Badger Sports Access

We began as a group of students who were upset with the athletic ticketing policies at the University of Wisconsin. A couple of us were unsure as to whether or not we would be able to get football student tickets as seniors. This emotion towards the issue is what fueled our project. However, throughout the course of our research our position focus began to shift. In comparing the University of Wisconsin’s policies to those of other schools in the Big Ten Conference we have found that UW’s policies are fairly comparable. Neither ticket prices nor the size of the student sections appear to be out of line. We also conducted a survey and found that in general students are unhappy with the ticketing process and size of the student section at UW athletic events. Our purpose is to make sure that students are informed when seeking change in UW’s policies. In this project we are also exploring other options that students have for access to Badger athletics if they are not able to attend games, such as the Big Ten Network. We invite and appreciate your feedback. Our project can be viewed at http://badgersportsaccess.wetpaint.com/

Jaclyn E

Engagement

I found this week's blog prompt extremely interesting and it intrigued me. I like to observe the behaviors of people around me, especially those I am interacting with. So to sit and think about what engages me was rather fun. Not only did I consider what about other people engage me, I also considered what I do personally.

 There are many times and various situations where I have been actively engaged in something. A versatile example, where I can exam someone I am communicating with or look at myself, is a conversation. There are various forms to which a conversation can take: In person, on the phone, or over the Internet. I am going to mainly refer to a conversation in person, but I would like to mention the other two first. A conversation over the phone is challenging because one is not able to see the other person. However, this makes the listener more in tune because they have to figure out the reactions of the other person without being able to see facial expressions. This leaves the interpretation up to the tone and pitch of the voice, as well as silences. I am more engaged in a conversation when I can tell by someone’s voice that they are interested in the conversation. Their voice indicates whether or not they are invested in the topic or whether they are bored. A pause can indicate two things, comfortableness or a loss of interest. In addition to the phone conversation, the form a conversation can take is also through the Internet, whether email or chat. This can consist of either your emotional and personal thoughts or intellectual thoughts. How someone expresses themselves really can capture my attention. If I can tell that they have deeper thoughts expressed in the email, I am more engaged in what they have to say, rather then something superficial. It also makes a difference how timely they are at responding back to me. If I am waiting for a reply and it takes many days, I can tell they are not as interested in talking with me, which triggers a disinterest on my part.

 Moving on to what actually engages me about a conversation in person. There are so many things on my list, but to name a few: body language, eye contact, content of conversation, laughter, style people speak in, the other person’s investment in subject, and many more things. I find it very important to keep myself engaged with another person is how they seem to respond to me. What is important in a conversation is the rapport that two people have going on. If I can tell the other person is engaged in what I am talking about, then I am more willing to put more effort into the conversation, and everyone benefits from a more dynamic and interesting conversation.

 Some things that really turn me off are certain behavioral patterns. If this is a person you are interacting with frequently and you pick up on certain repeated habits, they tend to bother me. A good example is if you are having a conversation with two or three other people and you ask only one of them a question, and the other person responds for them. I am really bothered by people answering questions for other people. I asked them the question; otherwise I would have asked the person for their opinion. I am also disengaged in a conversation when other people do not seem to be responsive to things I have said, and they only seem interested in getting what they have to say out. Another major thing about a conversation that can be challenging to continue being engaged, is if a person is very monotone, and has no feeling coming out in what they are expressing.

 I personally think that I do a good job of expressing myself on a matter, my voice, I have been told, indicates exactly how I feel. It is very obvious when I am not interested in a conversation, my responses become short and simple. I also believe that I have great body language during conversations. If we are sitting down, my body is leaned more over the table towards the other person and I am actively listening. My arms are usually not folded, which sometimes can indicate that a person is bored. I also am able to communicate what I am trying to say well, which can help with clarity of a conversation. And on top of that, you can tell I am engaged when I ask lots of questions. But a few things that I do, that might discourage people from engaging in a conversation with me, could be that when they are talking about something so foreign to me, I do not really ask questions trying to understand what they are talking about. 

Public Speaking tips

When you are giving an oral presentation there are several ways to go about engaging an audience. The best place to start is to know your audience. For example, you should use a different approach if you are presenting to a group of elementary school children than you would if you were presenting to a group of professionals. If you were giving a presentation to elementary school students you would likely want to keep the presentation brief and show a lot of visuals and even demonstrations. If you were giving a presentation to a group of professionals you would probably prepare for a longer and more in-depth presentation. You would probably use more technical language and rely less on visuals. However, no matter who you are presenting to, there are a few tips to giving presentations that can apply to all situations.

The first tip is to engage your audience with eye contact. This is a tip that we have all heard time and time again, but it is a skill that most presenters have not mastered. Strong eye contact can be especially difficult if the presenter is using note cards. Many presenters will rely too heavily on their prepared note cards and only briefly glance up at the audience between sentences. If you want to most effectively engage your audience with eye contact you need to hold eye contact with your audience. The best way to do this is to make eye contact with one member of the audience, hold that eye contact for a second or two, and then move on to make eye contact with other members of the audience. It is not always effective to scan the back wall behind the audience, as it can be very obvious to the audience that you are not making true eye contact.

Another technique that engages me as a member of the audience is displaying confidence. Many people become nervous at the thought of public speaking, and become even more nervous as they step up on the stage or behind the podium. Nervousness is usually obvious to members of the audience. Shaky legs and hands are obvious to the audience. Nervous movements such as these can be very distracting to the audience. The best way to avoid nervousness is to be completely prepared. If you have done the appropriate research and rehearsed your presentation several times you should be confident. The audience can detect confidence.

A third technique that engages me as a member of the audience is displaying enthusiasm. For different people, displaying enthusiasm means different things. For some people enthusiasm means moving around the stage. For others enthusiasm means smiling and alternating the pitch of their voice. For some, enthusiasm means making hand gestures. The speaker should engage in whichever one of these techniques feels natural and comfortable to them. The speaker should keep in mind one word of warning when displaying enthusiasm. Whatever display of enthusiasm the speaker chooses to engage in, it should not be distracting or otherwise take away from the presentation.

One example of a presentation that grasps my attention, holds my focus, gets me interested and inspired to act is a Steve Jobs presentation. The link at the bottom of this post is a link to a You Tube video titled “Present like Steve Jobs.” This video is great for anyone who would like additional tips on giving effective and engaging presentations. Some of the tips that are given in the video include providing a clear and consistent theme, providing an outline, make numbers and statistics meaningful, make it visual, and rehearse. I would like to hear what others think of this video and the tips given.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ntLGOyHw4

What language does for an experience...

I think in terms of language being able to capture the enormity of experience, my first thought is no. However, I would argue that it provides a new experience all together. Language will never truly be able to describe a situation, a view, a feeling with every little detail down exactly. It will be able to provide you with insight to what the person was going through, it only reiterates what happened, and cannot put you there in that moment. But while trying to capture an experience, language is able to provide the reader with a new experience all together. 

When people read books the language affects them differently, which is what the portrayal of a situation would do too. The effect is different on different people, which is why it is new to every person. Regardless of how well written or how well described the experience being written about is, the reader will never have been in that moment, so they will never truly feel the same way as in the moment described. The reader will get a good idea of what happened, I 

think the description would be good. But is reading about a feeling the same as feeling it? No. 

If a person is just starting to fall in love with someone and decided to write about all of the butterflies and the feelings, the reader would not be getting butterflies but they would be reading about how it felt. There is a big difference. 

To truly be able to capture the enormity of an experience, the reader must be able to experience and feel the same things as what is being portrayed. But that is not realistic. Consider a photograph. When you see the most beautiful and incredible view in a photo, what do you feel? You feel multiple things that the person who took it felt, but you will never feel your breath taken away in that moment, you will not feel how calming it is. There is a big difference. A photograph can say a lot, and according to most it is worth "a thousand words", but words cannot provide you with that true and authentic feeling of actually being in that moment being described. 

Looking to an example, Marcus Latrell's "Lone Survivor", he gives an excellent account of what happened in Afghanistan and explained every little detail to perfection. But if you were in his situation, how would you have felt? A reader is capable of being scared and feeling excited by what is happening in a text, but what if you were face to face on a mountain side in Afghanistan with people who are your enemies and have the power to hurt you? How would you feel? You would be scared out of your mind, and that is not necessarily something that a written experience can provide you. 

I think language can do a great deal in describing and trying to portray a situation, but it will never be capable of grasping the enormity of an experience fully. 

Capturing the Enormity of Experience

When we tell stories we use language as a tool to paint a picture for our audience. Every time that we tell a story we attempt to capture the enormity of the experience for our audience. I use the word “attempt” because I think it is extremely difficult to fully capture the enormity of experience using language, if not impossible. No matter how detailed of a description a storyteller gives, it is unlikely that a reader or listener will feel the same things that the storyteller did in the moments of the experience.

Luttrell’s Lone Survivor provides a great example of this. This piece of creative nonfiction does an excellent job of painting a vivid picture for the reader of what happened on that mountainside. It details the conversations that the men had before and during the firefight. It details Luttrell’s thoughts as he was on that mountainside, as he was rescued, and as he visited the families of his fallen SEAL teammates. I could say that after reading his book I understand what he went through, but I will never be able to fully understand. The enormity of these experiences cannot be entirely captured in words. As I read the book I felt emotion, but I will never be able to feel the same emotions that Luttrell was and to the same degree. I may feel scared or sad or upset as I read the book, but I will never feel as he did in those moments. I will never get the same feeling of my heart pounding or my stomach dropping that he likely felt throughout his experience. While he can explain those feelings to me, I will not be able to feel them too. To say that, yes, language can capture the enormity of experience would be to say that by reading Luttrell’s book I experienced the same heartbreak that he did. That will never be the case. I may experience heartbreak from reading his story, but it will never be on the same level of what he experienced. Within his book Luttrell also talks about the training that he needed to go through to become a SEAL. He devotes a good portion of the beginning of the book to talking about Hell Week. He describes getting wet and sandy. He describes pulling the boats of the rocks. He describes the running and the log workouts. He describes the fatigue. He describes the ringing of the bell as recruits quit. As I read these descriptions I understand that SEAL training is only for the best of the best, but I will never know truly how difficult it is. I will never know what that kind of fatigue feels like. His language is very descriptive during this part of the book, but it is still not able to capture the enormity of the experience.

Even though language cannot capture the enormity of experience, it does serve a purpose. Language attempts to capture that enormity, and it brings the reader as close to the experience as possible. There are many things in the world that each of us individually will not have the opportunity to experience, and for that there is language. There are also probably many things in the world that each of us would not want to experience firsthand, and for that there is also language. I would not have wanted to experience what Marcus Luttrell did during Operation Red Wing, but I was able to read about it through language. I was able to get as close to the experience as I would have wanted to get. I was curious to get a taste of what SEAL training is like. I also got a taste of what it would be like to be in combat, and that is as close as I would like to get to seeing combat. I got a taste of the heartbreak that I would not have wanted to experience fully. Language was able to bring me close to an experience. It was able to give me a view from the outside. It gave me a taste of something that I will never experience, and that is all that I would want in this case.