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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.

Bitzer and the Rhetorical Situation.

What Bitzer talks about in the Rhetorical Situation is that of taking Rhetoric out of the context of Subject or audience, and makes it into an instance, a matter of situation and decision in terms of what to acclimate an argument to and so on. Rhetorical Situation is defined as being the exigence of a complex circumstance, unto which one makes decisions.

Bitzer is right when he talks about how a situation can be created using Rhetoric, considering its mostly situational as it is. One must come up with a rational point of view when making an argument towards... well, anything really. it's an interesting article in the sense that it forces the reader to sort of break down to the essence of what Rhetoric is.

Media Design

Graphic design, sometimes misnomered as a field of advertisement, is much more broad then one might think upon their first foray into reading about the subject. Graphic Design covers a spectrum of advertising, design, branding, newsprint, and message delivery. The aesthetic appeal of graphic design is obviously where the importance lies, but while this is true of all forms of advertisement, it's important to note that graphic design encompasses something much more broad then an advertisement, seeing as it is the design, and therefore the quality control of a certain product or product placement. New media outlets, such as the internet are replacing old media outlets, such as the Television, and newsprint, thus changing the face of graphic design to fit the needs and appeals of the new generation, at this point, graphic designers no longer have to stick to a traditional format, and abide by specifics, as the internet is an open forum for any type of design, and therefore, the idea of what makes a graphic designer a graphic designer have obviously changed as well.

Grammar, and Nonsense, and Learning: We Look to the Future

Language is a subject to change continuously. This is inevitable because technology is constantly changing and the most important technology that is reshaping languages these days is computer. Lynch and Jack take a close look at the changes that computers, specifically personal computers, brought; both negative and positive changes. Personal computers allow everyone to publish their writings on the web but because there is no regulations or proofreaders, grammar become convoluted. Some websites such as lolcats.com encourage and allow grammatical errors. I do not think the internet should be blamed for the misuse of grammar, and as Lynch and Jack said in the beginning of their article, language is constantly changing and even though technology is a big part of the reshape of language, it is ultimately the people who write and use the technology. This change is inevitable and I honestly don't think criticizing and reinforcing the importance of grammar are going to bring much change.

the seventh sense

In their article, Truss and Lynne talk about punctuations; how they help readers comprehend writings easier, common misapprehension, and the importance of learning how to use them right. We all use punctuation in all of our writings and often, I find myself confused if the commas are in the right places or not in the right places. Punctuation makes a meaning of the sentence clearer but when it is not correctly used, it can change the meaning of a sentence. For a writer to make their writings easy to understand, correct usage of punctuation is essential. I think school and classes should teach the student more about punctuations and why their importance should not be ignored. This article helped me realize some mistakes that I have been making and I will be more aware of punctuations when writing from now on.

Fleckenstein

It is easy to think that coherence in writing is easy to achieve, and even though writers pay attention to their sentences, they pay less attention to the arrangement of their sentences. By making the writings coherent, the writer is building a solid bridge that could carry their ideas accurately to the readers. Writers can achieve this by putting themselves in the reader's position.

Even though coherence in writing is one of the key factors to relate to your readers well, I thought what Dr. Freckenstein was talking about in the article was common sense. As writers, we are constantly reminded that we have to read our writings as readers, and that we have to put ourselves in their position. I, personally, did not find the article helpful, even though I am well award of the importance of coherence in writing.

"Media In Everyday Life" By Sturken and Cartwright

In this Article, The authors Sturken and Cartwright talk about the term media, what it encompasses in this day and age, and how we use various aspects of technology in everyday life. The arguments presented in the piece by the authors are very feasible, as there is obviously no denying that we have become a very technologically dependent society - therefore its rather relevant to read something of this nature.

Medium, a term that has undeniably come to define the process and materials to which technology, art, and the like are carried out and formed, respectively, is something of great importance in this piece. without the medium, we would not have the kind of instantaneous media we have ever present in this modern age. With the production of Iphones, sites like Facebook, Youtube, and the Internet itself, we have created a situation where one can take a picture on a phone from whatever exotic locale they my be at, post it to a site where millions of people can instantly see it, and from there, well. . . I'm sure it's clear what kind of snowball effect is in place. Media is a whole other spectrum; while the medium makes up and constitutes what forms of technology and under what circumstances it operates, Media is the routing; News outlets, Social networking, Electronic Billboards, Commercials, etc. that makes up the medium. It's what makes up the spectrum; the visual spectrum, if you will. The Medium, acting as unseen, inner-workings, helps to fill in that other space. Over all, what we have in today's media, is a system where things can be said, seen, and heard, almost as live as they actually happen, and for that, we should be thankful; the events unfolding in places such as Haiti, or even years ago in Indonesia, would have never been understood without the quick hands of a cell phone camera holder, but of course, we must also acknowledge the kind of horror this instant media has unleashed upon society, and keep refining the medium and improve the overall quality of media as a whole.

Material literacy and visual design

Well, obviously this article is outdated, but it has some good points that web users nowadays will agree. The article deals with criticism that the internet received when it was getting popular; that the web is threatening to drain contemporary prose of its rhetorical possibilities witch has to do with multi-media aspects of the web. However, Faigley is defending the web, that literacy has always been a material, multimedia construct but we only now are becoming aware of this multidimensionality and materiality because computer technologies have made it possible for many people to produce and publish multimedia presentations.

The web definitely stimulated the rapid change literacy went through, and as the technology evolved, people's attitude towards literacy and the web also changed. Just because it is incorporated with other medias more often, doesn't mean literacy is being threatened. In some ways, literacy is being more accessible; now that more people are writing online through various ways.

Sondra Perl, Understanding Composing

In her article, Sondra Perl talks about the patterns of composing. She focuses on the recognition of recursiveness in writing that ultimately helps the writer go forward. This goes beyond looking back at previous phrases or sentences, or some key words and phrases. Felt sense, "which encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time", is what writers must keep on going back to in order to compose their writings. The process of putting the felt sense into right words is called retrospective structuring, and the ability to craft what one intends to say

so that it is intelligible to others is called projective structuring. By going through these cycles, writers compose powerful writing with a strong sense of what they are trying to say.

Sondra's article explained the recursive pattern of writing. It was easy to understand and relate to, and by recognizing a pattern that I was not sure of will make me more patient and learn to wait to feel the felt sense and put it in the right words.

"Keywords in Composition Studies" by Peter Vandenberg

In this piece of wonderful prose, Vandenberg is elaborating upon the various aspects one inherently abides by when relating to Rhetorical analysis and its various functions. He begins with Audience, a very important aspect of Rhetoric, and discusses how one can run into problems if their understanding of an audience is that they (they being the audience in this instance) are a fixed variable within the Rhetorical scenario, thus limiting oneself in further discourse; and eventually goes on to describe other very important aspects when forming Rhetoric such as Coherence, Form and structure, process, and inevitably, Rhetoric itself. These definitions and examples are much more in depth, understandable, and approachable to the audience, and thus serve to clearly explain what one needs to do in order to properly form Rhetorical thoughts and conduct productive reasoning in situations in which Rhetoric is needed. Vandenberg is not only keeping a nice, balanced structure while writing this piece, but lays out his discussion very easily and everything in the piece seems to blend and coincide rather nicely throughout its length.

"What is Rhetoric" and "Glossary of Major Concepts..." by Covino and Jolliffe

Rhetoric, along with the other ancient arts of discourse, plays an integral part in shaping our modern understanding of language and how we use it to appeal to various situations and stances among a variety of different communication situations. While the article does quite a bit to level out the playing field so to speak, Covino and Jolliffe do not go as in depth as Yancey did in our previous studies; but of course, this is more so a definition and series of subordinate definitions pertaining to the greater subject, which is, of course, Rhetoric and its foundations. Some of the words and ideas discussed and defined in the piece are of course of great importance, but it seems that they are merely grazed upon in various aspects, and I would prefer for more explanation when it comes to things such as Pathos (other then the basis of Aristotelian thought), and in some instances, the explanations were somewhat unclear, but regardless the piece gives the reader a clear and relatively concise understanding of what Rhetoric is, where it's come from, and what we can use from it to better our communication skills with one another

Yancey - Writing in the twenty first century

In this article, Yancey describes the shift in the way we in the 21st century have convoluted conventional writing structures, and goes on to further explain what ways we can enhance, and progress our writing, as well as describing the various nuances created through means of text and social networking sites, and how we can work to correct these issues before they further corrupt the English language and it's composition.

Yancey makes plenty of valid points as to where composition began and where it's purposes have been misconstrued, and continues to explain how we can benefit from new technologies such as text messaging, social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, and how they have both enhanced and subsequently hindered our means of communicating, all the while remaining objective, showing where the idea of writing has come and in some ways, gone. Her topic of the web 2.0 culture is almost too true; as we see these examples all around us with people holed up in their bedrooms writing for some of the worlds most famous blog sites, which have in turn, become news media outlets, and the internet's inherent usage as a instantaneous means of communication, and the formation of what has come to be known as an 'internet celebrity'.

Yancey's perspective on writing is true to life, as we see examples explained in totality on an almost daily basis. Blogs, Social networking sites, and instant messaging have blurred the boundaries of conventional communication and made it such that anyone can speak their mind, do it in any manner they please, and of course, at the mere push of a button.