Green

I’m a green guy. My skin is green, my hands are green, my hair is green, even my teeth is green. I live in a green house, with a green dog and green family, with a nice green convertible resting on my green driveway next to my expensive green basketball hoop and green trampoline. I go to a red school, where all the teachers are red with red hair and hands and teeth and skin. At my red school, I see my red friends. My red friends and I always eat our red lunches together and ride the red bus home down the red streets in our red town.

One day I had a brilliant green idea. My green idea would change everything. It was perfect. My green idea was so amazing; it could solve any green problem you could think of. I wanted to share my green idea so everyone would benefit from its greenness too. When I told my red friends about my green idea, they got quiet, and their faces flashed a brighter red. I didn’t understand their redness. And they didn’t understand my green.

My World

Welcome to my world. In my world, there are friendly people and mean people, funny people and serious people, determined people and people who wouldn’t do work if it were the last thing on earth they could do. There are actors and celebrities and presidents and CEOs, and there are lawyers and teachers and plumbers and cashiers. The people come in many colors and from many places. But as different as we all are, it seems that most of us share something in common: a penchant for making money.

The only meaningful characteristic that separates the people from my world is whether they are honest or if they know how to get what they want. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but they might as well be. Lying, cheating, scamming, stealing; these actions pervade my society and no end is in sight. The bottom line is that these things benefit those who can pull it off.  The people in my world are too vulnerable. Everyone wants to make money, but only the cunning liars wins, and everyone else loses. In my world good guys finish last. My world seems pretty messed up, right? Open your eyes, because it’s your world too.

Being Convincing

The ability to communicate complex thoughts and ideas is one of the most important things setting people apart from other animals. By improving communication, people can exchange ideas and opinions with much greater ease; effective communication is one of the most valuable skills that someone can have in the modern world. This means that it is important to know what separates effective communication from ineffective communication, and how effective communication should be defined. Richard Dawkins’ book on the theory of evolution, The Greatest Show on Earth, is an attempt to communicate the understanding of and belief in evolution to his readers. This example of communication can be picked apart to determine what Dawkins communicated well and what he didn’t, and by examining the techniques that make communication and, in particular, persuasion, it is clear that effective persuasion consists of the use of logic, evidence, and most important, appealing to the audience.

Debate is an organized form of argumentation in which people argue sides to convince an audience, and the techniques of debating are meant to reflect a perfected style of communication and persuasion. In other words, looking at the way people debate will help construct the foundation of the definition of effective communication since debate techniques are meant to best communicate an argument. An article from Simon Frasier University’s website outlines the basic ideas behind how to successfully debate. The article focuses on many of the activity-specific skills involved in debate, such as the pace and the volume of a speech and making eye contact with the audience. These skills may seem useless outside of debate, but summarizing what the article says, speaking at the right volume and having the right tone (in both voice and vocabulary) and showing enthusiasm and interest all make it easier for the audience to listen, and if the audience is listening then they are more likely to understand and agree. Although outside of debate there may not be a rigid structure to arguing and communicating, there is always an audience to someone communicating, so the same skills apply. Of course, the article also talks about how to create good arguments using logic and evidence, which is an obvious element of effective persuasion too. However, the less obvious elements consider the audience, such as the tone and interest mentioned, as well as other aspects that are considered from the audience’s point of view.

 One of the most important facets of effective persuasion is making the audience want to agree. This is a factor outside of any arguments themselves and is not obvious. Richard Dawkins book is trying to convince people to believe evolution, and this means his audience is people who disbelieve and he is trying to sway them, otherwise he would only be preaching to the choir. In the book, Dawkins refers to disbelievers as “history deniers” and says that they are similar to people who deny the holocaust.. In an article on the University of Maryland’s website, it says that making a point effective requires to “recognize their side and their concerns to show respect. This usually results in reciprocal behavior.” Dawkins book exemplifies why these things are true, since Dawkins’ comparison of his audience to holocaust deniers is disrespectful, and will lose him many people who might have been swayed if he had been more respectful. Understanding the situation of the audience and being careful to say things that will be taken well are more important than any other aspect of effective communication, because most people will stop listening to somebody who is insulting them. Logic isn’t everything. Written communication may be more difficult, but as an article from the Journal of Oncology Practice states, “As with all written communication, the most important aspect to consider is the audience. Consider the knowledge and biases of the person… the purpose of writing is to engage the reader… write it in a way that helps the reader” This offers a new perspective on considering the audience: it is just as important to be interesting as it is to be correct and respectful. Past the disrespect, Dawkins’ argument is as interesting as it is informative. He makes evolution matter. He makes it seem like an issue that everyone should care about. He talks about the implications of not believing in evolution and how those who do not believe have stunted our nation’s scientific development. Making an argument relevant to the life of the audience is something not always considered, but is critical to effective communication.

Communication is not straightforward. It would be strange if it were, since it is one of the most complex things that our species can do. The subtle aspects of argumentation such as making arguments relevant to the audience and being respectful, along with conveying the message in the exact right way are the most important facets of effective persuasion, even more so than presenting a logical argument. Adolf Hitler had one of the worst and most dehumanizing worldviews out of anybody who ever lived, yet he somehow was able to convince a nation that he was right by appealing to his audience in just the right way. While Hitler’s manipulation is an example of how this knowledge can be misused, knowing what really makes communication and persuasion effective will lead to a more cohesive and developed tomorrow.

Works Cited

"Developing Effective Communication Skills." Journal of Oncology Practice 3.6 (2007): 314-17. Web.

"FSAP - Effective Communication." Welcome to the University Health Center. University of Maryland, n.d. Web. 22 May 2014.

Kidd, A. "HOW TO DEBATE." HOW TO DEBATE. Simon Frasier University, 26 Aug. 2002. Web. 22 May 2014.

Best Friends

Understanding has many friends. She isn’t a social butterfly, but everyone loves when she speaks. Her words are thought by most to be soothing in an incomparable and unique way. She isn’t loud, she isn’t quiet, and she is easy to overlook, except when people need someone to talk to; she is the first person that anyone can think to go to when they have a problem or are troubled by something. Her words work magic on peoples’ moods, and her ability to make deep connections in short amounts of time accounts for the fact that everyone considers her a friend.

Understanding has a best friend named Persuasive. Persuasive is very much like understanding in that he can make deep connections very quick too, however Persuasive is much more outgoing. People are fond of Persuasive. Persuasive is the coolest, most influential kid in their high school. Persuasive starts all the trends, styles, and fashions, and everyone else follows. He is a student who, despite never doing any homework or studying, gets straight A’s. His teachers appear to love him and love to treat him well, but at the end of the day the teachers question the grades they give Persuasive, but the minute they see him the next day all questioning is sidelined to Persuasive’s smooth, easy, intelligent speaking that makes the teachers believe he is the most likely to succeed in life.

Q4 in process #2

            For my fourth quarter independent reading book, I chose a book by Richard Dawkins, an author of books that I have read before. Dawkins is an opinionated man, and this is never truer than in his book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. In this book, Dawkins presents the evidence for the theory of evolution, the biological theory for the origin of life that was first proposed by Charles Darwin. Dawkins’ goal with this book is to convince super religious people, whom he calls “ridiculous” and “ignorant,” that evolution is how life came about, and not by God 6000 years ago. I think that Dawkins is the ridiculous one for thinking that this strategy would work.

            In our world, science is black and white. Ideas, theories, hypotheses, they are all either correct or incorrect; anything less than correct is not good enough to a scientist. This helps explain the workings of Dawkins’ mind, who is a true scientist at heart, but this works against him when he tries to convey science to the public. There is a conflict here between the black and white nature of science and the way people debate issues in their minds. A regular, non-scientist person’s set of beliefs is not the product of a black and white, impartial, objective evaluator of the evidence available. Instead, people form their views from what other people tell them, how other people tell them, what makes more sense, and what other people believe. While Dawkins is putting a lot of effort into clarifying why evolution makes the most sense, the way that Dawkins is telling this to people is downright insulting. A religious person reading this book might put it down after the first chapter because Dawkins compares people who do not believe in evolution to people who deny the holocaust, saying, “the evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust” (Dawkins 7). The holocaust is one of the most serious faults in human action in history, and to throw the word at the people he wants to communicate with is evidence of one of three things: Dawkins is childish and wants to insult people who don’t agree with him; Dawkins wants to make clear how strong his stance is; or Dawkins does not know how to communicate. I doubt the first one given that Dawkins is a professional, but the last two go hand in hand. Dawkins is making clear his stance, but is overdoing it.

            I think an important idea that I have taken out of this book is this idea of effective communication. It isn’t the focus of the book, or even anything that Dawkins talks about beyond saying that evolution needs to be more clear to everyone, but it is an idea that is central to the success of this book and any other books that are trying to entertain a certain audience of a new or disputed idea. This book is the case in point of why this idea is so important: all the thorough science and logical reasoning in it might have been wasted at the hands of poor communication.

Q4 in process #1

I am reading The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution written by Richard Dawkins. This is a book about science, which is why I chose it. I am more partial to science than any other subject, so reading it is easiest and most enjoyable for me. It is a different type of thinking involved than when reading literature. The arguments are more straightforward and I understand them in much less time than in literature. This book goes back to one of the most basic ideas in biology in order to prove its validity, which is necessary since this idea, the theory of evolution, is under much scrutiny, in America more than other places.

Dawkins begins by saying that there is a lot of evidence for evolution, and yet many people deny it. He goes on in the first chapter, ridiculing people who deny evolution as ignorant and blind to the evidence he is about to present. I’m not sure why he would say this, but then Dawkins dives into the science. He presents examples of evolution that have occurred before our eyes, one being the case of dogs. Dogs started out as Canis lupus, better known as wolves, and then through breeding and domestication evolved into “the two hundred or so breeds of dogs” (Dawkins 15). The diversity of these breeds after just a few thousand years exemplifies the drastic changes that evolution can effect on a species. Similar scientific arguments are made throughout the book to prove different aspects of evidence for evolution, such as proving the age of the Earth, how small evolutionary changes add up to become big changes over time, how missing links are nonexistent, and how the change in complexity from a single cell to a human being is possible (“you did it yourself in nine months”) (Dawkins 100). Dawkins is thorough and convincing, but many times I wanted to put the book down because his arguments became repetitive and were not organized in any clear way. He would pick apart an issue and then say “so this means evolution is true,” and even if that is the logical conclusion of each argument, nobody wants to hear that phrase a thousand times. If it wasn’t convincing the first 999 times, the thousandth is superfluous.

After reading this book, I felt convinced, but I just did not care anymore. Evolution seemed boring and not like an important issue. So, needless to say, it isn’t something I would like to further investigate. However, there are many other ideas presented in this book that sparked my interest, such as the conflict between science and religion in our world, and the way that people are affected by the disbelief in science that is prevalent in America. In the first chapter, Dawkins says that most powerful religious people do believe in evolution, and that it is the uninformed people who do not believe it. This means that there is an issue of education, and I might want to look into this general topic area more.