My E-Portfolio

My Name is Torri Yeargins and I am an Undergraduate student at the end of my first year of college. I am an Anthropology major at Penn State University Park. This year has so far been very eventful. I have learned so much over these past two semesters.  All together my first year has been filled with lots of new experiences and some old horrors have also been revisited. I had the pleasure of being enrolled in Stat 100 and Poli Sci 003 my first semester. Needless to say that these classes quickly changed my mind about what I wanted to do. I also took Italian Comedy and History, these classes were by far my favorites, that is until second semester came around and I met Nina Jablonski, who taught Evolution of Human Communication. She reaffirmed why I had come into college as and Anthropology major. I loved her class like no other before, includng High school classes. Unfortunately, my semester would not be complete until  took La101h and Ben Henderson tore into my papers for the first time. Until that point I had considered myself a great but undisiplined writer. My teachers had always said that I wrote great papers. It was not until Ben handed me my paper with a grade that was not an A and intructions to go to the writing center for tutoring , that I actually considered that their maybe something for me to learn in the class and that I had better pay attention!
Through the course of my journey through La101H  have had my views turned upside down. Be it about public speackng, or font, he showed me what I thought I knew was mostly wrong. I had not even considered that so much thought went into presenting things to the public. We learned how to take different approaches to get the best receptions by how we present things. This course really opened my eyes and the eportfolio is just a glimpse of everything that we did in it!. I hope you enjoy my work!


Here is the link: Torri's E-Portfolio

Rhetoric of Rhetoric and Civic Life

Hey guys as the semester comes to a close so too does my blog. This is officially the last blog post that I have to write and I have decided to write it on the wonders of taking rhetoric and civic Life.  This class has opened my eyes to all the aspects of rhetoric that there is, and it has taught me how to better my writing and how to make my speeches more efficient. It explained what the main points people looked for   are, and how they best learn, so why is it that we trust this class so much, what makes it so trustworthy?

Ethos:  The first thing Ben Henderson did when we finally settled down for class was introducing himself. He basically gave us his whole life story, told us his qualifications, his likes and dislikes and what he does in his spare time. He did this at the start, and has continued to do so over the past 15 weeks. He has supplied us with countless random facts, some about rhetoric and some not.  This has allowed me to come to the conclusion that he is Einstein and knows the answer to any question we ask him. His knowledge about the rhetoric of human interaction is what allows us to trust him and what he teaches us. We trust him enough that we have taken his knowledge and passed it on, so that others and learn all the interesting things that we have learned in his class.

So that’s it in a nutshell. The reason that rhetoric and civic life is so successful and that we take so much from it is because of our teacher. Every day in class he has us answer a random question, just to make sure we are there. He takes these answers, he listens, and he responds to them. He remembers them and he answers them himself. If he did not make this connection with us and teach the way he does, then I know without a doubt, that the class would just be another of the one we have to struggle to go to. That we resent, and moan about what we have to do in it. Instead, Rhetoric and Civic Life, is a class that we actually learn and discuss what we learn and apply it, instead of letting our knowledge stagnate.

Well……Its been Fun J

Its the End of the World As We Know It

Since the human race began there have been prophesies of it ending. Every civilization has had its guess at what the end of the world will be. The Bible, Koran, and other religious books all agree upon the coming of an end of days. This of course has a lot of relevance because the agrees upon day is approaching very quickly. So why is it that we believe in our own ending? Why are we so quick to believe that the world can not go on forever, and n fact will end this very year?  It is because of a nice little civilization that we call the Mayans.

The Mayans were a genius society in their own right, years ahead of their time. When we think of Mayans we tend to think of their “barbaric” practice of human sacrifice, which they did every day to appease their Gods in order to make the sun rise. We tend to over look the groundbreaking invention in math science and astronomy that they have contributed to our species. They are considered the first to come up with the concept of zero.  They also were the first to attempt brain and other surgeries. All of the inventions’ that they have come up with are what establishes their ethos, and allow us to trust their word about things. This is because their “beliefs” are based in science and can be proven, rather than mythology. This leads us to their most talked about invention, the Mayan Calendar.

The Mayan Calendar is so talked about, not only because it led to our basic calendar, which follows the moon and other stars based around positions of the sun, but because it has a definitive end. Many people believe that the Mayans new when the world was going to end, and because they were right about so much other stuff, people believe that they are right about this too. They have such strong belief because there are so many stories about the world ending, and prophesies being right, so being given an actual date relieves some people, and sends others into denial. This calendar feeds into societies own belief that it will end soon. People use the established ethos of the Mayans and the pathos of society to lend credibility to this theory of the end. Personally, I am a wait and see what happens kind of person, I won’t know if it is true until it happens, so like the rest of the world, I will be holding my breath in December.

To learn more visit this link: http://www.exitmundi.nl/Maya.htm

The Unlikely Hero

Ever since J.K wrote them, the Harry Potter books have taken the world by storm. They are among the best selling books in the world. Every book was made into a successful movie franchise, because of how many people are in love with them. What makes Harry Potter so Popular. Why is the story of an abused child who overcame much to become the hero of an undiscovered world, the one that touched billions of people’s hearts? Is it because we can identify with the character, or is it because we naturally root for the underdog in any situation. Maybe it is because we secretly wish that we had some undiscovered power and want someone to rescue us from our lives and transport us to a magical world of the likes we have never seen.

Harry Potter is surprisingly popular in that it was started in a time where reality based books were more popular. Science fiction was popular to some but it was not mainstream. Harry Potter changed that. The books selling as they did allowed for other writers to try their hand at fantasy, and it led to books like Twilight, and Eragon being written. Americans tend to side with the underdogs, because we ourselves feel like we are the underdogs who triumphed over the controlling England. So when we see a boy, orphaned and made to act like a servant to abusive relatives, we can identify and hope for the best for him. J.K. took us on the adventure of a life time, following Harry through school, and overcoming every obstacle with him. I believe that the Harry Potter books worked so well because both Harry and the population reading him were new to the magic world, so as he experienced new things, so did we.


J.K. really used pathos to make us fall in love with her characters. I am sure people will still be reading these books and watching the movies years from now. I’ve got my box set…Do You!

What are our Kids really learning from Disney?

I recently had to do a movie project for class. My group and I chose to do Disney for it. Not just any Disney, but the effect that it had on children. During this project we had to dissect many of my childhood favorites. Needless to say I came out very disappointed in the company I believed made magic.

We found out that not only are the majority of the songs and storylines sexist and borderline racist, but they are also very offensive to more than just one race. Disney portrays its characters in such a way that children are left with the thought that to be a good wife you must cook and clean and sing and wait on your husbands. They are also left with the insinuation that all Indians are savages, all Latinos steal cars, all black people are jazz talking cool Daddy-os’. When Disney’s songs and movies are dissected it is astounding how much they are influencing are children’s thoughts.

When we look at it seems obvious what they are doing, but when you are in the heat of the moment watching the movie with your giggling child who seems to experience every seen as if it were happening to them, we tend to over look the obvious. We tend to trust Disney so well because of their established ethos. Disney created the first animated cartoons, and they have followed us through the years. We trust them because they are the same cartoons that we watched when we were younger.  The make you empathize with every character in the movie until you are able to quote their lines. They make catchy timeless rhyming songs that are so fun to sing. So it is no wonder that we are blind to their faults, when they seem to create such joy. Even though it is false.

Forgive and Forget

Forgive but never forget this is one of my best friends’ life motto. She even went as far as getting it tattooed on to her body. She lives by this motto, and yet I don’t think she truly understands it. How can we say we forgive someone and yet not forget their past actions? IF we forgive them doesn't it mean we are willing to look pass their misdeeds or whatever they did to us. Yet if we don’t forget that is like saying we will hold a grudge forever. There will always be that one black spot in the friendship. One friend will never fully trust the other. It will always be a voice in the back of their minds reminding them of all the things this friend may have done. When life goes on the things will begin to pile up, as we are human and it is the human condition that allows us our mistakes. Ii know my friend is already starting as she continues to bring up something that happened in the seventh grade.

I am an easy going person, once I consider something done that usually settles it. So, her continuously bringing up something that I have already put behind me is grating. I feel as if once a situation is solved to the best of one’s ability we should then put that situation behind us and move on. Life has too many bumps in the road to be caught up in something that, on a large scale, doesn’t really matter. I believe the saying should be forgive and forget, because if it is something you are willing to forgive a person for, then there is no reason to remember it. If you’re not willing to forget then don’t pretend to forgive.

Know The Code

Every time I sit down in the bathroom and look up I am faced with a colorful eight by eleven sheet of paper. This paper just happens to be Stall Stories, a weekly news sheet with about eight articles on it that is placed in the Penn State bathroom stalls. One such article is the Know Your Code section.

In The Know Your Code article, the code of the Pennsylvania State School is discussed in such a way that is easy to understand. Not only is it easy to understand but it is given in pieces so that you are not overwhelmed all at once with the stories. They give it to you in parts so that you can contemplate more on what is being read then on just reading it. I believe that Kairos plays a huge part in the know your code articles. When people are sitting on a toilet there is little there to distract them. Most of us are not getting up anytime soon. The article is also placed at eye level from where you sit down, so it is directly in front of our gazes. We have little else to do in a bathroom but read the paper in front of us. I know that my eyes are immediately drawn to. The paper also has ethos as it is a paper given by the school, not something random that a student printed and taped to the door, we can trust what they are saying.

Stall Stories is a smart way to keep the students informed about what is happening that week, and the Know The Code section is a brilliant way to help students know when they are doing something they are not supposed to be doing. It teaches them the code that is otherwise unknown seeing as its normal appearance is in a large book that is written in an archaic language that is hard to decipher. I know I leave the bathroom with more knowledge than what I came in with.