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.

Arguing Through Fiction

Fiction can be used as a form of public argument that is just as affective as nonfiction. Usually when I’m reading a work of fiction I don’t think about the message the author is trying to tell me or that he’s advancing an argument at all. However one of the main reasons why authors write fiction is to make an argument, whether readers know it or not. Overall the genre has many advantages for someone trying to make an argument. It gives the writer complete control over what to include in her argument and lets her create any story she wants to support it. With nonfiction writers don’t have this kind of freedom. Nonfiction requires the writer to report facts and analyze them objectively. She is faced with the dilemma of choosing what to report and how to report it while trying to give her own opinion on the situation(s). Fiction removes these obstacles and allows the writer to make up any story she wants without fear of misrepresenting any factual events.

Fiction also lets writers advance opinions within contexts that they are familiar with. For example in “Invisible Man”, Ralph Ellison makes arguments about identity, power, and democracy using a character that he would understand well: a young black male living in the American south and New York during the 1920s and 30s. Many writers create characters that are reflections of themselves, which emphasizes the fact that they are speaking directly to their audience.

Fiction also exposes readers to arguments through characters they can identify with. People enjoy reading about characters that they have some things in common with, which is not always the case with nonfiction. In the readers’ minds the characters are more believable when they share traits with actual people. However, one of the drawbacks of fiction is that the characters may not seem “real” enough to the audience and any arguments the author is trying to make get ignored.

I think fiction is an excellent medium for public argument. It has advantages for both writers and readers who can advance and learn about issues that affect their real lives. The writer can create any type of story she wants to deliver her arguments without the restraints that are present in nonfiction writing.

Democracy, Identity, Power and the Invisible Man

The use of a fiction novel to advance an argument is not something that I typically consider a form of argument. However, after our discussions in class, I have realized the profound impacts that a fiction novel can create. This is achieved through the characters and situations that they are faced with. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison presents many interesting arguments through its characters. Although this novel has many different arguments I would like to comment and give examples of the three main ones we focused on in class which include: democracy, identity and power.

The book gives the impression that democracy as we know it is a charade. Ideally democracy includes such rights as: freedom of speech, the right to vote, and freedom of religion. These among many make up a true democracy that is a governed by the people. The freedom of speech is definitely undermined in this book, due to the restrictions that are put on the Invisible man in his work as an orator. If the Brotherhood represents the state and is promoting speeches toward equality, yet still placing limitations on the type of speech allowed, is a problem. At first the Brotherhood provides a sense that speech really is free, by allowing the Invisible man deliver speeches that worked toward the goals of equality among all races. However, after the Invisible man started to deviate from their standards for the definition of equality the Brotherhood put more restrictions on him. They said that he had to learn to speak more scientifically. As reader however, we are never told exactly what the meaning of speaking scientifically is. This censorship from the Brotherhood represents what the government of the 20’s and 30’did; they preached the ideals of free speech and the future of equality, but only to a certain extent. Therefore the limitations placed on the Invisible man by the brotherhood are an example of how democracy is only true on the surface level. Likewise, just like democracy on the outside the Brotherhood promotes equality, but doesn’t actually mean it or want it. As soon as a minority group tries to equate with the majority they are stopped. The Brotherhood and democratic states want equality to the extent that suits them. Not so much in today’s society as that in the 1920’s through the 1960s. Although in the 20’s African Americans were not considered equal, the government tried to include the minority by allowing them to vote and participate in other civic duties. This right was clearly challenged by the final act of civil disobedience by the Invisible man. If a person can gain these civil rights, yet still be invisible it the eyes of the democratic rulers than by stealing electricity and living beyond the democratic society he has demonstrated that the idea of democracy is not pure.

This idea of democracy directly relates to the idea of identity. The same way that democracy puts up a front, identity is also something that is not real, but instead is placed on a person by the society in which they take part in. Identity is something that is multiple and continuously changing. This is best demonstrated by the Invisible man, but is also shown through other secondary characters in the novel. The most dramatic is the character of Reinhart. He has many different identities that change from one setting to the next. As the Invisible man finds out, Reinhart is a trouble maker, preacher, number runner, lover and much more. The multitude of identities also represents the changing identities that are defined by the people within a society. Another character that shows not only a large number of identities, but also the society’s imposition of those identities is Tod Clifton. When we first meet him, the reader gets the sense that he is a young intelligent activist that is held high in the eyes of the Brotherhood. However, we also see the identity that is placed on him by Ras the exhorter. To Ras, Tod and the rest of the Brotherhood are traitors, which is originally in direct contrast with that of the Brotherhood. However, after Tod leaves the Brotherhood and starts selling the dolls, the identity placed on him by the Brotherhood become more alight with that of Ras. Overally, both Reinhart and Tod Clifton show the argument of this book. The characters are shaped by society and their identities are a reflection of the company that is kept. Although these are smaller characters of the book, the main characters are given identities as well. The Invisible man is given an identity from the very beginning, firstly from his grandfather, then by the principal, then by Bledsoe, and then by Brother Jack and so on. However, it was not until the Invisible man removes himself from the society that gave him his identities that he creates his own version of identity. At this moment he creates for the first time his own sense of power. The identity he creates still is a reflection of the past, holding to the argument that identity is socially constructed.

Power is something that also shapes one’s identity, as the book implies, but power also underlies the foundations of democracy. There has to be someone that ultimately makes decisions and through democracy everyone has the ability to gain power. But also, democracy lays the foundations for wanting more power. The character Bedsoe most directly relates to the idea of power, and the struggle to always gain more. The main argument of the book is that power leads to an identity that is power hungry, manipulative and deviant. Bledsoe always wanted power and he worked very hard to achieve it, and he would do anything not to lose it. The search for power in the novel runs with every character. Every person wanted to be able to have more power than others; from Brother Jack to Lucius from Optic paints. Power thus is a very important aspect to any society and the amount of power and the people in power tend to shape the identities of the subordinate.

Overall, the arguments of this book are very strong and are demonstrated through many different characters and situations that the Invisible man encounters. Power, identity, and democracy have different meanings across societies and cultures. The book shows the interconnectivity of the three and the changing characteristics of each. I feel that identity is the strongest message that is pushed forward by this book. There is a lot of pistis for the idea that identity is socially constructed. The book uses this sense of identity to push the abstract ideas of democracy and power toward the final argument that societies are impure and most judgments are based on ever-changing norms and public ideas, whether they are wrong or not.