Pham 1

Cathy Pham
4 December 2015
Professor McClure
Writing 39B
RIP Essay
After almost two weeks of research, preparation, and practice, our Rhetoric-In-Practice
Presentations took place on the Tuesday night of week nine. The presentations took place in a
larger classroom to accommodate the forty-person audience, which consisted of two writing
classes, 37 and 39B. Writing 37s curriculum was built around the rhetoric of fairytales, while
Writing 39B focused on the rhetoric of horror. This created a diversely knowledgeable audience
and demanded each group to present their topics in a manner that would be readily
understandable by both classes in order to connect and communicate with them on the six-minute
time constraint. Each member was undoubtedly well-learned in their field of study.
Walking into the room, the air was filled with nerves and excitement, and reasonably so;
due to the high-stakes nature of the presentations as a major part of the final grade. Aside from
the obvious effort that each student put into crafting the group presentation, these students
seemed proud of the work and preparation that they dedicated into their projects. Each group had
a unique and memorable way of presenting their topics to the audience from rap battles to
horror movies, PowerPoint formatted slides to YouTube video presentations. However, each
presentation was characterized by the same two exceptional qualities the apparent hard work
dedicated to creating a memorable, informative presentation, and the ability to maintain the
audiences attention, and thus, effectively communicate their subject matter to the audience.

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Additionally, due to the teamwork-oriented nature of the Rhetoric-In-Practice

Presentations, there was a noticeable camaraderie that united each group to support their own
members and other competing teams, as well as critique and compare the other topics and
methods of delivery. For example, my team exchanged our observations of the video-oriented
productions, which succeeded entertaining the audience while fulfilling the academic
requirements of the project.
One video in particular was the fairytale rap battle video produced by a group from the
fairytale genre class, in which they humorously identified the character flaws of the princes and
princesses in a series of well-scripted, playful retorts. They were able to successfully
communicate with the audience by utilizing the convention of rap battles as a bridge to the
audience of students attending a college in southern California. This enabled the group to engage
with the audience through the medium of modern music, and, thusly, successfully fulfill their
objective to expose the gender roles within the constructs of each fairytale character.
After witnessing a series of impressive presentations, many of the groups that still had yet
to present experienced growing concern our group was no different. Soon, however, the time
came for us to present our five-slide PowerPoint Presentation pertaining to the subject matter of
generational horror. We expected our conventional method of delivery to compromise its ability
to completely entertain and engage the audience in the way that the previous presentations had
done. Regardless of this setback, we delivered our presentation with a scholarly approach. Our
presentation was well-researched and informative. Each group member was responsible for
writing their own script off of the outline of topics to cover within the allotted time frame. We
coordinated our slides to align with an overarching aesthetic that would allow the audience
members to focus on us, rather than on the slides, since our speeches contained the bulk of our

Pham 3

subject matter. In order to add an interactive element to our presentation, we made small
handouts for the audience. By the time each member of our group delivered their respective
slide, our presentation was fluid and confidently delivered, thanks to the previous practice runs.
My portion of the presentation consisted of introducing the relevance of our presentation
to the present day. After our presentation established the way that horror reflects each
generations issues and fears, I delivered my portion of the speech, which was largely a call to
action for the audience. My intentions were to emphasize the role that our choices of action play
in shaping the future of the world, and, ultimately, the future of the art that will reflect that world.
Initially, I had trouble choosing between different issues to use as examples. However,
the recent current events that took place in Paris shifted my focus on terrorism as a highly
relatable issue. Due to the amount of news coverage that surrounded the tragedies of Paris across
various forms of media, and the amount of young adults who are active participants in these
forms of media, I was able to use that event as my final attempt to bridge the gap of
understanding.
In my speech, I emphasized two key paths that our generation could choose to follow that
would ultimately shape our future. The first path, and the easier one, would be to respond to
terrorism with fear to stereotype and side with narrow-minded irrationality and perpetuate
injustice and inequity.
I introduced the concept of the second path with a quote that I chose from Alice Walker,
award-winning author of The Color Purple, in order to align this path such social ideals as
justice and equality The most common way people give up their power is by thinking that
they dont have any. The slide that accompanies this quote was a simple text that contained the

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quote itself, in order to allow the audience to ponder over the significance of that quote. This
quote impacted me personally, because a major goal of mine in attending college was to realize
my unique capabilities to make the world a little bit better after I am gone. However, at times, I
feel lost and disempowered by the circumstances of my surroundings something that I realize
is common among our generation. I chose this quote due to its empowering qualities, something
that would remind each individual in the audience of their true power, and inspire them to choose
hope instead of apathy.
In terms of creating the RIP text of the group project, I contributed in several ways. The
first way was researching the topics of speech, which was a group effort that was spread
relatively equally between all of the members. I was responsible for outlining the most important
parts everything that we researched the definition of generational horror, the examples in film
that pertained to generational horror and consolidating these topics so that it would cover the
span of six minutes. I separated the topics of speech so that each member would have solid
talking points that would fit within the time frame of six minutes. To help each member with the
direction of their speech so that one would flow to the next, I wrote outlines of each group
members speech. Giselles speech consisted of introducing and defining generational horror, and
Jakes speech regarded examples of older works of horror, and references to the way that these
works reflected the fears and issues respective to that generation. We researched the way that
works such as The Exorcist (1973) reflected the fears of that generation. In Michaels speech, I
outlined similar speaking points that pertained to our current generations works of horror, using
modern horror film Quarantine (2008) as an example. While aligning with the overall arch of the
subject matter, these outlines also allowed each member the creative freedom to incorporate their
own styles into their speech. We incorporated the tips of Jeff Wuorios Presenting with

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Powerpoint: 10 Dos and Donts by limiting the amount of slides to five, and by incorporating
consistent font size and style.
The most enjoyable part of this presentation and RIP project was the ability to work with
my group members. We collaborated with equal effort in such ways that promoted the
incorporation of each members strengths. Giselle and I were strong with organization and
coordination from meeting times to the presentation itself. While Jake was a strong public
speaker, and Michaels research skills enabled us to deliver the correct content in our RIP text.
Overall, this group project was a unique and informative learning experience that will remain as
one of the highlights of Writing 39B.

Works Cited

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Adams, Becket. "Not Just for Thrills: The Real Meaning of 'The Exorcist'" The Blaze. N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
"Facing Our Fears: How Horror Helps." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.
Wuorio, Jeff. "Presenting with PowerPoint: 10 Do's and Don'ts." Presenting with PowerPoint:
10 Dos and Don'ts (n.d.): n. pag. Web.