(Extra Credit) Living a Sustainable Life- Green Building Basics: Where We Are.

This program is by Bill Brown, the director of the office of Sustainability. In this topic, “Green Building Basics: Where We Are”, is talking about the how architecture related to a sustainable life. The speaker gives an argument which the increasing population would also increase the consumption.

Based on Kinneavy’s “The Basic Aims of Discourse”, “By aim of discourse is meant the effect that the discourse is oriented to achieve in the average is oriented to achieve in the average listener or reader for whom it is intended”(297). The speak uses referential in Reality from Kinneavy’s composition triangle. His speaks is scientific which proving a point by arguing from accepted premises and by generalizing from particulars.

Based on the Gross’s “The Arrangement of the Scientific Paper”, this presentation is experience an inductive process, as it is “a series of laboratory or field events leading to a general statement about natural kinds” (85). The speaker points out the ideas of energy saving which behinds the evidences ( the data of the environment wasting problems that he has given.

The speaker also uses Fahnestock and Secor’s stases, “stases tell us that arguments may concern facts, definitions, causes, values, proposals, and that each kind of argument will employ its own peculiar kinds of warrants” (429). He first gave the reason of what the energy waste is and then told us how the energy waste be produced. After that, he defines the value of building the green buildings and the proposals of how the green buildings help the environment.

According to Stephen Toulmin, a 20th Century philosophizer, "argumentation can be seen as two opposing points of view vying for support among members of a specific audience." By using Toulmin’s five parts of an argument, the speaker’s claim with reason by using the data from WBDC to show the increasing trend of the total electricity use to prove the increasing population and consumption would affect the sustainable life.

For grounds, the speaker use lots of data about the water use, carbon dioxide emission, waste output and electricity consumption, and use the architecture to form a big picture and put everything fix together. The amount of the waste produced can support the claim as it can show how the increasing population and consumption would affect the sustainable life.

For warrant, the speaker uses the triple bottom line to support his ideas of which the economic, ecology and human are strongly related. By showing the relationship, the speaker influences the audience to get involve in saving energy.

For backing, he uses the data from USCBL to show how building the Green building can improve the wasting problem. And he gave some example to prove the green building can be used in every well, such as factories, offices, schools, retails and even hospital. Moreover he points out Indiana University in Bloomington also has the green building, as nearly all audiences are IU students, that can enhance the credibility of the presentation.

Starts from talking about the problem of energy wasting, the speaker provides a detailed data to back up his ideas of energy saving, and enhance the audiences's awareness of the energy saving, and persuade them to get involve in the energy saving program.

Resource:

COLL-T 200 LECTURE: Green Building Basics: Where We Are (Bill Brown, Director, Office of Sustainability)

Kinneavy, James E. "The Basic Aims of Discourse." College Composition and Communication 20.5 (Dec 1969): 297-304

Gross, Alan G. "The Arrangement of the Scientific Paper." The Rhetoric of Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, UP, 1900. 85-96

Fahnestock, Jeanne and Marie Secor. "The Stases in Scientific and Literary Argument." Written Communication 5.4 (Oct 1988): 427-443.