When looking
back on my Week 2 blogpost, I think that I had a decent grasp on what rhetoric
is. I largely defined it as a way to effectively get one’s point across in
writing when considering the content and the audience. I talked a lot about how
you would use the different aspects of rhetoric – such as pathos, logos, ethos
and more – to argue and persuade successfully. I believe that I was on the
right path toward a decent understanding of what rhetoric means. However, I
think that I might have some more work to do in terms of understanding the
actual use of the different tools used in rhetoric.
I
think that the largest help that I can talk about would be Thursday Fight
Clubs. The need to, every week, explore a new topic from two different angles
was a little new for me. It allowed me to see that there are multiple ways to
argue for and against something, and actually had me unintentionally looking
for ways to come up with counterarguments before the opposition was expressed.
If I was researching different reasons why something should be a certain way,
and, for example, I found a loophole in my reasons for why happiness is
possible philosophically, then I would try to find an argument that would close
the hole. It really helped when writing my essay to think about these types of
things, because – although I had one heck of a time writing it – I was able to
include some arguments that I do not think I would have originally included had
I not been in this course.
They Say, I Say was a particularly
helpful book. Having the different steps broken up into more easily
comprehendible language was particularly useful. I know that helping with the
framework of putting quotations in your writing is something that I will
continue to use when writing any type of essay, especially because I am very
guilty of the dangling quote, where I simply drop in quotes without proper
introduction, simply expecting my reader to understand what is going on without
any explanation. So Chapter Three: “As He Himself Puts It” was a very informative
chapter, specifically because it helps to outline whether or not the quotes are
relevant, shows how to frame quotations, blend the quotes into your own
writing, and how to analyze the quotes. I think that this is something in my
original definition of rhetoric that I left out, largely including what others
have to say so as to make your own argument that much more compelling, and to
catch the attention of even those who have opposing viewpoints.
Although
I think I understand rhetoric much better than I did in the beginning of this
course, I know that I have a lot more work to do in order to effectively use
rhetoric in my writing. I think that in the future I will need to more closely
examine all the aspects of my essays, considering the different tools that
would make it more compelling and then use them to my advantage. It is
something that I have not yet become very skilled at, and doing so would only
enhance my writing.
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