As I began my journey through this course, I figured that I may encounter difficulties as writing, in general, is not one of my strengths. In fact, I have always had a subtle disdain for the writing and english courses, as I have found them repetitive since middle school. I mean I figured there’s only so many ways I can write a persuasive essay under the guise of other objectives. I figured this course would be a typical writing class envisioned with an onslaught of countless assignments that would be regarded as “process work”. Thus far, my expectations have been the polar opposite of the course. The course’s emphasis on rhetorical tools, devices and appeals within multiple mediums has allowed me to view composition in a slightly brighter …show more content…
light. Despite my shortcoming in inspiration or ideas for papers, I feel my work, when existent, has become more refined, and focused. While I feel I have improved in rhetorical analysis, there is still considerable room for improvement. Surely, it is the area of my writing that I’d like to heighten. While I entered the course with an adequate level of competency in writing, I hope I have improved, and will continue to improve my compositional skills in writing courses, as well as beyond the confines of academia in my personal and professional life. Thus far, it is apparent that my most valuable lesson learned came through my experience in the construction of the rhetorical analysis.
I’ve learned greatly about my writing, as well as my life through the obstacles I’ve faced within the process of the rhetorical analysis. I came into the quarter believing that I would be able to keep pace with the procedures for paper, because there were essentially no concurrent assignments in our class. Unfortunately, attempting to juggle my writing with the remainder of my course load, my job, and my obligatory life tasks (ie. paying bills, jury duty) has become rather hectic. I have attempted to compromise on all fronts, but essentially I find that leads to me, for the lack of a better term “half-assing” everything. I want better, and my professors (especially you), coworkers, and family/friends deserve better. I am trying to find the balance, and know that it is necessary not just for the course, or the quarter, or even UCI, but essentially the remainder of life (sigh). Ultimately, I know it is my responsibility to properly delegate time properly to suffice all of my vital commitments inside and out of academia, until this priorital equilibrium is found, I know won’t be doing my
best. In the interim, on the compositional front, I have seen my rhetorical analysis writing process suffer. As noted in my artifacts, I left much to be desired in the two drafts, the brevity of the drafts made completing the polished version a far more daunting task than it should have been. Fortunately, in attending class and participating in peer review, I realized there were several ways in which I could bolster the rhetoric and detail in my writing. I specifically credit my classmate Kimberly Huerta with showing me that there truly are different levels to writing. She definitely gave me new perspective on the rhetorical analysis and challenged me to get the best I could out of my final draft. She noted that I had the framework a strong paper, but I needed to flesh it out with details and well based analysis. Ironically, she was concerned with her work needing to be more focused, and my final rhetorical analysis ended up running slightly long. Another unforeseen moment in my writing process was finding inspiration in our classroom analysis of Kanye West’s comments on TMZ. While I did not end up referencing Mr. West in my paper, his episode prompted me to add a supporting argument based in contemporary issues that highly successful African American men face in regards to freedom. I sincerely hope my rhetorical analysis showcased my growth in producing a more refined product devoid of filler, albeit outside of the time constraints (sorry :(, Professor Slade). Moreover I hope I can carry the trend through the final weeks. For the remainder of the quarter, I hope to continue evolving as a writer and transitively a person. In the time I have remaining, I want to properly incorporate the insight I’ve gained thus far into my final works, ensuring that my growth as a writer is apparent and I give me premier pieces forward. In order to achieve this, I will do all I can in the final weeks striving to complete all the assignments, infusing all the my newfound compositional technique for my advancement as a writer, namely in using/analyzing rhetorical tools, devices and appeals. If I can accomplish this, I believe I will be a better composer, student and person, ready to apply my growth to all aspects of my life.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published a pamphlet called “A Modest Proposal”. It is a satirical piece that described a radical and humorous proposal to a very serious problem. The problem Swift was attacking was the poverty and state of destitution that Ireland was in at the time. Swift wanted to bring attention to the seriousness of the problem and does so by satirically proposing to eat the babies of poor families in order to rid Ireland of poverty. Clearly, this proposal is not to be taken seriously, but merely to prompt others to work to better the state of the nation. Swift hoped to reach not only the people of Ireland who he was calling to action, but the British, who were oppressing the poor. He writes with contempt for those who are oppressing the Irish and also dissatisfaction with the people in Ireland themselves to be oppressed.
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
A rhetoric analysis can be defined as the breakdown of components used to make a persuasive argument or judgment on a particular subject or topic. The ability to make a conclusion or decision on a given thought or idea in a moment of seconds is a result of rhetorical analysis. “Because media rhetoric surrounds us, it is important to understand how rhetoric works. If we refuse to stop and think about how and why it persuades us, we can become mindless consumers who buy into arguments about what makes us value ourselves and what makes us happy”. In Carroll’s essay “Backpacks Vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis”, she discusses the nature of rhetorical analysis, how it affects our everyday lives and explains the role context plays.
In a quote by John Mill, “Does fining a criminal show want of respect for property, or imprisoning him, for personal freedom? Just as unreasonable is it to think that to take the life of a man who has taken that of another is to show want of regard for human life. We show, on the contrary, most emphatically our regard for it, by the adoption of a rule that he who violates that right in another forfeits it for himself, and that while no other crime that he can commit deprives him of his right to live, this shall.” Everyone’s life is precious, but at what price? Is it okay to let a murderer to do as they please? Reader, please take a moment and reflect on this issue. The issue will always be a conflict of beliefs and moral standards. The topic
In a persuasive essay, rhetorical appeals are a very important tool to influence the audience toward the author’s perspective. The three rhetorical appeals, which were first developed by Aristotle, are pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos appeals to the emotions of the audience, logos appeals to the facts or evidence and ethos exhibits the credibility of the writer.
The movie trailer “Rio 2”, shows a great deal of pathos, ethos, and logos. These rhetorical appeals are hidden throughout the movie trailer; however, they can be recognized if paying attention to the details and montage of the video. I am attracted to this type of movies due to the positive life messages and the innocent, but funny personifications from the characters; therefore, the following rhetorical analysis will give a brief explanation of the scenes, point out the characteristics of persuasive appeals and how people can be easily persuaded by using this technique, and my own interpretation of the message presented in the trailer.
As a student, I have learned many different skills that I will take with me throughout my journey from this course. We have traversed many different types of writing styles, which any college student, or any person for that
A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, is a satirical pamphlet that was published to the public in 1729. Its purpose was to shock the citizens of Ireland with an appalling solution to their economic troubles at the time. Swift’s purpose for A Modest Proposal was to present a horrific solution for an ever growing problem in Ireland. He adopts an aloof but eerily serious tone to grab the attention of the lower and middle class.
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.
Director Steven Spielberg and auther Markus Zusak, in their intriguing production, movie Saving Private Ryan and book The Book Thief, both taking place during World War II. However , in Saving Private Ryan Spielberg focus on a lot of complications that occur during war , but guilt was one difficulty that stood out to me. Zusak, on the other hand , showas that having courage during war can be a advantage and also an disadvantage depending on the situation. Both director and author grabed the audience attention with emotional and logical appeal.
Reflective Memo English 202C is the class specially provided for engineering students preparing them for the future profession. The course practices students on formal writing in the engineering scale, moreover, it trains the critical thinking of the students through the technical memo practice. Through the six weeks writing course, in the end of the day, there is a lot of things to take away. The concept I appreciated the most is the course teaches engineering student how to describe, explain things from different perspective, address different audience base on their understanding. As a future engineering, it is crucially important to know your audience regarding the people from the work field not only engineers but business experts as well.
The American Scholar: In this speech although primarily addressed to the extraordinarily intelligent members of Phi Beta Kappa society in Harvard College, speaker Ralph Waldo Emerson later published this speech to share his thoughts on an abstract concept of ‘The American Scholar’. Considered as one of the original American intellectuals, Emerson calls for an all American scholar, independent from America’s European ties, seeking the intellect from the sources of America. Emerson discusses this concept of the “Man thinking” with a hope to familiarize his audience with how a scholar should be educated and what his duties are. And while discussing all these points, Emerson uses various similes, metaphors and a lot of repetition to strongly
The article Things I Have Learned (So Far) by Cohen (1990) speaks volumes even in today’s modern era. Better said, the points of discussion regarding the scientific method are ones that are relevant in today’s research environment. By offering advice such as having few independent variables and even fewer dependent measures or utilizing simple experimental analyses when possible, allows one to gain much more confidence in their results. This confidence is driven in part from the fewer independent to dependent linkages and the reliability of simplistic computations. However, I believe the most valuable topic of discussion is the use of power analysis and noncentral distributions to make an informed decision rather than relying solely on p values.
Over the past semester, I have found the most challenging part of this course to simply be the transition from high school composition classes to college. Because writing expectations are so different in college than in high school, even with AP and Dual Enrollment “college level” classes, I first found myself being overwhelmed with the pressure to write the perfect first draft. The pressure came from knowing how much a final draft of a paper contributed to my grade. This left me sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time with thoughts of what I wanted to say racing through my head, but unable to deliver these thoughts into organized, structured sentences. I learned, through writing my persuasive essay, that instead of trying to write the paper start to finish and already in its perfect form, it is easier for me to look at the paper through its different components and focus on them individually, then work to best organize my ideas fluently.