The Importance Of Realizations

During the first five weeks of this class, I went more in depth of ethos, pathos, logos, rhetorical situation, etc., than I thought I ever would. Sure, I studied it Junior year, and I thought that was that. Apparently, this was not the case. Returning back to those thoughts this year, I find myself understand much more than I previously had and I can now accurately, and coherently describe those moments where I fully understood the subject at hand. I will begin with my most recent and most impacting realization: Audience.
It was seen in our mini-assignment 2 reflection, where I had that "Ah-ha!" moment, but it wasn't that clearly articulated. Now that I have given time to think about it, I can very easily say what I mean. Audience determines everything. Not just in academic essays, but quite literally everything. I can explain so with a few examples, granted, they are extreme examples, they will help replicate my thoughts. Being that audience determines everything, think about Obama, or any president for that matter. Would he talk the same way he does during a state of the union address as he would during dinner with his family? Of course not. Why? It's because of the audience that he is trying to communicate to. Could you imagine, "Honey. I would be so blessed, and it would make me proud of you, this wonderful country, and the freedom we all hold as citizens, if you could please pass me the salt." It just doesn't work like that. Or the opposite. "Congress, look, I kind of had a long day, so can we just keep this short cos I've got to get home to the ol' ball 'n' chain?"
vs.

Another example would be a rather obvious, but still important one, and that is writing an email to your parents vs. sending a text to your friend. Emailing your mother your plans for coming home over break would be much different than emailing your friends. It's the same format, but everything changes; logos, ethos, and pathos, they all change. With your parents you might sound something like "Can't wait to come home, I've missed you." vs. your friends, "So psyched to hang out soon guys! It's gonna be awesome!" Even though the rhetorical situation (coming home) is the same for both, each audience determines how and what you write.

In regards to another "Ah-ha!" moment, I had one while we were giving our mini-presentations (the one where Andrew ordered Jimmy Johns during class, a classic indeed) about ethos. This one isn't quite as outstanding or pertinent as audience, but while I speaking, I drew a connection between the word "author" and the word "authority." It was an amazing sensation when it clicked: "The author has authority over his or her work! Authority comes from the author! I get it! You just add -ity!"
It finally made sense that the author had the authority to choose how to communicate their writing to the audience. And even though the audience determines how the author writes, the author has the authority to write at any audience s/he would like to direct it towards. A beautiful pushing and pulling of ethos, logos, and pathos go in within the rhetorical situation when the author and the audience are involved. Quite lovely when you think about it.

And for my last epiphany, I must say, I am still waiting for it to happen. Honestly, I am wishing it will happen as I type. And it is in regards to creating a "Theory of Writing." For whatever reason, I can not seem to grasp the concept. I mean, sure, I understand Theory and I understand writing, but a theory of writing is the epiphany I have yet to have. Now music theory, that's something I understand and excel in. It's all about understand how each individual part of music, no matter how small, can contribute to a much larger image such as a composition of sorts. I'm trying awfully hard to make a connection between the two, but nothing clear has come out. Ethos is the instrumentation, pathos is the notes, and logos is the structure, and they all combine and create a rhetorical situation (the composition) written by the rhetor (the composer). See, it's there, but it's much too opaque to make sense to anyone else... and then to come up with a theory of writing. "Combining all of these strategies, i.e. logos, pathos, ethos, audience, and rhetorical situation, an author can effectively compose a piece of writing." No no no. That doesn't flow. So far, no "ah-ha!" moment for Theory of Writing. I still have 4 more weeks though. It will come to me.

One thing that did make this post possible though was another Steven Johnson video titles "Motivation" that may help you understand where, when and why motivation occurs. A very helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM9p4o050EY&