Speech Proposal

A major topic in the presidential race of 2016 is student debt, how do we make college more affordable for students?  With the average college graduate from the class of 2015 having 35,000 dollars in student loans there is no question the price of college seems very unobtainable for many students.  I have recently read an article where they said college tuition is rising at over 6% more than inflation rates.  After reading that, hearing the debates and being a student myself I began to wonder how we can fix this problem?

               In my speech I will argue the importance of lowering education costs and why it should be important to my audience.  I will also be sharing some observations I have made at the University of Iowa in terms of cost of education to relate to my audience.  The major aspect I will be focusing on is how we can lower the cost of off campus housing and that’s effect on the student debt at Iowa.  Like all issues this one is big, but taking little steps toward fixing the solution is always important.

               I will focus primarily on what the university can do to lower costs of off campus living.  Whether that is building more parking for students to commute, offering a subsidy for rental home owners, or building off campus housing to compete with rental houses.

Survey Q's

11. What state are you from?

22.  Was a schools location in the Midwest important to you when deciding on a college? (IA,MO,KS,NE,MN,WI,IL,IN)

33.  What college were you debating on going to other than Iowa?

44.  Was Iowa’s tuition cheaper than that college?

a.      If so, would you have went to Iowa even if Iowa’s tuition was more expensive than that college?

b.      If not, why did you choose Iowa if cost of tuition wasn’t the deciding factor?

55.  If you answered yes to 3.a or no to question 3 how much more would you be willing to pay to go to Iowa before you would choose a different college?

66.    Do you feel now that you are halfway through your 1^st semester that the University of Iowa is priced correctly?(circle one)

                Strongly Agree                  Agree                   Disagree              Strongly Disagree

survey response

1.  What is the most you would pay a year to go to the University of Iowa?  (Tuition)

2 a.  Did you choose the University of Iowa because it was cheaper than other prospective Universities?

b.  If so how much cheaper was it than the other Universities?

c.  If not what was the reason you choose the University of Iowa?

In gathering my data I will use the class to take my survey and from that I will analyze my overall question which is could the university raise it tuition without having a negative affect on its enrollment.  With the questions in my survey I plan on making connections through each person.  For example if one student says x and then y I can conclude that, that student represents a certain type of students.  Also one major factor I will be asking is who is paying for the students education and how that has an impact on a tuition hike.  I think by keeping the surveys answers together or grouped it will be a better indicator of the students view and opinions than if i were to keep the survey answers separate.  Lastly I hope to come up with an estimate of how high the university could raise tuition and not see a decrease in enrollment.

Speech Outline

Greeting

How many of you have ever felt comfort in doing something if other people you identify with are doing it too?

Thesis Statement

Becks Hybrids uses their company image to relate to their intended audience through multiple types of advertisement.  In all of Becks advertisements there are two major rhetorical situations that stand out and are key in the success of the advertisements. Those two situations are Ethos and Pathos and when I asked a local seed dealer in my home town about Becks he shared with me why he thought Becks was unlike any other seed company around.   

Overview

To explain the reasons for the success of Becks’ advertisements I will give example of specific rhetorical situations in each piece of advertisement.  I will begin by sharing the use of Ethos and Pathos in Becks 2015 Product Guide as well as in their Tailgate talk commercials and series “why I farm.”  Finally I will explain how their advertisements aren’t just all talk.  To do that I will use a farmer in my community to share how they aren’t just commercials, but rather a way of life for Becks Hybrids.

Transition

First let’s look at how they use Pathos and Ethos in the 2015 Becks Product Guide.

2015 Product Guide

·        Use of Ethos

o   Farmer reviews on the company

o   Well established company

·        Use of Pathos

o   Faith, Family, Farming

Tailgate Talk

·        Overview of the commercial

·        Use of Ethos

o   Ordinary farmers talking

o   “you can talk to the owners face to face

Why I farm Series

·        Overview of the series

·        Pathos

o   Becks Cares

Becks Seed Dealer From my town

·        Background of source

o   Agronomy Degree

o   Seed rep for Syngenta 10 years

o   Visited becks 30 years ago

·        Difference of Becks

o   “Fuzzy feeling”

o   Small town business feeling

Conclusion

Summary of Main Points

Becks does a great job of balancing it use of Ethos and Pathos in their advertisements with using Ethos in Becks 2015 Product Guide and Tailgate Talk commercials and complimenting the Ethos with the Pathos in the Why I farm series.  Lastly Mark Boshart’s perception of Becks shows us that they aren’t just commercials instead they are the Becks way of life.

Restatement of Thesis

Now that I have shown you not just the use of Ethos and Pathos and their role in the success of Becks advertisements but in addition I have shared how they are more than just something they advertise.  In Mark Boshart’s words “It’s a way of life at Becks.”

Clincher

Many advertisements on TV are just that, an advertisement.  But when I see a Becks commercial I think of it as more of a documentary on the company or something that tells the real story of the company not just a fake picture of the company to make you shop there.

Speech Proposal

             The company that I chose was Becks Hybrids which is a seed company in the Midwest and has just recently expanded into Iowa.  There are a few reason why I chose Becks Hybrids to do my speech on one of the reasons is because the farmer that I worked for in high school just recently started selling Becks seed.  Another reason Becks came to mind when this project was assigned was because it is in a sense a fairy tale story of a small family owned business competing with the “big boys” and succeeding.  I think a major factor in Becks being able to compete with the competition is due to the ethos of the company as a whole.  In the Midwest when people say the word farming three words come to my mind that have been instilled in my mind by growing up in a farming community and those are faith, family and farm.  Those three words happening to be the foundation that Sonny Beck built his company on nearly 100 years ago and I think it is playing a big role in the success of the company.

               The advertisements that I am planning to use for my speech are some videos and Beck’s 2015 product brochure.  In both of these advertisements that Becks produce both have a huge amount of ethos in them from interviewing farmers and the three f’s that they built there company on. The outside sources I have collected for my project do a great job of explaining why Becks is a company that will be around for a long time and are establishing a strong hold in the seed market.  Also one of my outside sources will be my former employer who has seen first-hand the qualities that Becks highlights in there advertisement.

               My thesis will be that the success of Becks advertising is in response to the ethos of their advertisement and how it relates wonderfully to their audience.  To support my thesis I will use the quotes that they use in their brochure as well as the first-hand experiences of my employer.  The use of both will work great together because your advertisements can say all these things, but it’s what people think your company when they experience it that matters.  Finally some visual aids that I want to use are hat that seed dealers from becks would hand out to customers because that is a key way seed dealers get there name out there to farmers.

               

analysis of advertisement

Logos (facts, statistics)

• Charts with statistics of the hybrids on pages 25-27
•  Statistics on the different areas of research that they are conducting in their fields
•  Statistics on how their yield enhancement systems will affect audiences yields

Ethos (ethical, credibility) 

• “Since 1937” this establishes credibility knowing that they have been in business almost a hundred years.
• Quote multiple farmers
•    This is important since their target audience is farmers and will show their audience the aren’t alone in planting becks hybrids
•   The owner of the company signs his name in the beginning of the article.  This shows he puts his name behind the company. 
•   They provide their values, 115 years as a family farm, deep Christian faith, and building strong relationships with farmers.  For many farmers in the Midwest this might seem very relatable and like the community they are a part of at home.

Pathos (emotion of the writing)

•  With all the testimonies of current customers it gives a sense of community and the values which they built their company on resemble the values of small town farming communities.

Message

• The message of this advertisement is that with the evidence they provide you should choose Becks like all the other satisfied customers.

Communicator

• All of the company owners are dressed like farmers and in the field, which shows they get their hands dirty and are more than just business owners they are farmers.

Audience

• The audience is farms and they understand their values and portray their company as sharing those same values.

Review of Conference

            I found the conference that we had was very effective when it came to revising my paper.  It helped me to be able to understand what you were asking for me to do with your comments.  Also one thing that I liked about having a face to face conference was it allowed me to point out specific areas of my paper that I was unsure about and for you to give me feedback on them.  The conference helped to give me confidence in my paper.
           The only thing that I might change about the conference is that we get to see your comments before we come so that we can clear up any confusion we have about what you are asking.  The comments were good to have on the paper, but I felt like in the conference I was rushed on asking questions about what you were looking for me to change in my paper. Overall I think the conference was extremely helpful in the writing process.