The way we present ourselves in public is important. You don't want to be the kid who can't match their clothes, or doesn't understand where to bike around campus. Those same rules apply to rhetorical situations. If you are asked how to describe yourself to an employer, you wouldn't describe yourself as a 'foxy mama' or a 'sugar daddy', rather you would be mature and cautious about how you respond. ADVICE: Don't describe yourself as that in general, people just laugh at you.
On Monday, we were asked to create three lists of five words to place ourselves in three different situations. This was the first time I had dissected any rhetorical situations. The first situation was to describe yourself to an employer, the second situation was to describe yourself to a date, and the third situation was to describe yourself to a roommate. As a group, we found it easy to distinguish between the three situations. Words like "clean" and "friendly" gave away the roommate situation. On the other hand, words like "sexy" and "suave" gave the date away right away. Finally, words like "adaptable" and "responsible" fit the typical mold for an employer.
In the past, I have used rhetorical skills to persuade others there was no correlation. Over the summer, I worked in a research lab. We were looking at stroke patients and preventing falls, something that happens way to often. My job was to look for a correlation between MRI scans and fall values. After diligently looking through the data, I found nothing. However, I had to truly convince a room full of people that there was no correlation. Just stating to a group of research scientists "Oh I can't find a correlation, so all that work is useless" is never acceptable. I had to use rhetoric like "inconclusive", "nonexistent", and "insignificant" to properly persuade this group. In the end, I was successful in being the bearer of bad news.
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