Thursday, March 24, 2011

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?

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