Presenting Arguments April 13, 2008

This week’s reading of EA had to do with strategies and tips on presenting arguments, whether they be print, oral, multimedia, or web-based. In all cases, the audience that the message will be presented to needs to be considered. One example that jumped out of me from the text was about the Simpson’s. The authors were making the point that oral/multimedia presentations, should be written to be heard. The first example of the argument about the Simpson’s family was written to be read. The second sample was not different in context, but in style and presentation; I could really hear the argument. Even a blog is an argument being presented to the viewer. For example, I had to pick a picture and a name for this blog. It was a thought process for me because I realized that those two things would represent my person. As we were talking about celebrity chefs this past week, it was very clear that celebrity chefs sell more of their personality than they do their cooking skills or the food they prepare. The video clips we saw showed the use of poetic language, laughter, the physical body, the kitchen styles, and the use of props (the ninja) to make the arguments each chef formed in their shows effective. In the celebrity chef world, each detail is very well thought of because anything could win or lose an audience, and that’s what the price is and where the money is. Restaurants also make arguments to attract customers. The menu, for example, says a lot about a restaurant. Is it simply written on a chalkboard? How extensive is the menu? What colors and fonts are used? All of these questions are important to keep in mind. The last activity that the class did this past week was to come up with  a theme, a name, and a sample menu for a restaurant. First we had to think whom we wanted to cater to: teenagers, college students, family’s, couples, the elderly. According to this decision, a theme was developed and the menu followed. Diction and word choice became very important when planning the names of our dishes. They needed to be attractive and catchy but not too far from the reality of the actual foods we would serve. Presenting arguments involves a lot of considerations and may need constant tweaking before and after presenting the argument.