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

Rhetorical Analysis

     The rhetorical analysis can be understood as a critical investigation of a text, video, or image. Such analysis involves the interaction between the text itself, the author, and the audience, as well as, the information that the reader (or who is analyzing) needs to get from the text. I believe that the Rhetoric Analysis is an indispensable tool for my future writing projects, since it’s strengthens my critical thinking. In the analysis we must always try to understand what is written between the lines, in the other words, what is the intention of the author, or if there is some external factor influencing the author’s opinion. Several answers found by rhetorical analysis can help me to be more persuasive with my own audience, as well as, looking for a more critical thinking when I read any article or any piece of ideas.
     In order to analyze an article about my future research (Do social networking sites change people's behavior towards politics?), I have rhetorically analyzed the article “The Impact of Social Networking Sites on Politics” by Megan Baker, 2009. I couldn’t find information about the author on the Internet, this indicates to me that maybe it is an isolated publication about the issue, and maybe the author isn’t specialist in that, so the credibility still is unknown. Moreover, the article has a lot of data from others sources, which the author used to build her conclusion. While I was reading the article it seems that Baker was trying to be neutral about the topic by bring in some controversial ideas from the sources. However, after read the conclusion, it seems that in the entire article Baker used the sources in order to state her own disagreements about the impact of social webpages on politics, because she basically agreed with all the authors by saying “I do not think that social networking sites will create a "new era of democracy" but I do think that it has helped the candidates reach out to supporters, mostly people who supported them already, but also some who were uncertain in their choice”. She basically summarize the controversial sources that she have used in the text, saying that Internet is not revolutionary while just facilitate the political engagement, but doesn’t confirm that the political discussion will do people really act. Anyway, it is not possible know how the author uses all her sources, if it has reliability or not (since I honestly didn’t read all those sources), but in some way it is possible see that her opinion is completely based on the sources’ opinion.
     The terms I have learned from Allyn & Bacon Guide are useful for me to direct my vision for the rhetoric of the author, trying to ignore my opinions on the topic and trying to understand what the author want to respond. I believe the article that I selected is rather simple, and the author information is limited, so I can’t make an analysis of her angle of view. Either way, it is very important to follow techniques of rhetorical analysis, creating a sort of outline for this ranalysis, and ensuring that all aspects are evaluated.

Genres: Photo Essay, Cartoon, and Advertising Campaign

     The genres analyzed will be: Photo Essay, Cartoon, and Advertising Campaign.      

     A Photo Essay is a set of photos placed in a planned order with the goal of communicates events, feelings/emotions or concepts. The photo essay tells the same story of a normal essay through visual photographs. The photo essay has the constrain of the lap of communication, the author must well apply the technics in order to achieve success in the communication, because sometimes images can’t directly show what the author want to say. The photo essay can be applied with a text in a magazine for example, it will helps the audience to understand the topic and will communicate the content in a summarized form for who doesn’t want to read the entire text. In the Drew Bird Photography Blog is possible see the use of the Photo Essay to shows the progress of the urban farming in New Orleans. The post shows several photos of the great production of organic and local vegetables and through the set of photographs is possible to see the how the population is producing farms into the city, giving a perspective of health, sustainability and entrepreneurship.
        Cartoon is a humoristic draw with or without subtitle, and of extremely critical character, picturing with humor and satire daily events of a society. Different of the Photo Essay, the Cartoon can use some legend which sometimes is essential for the success of the communication. Cartoon is usually published in newspapers and magazines, and can be generally published in social webpages as Facebook. In the cartoon the author quips job interviews, emphasizing how the labor market forces people to be more creative and ingenious.
        Advertising Campaign is several advertisement of a product with the same theme and idea with the purpose of sell a product, service, or idea through the marketing. The advertising campaign appears in different medias as TV, social webpages, radio, outdoors. The audience is everyone interested in the product, and the constrains will depend of the media used to advertise the product. The website shows a campaign to reduce the speed and the car accidents in the road, the advertisement uses the correlation between physical violence and speed. In this case, the communication is similar with the cartoon, it has images and subtitle to complete the message.
        As seen in each genre the authors used different technics to well communicates. The three examples of genres use images to express their ideas, but it's still possible to see the difference in each of them, and especially how each is used for different purposes. The Photo Essay can be a complement of a new or can be an artistic representation with the use of photography. Cartoons are more funny communication, to criticize some issue in an intelligent perspective. While the advertising campaign is a more appealing way to convince the audience about some idea. In the first example of Photo Essay the author used the technic in a complement of a text in order to tell a story, and probably the author won’t has the same success to tell this story using just a Cartoon. The same effect is for the use of a Photo Essay in the same place of a Cartoon in a newspaper. Probably it will be harder to ironize a notice or fact with a Photo Essay, which is compose of real photography, than with a Cartoon that can be composed of unrealistic pieces to create the message. Probably both Photo Essay and Cartoon would be used for a Advertising Campaign, which is more open for any technic application, since it convince the audience and sell the product.

Blog Assignment #2

In the essay The Rhetorical Situation, Lloyd F. Bitzer presents some arguments to explain the theory of situation, which is the theory that the rhetorical discourse is a response to a situation. For Bitzer, a situation is rhetoric only when that needs discourse in order to modify that situation. Thus, the rhetorical situation involves exigency, audience and constrains. The exigency might be rhetorical, in the other words, might be positive modifiable only by means and arguments, while the audience are the mediators of change by the influence of the rhetoric. The constrains are part of the rhetoric situation, such as beliefs, facts, and traditions.
The points about rhetoric presented by Bitzer are deeper than I had ever considered before. First of all, I believe that the analysis of the situation can bring more arguments for a rhetorical response. It can help me to analyze the topics of my futures rhetoric essays, and not just superficially thinking about my audience. I can organize my ideas initiating from the exigency of my situation, as well as, the constrains of this situation. After that, I can think about how my speech can change the mind of a group of people, and how those people can change a situation where my exigency is inserted.
Bitzer brings some issues about situations that aren’t rhetoric and can’t be treated as rhetoric, it is interesting in order to define when I will use tools such ethos, logos, and pathos. An example is for scientific works, which doesn’t require the use of the rhetoric since the audience is a group of people who want to learn, and not a group of people who I want to change a situation by my speech. This fact brings me the knowledge that I never have to use ethos in any scientific paper or formal presentation about my major of civil engineering, since it requires only technical issues.


Reference
Bitzer, Lloyd F. - The Rhetorical Situation

     My name is Thais Gasperin and I’m an exchange student from Brazil. I’m senior student of Civil Engineering in Brazil. My goal in United States is learn more about Civil Engineering and improve my English as well. Therefore, I’m currently enrolled in the course of English 102 in order to improve my writing and reading skills.
     For composition/writing the audience is the people who probably will read a specific text. The audience can be just one person, for example, for a personal letter. However, in the general cases the audience could be a large group of people who are interested in the topic of the text. For that reason, it is important to know who is the audience, since the goal of a paper is through the rhetoric convince the audience about our ideas.
     Thinking about convince people we must know that maybe we need to explain some issues in the text, if our audience isn’t familiar with the topic; or maybe we can be technical if we know that the audience is expert. Moreover, it is important to know why the audience is reading the text, how interested they are and how they will react about our ideas. All those information and analyses are indispensable for the success of the communication with the audience.
     I know, for example, that the audience for my blog and my essays will be my instructor Jerri A. Benson, others students of the class interested in compare the work, and maybe one or two of my curious friends on the internet. For those reasons, my essays and my blog will completely follow the instructions of my professor, in order to convince her that my writing skills are been improved through the semester and I’m trying to do my best.
     The image below shows six groups of people and a red target under the main audience, or as the pun suggests, the target audience. This picture makes me remember an advice of my advisor in Brazil when I asked him if I should explain every single technical word in my final paper of the undergraduation, which would be published in the Civil Engineering website of my Brazilian University. He quickly answered me that my paper would not be with the magazines in the waiting room of a beauty salon, so I should not worry about it since just people who already knew the terms of Civil Engineering would read that. It was funny, but what he was saying to me was “know your target audience, don’t waste your/my time!”

References:
John Ramage et al, The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing (7th edition)
Image: unknown author