Analyzing Persuasive Websites

Probably the most important part of online rhetoric is ethos. Because the internet makes it easy to post almost anything on the internet, and almost as easy to direct the reader to one's sources, consumers of online content expect to know where you got your information before they can trust it.

The texting website relies heavily on logos--their advice is mostly common sense, so there isn't much need to cite a source, but they could use more figures to define texting as a social issue worthy of notice.

The social networking website makes good use of its sources and hyperlinks, but could probably be formatted better. I had no desire to read all three essay-style paragraphs on each web page.

http://ornery.org/

This is Orson Scott Card's political blog. He is extremely opinionated, and his arguments could almost be a case study in rhetorical fallacies. He fulminates constantly against what he considers to be a monolithic, insidious cabal of left-wing media outlets, politicians, and academic institutions. His site's formatting could use some work, but his writing is generally entertaining enough to keep you reading.

Opening Paragraph (super late)

Video games are unique as a mode of creative expression, with immense potential to engage the consumer, to portray an artist’s views, and, as technology improves, to be purely, deliciously aesthetic. The medium is still in its infancy, however, and game designers have yet to find good solutions to the medium’s unique artistic challenges, or to effectively mine its rich creative potential.

In my defense I pulled my second all nighter this week so I forgot.... Oops

The problem with a lot of websites it the frist appearence. If the first appearance is good then the internet surfer will stay on your website and read what you got to say. If your appearance is lacking then all the shallow people in the world will move on to the next big and great thing that hte internet has to offer. In the students websites what I really like was the one that had the youtube video before you entered the actual website. It got you interested and helped you to immediately understand what issue they are/were addressing. Sometimes videos and images can work really well and can compliment your arguement, but when used too much or at the wrong places it can ruin it all. There was one student web site on their home page had a whole bunch of images, and that just ruined it for me. It looked messy and out of place.

For the web site I chose a wikipedia page. Almost every Wikipedia webpage is trying to teach your or coninvce you about something. In this one it is about social networking. The layout of Wikipedia has obviously been successful because it is still being used with little complaints. It is clean and un cluttered and organized. These things are what can make or break a webpage.

So fun stuff.

Health care and Virtual Reality

So the non-student website i decided to look at was health care. which seems like a pretty easy one for right now. the website i used was http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care which the white house website that talks about the health care agenda. being a government website the presentation looks very neat and straight forward. all the most important points are in bold so as to bring out their meaning. this also has video links, which is like the student essay is which i saw about virtual living. they both have video that try and expound on the topic and they are a lot both haveof hyper links. how ever the white house website has more of an ethos appeal, because it is after all the president. they don't put any effort into citing sources because they are the experts on the issue. i also think the color layout, basic blue and white of the government website gives it a more authoritative feel then the student website. Also the calligraphy of the white house has is more formal.

Its snowing :(.....

The website I found was arguing the issue of gun control. Their mission is to basically fight against the movement of putting a tighter hold on gun control. They believe it is a violation of the second amendment and are voicing their opinion. I found their website to be very well put together and user friendly. Which is a huge plus in my book, because if I click on a web site and get lost just trying to figure out how to use it, I find myself quickly using the previous page button on my browser and going back to google. I actually did this for a while when doing this blog post assignment till I found this one. Something that I actually really enjoyed on this website was something that I usually don't, the advertisements on the right hand side of the page. Because they were relevant to the pages context and also I found them to be entertaining I kept reading on. One other thing they did really well was on their opening page, it was just a list of current events on police reports of gun owners using them "for the right cause". I found these to be very interesting and it kept me interested.

Now although I found the website I found to be more professional and more informational. I must admit that I much more enjoyed looking at the students web pages. I loved the texting one and all the new media they uses to keep you reading on. Well I'll be honest some of the media was more entertaining than relevant in some cases, but it kept me there and interested none the less.

Weight

The two websites I looked at are both very good websites. The student website is a little bit less information heavy whereas the official website I found had a better layout. The student website was very interesting, as the photos used made me want to read the website to see if there were more photos. I wish that they had actually directly quoted some of the sources more, but the information that they presented was great. The other website I found is even more interesting: it is a webpage by vegetarians for vegetarians and there just happens to be a story about obesity in America. The article is thought provoking, formatted well, and includes some cool photos. It also has hyperlinks to other articles on the same website, like the student website; however, the other articles have more information and more photos. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses, so it would be hard to say that one is better than the other.

I like Jenni's title.

The website I choose to analyze is found here.

The title of the website is Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. I found it by typing, "campaign against smoking," on google and it was the first link that popped up. Before I clicked on it, I thought that it would be a website tailored towards children, with bright colors, large writing, and lots of cartoon pictures. However, I was wrong. Instead it is a very business looking website with a professional layout and pictures that are very real. I realized that this website it geared toward the smoking parents of children--not the children themselves. And the more professional you get the website to look, the more authority you seem to have. The home page of the website provides a link to several news stories and reports about current events that have to do with smoking/tobacco/experiments/their effects.
Some tools that make it particularly persuasive, other than the organization and clear cut arguments, are the pictures. A lot of the pictures are of children with sad or gloomy faces, and you get the impression they are suffering. Also the side bar has a list of links that support their argument, such as "federal initiatives," "state initiatives," "internation center," "research and facts," "press office," and "special gallery."

P.S. I really like that the texting website starts with a little video, that is pretty funny. It automatically engages the reader? website browser?

debe deba debe dodo deba deba diddi do

When looking through websites the first thing that catches my eye are the graphics on the website. For me when I'm looking at a website quickly it's that the physical appearance that catches my eye and makes me what to read all the words that people write. Honestly call me childish but i prefer pictures to words and I believe that the right picture leaves a far more lasting impression than words.

At prolife.come on the homepage it is the pictures that catch your heart and immediately agree with their side. I think the spring break example did a good job of that too. Testimonials are the next best thing to persuade people about your argument. When pictures, testimonials and few but profound words are used, then you have a very persuasive article.

Drunk Driving

For the texting site I think they did a good job. They had a lot of information and I loved all the youtube videos. They were funny yet made you realize how much texting is controling people's lives. The video of the kid who killed two guys by texting also added a lot to the argument. It was a real life experience. Also in the social networking site they had a youtube video how social networking had effected a girl. These videos make the argument more real and life like. For the spring break website they address the arguments of why BYU says we don't have a spring break. I think that is a strong point for them because they address the issues but then agrue why that really isn't a good reason. In the virtual living, they don't really explain what they are saying. For example they talk about the negative effects, saying that it will lead to physical, social and emotional problems for the user. Whether this is true or not they have no references showing that it is true and not jsut somehting they made up and they don't go on to explain why users would have these problems. So it makes the site seem less reliable.
A website I found that was against drunk driving is http://www.madd.org. MADD stands for mothers against drunk driving. I think it is a very good persuasive website trying to get people involved and to stop people driving under the influence. They have a place were it talks about there campaign. They have a simple version and then when you press on it they go into full detail about it and sometimes even have a video showing or explaining what they mean. This helps a lot because people can get an idea just by their first look, but once you press on it, they are able to understand more for what they are fighting for. One thing they have that really hits you is they have this cute picture of a little girl with things going past her saying 2006: first day of kindergarten 2007: Grandpa teaches her to ride her bike 2008: stars in her first school play. Then it goes back through those dates and crosses them out and puts instead 2005: hit and killed by a drunk driver. They have three more people who have had life changing experiences like their death or being paralyzed. This helps you see the reality of it all. They have a place for research done and a place that lists all the statistics found concerning drunk driving. They just have a lot of information in all aspects from statistics to how to get involved. It is a very persuasive website because they are reliable and they have a lot of information proving and trying to get you involved.

Pro abortionists are Pro life too??

I was trying to decide on what would be a good persuasive website. I wasn't sure what to look for then I thought, "hey, what about a controversial issue? There are tons of sites about them". SO...I looked up abortion sites and found this one. It is definitely a persuasive site. http://www.abortionisprolife.com/ Well first off one of the biggest things about it was the first quote. It is from Ayn Rand, who is a pretty controversial book writer. I've read one of her books. Well it trashes the other side, and makes you think about your stance on the issue. "Abortion is a moral right—which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved; morally, nothing other than her wish in the matter is to be considered. Who can conceivably have the right to dictate to her what disposition she is to make of the functions of her body? " Ok and the quote from Ayn Rand changes every time you go to the home page, so this may not be the exact quote you see. Then the next is a link to a doctor who has the best 10 minute argument for abortion. It then proceeds to gives links to sites that will give you all of the latest arguments for it, all of the frequently asked questions AND the student resource section. All a student could ever need or want to know to write a paper. The papers themselves really dig hard at people against abortion. "Abortion-rights advocates should not cede the terms "pro-life" and "right to life" to the anti-abortionists. It is a woman's right to her life that gives her the right to terminate her pregnancy.The weakness is the site itself isn't very aesthetic. It isn't really convincing itself.
The other websites on the blog post page were ok. The one that was the most convincing was the one on social networking. It combines the text with other types of media such as videos or pictures. The negative link that showed the negative effects like split personalities...sounds horrid.

On the Web

Well the first thing you notice when you enter a site is it's appearance. The site should look easy to use and have nice graphics, but nothing too overwhelming. For example the virtual reality site had some text that was hard to read because of how it blended in with the background. This is frustrating and somewhat of a distraction so I think it may not appeal to people. Also on that website there was a video that was cut off. Maybe it was just a problem that the group couldn't fix, but nonetheless it is distracting. Also the website about weight had problems with the text and pictures overlapping which is not a positive thing. The site should be interesting, yet also look proper as appropriate.
The social networking site did pretty well with this. I thought the use of so many links was a little too much. I think it was cool to have the link to the Universe article about spring break on that site. Also just simple things like the text and making sure there are no grammatical mistakes would help the sites be persuasive. I think it is a good thing that some of the sites put search boxes in. I'm not sure how often people would use them, but they are nice to have just in case.

The site I chose was one about quitting smoking. I think that it looks appealing and draws you in just from the cheerful homepage. It is easy to use and has lots of helpful links and such. I think it is persuasive in its use of short and powerful testimonials. At the bottom of each page there is a different person with just a one line phrase that is uplifting. I think this makes it more personal which is persuasive.

Is this the last blog post?

Persuasive writing is all around us today, on billboards, ads and of course, on the internet. Persuasive websites know their audience and use different techniques to target that audience. For example, the student created texting website was created with teenagers and early young adults in mind. This website is interesting and engaging, with different links and videos. The videos are targeted towards teens and show different instances in which texting is used positively and negatively. Persuasive websites also explore both sides of the issue. As in the social networking website, it not only talks about the potential dangers of social networking, but also the benefits of this type of internet interaction. This allows the reader to see both sides of the issue and determine for themselves what their position is on the issue. Another website that I found to be very persuasive was Dove's website (http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/). This site is targeted towards young girls with the specific intent to increase the self-esteem of girls. The website has many interactive features that allow the reader to become involved in the website. Yet, one of the weaknesses of this website is that the self-esteem aspect of the website is very minimal, most of the site seems to be about Dove's products. Although when you do get into the self-esteem part it has a lot of information (which is still comparatively small compared to the rest of the website).

intro...eh, what?

What happens to a culture or a cultural tradition when new media like the internet, popular cinema, and alternative recording techniques are woven into the society? In many cases the society weaves this new information and lifestyle into the culture; they acculturate the information into a new idea, into a culturally-acceptable idea that then spreads throughout the entire nation. In some nations, many believe that the modernizing world is a detriment to the cultural history; however, modern media influences have helped to preserve and protect the national culture and the cultural history in India through the Bollywood traditions. Not only do they make them more readily accessible, but they aid in guarding the greater and older traditions of dance, music and oration. This is, overall, a major benefit to culture and proves to benefit the culture by preserving, respecting and honoring it, rather than destroying or hindering it.

Calcium is bad for you.

From the day Neolithic man discovered pitch, music has been evolving for thousands of years. One would think that at the dawn of the 20th century, music would have reached perfection. Enter Stravinsky, the eccentric Russian composer whose two ballets, The Firebird and Petroushka, had achieved great popularity. In the spring of 1913, Stravinsky and the avant-garde choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky thought of something completely new. They dug down deep into Russian's pre-Christian, Slavic roots and designed a performance featuring ritual, tribal sacrifice. Stravinsky's rhythmic, percussive strings combined with completely atonal chords and eerie melodies; a style never before experience. The piece has been called the most important piece of music written in the 20th century. Its initial reception, however, was horrendous. Booing cries of disgust appeared just after the first movement. Enthusiasts willing to give the music a chance invited arguments. Fighting ensued. Stravinsky's premiere of his epic work representing a life of study and millenniums of musical evolution was met with a riot. How could The Rite of Spring be condoned by musicians and musicologists as a wonder yet receive one of the most ill-met premieres in history? It all comes down to the public’s understanding and ability to appreciate musical complexity. Through the natural selection of popular music, the common man’s aloofness to musical intricacies prevents musical genres from becoming too complex and alienating the populace.

Relying on Technology

In today’s day and age, technology is everywhere around us. We use technology in almost everything now. We have our cell phones, laptop computers, portable music players, even electronic cash registers. We as a people have come to rely on this technology for some of the most mundane tasks. One of these things we don’t do for ourselves anymore is in getting directions and traveling. No longer do people get directions from actual other people, or from a map. Now, we just punch an address into our navigation systems we have installed in our cars. Once we have done that, we just blindly follow where it tells us to go. It's my belief that this is having a negative effect on our society.

So Much Cooler Online Intro

Three million people use the internet each day, of those three million about seven hundred and fifty thousand of them are using social networking sites (citation i forgot which one it is from when i wrote it down but will find it). Social networks provide constant connections to friends, family members, classmates and even strangers. The constant contact these sites provide with others, can affect the relationships of the users in positive and negative ways. Catching up after lost time, or suffocating one another with too much information. These sites can help and or hurt you and your relationships with others. Some of these sites are designed to help you find your true love or soul mate. While others are used to post information about everything in your life from pictures, messages, new statuses and more. Whatever the design of the site, caution needs to be taken to ensure safety and also to establish healthy relationships with others. Social networking sites can be used for many different purposes. One of the major attractions of social networking sites is the ability to reconnect with people from your past or that are not nearby. Another major appeal of social networking sites is the opportunity it provides for you to not to be alone or lonely. This lack of loneliness and constant connection to others, can sometimes lead to an illusion of popularity through a popular cyber social life. But is a cyber life a good replacement for reality? What kind of effects are social networking sites having on our relationships with others? The increase in usage of social networking sites causes fake confidence given to the users and affects their relationships with their peers.

Trade: The Free and the Fair

The world is out to get us. Give them an inch and they will walk all over you. In 2002 President Bush passed a steel tariff called the steel tariff act of 2002. (cleverly named) it was meant to save our domestic steel industry from the “unfair” trade of the world. Other nations were undercutting our prices and selling consumers steel that was 30% cheaper. The audacity! Unfortunately for the steel industry the tariff lasted for less then a year because the world trade organization took disciplinary measures. What were they thinking? Don’t they care about our struggling nation? Surly all they were worried about was helping other people and leaving us to hang.

Free trade is one of those things that everybody has an opinion on but no one fully understands. Whether you’re listening to Glenn Beck or Ben Bernanke you’ll find ideas are across the board. What is the big deal with free trade in the first place? Is it damnation or salvation… or maybe a little of both.

hmmmm how to start?

Do you remember the good old days when you worked really hard on your homework, finished it, then your mom gave you the ok, and you ran to the TV…. Grabbed your favorite video game… but before putting it in…. you blew in it so that it would work. When the most violent game was either Duck Hunt or Lemmings (poor little green guys…) or Super Mario where you unmercifully killed walking mushrooms! Back when you turned off the game that was it… the only big effect it had on your life was those really obnoxious Tetris dreams you would have flipping blocks all night? Video games have come a LONG way sense then, the change is almost night and day! Now days you will find some games with such great dept to the game play that you could spend hours, days, even years and never beat it. Games that you end up doing double take to figure out if its real or not because of its quality of graphics. And instead of playing with one other choice friend in your families TV room, now from your bedroom you can play with nearly 12 million people. Online gaming has become a huge part of today’s culture and society. The question though is proposed, are all these advances in video gaming affecting our society for the better or were we better off with Mario?

Introduction

For 8-18 year olds, an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes is taken up daily by entertainment media, such as TV and DVD watching, computer and video games, surfing the web, texting and listening to music, reports the Kaiser Family Foundation. They go on to say that during this 7 1/2 hour time, children are actually fitting in a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media usage because they are using more than one media activity at a time, they are multitasking with media. Every single day is consumed by that much media for children and that adds up to over 53 hours a week! Thats a full time job, except they are not doing anything productive. What are children spending their time doing? As shown they are wasting their time with plenty of media. With school being part of their day and sleeping part of the day that doesn't leave much time for homework, family time or even exercising. With all this usage of media are children taking care of their bodies? In today's world children's time is being consumed by media which in turn is affecting their health. Parents need to realize what their children are spending their time doing. Not only what children are doing, but what their child is missing and what all this time spent on media is replacing. Physical activity is being cut out of children's lives because children can no longer find time to do it. This media usage is taking so much time out of their lives that they feel the least important thing to squeeze in there is exercising, so they don't. The increase of media usage is replacing some of the time that could be spent in physical activity which in turn is effecting children's health, for the bad.

In the Beginning...

Yes...I know it's two paragraphs...but this is my entire intro and the first paragraph doesn't make sense without the second.

A salty sea breeze blew in from the Atlantic Ocean near Charleston, South Carolina. The waves, gently rolling in, beckoned all around to come and cool off from what had been a warm July day.Suddenly a high whistle pierced the calm summer’s evening followed by a large explosion and the cries of men struck by hot pieces of shrapnel. Orders were shouted up and down the lines as explosions occurred at an ever increasing rate. Miraculously reaching the earthen embankment leading to Fort Wagner an impressive figure stood boldly atop it, waving his sword, beckoning his men onward. With a sudden crack and cloud of smoke this man crumpled in a heap, the victim of enemy musket fire. The sounds of battle reached alarming levels when suddenly a lone voice in the distance cried out, “Cut!”
In 1989, a movie was released which told the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first official colored regiments in the Union Army during the Civil War. It was the movie “Glory” directed by Edward Zwick. “Glory” and other dramatic historical films have been heralded both as important pieces of historical teaching and as historically heretical. The genre of historical film has been belittled and attacked by numerous historians. They claim that the films revise history or do not show an accurate portrayal of historical events, do not allow people to think critically, and create a historically numb society. To take this stance on this genre of popular film is detrimental to historical learning. Dramatic historical films are an important part of historical understanding and when created and viewed correctly, they can have great influence in society.