Trevor Nealeigh- Presentation Outline Blog Post Assignment

 "Bigfoot Sightings Analysis" Presentation Outline:

Introduction:

"In an act of desperation to at last claim a sighting of Bigfoot, many people such as one man who claimed to find Bigfoot in Comal County in January 2015 often use fallacies and other rhetorical devices in an effort to capture and hold the attention of their audience."

Preview- Today I am going to discuss the head, hands, and feet of Bigfoot, or as I like to call them the fallacies and devices that rely on the audience's perception of Bigfoot, the fallacies and devices that ground the audience in a sense of reality, and the fallacies and devices that are used to eliminate the connections between the author's evidence and ideas not related to Bigfoot.

Credibility- As someone who loves learning about Bigfoot and claims of sightings of Bigfoot, I have credibility to discuss this topic.

Statistics- In my analysis of this Bigfoot sighting report from Comal County in January 2015, I noted 6 instances of fallacies being used in the argument and 4 instances of the rhetorical devices described by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca in their book "The New Rhetoric".

Piece 1 (Fallacies and Devices that Rely on the Audience's Perception of Bigfoot):

Fallacies:

• Anecdotal Fallacy- "Also found some tracks that were 14 inches long, and some 11 inches long ..." (using shared belief that Bigfoot leaves behind large tracks to lead the audience to conclude that the creature in question was Bigfoot)
• Hasty Generalization- "The deer's neck was broken and twisted all the way around, lungs, heart, and liver were gone and the deer's intestinal content was thrown about" (presents vivid description that is intended to cause the audience to recall what they perceive about Bigfoot being large and barbaric)

P-OT Rhetorical Devices:

• Quasi-Logical Argument (Descriptive)- "9 foot tall grayish blonde in color with a 4 to 4 1/2 ft across from shoulder to shoulder, standing in front of an oak tree" (cements the author's credibility as someone who clearly understands what Bigfoot is expected to be like (has a grotesque appearance and lives in forests)

Connective Statement- Now that we have discussed which fallacies and devices the author uses that rely on what the audience perceives about Bigfoot, let's step into the fallacies and rhetorical devices that are intended to ground the audience in a sense of reality.

Piece 2 (Fallacies and Devices that Ground the Audience in a Sense of Reality):

Fallacies:

• Unrepresentative Sample- "My wife and step daughter ... discovered a bloody and strange deer kill site" and "I am the only one that had the Bigfoot sighting" (personalizes the story with details that the audience should be able to easily imagine)

P-OT Rhetorical Devices:

• Premise- Presumptions (the normal)- "On January 9th, 2015 @ about 5:20-5:30 p.m. at Canyon Lake, Texas, my family and I were backing out of our drive way ..." (establishes for the audience that the author has a history with Bigfoot-related experiences)
• Presence (Time)- "I asked my son to look and I looked away briefly, when I looked back it was gone" (highlights how fleeting the supposed sighting of Bigfoot was in an urgent manner that keeps the audience invested in wanting the learn more about the experience that the author had)

Connective Statement- Since we have now finished discussing these fallacies and rhetorical devices, let's now look at the fallacies and rhetorical devices that are used to eliminate connections between the author's evidence and ideas not pertaining to the existence of Bigfoot.

Piece 3 (Fallacies and Devices that are used to Avoid Connections that are Not Related To Bigfoot):

Fallacies:

• Appeal To Ignorance-"Also Noticed: nothing really, it just stood there for a moment, then suddenly gone" and "Other Stories: not really, nothing with any merit ..." (helps avoid the audience potentially compare the validity of the author's story with any contradictory details found in other Bigfoot sighting reports)

P-OT Rhetorical Devices:

• Presence (Amplification)- "I pulled the hide back and there was a sharp edged stone underneath the hide ... there was also a 10 feet dragging kill-blood streak across the rocks ... I discovered a 5 foot long stick ... I also discovered tracks" (amplification adds depth to the author's claim about the sighting of Bigfoot which gives the audience a greater insight into the details of the author's experience and offers the audience the opportunity to interpret if the "evidence" being described in the sighting report was really left behind by Bigfoot)

Conclusion:

"Today we discussed the fallacies and rhetorical devices used by the author of this Bigfoot sighting report which rely on the audience's perceptions about Bigfoot, ground the audience in a sense of reality, and intentionally avoid connections with other ideas that would potentially invalidate the author's claim. The author of this Bigfoot sighting report utilizes the fallacies and rhetorical devices that we have discussed in order to cement his credibility and prove to his audience that Bigfoot is existent and capable of leaving behind tracks such as a series of deer kill sites."