Practical Rhetoric for Leadership: Closing Remarks
Hello! Our names are Crystal Espinosa, Atziry Gutierrez, and Bruce Hernandez. We are Stanford students and we just finished taking a class called Global Controversies and Practical Rhetoric for Leadership. The goal of this class was to strengthen our writing and to develop good presentation skill that we will be able to use the rest of our careers. We all lived in California prior to enrolling in Stanford. Our campus is located in the suburbs in between San Francisco and San Jose California. This makes our community a little secluded from the city life, but it creates the opportunity of a united community on campus. An awesome component about our community is its diversity. There are people from all different backgrounds, interests, and from all over the world, making Stanford an environment where we can all learn a little about the world from the comfort of our “home.”
[What we learned about Rhetoric]
One of the elements that were very important to our class was the tree rhetorical appeals:
1. logos, appeal to logic, “proof”;
2. pathos, emotional appeal, putting audience in an emotional state; and
3. Ethos, appeal to the speakers’ character.
In an interesting video conversation with students from Uppsala University in Sweden, we discussed how different cultures have different priorities on the use these three rhetorical appeals. In our conversation we found out that in Sweden people respond more to logos, whereas here in the United States we respond more to pathos. What is most persuasive in your culture, the appeal of logos, pathos, or ethos?
In class we also had the opportunity to engage in a video-conference with John Paval; who is a professional who works to prepare people to give effective presentations. One of the things he stressed was “All practice of oratory is the practice of putting meaning into action.” In the course we learned a lot about structuring presentations according to the addressed audience. This included fun skits, mimicking our professors to get a point across, and such activities. Our professor also had us practice voice projection, tone, body language, different styles of decorum, pace, and voice fluctuation. For example, during our voice projection activity, Dr. Alyssa O’Brien had half of the class stand outside while we watch practiced saying our name and favorite color out loud. If the student on the outside were able to hear us, those individuals practiced lowering their voice. One of our favorite class activities was forming groups of three or four and sharing our research ideas with our group members on a 40 to sixty second elevator ride. We called it the “elevator pitch. The goal for this activity was to condense our research topic to ten words, engaging the listener by intriguing them to ask a question about our research, and leaving them with the desire to learn more, all within that forty second elevator ride. If you were in this situation and you were telling us about your academic interests, what would your ten word elevator pitch be?
Rhetoric is an essential component of effective leadership. Both past and current leaders utilize the art of effective persuasion to address the problems that society has faced and express their visions, from social justice to product marketing.
Mike McGhee, one of our classmates, emphasized that no matter what your leadership role is, there are three things that are necessary for effective leadership:
1. Establish your ethos by gaining other’s trust
2. Communicate your vision effectively- that’s where practical rhetoric comes in
3. Emphasize the gains of following your vision; address the WHY
In the last quarter, we observed our peers utilize rhetoric effectively as leaders facing global issues, such as the AIDS epidemic, drug trafficking violence, indigenous inequality, global warming, job outsourcing, and education. Others researched the rhetoric of past leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Walt Disney, and Ronald Reagan.
To learn a little more about us, please click here:
These are our abstracts:
Crystal Espinosa
Title: The Virgin of Guadalupe: A paradox between the creation of Mexican national identity and the disparity and oppression of indigenous people
Abstract:
The Virgin of Guadalupe is a religious figure that has played a very important role in the development of Mexico’s religious unity and national identity. In the story of the miraculous appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she appears to a poor indigenous man. This paper argues
that despite the Virgin of Guadalupe’s prominent role in Mexican society, indigenous people, who played an essential role in the story continue to be the poorest and most marginalized group in Mexico. This paper explores the paradox behind this concept and also argues that Mexico’s indigenous population has taken hold of this paradox and has decided to reclaim their place in society through the leadership that has emerged from their communities in the past twenty years.
Author’s Biography:
Crystal Espinosa is planning to double major in Anthropology and Spanish. She grew up in a rural area in northern California and predominately Mexican community. Daughter of Mexican immigrants, she spent a lot of time in Mexico visiting relatives. Her first has experiences observing the hardships in Mexico led her to become interested in current cultural issues that affect Mexico. Although she is unsure about what she wants to do after college, she is looking at the possibility of becoming a Latin American cultural studies or Spanish professor.
Atziry Gutierrez
Title: Mexico’s Ills: Calderon and El Narcotrafico
Abstract:
During the past decade, Mexico has experienced an alarming increase in violence and crimes related to the trafficking of illicit drugs, creating a threat to public safety and national security. The issue of drug trafficking and organized crime has been addressed by the past two presidents of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox, and current president, Felipe Calderon, but unfortunately it has not been resolved. This paper argues that President Calderon has adopted the rhetoric of his predecessors and applied their themes; which include the rule of law, justice, security, and social responsibility, to his own rhetoric about the war on drug trafficking. Furthermore, this paper argues that the measures Calderon has taken to combat the drug cartels and criminality in Mexico are not original to him, thus proving that the Mexican President has failed to show any signs of innovation that would indicate a victorious government emergence against the war of against el narcotrafico, drug trafficking. .
About the Author:
Atziry Gutierrez is a sophomore majoring in International Relations with a focus in Latin America with a minor in Economics. She was born in the state of Michoacan, Mexico and moved to the Bay Area at the age of seven. She developed an interest in violence related to drug trafficking after she found out that her relatives in Mexico were receiving threats from a group of terrorist known as Los Zetas and who work for El Cartel del Golfo, one of Mexico’s largest drug cartels. This experience led her to initiate a research project on Mexico’s war on drug trafficking and develop a greater interest in international policies regarding the illicit activity. Gutierrez hopes to continue her research on the subject of drug trafficking and looks forward to becoming an international advisor in that field.
Bruce Hernandez
Abstract:
It is common for public opinion to believe that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader that advocated for social justice, and that social service through non-violence was the most important task King sought for America. Even though King did seek these previously mentioned actions, this research paper brings in new light that America is deceived. This paper argues that King developed a powerful strategy to fight systems such as segregation, poverty, and other social issues back then and even today. King’s strategy is composed of three different types of “love”: self-love, philos, and agape to appeal to the self, brotherhood, and social duty respectively. However, contrary to common belief that agape and social duty were advocated the most by King, this paper will make the point that through the actions of Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as his rhetoric, the most important tool that King had for fighting the systems of oppression was in fact Self-Love. That through self-love, King cared about individuals rather than masses, and wanted to develop strong confidence and leadership in every single one of his followers to have them enact the change that would eradicate these systems and transform the world.
Author’s Biography:
Bruce Hernandez is currently a sophomore at Stanford University who plans to major in Civil Engineering. Wanting to get involved in social activism later in his life, Hernandez believes it is of great importance to study and learn how past leaders have enacted change. This research has been a means for him to explore methods of how leaders perform change. Through this research, he has come to believe that people often underestimate themselves. That anyone has the power to enact change with the help of each others, but that people have low confidence to trust in themselves.
Do you have similar issues in your community? What do you think?
Comments
Hi Bruce,
I thought your research on MLK Jr. is pretty amazing. I'm currently working at the MLK Papers Project right now as a student researcher, and I'm only beginning to learn more about King and American history. Through the documents I archive for the Project, I've gained an impression of King as someone who advocated human rights and good values, and I can definitely see your argument about self-love with the documents I've seen. This seems like a great topic!
Posted by: Andrea Sy | April 1, 2009 07:41 PM
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
Posted by: Walt Disney | April 3, 2009 09:50 AM