Texting and Driving
Summary:
A teenage girl is texting in the car with her friends. While looking at her phone she drifts over into the other lane and time is frozen. She steps out of the car and begins speaking with the woman in the other car. The woman tells her to look up from her phone because the girl is in her lane is going to crash into the car holding her children. The girl says she cannot look up in time to prevent the crash and apologizes. The girl and the woman get back into their vehicles and crash head-to-head.
Observation:
I feel like the woman and girl got to freeze in time before the crash to signify that there is no opportunity to freeze time and react to a crash, therefore you must prevent the accident before it happens by not looking at your phone.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Pathos: The woman in the car the girl is about to crash into displays ethos by telling the girl that her babies are in the car that the girl is about to crash into.
Argument:
People should not text and drive because if you do you will crash into someone and kill them along with anyone in the car.
Evaluation:
Through its use of pathos, this video is effective at convincing people not to text and drive. It uses the warrant that if you text and drive you will kill one person or more as well as yourself to sort of scare people into not taking the risk of texting and driving.
Don’t Text and Drive
Summary: A teenage girl with her friend is playing a game with her friend in the car. She grabs her phone and when looks down and checks it, she does not see a stop sign in front of her and therefore does not stop. At that exact moment, a truck is going past the intersection and slams into her car, flipping it several times before it lands face down.
Observation:
During the video, when the girls in the car are hit by the truck, time slows down and then speeds up in a cycle while they are flipping. Every time the time slows down you can see the injuries on the girls and the terror on their faces. This draws attention to their suffering and makes you feel their pain.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Pathos: When the car slows down and shows the suffering of the girls, this makes you feel bad for them. You feel their pain and want to make sure this never happens to you or your children.
Argument:
This video has two arguments, one for parents and one for teenagers:
Parents: Tell your child to not text and drive or you will see them get hurt and suffer.
Teenagers: Do not text and drive, because if you do, you will crash and get seriously hurt or die.
Evaluation:
This video was effective at convincing its audience to not text and drive through its use of pathos. It shows teenagers the suffering that they could go through if they text and drive, and shows parents just what will happen to their kids if they do not talk to them about texting and driving and tell them how wrong and dangerous it is.
Dear Mom and Dad
Summary: The video starts off with the camera zooming in on different family pictures in a girl’s room. The camera falls upon a laptop and a girl begins speaking. She apologizes to her parents for not acknowledging their warnings and lessons about driving distracted. She says that she did not listen to them and that made her lose her life. She then tells her parents to do a favor for her and tell everyone to turn off their phone starting September 17th.
Observation:
The fact that the girl is writing a letter to her parents shows how the consequences of texting and driving can affect not only the people in the car, but the family and friends of those people.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Ethos: The narrator in this video has a strong ethos. Because she has already been through a distracted driving crash and died, she knows best the effects the crash can have on a person and their family. Because the girl has a strong ethos, her argument that people should turn off their phones while driving is supported.
Argument:
You should not harm yourself and your family by driving distracted, instead turn off your phone starting September 17th.
Evaluation:
This video was not very effective at convincing people to turn off their phones and not drive distracted. This video was crudely made, with bad effects and this detracted from the overall message by making the video almost humorous. The message the girl gave was just the same cliché message teenagers hear all the time and it did not do anything really unique to argue its point.
The Last Word
Summary:
A very elegantly dressed woman and her son are driving in the car. Eventually they stop and the mom gets out to fix the little boy’s suit and says that she is proud of him. The boy then walks to a coffin and picks it up along with other men; he is one of the pallbearers. The boy watches the coffin sink into the ground and looks as if he is about to cry. He wipes his tear and the mom comes over crying as well. The boy walks over to a chair and looks at broken phone. This reveals that the man in the coffin is the boy’s father, and that he died because of texting and driving. At the end of the video it starts raining on the mom and the child as words pop up telling people to think twice before texting and driving and to remember who is left to pick up the pieces after you die due to texting and driving
Observation:
This video, which was mostly aimed towards parents showed a lot of pathos because of the tension of being at a funeral and having many people cry. The suspense that the video created by not revealing immediately what was happening also added to the effect of the video on the audience. This video was very unique.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Pathos: Every aspect of this video showed pathos; from the funeral setting, to the music, to the crying. All of these elements were sad, and when you discover that the husband of the woman and the boy’s father is the victim, this makes you feel sympathy for them. Finally, the rain at the end of the video just tops off all of the elements of pathos and really makes the argument hit home.
Argument:
Parents should not text and drive, if they do, they will die and leave behind a widow and/or a child without one parent.
Evaluation:
This video was the most effective at convincing its audience to not text and drive. It had good actors, a unique video, and sad music that all amounted to an effective call to action; do not text and drive or there will be consequences for you and your family. This video demonstrated just how bad it could be for a person’s family when they deal with the results of a family member’s death due to texting and driving. I also believe that the fact that this was the longest video also made it more effective. Because it was the longest, it had the most time to display its rhetorical element and pile all parts of the element onto the audience.
Summary:
A teenage girl is texting in the car with her friends. While looking at her phone she drifts over into the other lane and time is frozen. She steps out of the car and begins speaking with the woman in the other car. The woman tells her to look up from her phone because the girl is in her lane is going to crash into the car holding her children. The girl says she cannot look up in time to prevent the crash and apologizes. The girl and the woman get back into their vehicles and crash head-to-head.
Observation:
I feel like the woman and girl got to freeze in time before the crash to signify that there is no opportunity to freeze time and react to a crash, therefore you must prevent the accident before it happens by not looking at your phone.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Pathos: The woman in the car the girl is about to crash into displays ethos by telling the girl that her babies are in the car that the girl is about to crash into.
Argument:
People should not text and drive because if you do you will crash into someone and kill them along with anyone in the car.
Evaluation:
Through its use of pathos, this video is effective at convincing people not to text and drive. It uses the warrant that if you text and drive you will kill one person or more as well as yourself to sort of scare people into not taking the risk of texting and driving.
Don’t Text and Drive
Summary: A teenage girl with her friend is playing a game with her friend in the car. She grabs her phone and when looks down and checks it, she does not see a stop sign in front of her and therefore does not stop. At that exact moment, a truck is going past the intersection and slams into her car, flipping it several times before it lands face down.
Observation:
During the video, when the girls in the car are hit by the truck, time slows down and then speeds up in a cycle while they are flipping. Every time the time slows down you can see the injuries on the girls and the terror on their faces. This draws attention to their suffering and makes you feel their pain.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Pathos: When the car slows down and shows the suffering of the girls, this makes you feel bad for them. You feel their pain and want to make sure this never happens to you or your children.
Argument:
This video has two arguments, one for parents and one for teenagers:
Parents: Tell your child to not text and drive or you will see them get hurt and suffer.
Teenagers: Do not text and drive, because if you do, you will crash and get seriously hurt or die.
Evaluation:
This video was effective at convincing its audience to not text and drive through its use of pathos. It shows teenagers the suffering that they could go through if they text and drive, and shows parents just what will happen to their kids if they do not talk to them about texting and driving and tell them how wrong and dangerous it is.
Dear Mom and Dad
Summary: The video starts off with the camera zooming in on different family pictures in a girl’s room. The camera falls upon a laptop and a girl begins speaking. She apologizes to her parents for not acknowledging their warnings and lessons about driving distracted. She says that she did not listen to them and that made her lose her life. She then tells her parents to do a favor for her and tell everyone to turn off their phone starting September 17th.
Observation:
The fact that the girl is writing a letter to her parents shows how the consequences of texting and driving can affect not only the people in the car, but the family and friends of those people.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Ethos: The narrator in this video has a strong ethos. Because she has already been through a distracted driving crash and died, she knows best the effects the crash can have on a person and their family. Because the girl has a strong ethos, her argument that people should turn off their phones while driving is supported.
Argument:
You should not harm yourself and your family by driving distracted, instead turn off your phone starting September 17th.
Evaluation:
This video was not very effective at convincing people to turn off their phones and not drive distracted. This video was crudely made, with bad effects and this detracted from the overall message by making the video almost humorous. The message the girl gave was just the same cliché message teenagers hear all the time and it did not do anything really unique to argue its point.
The Last Word
Summary:
A very elegantly dressed woman and her son are driving in the car. Eventually they stop and the mom gets out to fix the little boy’s suit and says that she is proud of him. The boy then walks to a coffin and picks it up along with other men; he is one of the pallbearers. The boy watches the coffin sink into the ground and looks as if he is about to cry. He wipes his tear and the mom comes over crying as well. The boy walks over to a chair and looks at broken phone. This reveals that the man in the coffin is the boy’s father, and that he died because of texting and driving. At the end of the video it starts raining on the mom and the child as words pop up telling people to think twice before texting and driving and to remember who is left to pick up the pieces after you die due to texting and driving
Observation:
This video, which was mostly aimed towards parents showed a lot of pathos because of the tension of being at a funeral and having many people cry. The suspense that the video created by not revealing immediately what was happening also added to the effect of the video on the audience. This video was very unique.
Rhetorical Appeals:
Pathos: Every aspect of this video showed pathos; from the funeral setting, to the music, to the crying. All of these elements were sad, and when you discover that the husband of the woman and the boy’s father is the victim, this makes you feel sympathy for them. Finally, the rain at the end of the video just tops off all of the elements of pathos and really makes the argument hit home.
Argument:
Parents should not text and drive, if they do, they will die and leave behind a widow and/or a child without one parent.
Evaluation:
This video was the most effective at convincing its audience to not text and drive. It had good actors, a unique video, and sad music that all amounted to an effective call to action; do not text and drive or there will be consequences for you and your family. This video demonstrated just how bad it could be for a person’s family when they deal with the results of a family member’s death due to texting and driving. I also believe that the fact that this was the longest video also made it more effective. Because it was the longest, it had the most time to display its rhetorical element and pile all parts of the element onto the audience.