Attend a Speech
For this project, you will attend a speech or meeting. The purpose of the speech or meeting should be to address an issue that calls for reform. Using the information and observations gathered from the event, you will create a poster or a sign that depicts the exigence of the speech or meeting. Part of this assignment will be to define your exigence; there may be more than one.
It is necessary that you be an attendee of the speech in order to have an accurate perception of the audience and its response to what is being said.
In my example I attended a speech at Colorado College given by Lance Black, the screen writer who wrote the movie “Milk”. Lance Black is a LGBT Rights advocate.
Define Your Exigence
What is an Exigence?
Exigence is something that needs to be done or is awry and needs to be addressed. Communication and persuasion become necessary in resolving the conflict.
There may be more than one exigence since exigence is not only the conflict or obstacle but also the circumstances that caused it. Your job will be to determine what you believe to be important about the issue. The exigence, purpose, and argument in your poster will depend on how you look at the issue discussed in the speech or meeting you attend.
The exigence for my example was the lack of involvement in the fight for LGBT rights. The LGBT movement has fallen out of the spotlight despite the progress Harvey Milk made in the seventies. The longer we wait to address the LGBT issue, the more people will forget Milk’s message to fight for those who felt cast out from society.
Define Your Argument and Purpose
Your argument will be central to your poster. Your argument will state how you intend to resolve your exigence. What could be done to make things right?
In defining your argument, your exigence will be addressed with or without actually mentioning the argument in your poster. The purpose of your poster will be to communicate your argument to an audience.
In my example, I chose two arguments and made one poster for each. For the first poster I wrote “Got Milk? Remember Harvey Milk. Fight for Gay Rights in 2010.” Lance Black’s speech identified the need for our generation to pick up where Harvey Milk left off before his progress is undone. My argument was that we must remember all that Harvey Milk did for LGBT rights, and that we must now continue on with his progress.
For the second poster I made, I simply wrote, “Hope,” as a way to address my second argument that our government has not done anything for LGBT’s under President Obama.
Defining an audience
In order to create a poster that successfully communicates a message, it is crucial that you identify who your audience will be. The targeted audience of the speech you attend should be the same audience that you target with your poster.
Once you have identified your audience or audiences, ask yourself a few questions:
· Who do you wish to respond to your exigence?
· What audience do you want to receive the message you are sending?
· What strategies did the speaker use to convince the audience of his or her message?
· In what way is your audience likely to receive this message? Will they agree? Disagree? This will determine who needs the most convincing, and how you will be able to convince them.
In my example, I identified by audience to be my generation. I used this as my audience for both posters because my argument is that we must act now for LGBT rights. This means that it is up to the upcoming generation to take responsibility.
· Target your audience using your poster design. You can target your audience either by mentioning your audience on the poster, or by using graphics or phrases that they would recognize.
In the Obama poster I made, I targeted my audience by using Shepard Fairey’s infamous graphic design of Obama’s face along with the word “Hope”. This graphic is well recognized by people of my generation, so it will be more likely to capture their attention.
The Poster
When creating the poster, keep some things in mind:
· Similar to a poster made for a rally or a strike, there should be words, phrases, and pictures rather than a lot of writing. The poster should be easily read and interpreted at a glance.
· Your audience should be able to understand your exigence and argument.
Ideas on What to Include:
· Make sure there is a phrase, word, graphic, or some aspect of your poster that stands out. This should communicate your main message and be able to stand alone. (e.g. “Hope?” in accompaniment with the graphics, and “Gay Rights 2010” give an idea of what the poster is saying without having to look into what the rest of the text is saying.
· Use proportion and color to draw the audience’s attention to the main message in the poster. (E.g. make the main words larger or more brightly colored than the detailed text that does not stand alone as easily.
· Is there a main spokesman regarding the issue? What is the history behind the topic? In my example, I used made a historical gay rights activist, Harvey Milk, the spokesman in my poster.
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