In her CCCC address, Kathleen Yancey discusses what she believes are four moments happening right now in the field of rhetoric and composition. She defines a "moment" as a situation that affects or will affect writing, learning, knowledge, and education. She discusses things that are relevant to you as a college student in the 21st century. For example she talks about things like literacy practices (or the ability to read and write) are affected when you write in a print genre or a networked (or the computer screen) genre.
I want you to "have a moment" (or actually two). Up to this point you have read about and/or work with different key terms such as rhetorical situation, genre, audience, reflection, knowledge, exigence, etc. All of these terms connect to your writing and your writing process. You have also worked in many different genres such as an essay, an article, different types of reflections, and more. Think about how all of this connects to you as a writer, a composer, and a knowledge-maker.
So, I want you to have a moment or in other words develop your own two moments in which you describe, explain, explore, create your ideas about writing, the key terms that you have learned so far in this class, and your writing process. This should come as a response to what you have experienced both inside this class already and outside the class (in other classes, but also in real life experiences). What does writing and composing mean to you right now--as part of this class and as part of your major (note: as we have talked about in class ALL majors involve some amount of writing) and whatever potential job you might seek later on.
Be specific with your response. I'm not looking for you to say how hard it is to define these two moments---that only waste part of your 500 words. I want specific and concrete ideas.
Also be creative. Think about what you want to get across in this post and how you want to lay it out.
Your response should be about 500 words.
And per normal: please engage in conversation with your peers.
Good luck! And I look forward to reading your responses.
Due: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 by 6:00 pm or you will considerated absent and your work late.
In its most simple form, writing is a way to get whatever is going on in your head down on paper, a computer, white board, or even napkin if that is all you have. It allows you to voice your opinions, ideas, and thoughts without opening your mouth. It gives you an opportunity for you to express your feelings on any given subject or matter whenever your heart (or professor, or boss) desires. It can be a sentence, a paragraph, or a book. No matter the format, however, it is all writing. Now, as mentioned above, this is the simple definition of writing. A great deal more goes into it as you go along. Before you place your pen down on a piece of paper or your fingertips to a keyboard, there should be questions circulating in your ad. You should be asking yourself what genre you are writing in, who your audience is, what the rethtorical situation is, and what knowledge you have and need to acquire. These questions all help to make up the writing process, what you write from when your pen hits your paper to when your reflection is complete. Throughout this class, I have been able to analyze my own writing process and use it within other classes, my job, and my major.
ReplyDeleteBefore my pen hits my paper, I have learned to question what I am about to write. For example, if writing an opinion piece on offshore drilling for a political science (my major) course, I would first examine my genre. The genre is an opinion based paper so I must incorporate scholarly knowledge. This knowledge, while I do know a great deal about the subject, should be coming from experts within the field. The genre of an opinion piece must be in an essay like format and be formal to get my point across and not sound ignorant. The genre leads me to my audience, which would be my professor. Since my professor who is a political science major would be my audience, he more than likely knows about off shore drilling. Because of this, I might not have to define any terms that pertain to it. I would also need to make sure to keep the formal theme throughout and to continue to incorporate knowledge of others to prove my side of the argument. The rhetorical situation would include the audience of my professor, writing an opinion piece for a grade, and my restraints would include not being an expert on the subject. It is only after analyzing these aspects that I should truly begin writing in order to keep up with all of the requirements for my paper. After my final paper is done, I should reflect on what I wrote- reflect on the good parts, the bad parts, what I should have done better, and what I can do next time to make this paper even more successful. After this, I am officially done.
Writing, to me, means a lot. This is because I am going to use it for my entire life; with my major, my career, and even personal life. Writing is something that everyone does, but it is a matter of successful writing that makes a difference. Knowing how to analyze what I am about to write, what I am writing, and what I have written are key and knowing them is a great tool. Political Science is a major in which a lot of writing is necessary and in many different genres. Learning about how to write more successfully within this class has definitely helped me in other classes so far and will continue to follow me throughout not only this major, but law school as well. While my writing process and theory on writing is not over, I have a good sense of what I need to do to make my writing successful.
During the course of these writing assignments we have been going over many different genres and discussing genre, audience, reflection, and knowledge of the subjects. A moment for me would be the reflections and how they help writers improve and I as a writer improve. Every time you reflect on your writing you are improving something each time. I did reflections in high school but really didn’t improve in the writing because I didn’t really know the rules of writing about genre and audience. Reflections have changed me as a writer because now I reflect almost every paragraph to help me improve my writing. I have become a better writer because of reflection. I also learned that reflections can affect your life not only writing. For example looking at the mistakes you made and fixing them count as reflections. Addressing anger or for me reflection on my throwing and goals to set for next throw. I have learned that reflection is very import in life period.
ReplyDeleteAnother moment is the knowledge of writing and how you get your point across. There is a time and place for everything. There is also a type of writing for every genre and for every genre there is a different audience. When writing in a blog its different writing than when writing a research essay because the audience for each thing is not the same. In a blog you would be more informal than a research essay because your audiences are your peers. People are supposed to react to your blog and give feedback. A blog is usually what you think about a subject and getting other people’s opinion. However for the research essay it’s more formal because it’s actually informative and it could be in a magazine and the news paper and those genres would require a more formal writing because certain genres appeal to certain people.
Writing to me means getting the point across fluently so that people can understand. Writing is a way of communicating to your audience and appealing to what they like. Audience and genre go hand and hand. I think Audience is actually one of the most important parts of writing. Writing has to be luring and persuasive to get the reader to read it. I really didn’t have much experience in writing so when I would write I didn’t think about the audience just to get it over with. So when I learned that audience is important my writing got better. In every profession there is writing. My major is Criminology and I would have to write in my line of work for instance; there is the reports and paper work. I would need to have the right vocabulary and appeal to my audience which would be lawyers other detectives and even the judges. There are also the observations of crime scene and even the suspect. I would have to write and write with understanding so the case can go by as smooth as possible. I agree with madison writing is something that I will use for the rest of my life and it should mean alot to every one
As I write to you right this moment, I am thinking about writing. Even before my fingers hit the buttons on my keyboard, I designed a plan and topic of which I will write about. As discussed in an earlier blog, writing is the ability to communicate ones ideas through a medium of words. Proving rather difficult at times, with practice and determination, one can effectively communicate to others their deepest feeling through words. I feel that our ability as writers constantly improves with each new text we compose. Whether its sending a text to a friend, or working on a research paper, each experience inevitably gives us practice. However, the two former examples involve two very different genres. Becoming an avid texter may not improve your research potential, but it will increase your reaction time and creativity with writing. Another subject to focus on maintains constant consideration when writing any piece; our audience. Who we intend to write to significantly affects the layout and diction of a piece. Surely writing to my older brothers art class and my little cousins dance class would require two very different essays. With genre and audience in mind, we come across rhetorical situation; the last piece of the triangle. Our motive and reason for writing affects how emotionally involved we become through our pieces. Although writing about different types of light bulbs might not spark your interest, certainly another subject will.
ReplyDeleteSo how does writing benefit us? Well, I agree with Madisons statement of how it helps us to express our feelings. However, I feel that is only half of the equation. I believe that becoming better with writing not only increases our ability as effective communicators, but our potential for intellectual growth as well. It is a known fact that good writing skills correlate with high success levels. So on that note, I will introduce the topic of careers. I would say that more than fifty percent of careers involve writing of some sort. In my case, I am pursuing Advertisement. You can bet that involves a lot of writing and communicating. By practicing and honing in on my writing skills, I can increase my attractiveness to potential employers or even my own company. I have also considered attending Law School, which is mainly based upon writing effectively. However, it is not set in stone, I have also considered other forms of graduate school, it all depends on my situation after graduating. However, for my intended area of research, writing proves more than important for my success in the industry. Being able to write well is pivotal for my prosperity in the advertisement industry. Writing not only serves as medium for emotional release, but a means of a bright future as well. I can only hope that my ability as a writer will continue to increase, throughout my career and beyond.
Through ENC1102 I have learned a great deal about the writing process. Never before had I fully understood the importance of the three literary terms, genre, audience, and rhetorical situation. To tell you the truth, before taking this class, when I thought of the word genre I only thought it existed in movies. Little did I know that different types of writing, such as a blog, an essay, or a scholarly article were all classified as varying genres in literature. Through this understanding, I have know come to realize that one must know their genre before beginning to write in order to accomplish their goal successfully. Along with that aspect the term audience is just as important. Once again whenever I heard this term I figured the meaning to be more figuratively; as in the people watching a performance. I had never truly considered readers of writing as an audience per se. Through researching the term, I found that audience is truly the key to everything. The answers to such questions as to what degree of diction to use and what exactly the subject matter should cover are influenced by audience. Knowing who your audience is, is imperative because one must strive to relate to their reader in order to keep their interest. Last but not least by any means, the term rhetorical situation is one that I had absolutely no idea even existed. When I read Pulitzer’s piece on this subject I was in awe. Every detail made perfect sense in that each and every time an individual writes constraints and exigences are present. A “good” writer must address and over come these issues. Collectively these three terms are what I now base writing off of. I am thankful to finally be educated on the proper process to follow. This is my first moment.
ReplyDeleteNow for the second instant I was in awe, as much as I dislike having to take the time to fulfill what is asked of us, I at the end of the day unconditionally appreciate the assignments we have in our blog. I find it quite interesting how different we all are, in that each response varies in so many ways from the next. I have learned a great deal from my fellow classmates, let alone about them in general, through reading their opinions on certain subject matters. “Why I Write,” just may be my favorite topic so far if I had to pick one. This lead me to the conclusion that why people write in general is to be in touch with their thoughts and especially one another. People write to communicate, after all writing is a form of communication. I completely agree with Johnny when he said “I believe that becoming better with writing not only increases our ability as effective communicators, but our potential for intellectual growth as well.” Through increasing our communication with each other we are able to grow into more intelligent individuals. I believe it is at the utmost importance to be successful in communicating. This can be defined as collecting your thoughts and combining them in an accurate way to relay a message or thought. This goal is enhanced by understanding the writing process through those three literary terms I mentioned previously. Without the knowledge I now possess, in which I gained thus far in ENC1102, I would be just another uneducated individual in the writing process and therefore communication as a whole.
As everyone has previously said, writing always begins with a plan. You brainstorm the type of genre you are working in, the audience, why you are writing and how you want to come across. A plan of writing helps you accomplish exactly what you need to. Writing is like throwing darts the goal is to hit the middle but if you had no goal you would be aimlessly throwing. As you being a paper you need to know what you are aiming for or else you will miss the mark every time and be in ineffective writer. The key terms I look at before I begin writing are, my audience and exigences. With mapping out these two things your paper will have a target. Madison has the same ideas I have when I begin writing. She says that she asks herself “ what genre you are writing in, who your audience is, what the rhetorical situation is and what knowledge you have and need to acquire.” I believe that the process of writing can be almost the same steps for every person. You first need to brainstorm all the questions Madison brought up, you need to plan or outline your paper or writing then you need to actually write the paper. And last but not least, make sure to go back and edit the paper, taking out spelling errors and the extra “fluff” that just takes up space. That is the process I use and I’m sure others use also.
ReplyDeleteUsing different genres and writing to different audiences this will help each of us with our majors we plan to go into. Personally I am a biology major and all of this practice will definitely pay off. As a Doctor you may be asked to speak to a group of other doctors informing them on findings or even teaching a class to students. Each of these different audiences requires you to analyze the way you are speaking. To a group of doctors you can be more clinical and professional but to a group of students you need to make your words simpler to understand and less formal. This is also true when you are speaking to patients, maybe I might have to tell someone’s family bad news, I wouldn’t want to come off as uncaring and unsympathetic. With every situation you need to keep the audience in mind, you also need to think of the exigence; why you are writing or speaking. At a lecture with doctors you need to inform them on new finding or procedures, not tell them about a trip you took. With keeping the exigence in mind you can better convey your reason for speaking and therefore make the best of your time.
All the practice of writing will help me no matter what I’m doing, whether its writing thank you cards or in front of the president. These valuable tools can be used in everyday life, and I think that’s the best type of education you can get.
Writing is a way for anyone to freely express their feelings, without worrying about what other people are thinking or worrying about being proper. It allows everyone their own form of privacy, or a way to share feelings with someone when you cannot just tell them. Writing lets everyone just be themselves and share every single thought they have. Writing has been used since the beginning of time to keep track of important happenings, keep relationships going while men were away at war, keep people from going crazy when they have no one to talk to, and to just share what you are feeling inside. When one begins writing they always have an idea of the direction they want to go in and to whom they will be directing their writing. This is important because a writer does not want to be writing as if he or she is talking to 5 year olds, when they are writing a paper for a college professor, unless maybe it is in an elementary education paper where the professor would like to know how the teacher should address their students in a certain matter, so there are always things to consider when beginning the writing process.
ReplyDeleteWhen I start my writing process I like to make an outline, first listing my topic, my audience, and the genre that would be most appealing to my audience. For example, if I was writing a paper for my major in Sports Management I would write to an audience of sports fans, so in a paper on baseball I could say double play and not have to explain what that is, but if I was texting one of my friends about the game I would have to explain that because most of them have asked “why doesn’t the second baseman stand on second base.” So depending on whom I am discussing the happenings of the game with, depends on what explanations would be necessary.
Writing is extremely important in my major, because like Johny I am considering attending law school, it will strength my sports management degree and allow me to have many more opportunities in baseball organizations. So writing is something that will always be present in what I am doing. I am going to need to write proposals as to why certain players should be gone after and why certain players should be passed up. Also, I am going to need strong writing skills to help me pursue athletes and maybe one day become an agent.
Writing is the most popular way of communication through out the world no matter what your race, language, or culture. Everyone uses writing as a tool to take down any thoughts or ideas that may be lost in time. Many times people may have an epiphany or a sudden bright idea and scramble for anything they can write on so that they will not forget it. Just as Madison mentioned earlier, people can use anything from a computer to a simple napkin. Before this class I honestly did not know much about the writing process. I have always been stuck on where to start and what to write. When I learn about the main terms that I should focus on it gave me a sense of direction while I was writing. I would have many ideas but they would all be jumbled up and when I thought about which of the few main terms I should focus on I was able to put my ideas in order. In my opinion, the most important keys of writing are rhetorical situation, genre, and audience. All of these terms tie into to each other some how. First, you have to analyze your audience and get to know what appeals to them the most. The audience is what you should base your genre off because if you are not relating your genre to them, your message that you are trying to get across might not be comprehensive. When it comes to you and your audience connecting through the message you are trying to get across, it is very important that the genre is appropriate. With the right genre, the right tone and diction will follow. Rhetorical situation is also very important. Rhetorical situation is actually very simple because with any form of communication, there is always a rhetorical situation. Rhetorical situation is a form of swaying or persuading someone’s thoughts with the message that you got across to them. It is nearly impossible to not have a rhetorical situation because your audience will always gain knowledge on what your opinion is and think about it. Whether they agree or not, your idea will always be taken into consideration because the reader will come up with a reply back to your idea. My major is the Chinese language and although it’s not English I still have to communicate by writing. Writing actually takes a very big role because I’m trying to learn how to communicate in Chinese characters. I have to practice by writing simple character and also form sentences in Chinese so that one day I will be able to use it in the real world. My future job is to work as an analyst for the military or the Department of Defense so my whole job will revolve around communication and writing.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone previously said in his or her blog posts above me, writing always has a plan. Before my pencil or in this case fingers hit the keyboard, I have to think about how I want to approach this blog entry and what I want to say. Writing is a way to express the feelings inside of you and to spill out your heart onto nothing but a blank sheet of paper, a paper napkin, or a blank word document on your computer screen. Writing allows you to be as creative as you want to be and open up to the world and tell the millions of people living what you’re feeling. You can write spontaneously or have an actual attack towards your writing. If you just want to write maybe start a blog, or if you want to be a published author, there are many steps to becoming one: writing the book, sending it in to a publisher, book tours, etc. But it all helps with the writing process in the end. And writing is used in every major on a college campus. Science majors have to write lab reports, Math majors have to write out equations and explain them, Education majors have to observe and write down what they see in the classroom. And throughout the ENC1102 course this semester, writing has helped me analyze my writing habits and the different processes that I use for that course, and my other classes for the spring term.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the entire course I’ve worked with different key terms and genres. A blog is a type of genre because you write what you’re feeling or what you have to say and then people who are following you or have the same blog site are supposed to be interacting with you. An inquiry-based paper is a genre also because the person writing the paper has to go out and find research and put the research and also their own analysis onto paper. And with these different genres there is always going to be an audience. This blog, the audience is you (Kara) and also my peers who read through this blog to interact with me. I agree with Lakitta, that a blog is supposed to be interactive and people are supposed to respond to your posts.
Writing for me, is something I’m passionate about. Yea sure the blog posts don’t sound passionate because they’re an assignment for the class and the writing style is so casual and laidback. But when I’m writing a blog on Tumblr I have to have something inspire me to write. And I’m really good at writing too when it comes to my blog. I’m creative with the title choices of the blog and everything that I put into it. But the one thing I always have to keep in mind is my audience. People have to somewhat relate to my blog, that’s why when I first started writing my blog the first post was about me and the second was about my break up. But I always keep the audience in mind, even though the audience is extremely large and isn’t broad at all, I want the people who are followers on Tumblr to be able to relate to everything I say.
I can remember learning cursive, how excited I was that I could make my writing look as squiggly and connected as my teacher could do. This not only made me feel smarter and older, but it was my first moment with writing because of the connections it enabled me to see. When I would write in cursive I would write slow enough that not a letter would be off. As I have grown older I have discovered that the only time I ever write in cursive is when I want to write something important, such as a check or letter. My cursive ties into the key term genre since the genre when I write in cursive has high importance and is aimed at an older audience. This specific moment with my writing in cursive has affected my knowledge because as I have progressed through this ENC1102 course, I have realized how important this cursive writing has played a large role in many things I do in my life which give writing more meaning. Writing has more meaning to it when you write slow and really take the time to think about what you are writing. As I mentioned earlier, when I write in cursive, I take all the necessary time that it take to make it look perfect like that way my teacher taught me.
ReplyDeleteNot only has cursive been important for my knowledge, but a moment with writing I have that will help me not only with my dream career as a Dermatologist but also with my life right now is text messaging. Learning and knowledge are hidden within a single text message. Jonny says in a post above that “becoming an avid texter may not improve your research potential, but it will increase your reaction time and creativity with writing.” This ties into the hidden learning and knowledge of texting because the creativity we gain from having to come up with text responses spontaneously help us with other challenges in life when we are put into a situation in which we must be on the tip of our toes.
These moments that I have had are only helping me as a writer because they are teaching me about audience and genre that I don’t ever think about before as a “writer”. Inside of class I sit down and write an assignment. I used to not realized that what I was writing was being aimed at a specific audience while having a genre. Now when I sit down in class or at home to write a note or an email, I unconsciously discover the genre and audience for the piece and successfully make it fit to its purpose. Lakitta says that “Writing is a way of communicating to your audience and appealing to what they like.” This is something that I can completely agree with because absolutely anything I have ever written like a note to myself appeals to it’s audience, which would be myself. I write a note to myself and make it look in a way that I will want to look at it and want to remember what I have written. As I have mastered learning and using genre and audience, I call myself a writer thanks to the moments I have had with my own writing.
Writing is a very complex process, more then we realize sometimes or think about. It is how ideas that we think of in our head transfer to paper or print. The circumstances that surround how that idea was formed and how in fact you want it to be conveyed to people is what in the end forms writing. The different formats or genres are what the final product that I intended to create in order to convey my ideas. Most of the time you have a goal and it is easy to reach that goal in terms of writing. The easy ones are things like narrative essays or articles. Many people know how to write these with no issue at all. There are more complicated genres that I need to work on and many others do not know how to write at all. Madison described the process of beginning to write very well. That before you even start to write your first word you need know who you are writing to, what you final genre is, and what rhetorical situation you need to write in to get your point across. This class above anything else had made me think of what I need to do in order to write more then anything. Before it was all about learning the different sections of writing essays basically. Do this, do that with no clear purpose.
ReplyDeleteWhen I start to write now I look and analyze what it is that I need to accomplish as my end product. The three factors that we have gone over many times in class are as follows. You need to know who your audience is and for your rhetorical situation around them in order to get the most emotional response out of your audience. This is done through your word choice and the amount of knowledge and facts that you put in your work; it can also be your own opinions and the opinions of others in order to accomplish the response that you need. How this is done is ultimately the genre. The final product out of everything is how it comes together. I have now actually started to think about every step out of this process about every time that I write. It is not merely an English thing. With one of my other classes I had to write a paper on mythology and analyze the era of the Titans rule. Going through this step by step helped me shape what turned out to be a great paper.
My major happens to be Biological Science and with that comes a lot of papers that need to be written. Most of then are research based, which makes it fairly simple. Many times though that research may need to be some that you conducted yourself. That genre that comes with doing writing like this is primarily an academic journal. Which focuses primarily on coming to a conclusion with evidence given and how is points to that conclusion. That is all science related topics, they get proven through experimentation and how those results come to that conclusion or in fact may disprove that conclusion which is a very popular outcome. That is the genre that will be a very popular item through my career and looking back at how it needs to be accomplished will help me with how I need to complete it.
My first moment in writing came when I was just a young boy. In or around the eight grade I was assigned to write a memoir. The genre that is a personal story or tale of an event. It was the first time I can remember writing a full blown story about myself. My thoughts in which I consider to be my moment were along the lines of: adding a personal twist to the work allows readers to associate more closely and relate to what they’re reading. I feel that being able to connect with the authors thoughts and feel that persons emotion can make or break a piece.
ReplyDeleteIn the class was the location of my second moment. My eyes were opened to the ability a certain genre has to convey a message versus another. The same message can most always be conveyed through multiple genres. The selection of which to use is vital. I also began to see genre as a tool for writing. The goal of ones piece is the main thing and genre is your means or tool of succeeding in achieving that goal. Previously I saw genre as much more of a solidified thing, I had never really taken the time to see how you can alter writing in this regard.
Writing benefits us in a majority or ways. Along with Jonny, I also agree with Madison. It most definitely allows us to express our feelings but there is more to it than just that. Writing will never go away, actually it is probably more a part of everyone’s lives today than it was many years ago. The development of the computer has giving us the world of email, internet, FB, word processing. There are so many new ways that writing has come into everyone’s lives. With constant practice, my writing will only improve that is nothing but beneficial.
Writing is what makes your thinking visible. It allows you to extend your thoughts beyond your primary feelings and ideas. It is the foundation upon which your work, your learning, and your intellect will be judged. You will find yourself being judged through your writing in college, wherever you work, and in the community. Agreeing with Patrice, it is important to consider that writing also needs a plan. Planning out your writing process ups your chance of creating a piece that can be considered successful. It allows you to envision what your paper should look like and aids you to get the end result you desire.
ReplyDeleteIn my writing process, I take into account all the key terms we have learned in this class. I first examine the audience that I am writing to. If I get the option to chose my genre, I will make sure that it is appropriate for my audience. After my genre and audience are decided, I will determine what my rhetorical situation will consist of. I will also use genre and audience to chose the proper tone and language for my paper. Out of all the terms we have learned so far, I believe reflection is the most important one. As I am writing, I am constantly reflecting on my work so that I can make revisions to it and create the best possible piece.
Writing is notably important for any major. Every major will put a huge emphasis on writing because it is used so often in the real world. If you are planning on getting a job after college, you will need to be proficient in writing because it is an essential job skill. In my major of biology, it is evident that writing will play a major role. Every week I must write a lab report, and being experienced in writing allows me to attain the grades I desire. Writing will continue to be important even after FSU. If I end up attending chiropractic college, I will surely be writing everyday. Even after this, the writing will not stop. In the career of chiropractic, writing is a necessary and critical part of the job. A chiropractor must be knowledgeable and professional in their writing. With this being said, I hope that through this class, as well as future classes, I can improve my writing skills. This will help me become masterful in the writing process and undoubtedly benefit my future.
Ask me what I am good at and I will promise you the words, “writing” has never left my mouth in response. Writing is a struggle for me ever since I was assigned papers in grammar school. However, I am excellent at talking, I have a lot to say. So I never understood why I couldn’t connect the two. After analyzing these specific terms, I have realized I can do this. The first lesson in ENC 1101 was to get everything I was thinking down on paper, no matter how terrible it sounds. Once I get up enough willpower that simple. I let the words flow out the pen, and my first draft is finished. As I reread this first complete draft, the literary terms, but more importantly, a major part of my writing theory starts to make them self evident.
ReplyDeleteAudience, my favorite term, is probably the first thing I analyze in my writing. Which is why I assume it is one of the first terms we learned. Audience shapes genre and tone and determines if writing is successful.
As of right now writing has become a huge part of my life. Based on my schoolwork along, my American Authors class analyzes writers from 1985 to present day. This class has focused on determining Americanism. Being able to identify characteristic of literature, as well as literary time periods. Being American Authors is only an elective, I thought I’d be free of any other writing. To my surprise, Chemistry II lab has taken writing to a whole new level. Every week I’m bombarded with writing a lab report on top of all my other work. Similar to research papers, I begin work on my lab reports. The experiment I have conducted supply me with research and I use them to convey my information to my teacher’s assistant. Like Lakitta said, writing means getting the point across fluently for people to understand.
Before entering this class, writing was my weakest subject. Throughout high school I rarely was assigned a paper to write. Of course with everything, practicing makes whatever I do better. After writing multiple genre's in this class I can honestly say I have become a better writer. I have learned how to connect literary terms to writing. Choosing a genre, audience and rhetorical situation before I start writing helps the writing process flow for me. I now always consider what genre I am going to do and most importantly who my audience is. Writing different genre's expands what I can do. Doing reflections help me understand my own writing process, how I got there, and what I can do better for future assignments. Like said above, all majors have writing involved. Outside of class I have used written research papers for my Latin American History class. The McGraw-Hill Handbook helps me a lot when writing research papers. It shows me how to set up a research paper along with how to use work cited. Currently my major is Biological Science but I will be switching it to business soon. Both of these majors use a complete different type of writing. My biology class involves different genres including lab reports and journals. Business majors have different genres including power points, business reports, and business proposals. In this class I have learned how to make connections between key terms and how to use the terms to incorporate different writing styles. Like Lakitta says, it is important to get the point across fluently so the audience can understand it. I also think that is the most important aspect when one writes. Genre and audience go together. You need to know who your audience is in order to know what genre to use. Blogging is another type of writing that lets one explore their own writing style and using their own opinions. Blogging is a way of interacting with peers and learning from others as well. In life writing is always going to be used. Whether its in school, my future career, or just posting something on someone's facebook wall, writing will always be there.
ReplyDeleteWriting gives us the potential to play with the ideas in our head and put them down on paper. We can take what was originally the description of a very large fish and eventually come up with the loch ness monster… a legend which has gone on for centuries; a legend which has shaped people’s lives. Or take the idea of making mankind fly which was written about long time before it was even remotely possible. That inspired the idea for people to invent flying machines, which today allows us to travel the world. Whenever an idea pops up in your head, write it down. Without any written or verbal sharing, your ideas will disappear and die with you. Write your ideas down, and share them with the world, help create a better tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteSo how do you start writing? This tool which allows us to develop everything we come up with is a tool which can be mastered, just like everything else. Sometimes when writing it will all come flowing down like a river of ideas, where as other times it can take hours to get the simplest idea on paper. Before starting, consider what you’re writing, and who you’re writing for (audience). What can you do to create the best possible experience for that person to allow them to want to read more? What can you do to make this person understand what you’re writing to the fullest potential? This is where some of the key terms we have been working with so far come into play. Take genre for example, deciding which type of genre to write will help you efficiently develop a picture in your head of what you want it to become. Rhetorical situations are what calls for the necessity to write, a reason if you will. Upon finishing a paper, make sure you allow time for reflection after each piece of writing; this will help you improve future writing projects as you physically write down what you can improve for next time. It is proven that writing things down helps you remember them better for a reason, use it.
As Beth Parker states, “Writing for me, is something I’m passionate about. Yea sure the blog posts don’t sound passionate because they’re an assignment for the class…” I personally love writing when I get a spark of inspiration that calls for me to write. Personally I love the most artsy side of writing. Poetry, metaphors, or lyrics are usually what calls to me.
As a math major, I will probably not use a lot of writing myself, but that doesn’t mean that it is a useless tool for me. Writing within math is slightly limited to the proofs or potential discoveries which like I said earlier helps us progress as a human race. What I discover in five years, might be a vital strand of information that will help someone discover something else. We are all connected one way or another, my discovery might one day help someone cure cancer, or create a bomb worse than the atomic bomb. Nobody knows where your ideas will go, but without first taking the time to write them down, they will go nowhere.
Writing is a different way, other than speaking, to get everything out of one’s mind where nobody can see it and place it down in a structured and effective fashion so that everybody can see it. Yet it has the same effect. If done correctly it can unmask ones ideas, beliefs, and or arguments and emit the emotions and feelings from a group of people. When I say a group of people, I am referring to the audience. These people listen or take in what is written down and sometimes even feel strongly about it. Writing is a way to communicate with people and it may even include some type of “call to action.” A paper may be written in order to gather an audience with similar opinions in order to start the action of a cause. Writing may seem very complex, and in fact, it is. There are many different aspects and factors of it that have to link together in order to make ones paper effective. The author has to take into consideration the audience he or she is trying to communicate with. This is very important because the writer must change their vernacular or diction in a way that correlates with his or her audience. For example, this is like speaking the same language as someone else so that they can comprehend what is being said. One can change their language in writing by altering the syntax of the sentences and adjusting the vocabulary. If speaking to a crowd of fifth graders, it would not be logical for a writer to use words found in the vocabulary section of the SATs. This would definitely bore them, and one would end up having a crowd of sleeping students instead of engaged and interested students. Even though one may be writing about a topic that may interest the students, one must write in their language in order for them to listen and understand. I agree with the previous blogs, many of the students said that “Writing is a way to get a point across fluently...”. For me, writing is a way effectively place ones points and analyze different situations. I say this because, even though I am a Biology major, I take many science classes. It may seem like I would not need the skill of writing, but that is absolutely incorrect. Taking science classes means I have to take Chemistry labs, and taking labs means I have to write lab reports. When I write my lab report, it is vital that I take into hand my audience. My audience is important because I have to be able to write my lab report and be able to explain different concepts as if I am trying to explain it to someone who has absolutely no background in the concepts that I am trying to explain. What makes it even more difficult, I have to be able to write the report in a way that is not too “wordy.“ This is preparing me for later on in life when I want to apply for Medical school. I have to be able to place my thoughts down and make them stick in readers’ heads. I have to make my paper effective in a way that will make my paper shine and memorable.
ReplyDeleteWriting an important part of our daily lives, because essentially just about everything we do involves writng or involved writing at some point in time. The first key term I want to address is the rhetorical situation of writing. Rhetorical situation is important because it is the platform of which your writing stands upon, your writing would have no purpose without a situation or subject. Kathleen Yancey describes a “situation” as a “moment”, that’s why I think the best way to describe the term rhetorical situation is as a rhetorical moment, because it is the action taking place within your rhetoric , making it the “moment” in time frozen still by the ink of print of the pen on the paper that one maybe writing on. I agree with Madison Watson when gives her example of how she always stops and thinks about what she is about to say in her writing every time before her pen hits the paper. I have developed habits with my writing think about the entire career paths one could follow, it is safe to say no matter what you choose at some point your job will involve writing, even if you’re a professional athlete you still have to write and read plays and be literate enough to sign and comprehend contracts. The career path I am choosing to follow is a career in legal services. After finishing a political science major I plan to go to law school ultimately to become a lawyer. In the career field I am choosing writing is indispensable. An average day for me at this stage in my life would be to wake up get ready for walk, step into work get my coffee begin reading through cases and writing memos and case strategies all day and consulting with my paralegals, until it is time for lunch break, but right after that its back to having consults with clients and doing continuous writing and more research. As you can see no matter what career you choose from professional athlete to legal aid writing will have a bearing upon your professional duties.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of writing that is key to the writing process itself is identifying and narrowing your audience, the audience in general being the pinnacle facet in the point. Audience is such an important part of your paper because if you do not identify your audience your paper will have no direction and will be too broad. Your audience shape s what you discuss in your paper and the overall them of your paper. When I think of an audience I think of the moment in my life when I stood at the podium in my fifth grade graduation delivering the valedictorian speech. All the people staring back at me in the crowd is visual I get whenever I hear the word audience. Later in life I have come to find out that, an audience is not necessarily a crowd of people. An audience could be a single person reading the subtitles of a magazine article. An audience is whoever you aim for your writing to appeal to. Sometimes your designated audience is not the only audience you’re writing may appeal to that’s why when identifying your audience in a good paper the author should look t o narrow down the audience as much as possible. Overall rhetorical situation, genre, and audience are key components to the writing process as a whole.