Adidas, the iconic sporting goods powerhouse that has been in action since the 1920’s, is widely known throughout the entire world. Whether you view them as fashionable, sporty, or the icon of Russia, it’s likely you’ve seen someone wearing a piece of Adidas clothing somewhere. Due to the size of their company and the high demand for their products, they’re a little more than just a sporting brand. 

According to their mission statement. Adidas has a short and simple mission statement, simply to be the best at what they do. They say that in their mission statement, 

“The Adidas Group strives to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. We are committed to continuously strengthening our brands and products to improve our competitive position.”

Though that seems all fine and dandy, and many would argue that Adidas is the best sporting goods brand, that does come at a cost. Adidas has a lot of factories all over the world, in 55 countries to be exact, some of them being poorer nations with harsh working conditions. From low pay to long working hours, to exploitation of child labor laws in various countries, an Adidas clothing factory would not be a very desirable place to work due to these cruel circumstances. 

Though the company has poor working conditions and outsource their work to third world countries, they’re surprisingly good at sustainability. According to an article on Outsideonline.com, Adidas has low water usage in order to protect the ocean and has teamed up with Parley for the Oceans, an awareness group made to help protect the earth’s fragile oceans. Though looking further into the article, I detected a bit of bias due to it being sponsored by a new outdoors Adidas clothing brand, giving it a little less credibility

Despite the controversy, one must admire Adidas’ marketing ability, being able to reach out to multiple demographics, and sometimes giving them an unintended audience. For example, during the 90’s Run DMC collaborated with Adidas to make a shoe to appeal to hip-hop fans. They’re even able to get songs about them without even needing to pay the musicians a dime, KoRn’s A.D.I.D.A.S. and Run DMC’s My Adidas just to name a few. Another thing they have going for them is the iconic three stripes logo. Something so simple, yet so sleek, made them skyrocket in popularity giving them the image we all know today.  

Another admirable thing about Adidas was their ability to evolve. Starting in the 1920’s by a German shoemaker by the name of Adolf “Adi” Dassler, he made a portmanteau of his name in order to create the company, Adidas, combining his first and last name together. The company later took off, selling more articles of clothing catering towards athletes, very similar to the style of Nike. Their famous tracksuit later became a fashion icon in later decades due to the impact of Run DMC and KoRn, almost making it ironically a part of the counter culture movements that were going on at the time. 

Though Adidas doesn’t exactly align with many people’s morals due to its exploitation of workers, one must admire the ability to become extremely iconic in numerous fields and subcultures with something as simple as three stripes. It’s horrifying yet fascinating. One simple design can do so much for a company. From a small german shoemaking company to the fashion and sports conglomerate that it is today, Adidas will always have to leave a mark across numerous generations, despite the company having some shady business practices.

I have learned a lot about rhetoric in the past few weeks due to the numerous articles and assignments we have had on it. I can explain one about the three most basic forms of rhetoric: logos appealing to logic, pathos appealing to emotion, and ethos appealing to context and validity. I also know how and when to use these forms of rhetoric to persuade others. Rhetoric relates to critical thinking because it makes us really look at the author’s message and wants us to think about what they’re really saying why they are saying it, and how they want us to think in feel about it. Being able to detect the three forms of rhetoric is good for critical thinking and being able to come up with your own thoughts, opinions, and articles.

My meme primarily uses two forms of rhetoric, that being logos and pathos. My meme is meant to lampoon people who exploit pathos by comparing their opponent’s argument to someone who committed terrible atrocities such as Hitler or Stalin without actually having anything to back that opinion up. I’m saying in this meme people are going more off emotion than actual facts and logic and pretending that’s something someone who is enlightened would do. This adds some irony to it. This is why my meme is using logos to say, “Hey, shouldn’t we use facts and logic to debate these kinds of issues instead of using a scapegoat and the slippery slope fallacy?”

I use the examples of Hitler and Stalin due to the fact that is what many political extremists tend to use to dehumanize their opponent. Right-wingers refer to those they disagree with as Stalin, while left-wingers refer to those they disagree with as Hitler. My point is to say that these people are two sides of the same coin, not because of their political views but because of how they lack actual debating skills.

Like many memes, there are many people who might find this offensive or funny, whether it’s because they are strongly politically aligned, or are someone who simply gets offended that I brought up one of these two men in something as trivial as a meme, people are not going to like it because of those reasons. Those who it might appeal to are centrists and people who like to have civil debates without needing to use low-hanging fruits that don’t really work well in an actual debate.

My meme uses logos and pathos to demonstrate the distaste others and I have for those who can’t debate using facts and logic and instead go for something as extreme as comparing men who have killed in the millions. Though the meme is not meant for everyone, for it may alienate those with strong political views, I do feel like its sense of irony and use of rhetoric gives it a charm.

The article The Climate Crisis Is a Human Issue by Bill McKibben is a persuasive article filled with lots of rhetoric. Containing ethos, pathos, and logos, McKibben is able to make a convincing argument of why we as humans need to fight climate change. Its intended audience seems to be the younger generation, in this case millennials and Gen Z, as it talks to them about their future. The use of rhetoric and appealing to a demographic that I happen to be a part of, made this an extremely interesting read.

As stated before, there is a lot of fantastic rhetoric used in this essay. For example, an excerpt from this article uses pathos and logos to show why our climate is important.

Climate isn’t an issue—it’s a lens, a way to understand the economy, politics and foreign affairs. If growth was how we understood the 20th century, survival is how we’ll bottom line the 21st.

Bill McKibben, Paragraph 3.

McKibben uses logos by saying how it’s a lens that gives us a way to understand the economy, politics and foreign affairs which can also be interpreted as pathos for those who care for those sorts of things.

That’s not the only use of rhetoric however, There is a lot of ethos used here. As an author who has written many books about the environment and the greenhouse effect, he is able to back up many of his claims, He also brings up a statement from James Hansen, a NASA scientist, about how the affects of climate change were going to happen.

Another thing I found interesting is how the young the intended audience is for this article. For example, McKibben tells us about how many people from elementary to college aged participate in these organizations or protests. This gives me a bit of faith on the future for our generation. As someone who falls under this demographic, I was extremely intrigued.

This article was a fantastic read, not only was it an amazing use of all three forms of rhetoric, but it also gave me more faith in humanity as we are making an effort to fight climate change. Hopefully this article will influence people the same way it influenced me in not only raising awareness but raising the assurance of our future. The use of rhetoric here is admirable and in my opinion, for a good cause.

1.) Anything by PETA will usually use pathos to try turn people vegan, in some cases they have used false cases of logos such as the time they claimed cow’s milk causes autism though sometimes true statistics about how many animals are killed each year. They primarily use pathos though by showing pictures of abused animals in order to get their point across. They are very niche but to that niche audience they are extremely effective though for everyone else they tend to be extremely ineffective.   Provide Specific Examples of When Each Appeal Would Work Best

2.) It would be most effective to use pathos at a charity event, ethos at an intellectual event or a sales pitch and logos during a debate.

In paragraph three, we are taught about pathos, or rhetoric through emotional appeal. In this paragraph, Carroll then uses a fantastic example of when someone or some group might use pathos,

The rhetoric in this group uses people’s stories of their struggles to obtain affordable health care. These stories, which are often heart-wrenching, use emotion to persuade you—also called pathos.

Carroll, pg. 47

This excerpt is a great example of how pathos might be used.

In paragraph four, the author tells us about how important it is to be able to recognize rhetoric. She backs up this claim by actually using pathos and saying without the ability to detect it, we become mindless drones,

If we refuse to stop and think about how and why it persuades us, we can become mindless consumers who buy into arguments about what makes us value ourselves and what makes us happy

Carroll, pg. 47

This quote ironically uses pathos to show us that falling for this kind of rhetoric can make one a follower to whatever they are told, which can strip away one’s individuality.

In the essay, Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis by Laura Bolin Carroll, we are taught all about the importance and versatile uses of rhetoric and how we can analyze it. Carroll uses lots of ethos and logos to show us how rhetoric is used to persuade us into feeling certain ways and doing certain things. I found the article very informative as is not only refreshed me on basic forms of rhetoric such as logos, pathos, and ethos, but it taught me what it really is and how people may use it to influence others. 

Carroll starts off her essay by writing using pathos to show how we might judge people. She cleverly shows this by putting us in an imaginary, yet realistic scenario where we look at a teacher and make observations about them by simple things such as way they dress and how we as people might even form opinions about someone from the bag they’re carrying, giving the essay the aptly named title of “Backpacks vs Briefcases.” She then transitions to explaining how we as people almost have kneejerk reactions to how we judge a book by its cover through the mental database we have created over the years. Carroll then tells us about how especially in the era we live in today, the media uses rhetoric all the time for various purposes.

Carroll tells us, the reader, everything we need to know about writing rhetoric. For example, she tells us the three steps to understanding a rhetorical moment, the rhetorical triangle, and the classic logos, ethos, and pathos arguments. The three steps of understanding a rhetorical moment include exigence, audience, and constraints. These three things are used to get a grasp on basic rhetoric. The rhetorical triangle is a simple diagram of the three components that make rhetoric work, that being writer, reader, and purpose. 

With all of these, we as the readers learn to comprehend rhetoric as a whole and gain a deep understanding of not only what is, but what it’s used for. Throughout the paper, Carroll guides the reader into grasping what rhetoric is, even cleverly using it in parts of her essay. Because of this paper, I now not only know how to detect rhetoric but how to use it myself. I thoroughly enjoyed this paper and definitely see why it’s used so commonly.

In the National Geographic encyclopedia aptly titled Geography, we learn about the past, present, and different types of geography. I learned a lot about its intriguing history along with the different ways geography can be interpreted depending on how you want to look at it. Geography has always been an interest of mine so this entry was a nice, informative read for me.

The history of geography was actually one of my favorite parts of this article, as we get to learn about the different civilizations that helped make it what it is today. Like a lot of different things we study to this very day, Geography has it’s rooted in ancient Greece, with “Geo” meaning earth and “graphy” meaning writing so pretty much they’re mapping the earth to understand it better. Though it wasn’t only Europe that was interested in Geography. During the middle ages as Europe was stagnating on making any sort of scientific progress, the middle east and China were also making groundbreaking advances with inventions such as the compass. Later on as this spread, many European nations traded with China which created the Age of Exploration. Because of this, many European nations were able to discover new lands, and for better or for worse, colonize them. The rich history of geography is an interesting tale and the world would be an extremely different place without these advances and discoveries.

Another interesting part of all this is modern geography. Modern Geography doesn’t just look at the land but looks at the people, cultures, and politics surrounding each landmass. They look at why certain places are the way they are, for example, the mass migration to the suburbs in America post World War II. It has been used to keep track of the spread of diseases in order to help contain them. The amount of uses for geography to this very day is staggering.

Geography can be quite broad though. There are many subcategories. For example, physical geography only looks at physical features such as terrain and water level. On the other hand, something such as political geography which looks at the borders of each country and how their atmosphere would affect the people living there.

Geography is an extremely interesting subject with a very rich past, present, and soon to be future. From it’s early days in Greece to helping with disease control in the modern age, Geography will always remain relevant. To be able to look at things culturally or physically makes the subject very versatile. This entry was a good read and taught me a lot about geography’s importance on humankind as a whole.

The article Challenging Adversity by Kitty Calhoun is a truly inspirational post about handicapped women overcoming not only rocks, icy climates, and mountains, but the fear, anxiety and stigmas of having a disability. The author talks about how she knows she can do anything when she lead an amputee with ice climbing in Ouray, Colorado Through an organization called Paradox Sports. Paradox Sports, for those who are unaware, is an organization specialized in helping people with disabilities go climbing. Through this organization, Calhoun has gathered seven amazing tales of overcoming adversity.

There are many amazing stories from the women who were mentioned in this article. For example, Tatiana, a woman born with cerebral palsy was able to go ice climbing in order to train for the Paraclimbing Nationals. Another heartwarming thing Tatiana brought up is the overall kindness, support, and friendliness she has witnessed in the climbing community. A tale that really struck me was about Bee. Bee unfourtently lost her legs in a bouldering accident, but due to her love of the outdoors and climbing she works with Paradox Sports and continues to climb to this very day. Esha’s story was also very interesting due to the fact that she’s blind. It also was intriguing to hear that climbing was actually a part of her therapy growing up. Kim also was extremly inspirational because for 32 years she used to be ashamed of her disability and refused to wear her prosthetic fingers until she got into ice climbing, which changed her outlook and self image in a more positive direction.

This article was a nice feel good tale. This shows that even with a physical handicap, there is so much one can do if they really put their mind to it.

In What is “Academic” Writing by L. Lennie Irvin, we learn how to write, format, and proofread a proper academic paper. Through demystification of what makes a good and bad essay, we learn that writing an essay isn’t as daunting as we might have initially thought.

The paper starts off with getting rid of some of the superstitions common among college freshman. In this part of the text, Irvin states their mission and the point of this piece of writing:

“This chapter is designed to introduce you to what academic writing is like, and hopefully ease your transition as you face these daunting writing challenges, (Irvine, pg. 3)”.

What Is “Academic” Writing?
by L. Lennie Irvin

This quote shows that the paper will ease you into to becoming a much better writer and that the myths you heard about writing college essays are soon to be debunked.

A lot of the myths included actually quite shocked me, in a good way. For example, I was always taught to avoid using the word “I” along with the fact that not all good writers start writing once they have everything figured out. Another interesting one was that it’s okay to have a five-paragraph essay depending on the situation. These little tidbits were extremely relieving to know.

Irvin’s writing has helped me a lot and I plan on applying a lot of what I learned to future papers. Getting rid of all the rumors I have heard has helped ease me into becoming a better writer who can properly read, analyze, and then write an academic piece.