arrived at our last blog post for the semester and we have been given free reign over our content so I've decided to post about something that I am most passionate about. I am an avid Yankee fan and the season so far could not have gotten off to a better start.

The team has begun the season 9-3 which paces an astounding 123 wins for the season (I know its wishful thinking but hey, thats what being a fan is about). The pitching has been absolutely dominant lead by 37 year old Andy Pettitte who has seeming found the fountain of youth along with his pinpoint control and a stellar 1.35 ERA.

One of the most encouraging signs is that the production on this team has been coming from unexpected sources. The well compensated, highly touted middle of their lineup consisting of Alex Rodriguez and Mark Texiera have gotten off to very slow starts by their lofty standards. They remain 5th in all of baseball in run production despite the abysmal start to the season by their main run producers. The idea that this lineup can be this productive while receive little help from their 3 and 4 hitters should strike fear in the rest of the league for the inevitable day when these two proven veterans get locked in and back to their normal levels of production.

Lastly, the only thing that can be more satisfying from for a Yankee fan than the success of the Yankees is the failure of the Red Sox. Boston is off to their worst start in recent memory and is tied for the third worst record in all of baseball trailing only Baltimore and Houston. Everything seems to be falling apart in chowda land. The man that was pillar of their lineup for so many years, David Ortiz, is looking every day and then some of his 34 years. It seems awfully coincidental that the meteoric decline in his production coincides with baseballs testing for steroids his his positive drug test. Far be it from me to jump to conclusions.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to hear the guest speaker this week but reading the posts has made me think about something that I've never given any thought before. I've never even considered writing a book before. If I were going to undertake the task, I'm not even sure what I would write about. One thing I know for sure is that it would have to be some sort of non fiction, my limited creativity and writing style dictate that fiction would be out of the question.

Now that I think about it, the thought of sitting down at a computer charged with the task of producing a full length book is a rather daunting task. And the publishing process must be an emotional nightmare. If you've taken the time to produce a book, by the time its finally completed you must be highly emotionally invested in the product. Now you have to taken this thing that you've invested yourself in completely and put it out there for publishing companies to tear apart and reject. And then even if it does get to be published, its likely that it will be highly edited and changed to make it more appealing to the public.

The more I think about it, no thanks.

I really enjoyed the "Persuaders" movie that we watched in the last class. I guess I was always aware that marketing involved a good amount of psychology, but it appears that the discipline has experienced a massive shift to where it is nearly entirely psychology.

Gone are the days where advertisers simply proclaim the laurels of their product. Advertising now involves the need to address not only the conscious, but more importantly the subconscious of the consumers you are trying to reach.

In addition to the psychological work that seems to have some real basis, there seems to be some quack advertising techniques that seem to have no basis and no real effect like some of those employed by the now defunct Song Air.

I recently had an opportunity to make direct use of the information that I have gained in this course in the preparation of a memo for another class. We were given a fictitious situation based on the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster in which we were the owners of a racing team that had been experiencing engine difficulties and had to decide wether or not to enter into the next race.

The most surprising thing for me in this memo was how easily it came to be. All the elements of memo writing appear to have been thoroughly engrained in me, presumably due to the fact that we have written what seems to be an infinite amount of memos.

It will be interesting to see if another instructor at the same institution holds the same views on how a memo should be constructed and what content it should have.

Iphone 3GS Media Kit

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=1574

Review of Jenny's Network Instructions

I read Jenny Mockford’s edit of the network mapping instructions. The original instructions were extremely convoluted, confusing and even cryptic. Jenny did a great job of untangling this word mess into something that is easy to understand and follow. Each step has instructions that a brief and to the point. I really like the use of bold font to emphasize the key word in the steps. The only thing that I found that I would have done differently, is that she made no mention of what to do if you encounter additional problems. Other than that small omission, she did a great job.

Network Instructions

Rhetoric II

In looking for an article to analyze for rhetoric, I came across an article from a news source that hardly ever engages in rhetoric, Fox News. (If that last statement seems to be strange, please refer to last week’s lesson on tone and see facetious)

The article is about Mr. Obama’s address to a bipartisan group of congressional leaders last week about his proposed health care reform. The majority of the coverage that I had heard and read about the address had the consensus that Obama delivered a very scathing speech directed at members of the republican party who are unwilling to progress the presidents bill.

The Fox News report shockingly portrays a very different take on the event. The article uses logos through the omission of facts and quotes contrary to their own position to recreate the speech in a manor that would be more appealing to their readers.

The article makes no reference to the comments that Mr. Obama made directed towards members of the GOP that were unwilling to assist him in the passing of his legislation. The article instead features quotes from various members of the Republican party that were critical of the President’s agenda.

This article gives an example of not only simply using logic as a method of persuasion, but takes it one step further by carefully selecting the information to deliver while filtering that which is contrary to their own agenda.

Tone

I recently had the privilege of receiving a correspondence from the United States Internal Revenues Service. It would appear that while filing my taxes last year, I failed to remember to declare the sale of a retirement account. The IRS does not appear to be amused by this oversight and has been so kind as to send me this nasty-gram to remind me that they always get what is theirs.

The tone of the letter can be summed up in one word, serious. As you might imagine, the letter is very serious and matter of fact. One might even categorize the tone of the letter as threatening, which I suppose can be necessary when informing people of debts and making sure that they are paid.

The letter goes about itemizing the current amount that is due and has places for penalties and interest to be listed if applicable. The body of the letter is very to the point and contains information on how to go about payment and the ramifications for not rendering payment. It threatens to impose interest, penalties and even liens if the amount is not paid.

The tone is very business like and I don’t think that is by chance. In delivering a correspondence of this type, it would appear that it is advantageous to make sure that the recipient knows that you are serious and that you mean business and this letter certainly accomplishes that goal.

I am of the opinion that rhetoric accounts for nearly all of the writing that we do. Even that last statement was an example of rhetoric as I attempt to convince you as to its importance. Even pieces that attempt to come across as unbiased and without agenda often are you using that denial as a cloak for their agenda. I propose that one of the most important and fundamental skills of rhetoric is the ability to recognize when it is being used on you through its many disguises.

And that is not a bad thing. If there is one thing that I like to do in life, its debate and attempt to persuade. Even if I find myself in agreement with the person I am talking to, for the sake of sport I will take up the mantle of the counter argument and embrace it as if it were my own. Engaging in an attempt to persuade another and succeeding in that task, is for me, a very satisfying endeavourer.

Thoughts on writting

The vast majority of the writing that I do can be broken down into two categories, school and communication. Obviously being a student I have a great deal of writing that must be done for the various assignments and papers required for my studies. When I started thinking about the kinds of writing that I do, the second was kind of surprising to me. It appears to me, that the more that technology increases, the more that I find myself writing. Ten years ago, if I wanted to get in contact with a friend or inform them of something, I had the singular option of the phone. Now, more likely than calling, I find myself texting, sending emails, or Facebook messages and comments. I think it will be interesting to see as technology increases, if we will continue to see this positive correlation with writing, or if it will be replaced by some other medium of communication.