College and Becoming Environmentally Conscious

In a time when many college students are thinking about moving out of their parent’s houses into their own place, it’s important to understand what can be done to be environmentally friendly. There are many options to being more conscious of our actions, beginning in college when faced with making decisions on our own. It really can become a lifestyle of better habits and potentially changing how colleges recycle and the products they use.

First Things First: What is “Going Green”?

This has become a buzz word over the last few years with the popularity of being more environmentally conscious. In going green, people are making an effort to look at their lifestyle and see how they can change it in order to help the world. This is something easy that people can do, looking at their impact and seeing where they can alter habits and try to start new ones.

How do you really do this?

We’ve all seen magazine articles, websites, blogs and been told by people how to be more environmentally conscious, but is it really that easy? And does it really do that much to help the world and the state it’s in?

In researching this and wondering where I could improve my life, I realized there are a lot of little things that I could do daily to help the world. I also realized doing this is a lot harder than you would think. Habits are hard to break, no matter what they are, and starting new ones takes a lot of effort and note cards to remind you to grab your water bottle. Majority of the time it’s hard for me to get out of the house with everything I need, let alone my reusable water bottle, coffee mug and shopping bag.

It seems counter-productive to use so many note cards to remind yourself to do something (unless you’re recycling them). I’ve found the age old trick of packing your bag the night before, making things visible and carrying a spare in your car to be the best trick. Even doing this there will be days when I forget a water bottle or go to the grocery store and realize I don’t have a bag, but over enough time it has become more common for me to do.

Besides reusable products, there are other ways to decrease your waste. One of the biggest things you can do both at home and at school is recycling. College campuses are offering more and more recycling opportunities for paper, plastic, even printer cartridges. This can stretch even further by using both sides of your paper. If at the end of the semester you have a lot of extra papers you could recycle them, or use them to print. Rough drafts often don’t need to be on clean paper or single sided, save that until the final.

The next few things are pretty easy to do. Turning down the thermostat in your house, paying bills online, washing clothes in cold or warm water and buying local can all help your impact on the environment. One that’s a little less known is unplugging chargers (phone, computer, music device) because they still consumer energy while plugged in.

Another great thing to do is buy local. This way the product is going right from the producer to the consumer, offering extremely fresh produce, breads and flowers. Farmers markets also support local business.

One of my favorites is buy some plants. They add some life to an apartment or small living space but they can also help purify the air and get rid of the pollutants in the air. They also make great gifts for people.

Is it really practical?

In my own life I realize that I consume a lot of water and coffee throughout my day. In filling up my own water bottle, I don’t have to spend money each day to buy bottles of water. Keeping a reusable coffee mug has been a bit of a challenge. I try to get coffee to drink at a café so a disposable cup isn’t necessary, but sometimes this isn’t the case. In bringing your own coffee mug to your favorite café you can often-times get discounts on your drinks, and in college, every extra cent helps.

In using both sides of a sheet of paper, you will save money on printer paper. Just as with the other suggestions, like lowering the thermostat and unplugging chargers. It might take time to get used to doing these things, but isn’t saving money and the environment worth it? Plants not only allow you a way to add life to your apartment, you can also gain benefits from them and eventually plant them in a yard.

Finally, buying local is a great thing to do in college. If your town, or neighboring town, offers a farmers market, it lets you get the freshest produce from the region while supporting local business. Also, it gets you out into town, exploring and meeting new people.

Advertisements and Campaigns

As a popular topic, going green, recycling and being sustainable have amassed a following through their advertising and campaigns. I know I’ve seen advertisements for years about reusable this, reusable that, but never really knew what good it would do until now. Now-a-days advertisement campaigns give you facts, stats and pictures of the product, showing exactly how you help the environment with your purchase.

They use great rhetoric in persuading us to buy. They use catchy slogans, bright colors, little text and offer a website to research more. They often offer a free item, like a reusable bag, to entice people to buy their product. With so many products to choose from, the extra research about the item is often necessary to ensure you’re getting what’s being advertised. Unless it’s an established name, and even then, you have to make sure you’re paying for what they tell you they are, and not simply a name.

Getting Started

There’s no fool-proof plan to “going green” all you can do is try to alter your ways of thinking about consumption. Getting a water bottle, coffee mug, reusable bag, whatever you know you use and making an effort to use them is where it starts. Sure it’s a little more brain power to remember things, but once you’re in the habit it’s done, you have it there forever. Also, watching your electricity usage and adding some plants to your décor will all help you in the long run.

For More Information Visit these Websites:

Sustainable Products
Sustainable Is Good
TreeHugger
50 Ways to Help
Go Green Apartment
Facts on Going Green

Selling a Lifestyle, Offering a Choice, Creating Change

Words

“We believe addressing even the largest of problems starts with small solutions” - ChicoBag™ Company.

These slogans get people thinking about what they can do in their everyday lives to change the world we live in. In the last few years I’ve noticed an initiative to get people using reusable bags for shopping trips, groceries and even just carrying as purses. This sort of slogan leaves people feeling inspired to help with sustainability; utilizing rhetoric at its finest, getting people involved.

A good slogan or informative website implements various tools of rhetoric like ethos, pathos and logos. Facts are always a huge influence over what people choose, numbers give us a concrete idea of what’s going on. By giving the consumer the opportunity to change the world, the company makes an emotional appeal. And of course, a reusable bag is much better for the environment than plastic, that’s just logical.

Fashion

Taking the written one step further, in selling an attractive bag, more people are willing to purchase it and use it. When originally released, many people bought canvas bags simply because they were fashion statements. In starting there though, the issue becomes well known. Slowly, more and more options are available with facts about how reusable is better for the environment than paper or plastic. Ads are especially effective at using visual rhetoric to sell a product. Here, the bag is pictured in the vegetable section, not in a landfill, polluting our world.

While celebrity culture has faded in endorsing these bags, the usage is still catching on. I’ve noticed people using their own bags more and more, whether for the discount or because they want to make a difference. What seems like a silly fashion trend can actually find its way into everyday life; I know it has in my family.

Change

By offering discounts on groceries for bagging with your own bags, giving away bags at large events and making them attractive, people are more likely to change their ways. This includes keeping a small bag in your purse, carrying a few in your car or buying them for friends. And so by selling a lifestyle, real change is implemented.

In my own family, my dad always keeps his own bags in his car in case he has to run to the grocery store after work, or if he needs to carry extra stuff into work. He’s even left me with his bag obsession. I have a few in my car and have already amassed my own collection of canvas bags, which have served me well for day trips and long vacations. So maybe ChicoBag™ Company is on the right path with what they say, we can be a large change through small means.

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Hello Sources!

Rhetoric, including both visual and textual elements, has evolved over centuries to become the complex discipline it is today. These sources take us through the progression of rhetoric from a necessary discipline to a useful tool in the modern day to an interesting way to get an idea across.

First, let’s meet the man himself, Aristotle:
This website gives a great biography of Aristotle’s life and his contributions to the arts and sciences. While not referencing rhetoric specifically, Aristotle studied and furthered ideas on logic, philosophy and other areas relating to rhetoric as a whole. Without looking back at the history of a topic, you cannot fully grasp the evolution of a topic and how it has progressed to the subject learned in classes today.

Moving on from Aristotle, let’s get more specific and look at his contributions to rhetoric:
This website is truly a gold mine. It clearly outlines Aristotle’s works including his elements of rhetoric, definition of rhetoric and rhetorical devices. If you need how Aristotle influenced people like Cicero and Quintilian, this is the website. It’s easy to understand and follow and doesn’t assume that the reader is familiar with Aristotle’s contributions to this discipline.

Exploring more of the history, organization comes into play:
This website offers organization tools and ways to structure written rhetorical argument. This is an important element to rhetoric, because if done wrong, the writer will lose their audience and their audience’s respect. Also, it’s a great cheat sheet to ensure you are including all major elements.

Now let’s look into types of argument:
Both Rogerian and Toulmin styles of argument are useful in their own ways and understanding and implementing them correctly is key to a successful argument. Rogerian argument attempts to find a middle ground in the argument, showing both sides and validating both points, but coming up with a successful agreement. Toulmin, on the other hand, focuses solely on one side, occasionally discussing the opposing view, but mostly placing emphasis and passionate language into their own belief.

Argument would be nothing without devices:
This website outlines the three main rhetorical tropes of rhetoric: ethos, logos and pathos and the various elements associated with them. These are very important devices, and to ensure that the writer uses them correctly, examples are shown.

To truly understand the entire framework, examples are key:
This website offers written and visual speeches that use rhetoric well. One of the most famous examples that is often included in rhetoric text books is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. This, along with others, can provide concrete examples for people trying to get a better grasp on the topic, or in need of support for their topic.

To build an argument, background is needed as well:
For first starting out, this website offers great background on information regarding globalization and the issues that accompany it. It gives a clear cut definition of the issue and offers links to other websites in order to gain more information. It is from this point that I decided to go into rhetoric on this blog. Further reading from class, in the form of required texts also aided my posts.

Another good background website:
This is a little more simplistic and describes some of the more negative aspects of globalization. While not as good of a reference as a book source, this websites are a good starting out point and a jumping off point to see where more research is needed.

While background is necessary, history gives credibility:
This website offers a nice timeline of the beginnings of globalization to modern day. It explores key background ideas and shows the evolution of globalization from ancient times.

Time Magazine adds to these facts:
While not as extensive as the first, this brief overview of globalization is something that could easily be included in a paper or on a blog to explain key points in history that have affected how we see things today.

Pros and Cons:
Often, in regards to important issues, articles are very one sided or one dimensional. It’s important to have both sides of the coin in order to make key observations and decide your stance on an issue. This website offered some great points to show where people are coming from in their arguments.

Blog:
While not usually great sources, seeing how another person writes a blog and explains their opinions in regard to globalization can give more facts or show how to refute an argument. Also, it can show how to write more clearly.

To add a creative, modern spin to your argument, include some visual rhetoric: Purdue owl offers some great overview websites, full of information that is easy to understand and implement. Sometimes in papers, an image can enhance your argument and drive your point home, but too many can hinder your chances of maintaining your audience’s attention.

And finally, writing the paper with a few things in mind:
Audience is one of the most important aspects to keep in mind when writing a persuasive paper. Depending on what you are trying to convey, who you’re trying to reach and the form of argument you’re using depends on your audience. This, in turn, will affect your diction, syntax and tone of voice throughout your paper.

Because this is so important, you need two references:
This discusses common misconceptions in regard to audience. Looking past the professor as the main audience, the paper can truly turn into something more persuasive, creative and powerful because a larger picture is being considered. It also helps you clarify how much background explanation is needed when writing the paper.

That’s the journey through rhetoric, globalization and how to write about the issues.

Oh the Tangled Webs We Weave

Social Myths

Myths have muddied the waters between fact and fiction since the time of Plato and the Sophists who transformed the Homeric significance of myth away from “truth” and toward a more complex meaning of, as anthropologist Talal Asad has put it, “a socially useful lie”(Wright 3).

Asad defines a myth quite nicely when he states it as “a socially useful lie.” As discussed in class, myths are created over time and lead people to believe in stereotypes and dominant discourses. The people in charge, factory bosses or those in powerful, governmental positions, create the dominant discourses, which are large-scale ideas that often define a groups of people. These dominant discourses are made up of stereotypes. They are used in order to maintain power and control over a group and can be compiled to prove a social myth.

Rhetorical Devices

In relation to rhetoric, the person in power uses rhetorical tropes in order to persuade a group of people to believe in the dominant discourse they are creating and ultimately, the myth. Some of the most basic tropes include ethos, logos and pathos. Ethos establishes credibility in an argument. This can be done by including testimony from a credible source or statistics. Logos is a logical appeal. This is evident in a speech or paper by outlining an argument in a progressive, logical order, with clear transitions. Finally, pathos is an emotional appeal. This establishes credibility by showing the audience that the speaker or writer has gone through a certain situation or experienced a hardship that shows through with their language and passion.

Practical Application

When establishing a myth, these tools are important in order to persuade the audience of the importance of the idea. One example discussed heavily in class was the disposability of women. This myth states that women are great, disposable workers because they can be worked into the ground for a period of 1-3 years before needing to be replaced. While this seems a little off, many companies have taken it to heart.
This idea stems from the “facts” that women are weaker than men, are ruled by their biological clocks and can be taken advantage of. While women aren’t always physically stronger than men, they possess a strong worth ethic and can work for longer than two years in a factory if not pushed to the most extreme limits. This is where the bosses establish the myth though. They push the female workers as far as possible, run them into the ground to the point where they have to be forced out or quit. Another popular thought is that women are ruled by their biological clock and want to have families and will get pregnant while working. This cannot happen in a factory setting because if a woman becomes pregnant, at some point she will have to slow down in production, and eventually have to leave the job. Finally, it’s believed that women are easily taken advantage of, and that fear can be used to maintain power.
With all of these ideas, the disposability of women has been established. With men in power and creating these ideas, female workers have been subjected to no job security and have been taken advantage of. They use ethos in their argument by using science to show women are physically weaker than men. Logic is employed by compiling facts and statistics to prove their overarching idea. Finally, women are nurturing people who want a family; in this way pathos is applied. They would not sacrifice a family for a job. Rhetoric establishes social myth. Various tropes can be employed in order to create these myths, including ethos, logos and pathos. By combining all of these elements a very strong basis for argument is established and often times accepted.

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When the Written Meets the Visual

Visual Rhetoric

While the written word has stood the test of time, acknowledging visual rhetoric is important in regards to globalization. With a focus on visuals, photos of Katrina, political cartoons and even graphs, it’s important to understand the influence that images can have on an issue. People want to see what’s going on, not have to read a five page article detailing a situation. Also, visuals allow the creator the opportunity to showcase what they want people to see and convey their message quickly and easily. They hit an emotional nerve in many cases because a photo is rarely emotionally neutral; it tends to evoke some sort of feeling in the viewer. Words, on the other hand, can be grouped together in a more neutral way, without a passionate tone or word choice.

Visual rhetoric isn’t strictly images though. It can also include text, as with political cartoons and advertisements. This allows for explanation and background on the image, so the viewer isn’t confused as to what they’re looking at. This specific visual shows how the two can be blended to show a creator’s view on globalization.

Visual and Written Rhetoric: A Dynamic Duo

By implementing both visual and textual elements, a certain opinion can be communicated quickly and easily. While straight text is more informative, offering more details, references and information, it can also be very dry and discourage people from reading. Straight visual rhetoric can be flashy, interesting and useful, but only if it doesn’t leave itself open to too much interpretation.

Using both visual and written elements to express an opinion allows the author the ability to communicate exactly what they want to convey to their audience. In this example of a political drawing, without the words, it would simply be a picture of a map, without the map, it would just be oddly placed words.

Connection to Class and Globalization

During class, videos and articles have been discussed, regarding large companies. How these companies spread, how they treat their employees and more importantly, how they affect the countries they are in. The videos and articles have explored the treatment of workers in China and Mexico, the spread of corporate companies in other countries, overtaking the local vendors and personal stories from the people affected.
There have been many instances when these companies do more harm than good for a country, but there are also a few cases where individuals have benefitted from a large company coming into their town. This picture clearly shows the harm being done by large companies and corporations.

It also discusses something that hasn’t been explored much in class yet, which is where materials come from. In the picture, Argentina is labeled with Whoppers and Big Macs, Argentina being known for some of the best meat in the world. Brazil, home of many rainforests, is labeled as the place for lumber. Factory farms are shown in the United States, where cheap meat can be produced for consumption. All of these try to convey that prized meat should be treated as more than fast food hamburger, that wood should not be taken from the rainforests and factory farms are taking over too large of an area.

Labor and political strife is highlighted on the map as well. Where unions rule and where cheap labor is abundant is focused on. Also, which countries have political problems, wars and in the United States, voting demographics are outlined.

Overall, the use of both a visual and textual elements is important to attract the reader. In this case, the skewed map attracts the viewer and the descriptions keep them looking.

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History of the Written Word: Rhetoric

Written Versus Oral Tradition
Writing is an essential part of history and the modern world. Oral tradition has been used over many centuries in order to spread myths and the beliefs of a group of people, but if the stories are not continually passed down, they are quickly lost and forgotten. With written language, this is less likely to happen. Manuscripts can be lost, but writings can be found in stone as well as major monuments. What ties historical writings and personal stories to globalization is rhetoric, which is highly influential in establishing ideas in a culture and persuading opinion.
Brief History of Early Rhetoric
Early rhetoric was used by public speakers to influence larger groups of people. They used appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos establishes credibility with the audience. This means the public speaker knew facts, history or current information, and knew it well. Pathos appeals to the emotions; here is where personal stories and passionate language comes into play. Also, because the words were spoken, emphasis and tone of voice would have played an important part in influencing the audience. Lastly, logos is whether or not what the speaker is saying makes logical sense. If the speech does not follow a logical order or jumps around too much, then the audience is less likely to pay attention and gain any knowledge.
What’s Really Important to Know
Modern rhetoric focuses more on writing versus spoken word. This is important to be aware of when reading about current issues because without realizing how information is reported people won’t make informed decisions, or have correct information. Also with modern rhetoric, there are Rogerian and Toulmin arguments. Toulmin focuses on one side of the argument and often times is more passionate. Rogerian argument presents both sides of the argument and attempts to find common ground. This argument is useful to readers because then they receive the full scope of the issue, but this often doesn’t happen because only one side will be reported on.
Rhetoric and Globalization
How people receive information in the modern age of technology is much different than in the days of oral tradition. Realizing how this information is presented is important for readers to notice and recognize so they know whether or not they’re getting the complete story or view. With companies persuading consumers with their advertisements and press releases, it’s important for consumers to know the company’s background. Also, stories from employees versus managers and seeing the differences between the two are important. Through rhetoric people can influence and be influenced by the written word.

So What's it all About?

Words: they tie us together. Written language gives cultures the opportunity to spread their traditions, beliefs, and personal stories with the rest of the world. This can be through books, magazines, newspaper articles, websites, or blogs. I think it’s important to explore how writing has played a part in globalization, both positively and negatively. How culture is passed along through various writings, how political issues are handled and written into law, and how other issues pertaining to the spread of globalization are written about effects our interpretation of what’s going on in our world. Exploring written texts pertaining to colonization is important because it gives a historical context to the beginnings of globalization.
Representation of Globalization
Since globalization has become such a huge issue in our time, many books and articles have been written about it, both positive and negative. It’s important to explore both sides of this controversial issue because without exploring all aspects, people are left with a very biased and skewed view of the situation. While articles may not show all sides to a conflict, I will try to represent various perspectives as best I can.
Understanding how the Written Words Affects our Opinions
As an English major, I find language and communication fascinating. After taking a rhetoric class last semester, I enjoy exploring controversial topics and how people interpret and react to them. In UH 370 we delve into hot topics, and often difficult topics, and try to analyze them to get the fullest meaning and understanding. I hope by exploring these issues through firsthand accounts as well as articles written about the topics, that I can get a better grasp on what is going on in the world.
Making up our Minds
With so much going on in the world, I feel like I need to become a more informed citizen if I ever want to contribute to society productively. Being uneducated about current events is no longer acceptable to me, and through this blog I hope to gain a better understanding of the world. I want to explore issues, the various views about them, and come to my own conclusions about what is important to me.
For an overview about globalization: http://www.globalization101.org/index.html