Monday, October 26, 2015

Two Research Questions

1st Idea:
1.       Question
a.       Where do students spend their money during the week and on the weekends? Is the money spent more on school or social reasons? What purchases do students regret?
2.       Participants
a.        I will be asking people that attend the University of Iowa, but also those that I know from home that attend other universities. This will allow me to have a good variety of responses
3.       Conducting Research
a.       Where – I will be conducting my research from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA
b.      How – I will be using an online survey machine called survey monkey, which will allow me to receive their responses easily and efficiently
4.       Analyzing
a.       For starters, I will group the responders based on the university they attend. I will also create another group based on their hometown, to see if the trends are different based on these two factors
5.       Presentation of Data
a.       To represent my data, I will include various graphs, charts, and tables. These will show the trends that my data possesses based on the locations that I split the groups into

2nd Idea
1.       Question
a.       How many hours do you spend studying or doing class work per week? Is someone setting a requirement for you, or are you doing so on your own?
2.       Participants
a.       I will be asking both students that attend the University of Iowa and students that attend other collegiate level schools, to ensure that there is no bias incorporated in their responses
3.       Conducting Research
a.       Where – I will be conducting my research from the University of Iowa
b.      How – I will be using the online survey machine called survey monkey to make it very easy for my responders to give me an answer
4.       Analyzing:
a.       To start, I will observe the answers based on geographic location. First, I will divide them by the university they attend and then in another chart, I will split the responses up by their hometown
5.       Presentation of Data:

a.       To represent my data, I will include various graphs, charts, and tables. These will show the trends that my data possesses based on the locations that I split the groups into

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Speech Outline

“The Finest in St. Louis”

This is the slogan for Ted Drewes, a local ice cream shop in St. Louis, Missouri. Through the use of various print and commercial advertisements, Ted Drewes draws very positive attention to their company and products. They use ethos to associate themselves with famous aspects of St. Louis and use pathos to bring offer a family feel to those seeing their advertisements.
In the following advertisements, you will see examples of how Ted Drewes sells its product to their intended audience using both ethos and pathos. The first example I will be showing is a common and very popular television commercial that airs on local channels (play video of the commercial). This is the main idea of what Ted Drewes stands for: family. One of their primary messages to their customers is that it is a very friendly, family based organization and this commercial is very evident of that. They use pathos here to strike the soft spot in a customer’s heart where their family lies. Family is the most important aspect of most people’s lives, so they are using a very successful strategy.

The second example of advertising is a print advertisement that expresses both ethos and pathos. They use bright colors in both their advertisement and products (cups that they serve their ice cream in) to give the customers a distinct image in their mind. When people think of yellow, they usually associate it with happy feelings. By using yellow, they give customers and those who see the advertisements a happy feeling, which is one of their main goals. They use ethos by linking their ice cream with the radio station known as “the voice of St. Louis”.  This gives the audience of the radio station the impression that Ted Drewes’ frozen custard is seen as the ice cream of St. Louis.

To enhance their products viability, Ted Drewes has extended their products to being sold and teamed up with the St. Louis Cardinals. By doing so, they use ethos to give their company a leg up in recognition on their competitors. They are advertised in the various ads at the ballpark and their ice cream can be found at various vendors throughout the stadium. They have also included their name on promotions given at the entrance to the stadium. Now, when people think of the St. Louis Cardinals Ted Drewes also comes to mind as they have developed a link between the two.

All in all, Ted Drewes is very effective in their form of advertisement. By using both ethos, they give their intended audience a strong association between their products and other well-renowned associations. By using pathos, they give their customers a happy, friendly idea of their company, which is very important and key to drawing in a large audience.


Advertisement is the main reason why Ted Drewes is successful, and it is very obvious how they do so.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Speech Proposal

I chose to do my analysis on Joe Boccardi’s Ristorante, a local Italian restaurant in my hometown. I have eaten many times at Joe Boccardis’, so I am very familiar with the business itself. All around St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs you will find advertisements for Joe’s, whether it be in newspapers, magazines, billboards, or on television. I am interested in understanding further how the advertisements can make a local company like Joe Boccardi’s seem so big.
I have chosen to analyze a print article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (a local newspaper). It shows a claim that Joe’s commonly makes and displays their main advertisement strategy of using St. Louis monuments to back up their claim. The common claim that is used says “St. Louis’ Favorite Pizza”, which in this case is backed up by a picture of the St. Louis Arch in the background. The monuments really do a good job of solidifying the claim they make, which makes the advertisement very successful.

As portrayed in this advertisement and many others that Joe Boccardi’s produces, the main rhetorical strategy is pathos. By including the various St. Louis monuments, they are inducing the pride that many residents have for their city, tying their products with that pride. They will also commonly include pictures of their pizza, pasta, or other items to induce hunger into those that are reading the advertisement, making them more inclined to stop in and visit the restaurant.