A good orator.

      Coming into this class at the beginning of the semester, if you said the word "rhetoric" to me, I would have NOT A CLUE what the definition of that word was. This is probably bad, considering I am a junior english education major. However, I guess the point of this post is to let you know that I this is the first time in a while where I have actually learned something, which I have now begun applying it to my life outside of class.
    
      Because I never really knew what rhetoric was, I never really know that is something which is used in the real world literally everywhere we go. You can see rhetoric on television, in advertisements, on the internet, in magazines, in public speeches. . .literally, everywhere.

      As I began working on my final project for this class, I noticed something about the way I was using rhetoric. First off, I am presenting on the residence halls at Kutztown University (specifically Deatrick Hall) and the little amount of recycling that takes place. Yesterday, I ran around the dorm for a half hour or so taking pictures of everything I saw which related to my topic in some way or form. I immediately noticed that I was a first snapping pictures of only the things that supported my argument: plastic bottles in the trash, or laying on the floors, card board spread all over the hallway, etc. I was snapping pictures only of MY "side of the story". I wasn't taking pictures of the areas in which Deatrick Hall excels, such as recycling signs hanging on the walls.

      Society as a whole does this, and does this very well. Advertisements, for example, do exactly what I was doing. In order to get you to buy into the product, they present you with only it's pros...never the cons.

      I guess what I'm trying to get at, and what I got from all of this is that if you're going to present an argument, present BOTH sides of the story. State or show what you believe is true, while also presenting the opposite side. To me, a good orator is able to still convince his audience that he is correct, even with the opposing opinions fully presented.

     Just a random thought which I am going to try to include in my project :)