My Jeep.

I love my Jeep.  I miss my Jeep.  I really wish I had my Jeep on campus, but since my parents didn’t agree to me having my car on campus my freshman year of college, I don’t have my Jeep.  My Facebook profile picture is a clear reflection of myself as a college student that longs to be cruising around campus in her Jeep Liberty.  More importantly my profile picture conveys my ability to enjoy what I see around me and how I am able to be easy going and not take life so seriously.  Beginning with my attire, I choose to be photographed in sweats and t-shirt.  This lack of formality in my clothing and my pose, that doesn’t suggest that I am worried about wearing a “photogenic” outfit, shows my easygoingness.  I am perfectly okay with being photographed in work out clothes.  My pose and facial expressions convey the message that I truly miss my Jeep and by pointing to “www.IWantMyJeep.com” I hope to impose others (my parents) into feeling a sense of sympathy for myself.  This was a “Kodak Moment” in my life.  After seeing the Jeep’s tire cover, I knew it perfectly fit my sentiments towards leaving my Jeep at home.  My Jeep has been my first and only car so far and “Only In a Jeep” perfectly conveyed how I felt about owning one and driving around in it.  My somewhat exaggerated expression with a large frown shows that although I do miss my Jeep, I’m making fun of the fact that I don’t have it.  I am able to joke around about something I miss without taking it seriously.  The picture being taken in Fike’s parking lot without any professional equipment or photographs shows a spur of the moment idea.  I never planned this picture or chose the lighting or control the position of the Jeep.   This ability to structure myself in the picture around my surroundings without much control reflects ability to be easy going and roll with what comes my way.  I saw an opportunity to take a picture with something that reminds me of something that I love and miss.  Although, it may just be a car, it means more to me then that and how I control myself in this picture conveys my feelings of longing of my Jeep Liberty that I left in Wisconsin.

Week #1

To be completely honest rhetoric really use to confuse me and it still kind of does.  All I can think about when I hear the word "rhetoric” is rhetorical questions.  I thought maybe if I tried to attach one single definition to rhetoric I would be able to understand it better.  Unfortunately that turned out to be no help at all.  The book provided several single-lined definitions, but I still couldn't grasp the concept of what rhetoric was.  Until I realized rhetoric isn't just one thing or one definition.  Rhetoric is used everywhere by anyone who has ever had an opinion.  From my Safari homepage of Yahoo! to the billboards I see whenever I go to the airport to fly back home, rhetoric is everywhere.  Even in the airport TVs and on the airplanes SkyMall magazine at 30,000 feet I can't escape rhetoric.  People are always trying to convince someone or persuade someone to agree or disagree, buy this and not that, or think this way but not that way.  

A big topic that comes to mind when I think of rhetoric is advertisements.  Ads are a major way companies and organizations promote themselves and their products in all ways imaginable.  Every time I venture online or turn on my TV, the visual ads appear one after the other.  I am exposed constantly to the flashy colors, celebrities, and trendy music of commercials; some convincing, some not.  The more I realize how much I am surrounded and exposed to rhetoric, the more I understand it.  The flyers around campus for fraternity and sorority rushing and the 600 emails in my mailbox for seminars, creative inquiry classes, and parking announcements for game days all have a purpose in their text.  The authors have an idea in mind that they are trying to convey through their writing in way that will persuade their audience.  Every time I email my mom asking for her to send me something in the mail I am being rhetorical.  When asking for money or explaining my classes to my mom in email I choose a style of writing that I think will convince her to agree with me or understand what I am trying to say.  I make sure to be extra nice when asking for money and always put the “please” and “thank you” in the text.  

In my Anthropology class of the fall semester I would have to write an in-class essay every week about the reading from the day before.  In the essay we would have to answer a question the instructor prompted and use detailed examples to strengthen our answer.  Whenever answering a question or providing a statement about text I read I am being rhetorical.  I am persuading not only that the answer and text I present is a correct interpretation but also that I finished the assignment and did my homework.  I use rhetoric everyday and by writing this blog I am able to explore how I use it and how it is used around me.  By finding examples of rhetoric and not limiting it to one example or definition I am able to understand rhetoric and how I can use it.

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