Part 2

            Coming into English 1900 I didn’t have much of an idea of what rhetoric meant. When I first heard the word “rhetoric” I thought it was something like a thought because it sounded like the word “rhetorical.” Little did I know how important rhetoric is in making my writing better. To me rhetoric is many different things put together to make up an argument. The goal of any argument is to persuade your audience of something.  Although it may seem obvious, it is important to take into consideration who your target audience is in order effectively persuade them. Other critical aspects of rhetoric include ethos, pathos, and logos, which are basically credibility, emotion, and logic.

         Now, when I am making an argument, the first thing I take into think about is whom I am trying to persuade. The audience is really important because they are the ones who will read or hear what you are trying to say and determine if it is convincing or not.  Some things to think about the audience are age, gender, and social class. Regardless of who your audience is, it is important to use a mature and professional tone. You need to know what social factors will effect them from being convinced of your audience. It is also very important to address counter arguments, make sure that you have credible information to argue the other side of the argument. This is a good example of ethos, the credibility of the author. If your audience is convinced your information is credible they will naturally be more persuaded. Some things that give you ethos are, education, the tone in your paper and obviously where you get your sources.

         Logos is the logic of writing. With logos you need to make sure that your paper or presentation is organized in a way that appeals to the audience. If the audience feels your information is organized and clear they will likely better understand your argument. Finally pathos, emotion, is important in rhetoric.  Depending on what someone is writing about, there is different emotions that can make your audience interested or persuaded by your argument. Emotional appeal is interesting because it can get someone invested in a whole different aspect.

         All these aspect also helped me think of pros and cons for to support each argument for fight club. Fight club was a great learning experienced and helped me practice all the skills I have learned this semester.

         Ethos, pathos, and logos work together to make an argument strong and they are important in rhetoric. Learning about rhetoric has really made my writing a lot better this semester. To me rhetoric is always thinking about the purpose of what I am writing about, who I am writing to, and how to most effectively convince my audience of my argument. Rhetoric helps your paper come together in a very effective matter using ethos, logos and pathos.

president should step down? fight club

Pro- student should have asked the president should step down
- he wasn't helping the students in the way he could have been
- obviously the student body was angry with him so therefore they should be able to ask him to step down in order to make a strong point that they are angry and fed up with his lack of help (express themselves)
-  if he didn't believe it was a huge issue then the student should definitely have asked him to step down because it was clearly effecting his students
-  student are allowed to ask whatever they want, they did not force the president to step down.
- People felt so strongly about him stepping down that the football team wasn't going to play well and people were going to starve themselves until the president stepped down.

Con- he should not have been asked to step down
-  they could have expressed that they need his help without asking him to step down
- not all student asked him to step-down
- he has done other things that have benefited Mizzou (he became president for a reason)
-  it is not ONLY the president that could have or should have been helping the students
- they could have asked him first why he wasn't helping, he could have believed that it was not an issue and explained why.
- not realizing how much they are harming themselves(not eating) and therefore the president almost had no option but to step down.

research paper analysis

Overall this research paper has definitely been a learning experience. Participating in activities in class, such as fight club, helped me find counter arguments for anything I was trying to argue in my paper. Through the blog posts, I learned how to focus on details and analyze any given prompt. Recently we have had time in class to work on our papers. This exercise helped me a lot because I was able to ask questions and clarify uncertainties that I had.

            If I had the option I would like to have written more short story’s or had more freedom with the paper. Although having a structure and guideline helps us to understand what professor Strickland is looking for. Also, starting a large paper fairly soon into the semester was stressful. The process of writing the paper helped me significantly. It started with writing something we care about which was fairly easy. Then we had to find sources and write an annotated bibliography, which was difficult but helpful for the final paper. Writing a proposal allowed me to thoroughly understand what I was arguing. As for the audience paper it allowed me to realize whom my paper should directly be targeting. Having a better understanding of my paper and knowing whom my audience was allowed me to make my paper more direct and clear. Lastly, the in-class essay helped me significantly; although it was timed it allowed me to get an idea of what my final paper should resemble. Overall this process has taught me valuable information regarding how to make a great and thorough argument and paper.

            As for resources from Strunk & White I found them helpful but they are things we can learn from writing services. Having one of these resources to give you tips on writing is definitely beneficial.

            

Continued Blog Post-11/6

Short Story with 20 vocab words

11/6

Old Post: 

             On July 10^th, 2040 in Chicago IL on a warm summer day (setting) My crew and I decided to take a trip to outer space to make new discoveries. During the trip we saw a meteor it was so big, it was its own planet. (metaphor) Looking back at earth the view was decent (understatement). Five hours into our trip one of my crewmembers saw a unique planet that none of us recognized and decided to land on it and explore. After many hours exploring the planet we tried to get in our spaceship and leave, it had broken down. (Climax) I told my crew a billion times to check our spaceship before we left. (hyperbole) They are such great crewmembers.  (Sarcasm) My crew and I were stranded on an unknown planet for many days(stock settings) when over the horizon comes a spaceship (which was white) landed on the planet (parenthesis). If the spaceship had arrived sooner then I would not have panicked as much. (antecedent-consequence relationship) The spaceship abruptly landed on the mysterious planet “boom”. (onomatopoeia) A man and a woman exited the spaceship. The woman looked very similar to my mom, as if they were related. (simile) The man and the woman acted very strange when they got out of the spaceship. One of my crewmembers said all “humans are mortal”.  (syllogism) I didn’t believe my crewmember because they weren’t speaking normal words, they were saying things like “beep boop”. They waved us to come in there direction. I decided to make the man and the woman take a cloze test, to make sure they were human. The man and the woman both passed the cloze test and continued to tell us that they were trying to trick us. I was so annoyed that they would try and prank us considering the circumstances. I began by telling them this is not funny, using a very aggressive tone. The woman responded with a sassy attitude and told us they were the ones that had to come to the rescue. We finally got into their spaceship and headed home. The spaceship took off. (simple sentence) Finally we were back on earth. I have never felt happier. That day, the next day, the next week I never forgot my emotions I felt, had being stranded. (parallelism) I decided that I want to share my experience with other people so I decided to write a book. I asked my friend who is a professional writer for advice on how to write a book effectively. She simply told me to make sure theatmosphere is clear to set the stage for the rest of the book. To check that the pace is not two fast, so that the readers can understand each event thoroughly. Lastly she told me editing my book is crucial, for final observation, before delivery to check for appropriateness and missteps in the work. I could not be more exited to share my crazy story with the public!

New Post

            After college, my life quickly seemed to be coming together. Upon graduation, I got a job as a spy for an agency that worked to undercover terrorists within the country. Not many people can say they landed a career like that at the young age of 26.  I was very excited when my boss called me in to his office. He explained that he had a new assignment for me. He told me that because of my age, I was the only one who could complete this assignment. By the connotation of his words, I lost my excitement and quickly became anxious. What could this new mission possibly entail? I was to impersonate a high school student in order to determine if there was a terrorist within the school. I immediately thought that my boss had become the antagonist.  Had he just given me this assignment knowing that I would fail? If I failed this assignment I would lose my job. My life was turning from a perfect fairy tale to a mystery (genre).  This mission (which was quickly taking over my life) starts tomorrow (parenthesis). I woke up the next morning with so many thoughts on my mid. How would I possibly fit in? I’m (contraction) an adult impersonating a high school student.  So I decided to be a high school student, a senior, named Sam Smith (alliteration).  Not only did I have to worry about being a student, I also needed to gather evidence to show that there is a terrorist within the school. Wow! This was going to be hard (onomatopoeia).  I felt like I was an actor and the entire school was my audience.  I arrive to school that day in a beat up pick up truck, hoping to blend in with a typical high school car. Before stepping out of the car, I said to myself “O Jesus please get me through this” (apostrophe). I need to complete this mission for my job, my job is not just to complete this mission. (antimetabole).  This mission is to impersonate a student, find the terrorist, to maintain my career (asyndeton).  As I walk through the parking lot, my final thoughts are all high school students are dumb, they will not realize I am an agent (generalization).  The door to the school opened and my mission began… (ellipses).  From my point of view, no one knew that I was an adult. My haircut, backpack, and khaki pants seemed to disguise my identity quite well.  Once I realized that I had passed the first test, I knew I could find the terrorist. I would soon be known as Sam the Spy (epithet).  I immediately went to the bathroom knowing that is where most high school students write threats. Sure enough, on the stall was written a bomb threat. I had found my terrorist. Now I just needed to identify who it was.  I knew I was about to commit the act of detaining the terrorist. After using the restroom, I returned to English class. I maintained my disguise and no one questioned that I was a transfer student.  The teacher, asked us to write a short story. As I was pondering what I a high school student would write about I noticed that the student next to me had familiar handwriting. I couldn’t determine what it was that I recognized. Then, I realized why. It was the same handwriting of the threat in the bathroom stall! (climax). I immediately blow my cover, and pull out handcuffs. I tackle him on the table while the other students gasp in fear and shock. After the agency takes him to be questioned, my boss tells me how great of a job I did. I made the whole team proud. My boss says, “the funny thing is, the terrorist was actually a 26 year old spy from a different country pretending to be a student.” (irony)

Story and 20 vocab words

On July 10^th, 2040 in Chicago IL on a warm summer day (setting) My crew and I decided to take a trip to outer space to make new discoveries. During the trip we saw a meteor it was so big, it was its own planet. (metaphor) Looking back at earth the view was decent (understatement). Five hours into our trip one of my crewmembers saw a unique planet that none of us recognized and decided to land on it and explore. After many hours exploring the planet we tried to get in our spaceship and leave, it had broken down. (Climax) I told my crew a billion times to check our spaceship before we left. (hyperbole) They are such great crewmembers.  (Sarcasm) My crew and I were stranded on an unknown planet for many days (stock settings) when over the horizon comes a spaceship (which was white) landed on the planet (parenthesis). If the spaceship had arrived sooner then I would not have panicked as much. (antecedent-consequence relationship) The spaceship abruptly landed on the mysterious planet “boom”. (onomatopoeia) A man and a woman exited the spaceship. The woman looked very similar to my mom, as if they were related. (simile) The man and the woman acted very strange when they got out of the spaceship. One of my crewmembers said all “humans are mortal”.  (syllogism) I didn’t believe my crewmember because they weren’t speaking normal words, they were saying things like “beep boop”. They waved us to come in there direction. I decided to make the man and the woman take a cloze test, to make sure they were human. The man and the woman both passed the cloze test and continued to tell us that they were trying to trick us. I was so annoyed that they would try and prank us considering the circumstances. I began by telling them this is not funny, using a very aggressive tone. The woman responded with a sassy attitude and told us they were the ones that had to come to the rescue. We finally got into their spaceship and headed home. The spaceship took off. (simple sentence) Finally we were back on earth. I have never felt happier. That day, the next day, the next week I never forgot my emotions I felt, had being stranded. (parallelism) I decided that I want to share my experience with other people so I decided to write a book. I asked my friend who is a professional writer for advice on how to write a book effectively. She simply told me to make sure the atmosphere is clear to set the stage for the rest of the book. To check that the pace is not two fast, so that the readers can understand each event thoroughly. Lastly she told me editing my book is crucial, for final observation, before delivery to check for appropriateness and missteps in the work. I could not be more exited to share my crazy story with the public!