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- Kids whose parents are in the service
- Lexington City Council
- Bored Teenagers
- A group of UK parents
- Spouses of deployed military
How to send an email in professional (and academic) contexts
Memorize, practice, and live this email format from now until the internet comes to an end:
(1) Your greeting should pay attention to your addressee’s correct title. Is this a person with a PhD? If so, always use Dr. _______ or Professor_________. Is it a woman without a PhD? If so, use Ms. (Not Miss or Mrs.) Use Mr. for a man without a PhD.
(2) Immediately explain who you are (if they don’t know) and explain why you’re writing right away. Help this person to understand what you want from them. Don’t use informal ways of greeting if this isn’t a personal relationship. “My name is Jonas Barnaby and I am writing to request an interview with you as part of my class project for WRD 310. My project explores how deployed mothers use technology to stay in contact with their children. I would like to talk about your research on military mothers.” Or, “My name is Angela Rich and I am a student in your Chemistry 101 class. I’m writing to request a meeting with you about the upcoming exam. I have some questions about the online lecture that are still unclear to me.”
(3) Move into a specific action request. Give specific dates. (“Are you available to meet any day this week after 1:00 pm?”)
(4) Close with your name. “Sincerely, _______.” “Thank you for your time, _________”)
0Interview tips
Before you sit down for an interview, be prepared!
- Do some initial research that will help you to form questions. The worst thing that can happen during an interview is to miss the opportunity to delve into the really interesting details. In order to get these details, you’ll first need to know how to ask good questions.
- If you’re sitting down with a vet from UK, for example, perhaps you have already done some research into the student support groups that exist at UK. That way, you can ask, “How much are you involved with the returning veterans support groups at UK?” Compare how this question differs from, “What kinds of support are there for returning vets at UK?” The second question is one you could answer for yourself in doing some research ahead of time. The answer to that question won’t tell you any kind of interesting details from this particular individual, however.
- LISTEN. When someone is giving you an answer, listen to what they’re saying. FOLLOW UP on points that sound interesting. Memorize this phrase: “CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THAT?”
- Ask for stories, not for closed-ended questions.
- Explain what your interests are from the very beginning of the interview. This can be brief, but write it out ahead of time so that you sound polished. Don’t just jump into an interview. Although you might know what your project is about, your interviewee doesn’t. You need to explain where you’re going so that the interviewee knows what you’re looking for. “Just to give you a little background, our project is exploring the ways that deployed moms try to stay in touch with kids when they’re overseas.” Or, “Before we start, I’d like to explain what our project is about. Mostly we’re interested in the reasons why people in high school sign up for military service during wartime.”
Using Sound to Persuade
Sound is a very powerful means of persuasion. You can think about using sound in two different ways: in your multimedia texts and in your own voice.
Let’s first think about sound in multimedia texts:
- Voices + Music: How do you use voices and music in interesting ways? How do you notice the pacing, edits, and use of alternating sounds?
You might notice the importance of alternating sounds in terms of voices, rhythm, and sounds (like musical breaks). Do you think the same thing might be true of using our own voices? Let’s listen to a few examples of speeches that make a strong impact:
President Obama on the Debt Agreement
0Multimedia Texts: Using Visuals
Remember that Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the art of finding all available means of persuasion.” We persuade through our written words. But, in the digital age, we also persuade through multimedia elements: sounds, images, digital features.
Though we won’t leave this class as professional web designers, you might start thinking about how to reach your audience and respond to your exigence through “all available means.”
Some tips to keep in mind when creating texts with visual elements:
- Create focal points
- Think about your symmetry
- Use color strategically: contrast, attention directing, etc.
- Use headings strategically
- Use images to help tell your story.
Let’s look at a few examples of student multimedia projects:
0Creating Texts That People Want To Read!
How do you create texts (whether essays, web texts, short projects, etc.) that will make people stop and say “Whoa! I want to read more!”? That’s not so easy to do, and yet you can learn how to do it. Practice regularly and you’ll find yourself becoming a powerful writing in college and in your future career.
(1) Always keep the exigence in mind. What is your exigence? What is the thing that is sparking your argument, writing, text, essay? What’s the urgency or the need behind your project?
- Is there a misperception or urban legend floating around out there that you want to correct? When people began to accuse President Obama of not being a proper U.S. citizen, many writers found this to be an exigence. They started writing newspaper articles, blog posts, Facebook updates, emails, and letters all in order to correct this rumor. Their exigence was the need to inform people that President Obama was, in fact, a U.S. citizen.
- Is there a little-known thing that you’d like people to be more aware of?
- Do you want to make an argument that counteracts a current state of the world? The Occupy Wall Street protests see an exigence in some of the economic realities we face right now.
- Do you want to support someone or argue something’s value?
- Do you want to propose a solution to a problem?
(2) Always keep YOUR audience in mind. How you write (including your style, the evidence you choose, the textual medium you choose) has everything to do with who your audience will be. You can’t make much of a decision about writing before knowing who your audience will be.
- Think about this: Let’s say you feel that it is important that Americans stop acquiring so much debt on credit cards, for example. How you make this argument will look very different if you aim it at high school freshmen or if you aim it at middle-aged Americans who already have jobs and families.
(3) Choose your text based on your goals and your audience.
(4) Keep constraints in mind. Is your audience likely to be skeptical to your message? Are they people who will want a very multimedia/interactive/entertaining approach, or will they want something very business-like and less flashy? What kinds of evidence will they want to see? Are you someone who has a lot of credibility with this audience already?
0An article on happiness and coping »
Some of you might find this interesting for your research!
0Research: It’s a muscle
After looking through the blogs just now, I’m pretty disappointed that more of you aren’t keeping up with regular posts about your research. Remember that research (real research) isn’t just a one-time thing that you do right before you sit down to write a paper. It’s a process. You make notes, take pictures, ask questions that you want to explore at some later time.
Research is a muscle. You have to use it every day if you want to get better at it. And the better you get an actual intellectual research, the better (and easier) your writing will be.
0thoughts on proposals
I was surprised to hear how many people were tying some kind of place (real or abstract) to feelings of various kinds (relaxation, happiness, pleasure). I wonder why? How do we talk about places and feelings? More importantly, how do you “persuade” or “show” people this definition so that they’ll walk away with a different kind of perspective?
0Proposal and Ideas
- Open up your Tumblr page.
- As you listen to your colleagues deliver their proposals, make notes on two questions:
(1) What do I like about these ideas I’m hearing?
(2) What ideas do these presentations give me for my own paper? (What do I want to maybe check out or explore later?)
0
Is Whiffleball something taken really seriously there? I think of it sort of like a kids’ game. Do adults play it ironically? Makes me think about adults who now play on kickball leagues for fun.
4Yes I have it’s an unwritten rule among my friends. One of my friends dad is in the hall of fame and won the championship last yearHave you ever taken part in the World Whiffleball Championship, Jon?
Nothing like a hometown tradition
Beatwriting »
Nice job!
2Got my first story as a writer for the Kentucky Kernel published!
High schools are important places in small towns. Many years ago, I remember reading the book *Friday Night Lights* (I guess it later turned into movie/TV show?), and it was very much about how central the west Texas high school is to that town. Having grown up in Texas, I know firsthand that this is very true. High school (and high school sports) are pretty important to smaller American towns. It’s a gathering site and a source of community.
1This sign is what you see when you enter the parking lot of our school. I know I want to do my research on my hometown of finneytown. Finneytown is a small community that really thrives on the high school. I took this picture while I was home, but i’m not really sure how I am going to use it yet, but I thought it would be a good start.
For Cora: My place. »
Beautiful places are rare for me. But I can remember certain places that have almost literally taken my breath away. Some people refer to this as “the sublime,” which is something beyond mere beauty. It is the way that something defies description in mere words. Something that is sublime just can’t be adequately captured in words alone. Driving through the mountains one fall day a few years ago, early in the morning, I experienced this. The beauty exceeded anything I had ever seen. It actually moved me.
I wonder what makes something sublime as compared to something that is just pretty or pleasant?
1My place is Monaco. I went there last year on a trip and I was stunned by what I saw there; it was absolutely beautiful. It was easily the most beautiful place I had ever been to, and I have travelled straight down through Europe that summer. The country, besides the bustling tourists rushing to…
Have you ever taken part in the World Whiffleball Championship, Jon?
4Nothing like a hometown tradition
