Dear Shelby,

You are about to have a brutal fall off of Snooze, the horse you are riding. He is going to slam on his breaks in front of the jump and you are going to flip forward landing shoulders first on the opposite side of the fence without Snooze. You are going to be in pain and shock while staring at Snooze praying he does not jump the fence, because if he does you are going to be crushed. The pain is going to be a burning sensation that runs from your shoulders into your arms and fingers. The middle of your chest is going to be tight making you panic and feel as if you are not breathing correctly. To make matters worse, you will realize that the bridle slipped off of his face when you slid forward up his neck while falling. Snooze is going to take off into a gallop then stop, look at you with a devious glare, and then roll on the ground with your saddle on. Not only are you worried about yourself, you are now freaking out thinking that your saddle is being destroyed. The commotion gets even worse because your mom is going to come running into the arena and say “Shelby I told you that something bad was going to happen, and your knee better be okay.” She is not being mean, she is just upset because you did not listen to her and you are going in for knee surgery in a week because of the injury you got a few months in advanced. She does not want to see your knee hurt even more. You are also going to be really upset with yourself. Your confidence and pride will be crushed because you know for a fact that you got cocky about jumping Snooze. You knew for a fact that everyone who rides him falls off, but of course you have to be the best and ignore your mother’s advice. The recovery from the fall is going to be about a week and a half, and that’s just for you to be able to lift your arms about three quarters above your head.

            This fiasco of a fall should and will be prevented. The first step in preventing the fall is to listen to your mother. Mother knows best, although you don’t like admitting it. She specifically said not to ride him; therefore you must listen to her. She can predict the future and you know it! You seem to like to learn the hard way, but trust me; you do not want to learn the hard way this time. Secondly, when you get to the barn for your riding lesson you need to ask to ride another horse since you were assigned to Snooze a week in advanced. Then once you are on any other horse than Snooze, you will have a great lesson. You also need to keep in mind that you have a terrible knee and it is about to be operated on in a week or so. Staying healthy and safe is very important before the surgery. Just by taking your mom’s advice and switching horses will save you from a lot of pain.

Best wishes,

Shelby 

Redesign of Advertisement Essay – Reflection Guidelines

Going into the redesign of advertisement essay I was excited but apprehensive. I really like marketing and being creative so I was looking forward to the assignment. I used a horseback-riding magazine because I thought it would be a good magazine to work with. It was because it gave me a challenge and made me think about a lot of details. However, once I picked an advertisement I was nervous about redesigning it. I did not know what I wanted the final ad to look like. I also was unsure on to what my new audience was going to be, and how I was going to incorporate the rhetorical appeals into the new ad. I can be very indecisive and picky about how I want my final product to look, so this essay was challenging for me.

         When I started to redesign the ad I threw around several ideas. I drew out my original plan but I did not follow through with it. My original idea was to have a rider in the winner’s circle, and then have a catch phrase above the rider. The more I thought about it, I did not like it because I did not think it was going to do the rhetorical appeals justice. Then I started to think about my new audience of older conservative riders, and how I could appeal the new ad toward them. I thought about what I like to see in an ad, as a horseback-rider too. My final decision was to use an established Olympian and keeping the ad clean cut looking.

         As I stated earlier, this essay was a challenge for me. I found it hard to pick a new audience since the magazine I chose was already narrowed down to just horseback-riders. The original ad was geared toward younger wild riders so I changed the audience to conservative, older woman. I also found it hard to write about the redesign for 5-7 pages. I put a lot of thought into details and pondered on what else to ad into the paper. I went to the writing center to talk out more ideas and that helped me a lot. The writing center also aided me with sentence structures and punctuations. It was really helpful.

         I liked this assignment because it was not bland it was creative.  I used my creativity to help me redesign the advertisement. I also liked how I chose my own ad. I find it easier to write about a topic when I chose it and then use the assignment guidelines to write the essay. I love horseback riding so it was fun for me to redesign Dublin’s ad.

         This essay made me realize how much thought goes into advertisements. In a broader spectrum, I realized how detailed oriented people are. Details are key components and they make the advertisement. I defiantly have a greater understanding of ethos, pathos, and logos. The rhetorical appeals are tools that I will try to use in my writings when it’s appropriate. Rhetorical appeals made me realize how details are important to writing and visuals.

         If I had a second chance at writing this essay, I would not do anything differently. I liked how my magazine gave me a challenge. If I chose an advertisement that I could easily change I don’t think I would have gained as much from the essay. I would not have been as detailed and aware of the rhetorical appeals. Redesigning was a challenge, but I liked reworking it and figuring out how I wanted to project my new ideas.