The Persuasion of Silence

                Growing up in Montana, I experienced my teenage years in an area where I was the religious minority.  Religion, itself, was a minority.  I had a great group of friends, but they also asked a lot of questions.  You see, I was a part of the Speech and Debate team.  My friends had something to prove and I had something to defend.  There were many long bus rides where my friends and I would go back and forth on topics of religion.

                I remember one night in particular when, as we were traveling back to our hometown, that my friend Nick and I were talking.  Quickly, the conversation turned to what I believed.  He was a vehement agnostic.  We were in our teenage years and, like many teenagers, he had decided to rebel against the traditional views of his family.  Usually, our bus ride talks were calm and measured.  We had learned how to agree to disagree.  On this occasion, however, our talking got louder and louder until it drowned out much of the road trip chatter.  A bunch of our teammates around us began to lean in and listen.  I’ll be honest, he asked some hard questions and I didn’t know all the answers, though I tried to explain to the best of my abilities the importance of faith and trusting in things we can’t always see.  At one moment, he arrived at the pinnacle of his argument, exclaiming in a loud voice his final question.  He asked it to our newfound audience as much as to me.  Dead silence ensued.  It was that moment when you realize that you’re losing the argument, public opinion and you wonder if you’re losing the people around you. 

               

Poetry can tell stories

As I was reading book II, there was a phrase that really stuck out to me. It is on line 86 when Nestor had just finished his speech to the elders, and it goes as follows: "They swarmed like bees that sally from some hollow cave and flit in countless throng among the spring flowers bunched in knots and clusters;"

That is a very poetic form of decorum, which reminded me that stories can be told in poetry. The fact that they went into so much detail for each individual character, as Kekoa brought up, I think just goes to show the poetic nature of his writing.


I liked Minerva's persuasion was based on if you leave, those who died will have died in vain, as was brought up by Kevin. I think too many times as we devote our lives to certain things we feel an obligation to continue. That lays a perfect kairos if you are trying to convince someone to keep doing what they are doing, it's almost like an addiction. This story really depicts the art of 'guilt tripping' you could say, which it turned out for the better of course.

But just as Eli said, we tend to follow those same patterns today, which I completely agree with. The art of persuasion has been and is a very valuable skill to have.

Adapt and Survive

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Rhetoric in medicine is just as crucial of a toolbox as these

            Since ancient times, the doctor has been an exemplar of rhetorical prowess. The issue often presents itself in the case of the greatest cause of detriment in a patient being the patient him or herself. Such a situation exacts tact from the doctor—of an amount that more often than not is a learned response. To those who have a desire to follow this path of the doctor, much needs to be laid out so as to grasp the best understanding necessary for success. Individual skill in the field of medicine has held equal, but different importance apart from the need for rhetoric. Still, one's own abilities fall short if the doctor cannot convince a patient to take a needed venue toward health. It is for this reason that aptitude in physical practice must be coupled with a more broadened scope in medicine, namely in the forms of historical knowledge and rhetoric, or the art of persuasion. A doctor may hold the antidote or solution to a patient's malady or injury, but it avails nothing if the patient doubts the credibility of the one trying to help him or her. This doubt or question of authority in a patient toward a doctor is paramount to overcome. Pure logic, though a powerful form of persuasion, is insufficient without proper context or explanation. Additional factual information in the form of referencing the past, along with calculated mannerisms, displays, and speech in the form of rhetoric, more effectively create a well-rounded and overall successful doctor.

Screening

            A dedicated study of the history of medicine is crucial to a successful life in the medical field. Doctors are required to have a vast pool of knowledge to pull from to help their patients recognize their symptoms, diagnose illnesses, and ultimately cure said illnesses. These skills allow doctors to work much more effectively through the form of preventative care, which is to cure an illness before circumstances become dangerous, lethal, or even apparent. Of course needing the skills to make quick decisions is important, but studying the history of medicine and mastering preventive care can be equally important. In many cases, preventive care can help spare countless patients a trip to the emergency room, thus increasing a doctor's efficiency by saving more lives.

            Referencing the past and studying the properties of illnesses and their corresponding remedies is what fuels the future in medical breakthroughs and creates great doctors of the present. For example, recent studies have shown that the excessive use of antibiotics, while performing their function of eliminating bacteria very efficiently, are naturally eliminating many beneficial bacteria in the human body as well. This in turn weakens various functions of the human body, and makes the immune system grow lax. While the recent breakthroughs in antibiotics have helped cure and prevent many diseases from growing too severe, they have also caused some problems which could have been avoided by more closely studying principles about health and disease prevention that date back to even the ancient Roman era. The ancient Romans, while having exercise and personal fitness as their biggest advocates for preventing diseases, lacked much of the modern remedies that we have available in our day; however, there are some principles to be learned from this that could have prevented many of the issues that are arising from excessive usage of antibiotics today. Romans focused on keeping the body's immune system strong, overcoming non-lethal illnesses and then growing stronger and adapting. Nowadays with the debut of widespread antibiotics, the body is overcoming illnesses that it previously could not, but the immune system itself is growing weaker with no conquerable bacteria in sight. Just as the body's muscles grow weak and fade away without any exercise, the body's immune system along with various other functions wane when not utilized properly. Studying all of the eras of human medicine and the principles behind them have many benefits, even today in the face of modern remedies that would have been considered miraculous back then.

Tell all the truth...but tell it slant?

Present Results

            Just like how knowing the history can help one be more prepared to go into the field of medicine, effective communication skills can also bring many benefits to the table. Just like how the typical white lab coat and stethoscope give off messages of confidence and prestige, there are many aspects of communication that doctors need to be wary of in order to be able to help their patients in the best way possible. One of the more important skills that fall under this category is persuasion. There are many people that are willing to give their trust immediately to a doctor due to the doctor's sacrifice of many years of their life devoted to the study of how to mend the human body and mind. Sometimes, however, a doctor needs to go the extra mile to convince a patient that their prescription is going to be beneficial to their case. Explaining to patients why their treatment is going to help heal their illness in a way that they can understand is an often overlooked but still crucial part of being a successful and trustworthy doctor. Doctors indefinitely have a greater understanding and vocabulary of medicine than the average person, but that knowledge will not be able to be utilized effectively if the doctor cannot pass it on to a patient in a way that will help them understand and act on that knowledge.

Discuss Solutions

Sometimes there is no easy way, but a doctor
must do what must be done

            Doctors need the ability to persuade their patients, but they also need to be wary of other messages that they can give off without saying anything. Doctors need to be the emotional anchor in times of crisis, therefore keeping calm and maintaining composure are some necessary communication skills. Imagine if a doctor were to panic upon hearing bad news or when things didn't go the right way. The credibility of the doctor would go out the window, and the progress in helping a patient overcome their illness would completely halt. Body language and other mannerisms go hand in hand with speech in being able to convey the thoughts of the doctor to the patients in ways that they can understand. The calm, educated demeanor of the doctor is in itself a way for trust to be built between the doctor and the patient. A furrowed brow is sure to raise alarm in a patient, but excessive smiling could also bring about unease and mistrust, though the doctor's intentions may be good. Doctors have studied medicine for a large portion of their lives and that in itself sends a powerful message; however, effective use of communication through things like body language allows for that knowledge and expertise to be utilized to its full potential. Doctors and patients need to trust each other and communicate in order to understand and solve problems together. This relationship of trust allows for effective communication of ideas and remedies that can save the patient's life. If the doctor and the patient can work together through the doctor's mastery of some key skills in communication, then the doctor can be a much more well-rounded and successful influence in their field.

The Verdict

            There are many factors to consider when pursuing an education and ultimately a career in medicine, whether that be the necessary technical skills, knowledge, or communication skills that will help one in that field to be a better doctor. Through studying the background and history of medicine, an aspiring doctor can draw knowledge from the people of the past to help solve the problems being faced today. Being able to effectively communicate with patients though mannerisms and speech, rhetoric can help patients understand their prescriptions and their symptoms to ultimately learn how to conquer them. Although not commonly brought up when one thinks of a doctor, history and communication are absolutely crucial to the success of aspiring doctors and act as unsung heroes in the war against disease.

Works Cited

Blaser, Martin J., MD. "Modern Medicine May NotBe Doing Your Microbiome Any Favors."     Interviewby Joe Raedle. NPR Books.NPR Books, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.             <http://www.npr.org/2014/04/14/302899093/modern-medicine-may-not-be-doing-your-    microbiome-any-favors>.

Burton, Gideon.  SilvaRhetorica. Brigham YoungUniversity, n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.

"Medicine inAncient Rome". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.

Talk Ain’t Cheap: Why Effective Rhetoric and Communication is Vital for English Teaching Majors

Introduction

            In second grade, I had a particularly horrible teacher.  I cannot remember his name, but I do remember his complete and utter incompetence at explaining even the simplest concept to our class in a way we would understand.  One day, after a particularly ineffective lesson on verbs in which I was

Don't let a second grader take over your class.
Communicate!

being an extreme smart aleck, he snidely asked if I would like to teach the class.  Fully valuing the fact that he had finally recognized and accepted his own teaching ineptitude, I readily agreed, got up from my seat, strolled to the front of the class, and began to teach my second grade pupils on the value of verbs.  Needless to say, the subsequent events did not go well for me, and I was shoved back into my seat.  I realized much later that his unsuccessful teaching method came from the fact that he could not communicate with and engage his students.  I also realized much later what a rhetorical question was.

My experience illustrates an intriguing dilemma about teaching, especially English teaching: in a field all about communication, participation, and learning, why are so many teachers so ineffective at communicating to their students in a way that engages and endears them to their teacher?  We have all had terrible teachers.  Why, when they have chosen the profession of education and have all the necessary qualifications, are some so bad at what they do?  There might be several answers to this quandary.  For one, communication is not the only way to be successful in the classroom, so it can sometimes be forgotten as truly important.  Other ways to be a successful teacher are to grade quickly, enforce classroom rules, understand material completely, get along with staff, devote time to self-improvement, and love what you do.  These do not involve communication that much.  However, by far, the most important method for success is communication.  It governs nearly everything you will do as a teacher.  Your work is literally communicating and persuading students about literature, writing, and grammar, which are, in themselves, subparts of communication and persuasion.  Thus, communication is absolutely imperative to effective English teaching.  Without

These students are engaged in their English
           teacher's lesson because he can communicate
effectively to them.

effective communication, no teacher can be truly excellent.  The teachers might know the subject matter by heart.  They may have carefully constructed lesson plans.  But if teachers cannot engage students in learning the material, every carefully learned and crafted lesson goes to naught.  A bad teacher is usually a teacher who cannot communicate successfully.  Although teaching is more than just successful communication, as prospective English teaching majors, it is completely and utterly essential that you learn how to communicate and persuade well in your classes.  Learn these skills of communication now, and you will not be frustrated with your students later on.  In order to be the most effective teacher you can, you need to be able to effectively communicate on a general classroom level with the skills of clarity, arrangement, and entertainment, and on an individual basis with persuasiveness. 

Clarity in the Classroom

The most important communication will be in your classroom.  You talk the most in the classroom, and you affect the most people in the classroom.  The most important aspect of any teaching method is simply clarity.  The sign of any true comprehension of material is if you can teach it simply, carefully, and fully without any confusion, so teaching with clarity demonstrates how well you know certain material.  Simplicity is especially important when talking to a large group because the message must be comprehensible to everyone in the room, from the student with a knack for English to someone who cannot seem to grasp English concepts of grammar, literature, or writing.  This idea of clarity as the best means of teaching exists throughout history.  For example, in his De Doctrina Christiana, Saint Augustine instructed readers that the best way to teach a sermon to a large

Saint Augustine allows us to see the
               historical context and importance

of talking clearly without condescension 

group is to use simple language, but to not be tedious or over-repetitive (81).  The same principle applies not only to sermons, but also to English teaching.  You can easily slip into unwanted condescension about which St. Augustine so carefully warns us if you talk clearly but repetitively and below the level of your students.  Thus when teaching a lesson, you should always keep in mind your students as your audience and change how you teach a concept respectively.  For example, how you would explain a concept to an AP English classroom would be perhaps a more deep and complex explanation than how you explain a concept to a regular English class.  Although you will probably learn how to address different class scenarios when you do your teaching classes and student teaching, the course outcomes usually lack any mention of effective communication.  Thus, it is up to you to recognize the need for clarity when teaching.  When you use clarity and firm simplicity, your students will appreciate your teaching style and will respect you more for teaching effectively.  You will build up your character (known as ethos in rhetoric (Burton)) and admiration from students because you are concise and clear without any arrogance.

Arrangement in the Classroom

To communicate and persuade your students to learn, you need more than simply clarity.  How you arrange your lesson is also vital to effective communication.  Arrangement, in ancient Greece and Rome, was chiefly concerned with the exact order used in a usually persuasive oration (Burton), but today, arrangement is extremely important to all large-scale speaking and writing.  The importance of arrangement extends from the fact that the best way to competently teach is to form arguments and ideas that follow a logical and clarifying organization.  Many English teachers, especially those who only lecture, do not practice effective arrangement.  Even with carefully planned lessons, some teachers get easily sidetracked or jump quickly from one idea to another without any transitions or real arrangement.  I had one teacher my senior year of high school whom I regard as one of my worst teachers.  She knew her material and was highly intelligent, but she was so scatter-brained that I learned nothing from her.  Even if concepts are explained clearly, if your transitions between thoughts and ideas are as sudden, scatter-brained, and confusing like my teacher’s, all the clarity in the world will not really help successful communication in the classroom.  One of the best ways to help your arrangement is to use

We as teachers can use PowerPoints to assist
           our arrangement of our lessons.

technology such as PowerPoint and Prezi.  These presentations can add an entertainment value to your lessons, while also keeping you focused.  In order to avoid boredom, PowerPoint should be a guiding mechanism for an already basically memorized presentation, not just read out loud slide by slide.  By already knowing your own material well and by keeping to a logical and clear arrangement that moves from one idea to another, you will better help your students learn.

Entertainment in the Classroom

Today's students want instant entertainment
from their classroom experience.  We can
use entertainment to further the class
engagement levels and help classrooms learn!

Teaching high school students extends far beyond simply relaying information to your students.  In today’s world of easy and quick gratification and social media, everyone, especially teenagers, requires instant entertainment.  A huge conflict (called a stasis in rhetoric (Burton)) with teaching today is engaging students in a lesson while still maintaining a stimulating curriculum.  The best way to have the best of both worlds is to simply combine rigor with entertainment.  Thus, while your classes can still be challenging—and they should be challenging—your lessons should also have an element of entertainment.  For example, in Roman antiquity, Quintillian in his progymnasmata, writing exercises that taught grammar and how to speak and write effectively, made sure that his drills were entertaining as well as informative (Burton).  Today, our entertainment value can come from technology such as social media or videos.  However, because new technology is usually just a fad that passes rapidly, quick wit and humor inserted into your lesson is often the best way to engage students.  While you always want to remain authoritative, a pleasing and humorous speaking style (called middle style in rhetoric) will never go amiss in a classroom where students often demand entertainment.  English classes can include a ton of entertainment through wit in lessons.  For example, students might be required to diagram sentences to learn grammar, but diagraming “Josie engulfed the giant pickle into her pudgy pie hole” is much more entertaining than diagraming “Josie ate the large pickle.”  Entertained students will be usually be far more engaged in a lesson than those who are not entertained.  Teachers must always meld entertainment and engagement with the curriculum to truly help students learn.

Persuasion in One-on-One Situations

Parent and Student Meetings with you do not need
to be heated or angry experiences.  Through
persuasion to your side of a situation, parents
and students will be appeased and respect
you as an authoritative figure.

Although most of your time will be spent in the classroom, and thus most of your university learning will be geared to teaching whole classes, we often forget that we must also communicate with others on an individual basis, either with parents, students, or faculty members.  Without knowledge of persuasion as well as communication techniques, you will not be able to successfully solve issues with individuals.  Your audience has changed from a large group of people to a few or one.  How you approach individuals versus an entire classroom must also change.  Clarity and arrangement are no longer essential for your argument, but rather frank but appeasing talk is vital to convince individuals about your point.  This switch in communication is due to the fact that the context of your situation has changed, and your language must also.  For example, much of the time, the people, especially parents and students, you will be dealing with on an individual basis will be angry or frustrated at grades, behavior in the class, or other problems that classrooms typically encounter throughout the year.  Large classrooms usually do not present heated situations.  Thus, the language you use in a large classroom will be much different than the language you use to address angry individuals.  This change in language often involves an increase in persuasion for individuals.  Persuasion rather than just simple communication is much more important on an individual basis than with classrooms.  In the classrooms, your job is to teach and instruct while engaging the student’s attention and learning.  Individually, while you might be still instructing if a student has a question about an essay or assignment, you will most likely be convincing someone of your side of a situation in order to explain a bad grade or horrendous behavior.  You will be using rhetoric, the art of persuasion (Burton).  Successful individual persuasion will allow parents to accept a bad grade as reality without making you the “bad-guy.”  However, without successful persuasion on an individual basis, students and parents will likely still be angry, and you will not garner from them the respect as a successful teacher you deserve.  I have seen teachers both convince and fail to convince me that I deserved an unwanted grade.  I respected the persuasive one and continued to be frustrated with the unconvincing teacher.  Although, not commonly part of an English Teaching major’s university courses, in order to be a respected and successful teacher, it is imperative that you learn how to persuade individuals to accept your side of a situation. 

Conclusion

With successful communication and persuasion,
you can become the best English teacher you
could ever be!

Communication and persuasion are essential to the English teacher.  Although we teach communication, we are occasionally surprisingly ineffective at communicating effectively to our class and individuals.  However, in order to teach well, as we all want to do, we must be able to master the art of communication and persuasion through clarity, arrangement, entertainment, and persuasiveness.  With effective communication and persuasion, students will listen and learn from you, and a second-grader won’t try to take over your lesson. 

                                                   Works Cited

Augustine, Saint.  De Doctrina Christiana. Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, n.d. Online Christian Library. Web. 13 Dec. 2014

Burton, Gideon.  Silva Rhetorica. Brigham Young University, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Beyond The Numbers: Becoming A Successful Actuary Requires Communication

                 Congratulations! There are few who actually discover that actuarial science exists, let alone actually decide to pursue a career as an actuary. You and those who typically find this field either know someone who is an actuary or hear about it in an accounting, finance, or economics course. Most likely you possess a true love of mathematics and problem solving which has driven you to pursue a professional career as an actuary. Perhaps one of the reason’s you have chosen to pursue actuarial science is because you shy away from certain interactions with other people. This however is one of the biggest dangers you can make as a newcomer to the actuarial field. Having strong analytical skills is obviously essential to being an actuary, but few who are new to the field realize the necessity and daily uses of communication that actuaries are required to master. There are certain skills which are completely non-analytical in nature that are needed in order to land a first job or internship, be successful in that job, and continue to progress toward a successful actuarial career.      

              Depending on how familiar you are with the history of actuarial science may be a factor as to how prepared you are for the communication requirements of the field. Actuarial science can only honestly be traced back to the 1700’s where a London man named James Dodson made the first steps in the direction of modern day actuarial analysis. His work for the society Equitable Life is the corner stone of the current actuarial industry. Dodson was among the very first to use this science (math and statistics) to determine premium rates and long-term policies for insurance. This was not only the start of the actuarial field but also the predominant stereotype of actuaries as being nonsocial, number crunching, introverted, and math-obsessed individuals. If you haven’t already heard or learned about this stereotype you will. The problem isn’t knowing about it, the problem is found in how you feel about it. Finding any kind of comfort in this stereotype in helping you to decide whether to be an actuary or not is a mistake, and will start to instill the dangerous lack of emphasis on the non-mathematical skills required to become successful as an actuary. Although this stereotype may have some backing from the history of actuaries from the past, over the last few decades and especially looking ahead into the future, this preconceived notion about actuaries could not be further from the truth. More and more actuaries not only need to communicate internally and externally in their places of work, but must do it effectively or risk losing their companies clients and even their job positions.

Importance for Student & Entry Level Actuaries

              For obtaining internship or entry-level work, which is becoming extremely competitive, communication and persuasion are essential in helping companies to choose to hire you. If any student entering into the actuarial science world conforms to the stereotype of the actuaries from the past, no matter how good at math or statistics they are, they may never even get their foot in the door of the modern actuarial businesses of the world. There are currently many actuarial students all over the U.S. applying for internships that have analytical experience, some actuarial exams passed, and a high GPA (which are the top three things to have on an actuarial resume), yet still struggle to obtain an internship or job. The reasons for their struggles are not because of a lack of analytical ability, but rather an inability to “sell” themselves in the interview process and help recruiters see the value that they can bring to a company. The actuarial interview experience is unique and isn't something that you will likely be able to take a class on. It is absolutely necessary for an actuarial student to ask mentors, teachers, and recruiters as early as possible about ways to grow their persuasive interview type communication skills.

Importance for Aspiring Actuaries

             The need to be persuasive and communicate at a high level goes far passed your first interview and securing that first job. Consulting actuaries’ most common circumstance for communication will be with clients. Many of these interactions will be through email, phone, or even video calls for the lower level associate actuaries. For the partners or fellowship actuaries, a lot of travel and actual face to face contact with clients is necessary. These face to face interactions is where the persuasion takes place. It is here that the client really needs to feel like they can trust the firm that is analyzing their risk. It is the actuary’s job to persuade them that their company needs their risk minimized by the actuary’s specific consulting firm and why they aren't better off going to another actuarial consulting firm. This interaction between the head actuaries and the clients is at the heart of the business of consulting actuarial work. It is also important that not only skills of persuasion can be applied in these situations, but that clear communication, with respect to the clients understanding of analytical terms, is achieved. Without strong communication and persuasion skills it is harder to accomplish the goals of these personal interactions.

              Actuarial clients need to feel like the work they are having done for them is valuable and being done at a competitive level. They need to have no reason to feel like they should doubt the actuaries’ abilities. When they do, conflict arises and it is the actuaries’ job to persuade the client to believe that the services they are receiving from the actuaries’ respective firm are the best option for them. An example of such a situation is given below in a made up dialogue:

• Client: “I have seen that there are other actuarial firms offering similar analysis for less pay, and I am thinking about switching to them because I have heard that their quality of work is quite comparable and even better than yours…”

Here you might pause and ask yourself “How would I respond to these concerns?” to evaluate how prepared you currently are to take on some of these future challenges that require persuasive communication skills. Below is an example of what may be an appropriate response by an experienced actuary:

• Actuary: “I see. If I had heard that same thing and was in your shoes, I too would be questioning who I was paying to analyze my risk. However, I can assure you that ____ services are not only more efficient, but that the quality of work that is done throughout the whole company at ____ is far superior to ___­_. Not only would it be a mistake to switch, but because of how sought after our services are it might be too hard for you to come back to ___ if you do decide to leave. It would be wise to stay with ___ where your work is done at a higher standard and where you are able to interact personally with the people working with your company’s risk.” 

Once conversation is flowing and the bulk of the conversation is in the actuaries court that is the time he has to pounce, making sure to do all he can to please and retain the business of the customer. Providing and stating evidence clearly, with a pleasing style, helps his argument to put the client at ease, minimizing the amount of questions of doubt that may arise in the clients mind as the conversation goes on. Tone and delivery must be friendly, timely, and confident. As the actuary focuses on these aspects of his style he will undoubtedly leave this last meeting with a firm handshake and an assurance for continued business with the client through the upcoming year. This is only one example of how essential communication and persuasion skills are to the actuarial profession.

Conclusion

           Although most of the focus for the next few years of your life, if you continue to pursue actuarial science, will be on passing multiple national actuarial exams and learning new ways to analyze risk you must not forget how important the interpersonal skills of persuasion and clear communication are to becoming a successful actuary. From obtaining your first job to being effective at the work place, your need for effective communication and persuasion skills starts now. Don’t put off working on your interview skills, or facing your current boss, coworkers, and clients at your current place of work. These moments are the best opportunities to grow these skills which, with no exception, are absolutely necessary for this field no matter where you are at on the path to obtaining your credentials and licenses as an actuary.

Works Cited

            Interview with Justin Owens - Asset Allocation Strategist at Russell Investments – 12/3/2014

            Choike, J. (1980). The Pentagram and the Discovery of an Irrational Number. Two-Year College Mathematics Journal, 11(5), 110-315. Retrieved December 2, 2014.