• "Ham Strung"

◦Analyzing Situations is explicit in stating that the traces of a huge amount of information end up (in condensed ways) in any # of communications

▪beginning speech of the email text

▪"I'm not blonde!!!"

  • we can immediately unpack due to cultural background
  • huge # of assumptions (mostly gender) built into the comment

◦intelligence (lack of)

  • other gendered ways of argument

◦boyfriends

◦prettier apartment

◦car

◦enthymeme: My worth is based in these particular functions. Your worth is less than mine because your functions are not equal to mine.

▪you can trace the rhetorical energy and emotional level

  • ramps up pretty consistently

◦Both of these women got fired. Should they both have gotten fired? Should one have gotten fired and not the other? Who's at fault? Was it fire worthy?

▪inappropriate use of time

  • shouldn't send these emails during work
  • shows lack of intelligence

▪sent to other companies, not kept local

  • became an embarrassment to the company as a whole
  • company may have had specific policies in place
  • much of the argument seems common sense

◦"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

  • If the email hadn't been shared, would they have still had the same outcome?
  • What if the conversation was between two men instead of two women?
  • Was it because they were secretaries (low-level employees)?

▪audience

  • primary

◦the two women themselves

  • secondary

◦everyone else

  • Since the women are aware they are being viewed by others, to what degree are they speaking to the secondary audience? How much are they attempting to show each other up in front of that secondary audience?

◦the secondary audience was so amused that they shared it with others

▪Did these emails begin to create a hostile environment?

  • with technology, understand that you are most likely being watched with what you do

▪Who's fault is it?

  • Does one person escalate it?
  • Did Melinda and Katrina have a previous relationship?

◦Was the email an effort to save face?

◦Read the editor's note to see their explanation for how, especially in email, things can accelerate.

▪Email has developed ways of getting around some of the issues in the email

  • emoticons
  • texting shortcuts

◦j/k

◦lol

  • without these, some of the lines in the email ("Really sweet of you to investigate for me!") can be taken sarcastically when they aren't meant that way.

◦Were both of them neglecting duties in order to send these emails?

▪the time span of these emails is only about 1 hour

◦Rhetor Variables (Analyzing Situations 47)

▪To what extent do these people lay out what their motives are? Why are we communicating in the first place?

  • subtext/presumptions--where do they become problems?

◦Katrina starts off accusatory

▪wants to get someone in trouble

◦Melinda

▪starts off phrasing things kindly

▪asks gently if she placed it in the wrong refrigerator

◦Katrina--reply to all

▪not really concerned about the lawyers getting annoyed

▪still perhaps trying to get someone in trouble

▪upset because the email let everyone know that Katrina may have been negligent

◦formality vs. informality

▪company policies (formality)

  • exist to protect people
  • when stakes are high and you can't necessarily trust people
  • indirectness

◦"Don't you think it's a bit warm in here?" vs. "Open the door!"

◦implicating society's views about gender and work

  • performance

◦saying things that they've seen on television?

◦artificial argument

▪jump between "Now as you would say, 'Bye'!" and "I'm not blonde!!!"

◦becomes almost like Jerry Springer

◦mimicking some argument pattern that they've seen

▪not really their argument

▪reflective of current state of arguments

  • not necessarily built on rational evidence
  • more performance-based

◦more concerned with their pride instead of the truth

▪decrease in levels of civility

▪decline of logic

  • turns into "I'm cute, so I'm right"
  • apartment, car, job, and boyfriends are now the points of argument

◦doesn't have anything to do with the actual subject

  • impersonality of email

◦computer creates a sort of wall/buffer

◦just reacted without thinking about what they were doing

◦may not have happened if they had to mail letters instead of sending them

  • attempt to 1-up each other

◦somewhat of a comic element

◦competition

◦office gossip

▪some places where people seem to live for them

▪this could have been one of those places

◦Analyzing Situations 41-42

▪statement

  • What does it say?

▪metastatement

  • What does it do?

◦commenting on your comments

◦Katrina--don't make me look dumb (blonde comment)

◦Melinda--I don't have to (brunette comment)

◦Neo-Aristotelian Criticism

▪focuses on "Does the person accomplish what they wanted to accomplish given the situation and tools around them?"

  • unpack the situation
  • possible tools

▪setting up the logic of the alternative ways of proceeding

  • forced choice (p. 38)

◦Nixon is given a number of choices

▪final is a sort of combination

▪Nixon chooses the last

◦larger context for Nixon

▪don't want to lose confidence

▪don't want to lose credibility

▪ultimately a 30-year stare down (Cold War)

▪If we look weak in Vietnam, we stand a chance of Russia attempting to invade.