Maura McCann's e-Portfolio

Hello and welcome to my portfolio! I am an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University, working my way to a degree in International Relations with a concentration in National Security.

Although my academic interests rage from British literature to physiology, I immediately settled on an International Politics major because I find it fascinating that through government, history impacts our very way of life every single day. I am also currently exploring English, Security and Risk Analysis, or Crime, Law, and Justice as potential second majors and expect to graduate with two degrees in May 2014. Another important goal of mine as a college student is to take advantage of the fantastic study abroad opportunities Penn State offers; I intend to spend at least one semester earning credits from a university in Europe and hope to fit in as much additional travelling and exploring as possible.

Since my first semester at Penn State, I have immersed myself in an honors-level course load that has been both challenging and enlightening. My growth as not only a scholar but also a young adult has sparked a passion for excellence in critical thinking, research, and particularly communication. I am ardently invested in expressing myself with the most effective, articulate, and eloquent writing possible. This ePortfolio will serve to exhibit my progress in these areas throughout my academic career.

Click here to access my e-Portfolio.

What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?

In 1852, British poet Matthew Arnold wrote,

But often, in the world's most crowded streets / But often, in the din of strife / There rises an unspeakable desire after the knowledge of our buried life. / A thirst to spend our fire and restless force / In tracking out our true, original course.

In 2010, MTV premiered a reality show about four Canadians on a mission to cross off ambitious items on their "bucket list" of a hundred things to do before they die. Titled, "The Buried Life," the show followed these devastatingly handsome twenty-somethings as they traveled the country on a reclaimed purple transit bus and got themselves into various shenanigans in order to attend a party at the Playboy Mansion (number 6), and make a toast at a stranger's wedding (number 41). For every item they cross off their list, the boys help a stranger do the same, such as the episode in which they helped Queen locate her mother's grave after she died in Hurricane Katrina. The inspiring nature of the boy's mission, their great senses of humor, and undoubtedly their good looks combined to make a popular primetime spot that got picked up for a second season last September. With two seasons of a television show (number 53 is "start a television show") under their belt, the Buried Life team is riding out their popularity by touring the country and speaking a colleges. On Friday, April 1st (no fooling), the Buried Life cast came to Penn State. As an avid Buried Life fan, I was in the sixth row and checking their twitter feed to follow their progress from University Park airport to the HUB. While I think the presentation was great because the entire cast is incredibly charismatic and likable, I couldn't help but notice a few weaknesses in their presentation -- LA 101H ruined my perception of rhetorical situations by actually educating me about them...

Jonnie Penn, 24, speaks to Penn Staters at Alumni Hall.

The cast put quotes on the screen such as, "Right now you are the youngest you'll ever be," to add some inspiriation to the PowerPoint, but the words were just left up on the screen without being read and then a new slide came up about a certain list item. In an audience participation section, Jonnie, one of the cast members, made an audience member stand there awkwardly while he found the perfect music on his iTunes to soundtrack giving her a hug. The boys each took turns talking, but during their individual scripted parts the rest of the cast was joking around with each other. As a presentation, they could have done a little better. But as an experience, the Buried Life was awesome -- they're funny, friendly, play awesome music, and have important things to say about going after what you want in life. And everywhere they go, they ask, "What do you want to do before you die?"

Take a side.

So a few minutes ago, my glorious Van Morrison Pandora Radio streaming was interrupted by an advertisement. This was confusing. Instead of more smooth oldies, I heard Jersey Shore star Pauly D.'s voice declaring his adamant distaste for Miracle Whip. Although I had never seen this specific ad, I recognized MiracleWhip's even more confusing theme for for the advertising campaign, in which they draw a line in the sand(-wich) and order lunch eaters across the country to "take a side." Check out the Pauly D. ad below. You can see the rest of the commercials for the campaign on MiracleWhip's YouTube channel, as well.

I see what they did there. Pauly D., much like the rest of his Seaside Heights roommates, is "a little loud," and "a little tangy." Like MiracleWhip tastes! And -- don't judge me -- I love Pauly D. So I probably love MiracleWhip, because they have so much in common.
Oh wait, I hate MiracleWhip. And apparently so does Pauly D. Which, according to the commercial, means I can be his girlfriend. Even better. Thank you, MiracleWhip, for establishing a mutual distate for your product between the spokesperson and the audience.
That's not the only problem with this ad, though. In general, this entire campaign urging the audience to "take a side," is a thinly veiled attempt to be edgy and interesting. MiracleWhip acknowledges their sub-par stigma among other classic sandwich spreads such as mayonnaise and mustard by saying, "We're not for everyone." Then, not unlike the Statue of Liberty holding her torch, a fist raises into the frame, clenching a delicious-looking sandwich. It's worth noting that the sandwich looks so good because of all the ingredients together, not just the condiments, and that the MiracleWhip on it actually looks like mayo.
This ad might have worked if they were blatantly making fun of Pauly D., a public figure who despite massive popularity lacks significant credibility. The narrative would then be something along the lines of, "Pauly D. doesn't like MiracleWhip. And we all know he's stupid. Therefore, we can gather that he is wrong about MiracleWhip and it's actually awesome. Buy it." However, MiracleWhip actually identifies its product with Pauly D.'s vivacious personality, so they can't be making fun of him because they would then be making fun of themselves. But if they're not saying Pauly D. is wrong, they're saying he's right -- that MiracleWhip is, in fact, disgusting.
I get that MiracleWhip is trying to be funny and confident by facing the haters head on, but echoing sentiments about how gross their product tastes isn't going to sell any more jars of the stuff. Especially when, instead of contradicting this popular opinion by touting its benefits, MiracleWhip closes with an open-ended question: "Are you MiracleWhip? Get a taste and decide." Nah, I'm good.

RSAnimate.

In class this week we talked about the several aspects of visual aides in rhetorical situations. After going over what makes effective PowerPoint presentations, posters, and the like, I immediately thought of the folks at RSAnimate. RSA, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, is a multidisciplinary institution based in London dedicated to enriching British society. Founded in 1794, the RSA aims to be a "cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress," and past members have included Benjamin Franklin and Charles Dickens. RSA has an enormous breadth of projects in field ranging from the environment to education to business development, but one of their cooler ones (in my opinion) is RSAnimate. Amazing speakers come to the RSA and give inspiring presentations on almost anything. Then, some gifted animators take the audio recording of that presentation and illustrate it, writing out almost every single word amidst cartoons and graphics. In the videos RSAnimate releases on YouTube, you can listen to the speech as an animator playfully and creatively draws or writes each word at hyperspeed. The speeches themselves are worth listening to in their own right, but what makes them special is the way in which RSAnimate makes them come even more alive with simple doodles and notes. Check out this one, appropriately about language and communication (if you have the time, or ever get bored, I highly recommend watching as many RSAnimations as you can on all sorts of topics):

Our textbook says that whiteboards are not usually the best choice for effectively enhancing your visual presentation. While this may be true in real life, the quick hand in these videos moves around a humongous white board, carrying us with the words and zooming out to the entire illustration at the end to literally give the audience the big picture. RSAnimate videos are a great example of how well-thought, simple, yet creative visual aides engage the audience in an entirely new way.

The Seminar.

Another great show I'm going to analyze the rhetoric of is The Office. A few weeks ago, the show aired an episode called, "The Seminar," in which salesman Andy held a small business seminar in an attempt to bring in some extra income. However, most of his scheduled "keynote speakers," refused to speak, and Andy had to scrape together whoever else was willing to make a few short presentations to salvage his seminar. I thought it was a great example of the approaches most people take to public speaking and how some can or cannot be successful. This episode was a little dramatic of each style addressed for the sake of humor, and it worked because it was hilarious. Click here to watch the speech section of the episode on Hulu. The actual speeches start at about 7 minutes and 50 seconds into it. I loved how wittily each public speaking style was dramatized by some of my favorite characters on television:

• Kevin goes with the hardcore, inspirational, intense style by playing music more commonly heard at a basketball game and running around the small conference room giving high fives to pump up his audience. Unfortunately, Kevin is not the most athletic of individuals and his speech is cut short, as was his breath, by some vomiting because the physical exhaustion made him a little nauseous.
• Kelly starts out strong with a confident demeanor and smooth tone, but she fails a little on the ethos by calling an apparently successful businessman who only remembers her from a romantic rendezvous. I love how she says, "It is important to brand yourself, so I have a couple things in the works: the business bitch, the diet bitch, the shopping bitch, the etiquette bitch..." These personas have actually worked for several women in the past, at least as far as achieving fame and fortune, but Kelly isn't well-versed enough in business or relationship skills to make any of these work.
• Creed is probably the weirdest guy in the office and maybe even character on TV, and he stays true to this reputation by starting out with an odd anecdote that makes absolutely no sense. All in all it's just creepy.

These three examples of approaches to pubic speaking might be great entertainment when we watch The Office, but they're also great lessons about what to avoid and be aware of when we approach our own rhetorical situations and how we want to present ourself.

iH2O

I StumbledUpon this funny image a few weeks ago, and since we've been analyzing advertisements recently I thought it was appropriate to share it. You can click here to see the image up close and read the text.

The clever people at scoopertino.com have added a new product to Apple stores, and they're marketing it in traditional Apple style. It's.... get ready.... water!! Something we all need. Scoopertino has made it embody everything Apple is, "Clean. Simple." and also what water is, "Wet." The clean and simple design of their ads is one of Apple's trademarks, and Scoopertino has created one so perfectly that I actually wondered if Apple was seriously selling water. Although this image is entirely satirical, it highlights some commonly-used strategies in their advertising. It looks just like the ads on the real Apple's website! A simple photograph of the backlit product they're promoting, with pointers to break down all the great details. My favorite is, "Molecular perfection. Literally twice as many hydrogen atoms as there are oxygen atoms." The word choice is straightforward and a little informal, but informal in the way a respected boss would casually say something to you. Although this ad says that, "Apple Water says everything they need to know about you," it's really saying everyone most people would say about Apple, that it's "beautifully packaged [...] and perfectly overpriced." Everything in this image seems silly, but in the real ads for iPhones and iPads, we fall for the same design and word choice. At least I do (simultaneous blogging on a MacBook and texting on my iPhone...)

It's complicated.

Part of the allure of Facebook, besides keeping tabs on what all 934 of your friends are up to, is the ability to completely control how you are portrayed to others. Sure, you can carefully choose the clothes you wear and how you act, but you're bound to leave an unflattering impression on at least one person after many an awkward moment. Maybe that's just me. But on Facebook, I can untag any photos in which I don't look red-carpet ready (and sometimes persuade the poster to delete especially heinous shots all together), remind everyone I know that I listen to interesting music by posting some Avett Brothers' lyrics as my status, and let even strangers know that I'm witty by posting something hilarious and clever on my friends' walls. My Facebook profile is really a carefully maintained image of myself, but not statement I can make about myself on Facebook is as crucial as the "Relationship Status."

Now we know how the Facebook powers that be
 in Palo Alto voted on Prop 8!

The powers that be at Facebook recently added "In a civil union," and "In a domestic partnership," to it's now eleven different options to set as one's relationship status. This addition alone is a triumphant gesture made by Facebook, but the fact that so many options are available in a fabricated world of social networking emphasizes the importance one's "Relationship Status" holds in today's culture. With Facebook being a relatively new facet of social life, there is no official etiquette for posting these statuses (stati?), but below I have listed what I have perceived to be the general consensus about a few common statuses:

• Single - A pretty standard status. Some people choose just to not have this status appear on their profile at all, either to simplify their page or to hide the fact that they're sad and alone. (Just kidding. All mah single ladies!)
• In a relationship - In my age bracket, this status is reserved for the most serious of couples. The kind whose names are said together as if they're one, such as, "Mike-and-Emily." These duos have usually been dating for several weeks, at least, and have already met the parents, etc. In other words, going "Facebook official," with your relationship with someone is the younger equivalent to moving in together or whatever old people do. 
• Engaged & Married - I've combined these two because they're pretty self-explanatory. The only actual married couples I see with this status on Facebook are my friends' parents. One of my friend's status reads "Married to Da Streets." I think that's a different kind of relationship, though...
• It's complicated - I'm going to spare everyone my rant about this status, but if you're taking time out of dealing with whatever issues you're having with your significant other to change your relationship status on Facebook to something nobody cares about, things are more complicated than you think. 
• In an open relationship - This kind of goes with the one above. If you want to have a relationship status that says you're still open to hooking up with other people, you might as well just leave it at "Single."

P.S.: It's worth noting here that good friends who think they're funny will enter any two-person Facebook relationship with each other so everyone can know they're best friends. That girl is probably not engaged to her roommate. There are other people that defy the unspoken laws of relationship statuses as well, like my friend who refuses to change her status from "Single," even though she recently celebrated her 19 months anniversary with her boyfriend. Okay. If you want some other tips on how not to be hated on Facebook, go here.