Part 1 --> So I decided to take a look at Washington State's Governor election between Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna since I wanted to look at something that was a bit smaller in scale than the Presidential election. I wanted to look up the issue of Pro Choice versus Pro Life, but it wasn't an option under their "issues" section. Only until I looked at the sections that were about them did I find what I wanted to look at.
Part 2 --> So far I have both Rob and Jay's websites for the election as texts on voting for either Rob or Jay:
As well as a Pro Choice and Pro Life websites, which will give examples to how those organizations want people to vote:
And what really inspired this idea was a fantastic video my roommate showed me on YouTube about being a woman voter.
1. Considering your rhetorical situation, you really need to consider the audience. The voters for pro choice v pro life usually have a very firm ground on which side they support; the liberal voters usually voting pro choice and the republicans usually voting pro life. Since they are so hard to try to convince to change, i think that makes audience the most important aspect.
ReplyDelete2. When looking at the accomplishments provided on the links above for each candidate, their linguistic modes are very different. The Republican candidate uses a very formal approach, putting up the new laws put into effect by bills he has passed. The Democratic candidate uses a much more emotional appeal to play toward the pathos of the situation.
As for the pro choice/pro life websites, I think they both use very different approaches. The pro choice website seems very political and plays toward people ability to vote in the way they want the policies to work. The pro life website seems to just be a news website, telling people about the things pro life movements are doing.
I couldn't really hear the video all that well in the classroom but, women voters are much more affected by this issue being that it is their bodies we are dealing with. I think it explained their situation on this debate very well.
3. One contrast in rhetoric I am noticing is that the Democratic candidate's website is a green layout and the Republican candidate's website is a red white and blue layout. The pro choice website is linked to the Democratic side and the pro life website is linked to the Republican side but they have the opposite color schemes. The pro choice site is red white and blue and the pro life site is green. I find this interesting in that the sites dedicated to the values are trying to appeal to the opposing parties.
I just want to point out that it is nice that you posted the links to the sites that you are going to analyze. I'm not sure too many of our classmates did the same, which will make it a little harder for us to analyze in comments.
ReplyDeleteFor the first two texts, it is clear that you'll need to pay particular attention to the textual and linguistic elements of the website, as most of is just body text. Don't forget to keep in mind the audience as well, the site is most likely displaying certain things for some people, and leaving other things out for others.
The same rhetorical conventions go for the last two texts as well. A lot of text elements and considerations of audience. Also think about how both of last two sites are organized, and maybe try to contrast them, see if the rhetoric changes with a different type of layout. Stronger? Weaker?
This is a good topic and I think it will be interesting to see how each side defends their stand.
ReplyDeleteI think you should pay particular attention to the audience, because the pro-life/pro-choice debate is an issue that impacts more women than men, it is easy for the author to only gear it towards women. However men to make up a large portion of voters, so it would be interesting to see how it is directed towards men.
Also I think it would be good to look at the context of the pages you have listed. Particularly, since elections are coming up, the information on the pages are probably going to be trying desperately to persuade people to agree with them.
The strategies that stand out to me in the two candidate pages are definitely color, and emphasis on getting people to sign up for the mailing lists, and to contribute. Both sites have large, bright colored "contribute" boxes that stand out from the background. Additionally, this button is usually on the far right, and the last in the sequence of links on the menu bar.
For the Pro-choice/pro-life pages, I noticed the NARAL website is very similar in alignment and design to the political candidate sites, and also uses similar contrast of color and positioning of a donate button. The Pro-life action league has a nice frame across the top with the green band saying the site's name, which stays with the screen as you scroll down.
The donate button and some sort of "get involved" button are always placed on the right side of the screen, and usually is contrasted on these sites because the author knows people look from left to right, so that will be the last thing they see, but also what they will remember, and focus on the most.
1. Regarding to your rhetorical situation, you need to pay attention to audience, purpose, and genre since your chosen issue is Pro Choice versus Pro Life.
ReplyDelete2. I see that both of their websites use similar proximity and alignment. The place they put the logo and name is right top.
3. I have visited both websites of Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna. It seems like both of them use blue and white for contrast, and it has pretty similar organization. However, the one thing I noticed in here is that linguistic they use is very different. It seems like Rob McKenna use more formal font, but the font that Jay Inslee use gives me an impression that he is more friendly.
1: the context, purpose, and audience are important to consider. The purpose describes the argument, the context gives the argument is backbone, and the audience because they need to be convinced by the argument.
ReplyDelete2: 1st: The alignment of this text is standing out to me here. There is a claim then support indented beneath it. This causes the eye not to drift to another claim before finish reading the support.
2nd: almost exactly like the previous text. There is a higher emphasis on the social media aspects.
3rd: I like the color contrast on this page. The important information is highlighted by contrasting colors. And they are space far enough from each other that it isn’t visually constricting.
4th: The proximity of everything is very close, almost claustrophobic. Various links and menus really don’t give the viewer much breathing room.
5th: To me it seems the framing of this work is used to create a false focus. The piece focuses on one thing then when it does shift focus it explains how that should have been the focus in the first place.
3:I notice the color is often on outer parts of the text, framing the various articles or videos. I think that it is being used help the audience navigate the text so that they know where different things are on the pages relatively quickly.
Brandon Fair
1) I feel as if you're taking on a project that will be more complicating to readers, as you have several competing arguments to discuss at the same time. Try to simplify your project by focusing on one or the other (abortion argument or governor's campaign) and using the remaining problem as a supporting argument.
ReplyDelete2) http://www.jayinslee.com/meet/accomplishments - as with most political websites, the author is unclear and thus leaves me with more questions than answers. Since his campaign has had a professionally developed website, the visual composition is on key.
https://www.robmckenna.org/robs-record - again, this is a professionally designed political website that holds to the same standards as the previous website. Though the author of the text is still unclear, the statements made are backed-up with solid bill numbers and summations of each.
http://www.naral.org/ - This webtext is most effective, as it uses contrasting colors, large typefaces for content headers, and lots of imagery to support each argument/article.
3) For these websites, navigation is key. Both political websites have a top navigation that makes it simple for readers to navigate to content they are interested in.