E-Portfolio

I'm Carol Newark, an undergraduate at the Pennsylvania State University.  I intend to graduate in 2014.  I'm a Crime, Law and Justice major, and a Psychology major.  I'm also minoring in Spanish and Sociology.  I have learned a lot about myself in the past year.  I now know that I have to do what makes me happy, not what other people want me to do.  I came to Penn State as an Environmental Resource Management major, changed my major to English, and eventually found my place with Crime, Law, and Justice.  When I was a little girl I always wanted to be a detective, but for some reason I abandoned that dream when I applied to Penn State.  I am very happy that I realized what a mistake I was making before it was too late.  I am so happy to be studying something that I am passionate about.  Naturally, I am passionate about many other things, and this portfolio is a reflection of that.  Sure, I love what I'm studying in school, but that does not entirely define who I am.  I love photography, books, dance, film cameras, history, music, hockey, and laughter.  My family and friends have helped to shape who I am, but I like to think that I've helped to shape who they are as well.  So much of my coursework this year has been inspired by my family, my friends, or my interests.  I find it very hard for me to do something well if I have no connection to it, even if that means that I must feign interest in a topic for a few weeks.  I understand that I am driven by my emotions.  I know that being like that is not always a good thing, but coming to understand this about myself has helped me immensely.  Every piece included in this portfolio reflects my personality and my interests.  I put my heart and soul into all of my work, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Carol Newark's E-Portfolio 

The Rhetoric Around Me

I'm starting to see everything in my life as a piece of rhetoric.  When we were told in the beginning of the year that we would eventually see everything as a rhetorical artifact, I was skeptical.  I thought, "there is no way that I will ever learn how to pick stuff like that out," but here I am, sitting in the Atherton lobby, identifying the rhetoric behind everything.  Walk into any other hall on campus, and what do you see in the lobby?  Surely it is not as nice as the Atherton lobby.  I'm sitting on a couch that is nicer than the one I have in my home, in an open and well lit space.  The walls are painted a soft, calming blue, and "Schreyer Honors College" is painted in gold along the interesting curved architecture.  The first time I walked in here with my family, my mom said, "holy crap, Carol! this is certainly an upgrade from the house, huh?"  I love my house, but she was right.  The Atherton lobby gives its visitors the impression that this hall is all about high class.  Why though?  Why the Atherton lobby?  Simmons is part of the honors college as well, and it is not nearly as impressive.  Atherton houses the offices of the honors college, so it must look fancy, or at least the lobby needs to look fancy.  Take a step inside one of the doors leading to the dorm rooms, and it is like you are a completely different building.  Instead of being inside a classy hotel, you are back in a college dorm.  If only important people here on honors college business had to come through the dorm hallways, then maybe our dorms would be just as impressive. 

Rhetoric In My Life Today

Today was interesting.  Therefore, I'm going to analyze all of the rhetoric I encountered.  I woke up this morning at 9:15. Great. I needed to leave at 9:30.  I wanted to look somewhat presentable today.  I knew that even though we were just presenting a movie I'd still have to stand up in front of people and look like a credible source of information.  After LA101H I went to Crim.  I walked into class, expecting to see Professor Baker, and Kevin the TA standing there messing around with the powerpoint slides, but today someone else was down in front.  It was this nice young man, dressed in a shirt and tie.  Professor Baker introduced him and said that he was here to talk about the corrections system.  I expected him to be this young hot shot parole officer or corrections counselor, but that was far from the truth.  He was actually a Penn State junior, who had spent a year in prison.  The way that he was dressed completely threw me off.  The way you dress carries so much power, and I don't know why I just realized that.  After my day of classes, I went to meetings.  The second meeting was the most unproductive event in my whole life.  We are all pretty close friends, and we are trying to form this credible organization, but when we get together all we do is swap stories.  Our group is lacking a powerful speaker that has the power to guide our conversations in the right direction.  We'll see if we actually find this person.

Scrubs and Ethos

The entry credits to a television show are a great time to establish ethos.  While most television shows inaccurately portray real life, they still work really hard to build credibility during the opening.  For instance, CSI shows its characters using guns and high tech forensic technology.  The tv show Bones shows clips of the main characters working long hours in the lab.  If you can't tell, I really like crime dramas.  I'm also a pretty big Scrubs fan, so I figured I would write about something that has been irking me for years. 

During the opening credits of Scrubs, a chest X-ray is put up on the light screen.  My mother pointed out to me the first time we ever watched Scrubs that the chest X-ray was put up backwards.  Amateur mistake.  I wouldn't have noticed it, but of course once I did it drove me crazy.  Anytime we watched Scrubs my mom would point it out to me, so I know it bugged her too.

I stopped watching Scrubs for quite some time, but I started again today.  I started to think about the X-ray from a more rhetorical viewpoint.  The show had such a great opportunity to establish credibility, but it completely failed.  I'm sure there are many people out there who have never noticed the X-ray, but anyone that works, or whose mom works, in a hospital is sure to notice it.  I remembered that in a later season one of the radiologists comes into the credits and says, "This is backwards! Its been driving me crazy for years!"  Then she fixes the X-ray.  I think the show made up for the mistake in style.  I'm happy that they made a point to own up to the mistake.

How Much Is Too Much?

I am really awful at this whole finding rhetoric in everyday life business.  However, today I didn't have to go looking for rhetoric, it came to me.  When giving a presentation the amount of information that you present in critical.  Today a girl in my Africa class gave a presentation on the country Benin.  It was really great and informative, but it was a lot longer than the ten minute time limit.  She had great information and quality facts, but she presented way to many of them.  I feel that it is the job of the presenter to find all of the facts and then only present a broad overview of them all.  I don't need to see 20 different charts and hear a bunch of statistics to understand that standards of living have declined since 1965.  Rather than showing 10 sides filled with facts about the economy, show a few pictures along with the most important information.  I really tried to pay attention, but at a certain point there was just too much information.  Rhetorically speaking, she appealed way too much to ethos and logos, and not enough to pathos.  I know there is not a lot of room for pathos when reporting facts, but what good is all of the information if the audience isn't even paying attention?

Twitter

I started using Twitter about three months ago.  I always told myself that I would never use Twitter because I thought it was pretty useless, but I caved.  I think it is fascinating that people our so obsessed with what happens to be going on in each others lives.  I have found that while Twitter is just for entertainment most of the time, it can actually be quite useful.

I'm a member of a non-profit organization called The 367 Project.  There is a chapter of the organization here at Penn State, but it mainly operates in Philadelphia.  Before I had Twitter I had to wait to hear from the president of the PSU chapter if something important happened, but now I know the second someone tweets about it.  I'm also a big hockey fan so I follow the writers of various Pittsburgh Penguins blogs, the team, and the NHL.  I always know what's going on with hockey.  Following CNN helps me stay informed with what is going on in the news without having to read tons of lengthy articles.

I will admit that I do follow people for pure entertainment, but Facebook has Twitter beat on the entertainment value.  Twitter focuses mainly on what the individual is saying, but on Facebook people can tell you what's on their mind, share photos with others, and communicate faster.

I think that both Facebook and Twitter can both be used for either great things or completely useless things.  I've spent my fair amount of time on both wasting away valuable time, but I've also used both to become more informed about the world around me.  We have these great informational tools at our disposal, and it is up to us to use them to our benefit.

Men at Work

As I was walking to my Intro to Africa class yesterday, I saw a construction sign that read, "Men at Work".  I was with my friend, and we both saw it and laughed.  It just seemed so out of place.  In today's world is it certain that the only people working that construction site are men?  It is possible, but highly unlikely.  I continued on my way to class and thought more about the sign.  I couldn't figure out why it made me laugh so hard, but then it hit me.  The sign was clearly ridiculous, vaguely sexist, and clearly outdated.  Perhaps a sign like this would have had a place in the rhetorical situation present twenty years ago, but not today. 

I walked past the sign again after class, and I considered getting a black sharpie and writing "(Wo)" in front of "Men" to make it clear that both men and women have a place in construction now.  I can understand that this company probably didn't want to spend the money on a new politically correct sign; however, they have had so many years to make the change.  Perhaps I'm making a big deal out of nothing.  It is just a sign, right?  I guess I just took it as this huge sign of how far people in this country have come that now it is absurd to see a construction sign that does not include women.