analysis of platforms for presentation

1. Rhetorical analysis: original and remediated
presentations on minimum wage

2. Audience and Purpose
The audience for both the Prezi and the remediation are people that have limited information about
the issue. Many people believe that this issue doesn’t affect them; perhaps, their jobs are more
secure and better paid. Maybe they assume that minimum workers are kids in high school or that
minimum wage workers have little or no education. This may have been true years ago, however,
changes in the economy, traditional family structure and demographics have shifted minimum wage
workers into an older, more educated labor force that are, as likely as not, head of households. In
addition, the audience needs to be informed that this issue does affect them directly because we are
financially subsidizing employers that through the perpetuation of unfair labor practices increase their
already substantial profit margins.
My purpose is:
● to debunk assumptions about minimum wage workers
● to show that taxpayers are subsidizing some of the most profitable companies
● that the largest group of minimum wage workers is women over 25 years old and
● to show that half of hourly workers that are paid under $11 an hour have post-secondary
education.

3. Affordances
Prezi
● easy to use / intuitive
● easy to edit content and layout
● good animation features which
allow for a more dramatic
presentation reveals
● fluidity: nice sense of movement
adds to more dramatic
presentation
● comprehensive / responsive
help forum
Brochure (Google Doc)
● easy to post to google docs
● able to make the document
public and elicit comments
● producer is able to control
distribution
● producer can enable feature
which allows the public to
download, edit and redistribute
document
● comprehensive help forum

4. Limitations
Prezi
● difficult to manipulate text: font size, color
and style married to templates
● platform had some glitchy behavior: after
I’d made a frame really small I could no
longer edit it or manipulate it
● not very visible: no means of sharing the
presentation widely
● can cause motion sickness: the
movement can detract from the content
Brochure (Google Doc)
● couldn’t edit the document after it was
posted: the document was initially
created in MS Word after posting the
document was posted editing required
that the document be downloaded, edited
and reposted
● Pdf download was the same as the
original but can’t be edited
● MS download was “imperfect”--needed
reformatting, color saturation, font size
and style were compromised

5. Audience Stance
Prezi
● limited agency for the audience: the Prezi
“appears” interactive because it allows for
lot of web links and videos. However, but
the producer controls the direction/flow of
the discourse by predetermining: the
order in which information is revealed;
and by choosing links that support the
producer’s argument
● the audience can only move forward or
backward one slide at a time in the order
determined by the producer
Brochure (Google Doc)
● provides greater agency for the audience
by allowing the audience to choose how
they read the information. The six panels
are visible all at once--are somewhat self-contained--
and can be viewed in any
order
● The document can also be downloaded,
edited, commented on and shared by the
audience
● more of an RW experience

6. Transparency
Prezi
● medium/high transparency: the Prezi is
text heavy and incorporates other familiar
element such as graphs, pie charts, still
images, web and video links
● the platform may be a bit unfamiliar to
novice users, but the producer makes the
platform transparent by determining order
and range of motion to make navigation
easy
Brochure (Google Doc)
● very high transparency: people are very
familiar with this format. The brochure
uses conventions of graphic design
chosen to “sell” the producer’s message.
● The six panel view is also highly
transparent because it retains the
appearance of a brochure even though all
the information can be seen
simultaneously.
● There are no “novice” users of this
format.
● interactive features are intuitive and
symbology is recognizable and supported
by pop-up text

7. Hybridity
Prezi
● use of reveals prioritizes information for
the consumer
● use of interactive elements allows text to
be supported by outside/supplemental
sources
● platforms ability to interact with the web
allows for a tremendous amount of
information to be accessed during a
single presentation
● minimal color/simple text underscores the
“no frills” theme
● hyperlinks allow consumers to travel
beyond the Prezi
Brochure (Google Doc)
● concordance between text and images:
the placards held by people in the
pictures bolster the purpose of the
brochure
● unconventional/smudgy borders lend a
feeling of movement/urgency
● information-rich visual elements: pie
charts
● draws on cultural knowledge: “list” of
worst stores uses store logos, hopefully
adding a negative association to other
knowledge that consumers may already
have

8. I tried to present a logical argument for why increasing minimum wage would benefit everyone.
People respond better and are more proactive when they have a dog in the fight.
● used statistical information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to illustrate that taxpayers are
● used resources from McDonald’s employee website to illustrate that these workers can’t
● tried to connect with a diverse population by showing diversity in the ranks of minimum wage
Logos
subsidizing people that are often working more than one job or over full-time hours.
possibly make ends meet on this salary without social service programs--which means
financial burden to taxpayers
workers with the hope that people would extrapolate the concordance into “this could be
me...or my children”
Rhetorical Appeals: Logos

9. Rhetorical Appeals: Kairos
Growing income inequality has been referenced frequently since the market
tanked in 2008. The loss of ground by the middle class, mushrooming student
loan obligations and skyrocketing healthcare costs are prompting more and
more discussions about the difficulties working people face. In addition, there’s
growing distrust about corporate entities that are gaming the system by not
paying their fair share, avoiding tax burdens and funneling their workers into
social programs. Walmart offers their workers a tutorial about how to enroll in
public services. Walgreens was recently dissuaded from corporate inversion
by a petition, circulated on the web, which promised a boycott of their retail
locations if they moved their headquarters out of the country. In addition, many
states are starting to raise their minimum wages independently, however, a
federal mandate would make a big difference to impoverished red states.

10. Multimodal Composition
In an increasingly technological world, students need to
be experienced and skilled not only in reading (consuming)
texts employing multiple modalities, but also in composing
in multiple modalities, if they hope to communicate
successfully within the digital communication networks that
characterize workplaces, schools, civic life, and span
traditional, cultural, national and geopolitical borders. (Takayoshi
and Selfe 3)

11. The brochure posted on Google Docs established a template
that was available to be manipulated or customized for different
audiences. For example, my brochure targeted women because
the majority of minimum wage workers are women, women have
higher levels of voter participation and are more likely to do the
purchasing for their families. Day to day, they are more likely to
be confronted or affected by this issue. The document could,
however, be used as a starting point for a composition that
targets a different group. The panels can be partially or
completely reworked by a third party. The platform allows
consumers to edit the piece, share it within their own social
circles or print it out for distribution.

12. The document can be opened and edited without
difficulty and there is a lossless pdf download option
available. The imperfections associated with the MS
Word download are a good way to promote practice and
experimentation with the conventions of graphic design.
Students can practice combining images,color, text and
font within a set of parameters established by the
template. This experimentation would allow them to
explore the ways that visual design differs from and
complements text only documents.

13. Digital postings of the document could contain
hyperlinks, audio and visual elements provided they are
inserted during the editing process. Again the template
allows for experimentation within a set of parameter, in
this case promoting opportunities to increase the
hybridity of the document.

14. Modular collection
The brochure posted to the Google platform also reminds
me of Eilola’s assertion that texts are moving toward
“modular collections of information rather than unified,
coherent creative wholes…” (209) The brochure is visually
modular -- the parts can be rearranged or rewritten easily
for different purposes. In addition, there’s almost no
original writing; instead it’s a compilation of statistics, facts
and images borrowed from different sources to support a
position.

15. The most important feature of the Google Docs
platform is accessibility and the variety of delivery
options.
● The document is public and it can be viewed,
commented on, embedded, shared or printed for
delivery.
● It uses visual elements heavily (pictures, charts and
logos) that allows for comprehension exclusive of
the text which allows for greater accessibility by a
wider audience.