One of the many questions that arise is what makes a documentary appeal to the general audience. While watching Central Park Five, one rhetoric definition that is addressed is enumeratio. For those of you that don’t know, enumeratio is the figures of argument. Now I know some may agree with what I say and some may disagree. Sarah Burns in my opinion does an excellent job of using the statements from the Central Park Fives themselves recalling how the night went in their eyes. This idea reinforcers the whole concept of argumentation in the sense that, it raises the question of what really happened that night? In the documentary Sarah Burns uses a strong sense of the film to get the point of view of that night through the 5, however the accounts of Korey, Kevin and Raymond are what can stick out to most that watch the film. As the three recall that night in their own perspective, certain images were projected on the screen in a close up view such as a cigarette tray with a lit cigarette, a closed door, and pictures of the deceives that interrogated these three. This is important because as I watched the film, I could picture that night in my head, from the smoke being blown in their face from the detectives smoking, the three of them just looking at the door thinking about what it is that they can do to get the hell out of there, and the detectives getting in their face, yelling and cursing in their face. It is no wonder why they made up stories of what happened that night, they simply wanted to get out of that situation. Now those stories that were made up, each story was different, and the only reason why the stories were made is because as Raymond recalled, the detectives would come in and say how they were getting confessions from the other guys saying he did it when in fact that wasn’t true at all. This ties back into what I was talking about in my first blog about the artistic and inartistic reasoning. The inartistic evidence or the implausible evidence that the detectives said they had wasn’t there at all. The accounts of what happened that night from each of the Central Park Five was plausible or inartistic and no one questioned it because in the film as one recalled, the detectives believed that had an open and shut case. In the documentary, what made this so interesting and eye opening was the use of sound and imaging that Sarah Burns used. During certain times, the sound would get a darker ton, followed by dark imaging. This is done so brilliantly because it really does call to attention of how serious the whole situation is. When I create my documentary, this comes in handy. This is due to that if you want to have an audience pay attention and care about what the documentary is about, you need to have things to complement the message such as sound, imaging and even color.

When discussing the art of rhetoric, or how I like to call it; the art of persuasion, one key factor I like to focus on is logos. Logos, as discussed by famous philosopher Aristotle, is the proof of reasoning. It is thus broken into two parts which are artistic and inartistic. Let us discuss first part, which happens to be my personal favorite, inartistic. Inartistic reasoning is fact-based reasoning. Another way of putting it is that it is indisputable. So, when bringing this concept into the Central Park Five, would be the metal pipe. It is scientific evidence that is not plausible. It was used to beat the male jogger and there is no question about it. Now, in Central Park Five there is also several other instances of inartistic reasoning. One, is who was the victim, which was Trisha Meili. Now let’s explore where we being to see some “plausible” or artistic reasoning. When the five gentlemen were arrested, there was no evidence connecting them to the rape/beating. Although it can be argued about the confession. However, the flaws in that are the facts about what Trisha was wearing, how was she beaten etc. The police officers, unfortunately, failed to put two and two together. The pure facts (inartistic reasoning), were not lining up with the statements. In the documentary, the logos elements are queued with specific music to draw on the effectiveness as well as the drama that ensures. For instance, when the film was going over New York in the 1980’s, photos of the city in shambles were spread throughout the screen followed by a very strong dialogue and music that instantly indicated both sadness and frustration. It is amazing to see just what little details such as music can have in terms of impact to the viewers. For instance, when that music hits, the mood of an individual such as myself lowers, I became more intrigued with what was being said, how it was being said and what the overall picture was. It brings to attention the topic of symbolism as well as the first part of rhetoric, invention. From the various ques such as music and pictures (which acts as symbols), when there is dictation from a speaker, influence is not only gained, by emotion is also expressed from the audience. This is important because according to Aristotle, the speaker is achieving two of the three divides of invention. 

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.