Olivia Unger

November 30, 2014

Rhetoric
Ms. Weaver
Portfolio Reflection
Looking back and reflecting on all of my writing assignments I have
completed in this class thus far, I can clearly see a tremendous difference in my
writing style and how it has evolved throughout the semester. Coming into this class
I had no idea what a discourse community was or even who I was as a literate
individual, but I have come to know both of those things and many other factors
about reading, writing, and text.
On the first day of this class I didnt know what to expect. To be honest, I
wasnt quite sure what rhetoric even was or what it meant. Thankfully, thats what
the first class was centered around. What is rhetoric? Ms. Weaver said to start the
class. As everybody blankly looked around the room at each other, Ms. Weaver put
up on the screen 4 different definitions of what it means. All 4 definitions were from
different sources, but they all had the same meaning. The one that made most sense
to me was the one from page 319 in Writing About Writing, and it said Attempts to
explain or help us understand how people interact through language and other symbols,
and to predict what will create more and less successful interaction in the future. This
definition alone helped pave the way for thoughts to start evolving and thinking about
what all rhetoric has to offer, but I cant say that I wasnt still completely lost.
One of the very first assignments we did was our literacy narrative. My goal
in this assignment was to convey all of the key elements that lead to the making of my
literary identity by telling you about my experience in Mr. Thomass class and the book
report I had to do, along with helping my mom read the dog bios for her volunteer work
with the dog rescue group and my friend Alex making fun of me for blurting out random
animal facts. I really didnt have the slightest clue as to what I was doing, and Im pretty
sure my paper revealed that. It got to the point where I was just typing random words and
blabbing on about nothing just so I could make it to the required word count.
Barely making it out alive from my literary narrative assignment and
everything we learned in class up to that point, I started working on my
ethnography paper. I started off this paper not really understanding what our task was
and how to go about completing it. I had to have it explained to me about 15 times before
I could get a handle on it, and even then it was a little shaky. I finally figured out that my
goal in this assignment was to convey a few of Swales 6 characteristics of discourse
communities while I observed my old high school basketball team. I noticed how they all
shared common goal of wanting to win the championship game of the tournament, I also
noticed how they had old/new members (freshman and seniors) and most importantly I
noticed their use of lexis when calling out certain plays. All of these different terms like
lexus, discourse community and Swales 6 characteristics I had no idea about until
entering this class. I feel it has opened up a whole new perspective on reading and writing
for me. Its weird how much my writing had already transformed just from my literacy
narrative paper to my ethnography paper.

Olivia Unger
November 30, 2014
Rhetoric
Ms. Weaver
One of our most recent assignments that Ive done is my rhetorical analysis
essay. For this paper, we had to pic a text to analyze the message/theme through the
rhetorical elements (exigence, rhetor, audience, rhetorical constraints, ethos, logos,
pathos), and evaluate the success of the text. My goal in this assignment was to convey
the overall theme and aspects the commercial GMC Terrain Mother feels her daughter
is safe uses to get the target audiences attention and make them want to buy the GMC
Terrain for themselves, by giving examples and explaining all the different aspects of the
commercial. Through this assignment, I learned about the use of exigence, rhetor,
audience, rhetorical constraints, ethos, logos, and pathos in a text. At this point I
started getting the hang of things and understanding more about what I was writing.
I already knew about ethos, pathos and logos, so I was able to take what I already
knew and start from there. I am now able to identify them and use them in my own
text. Once again my writing and knowledge has evolved and made me a more
experienced writer.
Not to mention my writing responses from the start of the year all the way to
the end. My writing has evolved in my different ways from when I first stepped foot
into this class. I am now more a more literate individual and aware of all the
rhetorical elements that are used in certain texts. In my writing response #1 I wrote,
Writing About Writing seemed to be more focused on the writers overall thoughts
and ideas about what they were writing and how the reader would perceive it,
rather than their correctness of grammar and punctuation. While on the other hand,
Eats, Shoots and Leaves couldn't stress the importance enough about how critical it
is to have the least amount of errors as possible. Although my statement is correct,
its more simply put and I remember not fully understanding what Writing About
Writing was fully about. In my last writing response I responded to Sommers text
about how she describes student writers and experienced writers. I said, I feel like
for someone to become an experienced writer you have to failed in writing at some
point and learn from your mistakes. You also need to be aware of all the different
types of writings and styles to figure out what suites you best. In this last writing
response, I feel like I fully grasped the concept that Sommer was trying to give off
and responded in a literate manner.
Like Sommers wrote in her article, I feel like at the beginning of the year I
was a student writer. I didnt really understand certain concepts or rhetorical
elements and how to put them to use, I was just writing to write. Now at the end of
the semester I feel like I have a handle on the concept and how to properly use these
elements. My writing has most definitely evolved, but I wouldnt say Im an
experienced writer just yet. I know there is so much more I have yet to learn. I am
now at the start of realizing the type of writer I really am, and I have many more
levels to go until I am what Sommer says an experienced writer.