Class 20 THU MAR 30
Counterintuitive Narratives
The Definition of a Kilogram
- The Definition is about to Change
- “If Le Grand K gets heavier or lighter — or absorbs atoms of something from the air — the definition of the kilogram literally changes. Scientists believe something like this has been happening, because Le Grand K seems to now weigh slightly less than its official copies.”
- “The originators of the metric system based it on the globe itself, with the meter described as one 10-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. But, for a long time, the meter was literally a metal bar in France. As physics advanced, says Schlamminger, scientists were able to ditch the metal bar and define the meter in terms of the distance that light can travel through a vacuum in about one 300-millionth of a second.”
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland has its own copy of Le Grand K — a platinum-iridium kilogram known as K92.
The New Kilogram is based on Planck’s constant
Now, after researchers spent years creating an elaborate new kind of weighing machine called a Kibble balance, it’s finally the kilogram’s turn. In the future, to see whether a hunk of metal really weighs 1 kilogram, it won’t have to get flown to France and compared with Le Grand K. It can be evaluated in this type of instrument, using Planck’s constant.”
.The Consequence of Perfect Attendance Awards
- Perfect Attendance Awards
- The Study
- As states and districts struggle to prevent chronic absenteeism, rewarding students for
attendance has been seen as low-hanging fruit—California even requires it by law.
In a forthcoming study previewed at the annual Society for Research on Educational
Effectiveness meeting in Washington last week, researchers found that older students who received recognition certificates were actually less likely to continue going to school every day than students who received nothing at all.
- As states and districts struggle to prevent chronic absenteeism, rewarding students for
Followup Report: Natural Language
Reducing Jargon: Korean pop boy bands
In-Class Workshop:
Let’s work on this paragraph together.
Vancouver has a huge problem with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can in stopping the addicts. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin, it will only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. The programs main focus is the high crime rates caused by heroin users. Addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day activities such as jobs and social interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because they are using. Due to their addiction, users will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. Commonly committed crimes include breaking and entering and stealing. By providing the drug in a safe way, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible, and in turn will fix the city crime rate but not the addiction that these people face.
A Deeper Dive into Visual Rhetoric
Visual Analysis of a Complete Argument
- A Sample Analysis: Thai Life Insurance
- Here we examine just 10 seconds of a 2-minute long-form commercial produced by the Thai Life Insurance company to promote the universal human good of doing small selfless gestures for others. How in the world is that supposed to sell life insurance?
- Follow the link to this post and leave a brief Reply indicating how you feel about my interpretation of the ad that the young man is a stand-in for the girl’s absent father and a lesson to viewers that if the dad had died with an in-force life insurance policy, the girl wouldn’t have to beg to fund her education.
Advanced Advice for your Visual Rhetoric Rewrite
- You won’t need this yet, but when you’re ready to revise your Visual Rhetoric argument, you may benefit from reviewing feedback I have offered to students in earlier semesters.
- Link to Revision Advice for Visual Rhetoric
Writing Skills
- Natural Language: Reducing Academese
- Zero Percent Body Fat: Evolution and Bad Boyfriends
- Robust Subjects and Verbs. Rich and Poor Hospitals. Vancouver Exercise.
- DUE Portfolio Task Causal Argument
- DUE TODAY THU MAR 30 (Actually yesterday, 11:59pm WED MAR 29)
Preview Rhetoric Unit:
(Prepare for Class TUE APR 04)
- Rhetoric for Refutation
- Includes In-Class Rhetoric Exercise
- Located in Lectures/Revision/Revision—Rhetoric
- Due in class today
- Revision—Rhetoric and Scholarship (The Money Laundering Example)
- Use Reply on one of your posts to identify a paragraph we will use for Rhetoric workshop.
- Due in class today
Preview Sources Unit
(Prepare for Class TUE APR 04)
- Sources Workshop Number 2
- Responsive to Student X’s trouble finding academic sources
- Located in Course Documents/Research Tips/Sources Workshop
Dev
Joe Gramigna
alexmoran17
alivewit55
americangods01
anonymous123
Anonymous
azntaco
belldere
bigcounrty609
bigfoot9
bj112295
blueee04
breadpatrol99
brxttyb
calamariii
cfalover
charlieclover
cherries267
chickendinner
chickennugget246
chickennugget444
clevelandbrown03
cocochanel715
comatosefox
crossanlogan
cswilliams15
dancingueen
disneylover2002
doglover846
dontquoteme187
douglasadams525
dt2018
faded26
fatjoe000
friendoftacos
frogs02
fromcasablanca
fulcrum66
g00dsoup
giants19
gingerbreadman27
girlno3
gobirds115
goodmusician440
gracchusbabeuf
hiralp365
ifurreadingthisits2l8
ilovedunkinoverstarbucks
ilovenas
imaspookyghost
inspireangels
JalenHurts4Mvp
jasrielle2
jcirrs
jonnyb25
eagles21
kilotoon
kingofcamp
krackintheneck
Philip Ebenezer
Lily4Pres
littlecow24
ljkvng34
lokiofasgard24
luckyleprechaun1
marinebio18
mellowtacos
miliwawa
minutemen14
mossmacabre
music0392
mymomshouldhavenamedmegrace
ndb1996
neferpitou626
nugget114
oatmealvibes
ohearnj8
palal24
peachesxo
philsfan1133
pinkheart84
pinkmonkey32
pitandthependulum22
queenrandom04
RowanAnnouncer
Rowan27
rowanluver29
rowanstudent6
saltysurfer322
saycheese03
Senpai Pio
sinatraman17
sixfortyfive645
sortableelms
spaghettitacosforthesoul
strawberryfields4
suedejackson
sunflower0311
sunshinegirl457
Shazammm
tarheel1999
teddysdoggydaddy
thatwonguyy
themildewmuncher7
Public Display Name
thirdlady226
tlap23
tmjj4345
toastedflatbread22
tpaz1
tristanb50
twofoursixohtwo
tyblicky2001
venom2929
vicarij0
wakeup5am
Water
wildcuttlefish
wizzard201
xchuki
Lunaduna
zeek
ziggy026
zinny11
zipemup1
zoeyzoey0210
zzbrd2822
Counterintuitive Spring 2023 
You’re in danger of earning a Perfect Attendance award.
3/3
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Love this: brevity and clarity: don’t give readers time to disagree
3/3
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-1 kilogram = 1 liter of water
-a foot used to literally be a measure of someones foot
-the original “meter stick” was used to define a meter, however over time it’s prone to getting slightly warped
-meters can be measured in the distance light can travel in 1/300 millionth of a second in a vacuum
Definition argument: nail down the context of a term that you get to define
The Consequence of Perfect Attendance: after receiving an award, attendance from students generally drops
Visual Argument:
-describe the visuals that lead your to your conclusions, “Guy opens his empty pockets, showing he has no money to ride the bus” is a lot more descriptive than “Guy can’t get on the bus because he has no money”
-visuals only provide us with one choice when we’re watching
Jargon + Academese:
-overusing academic sounding words won’t help your argument, it often can alienate the reader who has the spend more time rereading the sentence to decipher it’s claim
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-1 ft is a third of a yard, or could be thought of 12 inches, but what exactly is a yard? What exactly is a foot? It is important to really demonstrate the meaning of everything in your essay in context. If you claim something to either be fair or not fair, you should definitely demonstrate what “fair” exactly means.
-A Meter is based on meter bar 27. If it were to expand, it would still be a meter, and vice versa because that is exactly what a meter is.
-Stars that we see in the sky probably don’t even exist anymore.
-Let’s say you get perfect attendance, and you get a paper acknowledging you in class, or you get it mailed to you at your house, chances are, you’re chances to show up to the next class will drop.
-When analyzing a video, you have to analyze and carefully see every single detail.
-Nothing is accidental.
-Do not make your essays sound too academic. You might be overworking yourself by making it sound fancier than it needs to be. Just talk, but still be careful.
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-You need to demonstrate with examples your claim in order to write an effective definition argument
-Details for rhetoric post are in the assignment
-Detailed descriptions of situations are crucial for the reader to gain an understanding of the situation presented
-Describe what you’re seeing so well that we’ve accurately visualized what is going on
-Understand and express why the director chose the shot that he did
-Best communicators will limit what they put in a video so the viewer can interpret what is put before them
-Explanations are formed based on personal impressions
-Draw conclusions
-Things are put in films for a specific reason
-The rules are you describe things as if they were very carefully chosen
-Nothing is accidental
-Everything is as significant as you say it is
-Be accurate and natural rather than academic
-Like directors of commercials, every word you choose should be a significant and purposeful choice
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While we were analyzing a thai insurance ad and were asked to respond. I think it’s weird to make the comparison of a selfless person to life insurance. It’s a very specific framing to make giant conglomerates that are for-profit organizations to be equivalent to a poor man. I think it’s a weird ad. Then we looked at examples of writing where the argument gets lost in academic speaking. It’s better to fully develop what you are saying in general language than to lose what you’re trying to say by making it sound smart.
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-Today, class began with an experiment. We were tasked with defining the word meter. The point of the exercise was that a lot of words are actually very difficult to accurately and properly define.
– Then we talked about how perfect attendance awards are counterintuitive because they enable the students to become less likely to show up the next days after they already have an award. They also single out certain students.
-Then we partook in an exercise where we looked at pictures and drew conclusions on the story based on what we saw. The point of this was that sometimes we can not help but use our past experiences and what we know about the world to infer things about other people when given context.
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I missed the first 25 minutes of class so I missed the beginning.
Counterintuitive Narratives: The definition of a kilogram
– Kilogram may be changing as kilogram has started to weigh a little less
– If they want to test if a kilo weight an actual kilogram then you use the planck’s constant
The Consequence of Perfect Attendance Awards: They found that children who were awarded for perfect attendance actually counterintuitive and those kids didn’t have the strive for perfect attendance like the kids who didn’t have perfect attendance.
A Deeper Dive into Visual Rhetoric: The professor is having us analyze 10 seconds of a 2-minute Thai Life Insurance ad. We want to describe the images to a reader who can’t see what we are describing.
To describe you have no money, you can’t just say someone has no money without a clear indication of why. Such as having no money in a wallet, or in their pockets, etc.
– A young Asian man in an outdoor city setting with a bookbag in casual student-like clothing is looking down at his phone. He’s about 25 and he lives in the city he is in.
– Now we see he has a pen in his pocket and something brown in his hands, that looks like a wallet.
– He is now looking up a little bit but still low, perhaps he is looking at something on the ground. He looks like he’s contemplating something.
These are just a few evaluations the class did with the professor about the Thai Life Insurance ad.
Follow up report: Natural Language
We go over an academic argument about K-pop boy groups and how the language they’re using is confusing. The professor went over how the paragraph could of been worded better. (I’m actually really into kpop so this was an interesting argument for us to go over.)
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Today, we discussed a counterintuitive idea about a study praising perfect attendance may having reverse effects. I never would have thought that attendance would drop when students are being praised for perfect attendance. It doesn’t make sense, I thought it would push others or encourage them to want to achieve something like that, it feels good to accomplish something and be awarded even if it’s just a piece of paper.
We then looked at examples of analyzing visuals and how to properly explain the scenes without confusing the reader. Before we watched a video, we analyzed it by just a few pictures. Everything is significant when analyzing.
We also looked at an “academic” writing, it was very confusing. The writing didn’t grasp my attention at all, there was too many big words that didn’t get the writers point across the way they wanted it to. I also felt like they dragged the writing by using big words. There is easier ways to revise the paragraph to be more understanding to readers.
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– You can redefine what a meter is (or any unit of measure for that matter), this is supposed to help show us what a definition argument truly is.
– Everything can be reimagined and redefined.
– As a class we went over a video by each shot to try and assume what was going on without actually watching it.
– When dialogue is italicized it means that the speaker is not visible on screen.
– Nothing is accidental. Everything is significant, and everything is significant if you say it is.
– “Academese” We do not need to sound too academic in our essays, it is better that we make are essays informational and concise. Trying to sound more academic may harm your essay.
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To begin, we analyzed a riddle that asked “what is a kilogram?” or “what is a meter?” and it showed that we define these unit of measurements based on other measurements, rather than a singular definition. A kilogram is only defined that way because we say it is based on physical things, such as a metal bar being defined as a meter. The measurements can be redefined though, like the meter being redefined as the distance light can travel through a vacuum in 300-millionth of a second.
We then looked at an article that describes a study of how giving perfect attendance awards actually lessens attendance afterward. The praise and award you get for perfect attendance might make you feel that you don’t need to come to class after it, because you didn’t get anything extra and you likely won’t get another award.
We discussed how to properly describe and analyze a video with as much detail as possible. Saying “a guy gets on the bus but he has no money” doesn’t give any imagery to the reader. But describing how he reached into his pocket and nothing was in there, or the bus driver telling him to get off gives more of an image of how he has no money.
We looked at another frame of a commercial and used the visuals to make assumptions about who the person is and where they are. Everything in the shot is significant to telling the story and describing the characters, and we should make sure to describe every detail that is important if we say it is.
Lastly, we analyzed a paragraph that used too much academic language that never communicated its point but covered it up with high academic language. Instead we should make it clear what our sentence or paragraph is about. We looked at different sentences that aren’t formatted well and use too much unnecessary words to communicate their point.
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We can reinfine anything including measurements- The definition of a kilogram changes because the object that is measured has changed.
When describing something that a person is doing, explain their visual decisions.
Everything is significant as you say it is when we describe visual rhetoric
Having an academic tone may make your essay sound confusing and it will make it hard for a reader to understand your paper’s main ideas.
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Anything can be redefined even measurements- the definition of the kilogram changed because the object it was measured by has changed
Visual rhetoric- things go in our brain without analyzing them just by looking- it isn’t wrong to assume things about images or ideas because that how our brains are engineered
Nothing is accidental- everything is significant when describing/defining visual rhetoric
Sounding too academic makes essays sound confusing and may harm them- it is better to put information that gets to the point and makes sense
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Le Grand K as a Definition Argument:
-“A kilogram is as heavy as Le Grand K says it is”
-“A meter is as long as Meter Bar 27 is”
Visual Rhetoric:
-“You only get one choice. Don’t say I don’t know.” Draw specific conclusions and DON’T be afraid to be proven completely wrong in the next second of the video.
-“Describe ALL things as if they were very carefully, purposefully chosen”
-NOTHING is Accidental
Academese: the use of academic-sounding jargon purely to appear more academic, without adding anything to your argument– and often subtracting from its clarity.
Using your own voice when writing will always trump using excessive jargon, for jargon’s sake.
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The purpose of the definition argument is to redefine a term you get to refine and get it to mean what you want under context. In the example of the kilogram, it could have a different meaning. The example used is the scenario where “Le grand k” either gets heavier or lighter changing the definition of what a kilogram is. The example in visual rhetoric you must be able to vividly explain what’s going on, you could be describing what’s going on frame by frame. “He has no money when” you don’t really know how it shows that he has no money, you need to specify what your seeing for example “he frantically pats his pockets, pulls out his wallet and sees there is no money in the bill compartment” this description shows that they have no money. In the visual rhetoric of the Thai insurance commercial, we get to see frame by frame and get a scene between the characters overall depicting a case where a man has been doing good and helping others become a symbolic meaning of how by giving something then they would be able to have something after death, premium life insurance. We then go over academic literature and how some words used to be read as if you were academic can be bad for the reader’s sake, you should be straightforward and not extend using words that don’t make sense.
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The professor gave an impassioned presentation prior to class on Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”. The lyrics, he explained, were a masterclass on how to write, even if he does not endorse its worldview.
The formal beginning of class featured an interesting discussion on units of measurement. Specifically, the question of what defines these measurements? The answer, counterintuitively, is often a specific object that is declared to be the standard. A bar that is a meter long. Why? Because it is a meter. Should it become smaller, it is still a meter. Now, however, scientists are redefining many of these units based on the speed of light.
The lecture moved to the topic of visual rhetoric. It is the analysis of how expectations are used to meet and subvert audience expectations. Every shot in a video is assumed to be intentional – every detail chosen to orient the viewer toward the director’s intended interpretation of the scene.
Finally, we were forced to view one of the most horrific affronts to the English language: senseless implementation of “academic” writing. For instance, a passage exploring cultural appropriation within Korean pop music was transformed into a Byzantine legal text from which no intelligent thought could escape.
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Wake Up/ Counterintuitive Narratives
– Formula for the speed of light: light travel 186,000 miles per second
– Everything can be updated/ redefined
Visual Rhetoric
– describes images to a reader who cannot see what is being described
– the author must decide what is important to the narrative they are trying to create
– NOTHING IS ACCIDENTAL, everything is as significant as you say it is
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We have six more weeks left in the semester. The withdrawal deadline is April 10th.
Counterintuitive narratives: {Old definition} a meter is a distance, or one tenth of a million of a distance from the poles to the equator. A meter bar is used to depict the length of a meter.
Now, the definition of meter has been changed by Planck’s constant {if I recall correctly}. All terms are ambiguous. When proving the rightness or wrongness of something, you need to be able to describe the rightness or wrongness that is convincing. Always define your terms. Make up new terms.
The perfect attendance award is an example of something that is counterintuitive. It was proven in a study that the perfect attendance award actually decreased attendance among older students.
Images can have a lot of extra information that can be distracting without serving a purpose. We got to look at what is essential.
The way subjects can be presented can sway you to do things/think certain ways. It is known as a manipulative technique. This is described in the commercial we watched surrounding the man giving to the homeless woman and her child.
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SONG
Write like the song “God bless the child”
Simple yet very meaningful
DEFINE METER
Distance
A meter for a long time was, what looks to be a metal bar
This bar is called meter bar 27
We weigh the same on the moon it’s just that the gravitational pull is different
This applies to our definition argument
If you are arguing that something isn’t fair you need to have an extremely good definition of fair
All terms are ambiguous and benefit from persuasion
*define your terms
THE SPEED OF LIGHT
When we see the sun rise it was already there 7 minutes earlier, it just took 93 million miles to get here.
ATTENDANCE AWARD
In california they were rewarding children for attending class
Would this encourage kids to come to class?
Turns out no.
The kids that got the certificate, there attendance decreased slightly
DEEP DIVE INTO VISUAL RHETORIC
(visuals put to use for a very specific lesson)
– every choice in the video is chosen on purpose
EX: if the video is trying to portray that a man wants to get on a bus but has no money, don’t just say that. Explain in detail what you saw and how you know he has no money
Some details may be distracting and noisy and you wanna make sure you find what details are important
REDUCING JARGON AND “ACADEMESE”
-adapting a voice based of audience
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We started off in the beginning with a task to defining the word meter. Most words are hard to properly define.
Perfect attendance awards are counterintuitive since they allow students to be less likely to show up the next day after they already received the award.
Visual rhetoric: describe the images and visual clues to your reader who cant see what you’re describing. For reads who are not watching along, they need to know step by step.
Reducing Jargon and “Academese” is you want to sound persuasive and not be sounding misunderstood. You want your language to be clear and to communicate in a way that gets to the point.
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Warm Up
– We started class talking about measurement and what actually defines measurements. We related it back to our definition arguments because when we wrote them, we got to decide how we were going to define it. This means that definitions can be different depending on who you speak to.
– Light travels 186,000 miles per second. Moon light takes about a second to get to us whereas the sunlight takes about seven minutes to get to us. By the time we see the stars they might not exist anymore because their light takes so long to travel to us.
Visual Rhetoric
– Rember that when you are describing the video your reader cannot see the video and is relying on you to give the details
– Remember that nothing is accidental in the video.
– It might be uncomfortable to say that they chose something to appeal to our bias but that’s not our fault and it was done intentionally.
– You have to cut down what you are looking at to just what is important
Reducing Jargon and “Academese”
– We often feel tempted to write in a way that sounds academic for college papers however that can make it very hard for your audience to understand. Its ok to not use huge words all the time.
– Example: “It is difficult to imagine a society that is not influenced by music” instead just write “Music enlivens and shapes every society.”
Visual Rhetoric Due April 4th
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A meter is a distance. The first form of measuring a meter was a metal bar called the Meter Bar 27. A kilogram is equal to a liter of water. The measurements have changed throughout the years since nothing was set in stone. 11 metal disks were made and placed inside a bell jar into a bell jar. All 11 are different weights now. It takes about 7 minutes for light to come from the sun to the Earth and a little over a second for light to travel from the moon. Planck’s constant is the new form of measurement.
Perfect attendance awards actually lowered the likelihood that older students will continue to go to school then if they got nothing.
It’s not the fault of the viewer for drawing conclusions based on stereotypes
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Counterintuitive Narratives: The definition of a meter (unit of measurement) is about to change… A meter…or THE meter was actually a metal bar in France that was made of platinum and iridium alloy.
A “foot” was defined by the measure of someone’s foot.
The weight of a kilogram could vary.
***The purpose of a definition argument is US defining something…not telling the readers how the object is defined for everyone that we know of.***
The new kilogram is based on Planck’s constant
The Consequence of Perfect Attendance Awards
Praising perfect attendance might have the opposite effect
Attendance reduced
*Older students who received recognition for perfect attendance were actually less likely to continue going to school everyday
A Deeper Dive into Visual Rhetoric:
How can people sell life insurance by promoting human good for doing small, selfless acts for other people? (Can you even sell life insurance through this method of advertising?) Every choice in a video…even a frame has detail. The smallest detail based on clothing, location…there is a reason behind it.
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-Write something simple but pack it with meaning
-The purpose of a definition argument is to decide the definition of something
-For the visual rhetoric imagine you are describing the images to a reader who can’t see what you’re describing
-Everything was chosen for a reason
-It is your responsibility to indicate whether the technique being used is effective or not
-You have to describe the visible components to explain my judgments
-You’ll be tempted to sound academic while writing papers in college but this is a harmful way of writing
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All terms are ambiguous and could benefit from a really good definition. We first have to define our terms and think of how our choices will affect the outcome of people’s lives. Like the units of measurements, definitions can change. We have to have a clear definition of exactly what they are to know how to use them properly. Always be able to define your terms. We have to convince our audience and persuade them into believing what we are trying to propose.
The Consequence of Perfect Attendance Awards: A perfect attendance award reduced the attendance among the people who received them. So, older students who received recognition certificates were actually less likely to continue going to school every day than students who received nothing at all.
For our visual rhetoric assignment, our reader does not get to watch the video that we are analyzing. Any choice the makers of the video made were deliberate. We are watching the video without sound, so we have to clearly describe what is going on just by the visual cues. We have to pay really close attention to what we are looking at and make sure to describe it really well so that the reader knows what the video is without watching it. Everything was carefully chosen for a reason.
The visual rhetoric argument is due on Monday night.
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Counterintuitive Narratives: Have a clear well articulate definition.
All terms are ambitious and can benefit from a well definition. Defining your term is your step. The professor gave us an example of the definition of a Kilogram explaining what kilogram but has change and over the years.
A deeper dive into Visual Rhetoric : We examine only 10 seconds of a Thai Insurance Commercial that will help us understand what we are watching. Any choice in an essay was deliberate made by the author. Everything was chosen for a reason.
We need to know if this commercial is effective.
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-Your definition argument needs to have examples for your claim to be effective
-Details for rhetoric post are in the assignment
-In order for the trader to fully understand your argument you need to give detailed and descriptive descriptions.
– the reader should be able to accurately visualize what’s going on just by what your saying
– you must understand and also make the reader understand why the other chose to pick this topic to speak on.
-In videos its their job to express a message to you in very few words and mainly by image.
-As a reader or viewer draw conclusions
-Everything placed in a video is there for a purpose, its put there to make you feel a certain way.
-You need to describe everything in the video and what purpose it may have.
-Nothing is accidental
– If something stand outs to you then its meant to be that way
– as a writer the words you chose in your essays should be as specific and purposeful and directors make in commercials
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