Major Assignment #1 (Final Draft) Writing is simply a way to spill your thoughts out on paper. Especially if it is something

Transcription

1 Michaela Hopkins Dr. Sonja Andrus English Composition 1001 Nov. 12, 2017 Major Assignment #1 (Final Draft) Writing is simply a way to spill your thoughts out on paper. Especially if it is something that intrigues you, but the question is have you ever learned about the importance of the major components in writing studies such as rhetorical situation, genre, and audience altogether? From my experience, generally the basic way of writing a paper that I was accustomed to doing back in high school was outlining the entire draft with an introduction or a captivating hook, a few body paragraphs with evidence included from cited sources, and a final conclusion. Now that I am a freshmen in college, I realize that there are other ways to write a paper besides a typical high school essay. Thus far, I have learned some of the most interesting components that has a powerful connection in writing, which I was never aware of this before. The main three components in a writing piece are: genre, audience, and rhetorical situation. Somehow, these three terms have some similarities between each other because they have a strong connection as to why it needs to be included in your writing. Each and every one of these concepts can help build the author's purpose; therefore, it sends a powerful message towards any audience. This could be done by adding a variety of writing techniques like quotes, a personal story, or metaphors in their work to get their point across. In addition, it clarifies the theme of the author s message and it can be interpreted in many different ways from the audience or reader. I have gathered all of the information from reading three different texts. After reading all of these sources, it helped me think of the terms in a different level.

2 One of the articles I read is called "The Rhetorical Situation", which is written by Lloyd Bitzer. This article mainly talks about all of the key components that creates a rhetorical situation and why it is important to include in writing. All of the three concepts he mentioned about rhetorical situation are audience, exigence, and constraints. The main points that he was trying to make when it comes to the components of rhetorical situation is that they are used to illustrate the author s purpose when the message is being shared to the audience. The reason why is because it is a way for them to address the situation or issue; therefore, they try to persuade the audience to take advice from it or to take action. For example, an author gives out a call to action to convince the audience to take action on something, only if they are interested in doing so. Constraints and exigence go hand in hand. I know that these two terms sound perplexed, but they are basically used to communicate your message effectively toward a specific group of people. However, it is a way for your writing and message to make sense. Without those three main components, the text will be weak and difficult to fathom for the audience. Another article that I read is the Choate Rosemary Commencement Address that is called "Slowing Down" by Billy Collins. He had three different audiences in his speech: high school students, parents, and faculty staff. In this speech, Collins gave some words of encouragement to graduating high school students that are about to go on a new journey in their lives. He explained to students that not only should they take the smallest things for granted, but to not rush through life so they will be able to take a step back to see everything that is happening around them. Collins stated that it is important to consider what needs to be done in the present instead of

3 looking way ahead of the future, also to enjoy life by making new joyful memories with all of the time they have before time passes them by. Finally, the last article I read is called "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua. In this narrative essay, Anzaldua basically describes her experience in the United States being prejudged by other individuals because of her Latino culture and speaking a Spanish language instead of English. She even went into detail of how she was struggling with her identity, learning the English language during those tough times in her life, and how those experiences highly impacted her as an individual. First, I am going to start off by defining the first term " genre" by its regular definition and then elaborate on my own theory that I came up with in English class. Genre is a category of artistic composition, as in music, literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. This was one of the key terms that I understood the most before I even stepped into college because I learned it so much over the years. I will honestly admit that I was never aware of the complex theories that was involved in genre or the big role in plays in creating a unique writing style. I would say that the information I gathered from all of the three articles I listed above, as well as the information that was taught to me in English lecture class, gave me a new idea now about what it actually consist of. Now that I know this, I will not view it as common types of categories in music, movies, and literature anymore. The good thing about genre is it could be directed towards any audience you want. The type of work (poem, article, book, essay, , etc.) that writers have done is broken into various categories and subcategories from the

4 literary devices they utilized in their writing, but it depends on who they are writing their message to. It can range from young children to young adults, people that are highly intrigued by a topic they are compassionate about, and the list just goes on from there. Being that I am looking at the whole picture of what genre really means, it is even considered as a text message and a short paragraph that you post on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and posting selfies on Instagram. Now that I have developed my own theory of this term, here is my own definition that I currently have for genre: It is a type of literary work that an author or writer chooses to write creatively towards a particular audience. Genre really goes beyond the types of work authors write, but authors or writers are allowed to have a combination of genre formats in their writing in order for it to become more intriguing for the audience. There are a few examples from the following articles I read that best demonstrates the use of genre. For instance, Collins included many metaphorical statements throughout his speech. He used those to make the speech persuasive for his audience to take his advice. A good example of this would be Collins explaining what rushing through life could lead to from his experience by using those types of statements. "Indeed, the wish to have everything go faster will always end in frustration because, short of the speed of light, there is no end to speed" (pg. 2). Collins repeatedly stated these throughout the speech to not only make it persuasive, but to influence others to not rush through life and take it for granted. This also illuminates the purpose of his speech. He included a phrase from a poem in some parts of his speech to make it a powerful universal message. Here is some of the poem lines he used: "One of the most basic pleasures of poetry is the way it slows us down. The intentionality of its language gives us pause. Its formal

5 arrangement checks our haste. In his poem The Garden, Andrew Marvell uses the phrase a green thought in a green shade to describe the mind at peace with its natural environment. Emerson (I know I promised) tells us to be a 'transparent eyeball' as we look at the world, that is, to see it without prejudice or motive, without the need to twist things into a shape that makes it more convenient for us to proceed" (pg. 3). Even though the genre of this speech is considered as a graduation speech, but it is a persuasive speech that consist of more than one genre because it has an abundance of strong literary devices such as famous quotes, other authors works, and metaphors. By the same token, Collins had constraints while talking to the audience because of the repetitive usage of metaphorical statements throughout the whole speech, which creates a regular pattern and unique style of his writing. Plus, he had rhetorical situation in his writing by explaining his side of the story about what he experienced from rushing through life before entering college. This was his intention as a writer or speaker to share this with the audience so they will be able to understand different point of views about life instead of them looking at it in tunnel vision. This is more of an example of the use of exigence in his inspirational speech. The reason why I say this is because he focused mainly on the issue people have by taking life for granted. Once again, he repeatedly made it clear to the audience that it is the worse mistake that they could ever make when living their lives. Anzaldua also did this in her article. The only difference is that she included a mixture of Spanish and English language, quotes from poems, and historical context in her work. These were her constraints because of the way she wrote her text. On top of that, she mainly focused on what she went through when she came to America. Throughout her article, she utilized first

6 person to narrate her story. She utilized her native language and quotes from different poems to express her emotions. Here is a great example of one of the features she utilized in her writing. "Deslenguadas. Somas los del espanol deficiente. We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestisaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally, and linguistically somas huerfanos-we speak an orphan tongue" (pg ). This is a way for her to share her personal story about living in her culture and experiencing with identity issues in America, which makes her article more like a diary journal. It is also considered as exigence to address some of the issues she had with her identity. The quote stated above is an excellent demonstration of rhetorical situation as well, which I will describe later on in this paper. Her writing is also considered as a feminist text. Anzaldua uses power genre against the powerful by rewriting her narrative to share her experience with her audience. Both of these articles have different genres, but their writing has a purpose to grab the audience attention. Another similarity that I found between the two is that they both are indirect texts instead of direct texts. Secondly, there is another term that is part of writing and it is called "audience." The original definition of this term is the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event, such as a play, movie, concert, literature, or meeting. This term is the most common element to have in writing for any type of message that the author is trying to convey towards the audience. My own definition of audience is a certain group of people that you are directing your message towards, whether it is towards young adults, children, or adults. Author should often have a particular type of audience because they need to make sure that the audience understands from his or her point

7 of view. That way, the audience could connect to what the speaker or writer is saying. On top of that, there are different types of audiences that I was not aware of from the beginning. The two types of audiences that I learned from class thus far is target audience and real audience. Anzaldua s text greatly illustrates the use of audience because she was telling a story. In her article, there are a few groups of people that she was directing her message towards. I would say her target audience was a group of bilingual people that were struggling with their cultural identity like she was. This can also be the real audience being that those that live in the Spanish culture could relate to what she was saying in the text. Another target or real audience could be English scholars that are intrigued in learning about Spanish culture, language, and history. Even those that don't understand about the culture, but are open-minded to learn more about it. I think those that prejudged her throughout the process of learning the English language as another target audience. This is an example of her targeting an audience in her writing. "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. Until I can accept as legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex, and all the other languages I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself. Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speaker rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate" (pg. 81). Despite the fact that she is saying this towards people that prejudged her because she was highly affected by it, but she let s individuals within the Spanish culture know that it is okay to be themselves and be proud of

8 their culture. It is almost like she is talking to the audience by expressing her thoughts in a powerful manner. It is something that will tug on their heart strings because they can relate to her and her personal story. Collins has a variety of audiences in his speech as well. The audiences he had for his commencement were high school students, parents, and faculty staff. The most common audience is students that are graduating from high school; however, he wanted to give them advice and encouraged them to take memories with them throughout their lives. A good example would be him explaining this quote to a younger audience. "Some of your time here at Choate was spent in a swift current of information: and by the time you find yourself on another spring day about to graduate from college, the pace of information will have accelerated even more perhaps within paradigms we cannot we imagine" (pg.2). Other people such as older adults can listen to this speech as well due to the fact that they have learned from experience about not slowing down in their lives while some of them were in college. Here is the following example that demonstrates him speaking to older adults. "Although teaching and learning themselves have been motorized by the hyper-pace of information, it is good to remember that the tempo of education has always involved a deceleration. You can actually feel it as you walk onto this campus, a shift from the urgencies and demands of the world to the more leisurely pace of discussion, the cadence of study and reflection, the seeming stop-time of engrossed thought" (pg. 3). Two of the articles are similar when it comes to audience because they both have a good choice of who they want to send their message to. Furthermore, they present their point of views

9 in an understandable way for the audience to make some personal connections to what they were saying. The last term that I will define is " rhetorical situation." It is originally defined as the context of a rhetorical event that consists of an issue, audience, and a set of constraints. It also deals with the basic term called "rhetoric." Speaking of this term, I will briefly explain the definition of this word that I found from Purdue OWL.They defined it as: It is any communication used to modify the perspectives of others. Basically, this makes a writing piece more persuasive to make someone change a perspective on something by taking action and looking at a certain situation differently. It is always a clever idea for an author to put their input about a certain experience, or have a personal story to their particular topic. After I read Bitzer's article about rhetorical situation, it helped me understand his point of views easily because he provided plenty of examples in his article. I define rhetorical situation as a text having an author that targets an audience with a mixture of genres to persuade another person to change a view on a certain situation or take action on something. In Bitzer's article, he defined rhetorical situation more thoroughly than I did. This is how he defined rhetorical situation. "A complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence" (pg. 60). I think the components he mentioned is essential to have in writing because it makes the audience view a situation peripheral instead of

10 just one way. Speaking of other components, these also include constraints and exigence. The only difference between the two is constraints strictly deals with the limitations that the author has when it comes to writing something to a particular group of people, whereas exigence focuses solely on the issue, problem, or a situation that prompts the author to write or speak on it. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" and "Slowing Down" has utilized the rhetorical situation method in their writing. They did this by getting their points across, sharing their overall purpose of their story, and what action they took after learning from a situation they experienced in the past. Collins did this when he told his inspirational story about life lessons with the audience about rushing through life before he entered college, easily taking the minute things for granted, and the importance of having gratitude. By the same token, Collins had constraints while talking to the audience because of the repetitive usage of metaphorical statements throughout the whole speech, which creates a unique style of his writing. "But the gratitude I would like you to think about today (and tomorrow and the next day) is a deeper, more basic kind of gratitude, an existential gratitude that can be felt by anyone, no matter how few or many pennies they have I mean the gratitude for being alive. The vibrant, breathing life we experience every moment of the day is the easiest thing to take for granted because we are always standing in the middle of our own existence and cannot easily see it as something that we possess, as a gift" (pg. 4). Not only did he persuade students, staff, and parents to slow down through life, but he also used exigence and purpose in his speech to influence people to change their perspective on life when it comes to encountering different circumstances that are unexpected. He took the time to explain to them that appreciating for what you posses is a great trait to have. In other words, it is best to appreciate what you have now than never. He encouraged high school students to take his

11 advice so their life will go smoothly while they make their transition into college or their careers. Anzaldua did the same thing in her text when she says: "I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue-my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence" (pg. 82). She encouraged people to be proud and to not be ashamed of their culture. This is a way for her to tell her call of action to other people that dealt with the same problems she had. This could be a wake up call for her to change her mindset about the people that are always making assumptions without knowing her personally. It made her realize that it is important to not focus on the opinions of others that do not know about her culture or lifestyle at all. All of these texts have the same flow and almost the same writing style. As a result, a text, especially if it has a sufficient amount of literary techniques, becomes more persuasive for people to take action on something after their minds are made up from just reading an essay or listening to a speech. It made Collins and Anzaldua's text eloquent because it forms a theme in their story; therefore, it has a purpose. Rhetorical situation from all of the sources I read, I noticed that it affects many authors of how they write their material and what to write about, regardless of what literary techniques they choose to use. All of these reflection terms that I learned in class connects to all aspects of writing. Genre, rhetorical situation, and audience forms a purpose, theme, and informative details due to an author's knowledge about a specific topic or their personal experiences, which can affect their way of writing a story. It also causes the text to be broken down into many subcategories in order to compose a persuasive writing piece.

12 Works Cited : Anzaldua, Gloria, Bartholomae, David, How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Boston Times Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers 8th Edition, Bedford/ St Martin's Press, Accessed 5 Sept Bitzer, Lloyd. Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy & Rhetoric (1968) canopy.uc.edu/bbcswebdav/pid dt-content-rid _1/courses/2178-1_28engl /Bitzer-The%20Rhetorical%20Situation.pdf. Accessed 30 Aug Collins, Billy. "Slowing Down." N.p., 3 June Web. 28 Aug Sproat, Ethan, et al. Welcome to the Purdue OWL. Purdue OWL: The Rhetorical Situation, Purdue University, 27 Apr. 2012, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/01/. Accessed 30 Aug