Chelsea Lavelle  

Professor Shannon Giambanco  

English 170 

2 November 2023  

Creating “The Effects of Social Media on Fast Fashion”  

Prior to building my presentation, I had to consider the rhetorical situation and evaluate what would make my presentation the most successful. In order to create an effective summary of my research paper, I had to extract the most important points of my argument while maintaining my original message. Although it was difficult to not include my entire research paper, I made an attempt to focus on the strongest aspects of my paper while omitting other parts. I deconstructed the body of my research paper into three main components: how trends on social media lead to overconsumption, the environmental impact, and social media’s potential as a solution. Although I had other supporting arguments in my paper, I think that these topics are the foundation of my essay and are therefore the most important to discuss. In the slides of these topics, I include corresponding images that serve to strengthen my point. One of the images I chose to include is a photograph of birds drinking from water that has been polluted by landfills. This relates directly to my argument since I am discussing the ways in which social media contributes to landfills, and how landfills impact local wildlife. This connects fast fashion to a serious environmental issue that is relevant and must be addressed. The image evokes pathos and makes my message more tangible because they are seeing the direct impact of landfills and fast fashion.  

Another important factor I considered while creating my presentation was building a good balance of pathos, ethos, and logos. In order to do this, I made sure to consider my audience so that I could create an argument that would be most persuasive to my specific demographic. Since I am presenting to a college class, I know that I am talking to a group that uses a lot of social media, which is relevant to my argument. My audience is susceptible to following the unsustainable fashion trends that are promoted on social media, and I can use pathos to evoke a sense of responsibility. The conclusion of my slideshow serves to encourage my audience to take action against unsustainable fashion by making the most of their clothes. I think that establishing pathos beforehand can strengthen this point. Another method of making my argument more persuasive was by establishing ethos. When I presented my evidence, I made sure to introduce my sources and establish credibility. For example, when I am discussing the results of a study, I include the year it was conducted to show that the information is recent. I also made an effort to establish logos throughout my presentation.  While outlining, I made sure my talking points had an argumentative quality and flowed together seamlessly to create a strong and cohesive argument. Through the use of these rhetorical strategies, I can create an effective argument and urge the audience to acknowledge the effect that social media has on the fashion industry and, ultimately, how this impacts the environment. 

In the Ted talk, “Nature is everywhere — we just need to learn to see it”, Emma Marris exhibits many positive qualities during her presentation that I want to include in mine. Marris begins her speech with a strong hook that immediately grabs the audience’s attention and then elaborates on this point by beginning to build her argument. As she elaborates, she lists some compelling statistics, and I plan to also do this during my introduction since it is a good method of capturing the audience’s attention. The visuals that went alongside Marris’s presentation were simple and contributed to her argument, which is an important quality that I replicated in my slideshow. Marris also understood her audience and articulated her points very clearly by explaining terms that may not be familiar to them. (Marris). By employing the strategies that Emma Marris uses, as well as the other strategies discussed throughout this paper, I hope to demonstrate social media’s influence on the fashion industry and its broader environmental impact.  

 

Works Cited 

Marris, Emma. “Nature is everywhere — we just need to learn to see it.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading , June 2016, www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_-just_need_to_learn_to_see_it. Accessed 2 Nov. 2023.