E-portfolio

The various individual components of my life define me as a whole, unique human being much as puzzle pieces interlock to create a complete work of art.  I am a band geek, an athlete, a scholar, and a Friend.  I march in the Blue Band, have won gold at high school state gymnastics meets, was named valedictorian of a class of 663, and cherish the silence of Quakerism.  However, while all these things describe me, they do not define me, or explain my goals in life.  What does define me is this:  I am a puzzle solver.

My penchant for solving scientific problems stems from my love of jigsaw puzzles.  From start to finish, sometimes working hours at a time, the methodical thought pattern the puzzles require stimulates my brain, and carries over to other areas of my life.  In my science and math classes, I tackle the problems presented to me in the same, calculated way I solve puzzles.  When writing a speech I piece together the many components in a logical, informative order.  And coming up with a plan to occupy a class of third graders who had been rained out of field day also challenged my problem solving skills.  I took the parts I had: leftover balloons, hyper kids, and a Magic School Bus movie on friction and combined them to form a fun, hair-raising lesson.

In the future I hope to apply knowledge from solving the puzzles I have encountered both in and out of school to global problems like cancer and arthritis.  I am a biochemist.  I solve problems by learning what causes them so that I can determine what needs to be fixed.  This involves putting together pieces from numerous research articles and colleagues ideas.  A picture is formed, a solution to a problem.  And then I conduct and present research myself to glue the picture together so that others can see the results, just as I glue the finished puzzles together to hang on my wall.  And eventually when enough of the little problems have been solved they can become pieces themselves which can be put together to solve the wider problems.  Eventually the whole room will be decorated, and maybe cancer will no longer be a threat.

In my e-portfolio I have integrated several documents which elaborate on me, my personality, values, and beliefs.  It is very difficult to sum up an entire being in just a few words, yet hopefully you will be able to see the inner workings of both my heart and brain. 

Google's Investment- the Planet's Profit?

This week Google declared its intent to help fund an undersea power strip that would span the east coast from Virginia to New Jersey.  Why?  So that the consistent wind present off the coast of the Eastern United States can be harnessed and transported back to shore. 

Google says that their reasoning behind this project is two-fold.  One: they expect a return in their investment.  Two: it’s good for the environment.  No they aren’t an energy company, but if funding a pet project could be so beneficial, why not? 

Who knows, maybe Google’s initiative will be attractive to other companies?  Maybe Google just became the catalyst for the globe truly investing in renewable energy.  If even non-energy companies are willing to get behind it, shouldn’t everyone?  

No one really denies anymore that there is a problem with the environment and energy sources.  So why not part of the policy to fixing it involve project funding by companies like Google?  If one company can help fund a project to bring wind power to nearly 2 million homes, what would happen if many companies helped fund many projects? 

The idea is practical. The motivation for participating is already there: this is a wise investment in which your company will profit.  It will work.  2 million homes is kind of an impressive start.  It is fair.  Sure the companies aren’t just in it for the environment, but the environment does benefit.  And because Google is working with an energy company- Trans Electric- in the process, it’s not as if the energy giants are going to cry foul.  And as for alternative solutions…in the case of the environment and energy, multiple solutions are exactly what we need.  No one thing is going to fix the issue, but every little bit helps.  And this could be more than a little bit. 

It’s entirely possible that I’m being overly optimistic about the situation, but regardless of what other companies are thinking, if they are at all, Google’s plan could represent a perfect solution to the world’s environmental and energy problems. 


http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/05/technology/brainstorm_green_google_wind_electricity_cable/index.htm

"The Hundred to Stay Funded"

For a long time marches, walks, and bus rides have been a powerful way to deliver a rhetorical message. 

Sometimes the message is one of opposition to something the government is doing.  Martin Luther King Junior and the other leaders of the civil rights movement used this method in the March on Washington, when King gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.”  SNCC leaders (the student run civil rights group) organized a bus ride to oppose segregated seating.

Other times, the message is a call to action, such as the Thon 5K to support pediatric cancer, or the Out of the Darkness Walk for suicide prevention and awareness. 

Why do so many people use these methods?  Because they are rhetorically powerful.   Instead of simply using words to advocate desegregation or encourage people to donate to cancer research individuals or groups march to physically demonstrate their commitment to their purpose.  They aren’t just speaking meaningful words to try to call others to action they are acting- and everybody knows actions speak louder than words.  These events expertly utilize pathos.  People sacrificing themselves- their time, their energy, and in the case of movements such as civil rights their safety- that gets a response out of viewers that no words, however passionate, can.

And beginning tonight, the cross country team from Lock Haven will run 100 miles to the rally in Harrisburg being held to oppose the PA state budget cuts to higher education.  Now, the whole team isn’t running all 100 miles- they will be taking shifts.  But none-the-less, when the team runs into the city just as the rally is getting under way, people will notice.  Because these busy college students took it upon themselves not just to attend the rally, but to run to it.

Grant Writing 101

When writing a grant proposal you are selling both your research and yourself.  You have to build up your ethos to prove that you are capable of carrying out the procedures.  You must sound like an expert in the subject you are researching.  Providing a resume and references allows the selection committee to see your educational background and your previous success in the lab.  They aren’t going to give you money for a good idea if they don’t think you can effectively act on the idea. 

But the good idea is also important, which is where logos comes in to play.  When writing the grant you have to give the committee a logical reason to support your project.  The key to this is outlining how the knowledge you are searching for will impact the field.  What gaps are you going to fill in the literature on the subject?  How will filling these gaps benefit future research?  What doors would be opened?  By detailing the benefits to academia you provide a logical reason for the committee to give you the funds. 

The final step involves a little pulling on the heart-strings.  How is your research going to benefit the world?  Will it save lives?  Help the environment?  By outlining the overall purpose toward which your research is directed you are painting the big picture.  This is not just a project to determine the role of a certain protein in the development of stem cells.  It is a project which could drastically impact stem cell research, which in turn would lead to regenerative therapies that can cure many diseases.  

Paint the committee a rhetorical picture.  Sell yourself and your project.  

Emotional Melody

Tragedy.  The earthquake and tsunami in Japan struck a chord around the world.  When Haiti encountered the devastating power of nature, everyone blamed the already dreadful conditions and shoddy construction in which the people were living.  But if a natural disaster can so drastically impact one of the world’s most developed, most successful countries it could happen to anyone.  Concern for the radiation leaking out of damaged nuclear reactors has created the kairos to spark new debates on the safety of nuclear energy.  News stations everywhere are showing videos of the devastation, reporting facts, estimating numbers all in an effort to respond to their audience’s desire for information on the situation. 

And one man posted a moving video on youtube to create an exigence, to call individuals everywhere to action.  He plays a song.  The power of the music pulls on the listener’s heartstrings.  And yet, while the purpose is clear- Japan needs support- the music itself could be interpreted many ways.  Is it a mournful ode to the people of the country?  A hopeful reminder that this too shall pass?  Or just something beautiful, to bring to mind the beauty of the land before the muddy waters brought destruction? However you listen to it, whatever images and feelings it raises in you, the song invokes pathos, bringing forth a well of emotions to persuade the listener to help and to comfort the listener in need.  Music is a universal language.  While different cultures embrace different styles, everyone can hear the beauty, the emotion, in these notes.

Catchy Songs and Cute Dogs

Jingles are powerful rhetorical tools.  This one is particularly effective- my sister and I memorized it when we were little and I haven’t forgotten it to this day.  Coupling the catchy words with the cute puppy draws little kids like a magnet.  And of course when said kids then sing the song everywhere they go (especially when they see a puppy) their parents will never forget it either.

 Not only do they succeed in sticking themselves into your head, the advertiser’s for K-9 Advantix emphasize the value of their product.  While spreading the word about their merchandise everywhere you take your kid is certainly helpful to the company, that doesn’t do much good if you don’t also buy what they are advertising.  So they use the ethos of a puppy.  If the dog in the commercial is so thrilled with the medicine that he is writing home about it, your dog will be happy with the gift too.  And of course since the puppy in the commercial is running around outside (where all the fleas and tics are) and is clearly unaffected by them, K-9 Advantix is effective. 

I don’t think I will ever forget this commercial- a song that ingrained in your brain never really leaves. 

What is your favorite commercial song?

“One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time.”

Terrorism.  It is a word we are all too familiar with, especially since 9/11.  It is an international problem. Through the books that tell his story- Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson presents a solution: education. 

When Mortenson, a mountain climber, finds himself lost in the peaks of Pakistan, he stumbles across a native village.  Welcomed and nursed to health, Mortenson discovers that the Korphe “school” is not only outdoors in one of the harshest climates in the world, but also lacks both a daily teacher and books.  Mortenson promises to return with the money to build a school, beginning an incredible journey. 

From the first school at Korphe, Mortenson’s mission has grown to over 170 schools throughout the many isolated villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  “Dr. Greg” as he came to be called discovered that the only real education the children of these remote communities had was to attend a madrassa, built and run by the Taliban.  Parents desperate to educate their children were sending them to these schools. 

The doctor’s prescription?

 Build schools, educate these children, and they will learn to read from someone besides the Taliban.  Additionally, Mortenson’s schools provide education for girls, and by giving successful students scholarships to attend city universities, they are in effect benefiting the whole village.  The educated girls return home, bringing their knowledge with them, and improve the quality of life for everyone.

The story itself is powerful, and the books skillfully utilize rhetoric to drive the message home.  Fighting is not the answer- teaching is.  Greg’s incredible ethos supports the novels.  He has witnessed firsthand the state of the education system, and the burning desire that villagers have for schools.  The books make clear that Mortenson is not forcing something on these people- they are begging him for it.  Mortenson has suffered through time held in captivity by the Taliban, fearful for his life.  Despite the danger, he has dedicated himself to founding a rural education system, spending months of his time in central Asia instead of at home with his supportive wife and children.  He is believable and undeniably driven, so readers trust and support. 

Pathos is obviously a key component.  The trials Mortenson has endured evoke sympathy, but the detailed depictions of the villagers themselves evoke understanding.  These are not bad people.  They have needs and desires just like anybody else, but their lives are a world away from ours.  Instead of wanting the latest in technology, they want books and they want to learn how to read them. 

Logically, if something so simple can be so meaningful, if schools can rid the world of terrorism, why not throw everything you have into building for a purpose, instead of destroying everything in sight?  Practically, Mortenson is setting up these villages to educate themselves by hiring native teachers, and passing responsibility on to Pakistani and Afghan people.  The schools Mortenson helps found can be maintained long after he moves on.  The villagers can find their own success and can embrace a future where they no longer need to turn to foreigners for help.  Mortenson is successfully setting up a viable, self-sustaining system.

These books deserve to be read by everyone.  They have already become required reading for all officers and Special Forces that enter Afghanistan.  Clearly, if even the government is listening, this message has merit.  

For more information visit: http://www.threecupsoftea.com/ and http://www.penniesforpeace.org/

A Moving Movie

Rabbit Proof Fence tells the heart-wrenching story of Australia’s Aborigines.  The tale powerfully utilizes the ethos of two living victims when the movie begins with one of them, now a grandmother, narrating in her native Aboriginal tongue.  It ends with an image of the two women as they are today, reinforcing their credibility: they are living witness to the events of the movie. 

The girls are from the Stolen Generations- a period from 1930-1970 when half-caste Aboriginal children- children with white fathers, often men who were workers on the Rabbit Proof Fence- were taken from their Aboriginal mothers to be raised in a compound.  The goal was the eventual elimination of Aboriginal features from the population- by breeding already half-whites with whites, and so on, eventually there would be no sign that Aborigines ever existed. Aboriginal blood would be “bred out.”

The movie tells of three such half-caste girls who, under the guidance of the eldest, decide to escape the compound and travel 1,500 miles back home, using the rabbit proof fence, which divides Australia from coast to coast, as their guide.  The punishment if they are captured is severe.  Not to mention that most of the journey is through the harsh Australian outback. 

The rhetorical purpose is clear, and applicable to the many lands where natives were brutally treated by a “superior” population.  This movie, produced by Australians and based on a book by the main character’s daughter, is a message, informing the world of their country’s mistakes and asking that we learn from the past.  It is a tribute to the Aborigine.  

The persuasiveness of the girls’ story is inherent in its use of pathos- the heartstrings it pulls, the tears it instigates, the admiration for remarkable courage it insights. 

Rabbit Proof Fence is a powerful movie, one which will have a lasting influence on you.  I encourage you to watch and learn. 

Curing the Bad Day Blues

Is the sign really necessary?
from chain e-mail

Have you ever been stressed?  Had an awful day?  I know I have.  If you haven’t then I want your secret, because I certainly don’t have a good solution.  I do however have a pretty reliable remedy: hilarious pictures.  Animals are most effective, but any funny picture will do.  Guys can appreciate this too- I’m not talking about the cutsie picture of a kitten curled up on a dog’s back- I’m talking about the kind of picture that you can’t help but grin at. 

From chain e-mail

When I received a chain e-mail full of pictures from my mom the other day as I was stressing about a test, I realized that this is a wonderful example of rhetoric.  The purpose behind these pictures is making people laugh, a perfect cure for the melancholy caused by a bad day.  The bad day is the exigence- a state that friends and family members want to change.  In the above example, my mom acted the part of the rhetor by using photographic discourse targeted at pathos- emotions- to lighten my mood. 

mandyseyfang at flickr.com

Another example that confirmed this view is The Blue Day Book by Bradley Trevor Greive.  It is literally a book full of amusing animal pictures with captions to add even more hilarity.  The effect is to lighten a blue day- obviously judging by its title that is exactly the rhetorical purpose for which the book was created.

Just a suggestion, but next time you are in a funk, get on-line and start typing “funny” into the Google image search browser.  It will give you all sorts of suggestions- funny cats, funny dogs, funny pictures, funny signs.  Pick your favorite.  It’s amazing what a few minutes of grinning can do to turn a frown-filled day around.  

Rhetorical Professors

 I realized on Saturday afternoon, listening to a professor in the Frontiers of Science public lecture series that professors are quite skilled rhetors.  

The topic was "The Future of Infectious Diseases in a Pharmaceutical Age."In other words, how drugs that have been developed to kill nasty bugs like malaria may actually backfire when the bugs evolve to an even stronger form.  Hearing horror stories about antibiotic resistant bacteria and what the pharmaceutical industry is doing right or wrong with respect to them, I came to the conclusion that the problem, the exigence that all professors are called to change, is ignorance. 

Lack of knowledge is an opening for any academic in any situation to latch onto and remedy.  The audience is composed of students, college students, adult learners, other professors.  The lecturer’s purpose is to fill a knowledge void with information in the hopes that maybe the students will be influenced to spread the information to others, or even act on their new-found expertise. 

For example, a professor lecturing about global warming hopes that her students will be moved to tell others all the scientific facts they learned to support the existence of global warming.  Maybe they will even take it to the government by joining an environmental group or writing a letter. 

Or she may be talking about solving quadratic equations, which her pupils can later use to design a rocket for NASA or develop a more efficient means of energy.  The professor is a rhetor who has then influenced her audience.  


In the case of the pharmaceutics lecture, the professor's goal was simply to educate.  To make the audience aware that life-saving drugs are not all-powerful, and may in some cases be harmful.  He emphasized that in some cases taking the full course of drugs the doctor orders, even if you feel better before you finish the prescription, may actually be promoting antibiotic resistance.  And vaccinations may be counterproductive, saving one life but causing a death somewhere else because the virus is given a chance to spread.  We just don't know enough.  But I was influenced to spread the message here, and will certainly be thinking about it the next time I get antibiotics.

So next time you sit in lecture, think about this: what influence will your professor have on you? 

The Power of Silence

A podcast modeled after NPR's segment "This I Believe."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9u5c2uEubk

Presidential Advice

Revision, editing, and proofreading- three different approaches, all with the goal of making an essay, a speech, a novel, more eloquent, flowing, understandable, and relatable.  Obviously you have to go over your own work, time and again, adapting the work for its purpose, adding and subtracting words, rearranging sentences, and nitpicking grammar.  Yet, as beneficial as tearing your own work apart may be, another opinion makes a world of difference. 

Even the president thinks so. 

Going behind the scenes of the State-of-the Union Address, Jon Favreau, Director of Speech Writing at the White House details the process of writing this all-inclusive, astronomically important presidential speech.  He also explains how it has changed.  What used to be simply a written document submitted to the white house became a nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress.  And as we all know, writing a speech and writing a paper require different skill sets, different techniques.  Instead of putting words down on paper to be read, you have to consider delivery, how the words will sound spoken.  While both forms of writing must connect with the audience, the audiences in this case are different.  Instead of simply talking to Congress, politicians, the president has to reach out to Americans, common citizens.

To create a successful speech, focused, and comprehendible by a normal, politically un-savvy individual, yet technical enough to please Congress and the political pundits, President Obama and his speech writer work together, e-mailing each other countless revisions.  Back and forth goes the speech, each time acquiring additional modifications, presidential flair, personality, reworded stances on the issues (you don’t want to beat your head at the same angle on the wall, remember).  The President edits for his speech writer just as the speech writer revises for the president. 

Obviously if even the president does it, peer revisions are veritable gold mines as far as producing a rhetorically sound essay is concerned.

A Rhetoric Master

Rhetoric.  Merriam Webster defines it as “the art of speaking or writing effectively.”  Aristotle terms it "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion."  So, in layman’s terms, rhetoric requires figuring out all the angles a situation can be looked at and then communicating those angles. 

The importance of rhetoric is spelled out, though not in name, in the Abraham Lincoln biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals.  Lincoln lead greatly, influenced and guided, because he understood rhetoric.  He used it in his speeches to gain support and become elected, but more importantly, he utilized his knowledge of the art to design his cabinet, to choose those who would serve with him.  Abraham Lincoln created a team of rivals. 

He selected intelligent people from all parties and walks of life because he knew that to make the right decision and to be able to convince others of its validity, he would need to know the educated opinions of all groups.  He knew he needed people who would argue with him and each other, and he knew how to communicate with these individuals to prevent intelligent debate descending to word bashing and angry brawls.  Abraham Lincoln mastered rhetoric and he remains in the history books one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever seen.  He used the tools of speech, persuasion, letter writing, and storytelling, to hold those loyal to the Union together.  Thus united, the north had the power to bring the south to hand.  In a way, Lincoln’s use of rhetoric is the only reason we are 50 United States.  

Politicians today need to learn from Honest Abe’s example: be honest with yourself about your beliefs and values, but also respect the ideals of others.  To accomplish anything requires debate, but it also requires decisions.  It requires looking at different angles instead of repeating the same dreary statements over and over.  Instead of beating your head straight against the same wall, the least you can do is to find a different angle or a different point on the wall to hit.  Otherwise, the wall will break completely and be no use.  Find some variety.  Analyze facts and adjust arguments.  Determine what other sides are thinking. Learn from the past. In a word, value rhetoric.