Blog Post #43 - My Rhetorical Action Plan

For this blog I will be providing some answers to questions out of our textbook in reference to developing an action plan for my public argument.

WorldIslandInfo.com "Planning session". 12/9/2006 via Flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic

1. Audience: Who are you going to try to persuade with your public argument? Describe the following aspects of your audience in a few sentences:

• Knowledge
• The issue has been ongoing for almost 40 years so the audience knows the basics. The will all have a varying degree of bias depending on who they are getting their information from. In depth details and nuances will be new items to consider as the majority of the audience will only know what they've read or heard on the surface. The audience will also be made up of experts in their individual disciplines. This is problematic as they will assume they all ready know the right answer due to their expertise.
• Values
• This is the one aspect that is almost unanimous. Everyone wants what is best for the jockeys, horses and the sport. Few will be able to agree on HOW to encompass it all but the need of a solution is certain.
• Standards of Argument
• There has to be an unbiased study that uses real-life data not just laboratory tests. There is so much money involved that people are reluctant to change as it may change their incomes.
• The industry has a pretty open format for airing concerns. As long as the speaker stays away from sounding like an animal rights activist, the audience should be willing to listen to somebody who has their ducks in a row.
• Everyone in the industry feels like they are an expert in their own aspect. The most affected by the argument are the jockeys as they are the ones carrying and using the crops (trainers right behind them). Touching on their areas of expertise will be tricky without insulting their intelligence or making them feel they are being attacked.
• Visual Elements
• People usually prefer seeing proof as statistical data and figures.  Videos may help for examples but the majority of the argument has to come from cold, hard, irrefutable data.
• Purpose
• If you are in the horse racing industry, you are well aware of how the industry is constantly under attack and how there has been a steady decline in the sport since the late 1960s. The hint of anything that may help promote the sport or increase its public acceptance will be listened to. Also, everyone is aware of the issue and everyone has heard 10 billion solutions, none of which have been effective. Skepticism will be well represented.

2. Genre: What form of writing will you use? After identifying your genre, list your answers for the following questions:

• Function of Genre
• I will be using a formal informative paper as my genre. I have chosen this due to the need to have my audience understand the issue and present facts and data leading to necessary changes. I am also planning on addressing concerns related to the issue that will give a sense of urgency in making a decision.
• I foresee the paper being passed around association committees for review and analysis. The industry is extremely slow to make changes and all areas that could be impacted need to be reviewed in depth. This is an industry where it is very easy to loose credibility but very hard to build it back up.
• There needs to be an address to each of the appeals. Ethos and pathos can be slightly less focused as the issue is filled with both of those. The hard part will be presenting the information to the logos as I will be dealing with experts/professionals who have been in the industry for their entire lives. Unless clear, concise, accurate data is laid out in an manner making it irrefutable, it will be vary difficult to build support for change.
• Ideally there would be an in depth study with data, graphs and test results to support the argument. The data I believe I would need could take years to produce and would need to cover many situations and circumstances. That information would need to be presented in such a manner as to not insult the intelligence of the audience but still lay out all the facts.
• I believe the best approach would be a mix of academic and formal. Though the industry is very small and tight knit, there still needs to be a formality to it which gives it credence. The need for a pass of experiment results and tested data best fits into the academic genre; however, staying away from "over-the-top" verbiage suits the culture of the audience.

3. Responses/Actions: Explain the possible actions you would like your audience to take after they read or view your argument.

• Important Negative Rebuttals
• After looking at the potential positive and negative rebuttals, I feel the following negatives will be important to address.
• By regulating a jockeys use of the riding crop, you are affecting how they can influence the actions of the horse.
• This is true, you are taking some of the options away from the the drivers. The gain in public acceptance from not seeing a jockey whip a horse can go a long way to improving public relations. It also puts more emphasis on the trainers requiring more preparation for the athletes. It may also be that certain animals are just not cut out to be on the track.
• If you remove/limit the use of the riding crop, jockeys will find other methods to get the similar results which may be illegal/unethical.
• Once again, this is a definite possibility. Similar to trainers using banned substances, their will always be a percentage of people trying to get around the system to achieve results. There is too much money at stake and the industry almost breeds it into the culture. With proper regulation and enforcement of the standards, violators will be caught and prosecuted.
• Possible Chain of Events
• As this issue has been ongoing for many years, it will take an extremely comprehensive study with irrefutable evidence to force change. If that data is presented with valid options to current practices and the potential gains for the industry are shown I believe a change could be brought about. There have been many, minor alterations over the past 20 years that have addressed the subject and none of them have had an impact on the public perception. The industry continues to decline and unless a solution that can be found, the danger of the industry becoming irrelevant is very real.