Rhetorical Analysis Of Thinking Bigger Than Me In The Liberal Art

Access to media in the online world has created a shift in how people's and students creative processes work. In the article, “Thinking Bigger than Me in the Liberal Art”, written by Stephen J. Tepper compared “me-experiences” to “bigger-than-me-experiences”, with “iCreativty” as the main component. The article uses three main rhetorical strategies, cause and effect, examples, and facts/scientific evidence. As the author stated, “In both culture and education, what we need are more “bigger than me experiences.” (p.230) meaning that they believe this concept should be implemented into students' education. The intended audience of the article is educators as well as generally educated people. The effectiveness of this piece is sufficient, however,

The meaning of this word is cultural activity online, and it emphasizes personal identity, as well as personal expression. To provide examples of "iCreativity," the author employs the rhetorical strategy of facts and statistics. Facts and statistics are excellent ways to provide truthful information in a piece of writing. As the author uses this strategy throughout the article, its effectiveness makes the article more persuasive to prove the author's point. The article starts off by providing information about the decline in attendance to in-person art forms. Then, it introduces how “iCreativty” has impact peoples way to create and perform art. The concept of “iCreativty” is then proven by various facts and statistics. One example is how survey data was used to demonstrate how online media has affected people's self-confidence. In the survey, it states that in 1950, 12 percent of students agreed with the statement “I am a very important person”. However, by 1990, the percentage had risen to 80 percent. As shocking as this statistic may seem, this was the author's purpose, meaning they used rhetorical strategies to prove their point about how students' self-confidence has changed over time and therefore impacted how they

This concept should be more prominent in education because it provides more meaning and purpose for the student, as the author argues. To prove this idea, the rhetorical strategy of using examples from experts and academics is used to prove the article's effectiveness. Examples from universities and books are used to support the author's purpose. A particular example, from an art historian from Harvard University, used this concept of “bigger-than-me-experiences” with her class to provide more meaning and depth, which then created the generation, who very much values themselves, to look deeper. Another key example that Tepper uses is context from the book Hiking the Horizontal written by Liz Lerman. From the book, Tepper focuses on the main point of “free fall” in how students have multiple perspectives and opinions on the same event (231). This rhetorical strategy of examples is used rigorously throughout the paper, which then equates to the intended audience and the author's main purpose.
“Bigger-than-me-experiences” help us develop our empathic imagination —putting ourselves in others shoes, adopting a different perspective, and trying to identify with a different place, time, or people” ( p.231) and by analyzing this description the author also gives information about how ‘bigger-than-me-experiences” are about insight and the