Finding the Core to Writing

English and Writing have always been my worst classes. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school when I took my first writing class that I really enjoyed. I’ll never forget, Creative Writing, seventh period with Mr. Bosch, because without it, I would have never started or ever been interested in the basics of writing. Coming into my first year hear at Denver I was worried about the choices I had for Writing requirements. As the quarter went on I could admit that I began to slowly enjoy writing and learning about the critical components of a good piece. In my experience, this class opened up a variety of techniques that I learned as a writer myself, more specifically, the importance of my approach (ethos, pathos or logos), my tone of voice (choosing your audience), and accurately addressing my rhetorical situation.

My first moment had to have been our first reading on rhetorical situation. It made no sense to me and I couldn’t even pronounce it correctly. After only a couple days it opened more in my writing that I could have ever imagined. I began to think about why I choose every word that I did. I never thought about writing as an action or response until now. Rhetorical situation allows you to directly reach your intended audience using persuasive language strategically to accurately reach your goals or interests.

Another major aspect I gradually realized was the approach I needed to take in order to make my argument strong and credible. This is made up of an ethos; pathos or logos approach to your audience. Without this, I realized writing would be dry with nothing to pull you in. Each of these techniques creates a different approach that may draw any given audience into your work with many different intended genres and styles.

Lastly I learned that my tone of voice is extremely important in every piece that I write in order to make a strong argument. Without the right tone, you jeopardize your intended audience and your main point that you are trying to argue. The power of your tone can make or break your piece when any given individual listen, reads or interprets what your saying.

Its the core of your writing that builds your foundation for any piece and without these aspects i came to realize your writing is nothing at all. Without each of these important moments in your writing process, your work will become dull and meaningless, weak and boring.

Don't Let your Light Bulb Burn Out!

In our busy society today, there is an increased portion of our daily lives that are dictated for us, and the result of this is that, at least for me personally, we have forgotten about the light bulb that resides in
each of our heads. I have a daily routine, and the only thing that really changes with it is what is served in the dining hall, and what assignment I have to do for my classes. Even though these assignments change, I tend to do them mechanically, just doing what I know I need to do to get the grade and turn it in. Ever since I have been in Kara Taczak’s writing class, a combination of the fact that it is a class that I actually enjoy, and the content that I am learning has made me stop and remember my light bulb. When I consider it, I realize that over the course of this class it has turned on more than a few times.

My first “moment” that illuminated my light bulb and pulled me out of my mental slum was the first day of class, when I first met the professor. As I am sure many students can sympathize with, it is extremely hard for me to fully devote myself academically to a teacher I find extremely dull, disorganized or mean. I am not the student who checks a professor’s ratings before signing up for their class, so the first day of ever class is a gamble. I not only let out a huge sigh of relief the first day when Professor Taczak walked in, wearing fashion forward clothes, talking without even a hint of a monotone, and pulled out zebra bordered paper, but I decided that this was going to be possibly the first class I have taken at college that I actually enjoy. My light bulb burned bright at the prospect of not dreading going to class every time, and doing my homework to the fullest and trying my hardest because I finally had a teacher I wanted to impress. Although it may not be the type of “moment” most people may expect to be a turning point during this course, as someone who doesn’t usually enjoy school, this was more influential to me than perhaps any
other moment.

The second time my light bulb switched on was the introduction of rhetorical situations. I have always been an anti-conformist, I do not have Uggs or tall leather boots, I recently acquired my first flannel, and I refused to get an iPhone as long as I could, all because I just don’t like doing the same thing as everyone else. However, the concept of a rhetorical situation showed me that all of the unique and creative writing I have done over my life is actually not random at all, and is responding to some event or situation. This is a fact that I probably did realize on a subconscious level, but it was forgotten along with my light bulb. This “moment” has not really burnt out yet, and I do not think it ever will. It has caused me to look at my writing in an entirely new way. Understanding not only what a rhetorical situation is, but the contents of one has changed the way that I think about writing and is a new found concept that I think will stick with me for life, which is something I cannot say for most of what I learn in school.

One of the concepts within rhetorical situation that earned a light bulb of its own is audience. I
was one of the students that wrote what she thought the teacher wanted to hear. But then I realized through this course that what we think the teacher wants to hear is completely false, because in most cases they want to hear us in what we write; what we have to say. Now knowing the foundations of audience, I can appreciate that I need to not only be true to myself in my writing, but also know that I do myself an injustice if I do not. What I write about is connected
to me personally, I am communicating my ideas with someone other than myself, and if I do not do that in the most efficient and appropriate way for who I am
writing for, my opinions will not be taken for their full worth.

It is very easy to stop noticing the things that stimulate your brain, but once that happens then the most important thing that makes each of us who we are, our ideas and thoughts, are lost. Do not let your light bulb burn out and become another educational zombie in the system, and always take notice when it lights up, because that will not only make for better work, but
a more enjoyable experience.

Throughout high school, writing was all about the five-paragraph essay, having the correct number of sources, and making sure the word count was close enough. I disliked writing class, and despised my teacher because my papers were never good enough, or were lacking a few small details. Back then writing was all about finishing an assignment that was taken from a rubric.

When we first arrived in class, we began talking about the idea of a rhetorical situation, or situation that causes a person to want to prove a point about something. When in high school, I never thought that the rubrics I was given were probably meant for me to find a situation that would make me want to write and argue. The idea that our assignments were not just given because they had to be, but that we were actually supposed to get us to dig deeper and make connections that we had previously missed or never made.

The idea of audience was not heavily introduced in high school, making it hard to target ones piece of writing. In high school, I always just assumed that we were writing for the teacher because they handed out the grades. After looking at the subjects of rhetorical situation and audience, I now realize the extreme importance of tailoring a piece of writing to the specific audience. In regard to rhetorical situation, and changing the audience’s views on a certain subject, the matter becomes even more important.

Writing with a purpose seems to be the bigger point of the class, and realizing the power that writing has. In MLK’s letter, he wrote with a greater good in mind, of freeing his people from segregation, and implementing the values that our government had promised on the creation of our country. MLK knew exactly what needed to be said, and the audience that it needed to appeal to; to this day I am one-hundred percent positive that MLK’s letter has inspired many people to do the right thing.

When I used to think of genre, I would think about the classification of movies and books into action, comedy, or thriller, but did not truly see the real purpose. Now I see that certain characteristics of a piece of writing must be incorporated to make it fit into the desired genre. Genre and audience are connected and must both be expressed through the writing.

Before this class, I had never even heard of ethos, pathos, and logos. These three subjects make a piece of writing understandable and relatable to the audience. When establishing ethos, and author needs to get through to the writer, through the presentation of an ethical argument that interests the reader. Once the reader understands the argument, they can be roped in further through the use to pathos to appeal to the reader’s emotional side. Once the reader is roped into the argument, the author can present facts to back up what they have said. I believe that ethos, pathos, and logos are the key to a well-rounded, understandable and relatable argument.

Media is the final piece of this class, and we haven’t truly talked about it. My senior year of high school, I only had writing class second semester, and didn’t think I had written anything throughout the first two quarters. Looking back I do believe that I posted stuff on Facebook, or had been texting my friends. Writing is all around us, and we use it more than we think. I had never blogged before coming to this class, and didn’t really think of it as a way to write academically. Throughout this class we have used the Internet as a means to share our side of an argument, and to view and comment on other peoples arguments. We have also written a newspaper article and a magazine article, which help writers better understand the audience and genre aspects of writing.

The three things I have truly learned this quarter thus far consist of rhetorical situation, genre, and audience, and they have been connected through writing in different forms and genres.

Eureka!

Everybody has those moments. The “ah-ha” moments, the moments of exceptional clarity and understanding where everything makes sense; those moments where you understand something you have been struggling with for a long time. I’m not an exactly a gifted writer and, for me, those moments come through hard work and dedication to understanding. There have been a few moments in this class where I have had that clarity (thankfully) and now have a greater understanding of writing and rhetoric as a whole.

The first moment I had was while we were discussing the rhetorical situation. I had never encountered the concept before or had ever even heard the term. It was, and is, an extremely difficult concept to grasp, especially after only reading Bitzer’s paper. After we had discussed it for a while however and I had done a few assignments and had time to grapple with the concept in my paper I found an understanding that was lacking in my earlier assessment of the term.

In fact it was more than just the rhetorical situation that I had that moment for, it was with the whole idea of rhetoric. For me, I had always heard and thought of rhetoric as Crowley and Hawhee had described most people knowing it in the first page of their article. It was usually slanderous and used for politicians who were avoiding real discourse. Now, I understand the misuse of the word and it’s legitimate meaning and value to the world of writing and discourse as a whole. This was probably one of my more significant “ah-ha” moments simply because I had heard the term outside of class and it was such a reversal of understanding.

My understanding of audience has changed drastically. Everything about the concept of different people reading your paper and making them understand was made clearer to me during our class time. The moment of clarity I had for audience came during the reading of the Wysocki and Lynch paper. Learning about all the different ways to persuade an audience and me reflecting and thinking about which ways would be most effective on which types of audiences was a huge part in coming to grips with the reality that audience is an extremely important piece to my, and everyone’s writing.

Another big eureka moment was with the three key concepts of logos, pathos, and ethos. I had talked about them a little in high school, to a lesser extent than what most people seem to have apparently. But I had a very vague understanding and through all of our readings and activities I’ve definitely come to use them as devices in my own writing, but more importantly, I’ve been able to actively use them in an analytical way that helps me understand opinion pieces in a way that I hadn’t thought of before.

Though I have to actively struggle to understand certain things, what I like to call the “eureka moment” is most certainly worth it. I believe these moments are reached by the gradual buildup of information, and then the single moment where all of the information makes sense and everything rushes to fill your understanding. Although I find these moments to be a concrete addition to one’s knowledge base sometimes this does happen: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1138&bih=535&tbm=isch&tbnid=0KahQOlbmgsDtM:&imgrefurl=http://abstrusegoose.com/93&docid=MBrtf9UAacxgqM&imgurl=http://abstrusegoose.com/strips/moment_of_clarity.JPG&w=744&h=567&ei=7YwxT7HzAqjisQLO-72HBw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=390&sig=104965238903601482198&page=2&tbnh=166&tbnw=218&start=10&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:10&tx=202&ty=131

Dem momentz

When I started this class, I figured it would be like any other writing class. I have taken AP English in high school and it was the same each time: my teacher hated me, I would get a B in the class, and each day I would find a new way to tune out the entire lesson. I figured this writing class would be similar, hopefully without the whole teacher hating me thing...

Even so, as I went to class it was very different. I found myself actually learning these terms instead of hearing what they were in one ear and out the other. I've seen definition after definition of these terms before, but never have I grasped the true meaning and importance of them until now. It has really helped my writing.

Yeah that was, but whatever. 

Hokay, moving on. I suppose my first "ah-ha" moment was when we talked about rhetorical situation. I've never heard the term before, but I had always thought writing always happened for a reason. That sounds weird, but writing is a result of something. No one writes just because, something always causes them to do so. One could argue it was random JK Rowling started writing about Harry Potter, but that's not really true. Her purpose for writing was to write a book...to make a living. And my goodness isn't our generation beyond happy that purpose was there? 

Rhetorical situation defines the reasoning for all writing. Now knowing this, I've started to look at my writing with purpose, asking myself what the purpose is. Yes, the purpose is generally because if I don't do it I will get a failing grade and Pops won't be too happy to pay for my education in Denver with grades like that. Beyond that however, I wonder if this was my job, for instance, why would I be writing this. This little concept and process of writing for me really helped during the article we wrote that defined all of these terms. I looked at the article thinking about if I really had to do this for the USA Today. What would I do? How would I approach it? What's my reason for doing this? It was simple then, I was doing this to define these complex terms for someone to understand each one thoroughly after reading my 1000 words. 

I believe now that I know this term and the meaning behind it, I can look at the purpose of my writing and from that really grasp the topic and approach. If my purpose is to inform families about a university issue, I can approach it with pathos. If it is to show how something causes something and effects something else, I'll use logos. It becomes much more clear and easy to write by knowing rhetorical situation. It seems I've always known I need to have purpose with writing, but I never could term it like I can now. 

My thoughts exactly.

The next little moment I had was when we finally discussed audience. It was always my teachers I was writing for...my teachers that were never fond of me. I would try to sound good, write to their style and do my best to still add some of myself in there but it did not always work out the way I wanted it to. After senior year AP English, I vowed never to write about a stupid poem again. And I didn't, it was wonderful. Despite my hate for those annotations I did see myself getting better as a writer. Anyways, during summer I hardly wrote anything, and when I came to Denver I didn't take writing until now, obviously. However I started to blog last quarter. The writing was so different, it was free, creative, adding illustrations when I wanted, typing and misspelling whenever I felt like it, it was easy to read. A few of my friends even said I was writing exactly how I talk so they could hear my voice (literally) while reading about my not so interesting life. That was a big compliment and sort of an epiphany that I need to incorporate my blogging voice into my academic writing. Then it will be more approachable. 

Needless to say, audience is very important and depending on who it is, the writing style, approach, and voice will change to accommodate to the audience. By really focusing on audience in this class, I now have the ability to change my writing accordingly. I did it with both the article in USA Today and the column in Rolling Stone. It's a good feeling knowing how adaptive I've become. Audience, like rhetorical situation, has always been a part of my mind while writing, but now to really have a definition and examples from myself of it, I can really use it to my benefit for every writing assignment I complete. 

Don't think they'd be interested in hearing about the process of water recycling. Yeah, me neither. 

Last, but not least, I believe ethos has dramatically changed my writing. This is one of the terms I have heard so many times before and never really knew the meaning. When I finally learned it was credibility, I thought is was least important in the trio of logos, ethos and pathos. Boy was I wrong. Ethos, now knowing how much it skews the reader's opinion of any writing piece, is the most important. Facts and emotions are important too, but if the source is not credible, why bother reading? 

Beyond that obvious point, our work with ethos in class has provided examples about how to credit yourself even if you aren't an expert. If credit was only given to those that extensively study the subject, I would literally be able to write nothing credible. Sucks to suck, however that's not the case. The way I can move my words, approach the subject, relate to my audience, it all counts as credibility and that gives me good ethos. 

The example about the Oscars is a prime example. The author was not an expert, but experience and how relatable he was created trust with the reader, and therefore credibility. I took that to heart with the column piece on the song I did. I haven't heard every song, and while I love music, I do have bias and no expertise besides my listening. Still, I can relate to the audience and provide my opinion based on my knowledge as a listener. While I have the same, more or less expertise on the subject than my audience, I am credited by my approach and what I have to say exactly. 

I guess those are my three happy moments... they've helped tremendously, I agree with Jillian that I'm happy to know them now. Wish it was earlier, but better late than never, but never late is better. 

Better and Better Each Day

I have never considered writing to be my strong suit. In fact writing was something that I just did for a class and a grade. In high school, we were assigned papers, but they almost seemed like busy work. This class has pushed me in ways I never thought I could be pushed and shown me that writing is much more than an assignment. I am so thankful for this. Writing is a skill everyone needs to have and I think I am becoming a very efficient writer.

I never knew an audience played such an important role in writing. I have always just written to the teacher and never was challenged to write to a different type of audience. This was definitely one of my hardest moments in this class. I was taken back when I had to think about and write to a public audience. It was very hard to make something like writing of interest to an every day newspaper reader. I have never been an outstanding writer, so it was hard to make it so people wanted to read my article. I had to think of it as a real project then a formal paper. Now when I write I think of the audience first and start writing for them, rather than a teacher. I definitely feel like this focus and real purpose has improved my writing, and I will never go back to anything different. Knowing the audience for writing is crucial, and I will always pay attention to who is going to read it from now on.

Before this class, I considered genres to relate to movies and books. It never occurred to me that there was a genre for every type of writing as well. There is a connection between the audience and genre. Take movies for example, girls love romances and boys love suspense. In writing girls love fashion magazines and boys love car magazines. It is important to be consistent within a genre as you write to a certain audience. This makes the writing more relatable and makes it more enjoyable to read. A genre is very important to keep in the back of your mind when you write because it makes you stay on topic and helps you relate to your audience without even trying. It’s taking a more broad approach to people, so it can relate to more people.

In addition to understanding the importance of audience and the genre, my learning about writing has increased with my new understanding of rhetoric. I had heard of rhetoric, but I had not heard of the rhetorical situation. Rhetoric is simply the words that are usually used for persuasion. I have no idea how I went through high school without knowing that rhetoric was pretty much the foundation of writing. It makes your piece of writing personal and gives it purpose. It is a situation that you can grow off of and explore. A situation adds a lot to a paper, and it makes it have more of a backbone. Writers build off of one situation and make connections to others and to expand the influence of writing. This has made me realize that there is actually a lot to say about one situation. I never tried to make outside connections but now that I have, I feel like my writing is improving and my mind is expanding.

These three things are crucial to writing and have had an influence on my thinking. I have no idea how I passed high school writing without knowing these three things. My learning is making me question why writing is taught the way that it is in high school. I see progress in my writing and I cannot wait to see more. I am starting to write with skill and a real purpose rather than just complete an assignment for a grade. I wish I would have learned this earlier, but I’m glad it is happening now.

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&

Online Class Day: Guidelines

Ok, guys here are the instructions for the on-line class day. Please make sure you respond properly by Tuesday, February 7, 2012 BY 5:00 p.m., or you will be considered absent and your work late (so it's like two whammies....).

“Sometimes, you know, you have a moment."

The leading scholar in composition studies, Kathleen Blake Yancey, believes there are four moments happening right now in the field of comp. studies. Each of these moments bleed into one another as they envision innovative ways to progress forward. I want you to "have a moment" (or actually three). Up to this point you have read about rhetorical situation(s), rhetorical analysis, audience, and genre, and the history of rhetoric among other things. I want you to develop your own three moments in which you describe, explain, explore, and create your ideas about what you learning as part of this course that relates to you as a writer, a thinker, and a learner. Draw connections inside of the classroom and outside of the classroom.

Another way to look at this would be as a way to “catch your breath” so to speak by bringing together the last five weeks to figure out what you have learned.  This blog post functions as a reflection, and reflection as defined by Yancey means that you become an active agent in your learning. You are an active participant by not simply being someone who is fed information, but someone who questions, explores, muses, theorizes, and reflects upon your own learning to draw out meaning and understanding.

Guidelines:

1. Use at least two images and/or links and/or videos that connect to what you are saying.

2. Be creative or be analytical. Or be both. Either one works for this post.

3. It should be cohesive.

4. You need to create a "new post" do NOT comment back to these instructions

5. Preview your post BEFORE you post it to make sure that the images fix within the post and that everything flows together--you do this by hitting "preview" while you are editing, but you can also go back into your post once you have hit publish post and edit it by going to "edit posts" and clicking on yours.

6. It should be over 500 words.

6. Good luck ;-)

Due by: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 BY 5:00 pm!!

Knowledge

We have been doing readings that in some way or another allude to the term “knowledge”—and we had a very interesting conversation about the term last week. So, the topic of this journal is going to be “knowledge,” and I want you to think through some questions:

What is knowledge? Define it using your own words. Support this definition—use examples from the past couple readings (including Edwards piece on Johnny Cash) as well as experiences from your own life. How important is knowledge to learning? How important is knowledge in education?

What is a writing knowledge? Where does this writing knowledge come from: do you believe you build upon prior knowledge or do you believe that there can be the creation of brand new writing knowledge?

Conclude your post with final thoughts on knowledge drawing connections between readings, class discussions/activities, and your own life.

Shoot for 350-500 words. Engage with others. 

Due: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 by class time. 

Reflection over Mini Assignment #2

Five weeks ago, you completed a blog post that asked you think, muse, define, and/or theorize about good writing. For this reflection, I want you to revisit your thoughts from five weeks ago by theorizing about writing. If you had to put a theory to how/why you write--what would it say? What types of key terms would you include and why? 

Think of this theory as mobile--that it would cross multiple writing situations by informing each situation with ways to frame or reframe whatever the writing task is asking of you. 

Aim for 300-500 words.