Cross-Cultural Blog

Greetings-
Our names are Jisas and Tom, and we are currently sophomores at Stanford University. We are from in Samburu, Kenya and Kensington, Maryland, which are both quite a ways from Stanford and Sweden and Russia. Right now, we are just coming to the close of our winter quarter, which means the weather is getting nice and it's difficult to study for finals. We had a great time in our rhetoric class studying the oral techniques of different leaders, from Barack Obama, to ordinary people who posted videos on Youtube. Our class focused on the different aspects of rhetorical communication and presentation, and below our reflections on the class are posted. We are excited to be sharing this blog with you guys, and look forward to hearing from you. We're very curious to learn about how your views on the art of oral persuasion.

Jisas's Reflection:
Hi, my name is Jisas Lemasagarai. I was born in a very remote part of north Kenya called Samburu district. This is where I grew up until my 14th birthday when I moved to Nairobi for my high school education. My time in this district was a love hate affair. While I love the place because it is my home and the place where people I love reside, it is also a place where I witnessed the effects of armed tribal conflict. It is also the place that sent me to the best High School in Kenya and consequently Stanford University.
Now as a sophomore planning to major in either Mechanical Engineering or Management Science and Engineering, I have had a different experience of life here. Stanford and its culture is nothing that I have ever imagined in my wildest dreams. I have met many people from different corners of the world and each of this people has a different story and background. The thing that I love most about meeting people from different parts of the world is that you get to learn so many different views on day to day events.
Taking a writing and rhetoric class this quarter (Global Controversies and Practical Rhetoric for Leadership), has been very satisfying for me. First of all, I had one of the best teachers of my short Stanford career. Dr. Alyssa O’Brien was always positive about my research (The Rhetoric of gunrunning) and she really helped me focus and re-focus my argument. What started out as an expansive topic that in her words could make up an eight chapter book turned out to be a nine page research-based argument. I can’t thank her enough for this. I loved the fact that she guided me towards my own realization of how to focus my argument, something that made the experience a lot satisfying. I mean, have you ever met someone that reads a paper that you have written and then goes ahead to tell you how to put your argument instead of guiding you to bring it out the way you intended? That was the difference for me while doing my research; Dr. O’Brien guided me to bring out the ideas I had in my mind.
Although my classmates come from different countries, all of them are unified by the Stanford culture that makes it easy for people to engage intellectually about different perspectives and cultures while respecting the different viewpoints. The end product of my research could not have been possible without the input of my classmates. This may have been in form of peer review, expanding on my ideas or just learning about their views on my topic as well as providing a great academic and friendly atmosphere for research and learning.
I therefore feel like I have been enabled by this class. While I have researched how one man used rhetoric to hide a hideous gunrunning business that caused the loss of lives of millions and how this reflects on a failure of global leadership, I have also come to the conclusion that my class embodied the kind of leadership that I would like to see in the world. Though only on a small scale, there was a great sense of purpose and energy in the class. It was especially great listening to all those inspiring presentations with great ideas about leadership and global controversies, all guided by some cool multimedia.
Everyone touched on some really important aspect of leadership and its rhetoric. In general the message was either lauding positive leadership or espousing on negative use of rhetoric and how we can learn from these different scenarios. I think recognizing the different use of rhetoric is leadership in itself.

Tom's Reflection:
Greetings! My name is Tom Kramer, and I am sophomore at Stanford majoring in Political Science. I also live about ten minutes from Washington, D.C., and so I have had a lot of exposure to politics and government by living so close to the nation’s capital. Attending a school like Stanford is a tremendous experience, as it has exposed me to numerous viewpoints and an intellectual atmosphere unlike any I have been involved with before.
I think that what I have learned, more than anything else in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, is the value of preparation, to which I am sure you can relate. This applies to both oral and written projects. My project for my class, named Global Controversies and the Practical Rhetoric of Leadership, dealt with the rhetoric surrounding Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of U.S. military prisoners. It required a significant amount of research, and it was necessary for me to plan out my research and writing well in advance. I believe that good planning contributed greatly to well-crafted essay. On a similar note, my oral presentation required a great deal of planning as well. The process began as early as two weeks before the presentation, as I converted my written argument into an oral script. After that, I gave my speech in two practice sessions, which enabled me to revise certain parts and make my oral argument much stronger. I think the amount of time spent preparing and practicing such an oral speech is directly correlated to its strength and persuasiveness.
By going through the process of learning how to craft an oral argument in this class, I think that I learned something very important about leadership. That is, the ability to lead, persuade, and motivate does not come easily. It requires preparation and dedication on the part of a leader, to the point where they spend a lot of time developing and practicing their rhetoric, both written and oral. I also learned that the amount of preparation for oral presentations has much to do with the type of style that the speaker employs. In my presentation, I used a very high style of rhetoric, and I realized that making sure my presentation was well-organized and devoid of any problems was especially important. When using a high style, the speaker becomes very serious, and this characteristic does not lend itself well to any problems, issues, or mishaps with the presentation. For example, if in a presentation using high style the projector suddenly cuts out, the speaker’s credibility is damaged by a perceived lack of preparation. This contrasts with the use of low style, which I believe can adapt and react very well to any problems encountered in a presentation. In the same situation, the incident may be taken much more lightly and the speaker may be able to maintain the attention of the audience by the use of a low style of rhetoric.