Before reading Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking) I hadn't
fully comprehended how often I use rhetoric in my everyday writing. I never
even fully understood what I was doing when I would write an essay, or an
letter, and speak differently to fit the precise context. I found it neat, it
was as if it was a dormant ability I have always had but never fully conscious
of. Now that I think back, I use a different tone for each essay I have ever
written, including this blog post. I
never realized how often we group different scenarios into a genre to
understand what is appropriate in our writings.
Another
thing that stood out to me was the fact that there are jargon's for each
appropriate scenario and group. I found this interesting and true because I
remember my first time at Brooks as a film student, someone had asked me
"so do you prefer to work in post production?" confused I admitted that I hadn't a clue as
to what that meant. I felt silly being a film student and not yet understanding
all the lingo. However, have just a month of attending Brooks I quickly picked
up on all the different terminology.
Understanding Rhetoric much like the
first reading conveyed the same message but in a more playful context.
After reading the two assigned readings I feel I have a much better
understanding of what genre, context, and rhetoric mean. Before I never even
explored the idea of rhetoric or how it had any effect on me or my writing
whether it may be public writing or personal. After becoming aware of such an
effective writing tool I feel it can only help but strengthen my writing being
aware of what jargon, or rhetoric I'm using. Rather than subconsciously picking
a tone for my writings I will be able to jot down and brain storm a more
appropriate voice for each writing piece I create.
Yeah I feel the same way you do about writing, there was no direction in my approach before. It was just what comes to mind and I write, however with learning and understanding of rhetoric, I feel like we can get more structural as we write but still maintain the freedom to write what we want.
ReplyDeleteAlex O,
ReplyDeletePizza and dogs, huh? You sound like a wonderful, true-to-the-bone human.
Rhetoric and jargon—like you mentioned—is all over the place, and oftentimes we’re not even aware of it. Part of our job in this class is to take a step back, spot it when we see/hear it, and then analyze it to find out its effectiveness. Writing is ultimately about language + communication. You can’t really learn “writing” without learning about the ways in which language and communication function in everyday contexts.
Nice start. Keep up the good work, Alex’O.
Z
I agree with you when it comes to unconsciously deciding how we communicate with people. Everyone knows when talking to someone job related you speak in a more professional way and how we don’t make that conscious decision, we just do it. It kind of blew my mind when having that fact pointed outright to me clearly. I didn’t know there was an actual word for it, like I said I thought it was something people naturally knew to do. But I feel like I learned a lot more about English than I did in my last English class just from this reading. Now we know the vocabulary behind what we write.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought of "speaking differently to fit that precise context," when I was reading this essay. I came to the conclusion that we use rhetoric and jargon to define us as people in every day situations. We use these literary tools in order to show people how we want to be portrayed in a certain situation. I am glad that someone appreciated the essay as much as I did. I felt as if it did a better job explaining these tools in a very quirky way, the writing was not boring and monotonous like most informative essays. Nice blog post.
ReplyDeleteWell, dang.. After reading some of these reading responses I definitely have to find ground to my writings and approach. Super cool that you have become aware and will from now on begin to write with a specific approach.
ReplyDeleteCan u help me???? Jokes.
Cool post.