Writer Journal #5

Q.1: Based on the readings and videos that you read/watched during week one,
how would you describe rhetoric? What is the rhetorical situation and how do
you see an awareness of this concept affecting your writing and behaviors?

____________________________________________________________________________________

every situation in life where theres a

Based on my reading in the fields
of the English language, writing, and
composition, I think that rhetoric is
the art of communicating ideas and
thoughts to a specific group of
people in a way such that the
message the writer is trying to
communicate is communicated as
effectively as possible. If you think
about our daily interactions between
each other, you realize that we use
rhetorical analysis all the time. Its a
habit, we do it while were not even
aware. When youre trying to
convince your father to give you his
car, you use rhetoric automatically.
You think of the audience, your dad,
and how to fit your tone and words
such that he agrees to give you his
car. When youre trying to explain a
concept in physics to your younger
brother, you think of the purpose of
his understanding. Its probably to
pass a test. And so you till him the
tips and tricks in answering
questions about this concept.
Rhetoric is also present in
commercial advertisements,
designing video games, designing
consumer products, and virtually in
main communicator (this
communicator could be anyone
from a film producer to a vice
president) and an audience (the
expected group of people to receive
the message).
When were interacting with people,
were considering not only the
audience but the purpose of our
speech. When your son has done
something stupid he shouldnt have,
you talk to him in a rough and high-
pitched tone. You have to discipline
him.
From the examples above, I think its
clear what the meaning of rhetoric
and the rhetorical situation is and
how it affects our behaviors
according to our expected audiences
so that we can reach our desired
goals for any message delivered to
an audience. Our awareness of this
concept in our writing affects our
language, evidence, design of the
page, length of the writing and
practically every single aspect that
could possibly exist in order to fit
our audience mindsets.
 Q.2: Describe a recent writing experience or activity where you used rhetoric to
effectively convey a message to a specific audience? What was the purpose of
the message? Who was the audience? How did you go about appealing to that
audience?

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Recently, I have been writing
a case study about solar energy and
whether we can depend on it to
replace fossil fuels. The purpose of
the essay was to give my audience a
general idea of solar energy and
climate change, since the reason we
want it to replace fossil fuels is
climate change from the first place.
I started by writing my
introduction about climate fossil
fuels is climate change from the first
place. I started by writing my
introduction about climate change. I
explained why climate change is
bad, what its causes and supported
my arguments using rough and
accurate data from reliable sources
with proper citation to achieve
credibility, bearing in mind that my
audience are educated and
intelligent people who will probably
ask me about my source.
Then I explained how solar
cells work in a concise and clear way
because there will be some students
who may not know or understand
how solar cells work. After that I
started writing about the history of
the solar energy all the way from
using it to ignite fire to converting
sunlight into useful electricity. I was
brief in that section because other
students who will read my essay are
probably busy people or will get
bored if they find me diving into the
topic more than needed. Finally, I
talked about the ability of the
current solar panels to convert
electricity effectively and built on
that to draw a conclusion about the
reliability of solar panels to generate
power.
If you have been analyzing
my methods you will probably have
noticed that I was doing my best to
try and fit the essay to my audience
personalities.
There are even more
decisions I have made before and
during writing, like avoiding technical
language (for example, using
sunlight rather than the photons of
the visible electromagnetic radiation
and solar cells and not photovoltaic
cells
Dont lose your audience by
assuming knowledge they dont
have
-Lauren Hug, author of The
Managers guide to presentations
 Q.3: In what ways do you see your understanding of rhetoric and the rhetorical
situation affecting your future writing projects?

Ill first start with my expected future projects. Im a self-directed learner and my
fields of interest are biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. I am currently
studying these topics in order to be a freelancing scientific essay and articles
writer. So, my expected future projects are blog articles, high-school
assignments, college essays, lessons for self-earning websites and so on. My
awareness and study of rhetoric will probably make me better at choosing what
details to include, what terms to use, and how to explain concepts, which will
make me better able to capture my readers attention and communicate him my
message.

Q.4: The WPA Outcomes lists Rhetorical Knowledge first in the list of outcomes
areas. What does this say about the importance of rhetorical knowledge to
writing? Given your experience of the course so far, how important does
rhetorical knowledge seem to writing and the writing process?

I think that rhetoric is a crucial aspect of writing. Lots of books, articles, speeches,
commercials, websites and companies could have been really great if they knew
about rhetoric, Rhetoric is a critical skill that every rhetor should master in order
to succeed, which makes it really important for writing, because it shapes the
writing and affects it strongly. You have to know your audience, narrow the
purpose and study the context of your writing for it to be a successful work.