Topic Proposal

Many argue whether or not 21 is a fair legal drinking age. Many say it is. Many say it is not. Some might say that 21 is the best possible legal drinking age due to the growth of cells in ones body and that they are almost fully developed. Others might argue that the legal drinking age should be lowered because you can use and do much bigger things once turning 18. At the age of 21, most of the body has been fully developed relating to cells and stem growth, not necessarily knowledge in the brain. I often think to myself that if 18 is the legal age to smoke and join the military, then why shouldn’t one be able to consume alcohol? I intend to focus on the aspect of lowering the legal drinking age to 18 and how I think that the University of Iowa should put this into place. I think that I could go around campus and ask students what their opinion is on the drinking age, whether it should be lowered or not, and why? By doing so, it would reveal what the public thinks about this topic and can prove that the legal age should in fact be lowered. This topic interests me because I have been hearing about the controversy of it for quite some time now but have never actually done any research or evaluation of it to see what should actually be done. I believe that in the majority of the population are to agree with me, then the legal drinking age should in fact be lowered. If you can make the decision to shoot someone in the military at age 18, then why can you not make the decision to have an alcoholic drink? I also have been very interested in this topic because I know that the use of fake I.D.’s is very big in college, but, if the drinking age were to be lowered to 18, the use of fake I.D.’s would drop tremendously. So, by lowering the age, not only are younger kids allowed to drink, but also the crime rate of using a fake I.D., which is a felony, would be lowered. By interviewing random people in the area, who are 21 or younger, it would serve as a great start to show how the general public agree in the same way as I. Also, using past articles, which there are several, on peoples opinion all over the world on their arguments towards this topic, I would be able to develop a great sense of ethos to my audience. Lastly, using data on the number of felonies from fake I.D.’s would help provide a logical reason as to how lowering the legal drinking age would serve to the entire population as whole.

IMRaD Rough Draft

Broke College Students

Abstract

What causes college students to lose their money tremendously fast has always been questioned by many people. A survey was given through a blog to current college students enrolled in some university. The survey contained 6 multiple choice questions. The results indicated that more than half of the sample has spent over $500 since being in college this year and that only 25% of the sample currently had a job leaving 75% without a job of which that 75% without a job, 75% of them do not have to pay for their own college tuition. The survey also concluded that 20% of the participants spend the majority of their money on illegal items. Based on these findings, it is clear that college students lose the majority of their money quickly due to unnecessary purchases.

Introduction

Money is needed for everything. Whether it be to buy books, food, or to even go do something fun such as a concert, there’s no way around the money aspect of it. For some time now, it has been known that college students tend to be “broke”. It is their first time all alone in the real world without having their parents there to guide them through it. The answer has never exactly been clear as to why college students have no money, but, if there was an answer to this, college students could benefit and try to resolve this common college life problem.

This topic has gone untouched for some time now. There are several articles out there from years ago of “Tips to avoid being a broke college student,” such as to “ditch the credit card” (Morgan, 2011). Another big tip in previous studies were to “establish a budget” so that “earn more than you spend” (Jefferson, 2010). but never what causes one to be a broke college student. No one truly knows why college kids are destitute, but there must be an answer.

In this study, participants were asked how much they have spent as well as if they have a job, and if they have to pay for their tuition or not. Another essential question was what exactly they are spending the majority of their cash on, to help understand where this problem is coming from. By doing so, it can be determined how exactly college students lose a vast amount of money because if they are working or are not paying for their college, then there is no reason why money should be an issue unless it is spent on unlawful items.

Methods

Participants:

21 male and females participated in this study. All participants were current college students between the ages of 18-20.

Data Sources:

A survey was created that contained 6 multiple choice questions regarding what student’s money is spent on and how much they spend. The results were anonymous and each participant was not able to change their answers.

Procedures:

The created survey was posted to a blog as well as by text message for participants to complete. Each participant could only take the survey once.

Data Analysis:

The data was compiled and put into bar graphs, pie charts, as well as tables. These tables and charts were then used to be analyzed by the researcher and presented to their audience to describe the data that was collected.

Results:

Figure 1:                                                                    Figure 2:

Figure 1 displays the amount of money college students have spent since being at college this year. According to the data, 5% spent less than $100, 38% spent between $100 and $400, and an astonishing 57% spent over $500. This data set in figure one suggests the theory that college students are broke, and the simplistic reason behind that is that they spend too much money. It’s no brain buster to determine that the reason college students are beggard is because they spend way too much money. Spending $500 since being at college, which has been 11 weeks, means that one averages a startling $46 a week. That is not counting the people who have spent $600 or $700+, which would be $54 or $63 a week on average.

Figure 2:

Knowing that is in fact true that college students spend way too much money throughout college, as well as weekly, exactly the money is spent on can be examined. Referring to figure 2, a question was asked as to what exactly participants spend the most of their money on, and the results are clear. Eight participants stated they spend the vast majority of their money on food, two on clothes, two on school supplies, and nine under other. If a participant choose other, he or she then was asked to please specify, shockingly, six out of the nine wrote alcohol, and the other two wrote bars and illegal substances. Knowing that 57% of current college students have spent over $500 since this school year has began, it would’ve been hoped that it was on resourceful and necessary products, but, this was not the case. Figure 2 indicates that the majority of college students are “blowing” their money away on unnecessary and in fact illegal products. It is evident that, college students are spending way too much money in a short period of time, but nonetheless, that money is going to alcohol and drugs.

Discussion:

Through this survey, what causes college students to be destitute was examined. This study was an attempt to help people understand how college students spend all of their money so quickly, to help prevent future students from doing the same. The data presented that 57% of college students have spent over $500 since the start of the school year and that the most popular item that the majority of their money was spent on was drugs and alcohol.

A possible flaw with this survey was that when taking the survey, some students were next to their friends, or were worried that the researcher would be able to see who said what, so they might have been afraid of answering honestly. Due to this, the number of students that selected other, which was identified as drugs and alcohol, may have been higher.

Future research of this study may influence college students to be more reluctant on what they spend their money on as well as how much money they have spent. It is now known that college students spend abundant amount of money, in fact, too much money, on illegal activities, so, if college students were to see this, they may decide to change their habits outside of the classroom. A potential future study that could be done is to monitor a sample group of students and track exactly what their money is spent on as well as how much is spent, to get more accurate numbers as to what college students money is going to.

References

Jefferson, E. (2010). Top 5 Ways To Avoid Going Broke In College. Retrieved November 4, 2015.

Morgan, J. (2011, August 30). 6 Ways To Save Money On Campus. Retrieved November 4, 2015.

IMRaD Introduction and Methods

Introduction:

A “broke college student” is no unfamiliar term to any current or past college students. It is the first time that a young adult is completely on their own without having their parents there to give them money for whatever it be. From personal connections in the past, I know that by second semester of each year kids are struggling to have a sufficient amount of money. This brings up the question, what exactly causes college kids to become so broke so quickly? This question may be difficult to answer due to all the possible things that college students spend their money on. By creating a survey fixed around college students, an explanation as to what exactly causes college students to lose money so quickly will be better understood.

Methods:

Participants: 22 males and females participated in this survey. All participants are current college students enrolled in a university.

Data Sources: A survey was made in which it included 6 multiple choice questions.

Procedure: Participants were sent a link through a blog or through a text message. Each participant then took the survey, and could only take it once without being able to go back and change answers.

Data Analysis: The researcher analyzed the responses, and created different charts and graphs to present the information to their audience.

Research Questions and Readings

  1. Do you think working out on a regular basis effects your grades as a college student?
  2. Do you think the amount of sleep you get effects your grades significantly?

For both of these questions I would create a survey/poll to send out to kids in our class as well as students all over the university. Sending it to other universities would be beneficial to a more accurate poll, but in this case might not be possible in such a short period of time. The participants in this study would be all college students, specifically at the University. For the first question, I would ask how long students work out for as well as how many times a week they workout? I would also ask them if they workout, how their grades are, and if they don’t workout, how their grades are. This way I can compare how good peoples grades are who workout to how good peoples grades are that don’t workout. By doing so, I will be able to determine a hypothesis as to whether working out or not helps or hurts ones grades. For the second question, I would first ask how many hours of sleep each participant gets a night on average? The next question I would ask is, how are each participants grades. By comparing ones answers between how many hours of sleep they get on average and how well their grades are, I could determine a plausible hypothesis as to whether or not the amount of sleep one gets effects their grades.

Both Freakonomics and “Economists Sells Bagels” have many similarities, but they also have some differences. Some similarities between the two are that they both analyze how people react to the deliveries that this person makes. They also both look at specific data and analyze different trends. Their conclusions are similar but are come about in different ways. This brings up how the two articles are different. In “Economists Sells Bagels” when analyzing the data, he makes it a tad confusing because he gives all of the data and what it means instead of just providing a explanation/summary of what the results were. Also, in “Economists Sell Bagels” the style of this writing seemed to me as very proper and professional while the other was more broad about the information. The writer also used lots of tables which made it seem more of a professional tone than “Freakonomics” used.

“Big Stuff, Small Stuff”

It was clear that after reading “Big Stuff, Small Stuff” that there quite a drastic difference between  the style of IMRaD report and an argument-based research paper. I personally was not familiar with an IMRaD style of writing until reading this article and learning about it for the first time. One of the big differences I saw was that before the essay there was text which contained what the study how was as well as how the results were effecting. I then learned that this was called an abstract and its purpose is to give a brief overview of what the information will be about as well as the study that was preformed. Another one of the major differences I noticed were the multiple different heading that there were. Though these headings weren’t very complex and long, since there were so many of them it helped so that you would know what the following section was going to be about instead of having to figure it out. It served almost as a topic sentence for a body paragraph. There were also several subheading for the larger headings in the paper. In the style of writing that we are used to there are only a few headings throughout the essay with no sub-headings whatsoever. Normally, for the style that we are used to we did not write an abstract since we had never written a report on an experiment that we preformed. Lastly, there are many data tables to go along with the text and explanations of the results. Though I have seen this before in many business writings, I have never personally written in such a form. So, writing like this will be very new to me. All in all, the IMRaD style of writing is a very different style from the style that we are currently used to using.

Major Speech Assignment #1 Outline

Stephen Levine

Business Rhetoric

Hem Paudel

10/6/15

Speech Outline

Introduction

  • Have you ever wondered what you can get with the last $3 in your bank account? A bag of skittles, some pencils, or chips are all an option, but what if you knew you could get mouth-watering sushi for that price? Takanami, a local sushi restaurant, offers high quality food for low affordable prices.
  • Takanami effectively uses logos and pathos to address their intended target market, broke college students, but lacks in efficiently establishing credibility towards their restaurant.
  • This appetizing sushi restaurant understands that money is typically a problem for the average college student. They know that students do not want to spend lots of money on food, so, to use this problem as a way to draw in customers, they planned a marketing scheme around this problem. Takanami advertised for happy hour sushi, starting at $3, in which they hoped would appeal to local college students. While this restaurant understands its target market well, it ineffectively displays ethos to show customers why they should buy the cheap sushi from their restaurant instead of going somewhere else for a cheap alternative.

Body of the Presentation

  • The advertisements used by the local sushi restaurant are an effective way to market to local college students but could also use some improvement.
  • Takanami uses logos to market specifically to their intended audience to insure customers that they are making the most logical decision.
    • “$3 Happy hour specials” (Takanami 1)
      • This quote displays how Takanami tries to show their audience that they are the most logical choice by providing logical ideas and facts.
      • By saying that they have $3 rolls, a student might think that instead of going to let’s say Summit or Airliner, both local bars, why not go to Takanami where it’s cheaper and higher quality food.
    • “Get $5 off!” (Takanami)
      • This line from an advertisement of a coupon for when ordering on order up gives potential customers a reason to order food from Takanami rather than from somewhere else.
      • $5 off for a college kid a lot of money considering some only afford to spend $3 on dinner.
  • While Takanami does do a fantastic job using logos to sway customers into their restaurant, they also use pathos to do the same.
    • By providing the customers with deals for their food in their advertisements, it connects the restaurant with the target market emotionally. It shows that Takanami understands that students don’t have tons of money to spend on food and to help them with that, they are offering them quality food at a low price.
    • “What pulled me in the restaurant at first was the low prices that they had for happy hour…I don’t want to spend a lot of money and even though I didn’t, I still received excellent food” (Trip Advisor 2)
      • This quote from Tripadvisor, a review company on restaurants and hotels, helps explain how Takanami has great food, yet understands that college kids simply cannot afford normal sushi prices, so to draw in more customers, they offer cheap prices so that the target market can afford to eat quality food.
      • In this quote, the person writes how “the low prices” is what brought them into the restaurant at first because “[he] didn’t want to spend a lot of money.” This goes to show how they effectively connect with their target markets emotions by understanding that they don’t have a lot of money, and providing a solution to their problem.
  • Though the majority of this local sushi restaurant’s advertisements have seem to be effective, their ads lack in establishing ethos for their company.
    • It is important for companies to establish credibility so that when a customer is deciding between one or the other, they choose you instead of another company.
    • In these two advertisements, there is no reason shown of why these potential customers should choose getting their cheap food rather than someone else’s cheap food.
      • “Sushi bar/tiffin grill” (Takanami 1)
        • This text is from the advertisement promoting happy hour sushi in which it is the only source of ethos. It does not have any rankings of sushi restaurants or awards they have won or quotes from happy customer reviews, all they have is that they are a sushi bar.
        • Takanami is not giving potential customers any reason of choosing them or showing how they are a reliable sushi restaurant except for saying that they have sushi, which can be gathered from the picture in the advertisement.
      • It can be seen that this restaurant needs to incorporate a better use of ethos into their advertisements to help draw in new customers and beat out customers other options.

Conclusion

  • Takanami offers affordable deals for quality sushi at a low price for local college students while understanding college money issues. They use logos to provide logic facts and deals to their target market to draw in customers in search of cheap sushi, without the cheap taste. They also use pathos in doing the same, hoping that by showing they understand that money may be an issue, new customers will come to their restaurant. Though effective in both logos and pathos, Takanami is ineffective in establishing credibility to give potential customers a reason to choose them over another option.
  • Takanami’s advertisements offer a great deal of logos and pathos to market their affordable sushi prices to local college students, back lack in establishing ethos to give their customers a reason to choose them.
  • Takanami truly is a great sushi restaurant with low affordable prices which is proven by their 3rd rank in “Top sushi bars in Iowa City” and uses effective advertisements focused toward their target audience to draw in new customers.

Speech Proposal

I choose the restaurant Takanami which is a local sushi restaurant in Iowa City. They serve all different types of sushi as well as other traditional dishes. I choose this company because I go there a lot and am very familiar with it. Also, I choose this company because I was wondering how they market themselves to local college students and how they draw in new customers. I know that money is a big issue for many college kids so I was curious as to how they incorporated that into their marketing schemes.

I am planning to analyze a print advertisement that was displayed around campus as well as posted on the company’s Facebook page. This ad is promoting happy hour sushi starting at $3 every Tuesday and Thursday. The reason I choose this ad was because I thought that it displayed how Takanami markets to college students, and how they take into account money. If advertising to a very wealthy community they most likely would not advertise happy hour because they know that the people could afford normal prices, but, since they are marketing to college students they took price into consideration. The outside sources I am using is a review of the restaurant from Trip Advisor, a reputable restaurant review source, and an article from Daily Iowan, the Iowa City newspaper, talking about places to eat sushi in Iowa city. I choose both of these because they are both from reputable sources, and they also talk about how they have happy hour. These outside sources also talk about how Takanami is a fan favorite here in Iowa City.

Takanami’s advertisement effectively uses logos and pathos to address the intended target market, but, lacks in establishing credibility. In the advertisement, it uses logos by saying “Specials starting at $3” which takes into the account of the intended target market, students at the University of Iowa, because they know that students do not want to, nor, are able to spend the high prices that normal sushi costs. It also uses pathos in the background by having the girl holding the sushi smiling, showing that if you eat at their restaurant, then you will be happy. The ethos lacks in this ad because there is no accomplishment or achievements that they have won, or a few words from customer reviews on their restaurant. The only source of ethos that they have is that on the ad it says that they are a sushi bar, which explains for why they are promoting sushi. It proves that they are not some hamburger restaurant trying to make sushi, but it does not give credibility to the fact that they have good sushi, or are the best sushi place to eat.

The visual aids I will use will be pictures of the different types of sushi that the restaurant offers to show that they truly do make you happy, like the ad suggests, because the sushi looks really good. Also I will use a take home menu from Takanami to show how they price their food, based on their target audience. The menu will also show what they keep consistent throughout their different marketing schemes.

Advertisement Analysis

In this advertisement for Takanami, a sushi restaurant in Iowa City, many rhetorical appeals are used. First off, the intended audience for this ad is for people who are looking for an inexpensive sushi dinner, due to the fact that the ad is promoting happy hour specials. The author is someone who is working for the restaurant who is trying to pull customers into the restaurant for happy hour, to potentially get new customers coming back.

First off, there is not too much ethos used in this ad, such as there is not any title they have one like “Top 10 ranked sushi in Iowa City” or anything in that nature, but, what they do have is there website as well their company name, Takanami. This ad also includes that they are a sushi bar, which explains why they have pictures of sushi on the ad. Next, the logos in this ad is seen by the “Happy hour specials starting at $3”. This part of the ad is what is drawing customers into the restaurant, hoping that they will like it enough to come back as a regular customer. This ad connects with the intended audience, people looking for a cheap place to eat sushi, emotionally which is also known as pathos. The ad contains a girl holding a plate of sushi, and all u can see on the girls face is her smile. Takanami purposely had just the smile of the girl holding the sushi showing, to show the customers that when you are eating their sushi and at their restaurant you are happy and satisfied. Overall, this ad does a nice job of connecting with their intended audience and achieving their purpose, but it does lack some ethos, or credibility.

Conferences

First off, I found the conference to be very useful because it pointed out the main points of my paper that I needed to fix. Going into the conference, I did not know what exactly needed to be changed to make it the best essay I could. Also, without the conference, some of the comments that were made I would’ve not understood so the conference allowed for me to clarify what exactly you meant.

The time was an issue with the conference because at the end I feel that we were scrambling to wrap up ideas and was cut short of all thoughts. When leaving the conference, I still had some questions that I came prepared to ask that I did not get a chance to due to the short amount of time. While you don’t have all the time in the world, I believe that by simply adding five minutes could benefit the conference a lot and allow for students to ask any questions that they came prepared to ask.

Also, I believe that group conferences would be ineffective. Every paper has its own problems and its own writer. So, to address these problems in a group setting would not help anyone in the group except for that one person whose paper had a certain problem. The individual conferences are definitely the way to go to have the most productive use of your time as well as the students.

All in all I believe that these conferences were beneficial to my paper and targeted main points that I needed to address in my paper to have a the best paper I could write. It was a little short on time, but with an additional five minutes, a lot more could be accomplished.