Professional Documents
Culture Documents
skills necessary to become successful in this world. I hope to prove that I have
made progress myself.
My writing has improved substantially over this semester. I started off poorly,
so it wasnt too difficult to improve on it, but the amount of progress I have made is
significant. I knew that it had, if only on the basis of how I thought about things and
ideas, but after writing my post assessment and comparing it to my preassessment, I was astounded. Firstly, my knowledge of what rhetoric is has grown
much larger. My previous conception was limited to the way something is phrased.
That is more or less true. Rhetoric, however, is something much grander. One
definition of rhetoric is, the art or science of
all specialized literary uses of language in prose or verse. Once again, this
definition is not as good as simply going through all the different uses of rhetoric. In
beginning to understand rhetoric, not only was my writing affected, but my daily life
as well. I have begun to notice how often various forms of rhetoric are being used,
as well as how the effectiveness of a rhetorical strategy is largely dependent on the
audience and the person applying the strategy. One of my aunts provides an
excellent example of this. Ever since I was a young teenager, most of what she said
never carried weight with me, especially, however, with threats. On the other hand,
many of my cousins were terrified of her. Her favorite strategy was to instill fear,
often preying on previous pains like some evil vulture. But these threats were
typically ridiculous, if nothing else but for the complete senselessness of making
them in the first place. In addition, there were always large logical fallacies like
gaping holes in any argument she was trying to make. Now, this approach is
affective on a certain population of the family. This population within the audience
consists of those who allow their past mistakes and fear of them to control them,
and those who are just stupid or choose not to think. The rest of the family just
disregards them. Understanding the basic principles of rhetoric has helped me to
understand why this is, and given me a way of striking back myself. A fun way to
think about learning rhetoric is to imagine I am learning a language martial art. It is
a fairly accurate statement. After all, combat is really just another means of
persuasion. And we all know the adage, the pen is mightier than the sword.
When it comes to my writing, there have been several distinct improvements,
and most have to do with my writing process. Before this course, my writing process
consisted of procrastinating till the last minute, freaking out, typing a bunch of crap,
and then my mom would rewrite it so it sounded good. It is easy to say that that
process was not a very good one. On the first day or two of class, you asked us all to
think about what our writing process was. After discovering that I didnt really have
one, I took action. The largest change I made was starting earlier. That has allowed
me to develop and implement a writing process. Like everybody else, I hit road
blocks when I am writing or even just compiling ideas. Before I would keep going at
it and hammer myself into the dust until I had nothing left. These days, I know that I
need to get up and walk around. What works best is to get a drink, then play guitar
or ukulele for 5-10 minutes. This helps me to recharge and refocus, which helps
immensely with my writing. I have also added drafts to my writing process. Even for
a rough draft assignment, I do my best to have someone look it over and make
changes before that draft even gets turned in. I have had many opportunities to do
this in my German course. In that course, we write a paper almost every week. It
has provided me with excellent opportunities to further develop my writing process.
In the end, the language does not affect how I come to write it.
was based solely on what various audiences needed. I soon came to realize that
while I understood the basic needs of our target audiences, I didnt understand well
enough. And I couldnt if I decided to stay in an ivory tower and just theorize about
what they needed. I had enough peers who would be included in the target
audiences and was able to talk with them and get feedback. This helped me gain
greater insight into what people would actually want to read. And not just some idea
I had about what they may want to read. Then of course, I needed to adapt my
writing to suit their needs. Once again, developing rhetorical strategies was a key
element.
As you have mentioned, there are limitless rhetorical strategies. Some have
fancy names, but many are just strategies, invented to serve a purpose. All of these
strategies can be led back to ethos, logos, and pathos. As one masters these ideas
and really gets to know his audience, he will be able to invent a rhetorical strategy
for any purpose. It could be anything from getting a grant to applying for another
position in the department, perhaps a letter of recommendation, or defending ones
grade. Any situation where the outcome can be swayed, rhetoric, good rhetoric
anyways, is of great value. Not only does it help one to persuade the untrained, it
shows everyone who knows what they are talking about that you are worth listening
to. In this world, many people wont give you a second if they dont feel you are
worth listening to. Using good rhetoric is a way of indicating that one is indeed
worth the time.
Even though I currently have a low B, I recommend a low A for my grade. It is
clear that I did not complete all of the tasks to an excellent level, but the
improvement that I have made throughout the semester is remarkable. Whether I
receive this grade or not, this improvement will aid me in further developing and
Works Cited
Rhetoric. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved December 13, 2015 from
Dictionary.com websitehttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rhetoric