Am I boring?

I generally enjoy public speaking.  It is the only time  where everyone present actually has to listen to what I have to say.  In a sense, it is my moment of glory, with which I can do what I wish.  Quite obviously, the goal is to deliver an entertaining presentation.  I usually practice a good deal in order to accomplish the goal of making a good presentation, and to help avoid making the audience feel uncomfortable along with me.  To do so, I capitalize and focus on my strengths, and ignore my weaknesses and pretend that they do not exist.  

I would like to capitalize on how I enjoy public speaking, and my eye contact.  I think that these two strengths make a speaker seem more confident overall.  Confidence is the key to a presentation in my opinion.  Without it, your ethos is shot, and you seem weak and ineffective to the audience.  Eye contact not only radiates confidence, but it also helps the crowd feel connected and engaged.  If they see me enjoying my time speaking, the prevailing hope is that I can impart some enthusiasm in them. By maintaining eye contact and relaying my enjoyment, I want to focus on being confident and displaying this to the audience.  

As I said before, I usually pretend that I don't have any weaknesses when I deliver my speech in order to maintain confidence.  However I have numerous weaknesses, the most obvious being a rather flat and boring tone, and the fact that I tend to deviate from any plan I had and completely surprise myself with the words that I emit.  The tone has a huge impact on my speech.  Since it is flat, the important part of my speech are not highlighted.  The rogue nature of my speeches could be reigned in a bit as it often results in a lot of verbal fillers.  

How I became one of too many

The family has been an ever changing entity.  It has steadily lost focus in modern society.  In addition to losing focus in society, the family has also steadily changed in size.  A variety of changes have been attributed to the average size of the family over the past view decades.  My thesis will be something similar to the following sentence: Since the 1950's the overall size of the family has decreased throughout the generations due to a variety of major social changes and a pushes to break long held traditions.

For the essay I will focus on going through the generations and going over the size of the family.  As the years go by, the family steadily grows smaller until present day.  After going through the generations I will explain the causes that influenced such a major change.  These influences include how pop culture reflected family size with popular television series like Happy Days or Modern Family.  The growing divorce rate, increase in contraception use, and the growing commonality of both parents working also has greatly impacted the focus of the family, and therefore the size of the family.  Much of the information I use will be statistics regarding the sizes of the family.  Other facts such as divorce rates, contraception statistics and other related information will play an important role in supporting this shift.

Current Source List:

Family Studies Institute
Pew Research Center
Bureau of Labor Statistics
United States Census Bureau
The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/health/families.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Public Broadcasting System

Public Opinions

After reading about paradigm shifts, the ones that I found to be most striking and interesting are historical paradigm shifts.  The first, and one of the most important in American history took place in the early 1940's.  Since the WWI, the United States has shrunk back in its' shell, refusing to become embroiled in European conflicts, despite the desperate pleas for help from countries such as France and England.  However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was a massive shift in public opinion about the entering foreign conflicts.  The national opinion went from highly isolationist to supporting a large conflict.  This opinion carried through up until the middle of the Vietnam War.

Another massive paradigm shift within the United States occurred in 2001 in regards to security.  Suddenly, national security became a massive priority.  A government department was created, and a slew of laws such as the Patriot act filled the floor in Congress.  The United States public was in a panic to heighten security measures in areas such as public transportation, more specifically, airline security.  This sparked fierce arguments about how far security could, especially in collecting information and spying upon citizens.

Both of the examples above are paradigm shifts as public opinion experienced a massive change within the United States.  The change from isolationistic to pro conflict was sparked by a Pearl Harbor making US citizens realize that the conflict truly involved them.  The feeling of vulnerability cause a shift in public opinion that captured nearly the entire nation.  The public opinion regarding national security was caused by the attacks on 9/11.  The nation once again felt unsafe, and the response was a nationwide call for security to be heightened in almost every area.  Both of these are widespread shifts in public opinion that were influenced by deadly attacks on home soil.

Contextual Analysis

A large portion of the material has been introductory and foundational, all of which is important to growth as writers and rhetors.  In my opinion though, the most important topic we have covered is contextual analysis.  Contextual analysis is fairly basic conceptually.  It is simply looking at the rhetorical situation that the text has been put it.  Yet, despite the possible simplicity of the analysis, it plays such an important role in understanding the rhetoric.

I find contextual analysis to be both fascinating and effective.  By recognizing that the piece we are examining is part of a greater conversation, we are deepening our understanding.  Say that we were to simply focus on the rhetorical devices used in a given piece.  Yes, we can see that the rhetor is using different devices to appeal to a certain audience.  Yes we can see that there writing is effective and well written.  However all of this is irrelevant if we cannot look at the bigger picture to realize that there is a reason behind the rhetoric employed.  Contextual analysis provides the necessary tools to allow someone to see the motivation behind the rhetoric, to understand what influenced it, and to find out why the piece was created.  By doing so, we open ourselves up to a better and more clear understanding.

I realize that the basics are important.  The rhetorical devices that are used must be analyzed.  In my opinion though, the bigger picture matters more.  By looking at the context, we open ourselves up to a larger world.  In today's society, simply looking at rhetoric will not help us come to a conclusion about a certain piece.  However if we come to realize that there is a larger conversation, a door has been cracked open just wide enough for us to slip through so that we may make further analyzations that are guided by a knowledge of context.

Passion Blog Ideas

In my opinion, my passions should define who I am as person.  My passions should be who I am, and they should be worn like a badge.  In writing this post I am finding it difficult to distinguish my passions from things I simply enjoy.  If I truly think about who I am, then I would have to say at my core I am member of my family.  Being a family member is a true passion that has shaped me in to who I am today.  My other true passion that has shaped me morally and mentally is my love of this country and being a citizen of the United States of America.


In my experiences with peers and friends, I have talked with many people about being a part of a family.  Each person has a different situation, background, and history in regards to their family.  Families and their dynamics are so remarkably different.  Each has their own traditions that make up and bind the family.  In other cases the family situation might be a rather unhappy and broken place.  In any case, my experiences have helped me to realize that my family situation, like every one, is unique.  I am the oldest of five children, I have 18 total cousins, and countless Aunts and Uncles.  Being with my family has always been a source of joy for me.  I am truly passionate about being a cousin, brother, son, nephew, and grandson.  If I were to write about being a family member I would like to focus on the the humor and lessons I have learned from my family.  I have so many lessons and experiences that I find to be both entertaining and instructive.


My other passion is the United State of America.  Being a citizen of the US is often a privilege that is overlooked and under valued for those born here.  Yet all around us, the benefits of being a citizen lie in the shadows.  For my passion blog, I would focus on the different benefits that citizens have, as well as all the things a citizen of the United States is privileged enough to receive.  I find that this blog would help instill the passion in others.  Through my blog I hope that anyone who reads it would be able to step back and be grateful for all they have as a citizen.  I know that each citizen has a unique perspective about why being a US citizen is such a wonderful thing.  I hope that I too can provide interesting information and a passionate blog that will leave readers feeling inspired and indebted to this great nation.