Volume 4, Issue 2

From the Student Editors

Below is a more in-depth synopsis of the pieces Convergence-Rhetoric has chosen to showcase in our 5th Volume.

Starting off, Abigail Ayres highlights the effective uses of Aristotle's methods of arguments surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing and its trial in "Logical Topoi in the Court Case of The United States of America Vs Timothy McVeigh." Her piece, centered on the eponymous court case about one of the first large-scale domestic terrorist attacks, discusses how lawyer Joseph Hartzler convinced the jury that McVeigh was someone capable of committing a horrific crime such as the bombing by actively using Aristotle's logical topoi, most prominently through anger. Ayres' piece is an engaging and thorough analysis of one of Aristotle's rhetorical concepts used in an extremely notable and complicated situation, and how its usage was effective enough to persuade the jury of one of the most high-profile cases in American history.

Autumn McComas reflects on the benefits of yoga and meditation supported by her own knowledge and experience as a yoga teacher in "The Rhetoric of Space and How it Applies to Yoga and Meditation." Utilizing Michel Foucalt's "Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias" and Nedra Reynolds' article "Composition's Imagined Geographies: The Politics of Space in the Frontier, City, and Cyberspace" McComas identifies similarities between two seemingly distant and unrelated subjects and bridges the gap between rhetoric, space, and meditation.

Similarly, Kurt Ramos utilizes Foucault and other various contemporary philosophers' theories regarding the panopticon to create a thoughtful and insightful narrative of Britney Spears' life and career in "Spearing the Panopticon of an Icon: How French Philosophers' Writings Can Help #FreeBritney." Ramos' multi-part essay narrates Spears' rise to fame, the enduring coverage from the public media, the conservatorship under her father, and subsequent battle to gain her independence, all under the rhetorical concept of the panopticon to form a captivating essay that deconstructs the entertainment industry through Spears' own struggles in the public eye.

In The Simple and Clean Design of RollAdvantage Conner Ramputi utilizes the CRAP (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) design principles and the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool to evaluate and generate recommendations for the improvement of the RollAdvantage.com website, a collection of very easy to use online tools for table top role players and Game Masters (GMs). These recommendations, centered around the use of contrast ratio, font choice, and color choice, would increase usability and functionality while simultaneously maintaining the website's integrity and overall theme.

In the Brand Guidelines and Technical Communication Lindsey Wright utilizes multiple mediums, essay and infographic, to characterize what it means to be a technical writer and how brands utilize design principles such as CRAP (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) in order to effectively market products to consumers. While her essay breaks down these principles and how they are used Wright's infographic conveys the information both textually and visually to give the reader an effective example of their implementation.

Each of the works presented in Convergence/Rhetoric's Volume 4.2 is a shining example of the hard work and dedication of our student writers. We are proud to be able to share them with you and would like to reaffirm that we at Convergence-Rhetoric are dedicated to supporting and recognizing our student writers in the Department of Writing & Rhetoric and across the Humanities. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the student writers, faculty and my fellow intern in bringing this volume together.