Assignment #12 - Rhetorical Analysis

           The article “Inventing the University”, wrote by David Bartholomae (1986) and published in the Journal of Basic Writing, talks about the challenges that involve being a new writer.  The author’s focus is how the new writers must seem themselves as “authority” toward theirs audience, by writing their essays as they are experts on the issue, and not like a student write for a professor. Moreover, Bartholomae argues that the university and teachers should present the writing for the students not just in “introductory courses”. For those analyses, the author analyzed 500 essays wrotes by “basic writers”.

            Bartholomae evaluate and used some essays as examples to base his arguments. The article talks about how students should evolve written in order to improve the rhetoric surrounding the audience. The author’s purpose is to show a new center of attentions for the new writers, that isn’t based only on the sentence structure, but also in how the writers learn to write for their own, with “effort” and trying something unfamiliar. In the beginning of the article, Bartholomae talks about how students approach their speeches. This introductory part of the articles makes the article seems like a guide for a new writer analyzes his own writing skills. After some paragraphs was possible see that Bartholomae was criticizing the way the writing is presented to students, and through the analysis of the essays, he showed how students can improve their ability to writing at the university. These facts make the audience clear: students (mainly new writers), and especially English’s teachers, since the authors used “we” several times to refer to how teachers must approach new writers. The rhetoric of the article is based in logos, since the author build his arguments in a rational and logical way. Besides, it is possible identify the use of ethos, when the author gives for himself credibility (because he is an English teacher), and also with use of good sources.

Blog Assignment #11

I believe writing, composition, and rhetoric, are fundamental tools for my educational and professional life. My writing skills will be required in many reports and academic papers. I already felt how those skills are important to me during the last five years of my undegraduation in Brazil. My major is civil engineering, thus the rhetoric is more based on logos and ethos, because all my analyses are based on the results that I find, facts, and the study of famous (and most of the time, already dead) physicists, mathematicians, and engineers. On the other hand I can say I already used pathos in an article, in order to show that the material offered by a provider had bad quality (and it have had a huge influence in my test’s results). The argument was based on logic as well, but I knew that my professors and other people interested in the article would consider that it wasn’t my fault at all. The same is for my professional life, because I will need archive a lot of information about my designs or from construction management. Moreover, if I work as an engineering expert, I would need to write reports for judges in cases like the fall of a building, or even a simple claim of a client on any construction problem against a construction company. Therefore, I know I will need to communicate well with people from different fields through writing, in a technical report, in a proposal, or a simple job order, for example.

Blog#10

- Be able to make the connection between questions and problems in your life both within and outside of college.

I believe this topic was covered in the assignment 3. Anyway, I felt lost in the beginning of the assignment because we didn’t have time to think about our problem, and all class activities were related with the problem.  I understand that most of the students already had a problem, but it wasn’t my case. I needed several days in order to “create” a problem. I don’t believe that I have difficult to see problems about issues; on the contrary, I think I am very critical. I just think I forced the existence of a problem to be able to discuss something for the assignment and create the genres, it makes me feel bad about the topic. I wonder that I know I would need a problem and solution for the assignment 3 when I started the assignment 2, that way I would find a issue that I actually believe to be a problem.

Reflective Writing

    In order to write the media analysis essay I started with an outline about what I could write about the subject. It was a little hard when I started; because I needed to try don’t give my opinion even I was talking about myself. My strategy was analyze my own social media in different perspectives, trying imagine what my friends could think about me, and more important than that, analyze how I was changing myself in different environments. I believe it was a new strategy, because I didn’t focus just in a superficial analysis about what I’m trying to make people think. I believe that all the analyses through the essay makes me see the social media in a different way, not just my social profile but the others as well. I believe that anyone who reads my paper can have the same perspective, and maybe look the social medias on a different way. I believe that I brought some new ideas about personality related with the changes in online and offline life, and it is a strength point for the analyses. The weakness is the essence of this essay, where I was trying analyzing myself; maybe if someone else does it, it will be more consistent.
    I believe that the reflective writing is essential to learn with past experiences. When I reflect about anything that I did, I will figure out smoothing that I could improve, change, or keeping doing the same if it is good. It is the same for writing, where the reflective writing is an opportunity to analyze my strengths and weakness. The important thing is know ourselves, know our weakness and try to improve that. In my opinion, the reflective writing is a good strategy to improve the writing skills, and better apply my strengths.

In the video is an excerpt from the movie "300", where a messenger from god Xerxes makes a request of offerings and submission by Leonidas, the king of Sparta. The first appeal is logos, when Leonidas says, “If the messenger, or anyone, says anything then he will be held accountable for anything he says”. The ethos appeal appears through the respect of the people around King Leonidas, who follow him and defends him, showing how he is a leaders. Finally, the pathos appeal appears when Leonidas screams, “This is Sparta”, representing his pride for his country, power, and dignity. The audience in the movie is the messenger and the citizens of Sparta who are watching the conversation between Leonidas and the messenger.     

The pathos, logos, and ethos appeals are essentials to achieve a good rhetoric.  If I know how to use those appeals I can easier convince my audience, since they give power for my arguments. It is important to know that those appeals must be used carefully, in order to catch my audience. When I well know my audience it is easier to know what kind of appeals will be more effective for them as well. For example, if I were making a car commercial where the audience is adults over 30, contract Justin Bieber to work in the commercial maybe wouldn’t be too much effective. Therefore, the more I know my audience; more I can use targeted appeals to reach their interests. Finally, once I understand the definition and the use of pathos, logos, and ethos, I have more tools to convince my audience. As a writer I can better formulate my arguments, and not just throw loose arguments on papper. My text could be rational and formulated to convince my audience through those appeals. The same thing occurs to me as a reader or a listener, because if I know how the writer or speaker is using the rhetoric appeals, I cannot be so easily supple.

   My research concern was about the relation between the social medias and the involvement of user with politics through those social medias. The topic is relevant because it is important for any citizen understand how the medias are influencing our decision and choices. In my opinion, the politics speeches on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, could be seemed such as advertisements. Anyone can say that doesn’t look advertisements on the corner of the websites, but if it is true, why those companies are investing a lot of money to have their product or brand there? Probably this investment is reversed in earnings for the company. Likewise, users can say that a friend’s speech about a candidate or a government issues doesn’t change his mind, but is it really true? The important thing here is to know how groups of politics, pages, and friend’s opinions, can influence us to do something, such as advertisements influence us to spend our money. We need to understand the rhetoric behind all things, in order to be opinion leaders, and not just followers of opinion.
   The assignment is an opportunity to use our persuasion skills to propose an answer to a problem. This kind of practical helps me shape my critical thinking, which is extremely important not only within the university but also in my personal and professional life. When we learn to look at something through different angles, shaping an opinion, and even convince an audience about our speech, or maybe be a counterargument of an audience, we are contributing to develop new ideas. The assignment is just one step of many others necessary for the construction of critical thinking, which certainly will help me to have a responsible and intelligent positioning in any situation. It is important not just following what others say, but seeking the best scenario or solution to any daily matter, such as politics opinion.
   For the assignment 3 I will need to compose in three different genres. I believe it is a way to use more than just long texts to build an argument or idea. It is important to me to know how persuade people in different ways. It will be a challenge for me, because seems something completely new, but I’m sure it will be really nice.

Library Week

     During the classes of the last week we have worked in the library of University of Idaho. The Librarians conducted two classes teaching about how find sources on the library, as well as, find sources on good websites through the library webpage. Moreover, they focus on how find reliable references on the Internet. Those classes were really usable for me, because I’m not familiar with the library website and I don’t know too many good American websites to find articles, as well. With the help of Librarian I have found an article and two books related with my research question (Does social media change people's behaviors when voting?) until now.
     Even after I have found some sources for my research, the topic still is a little bit extensive for me. For example, until now most of the sources talk about the social media x politics in U.S., but I also found a source talking about this influence in Zimbabwe elections. The impact of the social media is even more different in my country, because in Brazil people are required to vote, so the social media doesn’t changes the participation, but can strongly changes the opinion of people. I believe that a comparison of different countries will be complicated, and at the same time, I will need search a lot of about American politics to write just about U.S. Anyway, I’m still deciding how I will work with all my sources in order to write a good essay.

     The image below shows how I’m feeling with the English 102 course until now. I believe it have been a good opportunity to searching, learning, and thinking more about different topics. As I’m a senior major of Civil Engineering, for a long time I don’t researching and writing more cautiously on other matters. Therefore, the English 102 course has been more enjoyable than I was expecting.
   

                                                                   Image source: http://www.kellerink.com/blog/importance-learning-learn