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Opening Reflection

As learned in my Writing 1122 course at DU, writing is a long process with many components one must know in order to understand the broad and complex process of writing and rhetoric as a whole. I will introduce and explain a few of the key terms learned in class and hopefully exhibit the knowledge I have learned throughout the quarter.

First and foremost, we must define what writing is. Now this question is so broad it is almost impossible to answer one way, so I will answer what I think writing is.

I believe writing is a way for author and reader to connect through words. I think that writing is a great tool used to convey messages through whatever language and style an author chooses to use. There are so many ways writing is used to relay not only messages but ideas, thoughts, and images between people across time and space. Writing is used every day in almost every aspect of life so why not learn how to be a “good” writer.

And because writing is so complex, there are a few words in my definition that I didn’t even know before this class. Before this course, I had no idea what rhetoric was. But after reading Bitzer I now understand what rhetoric is, it is being able to persuade an audience through words, ideas, and thoughts. It is also sensible in nature and is made to make change in the world. As Bitzer puts it, “rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action” (Bitzer 4). This is basically a quote that backs up that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” It shows that through words so much change could be done rather than physically forcing change, the use of ethos, pathos and logos, if used correctly, can move mountains.

Ethos establishes credibility in the writer, letting the audience know that the author can be trusted in what he or she is saying. Pathos plays on the emotions of the audience with the hope of persuading the mind and the heart. Logos is logically explaining things that can back up an author’s argument, basically using statistics and big T truths.

Now the big three when it comes to writing would be genre, audience, and tone. These three basically go hand-in-hand and being able to know these three things before writing makes it so much easier. Genre is the mode of how you present the discourse you write, audience is who the writing is intended for, and tone is how you write to your audience. Sometimes knowing just one allows you to make an educated guess of what the others should be.

Writing in so many ways is hard and long but the ability to produce good pieces of writing is something almost everyone is going to need in their lifetime. Something that helps improve writing overtime and helps you grow as a person is the process of reflection. Being able to reflect on the past is important for a writer, not only in the stages after writing but also in the beginning stages of writing.

Reflection is a mental process where we are totally besides ourselves, disconnected from technology and outside influences. It is a process in which we consciously look back on our past experiences and past thoughts to scrutinize ourselves in a hope to become better people, students, writers, and reflective practitioners. 

Throughout these examples of my writing and understanding of writing, I hope you can find the use of rhetorical terms I have attempted to apply in my writing. Especially engaging genre, tone, and audience.

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Digital Argument

https://twitter.com/andrea27663344

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Popular Argument // Column 1

Social Media and Voting for the MLB 2017 All-Star Game in Miami

With new social media platforms popping up around every corner, the MLB and other sports organizations are starting to take advantage of the new digital world around them. The Mid-Summer’s Classic, also known as the All-Star Game, is an example of this new way of looking at the world.

Unlike before, the fan voting for the All-Star Game has been primarily advertised through tweets. The tweets are mostly sent out by players’ teams and sometimes by the players. Hashtags have been made on Twitter to help advertise voting for certain players and tries to encourage fan interaction with the players. The online presence of the baseball world grows more and more every day. And from the first introduction of baseball on social media, things have really changed.

Even the old-fashioned players without personal social media accounts are able to interact and advertise for the All-Star Game selection           The role social media plays in the fan voting for the All-Star Game is huge now-a-days. Nolan Arenado, who sadly does not have his own social media accounts, went head to head with fan favorite and 2016 National League MVP Kris Bryant in the final days of fan voting. Bryant who lead the voting for the most part was passed by Arenado the last days voting was open.

It would be fair to say that both players are great at what they do (and yet Arenado won, so that’s enough for me) but social media advertising and fan interaction played a bigger role in who got the spot rather than pure talent at third base.

Although Arenado is one of the dinosaurs without a connection to the social media world, his team took the initiative to help him out a bit. The Rockies’ Baseball Organization’s Twitter page is a huge hit among the Twitterverse of baseball and played a big part in Arenado’s All-Star bid.

The Rockies social media team took the incentive to bring on board a team of #VoteRoxManager’s hoping to promote each of the team’s eight All-Star hopefuls and to entice the fans to use the hashtags by putting a fan in charge of each player’s campaign. Although the Rox Managers chosen were sadly not this talented young writer, they seemed to have gotten the job done well enough.

The fan lead Twitter campaigns utilized the already Twitter savvy fans to attract others in the voting process. Each fan who wanted a role in the “Rox Manager” Campaign made an argument why they should be the leader for a player’s campaign and that helped bring even more attention to the voting process. Not only were the fans given the incentive to represent their favorite players, they were also promised player autographed merchandise. That’s a good enough reason for me to do anything.

This campaign got the fans in on the promotion side and it got them even more excited to vote for their favorite players. I can’t say that this specific fan outreach is what got Nolan Arenado the final votes to push ahead of Bryant, but let’s be honest, it totally did. The insistent and constant tweets from his campaign leader and the Rockies organization through the last few hours of voting paid off and he was voted in ahead of the lesser third baseman of the Chicago Cubs, Kris Bryant.

Between the two player’s there is nothing but respect, but the fans had a lot to say about the Arenado vs Bryant debate of the 2017 summer All-Star Vote. Because both players put up the numbers to show just why they were both in the running, it all came down to how social media interactions pushed Arenado ahead of his competitor.

Arenado himself even knows the honor he was given by the Rockies fans. It is one thing to get to the All-Star Game through hard work but the recognition from the fans is enough to humble even the biggest stars in the game. Because Bryant is on a team with a huge following, most would have thought even a fraction of the Cub’s following would keep Bryant ahead of Arenado in the voting, but after a while, fans stopped voting for him while Rockies fans were constantly being berated with reminders to send the “Human Highlight Reel” to the All-Star Game and showcase his talents for those other than the Mile-High city that adores him so.

Had it not been for the social media team at the Rockies club, Arenado may have stayed in the second-place position in voting and Bryant would have been the starting third baseman for the National League All-Star Team. But the Rockies were able to promote Arenado much better than Bryant was promoted and pushed fans to vote up to the last possible moment utilizing their growing influence on social media platforms.

As more people join social media platforms and the need for content grows, teams like the Rockies are taking advantage of these new platforms to engage their fans and get support of otherwise indifferent baseball fans. Social media can be a drag at times, worrying about how many followers and likes you get, but for large organizations it’s a great tool to help promote themselves and see what the public wants. And I just want to thank social media for helping send the man, Nolan Arenado, to the All-Star Game.

-Andrea Orozco

Writing for MLB.com

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Popular Argument // Column 2

Major League Players Reaching Out To Fans on New Social Media Platforms

These days it is hard to see a sports organization without a social media presence. Hell, even the Denver Mammoth Lacrosse team has a Twitter. I couldn’t even tell you that Lacrosse was a professional sport until I saw a tweet made by the team through the Rockies Twitter page. But that is beside the point.  

As teams hop on the bandwagon of social media platforms and create fan-based content through Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, it’s no surprise that the players are using social media more than ever. Through social media players are able to send an image of themselves to their followers that they would otherwise not always see while on the field. 

The quick-paced world of social media is much like the world of major league baseball. Both have a heavy hitter while others just sit on the bench and watch the game. But that doesn’t mean that those on the bench never enter the game.

In the case of Rockies’ center fielder, Charlie Blackmon, the pressures of fans, me included, and teammates insisting on Blackmon creating a Twitter profile were too much and he fell to the peer pressure of social media and created a Twitter account.Not only did the fans pressure the poor guy into getting a Twitter but Blackmon also felt the burden of coming up with a catchy and cool username. The beginning of an era started with this account and gave birth to an alter ego and nickname many know Blackmon as today. 

Blackmon has stated in an interview that his username had little thought put into it and if he would have known it was going to follow him wherever he went, he would have thought about it more. But alas, he just typed in Chuck_Nazty and called it a day. This online presence of Chuck Nazty also followed the bushy-headed man onto the field like most personas follow the players.

Not only did social media call upon the Bearded Blackmon to join the ranks of social media savvy players like Miguel Cabrera and Bryce Harper but it also called for a celebration of player’s, their online presence and the fan’s love of their personalities.This love of outgoing personalities found a home in the MLB’s Player’s Weekend that celebrated players and their personalities. 

During Player’s Weekend, players wore jerseys with nicknames on the back. For the most part, players wore the friendly nicknames given to them by fans via social media or by teammates while on the field. 

Like anyone would guess, Blackmon’s jersey donned the infamous Nazty name. Other players like Kyle Seager of the Mariners and Aaron Judge of the Yankees followed suit, suiting up with names made famous by the fans themselves. Respectively they wore Corey’s Brother (Kyle’s younger brother, Corey, being the Dodger’s break out star) and All Rise (a play on Aaron Judge’s last name.) Both nicknames started on twitter giving an insight into just how much social media and fans play a role in how people see the players.

Although there are downsides to social media, I would say there are a lot more positives to having an online presence. Through many different avenues, players are able to interact with fans. Whether it be on Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat, players love to show off for the world. But some players are more committed than others, a team of MLB players even banded together and thought up the idea of a new avenue to communicate with their fans.

It is obviously no secret that MLB players are on other social media, but some players think that there is too much going on, on those other platforms that it is hard to delve into the nitty-gritty of baseball talk that some fans and player want to interact in. And so, with this idea in mind players have thought up a place where conversation focuses on baseball, Infield Chatter.

Infield Chatter is like most other social media platforms, allowing fans to follow their favorite players. Players can post videos and pictures, but the app also has features that allow Q&A sessions with the players and chances to win memorabilia. This very baseball orientated app is also heavy on the details, instead of “likes” you can give “fist bumps” like if you were right there in the dugout with those players.

Like most social media platforms, it is hard to tell if something will take well to the intended audiences, but Infield Chatter already has more than 1,000 registered MLB players, including St. Louis’ Cardinal’s catcher, Yadier Molina, and Colorado Rockies shortstop, Trevor Story. 

Social media is a great place to share what you want with the world, but I believe that the creation of this new app will enable baseball players to focus of what their job is while also being able to engage in friendly interactions with their fans in a way that is a little harder than on the mainstream platforms of Instagram and Twitter. Basically, this app allows its main content creators to engage with their intended audiences without external interruptions like basketball fans. 

But I also like that on the mainstream platforms, players are able to reach far past their small community of baseball and influence those unbeknownst to the baseball world. Mainstream media also allows players to voice their opinions on things other than baseball and even spread the word of whatever charities and programs they are a part of.

All in all, the social media world is a hard place to navigate, but if done right, players can grow their influence and grow their own brand.  

-Andrea Orozco

Writing for MLB.com

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Traditional Argument

The advanced technology of today has spread throughout our entire lives, basically becoming a necessity to many. The world is at our fingertips at a moment’s notice and we can get any information at our beck and call. The ability to not only receive but send information in a split second is what appeals to many. Not only can we connect to our friends and family, we can also reach out to strangers and celebrities easier than ever before. Professional athletes have some of the largest followings on various social media platforms, allowing them to interact with their fans and other players. Their presence on the internet can even serve as a way for athletes to showcase how they could be a potential avenue of endorsing a product or brand. This day and age of social media allows companies and potential consumers to connect so much easier. And those taking advantage of this Golden Age of Social Media and mixing it with the influence professional athletes have,  are the ones who can later on say they saw their opportunity and took it.

Professional athletes are among the most followed celebrities on social media, allowing them to have some of the strongest influences on their followers. Big brands see this as an untapped marketing venture because of the large role social media has become in the daily lives of consumers. They are willing to spend huge amounts of money for professional athletes to become endorsers for their brands and products. For this reason, it is so much more important for athletes to have digital platforms, so they can build their own brand and strengthen sponsorships and endorsement deals.

Using this new avenue of promotion, big name brands are able to increase their brand awareness and generate good promotion through their celebrity endorsements. One of the biggest basketball stars, LeBron James is the perfect example for this. With his 33.3 million followers on Twitter and 23 million followers on face book, James’ widespread influence is what brands are looking for. Angelique Martinez writes that, “Although all of his followers are not Cleveland Cavalier fans, both the Cavaliers organization as well as LeBron’s sponsors such as NIKE unquestionably benefit from his online presence. NIKE and other LeBron James sponsors prosper each time that he associates himself with their brand in a social media post,” (Martinez, Why Social Media is key in Athlete Sponsorship & Endorsement). The followings these huge sports stars have do not just stop on the bounds of their respective sports, they surpass that and can reach thousand and millions of people who are fans of the athlete in general.

Brands aren’t looking for players who are the best in their respective sports, but rather those who have personality and charisma that gets fans hooked on the person. Major League Baseball players are starting to see this as a good thing. With the introduction of Twitter into the world, the MLB organization encouraged players to join with few restrictions. The limitless bounds of social media use for the players allows them to post what they want. Some of the updated rules for players do state that players cannot post MLB owned material without permission and cannot post 40 minutes prior to game time or even up to 2 hours after game time (Laird, Major League Baseball Policy Endorses Use of Social Media.) This freedom allows players to showcase who they are and show their personality off the field. Not only can this promote them to their fans it also shows brands that they can be personable and consumer friendly personality no matter their superstar status in a sport.

In a Wall Street Journal article, David Carter the head of USC Sports Business Institute is quoted saying, “As celebrity endorsements move beyond the superstars, the mid-level player with personality and social-media savvy can reach endorsement and name-recognition levels that were once only the domain of the best of the best.” Brands are no longer looking for the players that run the game but rather players who can exhibit a great online persona and have built themselves up as a brand of their own. Nick Swisher a former New York Yankee was not known for his skills on the field, but his ability to adapt to the early stages of Twitter allowed him to raise his profile on the internet. Swisher said, “The media stuff is so social now. It's all over the Internet. It's how you reach a lot of people” (Barbarisi, Wall Street Journal.) This forward thinking landed Swisher in the driver’s seat of a Superbowl Campaign by Mercedes-Benz. Swisher along with other big-name celebrities like, Serena Williams, Pete Wentz, and Rev Run, were the four celebrities featured in the campaign. Swisher was so surprised with his involvement with this campaign and could not understand how he could had landed in the same situation as these other three celebrities. But we can credit it to his authenticity of his social media accounts and his ability to reach out to fans and establish his own brand with his 1.25 million Twitter followers.

As we have seen with Nick Swisher, the ability to build a following and extend influence over people attracts brand deals. There are a few quick tips players can use to also appeal to brands. The first would to be embrace social media for what it is. Social media is the best way to communicate sponsorships. It is also a great way to increase the value of sponsorships and endorsements and even to promote personal cause like most athletes do. The next step would to be active and engaging with followers. As stated in a blog post by Opendorse, “Brands aim to please consumers. So, in order to please a brand (and be selected for lucrative endorsement campaigns), athletes need to aim to please consumers.” Obviously, brands need to be ensured that their celebrity endorsers will be able to get the job done so brands look for those athletes who are willing to invite their followers into their lives as authentically as possible. Being able to project their own genuine and unique personality to build relationships and engage followers lets brands know that the athlete has a strong relationship of trust and influence and that the brand will be able to promote the product correctly.

Of course, any endorsement venture would need to have an aura of professionality. The athlete needs to be able to maintain their own image and the brand that is looking to use the athlete as an avenue of promotion also needs to trust that the celebrity can maintain the image of the company as well. Because the world of social media is so new it can be hard to navigate, especially when you are young and get a massive following in a short span of time. This is a huge reason why many college athletes are restricted from social media in hopes they do not reflect on their team and university badly. But this restriction can hurt the college athletes in the long run. The learning curve of the college athletes allows them to learn on their own time that they are accountable for the things they post. The use of social media by college athletes can also allow the young student athletes to be ambassadors for their schools much like professional athletes and their brand deals. A Huffington Post article says it best, “Just as those companies who were early adopters of social media have been able to carve a social identity and increase brand equity, there is a window of opportunity for athletes to set themselves apart and make the most of social media” (Pickering, Athletes and Social Media: Untapped Goldmine or PR Landmine?). By learning to navigate the social media landscape while in college, these athletes would be able to capitalize on it later in their careers. Learning this is so much easier when there is less of an audience to watch you fall from grace, but Forbes thinks they found a way for companies to by-pass the confusion and score the big deals.

Forbes says that celebrity endorsements follow an easy equation “People idolize celebrities, so when famous people are seen in advertisements promoting a new product, audiences are prompted to buy that product, either subliminally or directly” (Olenski, How Brands Should Use Celebrities for Endorsements.) People trust celebrities, so anything that celebrities like must me good. Forbes also states that just one endorsement can increase sales by 4% so why not spend thousands, even millions, of dollars on a celebrity endorsement. This consumer confidence is inspired by the celebrity’s judgment, and the idea of an athlete becoming a part of a brand can see stock rise in .25 as soon as the news is made public (Olenski, How Brands Should Use Celebrities for Endorsements.) But this can only work if you are targeting the right audience.

With the idea of an athlete endorsing something, brands also have to make sure the endorsement is targeted to the right audience. This is why you don’t see baseball players like Bryce Harper or Mike Trout selling things like make-up. Brands target their celebrity endorsers on who follows the celebrity and why they follow them. This is why athletes are most often seen promoting sports drinks and recovery products. This also makes sure the endorsement is seen as genuine and authentic and not forced. Many players only agree to sign an endorsement deal if the brand and product align with their morals and what they would use or have already used. And if the influencer already inspires enough consumer confidence, they do not have to explicitly endorse the product. Huffington post says that, “Of primary interest to marketers is the finding that sports fans that follow their favorite athletes on social media are 55% more likely to purchase a brand if an athlete mentions it on Facebook or Twitter” (Pickering, Athletes and Social Media: Untapped Goldmine or PR Landmine?).

So, if the athlete has enough influence over their following, they don’t even have to work hard to endorse a product. But this equation may not always work out. Firstly, a product must be good and have a purpose. If the product and brand cannot be trusted, then what is the point of trying to use a celebrity to endorse it. That only brings down that the celebrities credibility. So, when it comes to endorsement deals it is a two-way street and both brands have to be compatible and trustworthy in order for the partnership to work out. And a great way to test out if these deals can work is through social media research. Following what target audiences are wanting and what they respond negatively and positively to. It all falls back on the world of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Social media is a tool being heavily adapted into the world of sports and entertainment. The ability celebrities and athletes have to promote themselves to not only fans but to brands gives them the power to take their own future into account. The use of media platforms has grown over the years and with that, so has the way these platforms have been used. From the early days of Twitter and Facebook, we have come a long way from posting cat videos for everyone to see. Like most new business ventures, social media was scary and took a few courageous pioneers to brave the tough path and blaze a trail for others to follow suit. It is hard to believe today that social media was anything less than the powerhouse news and entertainment outlets we know them to be but maybe in a few years we will see yet another shift in how social media plays a role in our daily lives and in the lives of professional athletes.

                                                    Works Cited

Barbarisi, Daniel. “Yankees' Swisher Takes Center Stage: An Early Embrace of Twitter and a Marriage to a Starlet Has Yankees Right Fielder in the Spotlight.” The Wall Street Journal.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704422204576130473499160298

Martinez, Angelique. “Why Social Media is Key in Athlete Sponsorship & Endorsement.” Opensponsorship.com. Angelique Martinez, 2016. http://opensponsorship.com/blog/social-media-key-athlete-sponsorship-endorsement/

Laird, Sam. “Major League Baseball Policy Endorses Use Of Social Media.” Mashable.com. 2012. https://mashable.com/2012/03/16/baseball-social-media/#OR6Azg3bJ5qo

Olenski, Steve. “How Brands Should Use Celebrities for Endorsements.” Forbes.com. https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2016/07/20/how-brands-should-use-celebrities-for-endorsements/#407566315593

Pickering, Ben. “Athletes and Social Media: Untapped Goldmine or PR Landmine.” HuffingtonPost.com. 2013. Updated, 2015. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-pickering/athletes-and-social-media_b_3082184.html

Unknown. “4 Tips for Athletes Looking to Improve Social Media Presence.” Opendorse.com. http://opendorse.com/blog/4-tips-for-athletes-looking-to-improve-social-media-presence/

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Closing Reflection

Going through this quarter, my idea of what “good” writing is and what it takes to be a “good” writer has changed so much that I had multiple breakdowns because I thought I sucked at writing and everything that went along with writing.

Throughout this long winter quarter, my view of writing has changed and obviously so has my theory of writing. And now that I am a seasoned writer (with very little credibility to back that statement up) I am glad to present my theory of writing. My theory says that writing is being able to convey ideas and knowledge to an audience through the correct genre and avenue.

Now although that sentence may seem short and kind of confusing, it is a lot clearer than what was in my head when I was first asked, “What is writing?” or “What is your theory of writing?”.

Now on to the nitty-gritty, I believe that the best way to reach your intended audience is to make sure you are presenting it to them in a way where you know they are going to see it. So, if you are writing something for a specific group of people, you have to think about the idea that some avenues of media won’t work for those people. Let’s be honest, most college students get their news from Snapchat or Twitter and print journalism is basically dead (trust me, I am a journalism major.)

My theory of writing also starts and ends with the big “R” word, reflection. Reflection is so deeply interwoven into the writing process and is called upon in basically every step of writing. So, the ability to reflect is something that I think is 100% needed in writing. While reflection is a huge part of the process, it isn’t always the exact start of the process.

For the most part, the beginning of writing comes with the rhetorical situation. After seeing a situation arise, a potential author must reflect and see if any of their past experiences were similar to the one they wish to respond to. After deciding if they want to respond and if they even know how to respond, which calls upon thinking about the intended audience and genre, the writing process can start. 

Writing is not a linear process at all. Writing is more like running on a track, you just keep passing the same things while having a different mindset. This writing track refers back to the same steps more than once. It can be tiring but it always feels great to finish running the mile on the boring round track.

This course basically taught us that writing is very confusing. Now my peers and I all had different times in the class where we just had to sit back and scratch our heads till someone could explain a new idea or theory to us in a way we would understand. Writing and Rhetoric for Dummies. Because writing made me go crazy multiple times throughout the course, the ability to actually draw out maps on a piece of paper helped me see the whole writing process rather than taking it in strides and being scared shitless by the unknown task ahead of me. 

The mapping activities where we mapped out our theory of writings show that some steps are more necessary than others and need to be done more than once. Mapping out the writing process also showed me that what I thought about writing before was either painfully wrong or just way too simple later on in the process. 

After learning about rhetorical terms, the writing process unfolded itself right in front of my eyes. In high school I wasn’t really taught any rhetorical devices, if I was then it was probably the most simplified version of it and they probably called it something other than what it is and therefore I had no clue what the heck was going on in Writ 1122 at first.

In the maps that were drawn upon a piece of paper, it was easier to see where everything fit, and you get to see a visual representation of what a specific step is. Not only did the mapping on paper allow me to see the process better but walking around and connecting the steps to different places also made me think more abstractly and deeper than I did while writing everything down on the paper.

Mapping out the writing process also made me think of how the process basically expels the idea of entrenchment if the process is engaged correctly. Mapping everything out made me think and left me no wiggle room to bullshit my writing unless I really tried.

In my theory of writing one of the first things that needs to be done is to think about the audience and genre, by doing this you are taking into account how you want to write and who you are writing to. This step keeps me in check and makes sure that I engage the future audience and kind of sets the tone for the paper and keeps me from reverting back to the type of writing that I always fall back on.

I would say I engaged in actively using my own theory of writing when writing my three different arguments in this class. We were given our genre and audiences up front and decided out topics after the fact. This helped because it got one of the firsts steps out of the way, even before I had to think about what I wanted to write about. Throughout the writing process for the different arguments, the different drafts allowed me to really think about reflection and revision, which on multiple occasions I have said go hand in hand.

I believe that I will be using my theory of writing in my career because I am looking to become a journalist. Obviously, journalism is a genre all on its own, so to also break the cycle of entrenchment I really enjoy journaling and just writing to get my thoughts out on paper. I believe that no matter where my college experience takes me, I will continue to write, whether it be in my future career or just as a hobby. I really like the idea of writing my opinions down, maybe even starting a blog or compiling an online journal. All in all, I see myself writing a lot in the future, even now I challenge myself to write a little something every day, it doesn’t have to be really thought out and planned but the engagement of reflection and revision should be used, making sure the writing process is as thorough as possible.

Not only learning about writing but coming up with my own theory of writing has helped me grow as a writer both academically and personally. I think a lot more about what I want to write and how I can improve on it every time I sit down and write. The ability to write about anything is great, but having a passion to write is a whole different ballgame. So I hope that even if I cannot become a great writer, that I never lose the passion to get my thoughts onto a page.