The Definition of MY Theory of Writing

My theory of writing is made up of the terms

audience, genre, rhetorical situation, and reflection.

Audience

Audience is who the author is writing for. Defining this term further the audience is who the writer is trying to capture, influence, and inform. The audience can be different age groups, sexes, and social classes. As I said in the first essay we were assigned, “The first step a writer should take is to grasp the concept of who will be reading their piece of literature. Knowing who the audience is, is imperative because one must strive to relate to their reader in order to keep their interest. Audience in relation to writing is the answer to many questions; such as what tone the writer should use, what the subject matter should be, how formal or informal to write, the structure of sentences, the use of humor, and the amount of creativity to use. What type of language, dictation, and the degree of vocabulary to use is all influenced by the audience as well... After answering these questions, a clear-cut idea of who the audience is will arise and therefore the author is now ready to begin writing.”

Genre

Genre is the way in which the writer displays their message, whether that be through a poem, essay or blog post. Another point I pulled from the original first assignment is where I said that “Genre can be defined by many characteristics, one main point being length. Common genres with contrasting lengths of writing include brochures, reviews, and instructions.” Length is an important aspect because readers may lose interest if a genre takes too long to make its’ point. Working within the correct genre is imperative in order to capture your intended audience. I learned this even further while working with our last genre assignment. In the rationale I wrote that, “In order to communicate my message in the best way possible I will use genres that will capture the attention of a younger audience by relaying the importance of marriage in a more modern way. I plan on grabbing their attention through the three genres of an advertisement, photo essay, and a short featured video. Teenagers and young adults alike will easily relate to these three more up-to-date genres. By being able to connect to these pieces, the audience will be able to grasp the message more clearly and may even be able to retain the information far greater than if I were to use other genres, such as a scholarly article or poem.”

Rhetorical Situation

Rhetorical Situation is defined by Blitzer as having three parts. The audience, exigencies, and constraints. The rhetorical situation is the obstacles that stand in the way of the author writing. As I stated in the first essay we were assigned, “Expanding on these three terms collectively is the need to, “respond appropriately to the situation.” (Rhetorical Situation, 5) We know the meaning of audience already but in the case of rhetorical situation audience has a deeper meaning. The audience must not merely be just, “hearers or readers” (Rhetorical Situation, 8) but they must be able to be influenced by discussion and be mediators of change." Exigences and constraints are two new terms that we must explore.

Exigence

I defined the term of exigence in the first assignment as well. I claimed that “An exigence is, “imperfection marked by urgency.” (Rhetorical Situation, 6) An example Bitzer uses to describe rhetorical exigences is the pollution of our air because its modification is positive. The reduction of pollution is imperative in preserving our world as we know it therefore public awareness is in order. Marking a situation with urgency is needed to create interest in the audience through the subject matter. Writing without exigency is simply not effective.

Constraints

Constraints, this may be a person, object, or event that restricts a writer. The relationship between these three aspects is important to take note of as well because they too can be obstacles in writing. In the first essay I wrote for ENC1102 I declared that other barriers that specify as constraints include “... documents, facts, traditions, beliefs, attitudes, interests, images, and motives.” All writing must have rhetorical situation. Once the rhetorical situation has been outlined and established the writer is now able to begin writing.

Reflection

Reflection to me means looking back on the past and analyzing what, how, and why an action was done. The end product of reflection is meant to better ones self. In the blog post of an “On-line Class Day: Digital Journal,” I wrote about the word reflection. I declared that “Reflection is imperative not only in life but writing as well which is something that I learned through ENC1102. I choose this word because through the reflection process I believe I was able to improve my writing significantly. I was able to take the qualities that I liked, did not like, was good at and not so well at from previous assignments and I was able to apply them to the next. Making each draft better and therefore boosting the grade as well.” Without reflection I know for a fact that I simply would not have learned as much because through this process I was able to see not only for myself by for my peers the qualities of good writing.

Main questions that I have learned to ask myself when reflecting on writing are...

- How do I feel about the writing progress? Pleased, satisfied, disappointed?

- How have I improved? Thinking of specifics, especially anything that makes me proud.

- Do I do anything differently now when I write than I did before?

- What are my goals for writing?

- What will I do differently the next time I write?

- What are my strengths and weaknesses in writing? What do I need to work on?

- How do you I feel about writing? How do I use the writing process?

I leave you with these questions in hopes that you too find reflecting as significant as I do. I aspire that you apply the term of reflection to your future in all aspects of life but most importantly in writing.

My theory of writing is made up of the terms

audience, genre, rhetorical situation, and reflection.

There should be no surprise in that the first assignment of defining the writing terms, audience, genre, and rhetorical situation, affected my theory of writing the most. These terms were words that I had never focused on before in my writing past. I even expressed in the very same essay that “When I think of genre I immediately think of different types of music such as rap, country or the blues. I then begin to picture scenes from movies; chick flicks, horror or comedies. I tend to over look the fact that genre exists in writing as well.” That is a prime example of how ENC1102 has educated me. I now know exactly what these terms mean and could not imagine composing a theory of writing without them.

I choose the genre of an embedded genre blog post because I felt this was a more creative approach compared to displaying writing in other choices such as a letter or an essay. The more creativity I can put into an assignment the easier it is for me to express facts and how I feel in order to do a job well done. I wanted to be able to show an illustration of my theory of writing, not only through words but pictures as well. The coloring, bolding, underlining, and italicized of words enhances this project even further. I choose this idea from a previous assignment we worked with in which I wrote about the musical artist Wiz Khalifa.

Works Cited

Bitzer, Lloyd F. Arts. Pennsylvania State University. 1968. “The

Rhetorical Situation.” 1 Feb. 2011.

Bitzer, Lloyd F., Campbell, George. “The Philosophy of Rhetoric.”

Photograph. Bibliovault. The University of Chicago Press. 27 Aug.

2009. Web. 19 April 2011.

Clonlara, Clare. “Tree, Reflection in Water.” Photograph. PanRamio.

Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works. 14 March 2010.

Web. 19 April 2011.

Eddie, Fast. “The Daylight Savings Time Warp.” Photograph. Fast

Eddie. Blog at WordPress.com. 2 July 2008. Web. 19 April 2011.

“Fiction Writing.” Photograph. Writing A Novel. Writerbookie.com. 3

Jan. 2010. Web. 19 April 2011.

“The Most Popular Performance Show Times On Broadway.”

Photograph. New York Show Tickets. New York Show Tickets Inc.

10 July 2008. Web. 19 April 2011.

Theo, Albert. “Medicaid abuse routinely ignored by sociocrats.”

Photograph. Dakota Voice. Dakota Voice. 30 July 2009. Web. 19

April 2011.