Writing Artifacts - Melonboard

Melonboard is a company founded by Johannes Beck and they have revolutionized the skateboard market by selling electronic skateboards to an affordable price. Melonboard is a recently started company and their main audience is obviously skaters. I have received a couple of different emails which they usually send out and I will also spend some time analyzing their website.

Starting off with the website, they are using a very simple and easy navigated lay out with their logo at the top. Their logo consists of “Melon” written above “Board” and “EL” from Melon and “Board” is all written in green while M, O, and N is written in black. This makes the audience focus on “El Board” which is a shorter version of stating electronic board. The color green is often associated with environment and sustainability which helps the audience to understand Melonboards are good for the environment. Underneath the logo, Melonboard has decided to use bullet points to make it very easy to understand the features of the board. The language is very informative but they use a language which is easy to understand and they focus on features their audience value as important. They do also have their mission statement by the features which states what values the company and its products represent and the language used is more formal but still adjusted to fit their audience. The mission statement symbols knowledge and professionalism and explains in three sentences what you can expect from the company.

The first email I received from Johannes was an email about tips and tricks when it comes to using the Melonboard. The email is being sent out to all his customers who have received, or are about to receive, their Melonboard. The email has a picture on top showing the board and also the company’s slogan. The slogan is “Never Stop Cruzin” and you can clearly see they have used a jargon in the slogan. Instead of spelling cruising correctly, they spell it “Cruzin” in order to target their customers. One part of the skateboard stereotype is to talk with a lot of slang in their vocabulary and Melonboard’s slogan is a result of that. The text in the email is structured with bullet points on how to use the product to get the most out of it and to extend its lifetime. The language is easy to understand and while most companies write this kind of information in a more legal format, I believe it is easier for Melonboard to inform their customers by email instead of documents filled with legal and formal language. One problem with the email is it consists of two or three typos and there is one in particular where the typo is a different word which gives the sentence a different meaning. The sentence is suppose to say that if you sit on the board, the motor will tear the belt into pieces but the sentence in the email is “tare the belt into peaces” which is not exactly the same thing. The tone of the email is friendly and it is very focused on customer service.

The second email they use is another perfect example of customer service. The email is sent out to people who are waiting to get their board delivered and it gives you a lot of information about why the delivery is delayed and how many boards they are shipping at the same time. The way of shipment, (by truck to Hong Kong Airport and then by airplane to the different locations) is also mentioned together with the reason of why it is late (delay on the payment transfer to the factory) which gives more transparency and more understanding from the customers. The email is very short and concise but informative, service minded, and easy to understand which once again shows us how Melonboard uses rhetoric to deliver its messages.

If we compare the three different artifacts, we can see that Melonboard are using pretty much the same genre and style no matter if they communicate through email or their website. They know what kind of audience they have and they have adapted their jargon and language to communicate more efficiently with its customers. Their style is simple and they try to avoid a formal and legal language as much as possible and instead using a language that is easy to understand.

When it comes to ethos, pathos, and logos, Melonboard mostly rely on pathos when they try to persuade their audience. They explain a lot about the board’s speed, performance, and sustainability in order to reach the customer’s emotional and exciting side. The speed and performance brings excitement to the audience while the awareness of the board being environmentally friendly makes people feel better when they use the product. All of this creates emotions which hopefully will result in the customer buying the product. Since the company is young, they have few or none reviews or awards they could use as credibility and therefore, there is not a lot of ethos in their writing. The logos of the writing are similar to pathos where they use facts about the board to convince  the buyer.

Overall, Melonboard use a very informative style to persuade their audience and they mostly use pathos and logos to appear trustworthy and interesting. They know what kind of audience they have and by using the same slang and jargon as their audience normally use, they automatically become more affiliated and connected to their audience.  

Week 4

Week 4 is over and I am two readings smarter than last week.

Out of this week’s readings, I found a lot of good information in Carroll’s “From Backpacks to Briefcases” that helped me to understand how deep writing can really be. Prior to this class, writing for me was just a form of communication which you used when you were too lazy to call or talk to a person face to face. Genres, styles, and contexts was nothing I considered nor cared about when I structured my messages. But as the weeks fly by, the thoughts behinds the texts are coming more and more often and I have to admit, it is very interesting to see how much you can affect people by using different styles and genres.

In Carroll’s text, the author paid a lot of attention to the first impression and how fast people are when it comes to judging people. Due to earlier experiences, humans generalize people depending of what they have learned in the past. By generalizing, we put people into different folders depending of who we think they are and unfortunately, that makes us treat people differently. I can only speak for myself but I am sorry to say that I treat people very differently depending on who I think they are and how they look. It is nothing I decide to do but it comes automatically. When I see someone who seems to have the same interests as me, I personally act in a nicer way compared to when I see a person whom I seem to have nothing in common with. What this behavior depends on is hard to say but I assume I treat the first person better because I know the odds for us getting along and become good friends are better compared to when I talk to the person whom I observe as “strange”.  It happens way too often and it is a shame I have to write these words. Fortunately, I am aware of the problem and that makes it easier to correct it.  

Carroll’s text did also talk a lot about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos and for me, those three words has always been about speaking  but I have never considered it when it comes to writing. Just as speaking, writing is all about persuading people and you need to connect with your audience on a deeper level in order to accomplish a connection. Either if you use your intellectual side (Logos), emotional side (Pathos), or your credibility and trustworthiness (Ethos), you need to involve these three parts if you want to affect your audience. Personally, I have a lot to work on when it comes to both speaking and writing and if I can develop my ethos, pathos, and logos, I will be able to develop my skills and hopefully become a better communicator both verbally and on paper.

In the second reading for this week, it was a lot of instructions of how you do an interview and since it is only a week until we are doing our own interview, it was a lot of useful information which I will use when it is time to sit down and talk to the CEO of Melonboard. If you have not heard about that company before, I recommend you to go to melonboard.com and check it out.

Have a great weekend and see you again on Monday!

Week 3

I found this week’s readings really interesting because it paid a lot of attention to things you normally do not focus on when it comes to writing. The part that was most interesting was how you need to change your way of communication depending on what audience you have.

I love the example in “Understanding Rethoric” where the character first is trying to convince The Junior Superfan Club by using a very academically correct language and then he swaps to a more playful tone. It is like he suddenly realizes it is kids he is talking to and he immediately changes his tone and language to make it easier for the kids to understand him.

I also find it interesting when they talk about outfits and that you use different outfits for different occasions. In the comics, the lady has one kind of outfit when she is at work as a teacher and a completely different style when she is home with the kids, all because she needs to communicate different messages to the listener.

When I read the “Murder! (Rethorically Speaking)” by Janet Boyd, I found this great sentence which for me explains a lot of what Rhetoric is all about:

“While I was surprised that he dared say such a word in class, and I am equally surprised that our publishers have so kindly agreed to print it, this offensive word so directly and memorably brings us to the crux of the matter: that choosing how to express your meaning is every bit as important as the message itself, which is really what rhetoric is.”

Since I love to use irony and sarcasm, I do not know how many times my way of expressing my sarcasm has lead me into trouble. Especially in writing where people cannot hear the tone I speak with, a lot of people are having a hard time to understand that I am teasing them as a joke and not because I am mean. The invention of Emojis made it a lot easier but misunderstandings are still common and you realize how important all the components are when it comes to communicating with other people. The way you choose to express yourself can be the difference between success and failure. You may have the greatest message ever but you failed you adapt your way of communication and you end up having a reader not understanding the point of your message. On the other side, you may have flaws in your text but if you choose the right style of communication, it will still make sense to the reader. 

About + Reflection

Hi everyone,

My name is Adam, I am 23 years old and I am from Stockholm, Sweden. This is my first quarter here at Antioch but my third year living in Santa Barbara. Before transferring to Antioch, I achieved my AA in Business Management at SBCC. Even though I loved SBCC, I am really excited to be at Antioch because I like their way of educate better than how they do it at the City College. Instead of having exams, Antioch are focusing more on papers where you have a greater opportunity to do analysis and reflections which is more similar to how my school was back in Sweden. When I do not study, I try to be as active as possible and I love to play all kinds of sports.

Rhetoric is very important to consider when you communicate with other people. The way you talk, the words you choose, the tones you use, and the clothes you wear do all affect how the receiver interprets and understands your message. Depending on the situation, you might need to use a different kind of language or words in order for the listener to better understand you. For example, you will probably use different words when you explain something for a child compare to when you talk to your professor. When you talk to a child, you will use a more simple vocabulary and you might change your tone to sound friendlier to make it easier for the child to understand. With your professor, your more complex and various vocabulary will come to use and more details will be added to the conversation.

It is also important to choose the correct medium when you are delivering a message to your receiver and to adapt your language and content to reach the receiver to the max. A conversation over the phone requires a higher level of oral skills since you cannot use facial expressions or body language in order to help the listener to understand. At the same time, a face to face conversation can be much richer and detailed if you use your language, expressions, and gestures to deliver the message to your receiver. I believe it was very interesting when they chose to write our book as a comic book instead of a regular school book because they have used a type of writing which normally is used for enjoyment and not for education. They have adapted the language they used to make it fit in a comic book and in my opinion, it was easier to understand the concepts they explained in the form of a comic rather than reading it from a regular school book.