Rhetorical Defense

Kelsey Williams

Ms. Mudd

English 151

2 October 2010

Rhetorical Defense

For my promotional piece, I made a video explaining a brief history of Alden Library. I explored many aspects of Alden’s history and looked through many pictures in the archives before I decided to research more in depth. Once I researched the history more in depth, I decided to just put the initial basics of Alden’s history into my video to make it much more simple for the viewer to understand. Instead of adding a lot of meaningless facts just to fill up space and time, I decided to put the most important information into the video, that way the viewers would get a simple feel for the library. Therefore, I chose to make a video to represent the history of Alden library and to highlight some key points in the library’s past.

My audience is mainly to students, however any age could watch and understand the piece. I think that the video I made has a young feel to it but however still acts as an informative and effective promotional piece. I also tried to use bold words and fonts with a neutral background to make the text stand out and to increase the readability of the text. The music added to the video, “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, was chosen for this piece because I think it adds a somewhat calming and mellow tone to the video however still can captivate and maintain the viewer’s attention.

Rather than doing a brochure or a flyer, I felt as though a video would be more rewarding to the viewers in the end because a video presents the audience with information in a way that a flyer or brochure cannot always do. It engages the viewer in something that is more unique than a normal flyer in the fact that a video can really draw the viewer in while a flyer cannot always grab someone’s attention. Flyers and brochures can sometimes be presented in an aesthetic way, but in my opinion a video is a more pleasing and appealing way to present information.

The purpose of the video was to inform viewers on the history of Alden library. Intentionally, I did not add every single detail of the construction or every piece of history of the library because I feel as though that would start to bore the audience. Instead, I added the beginning history of the library and then fast-forwarded 40 years to the 40^th anniversary celebration of the library, called “The Passport to Hidden Treasures” and talked about what happened at that ceremony, such as Alden himself revealing a picture of the library at the ceremony. I thought that those recent aspects were important too because it shows how the library was not just relevant back when it was first built, but that it is also relevant in today’s society. I also thought it was important to address some specifics of the library, such as the specific amount of books and movies that are available in Alden, because it shows how big and diverse the library is.

To appeal to logos I used words that were easy for everyone to understand and that also presented my historical information in a logical way; for example, I told the history of Alden chronologically instead of picking random years and starting from that point in time. To appeal to pathos, I used pictures that were appealing to the human eye and that were easy to look at. I also included some type of background music to make it more interesting to watch/listen to. To appeal to ethos, I only used information and pictures that were from the Ohio University Archives or Website, that way I wasn’t distributing any false information.

I chose to do my promotional piece on Alden library because I feel as though it is a very important feature of campus. It allows students a place to escape from the hectic world and step into a quiet place where they can study or just spend a moment alone to think. The atmosphere is a very welcoming and friendly place, where anyone can go to get help if they are desperately in need. The history of Alden definitely adds to its character and I thought it was important to look into that history and gain an understanding of the library, not just as an academic resource, but also as a historical part of Ohio University.

Overall, I think that the promotional piece I created is interesting and engaging. It allows the reader to have something somewhat entertaining to watch, while at the same time being informed on the history of an important place at Ohio University. I wanted to create something unique that most people wouldn’t be able to duplicate. I think I accomplished what I originally had in mind for my promotional piece and I am quite pleased with all of the choices I made considering it.