Peer Review over First Draft of Research Thesis

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Observation

Daniel Richards

October 29, 2008

Peer-Review Session over First Draft of Research Argument

The most difficulty I encountered with composing my first draft involved determining which segments of my more personalized influence on the thesis were truly legitimate enough to be accepted as part of the formal, finalized product of my Research Argument. Therefore, to no surprise, the bulk of the criticism I received from one of my classmates on the day of peer reviewing complied with my indecision on which of the first-person content in my argument actually qualified as appropriate enough for such a formal assignment as this particular task. Nevertheless, I was pleased to receive the feedback with which I was most concerned, that which consulted the anecdotal narratives from the interview I had given with a live combat veteran. I was heavily reliant upon this particular component of my thesis to be the cookie which lands the most positive influence on the reader, thereby making way for the more directly anticipated positive feedback. Alas, my interview-involved material paid off as I had hoped.

Observation on Personal Revision Process

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Observation

Daniel Richards

November 10, 2008

My Own Revision Process

It goes without saying that my revision process depends upon the addressed faults with my earlier drafts of my work. Most of the time, however, my revisions entail attempting to mold the content of my compositions back into a coherent manner of adhering to the basal argument I am really attempting to discuss, aside from the digressions I find myself all too often stumbling into and then obsessing over. In this light, my papers are to no surprise usually longer in their final-product forms of most than those of the majority of my fellow peers. Then again, I find it most trying of all for myself to take on the dire challenge of weeding out that which is least credential to my central statement. I am usually the victimized prisoner of my own habit which involves the indecision which articles of the composition should be removed, or whether even anything at all should be purged from the otherwise incomplete document in the first place. On that note, it is not difficult to perceive how my revision process might not be a very consistently executed or methodical ritual on my part.

Initial Multimedia Brainstorming Exercise

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Initial Brainstorm

Daniel Richards

November 10, 2008

Ideas for the Multimedia Argument Assignment

I am thinking that our group should pursue a satirical crusade against Clemson campus’s squirrel population, since they have actually managed to assume responsibility over the past several months for several cases of power damages. I am not exactly sure, however, how we should be cable of enacting or enforcing such a rather farfetched proposal. How could we make it ethically credible? Is there actually a sufficient enough portion of the campus population that we could depend upon to support our group out of their necessarily conservative political views? What would be the best mode of communication for us to reach out to the expectedly disinterested campus body? There have not been very many other credible imperfections we have been able to pinpoint during our initial brainstorming process of group collaboration. Thus, this whole squirrel challenge just might prove to be our best shot at an interesting topic of choice for the time being, unless something more provocative rears its imperfect head.

Group Conference Observation

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Observation

Daniel Richards

November 24, 2008

The Success Regarding the Fudds’ Conference over an Action Storyboard

Our group collaboration in preparation for our showcase of the storyboard for our final Multimodal Project was not painstakingly endured. Rather, it was quite prolific to the extent that my introduction of the idea that we should do squirrels as our topic of choice for an imperfection on the college campus regarding the species’ apparent overpopulation as evidenced by two successive, squirrel-caused, campus power outages within the span of a month was well received with immediate signs of excitement. With that dispute settled we proceeded with our plan of action. I was mostly concerned with the actual process of getting the campus body to react to our proposal. Thus, the storyboard took shape about this perspective notion of a necessary plan involving the stair-stepped style of processional approach towards the ultimate goal of getting an eager, well-informed audience, whom we would eventually entail to become our primary, supporting body advocate.

Multi-Perspective Rhetorical Activity

Union Soldier in Photograph – “I was a dispatch rider carrying an important note to Oklahoma’s main fort, when I stumbled upon a cloaked man in a flamboyant hat kneeling over what appeared to be a man’s body. ‘A veteran – Union,’ the man specified, without my understanding, until he added, ‘Scalped…by an Injun.’

· Photographer – “I was so fortunate this day to stumble upon a dead man’s body, which I could photograph. So fortuitous an encounter, that I had everything at hand while in route to the City. I had the bystanders move the body and pose a bit more dramatically for me, of course, but to such a robust result.”

· Observer: a Young Boy – “I saw him – the man – riding over that Indian burial ground – drunk as hell – cursing them Injuns as they dug a fresh grave. That lead one – Bronco, I think was his name – did not even hesitate to grab that pitiful swaggard off his horse and peel his scalp clean off with the edge of a vintage Bouie knife he had inherited from various wars of the past. I should know of course…’cause I’m a local.”

Storyboard

Storyboard for English 103

Group 2: “The Fudds”

· Twelve percent of all power outages in the United States are caused by squirrels shorting power-plant transformers; not to mention only roughly thirty-five percent of all power lines run above ground. Therefore, where they actually can be a nuisance, squirrels are essentially responsible for approximately – at least – forty percent of all above-ground power outages.

· Our two modes of communication will be via a wide variety of captioned, sloganed poster designs, which will in turn connect to a link to our webpage, on which will be opted a survey-petition regarding the overpopulation of squirrels and whether or not the student body should take action.

· On the website we will display a letter of agreement which will be linked to a separate, newly created, email account, specifically reserved for receiving these responses. With this data we can derive statistical evidence and percentages of which responders accepted or declined the proposal for population management control.

· We will be advertising against feeding the squirrels, such that they might feel less accustomed to people, thereby feeling unwelcome in this strictly collegiate habitat.

· We will encourage our readership to make squirrels feel as uncomfortable as possible, using brute force within the constraints of legality and reason (evil eyes are preferable).

Survey Movie-Preview Design

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Collaborative Exercise

Daniel Richards

December 5, 2008

Survey of Designing Movie-Preview Ads: Mock-Announcer Narrative

“In a world where war was way of living, a sniper became a legend. But there was one thing that kept stopping him from taking on the world: he was a woman. Her name was Varsila Frychef. Based on an incredible true story about honor, courage, and the will to fight – she broke all the rules to make her name what it deserved to become. One woman; one way – Feminist Productions Incorporated brings you a heart-stopping, epic drama, one with trauma, conspiracy, and fate. Experience what it is like to live the life of a troubled woman in Soviet Russia during the Battle of Stalingrad. And what is more…..the film also brings you…a musical comedy. What will it take? To take on Nazi Germany’s sniper ace, who is also a woman. Starring no one you have ever heard of, The New York Times is calling this one ‘an epic thrill ride,’ ‘a must-see movie; one that will change your life forever.’ When Hitler knocked on the door with Helga, remember that Stalin always knocked back with Varsila. Wherever you would find the heat of combat on the Russian tundra, so, too, would you find Varsila, the Night-Fox. Double the action – ‘LOOK OUT!’ Triple the excitement – ‘LOOK OUT AGAIN!!!’ Fry chef by day, sniper by night, this movie is one that will blow your mind clean out of the back of your skull like you just got owned by Varsila’s deadly accuracy. Roger Ebert says, ‘I loved this movie.’ So come see the true underdog of the World War II. Don’t miss out on this awesome opportunity…..to see – ‘NOOOOO!!!!!’ – Killing Major Helga. Rated R, for sustained sequences of extreme, realistic, graphic war violence, disturbing images, gore, language, thematic elements, rude humor, and a whole lot more that I don’t feel like telling you about because I’m way past my cigarette break.”

Personal Narrative Essay

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Personal Narrative Essay

Daniel Richards

September 29, 2008

Common Manifestations of Rhetoric within One’s Immediate Surroundings

I have never anticipated the term rhetoric to define such a broad variety of media. I now acknowledge that everything that picks a vantage point from which to pose an argument or to approach a persuaded viewer can be regarded as rhetorical. For instance, within the confines of my very own dorm room, I can witness countless, multimodal features of rhetoric. Of course, I observe various Clemson icons, self-images of school spirit and homage to one’s own university. I notice the Starbucks coffee brand label on one of my coveted, immediate energy sources. The monopolized Target symbol glares at me from the label on my desk wipes container. Even the very color scheme of my own side of my dorm room has been somewhat unconsciously coded to suggest balmy, aquatic imagery. What is more, my picture choice to conceal and to further embellish the dismal, cinder-blocked side wall further draws appeal to the serenity of coastal living. Across the room sits my Aqua Velva bottle of aftershave, advertising refreshing sensations on its label. Back to my bookshelf, I also manage to glimpse at my Chopin statuette tucked away in a corner, which I now come to realize as a partial token of my prior identity.

In Cope hallway, I snicker at the Talladega Nights quotation under my name label on the dorm door, since it essentially connotes me to a badass. The glaring Exit sign exercises self-importance in that marginal chance of hazardous evacuation emergencies.

On the overall campus, the exterior architecture of my dorm building is very rigid, almost to boast those contemporary Spartan attributes reminiscent of the victimized college freshman. Nonetheless, welcome banners counterbalance the sternness of the scene in a lighthearted

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manner, so as to make the anxious first-years feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, just like any solid piece of liberal propaganda. Finally, to no surprise, the most superimposing rhetorical image of them all resides in the form of a tilted, orange, paw print: the Clemson University insignia, which, no matter where it is branded, seems to bray, “Go Tigers!”

How these advertisements and other forms of visual rhetoric impress me personally, however, is that they overall do not, in the immediate sense. Over the years I have trained my mind’s eye to look at certain visual commodities rather without seeing them at all, let alone drinking them in. Nevertheless, I am most deeply influenced to draw on an intrinsically glazed sentiment of patriotism, partiality, and favoritism for all those great, symbolical implications which reside behind the prominent, “Clemsonian” crest, which so opulently in our eyes bears that warmly familiar, orange, paw print; but such a propagandistic icon should only move me as such because of my staunchly overrated personal fancy as to being an elitist swine.

Observation of the Canons of Rhetoric

George L. Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Observation

Daniel Richards

August 27, 2008

Todd Heisler’s Reno, Nevada Image and the Canons of Rhetoric

The main point of persuasiveness and poignancy that one can always rely upon about photographs is that they derive – usually – from mere glimpses of untainted reality. The triumphant key to this pristine significance is that the picture always inadvertently portrays some sort of inherent symbolism, which uniquely serves to a more meaningful level of intelligent design, since the only viable inventive rhetorical strategy fruitions from no other evident being than arguably God Himself. In short, this intelligent design resonates more on the order of divine intervention. In other words, invention plays into the picture communicatively only from one direction, specifically, from the window of the interpreter, or simply, the audience at hand, whatever the mode it may be.

As for the photographer’s part, the rhetorical element of invention is only permissible as confined to his creativity with the camera to capture God’s own narrative on the grounds of human terms. As such, the only possible angle or strategy for a photographer’s effectiveness would be the rhetorical canon of arrangement, which must be limited in this specialized vocation to where the camera might be placed to the best interests of dramatic effect. Style also plays an interchangeable role with this concept. For instance, whether to choose hi-def color instead of lo-def black and white for the rendering makes a solid difference.

Memory – as regards the rhetorical definition of atonement to a particularly recent or weighty event or prospect – is not a factor to an image because the power behind a photograph lies within the sheer rawness and purity of its portrayal. Thus, this quality lends credence to its

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service as the only identifiable innocence to rhetoric, considering how the viewer is obligated to interpret it as none other than unbiased and unambiguous. The photographer, however, does indeed have leeway with regards to strategic angles, a vestige of interpretation all to itself. Specifically, the technique in question adheres to the rhetorical approach of delivery. Nonetheless, if the component of memory were indeed fundamental to any rhetorical display of solely the visible type, then it can only apply to photographs from the perspective of the viewer, who must utilize the rudimentary cognitive abilities of the memory to piece together the kairos – or timely significance – of the image.

Shot in Reno, Nevada, Todd Heisler’s particular image invokes a symbolism one might actually acknowledge pertaining to the historical context – or kairos – of current events. Regarding specifically the war in Iraq and its meanwhile corresponding side – the everyday lives of the average American citizenry of civilians – both windows are diametrically opposed in a strictly otherworldly manner. Additionally, in this image’s case, they are also disparate even to a literal degree, concerning the fine, patriotically streamed line between the airplane’s cargo hold of dead soldiers and the passenger hold of clueless civilians on the second floor of the plane. According to this intrinsic message, it is only the fellow comrades who are still living who can fully understand and appreciate the ultimate sacrifice such glorious, life-worthy men had willingly opted to pay in light of their nation’s freedom.

It is truly both a cynical and a political statement that this nation’s very best countrymen are not dying for their civilian relatives, on account of our lack of care and direct appreciation. The United States of today has become so censored and safety-pinned that even the disappointing and wasteful statistic of its killed in action must not only be obscured, but also

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sometimes even hidden from immediate public view. After all, it is disturbing to watch the downside of a nation with a peaking economy; it is disgraceful and shameful to disclose the futile truth behind the bulk of the people’s tax revenues, which no better make Iraq a democracy than keep our youth out of their graves just yet.

Those red-white-and-blue-draped caskets daily glean from airplane bowels not for the American people, but for everything that is not certain – not real – like politics. The only tangible thing that those brave guys can take a bullet for nowadays is his buddy right beside him, or a brother in a tight spot, just as it had been the case back in ‘Nam.

Observation of Ads

George Lewis Hughes

English 103: Accelerated Composition – Observation

Professor Richards

September 29, 2008

The Amazing ShamWow Ad in Depth

The universally dreaded ShamWow popup ad has most certainly succeeded in leaving its due scar in the memory of each and every American citizen who should so unsuspectingly frequent the television set. The commercial’s solicitor, “Vince,” is hyperbolically enthusiastic about the effectiveness of ShamWow, the magical product in question, to the extent that he should be addressed as less of a human and more of a pixilated computer program character. “Made in Germany,” he does not hesitate to mention, as if the very notion of a German-made product has burned into the American brain the implied mainstay of quality; in fact, he does not hesitate to say anything, which an average American viewer might digress to notice, since the “narrator” allows simply no breathing room for pontification regarding the product’s legitimacy.

In terms of comparison-contrast, Vince inanely proceeds to compare the results of the typical towel and the paper towel in a standoff with the ShamWow – a scenario of wiping up a countertop spill – in which the former two contenders stand not a chance in the face of the visually flawless sponge-work of the omnipotent wiping counterpart from Deutschland. Meanwhile, a strobe-like deluge of subliminal footage concerning the practicality of the ShamWow in all vocations of daily cleaning and wiping mechanics completes the purported goal to hypnotize the so-called “masses;” and, of course, to inadvertently piss off the intelligent minority as a side effect of its nationwide public effusion. Such horror can categorize itself under the literary device of example and illustration.

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The ad’s cause-and-effect strategy exudes to be more self-evident than its other rhetorical elements, if at all possible. Essentially, Vince most assuredly believes he has brainwashed corporate America into flaunting and idolizing the ShamWow as the end-all and be-all to every possible “messy” encounter, to be quite literal. Whether it be using the product as both a soap sponge and a towel to wash and dry one’s car or boat, as a staining-fluid absorbent, or as a carpet’s savior from fragrant saturation, ShamWow can be verbally packaged as none other than – according to one televised client’s description – “Sham Wow!,” for whatever that jubilee is worth.

From this vantage point, the highly redundant ad is as saturated in technical definition, process, and demonstratively visual description as one of those notoriously thirsty ShamWow’s up front, after having soaked up its monetary worth in a sadly wasted puddle of good Bordeaux. The final apparent persuasive strategy of classification and division particular to this commercial ultimately sums up the product’s long-term integrity with a generously ensured and insured ten-year warranty, to which effect Vince loyally follows up on the monetary equivalent to that ten-year exhaustion in paper-towel spending.

The only rhetorical devices thereof which legitimately influence me, if at all, is its hypnotic quality belonging to the house of the abrasively heretical canon of example and illustration. Tragically, I myself constitute one of the many who quite off-guardedly fall victim to the numbing embrace of the shallow, short-round bursts of visual footage and auditory salvos. In short, if it is loud and obnoxious, or if it just simply inserts the conduction of either an extremely attractive or extremely bizarre vessel, I will be sucked into its brain-frying overtones until its belated conclusion leaves me in a stupor of grumbling over my previously sabotaged

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train of thought upon its instant of brainwashing interruption. Otherwise, I am not at all convinced of the product’s integrity, since it is solicited in the package of an infomercial definitively from the very start.