Color is an important aspect of any visual design. The infographic below, entitled Psychology of Color, provides helpful information to keep in mind when choosing colors for design!

Infographic courtesy of www.hongkiat.com. Read the full article: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/cheatsheet-graphic-designers/

Ted Cruz

Cruz openly advocates for screening and accepting Christian refugees, but “that Muslims fleeing the Syrian civil war should be repopulated to other Muslim countries.” In an interview with CNN, he stated, “there is no doubt we would need to vet anyone coming in, but there is no indication that we have Muslims pretending to be Christians in the coming refugee wave.”

“Cruz has applied a “religious test” to judge which refugees to admit, in the words of the White House, telling reporters across South Carolina this weekend that he would admit all persecuted Christians to the U.S. but no persecuted Muslims.”

Jeb Bush 

Similarly to Cruz, Bush feels that the U.S. should only accept Christian refugees from Syria.

While campaigning in Florence, SC, Bush shared his perspective on refugees: “At a minimum, we ought to be bringing people like orphans and people who are clearly not going to be terrorists. Or Christians. There are no Christian terrorists in the Middle East, they’re persecuted, they are religious minorities.”

Donald Trump 

Trump is skeptical of refugees. While on CNBC, he said, “we have no idea who these people are, we are the worst when it comes to paperwork…this could be one of the great Trojan horses.”

“Trump has been saying for weeks on the campaign trail that the U.S. should not accept refugees from the civil war torn country, and he says he’s only standing by that position stronger in the wake of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris.”

Hilary Clinton 

Clinton has be outward with opposition to the stance GOP candidates have taken on Syrian refugees. On Twitter, she shared that “we’ve seen a lot of hateful rhetoric from the GOP. But the idea that we’d turn away refugees because of religion is a new low.” According to CNN, Clinton believes that rejecting refugees does not comply with “American values.”

“We can’t act as though we are shutting the door to people in need without undermining who we are as Americans,” said Clinton.

During the second Democratic Debate, “Clinton supported accepting refugees, but called for ‘as careful a screening and vetting process as we can imagine.’ Clinton, who has previously stated that the U.S. should accept as many as 65,000 new refugees, said “I do not want us to in any way inadvertently allow people who wish us harm to come into our country.”

Bernie Sanders 

Although Sanders feels similarly to Clinton, he has been less conservative with his rhetoric. “I am disturbed by some of what I am hearing from my Republican colleagues, and I will just say this: During these difficult times, as Americans we will not succumb to racism. We will not allow ourselves to be divided and succumb to Islamophobia… we will not turn our backs on the refugees.”

Recently, deaf actor and model Nyle DiMarco tweeted American Airlines to say that he was unable to watch movies on his flight. He wanted to know when subtitles would be included on movies to make the airline “100% accessible for all.” American Airlines’ response was insensitive and deleted quickly after receiving backlash from DiMarco and his followers.

Poor customer service is revealed quickly and shared easily if companies are not careful about who they put in charge of social media, or even regular customer service, because any response can be put online for everyone to scrutinize. When people ask a company questions on social media, they expect a prompt response, which means someone needs to be able to respond quickly, coherently, and politely. Someone will immediately notice any mistake or insensitive remark, which could lead to the loss of customers and followers.

This is just one example of how social media affects customer service and satisfaction. Read this Boston Globe article for an in-depth look at how customer service is impacted by social media.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s when I see the majority of my family all at once. Good food, great company, and the not-so-subtle avoidance of politics and other touchy subjects. The more I learn about rhetoric, the more I analyze every little thing my grandma says about my major. The more I rhetorically analyze a text, the more I rhetorically analyze my cousin’s expression – is it annoyance? disinterest? – when my uncle turns on the game and watches it on mute while the rest of us make small talk over cheese and crackers.

Whether we realize it or not, we all rhetorically analyze every word we hear and every expression we see. As Professional Writing and Rhetoric students, we know exactly what we’re doing when we listen to our grandpa’s conversation with our sister about her new job, and we know he wants to ask about her salary when he mentions how he started from the bottom of his company and worked his way up.

Thanksgiving is in two days, so get ready to defend your major and answer your favorite question, “What are your plans after graduation?”

The holidays are coming up and if you’re going home or visiting family it’s likely that you’ll be grilled about your college experience. If you’re still in the beginning of your college career, it’s likely your family or company will ask about what you want to study. If you’re in your junior or senior year, the questions are usually more focused on what your post-graduate plans are and what you’re going to do with that English degree. The chances that your company hears “future teacher” when you say “English major” is fairly standard. And while that may be your career path, that isn’t your only option. To help you through the holidays, and life in general, here are five ways to respond to the ever-judgmental “why English?” question.

1. Knowing how to write well is a valuable skill and is applicable to most professions.
   Well developed communication and writing skills will get you everywhere. With the emphasis of technological communication in the workplace, it’s important to be articulate. Time Magazine published an article in their business section emphasizing this:”Whether you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, manager or an employee aspiring to any of those positions, you need to know how to write effectively for business. Yes, that means paying attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation, along with good word choice and a consistent style.Bad writing can have a wide-ranging, negative effect on your business, from creating a less-than-coherent business plan and hampering your efforts to attract investors, to communicating with employees, vendors and even your customers.”
2. English majors start out making similar amounts to business majors etc. 
   The Wall Street Journal conducted a informative survey with “11,000 people who graduated from college between 1999 and 2010 about the pay they received from their first jobs,” and matched these jobs to the corresponding majors, according to an article published by The Chronicle. Here is what they found:Engineering $56,000Computer Science 50,000Civil Engineering 49,000

   Accounting 43,000

   Economics 42,000

   Finance 41,000

   Biology 38,000

   Business 38,000

   Marketing 37,000

   Political Science 36,000

   Psychology 35,000

   Communications 34,000

   English 34,000

   As you can see, individuals with English degrees are not making all that less when they start out. In fact, the survey found that Communications majors and English majors make roughly the same amount.

3. Reading is really good for your brain.
   According to research published by Psychology Today, “the changes caused by reading a novel were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the the primary sensorimotor region of the brain. Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded, or embodied cognition.”
4. There are a lot of successful professionals with degrees in English.
   Between Barbara Walters, Joan Cusack, Gwendolyn Brooks, Diane Sawyer, Steven Spielberg and many others, you could go on and on about successful people with degrees in English. Business Insider‘s list includes a number of CEOS, a former Secretary Treasurer, and a Supreme Court Justice!
5. The Humanities, especially English, matter.
   In an article entitled “Why Teach English?” the New Yorker shares their perspective that solidifies the importance of teaching and studying English. “We cannot merely produce goods and services as efficiently as we can, sell them to each other as cheaply as possible, and die. Some idea of symbolic purpose, of pleasure-seeking rather than rent seeking, of Doing Something Else, is essential to human existence. That’s why we pass out tax breaks to churches, zoning remissions to parks, subsidize new ballparks and point to the density of theatres and galleries as signs of urban life, to be encouraged if at all possible. When a man makes a few billion dollars, he still starts looking around for a museum to build a gallery for or a newspaper to buy. No civilization we think worth studying, or whose relics we think worth visiting, existed without what amounts to an English department—texts that mattered, people who argued about them as if they mattered, and a sense of shame among the wealthy if they couldn’t talk about them, at least a little, too. It’s what we call civilization.Even if we read books and talk about them for four years, and then do something else more obviously remunerative, it won’t be time wasted. We need the humanities not because they will produce shrewder entrepreneurs or kinder C.E.O.s but because, as that first professor said, they help us enjoy life more and endure it better. The reason we need the humanities is because we’re human. That’s enough.”And if these aren’t enough, we only hope you’ll find this Buzzfeed list useful in laughing it all off.

As Professional Writing and Rhetoric majors, students have opportunities to intern remotely for many companies and organizations. For example, I was an editing intern for a nonprofit over the summer. It sounds like the ideal situation, but anyone who has completed a remote internship knows how difficult it can be to meet deadlines and complete tasks in a timely manner. If you can manage your time well and like working independently, a remote internship might be for you. However, remember that working alone at your desk hours away from a company can keep you disconnected from the office and prevent you from learning skills that are essential to your future career. Check out this New York Times article on one student’s experience in a remote internship.

It is well known that conversation is considered a form of rhetoric. When we speak to another person, we are articulating our views in a way that seeks to persuade or, more generally, communicate in some way. That is to say, there is a goal we’re attempting to achieve in our conversation. But what about our interactions with dogs? If we assume that our pets don’t comprehend much of human speech, then it’s hard to determine what we can convey to them through talking. Similarly, what can they convey to us through their actions?

However, it is not just the words we say that make an impact on a listener. We can also implement rhetoric through our actions and tones. The tone in which we speak to a dog can communicate several different things: an angry tone can convey that he has done something wrong, while a happy tone can mean the opposite. The movements and actions we use, for example throwing a ball or whistling, can convey meaning. Through these forms of communication, we can make rhetorical appeals to animals to persuade them. Consider how we can convince dogs to trust us: if we put a hand out for the dog to smell before petting it, we are establishing our ethos as a safe person by communicating that we are not a threat.

Now, let’s examine the potential rhetorical strategies dogs use to communicate and persuade humans. When we teach dogs tricks like sitting and rolling over, we usually reward them with treats when they successfully complete the task. Through this process, they have learned that their owners (their main audience) respond well to tricks. As a result, the next time they see their owners with something they want, they usually will perform the trick as a means of persuasion to get the treat. To take another example, when dogs whine, they are usually communicating that they want something or that they are uncomfortable in their current situation.

As I researched this topic, I found that there are mixed opinions on this matter. Some people believe that rhetoric can only be used by humans. Others believe that in some cases, humans and animals are able to communicate well enough to use rhetorical skills with each other. In my opinion, though human-animal interaction could be seen as less complex than a human-human interaction, it nonetheless seems to succeed at establishing meaning between the two parties and can work to create an argument.

As consumers in the digital era, it can get hard to sift through the the massive amounts of content we are exposed to every day. The “skip” button on Youtube and the “x” out of a webpage have become the digital native’s best friend in a sea of empty advertising.

As communicators, it is nearly impossible to connect to the “essential human truth” that will resonate with our audience without them becoming frustrated. Audiences today are completely overwhelmed by empty ads and seemingly wasteful messaging tactics.

The infographic set below illustrates incredible ways to make sure your messaging is truly getting through to your audience – not just adding to an ever-crowded digital landscape. Check it out!

http://www.redroostergroup.com/2013/09/26/5-ways-to-engage-your-audience-with-infographics/

In professional writing, it can often be beneficial to keep word count to a bare minimum. Texts such as abstracts, press releases, and newspaper blurbs focusing on TV shows or movies benefit from being as succinct as possible while still getting the point across. Summarizing can seem counter-intuitive when you’re in an education system where papers often need to reach a minimum length. You learn to put as much information into a paper as you can while still trying to remain focused on a thesis. However, once you get the hang of summarizing, it will become an important tool in your professional writing repertoire that you can use in all sorts of situations. Here are some tips on summarizing:

1. Take time to take in the information. If it is a written text, read over it multiple times. If it is an audio or visual text, listen or watch it more than once. If you only take in the information one time, you risk missing the crucial points.
2. Interact with the text. Use a highlighter or underline words and phrases that seem essential to the understanding of the text. Take notes on important information that stands out. Creating an outline can also be helpful.
3. Look back over your notes. In the specific details you wrote down, try to identify a connection between them.

For example, take the Harry Potter series. In each book, Harry encounters a new adventure, such as finding the Chamber of Secrets and defeating Tom Riddle or competing in the Triwizard tournament. Instead of listing each of these events separately, a summarizing sentence could be:

Throughout his education at Hogwarts, Harry Potter goes through a series of adventures and trials that provide him with essential knowledge going forward in his life.

4. Write down, in your own words, what the overall message of the information seems to be. This is the major point you want to convey in your summary.

For more information, check out the websites of Williams College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Both websites provide great tips as well as detailed examples of summary.

Wondering what Professional Writing & Rhetoric is? Take a look at this infographic for more information!