shout out

The Undergraduate Writing Major

Rhetoric, however old and all encompassing it may be, is still a generally new subject. Where in math, science, and philosophy, we have centuries predating that of Rhetoric, as the appeal to others and an audience is not something one found important at the beginning of the High Greek period, but this transfers over to the studies within the modern University setting as well. It's a never changing subject, and within the subject there are constantly evolving fields by which one can take on a plethora of different topics and discourses. In high school, we are told that writing is the tedious process by which you explain a great time you had with your parents or a moment where you felt like you were a hero, and while those are all great examples of what writing can be, Rhetoric goes far beyond that. Most people see people with writing majors as people who are getting a degree in imagination, but this couldnt be further from the truth; writing is a structure of business and other tenets very valuable to society, and thus is a very important part of various structures within society. Professional writing is not usually something someone encounters within the context of an undergraduate program, but luckily, it is now offered to us. I think it gives those who are partaking in it a head start, and a very valuable one at that. It has legitimized a writing degree and will hopefully get me a job in future ventures.

Revision Strategies by Sommers

There are plenty of studies on the writing process, but not actually on the process of going back and revising work. Writing follows a pretty Linear path, from beginning to end mostly, with little regard for what comes between. Unlike the spoken word, where one can easily go back and erase or correct what they have made verbose, writing takes a certain grasp of grammar, and rewording. Students, in this correspondence, revision as little as possible, as when they read back, they see nothing wrong, they continue on hoping one will not notice - they also many other things, such as readership, meaning, and various other aspects.

It's completely understood as to why revision is such a touchy subject for people when writing, it's self correction, and not many people are very keen on the idea that they were wrong the first time, and of course, you have the people who pretend that what they wrote the first time was the true expression of their mind, the direct expression more so.

Keywords in Composition Studies by Vandenberg, Owens, Heilker.

This piece is about how one must choose certain keywords in their discourse -this isn't to say that all words cannot be seen as keywords, based on differentiation in Rhetorical Situation. These differentiations revolve around the involvement with figuring out what an audience wants to hear, to coherence, which is explicitly linked to making sure the words you choose actually make sense in a Rhetorical situation, and of course, the collaborative act between the author and the reader within a Rhetorical Situation.

These are only a few of the Rhetorical Situations one can find within the piece, but they are among the greatest examples of what one can do to ease the pressures of dealing with the audience. It only takes this sort of control to fully understand kind of undertaking must be made in regards to Ethos, Pathos, etc. This is a very concise map of all the different sorts of definitions that one might come across, and use to their advantage, in regards to Rhetoric.

What is Rhetoric by Covino and Joliffe

As with most other terms in the English Language, one would assume that Rhetoric would have an exact and pristine definition - seeing as its one of the oldest known words in our dictionary, it's rightly assumed so - but, because of the depth and lack of focus on this particular field or word, its completely unidentifiable to someone trying to approach it from a multitude of directions. the tiers that make up a Rhetorical situation are as follows; audience, proof, and the five "canon's" of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Audience is debatable, as one never acknowledges an audience exclusively, but arranged a piece around the idea of how they will approach one.

It's definitely nice and welcoming to see someone trying to define a general term for Rhetoric, but because of how impossible it is to find a definition to something of that extent, it's still not clearly defined, but alas, at least an attempt was made to chip away at the never ending, vague, ambiguous world which is Rhetoric.

The Rhetorical Stance and Booth.

Booth suggests that in regards to an audience, one must choose whether or not to fully involve oneself in the ethical appeal of the audience, to the point where it becomes somewhat overbearing, or if one just disregards them entirely and does not regard them whatsoever. This is what Booth refers to as a Logical Stance - one which the Rhetoric Scholar must make, to choose between this and that, and a multitude of other nuances associated with sculpting your audiences emotions to a tee. Once this is accomplished, or more importantly, once a Rhetorical Stance is accomplished, one has made a purpose in a piece of Rhetoric, for without an Audience, there is no purpose.

Booth is right in his meaning and definition of what makes a Rhetorical Stance, and more importantly, how important it is that one actually makes one - since in its essence, a piece of Rhetoric is only for its audience, and if it is not, it probably has no bearing unto anything, as the audience is what makes the piece; what sculpts it.

The Meaning of Audience by Park.

The term audience, however vague and circumstantial it may be, lends itself to the decision making process by which Rhetoric scholars decide who and what they are actually writing about to begin with. In this example, Douglas Park is talking about the argument between what the writer is actually writing about, in the Context of this paper, there is a certain theoretical aspect to be covered within the piece, which states that there the only decision being made by Rhetoric Scholars is that one must either Evoke Emotion from the audience, or simply provide them with words to read.

Park is spot on with his examples and definition of what makes an audience an audience, and the boundaries by which one defines these parameters, and more importantly the conflict which writers face at this current day and age, which is to overcome the simulacrum industry of the arts.