LARPing, or, Live Action Role Playing, brings people together in the real world to act out characters by dressing up in costumes and improvising stories. Kiri Brasseur is the author of this article, entitled "Larp," who wrote this profile to recap the event at Patuxent Park in southern Maryland. The purpose of this article is to depict a community who is seen to be overlooked by the regular eye. However, Kiri Brasseur is the last person to do just that. She wrote this article to draw attention to this community of hundreds of foam fighting individuals who gather each year on August 15-17 in a four day long event. Her goal was to give the larp community a central location to get information and to create a tutorial to interest larpers. She wants this community to be inclusive and to inspire empathy and understanding for gender identity and oppression issues. Kiri’s desire and final goal is “to take the several smaller larp communities and make them into a national community.” Writing an article about a specific event where this community came together to share each other’s passion and interests recognizes and respects the obscure community.
Brasseur is able to accomplish her goal by explicitly stating all of the benefits of attending this event and being a part of this upcoming community. Kiri includes the Friday night activities by stating that “the adventure and event is opened to all of the players." She incorporates the rhetorical appeal of logos with her word choice “to all of the players” to persuade her audience that this community is inclusive of all different types of individuals. When Kiri states her goal, it touches on the platform and place of her frame. This community has smaller communities that Kiri refers to as “playing in your home Larp” all over the world; however, this article is able to touch on one event run by the Maryland based game Darkon, which drew 350 fighters over its course. Pathos is another rhetorical appeal used frequently through this article’s convention of a gallery of images. For example, the author provides the audience, who is anyone interested in joining a larp community or involved in one, with many images of the people who partook in this communities' event. The purpose of the images is to appeal to the audience's emotions of excitement and intrigue. The author wants her audience to feel this event on a personal level in order to draw them into the event. These images are able to depict Kiri’s frame of the people who are part of this community. Not only does it show many different people in costume from this event in the images of the battles, but she also states that the community consists of “both returning players, and those new to Darkon’s unique culture.” In addition, she develops this statement by providing an example stating, “You could find the games you already know like Poker or Blackjack, as well as Darkon specific games like ‘Keystone’ or ‘Poison Roulette.'” The purpose of this statement is to state that you do not need to have previously larped to understand all of the games offered at this event. The use of images also builds the frame of the interactions and activity between the community. The author uses specific language and jargon that only people of the larping community would fully understand. She depicts their interactions with statements such as, “another of Darkon’s countries, Nurgle, began their adventure with Gods and their disciples wandering with them through the party happily.” Kiri does this to display the cultural norms and language used within this community which builds her overall credibility of the event and community. This profile page builds its ethos through its accuracy of information, the appropriateness of the images provided with the article, as well as the appropriateness of the style and focus of this article. For example, Kiri Brasseur builds her own credibility by including an interview at the end of the article. She does this to depict her knowledge about the community by stating how she larps as well as writes stories as long as she can remember. She wrote this profile to raise individuals' awareness and even inspire compassion for diversity. This community exists to empathize with others and lead to kinder behavior and a more inclusive society. More people should read about this community because it can foster empathy among adults, who act out scenarios of real world injustices to discuss social or culture clashes.
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The morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was a day in U.S. history that could never be forgotten. With 2,996 people killed and over 6,000 people injured causing at least 10 billion dollars in infrastructure and property damage, 9/11 is one of the most searched Wikipedia pages in the world. The purpose of this Wikipedia page is to create an unbiased source that breaks down exactly what took place on this tragic day. This Wikipedia page includes conventions of an introduction explaining the style objectives which allows the audience to understand the formal language used to support the purpose of creating a serious tone. This Wikipedia page starts with a brief summary of the topic which allows for the audience to recognize the usefulness of the source in a short amount of time. A color summary table with examples on the right side follows the summary. This convention breaks down the event into main topics, which in this case is background, attacks, aftermath, effects, investigations, rebuilding, and memorials. The writers of this page would say the purpose of this tactic is to make this complicated topic easier to understand with a simpler way of navigating the page. Underneath each of these main topics, there are subtopics which provide the audience with more depth to the situation.
Speaking of the audience many people would assume that Wikipedia pages can be addressed to any person; however, that is not quite true. Besides the fact that people without Internet and technology wouldn't be able to access these sources, this specific page regarding the September 11 attack can be seen to address people who are interested in learning about the event. Many other sources touching on the September 11 attacks include bias without even realizing it. However, the purpose of this Wikipedia page is to contribute factual evidence with credibility. For example, when the page addresses al- Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, many other sites can easily attack them and portray them in a negative light. However, this Wikipedia article is able to address these men in a neutral way. “Although al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, in 2004 he claimed responsibility for the attacks.” The writers are dispassionate and objective free from favor toward either or any side which builds on Wikipedia’s credibility as a whole because they realize Wikipedia is an international site. This wikipedia page builds its credibility (ethos) through its accuracy of information, the appropriateness of the images provided with the article, as well as the appropriateness of the style and focus of this article. For example, along the right side of this Wikipedia page are images of not only Osama bin Laden but also the events, collapse of the Towers, the North face of Two World Trade Center, and finally plume seen from space by NASA. These images are credible because the authors cite the factual evidence and provide the audiences with reliable sources at the bottom of the page. The purpose of this is to allow the audience to trust and rely on the facts they are being presented with. Pathos is another rhetorical appeal used frequently through Wikipedia’s convention of a gallery of images. For example, the writers provide the audience with many images underneath the casualties section that target the audience’s emotions of sadness and despair. The image of the German Shepherd dog working to uncover survivors at the site of the collapsed World Trade Center recreates the event that provokes an emotional response from the audience. The purpose of this is the writers want their audience to feel this event on a personal level whether they knew about this event or not, prior to reading the Wikipedia page. Building off the images provided, the writers include factual evidence to depict what is taking place in some of the more important images. For example, underneath the causalities paragraph it states, “At least 200 people fell or jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as exemplified in the photograph The Falling Man), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.” The writers included rational proof which is depicted as logos. It accomplishes its purpose of portraying deductive reasoning because it is moving from a generalization to a specific case. The overall effect of including these conventions to support the three appeals is to not only display efficiently selected data but also to inform the audience in a formal manner to gain initial, derived, and terminal credibility. When searching Zendaya on the Internet the web describes her as “an American actress and singer who began her career appearing as a child model and backup dancer.” However, her Instagram depicts her as so much more. Zendaya primarily uses her instagram to share her own personal story through her images and captions. Her instagram appeals to a diverse audience. Many people would assume that she would only connect with younger generations because she has played many roles on Disney Channel however, I believe it can draw in anyone who is interested in her life. With her new movie out, The Greatest Showman, she will be drawing in a variety of generations due to the fact that it is a family friendly movie. In addition, I believe that because of her posts voicing her opinion on a wide range of topics she can connect to anyone. Zendaya's purpose is to express herself through her clothes, makeup, and values. She includes many images on her instagram to promote her films and roles in TV shows. However, I believe her main focus is to show that age doesn't matter when you are trying to make a difference in the world. She wants to connect with the world to get across messages that are important.
One of Zendaya’s most recent posts is a photograph of her in-front of the Disney Channel logo. Having a past on Disney could make it difficult for people to take her beliefs and opinions seriously which is exactly the opposite of what she wants. Logos is a rhetorical appeal most often used through out her Instagram page. She demonstrates logical appeal by persuading her audience to interpret her posts in a serious manner. It states “the end of an era. On to the next. Thank you for continuing to grow with me.” This image is significant because she acknowledges that at one point in time she was only seen as Rocky from Shake it Up but that she now wants to show she has grown into so much more. The rest of the images on her Instagram help reemphasize that she should not only be looked at as an actress but rather an activist who wants the change the world even just a little bit. One of the highlights on Zendaya’s instagram is her cover photo on Glamour Magazine. This picture clearly depicts her view on women’s power. She says “if people know your name, they should know it for a reason.” At first when you look at this picture you only see Zendaya promoting the magazine Glamour but it is so much more than that. She shares her opinion that no matter your size you should be able to shop in the same section that a man or women smaller or larger than you does. Zendaya appeals to ethos through her own personal experiences growing up. The way Zendaya sets up her trust is by explaining that she “was lucky enough to grow up in a family that let her wear what she wanted to and show where she wanted to shop. Nine times out of ten she was shopping in the boys’ section” (https://www.instagram.com/p/BZ13V4IBI5R/?taken-by=zendaya) and she wants every individual to have the same right to do so without being shamed for it. Credibility of this image is also established because she posts the cover of the magazine of a reliable company that supports her opinions. Emotion plays into Zendaya’s instagram page in various parts to satisfy the rhetorical appeal of pathos. One of the main posts that elicits emotion is a video of a list of the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history. The caption Zendaya includes with the video states, “there is no post I can make that will heal the pain and heartache that is being felt in Las Vegas today, but we NEED change… How are we going to end gun violence.” Zendaya’s audience automatically feels emotions of sadness, ignorance, and the desire to make a difference in our world. This post also appeals to emotion because many of her followers could have had personal connections to at least one of the mass shootings on the list. Zendaya includes her emotions to connect with her audience that we can not grow accustom to waking up to this kind of terrorism in our country. She wants to make her audience aware of the changes society has to make. |
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