Tag: Du Tell

Flint Du Tell

Changenge the world by making bu bed

What has been dubbed the “If you want to change the world, make your bed” speech, was given as a commencement address to the 2014 graduating class of the University of Texas as Austen by Admiral Wiliam McRaven. It is a Rhetorical vision composed of ten different life lessons he learned in Navy Seal book camp. Life lesson he believes the graduates and anybody else, could use to help them follow the university’s modo, “what starts here changes the world.  

If one wants to change the world, they must take action.  So, it only makes sense if Admiral McRaven is going to give advice on how to change the world, he would tell you what actions to take. Although his speech contains some vivid character and setting themes, a fantasy themed analyses of this speech reveals in most of these settings and character themes are overshadowed by the actions someone could take to help them change the world. In accordance with a fantasy themed analysis,  Admiral McRaven calls into existences the group of people who want to change the world.

COMM 441, Rhetorical Criticism

Doyle Srader

10 AM – Noon

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Flint Du Tell

Talking to strangers while social distancing

A pandemic is probably the worst time to try and encourage people to talk to strangers. This is this turned out to be the assigned task for the term project in Doyle Srader’s Communication 450 persuasion class in 2020. The plan was to conduct a scientific study to determine if scientific based facts given to a group of test subjects who are low conversationalists,  and see if the new scientific information encouraged them to be more outgoing and talk with strangers. The same goal was also sought for a second group of test subjects but with Biblical based facts. . At the end of the study, the Test subjects would be questioned to see if the new information encouraged them to be more of a conversationalist to strangers. I would then take the data and determine if the scientific or Biblical information was more persuasive in encouraging people to be more outgoing.  The Carona Virus pandemic swept across the world, so in the middle of the experiment, I started to receive negative feedback from my participants about being in close enough contact with strangers to have a conversation with them. They were very skeptical about doing this in  the middle of government and every media outlet advising them to stay home and “social distance” I was sup to try and convince people to be more sociable and talk to strangers. I would then remind them, this experiment was designed to test your willingness to talk to strangers, rather than if you actually do it or nlt. So, an added element to the experiment was convincing my test subjects there were not going to be in any danger by continuing with my experiment. Do to this and other complications, this experiment is still underway. Results will be available when it is finished.

COMM 450, Persuasion

Doyle Srader

11:30 AM – Noon

Join the Zoom discussion afterward. The presenter and faculty advisor both have the password.

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