30-Second

Commercial/
Professional Introduction Video
WRTG 3040: Writing on/in Business and Society
D. Singer, Spring, 2014

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Description & Purpose

It just so happens that one of the first things we tend to be asked to do in an
interview is some version of: Tell us about yourself.

On the one hand, that sounds simple and innocuous. On the other hand, a
rhetorically educated, socially aware person with some training in Business
Writing and Rhetoric will recognize this as risky business.

Tell us about yourself is both a specific request to DESCRIBE the ETHOS
we have/want to have in the minds of others AND an opportunity to
actually DEVELOP that ETHOS through the verbal and nonverbal
composition of our response.

As a relatively standard element of The Rhetorics and Genres of/on/for The Job,
we can and should use this request/opportunity to our advantage, taking the
opportunity and our audiences likely contextual responses to our telling them about
ourselves skillfully in hand (manipulate, that is).

So, our prepared response to such a request is often referred to as our
Elevator Pitch or our 30-Second Commercial. (Sounds like a new
GENRE to work with, doesnt it?!?)

So, as part of our Digital Communications Packet, we will practice
developing the verbal and nonverbal composition of our Elevator Pitch
(which we can use to help us manage the rhetoric of Tell Us About Yourself)
and develop/workshop an actual 30-Second Commercial to be posted on
our Facebook Pages and/or Personal-Professional Websiteswhich we
can then:

o USE as part of a multi-document, multi-modal, multi-genre
strategy for further persuading a potential employer whos been
persuaded-enough by our Job Application Packet to at least move us
into the maybe-interview pile,

o USE to predispose that audience to respond to us and the claims
we make in a quick review of our Job Application Packet (and in the
actual interview, hopefully) in ways that help us be more likely to get
the job.

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First Steps

1. Go back to your Job Application Packet and try to STATE (in one or two
sentences) the overall argument that material seems to actually make about
you.
2. Read some selections in the On 30-Second Commercials/Professional
Introduction Videos under the Readings/Resources for the Digital
Communications Packet on D2L to help you get a better sense of the
Rhetorics and Genres of 30-Second Commercials/Professional Introduction
Videos (whichever ones you prefer).
3. Based on the argument you made about yourself in your Job Application
Packet and what you learned about Rhetorics and Genres of 30-Second
Commercials/Professional Introduction Videos in your reading on D2L,
write up a SCRIPT of your 30-Second Commercial.

***In your SCRIPT, be sure to include things like whats going to be ON THE
SCREEN in the video (the scene(s), the background, costume, camera angles,
other peopleif anyand WHERE in your video you plan to use WHAT
MOVEMENTS/GESTURES, POSTURES, and FACIAL EXPRESSIONS).

***Well workshop your SCRIPT in class next timeand use that workshop as a
base for putting together our first VIDEO DRAFTS afterward.

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Claims Review (i.e. Why should we do this?/How should we think

about doing this?

1. We can and should TRANSFER skills and knowledge we developed from

working with the genres and rhetorics of The Job Application Packet to the
genres and rhetorics of DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS.
2. People in rhetorical situations are predisposed to certain ways of thinking
about, representing, and doing stuff in RESPONSE to simply
ASSUMING/KNOWING something (or someone) is in a particular GENRE.
And being AWARE of that fact can positively influence how WE think about,
represent, and do stuff in any genre so that we more effectively attempt to
ensure that our audience(s) are predisposed to us and to our arguments in
ways that will help us actually achieve our goals from the get-go.
3. Anytime we want to manipulate (take skillfully in hand) the
PREDISPOSITIONS of an audience toward an argument we want to make
persuasive, we can ALWAYS go to THREE (of many possible) Persuasive

Appeals (or, depending on how you think about/use them, Inventionary

Topoi or Modes of Persuasion).

4. A/THE RHETORIC of X typically describes the particular WAY a person, text,

or genre, seems to say things, think about things, and/or represent things
and HOW that particular way of saying, thinking about, and representing
things might EFFECT/PERSUADE people to do stuff, think about stuff, or
adopt certain predispositions toward stuff. ***So, think about the
RHETORIC of Tell Me About Yourself and the GENRE (The Elevator
Pitch/30-second Commercial) as a way to think about/talk
about/represent yourself to a potential employer looking you up online
and trying to decide whether to bring you in for an interviewso that
your audience actually DOES want to ask you more questions/interview
you.

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