Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Why Should I go to Clemson?


Why Should I go to Clemson?
By: Rob Reid

The pictures on Clemson’s homepage focus prospective students on some of the positive aspects of the Clemson and the captions, links, and stories on the website further illustrate a positive image of Clemson. Clemson’s homepage is attempting to make the argument that Clemson is new, spacious, and technologically advanced. The viewer is immediately drawn in to the picture on the front page of the New Life Sciences facility. In the picture the facility looks, brand new. Part of the caption on the picture claims the facility is “…new and world class…” This also highlights Clemson’s pride in this building and Clemson is hoping to convince prospective students that attending Clemson will give them an opportunity to learn using the best equipment in the world. This would lead prospective students to believe many, if not all Clemson buildings are new and state of the art facilities. The picture is also empty; there are no people inside the building. The lack of people in the picture would lead prospective students may believe that Clemson is not as big of an institution as it seems. They may think that Clemson, like the room in the picture, is mostly empty and the viewer can picture themselves and/or their friends in the room with them. The picture emphasizes the large layout of the building. With a large building, prospective students would think there would be expensive machines in the building that they could use.

If you scroll down the webpage, Clemson’s list of events catches your attention. Today in particular, there are many events happening today across Clemson’s campus. The full calendar would lead students to believe that Clemson is a busy place, so they have to do be serious about their work to succeed academically. Even though students can’t see a full calendar for every day on Clemson’s homepage, they would assume that each day is very busy, just like today. It also would lead students to believe they will never be bored at Clemson because there is a plethora of activities on campus.

Clemson also has many links to different websites on their homepage. On the left side of the homepage, these links take the viewer across the World Wide Web. A prospective student would believe Clemson’s is technology is up-to-date based on the many links that exist on the homepage. There are even links to facebook, twitter, and youtube on the homepage. These icons lead prospective students to believe Clemson understands current trends among kids their age, and it can relate to their needs as a student. It would lead them to believe Clemson is a student driven campus.

I think the argument is effective because the pictures and captions lead students to believe Clemson is a great place for them to attend. The pictures of the building highlight some of Clemson’s newer facilities and the nnumerous links highlight the fact the Clemson is technologically up-to-date. Though the homepage is a bit busy (there are may be too many different links across the homepage), students would be swayed to come to Clemson based on its homepage.

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