After reading last weeks readings as well as this week’s readings I have came across some key terms and I want to talk a little bit about them. The key terms include audience, bias, purpose, discourse community, genre, media/medium, rhetorical situation, context, code switching, writers voice, rhetorical strategies and metacognition. The audience would be the person reading the writing/ text. Bias has been a huge topic of discussion in class thus far because a lot of people are bias although they might not want to admit it. When someone is bias they have an already made up opinion on a subject. The purpose is why we write. A discourse community is a community of people with the same understandings. The media/ medium is the press, social media, and the internet. The rhetorical situation is where the audiences views are modified by the writer. The context is the text. Code switching is where an author switches between languages. The writers voice is how their personality shines through just like their identity. Rhetorical strategies is where the author takes action to persuade others.Metacognition is thinking what another is thinking.
Blog Post #4 Interpret Assignment
When it comes to major assignment #1, the Rhetorical Analysis the first thing that you should do is find a subject that you are personally intrigued by to then frame your whole assignment around. This assignment will need an effective introduction, a thesis statement that makes a claim about the writers efficacy, a list of main points that will be covered in the paper, signal phrases, MLA cited work page, and a conclusion. I will approach this paper with my knowledge that I previously have on how to write a paper. I will make sure I allow myself time to tackle it all as well. I will use rhetorical situation to reach my audience (the people reading paper). Rhetorical situation is where you modify the prospective of others by influencing them by your writing. I will use the category of writing to also do this which will be my genre. The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual by Hannah Berry will help me with this upcoming project because in the text it gave me examples of how I should analyze text that I read.
Culture Identity & Writing
After watching the video “Culture Shock and the Omnipresence of Media” by Mike Wesch, I realized our identity is everything. Its insane to think about how in different parts of the world some people don’t even have a set name. Media is a huge display of a persons identity. We even use our identity in our writing. When a person writes they usually stick to the same styles or say certain words to indicate its them. The way everyone writes is just like a finger print, very unique. The hope is that when I write, a part of my identity shines through in it. My writing is typically laid back and not so technical. I write for fun a lot.
My identity also involves my culture and beliefs. A huge part of my culture is that my moms side of the family came from Germany. In my family we celebrate German holidays as well as eat German delicacies. This German side is a huge part of who I am. The author Walter Mosley, who I admire does a very good job at description. He does very well at incorporating identity into his writing. In his book Blood Grove, Walter goes in detail about the main character so much that you feel like you know them on a personal level. It makes you want to dive deeper. An example of this is early on he tells the readers who Easy Rawlins is. He shares that Easy is a black private detective who has a small agency with hopes of opening his own one day.
My Definition of Writing
It seems very apparent that everyone has a different definition of what writing is or even what it means to them. When I think about my definition of writing, so much comes to mind. Writing is very complex, not because it’s hard but, because writing has so many layers that can be peeled back. In the most simplistic way writing to me is where one takes a thought and records it. Writing is all about recording your thoughts to then hopefully make sense of it. When you peel back a layer of writing then you can see we write to communicate. In my eyes communication is key and the reason behind why people write. The last thousands of years people have done just that and we continue to write in order to communicate just like they did. We write to communicate on chemicals to let others know they are toxic or we write to let the world know what is going on in our neck of the woods. At this point writing is second nature, we do it everyday by texting or writing the answers down on a test.
Communication is just one of the layers of what writing is to me, another definition of writing is that it’s an escape. I have used writing so many times in my life as an escape mechanism. I sometimes write about my frustrations or emotions and it helps me feel better about what situation i’m in. It helps me further understand things in a logical manner. Sometimes writing before you speak helps in the long run, I believe this is true. I suggest looking at writing as a tool to help yourself as well as others around you in everyday life.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
Madison's E-Comp Portfolio 