Documentary: The Truth About Exercise. This documentary explains some of the effects and benefits of exercise on the body. It uses logic to portray these ideas as the medical benefits are explained and pathos to as the benefits effect the emotional side of the person watching.
Pinterest: 50 Reasons to Exercise Infographic This infographic gives 50 benefits of exercise both mentally and physically. It gives simple logic and common sense to appeal to logos, generally.
New York Times: The Benefits of Exercise. This is a news article in the New York Times explaining some necessities of exercise. Ethos is appealed to here because of the credible sources used in the document, along with logos, which is appealed to by the facts and common sense used as well.
Book: The Real Benefits of Exercise by Charlie Wardle. This is a book which, from reading the summary along with some reviews, seems to portray a plethora of different benefits that exercise brings. Logos seems to be appealed to based on factual information given in the book, and the book sources some credible sources which would also appeal to ethos.
Twitter: #PhysicalActivity This is a hashtag from Twitter in which most tweets consist of information on the benefits of exercise or simple ways to exercise and get active. Generally, the appeal falls more towards pathos as many pictures and infographics are used to persuade the reader's feelings toward the tweets and articles.
Instagram: @exercisetip This is an instagram account which shows videos and pictures about things you can do inside and outside the gym to start getting in shape and having a healthy body. It appeals mainly to pathos because of the visuals that are shown.
Blog: Inactivity: Why Exercise is More Important Than Ever This blog gives multiple different reasons on how exercise can benefit people. It includes different studies, graphs, and reasons on how exercise is helpful.
Ted-Talk: High-Intensity Physical Exercise Will Boost Your Health This is a video that explains the outcomes and results of high intensity exercise that benefit people.
Meme: "Do You Even Lift?" This meme, although somewhat old, has been comic relief for a while. Simply jestful, the meme seems to portray the message that everyone should lift [exercise].
Song: Phenomenal by Eminem. This song is primarily motivational. Motivation is something many people need to overcome the adversity in beginning to exercise. This song speaks of overcoming obstacles and being the best you can at whatever you do.
P1 Proposal
My name is Garrett Robinson. I have chosen to curate the theme of benefits of exercise for my first project. I have ten compositions that can be applied to this theme, and each underlined area will direct the reader to the site at which each can be found.
The reason for choosing this topic comes from my natural habit to be an active person. I can always be found at some sort of sports complex or in the gym exercising or training for whatever it is that I have set goals upon. More important than simply loving to exercise and be physically active however, is the fact that exercise can bring so many benefits to one’s well-being. Physical activity helps improve both physical and mental aspects of one’s body which is important for everyone. It’s really simple to exercise too, because you don’t necessarily need any equipment. All you need is some time, motivation, and determination. Generally, this is a tough obstacle to get around, at least at the beginning, but the benefits are so crucial to us as human beings as they can not only help us with certain problems, but also prevent such problems in the future.
As far as how this ties into the rest of my personal brand; aside from my general interests my studies also generally involve human biological problems. Right now, I am majoring in biomedical engineering, but I would also like to take my education into medical school to study radiology. Either way, my job will almost undoubtedly involve human bodies, and this will connect with the exercise benefits on the body.
Through my preliminary curation, I actually learned a decent amount. Because I exercise a lot, I have read up before on some benefits, but there was quite a bit more that I had never learned about. I learned a lot about the importance of doing certain exercises in the correct form to eliminate the possibilities of unwanted consequences. I also saw a decent amount of persuasive and informative elements in most of the compositions, so I will most likely use these aspects for the genre analysis part of this project. A few articles stood out a bit more than the others, and those would include the 50 Reasons to Exercise infographic, the song Phenomenal, Inactivity: Why Exercise is More Important Than Ever, and the TED-Talk, High-Intensity Physical Exercise Will Boost Your Health.
I feel that this theme, benefits of exercise, will be a perfect fit for project one because of how much I can connect to it and how passionate I am about it. I’m hopeful I can send a well-strung message to those who don’t exercise or are considering it about how helpful it can be, and I hope it will be encouraging to those who do exercise to continue to stick with it!
Project 1 Proposal (PDF)
Project 1 Graded Draft (PDF)
Project 1 Peer-Reviewed Draft (PDF)
Project #1 Reflection
Project #1 allowed me to realize that having feedback helps so much in seeing your own mistakes. Most of the time, when writing a paper, a personal revision will catch some mistakes but most definitely not all. Having a group to look over a paper allows one to revise their writing to a whole new level. Obviously no paper, report, or article will ever be perfect, but having multiple opinions from others will allow a writer to come that much closer to perfection.
Regarding peer feedback, I will remember how incredible it was in its effectiveness to allow me to write a more detailed, explanatory paper. The details that I were able to put into the paper thanks to an unbelievable amount of feedback from my group were extremely beneficial. It also allowed me to think about being constructive in my wording, because many times people can simply tear apart a paper, leaving the writer thinking that they did an awful job, when the majority of the time the writing is still exceptional.
When thinking about what I would redo and do next time in terms of revision, I think my analysis could be better. The feedback given mainly pointed out that my analysis of conventions could be better, and so that would be where my focus would go next time.
Garrett Robinson
Instructor Bradley
ENC 2135
February 12, 2018
Benefits of Exercise
The theme of exercise benefits on the body is often overlooked and goes unnoticed by the majority of the world. While there are many different articles and compositions that explain, to society, the results of exercise and physical activity, many still do not understand how unbelievably helpful these processes are both mentally and physically. There are many different types of compositions that portray these messages as well. Whether it be an infographic, a video, or a news article, compositions all have a common idea in getting a message across to a specific audience. Through a theme of exercise benefits, one would expect to see principle ideas such as physical and mental gains. Some examples may include decreased risk of disease, increased muscle strength, or better cognitive functioning. The advantages gained form exercise usually go beyond the typical thoughts of society, where generally exercise is simply to look better and be stronger. There were a few compositions that seemed to portray this message very well, using an informative genre in most cases to do so. An infographic, 50 Reasons to Exercise, a blog, Inactivity: Why Exercise is More Important Than Ever, and a TED-Talk video, High-Intensity Physical Exercise Will Boost Your Health, are three compositions which have a common informative genre. However, the song Phenomenal, by Eminem, uses a more persuasive genre to curate the theme of exercise benefit, and while it does not directly use the idea of exercise benefits in its message, it does provide a sort of motivation, something very important in the idea of beginning an exercise regimen as an individual.
The first composition mentioned refers to the infographic, 50 Reasons to Exercise. This composition uses a multi-modal aspect, along with a digital media to reach its audience. That multi-modal idea includes both a visual and text-based mode to reach its intended audience. The audience that is continually referred to is anyone with internet access, specifically those who exercise or are considering doing so. The style and design of the page really help the composition get its message across. The page is all black and white and is organized into a two-column list, displaying the fifty reasons directly and straight forward, some of which include, “improves joint function, sharpens memory, and strengthens the heart.” This aspect gives a great deal of simplicity to the page which is extremely attractive in nature as many people want to be able to scan articles over to get the idea. The composition also pictures a pair of shoes and two dumbbells which could symbolize the idea that not much is needed, as far as equipment, to workout. The informative genre of this infographic allows it to conform very well with the conventions of the theme. The simply stated facts of the infographic give various details and motives of the values and gains that exercise brings to the body, which is something one would expect to see in the curation of an exercise benefits based theme.
Secondly, in a longer composition that included a bit more factual data and some credible citations, the blog, Inactivity: Why Exercise is More Important Than Ever, uses more appeal to logos and ethos to inform the audience compared to the more pathos and logos driven appeals of the infographic. While there was some difference in that aspect, Inactivity does have some similarity to the infographic with its mode and media. This blog also uses a multi-modal media including visual and text-based ideals along with a digital media to address an audience who again has access to the internet and is generally aspiring to exercise or has already begun to do so. The style and design of this composition brings in subtitles, graphs and data, and some credible references such as, “Researchers at Wayne State University School of Medicine,” which seem to own the purpose of keeping organization, giving some visual representation to the benefits of exercise, and leaving an idea of trustworthiness with the reader. Finally, in analyzation of this article, the informative genre once more conforms to the standards of the theme, and it seems to be the most effective of the compositions in doing so. The whole blog gives reason after reason of how exercise is crucial to keep daily bodily functions running smoothly, and then goes beyond that to back up those reasons with graphs and data depicting clear differences in the results of active and non-active people. This informational analysis shows how the article conforms and portrays the expected ideas that one would think of when curating a theme of exercise benefits.
The third of the compositions to be analyzed, a song written by hip hop artist, Eminem, is titled Phenomenal. The mode of this composition is audial differing from what has been seen so far, but the media remains digital. The audience of the song is really anyone with access to music whether it be a phone, an iPod, or anything of the sort. The style and design are somewhat peculiar for songs when compared to other compositions that tend to be visual. The punctuation and annunciation of certain lines bring emphasis, and the rhythm of the song brings enjoyability to the listener, which is a huge appeal to pathos. This idea is most likely the purpose. The genre of this composition is persuasive, and somewhat subverts the principles of the theme because it does not informationally explain to the listener the great assistance to the body that exercise can lend. As stated in the introduction, the song itself is not directly meant to explain any benefits of exercise or physical activity. Rather, it provides motivation to the listener with lines such as “However long that it takes, I’ll go to whatever lengths,” and this idea also adds to be a purpose of the design.
The fourth and final article used in the curation of this theme is the TEDx video, High-Intensity Physical Exercise Will Boost Your Health. Because this is a video, it does have a multi-modal aspect, but the visual side would really not mean much without the audial part, so it can be argued that this is simply an audial mode as well. The media of the video is digital, the same as the rest of the compositions have been. The audience dives just deeper than the rest, as it reaches out to those with internet access on devices that can play sound and video, and the video itself is of a talk in front of a crowd, most likely a group of professionals trying to learn about benefits of physical exercise or just general citizens trying to learn about the same. The video gave a lot of good points and threw in some factual evidence. One statement that stood out explained, “physical inactivity kills five million people globally each year and that is as much as smoking.” The style and design of the Youtube page for this video isn’t really intriguing as its just a short, sloppy description and the video title, but the style and design of event itself that is shown in the video really captures the audience and has some great purpose. The use of a speaker can be very influential because of the ways someone can portray an idea with their words, tone, and body language. The speaker, Oivind Rognmo, talks with great confidence and calmness, showing some serious credibility and knowledge of the subject. The purpose of this style and design gives more appeal to logic and ethics, as the combination of factual evidence along with a knowledgeable, certain speaker so often does. The reoccurring informative genre appears in this TEDx video as well. This composition is also quite strong in its ability to conform and back up the curation of the theme of beneficial results of physical activity and exercise. Oivind Rognmo makes some great points in explaining to the audience that a lack of activity and exercise can legitimately kill or leave bodies in terrible states. Rognmo also goes over a collection of data between inactive bus drivers versus active conductors, which found that there was twice as many occurrences of heart problems in the inactive bus drivers compared to the conductors. He continually comes out to the audience with facts and observational ideas of exercise and describes the advantages that they have to keep our body in working, healthy condition, both physically and mentally. This composition may differ from the theme in that he talks about how physical activity can help prevent problems, while this theme is based on the benefits, but altogether it still conforms to the main idea.
In conclusion, each of these very different compositions added to the theme of exercise being beneficial in their own way. Most were similar in this aspect as the blog, the TEDx video, and the infographic were all informational, with the song being more persuasive in genre. Overall, the theme was strongly curated as the three informational pieces do a very good job of providing factual evidence of the advantages of physical activity and working out as well as providing credible sources to back up those ideas along with aspects that might have been more observational rather than factual. On the topic of exercise, half the battle is truly beginning the battle. There are so many ways to exercise whether it be running, weight, or even yoga, but getting into a routine can be tough for people. This theme gives plenty of reason to start exercising and to continue to do so, because being in shape and being healthy both physically and mentally are so important especially in today’s society. Not much is needed to exercise either. Going for a run or doing yoga takes nothing but some time and some motivation. Then, when the idea of exercise truly gets established, one can take that time and motivation and add weights and other equipment if need be. The bottom line is, this is one of those areas in life where it really doesn’t take much to gain a lot. Physical and mental health are extremely important to humans, and if something as simple as exercise can bring that, then it’s surely worth starting.