The Way Towards Freedom

The Way towards Freedom

For a nation that is considered to be a dangerous threat to the world because of nuclear weapons democratic change is highly favored in the modern world and has no better time or place for political support. Democratic nations are seen as the leaders of humanitarian aid, capitalist economies, and natural rights advocates which gives them global influence and credibility. They are like the older brothers maintaining peace among the younger siblings. Why not try to follow in their footsteps? Fathi and Mackey address this in their September 2009 article entitled, “Students Protest at Tehran University” published by the New York Times. This article discusses the oppression of religious interpretation and censorship by the Iranian government upon their people, but more specifically towards: the study of humanities. Writing about this topic of student protests' in Tehran, are meant to show people globally that students in Iran want to bring forth political change to Iran, leaving behind a strong hold to religious context and moving towards a more free interpretation and democratic nation. Throughout the article, the authors do a very well task of informing the American audience of the injustices a world apart, through the use of diction, allusion and multimedia images. The effect that it has on the audience, is that they feel compassion for the students and see them as brave for standing up about it.

Images and Video

To make more appeal to the audience and for them to get a feel for what these protests are like, there is a video posted showing students walking around with green balloons and ribbons, holding up peace signs. The authors included this video to emphasis that it is an example of a democratic mannered protest. There are no weapons, fires, or fights with the armed forces in sight as is usually seen in most Middle Eastern images broadcasted through news networks. By adding this video, the authors make a greater connection to the audience. The audience realizes that this event is actually taking place and that there are real people involved, people like you and me. It is not a fictional novel. And a feeling of sympathy strikes the audience.

Because of the photographs shown throughout the article, the audience sees once again reinforcement of the fact that Iranians are only be ruled upon, and are being encouraged to abstain from anything that goes against the “framework of the beliefs and interests held by the rulers and the system.”These students are covered with green bandanas as if trying to cover their identity are used by the authors in creating what type of consequences can come as a result of these protests such as persecution. Students don’t want to be recognized by the authorities, but they still want to get their point across. If they do get identified, they are risking being punished for defiance. The impact that it has on the American public, is that they view the reality of Iranian government as a strict one and encourage these students to fight for what they believe in.

Diction

Throughout the article, words such as "cleanse," are used to create imagery in the text. Cleanse is typically seen as a word with positive meaning for example to make something appear fresh or new. However, in this context, it is used in connection with the Islamic government attempting to remove as a whole and discredit the field of study of humanities in universities. It is more connected with the wrong and how it only pollutes society and individuals. The authors continue with including excerpts from the rhetorical essay like “strays from the path” and “ begin the surveillance” in an attempt to make clear that the Iranian government makes it seem as if students are criminals which they have to tame early on before they go the wrong direction. By including this type of word choice in the article of different sources, Mackey and Fathi are making the audience lean to their own views and disagree with the concept that these students are the enemies in the story.


Instead of including different slogans used by protestors, the authors include “Death to dictator!” and “Shame! Shame! Representative who is against the people!” to set up contrast. They set the students and the Iranian government on opposites sides of the spectrum. The Iranian government is seen as evil; and in contrast, the students as defending their natural rights. A way that the authors do this is by incorporating an overstatement from the rhetorical essay, “teaching the theories of the humanities in Iran’s universities had been a factor leading to waste and destruction after the recent election.” In this sense, Saeed Hajjarian solemnly blames these protests on the study of humanities and no other factor. The authors do not directly state that either of them is right or wrong, but the fact that make seem through the use of diction and other sources to focus more on the students point of view. This contrast used by the authors, persuades the audience to pick up not only on the views towards the government, but more to rally in favor of the revolutionary students.

Allusion

Allusion is a tool used by the authors through the incorporation of a rhetorical essay by Abuzar, a student at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. The article is entitled "Why Is the Islamic Republic Afraid of the Humanities?" The message that the essay sends is that the government is in essence, wants students to “follow a single school of thought and a single belief.” This essay included in the article is the most credible and powerful tool that the authors included in the article. It is so because the authors aren’t just stating what they see, but it is a first had experience of someone that has lived through it. Therefore, it makes it more meaningful to the audience and strengthens the bond between audience to

Conclusion



Even though Fahiti and Mackey picked a relevant issue for our time, this article would have had a greater impact if the article would have been published internationally. Although this article was posted on the New York Times blog and Americans can read it, most people in other countries don’t have the type of easy access to computers as we do. In some countries, western internet websites are even blocked for the safety of their people. Therefore, it does have an influence of the American public, but lacks the impact in societies like Iran’s. Although, most Americans already agree with the points of views of the authors, the article does help inform Americans that even though, people may live in a country mainly dominated by religion, there are those citizens that want to bring forth change.

Typically, the main purpose of government body’s is to protect the people, and help their citizens prosper: to help them excel. With this article ironically enough, we notice that this is not the case of Iran. Instead of the government promoting more education and diversity, students are limited and denied in the choices that are available to them. The case of half of university students in Iran.

Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty

Real Beauty

Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty is a campaign that helps raise money to help young girls to older women to build their self-esteem. The media presents beauty in general and has their description of what beauty is (usually extremely skinny, tall, “beautiful”) but not everyone fits that image, we all have flaws and imperfections. Dove’s Campaign lets us know that it is okay to love ourselves, and that we have true beauty. With the help of imagery and video they are able to capture how self-esteem issues are affecting girls, whether it is in a good way or bad; the purpose of the campaign is to show both sides of the affects and ways to make it better for girls all over the world.

Dove is raising this campaign for girls all over the world. As soon as you enter into their website you can choose your country and the language that is usually spoken there will be presented on the website. The other countries have different web pages once you enter onto their website. For instance in United States the first webpage has the Wall of Beauty, where you can post a picture and leave a comment of what you know beauty is and in Austria it has a video of “Evolution”, showing how we change beauty through Photoshop, and that our perception of beauty is distorted. Although Dove is advertising in different countries, they use different tactics of imagery and video to capture their audience in that area.


While the “Evolution” video is on the front page for Austria, it is also available on all the country’s web pages. This video shows what we don’t see. The actual model and what they transform her into. This video is a representative of Dove’s Campaign because it shows that even the models don’t look like what they perceive to be on a billboard, magazine, or Internet; Dove wants us to have real beauty not something that media created.



In the evolution video, you can see that the women who walked in the photo shoot is a normal lady, no make-up, and natural. As soon as the lights shine on her, you can see her blemishes and the make-up artist quickly covers it with foundation. Her hair is then curled to give it volume and more appeal. She looks great with the new make over. Her pictures are taken, and you would think that it would be enough with her picture, but it isn’t. They Photoshop her neck and make it longer, her eyes become wider, and her lips more plump. By the end the billboard ends up showing a different women, then the one who walked in for the photo shoot as their model. The video notes that our perception of beauty is distorted; we are given a false view of beauty. We are being lied to; beauty isn’t what it seems to be now. Beauty is whatever the editor wants it to be; it’s not original anymore.

The Campaign for Beauty is so essential here in the United States to little girls and adults because they go day to day, looking at what the media presents them such as magazines, billboards, and they have an 'image' of what beauty should be, and it makes girls feel pressured to look and be a certain way. According to Dove’s Beauty Campaign, 75% of teenage girls felt 'depressed, guilty and shameful' after spending just three minutes leafing through a fashion magazine (quoted in respectrx.com). This shows how imagery can affect a reader in a personal level; it makes at least ¾ of the teenage girls upset with themselves.

The ironic part to this campaign is that in many cases it shows the negative side of girl’s self-esteem. This picture shows a girl looking very upset, her eyes staring straight at you, and her lips pressed together; you can also see that in the background she has a very bright color, as if the girl who is upset usually is content. Stating how she wishes she were blonde, when she has brown hair. By the end of her experience she is able to accept her natural beauty, this picture originally comes from a video Dove made, and it shows that she is content with her natural hair color.

The campaign really appeals to Pathos (appealing to the readers emotions), it has many life changing experiences, and the give the girls chance to feel better about themselves. Girls have the opportunity to write about their feelings about what the think beauty is and what they think about themselves on Doves Real Beauty Wall. For example, Candace from New Jersey says, “ I know my smile is beautiful.” The ironic part about Candace’s smile is that she has braces, which is something people are usually uncomfortable with when they smile. With a high self-esteem, Candace is able to feel confident about her smile. Some girls even post short videos of them stating what beauty is. Angelica posted a video saying, “The way I view myself now, is as a beautiful person no matter what.” The campaign was able to help these girls, and build their self-esteem and they are able to post their newfound confidence. The Real Beauty Wall, is basically a blog for these young women, and helps them feel better by leaving a little testimony of themselves of real beauty; the wall usually has twelve spaces for twelve girls.

The campaign’s main target audience is mostly younger girls and women. The campaign really stresses how much of an affect of low self-esteem can affect a girls, it states in the website that, “75% of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities such as disordered eating, cutting, bullying, smoking, or drinking when feeling badly about themselves.” Girls with low self-esteem usually tend to resort to bad habits and behavior, and Dove wants the audience to know this, so they can contribute to helping these young women, because “62% of all girls feel insecure or not sure of themselves.” These statistics can be found on the gallery section of Campaign for Real Beauty, under DOVE global studies, it’s called Real Girls, Real Pressure. They put the statistics up so you can get involved in a community near you.

Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty helps in every little way that they can to help someone’s self-esteem rise and you can tell through the tone of their videos and messages. The campaign’s website has tips and helpful advice to help you out in your self-esteem issues. Including advice for mothers to give to their daughters. Workshops that help you improve your self-esteem, online activities, and ways to help a girl in need. Doves campaign really sets the caring tone through this way; Dove mostly focuses on helping the girls out, and promoting their products comes along with it, because the campaign is in the same website as their products. Dove does a good job of separating the two, but also keeps the products available for the viewer.

Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is something that makes us remember that at one point in our lives we had a low self-esteem, and that we were insecure. I remember feeling the same way as these young women do in my adolescent years. It was an awkward phase for me, because I was entering into puberty. I started to have low self-esteem issues because I would always compare myself to other girls. Now, I’ve learned to accept myself for who I am, and this is why I like Dove’s Campaign, because it helps us accept ourselves for who we are.

This campaign is making a difference to young girl’s and women lives and perspective on beauty. It helps them realize what true beauty is and helps them accept their own. It helps them care less about the media and focus on what true beauty is and that is our own real beauty. This campaign will motivate you and help you feel better about yourself. The campaign is a very supporting campaign, and very positive. For us, women, we have issues with self-esteem, and Dove really encourages us to raise our self-esteem and others as well because it will make a difference in our lives.

Personalize and Perfect Your Wedding

The Daily Universe publishes a magazine called the Bridal Guide. This magazine is seen all around the BYU campus with a beautiful bride on the cover in a cream-colored gown and simple bouquet in her hands. The BYU campus is drowned in the dating attitude; consequently, this captivating cover draws attention to the magazine. But the Bridal Guide isn’t just for looks. Bride Guide gives quality advice on many concerns in a wedding. It also provides information to act on the advice it gives, namely through local advertisements. The Bridal Guide inspires each soon-to-be bride to personalize her wedding by displaying many options for the basic wedding elements: cake, dress, decorations, locations, photography, rings, and more. This magazine benefits brides, grooms, mothers of the bride and groom, bridesmaids, and nearly everyone involved in planning a wedding.

The Bridal Guide relates to the audience through credibility (ethos), emotional appeals (pathos), and logical (logos) appeals, as well as rhetorical tools. Each aspect connects together to form a great approach to planning a successful and personalized wedding. The magazine can be found online or in the Wilkinson Student Center on the BYU campus.

Ethos:

The Bridal Guide is published through BYU’s Daily Universe. The Daily Universe compiles advertisements and articles seasonally to create this magazine. The credibility of each article author flows together. The articles, from wedding etiquette to honeymoon budget tips, are written with the same intent: to inform the reader of all options available so that a bride can make the best decision. While the credibility of the authors is quickly assumed valid, advertisers may have a more difficult time receiving credibility. The advertisers in this magazine submit websites and phone numbers to the public. Publishing their information shows credibility because if their advertising works, someone is sure to contact them and expect what was advertised.

Pathos:

The intended audience of the Bridal Guide is obviously the soon-to be bride. Each bride pictures her wedding as the perfect day with the perfect dress, beautiful cake, and expressive decorations. It’s shown in Hollywood fairytales how perfect a wedding can be. Every bride wants to be the princess of that fairytale. But the perfect wedding is not easy to plan. The Bridal Guide addresses almost every subject associated with weddings, from dresses to changing the name on a driver’s license. Planning a wedding, let alone a perfect wedding, can be extremely overwhelming and stressful. But with each concern laid out in one place, in this one magazine, it’s easier for the bride to be organized and less stressed. There is an article about picking out the wedding gown. It gives advice about when to start looking, what attitude to shop with, and how to make the best personal decision. Not only is this magazine a stress-reliever, it’s fun to look at! The pictures and snap shots of couples and brides help each bride to imagine her own wedding. Each woman thinks of herself as the one smiling in the pictures with her own prince charming. The author appeals to the emotions of the audience by giving relevant, needed advice, and through displaying images that connect with the audience.

Logos:

The logical appeals of the Bridal Guide to the audience are shown through visuals. The Bridal Guide presents options and gives advice for picking the best one. For example, there is an article that talks about the engagement ring. The article states, “When a diamond is well-cut, every facet will reflect upon it.” This statement is logical because the nicer the ring, the more impressive it will be. And obviously, the groom wants to give a nice ring to his bride, so he takes this statement as truth, which it is. Another example of logos is shown through pictures of different cakes. Each wedding must be altered to fit the personality of the couple getting married. Even the cake must show personality. In this magazine, there are two full pages of different styles of cake. As the personality of the wedding as a whole changes, the personality of the cake must change too.

The truth in the articles, sense of them, and the feelings associated with the articles makes the Bridal Guide a great tool for planning a wedding. These appeals are enhanced by rhetorical techniques. They allow for easier understanding of bridal advice, and the greater likelihood of action on the bride’s part. The Bridal Guide uses many rhetorical tools, all in different ways, yet tie together to create a great resource. Here are some of the ways these tools are being executed:

1. Tone – The tone of the Bridal Guide, is critical, yet optimistic advice. Brides need constructive criticism to make the best possible decision. In the article, “Here Comes the Bride – Ten things you should know before buying your wedding gown,” one of the tips is to “Embrace Your Decision: ‘Once you have selected your wedding gown of choice, do not question your decision. Mentally decide to love you dress from that day forward no matter what!’” This is a great example of constructive advice in an optimistic way. The tone of the article keeps brides excited and optimistic to avoid the stress of planning a wedding.

2. Diction – Diction is word choice and meaning. A two-page spread of the Bridal Guide displays seven different cake styles: "Choose a cake that fits your personality." The author this article is trying to communicate that cakes can have a matching personality with the bride and groom. The word choice combined with visual examples of different cakes inspires the bride to think of the kind of cake that would fit her personality.

3. Connotation –Cinderella is the epitome of a princess. Every bride wants to be Cinderella. One particular ad in the magazine is advertising a bridal shop called “Fairy Godmother’s Bridal” The connotation of the name brings to mind that every girl can be a Cinderella; once she goes into Fairy Godmother’s bridal shop, she will find the most beautiful dress of her very own. The connotation leads to thinking that each bride can have her own beautiful fairy tale wedding.

4. Denotation - Denotation is the literal meaning of a word. There is an article titled "Weddings on a Budget." Many couples getting are in college, or just out of college and do not have a lot of money to spend on a wedding. The title, “Weddings on a Budget” entices the penny-pinching couples to read the article for some advice. The literal meaning of the word budget helps the couples get organized and plan effectively for their wedding.

5. Imagery- An advertisement:

"The Skyroom's breath-taking views and delicious menu make it an ideal location for your wedding celebration." I immediately imagine the perfect scenario of my wedding with my favorite food in a beautiful romantic atmosphere. I bet every other bride is picturing her perfect scenario as well. These words spark images into the minds of the audience. In the magazine, there are two full page advertisements for Skyroom Wedding Celebration but they look completely different. The same information is there, like context, telephone number, and website, but the style of the two pages is totally different. The effectiveness of the advertisement is doubled because different people will look at the different ads.

6. Over-statement – One article’s title is "The Perfect Bridesmaid: A happy bridesmaid makes a happy bride." A happy bridesmaid DOES NOT guarantee the happiness of a bride. I think this is definitely an over-statement. But one’s BFF who never ceases to serve as a bridesmaid can contribute to the happiness and stress-maintenance of the bride.

7. Figurative Language – In the article, “The Perfect Bridesmaid,” it says, “Being a bridesmaid is a job that requires patience, selflessness and humility. How else could a girl stand there, wearing a hideous taffeta number in lime green, so that her best friend will shine even more brightly and beautifully in comparison?” This sentence helps the reader imagine what the bridesmaid looks like. The reader imagines her best friend willing to give up her own good looks for the sake of the bride. It puts an image and emotion into the reader.

8. Personification - "Fun and flirty, this cake can go for any shape and color." Can a cake be flirtatious? No, it physically cannot. But looking at a cake that is well designed can evoke personal emotional, which affects how you think and act.

The Daily Universe uses ethos, pathos, logos, and rhetorical tools to capture the audience. Ring styles, wedding gowns, and different styles of cake show the audience that there are plenty of choices in a wedding. Each bride can match her wedding to fit her personality. The Bridal Guide informs the readers about the options available in all aspects of a wedding. It advertises local bridal shops and jewelry dealers for the convenience of current college students. Overall, the Bridal Guide inspires every bride to personalize her wedding by advertising many options for the basic wedding elements and giving advice on almost every subject address to a wedding.

Why This Author Takes the Cake

Why This Author Takes The Cake

From the second the reader opens this webpage, Jen, the author of the text, has them in stichtes. Although she has ads on her blog, the reader doesn’t feel as though she is trying to convince them of anything, doesn’t force a product down their throats, nor does she even try to promote much of anything. She doesn’t need to. She’s like the popular kid that doesn’t have to try to make friends; she’s so funny that people just want to be her friend, or in this case, read her blog or maybe even attend one of her “cake tours”. Her motive is simply to share funny insights and photos with her readers, whom you can tell she values by the many, sometimes daily, blog posts she puts up. She accomplishes this by using aspects of irony, sarcasm, and an overall genuine, real sense of humor.

It is evident that Jen is fulfilling her motive. She has numerous photos from beloved readers all over the country, participating in her “cake tours”. Also, if you look under the “press” tab on her blog, you can see the many awards she has won, “Funniest Blog” being one of them.

Another reason the author is so successful at satisfying her audience is because of her awareness of kairos, or what is going on at the present time. As you read her blog you get the feel that you are reading a journal-- something completely up-to-date and even “hip”. The reader is always aware of what time period this author is writing in because of the way she writes.

Jen finds success among her readers by using different types of tools and appeals. She also appeals to the reader by practicing plenty of pathos, exercising ethos, and making the reader laugh with logical ideas gone awry.

The author combines pathos and ethos by asking her readers rhetorical questions, such as “Admit it: that's what you were thinking, wasn't it?” In this example she is using pathos because she is appealing to the emotions by being humorous, and ethos because she is sort of saying “I told you so” and by so doing building credibility for herself. This tool is working by making the audience think about what she is writing, and perhaps when they read it they’ll have a reaction like “Ah yes, that is what I was thinking.”

This text is dripping with irony. That’s what makes it so funny! For example, there is a picture of a cake that looks straight up tacky. It gets this tacky look because the decorator never “changed tips”-- when they were decorating it with icing they used the same tip to squeeze the icing out of the bag with, thus producing a “cake wreck”. So, under this picture the author writes, “Changing tips is for sissies”. Obviously the decorator should’ve changed tips-- Jen pokes fun at this cake by inserting this line. The reader sees the picture then reads the text, understands the joke, then get a good laugh out of it.

The author’s use of connotations is a tool that makes the reader laugh in some instances. She includes a picture of a cake that is obviously for a baby shower. The cake is the torso of a pregnant woman, with two small feet under the fleshy “stomach” part of the cake. So the author writes, “Ok, this is going to be toe-tally corny, but I'm doing it solely for the laughs..I get the impression you'd have to be a real heel to belly up to this baby shower cake. Eh?” Jen is using logos here because it gives the reader a little taste of what they are about to see. Even without seeing the picture of this cake, readers can kind of make a picture in their minds of what is coming up.

Like any gifted writer, Jen is good with imagery. One of my favorite instances where she uses imagery is under a picture of a cake that looks like a soccer ball. The cake reads “Good job hott shots!”, and the author is joking about spelling names wrong on cakes. Under this picture she writes, “Present this at the after-game dinner and just watch all those mopey, dejected faces turn into bright red, angry ones in no time at all!”. I laugh as I picture that hypothetical situation that she paints in my mind. For the audience, this kind of “wraps up” the author’s point. After looking at the cake then reading this, they are more likely to agree with the author.

Although I’m not into cooking, and can’t decorate a cake to save my life, I still quite enjoy spending time on this website. I find it very interesting to look at the pictures of all these different cakes. Although the whole point of this site is for tacky-looking, “wrecked cakes”, there are also some cakes that look extremely appealing and pleasing to the eye. This is another reason why I believe the author is so successful in appealing to her audience-- she doesn’t appeal to only one group. She appeals to people who like to laugh at the hilarious cakes, but anyone who takes cakes a little more seriously will enjoy this blog as well.

Like I said before, I like to look at the pictures on this website. One tool Jen uses to make the pictures so appealing is contrast. Rather, she posts pictures of cakes that have good contrast. A good example of contrast is the cake with a gigantic eye on it (the picture is of a cake gone wrong because the maker read directions incorrectly). The cake is purple, except for the white part of the eye. This creates a lot of contrast in the picture. This picture is appealing to the audience because the reader sees the cake right at first. The white part of the eye is in contrast to the rest of the cake, and that contrast brings the reader to see the focal point, or the eye on the cake.

Jen relies a lot on pictures of cakes that say funny things. These pictures would be completely worthless if her audience couldn’t tell what the cake said. Thus, alignment a key role in many of her pictures. For example, there is a cake that reads, “Congratulations WCI graduate in cursive”. The reader can instantly see what the cake says because it is all alined correctly. None of the humor is lost because the reader doesn’t need to “work” at just trying to figure out what the cake says. The audience appreciates this because it is a classic example of why they even have this blog.

The author also uses icons to get her point across to her readers. If people weren’t able to recognize these icons, some of Jen’s jokes would be useless. She uses icons to her advantage, like when she makes fun of the cake that is supposed to look like the Texas Longhorn logo. One of the things I noticed and appreciated when I read this text was the author’s use of fonts. I have almost no background in blogs, and I’m sure many of Jen’s readers don’t either. However, it was easy for me to navigate her blog because I knew right where everything was supposed to be, what was where, etc. It was so simple for me because she uses a different color of font, a bigger font, and a different background color to differentiate between each blog post. This technique makes the author look more credible, and people enjoy reading her work more. The different use of fonts makes this work easier and more appealing to read.

In conclusion, it’s easy to see why Jen has55 attracted so much attention to her blog. She has a natural, genuine sense of humor. Although she never comes out and says it, the reader knows that the author realizes that these are challenging, uncertain times for most of her readers. This is portrayed in her care-free, low-worry writing. She doesn’t bring up pressing issues that we hear enough about on the news, she is simply here to talk cake and joke with her admiring readers. It’s easy to tell that the author doesn’t need to work very hard at all to write something hilarious that will produce her desired results, those desired results being happy, “well-fed” readers.