My first impressions from reading Yancey’s text is she’s very well thought out. Her focus is on reflection upon your writing. I didn’t have much problem reading this text, other than it was very lengthy. There was a lot to go through. I can use her model to revise assignment one because her text is all about reflection, and those steps are good for revising my first writing assignment. In her reflection definition, I agree with her model of hoe reflection operates as we create our writing. I don’t disagree with much of what she wrote, her methods are well thought out. I plan to use this model to help reflect on my writing for this assignment and future ones,

Bitzer defines rhetorical situation as a natural context of persons, events, objects, relations, and exigence. An utterance which participates in a situation in a natural way, and in many cases important for the completion of an activity. .

The main key terms he uses that stand out to me are rhetoric, person, social, activity, and situation.

My definition of rhetorical situation is an event that includes an issue or topic, and audience, and a constraint that must be overcome.

An example of a rhetorical situation is a prosecutors closing statement. In a closing statement you have a person speaking to an audience, regarding a situation and evidence used in a social context.

Rhetorical situation connects to genre because they are both expressed writing, words, or actions being used to give context or meaning to a situation and give it a better and more defined understanding.

According to Bitzer, rhetoric is pragmatic because it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond just itself. The way it functions is it produces action or change in the world. Rhetoric produces action by persuading people to commit to certain actions based on the teachings of that rhetoric. This relates to his system of activity because thought produces action.

Rhetoric is situational because it refers to a set of circumstances that involve at least one person that is communicating to modify the perspective of another.

Exigence is when a situation is urgent, imperfections come from it. Rather than taking the time to do it right, it is rushed. It is important to a rhetorical situation because it might cause some miscommunication if it is not properly outlined.

In a rhetorical situation, exigence is important because when persuading, it is important to have your message clear and correct. if there is error due to being rushed, then the message is ruined. Audience is important because in these persuation situations, if you don’t understand your audience, you won’t know how to speak to them. Constraints are important before the rhetorical situation because you have to plan your way around them accurately to effectively overcome them.

A passage I think I will use in my major assignment is any of the ones outlining rhetorical situations facing audience. I believe those two things are the most important regarding rhetoric.

Genre is a category of literature. The style or form that you are putting together, and can be sorted. Past assignments and readings have influenced my definition because I can accurately categorize each piece that I’ve read or written. They are vastly different and about different things completely.

In his writing, Bazerman defines genre as a sociopsychological category which we use to recognize and construct typified actions within typified situations. This means that genre is something we categorize in our heads, and categorize them in actions and situations. It’s different from mine because I didn’t consider actions as genre.

Thinking about speeches, similar conventions I’ve noticed with them is that they are often similar sounding. Formal language, and sometimes persuation if that’s the point of the speech. Speeches are usually built around background info, then leading into the main point of the speech. The commencement address had similar traits, formal language and an opening, then on to his main point. I’ve not really thought about genre in terms of speeches. To me they are not related much.

Locutionary Act: Speaking or writing an important point followed by a pause or change of speakers.

Illocutionary Act: Asking a question or giving a statement that is asking for something but not phrased that way.

Perlocutionary Act: Speech that is persuading, convincing, enlightening, or getting someone to do something.

A speech exchange I made in the past week was with my boss. I was requesting more hours on a couple weekdays. The Locutionary act was me telling him I needed to ask him something, a pause following so he could turn and look at me. The Illocutionary Act was telling him I needed more hours. I didn’t ask for more, but I told him I needed more. The Prelocutionary Act was telling him I needed more money for college, attempting to persuade him to agree with me.

Genre Set: A full range of the kind of texts one person uses to describe an interaction.

Genre System: Genres that work together to form the work of a particular organization

System of Activity: Includes object, subject, mediating artifacts, rules, and community

Genre systems create a system of activity I believe because interactions can be broken down and classified with different genre systems. These genres bring forth action because without them there would be no substance to interactions. The genres make up what is being said.

A passage in the Bazerman text I think I will use is his description on negotiation. I think I will add his reasonings to my knowledge of persuasive writing.

At the beginning of this unit, audience was a secondary concern for me. I saw them as the readers that would read my text, but I didn’t have a clear idea of how to get them to stay. My main goals were capture their attention, and get your story of message across. I am mostly interested in persuasive writing, so I mainly focus on how to best get my message across. The things we’ve learned this unit have better shaped my approach.

The first long text we read was Anzaldua. This text was a very good read at how to get better at writing. She was very engaging in her text, and spoke to the reader in different ways. She asked the readers questions to engage them, and made them feel connected by using specific examples from her life.

Reading that text made me change a few things in my head for future writing. An easy way to engage readers is use the methods from her writing. Looking at other peers posts, there are many other good writing strategies relating to audience. Properly using paragraphs, examples with clear explanations, and spacing out the material. I learned this unit some basic beginning strategies on how to become a better writer, and it will help my writing in this course and beyond.

My definition of audience is that they are the people you are trying to capture with your writing, and get your story or point across in a way that they comprehend. Audience is important to your writing because if you cannot capture their attention you are writing for nothing. My understanding of Audience was changed a bit by Anzaldua’s text because it made me realize to write better I needed to connect with the reader and speak to them on a deeper level. Chris Wilcha complicates the notion of audience from his documentary by explaining that there is some pointless content creation. However what I get out of it is that if you really want your writing to stand out you need to present it well to the audience, and make it so that it is a topic that is actually important.

Anzaldua made me realize for the first time that you can engage with the reader without them being there. You can ask them to think and relate in your writing, as to make them feel more engaged. There is more than 2D to writing. I suppose my view of audience has changed, but slightly. I understood that getting the readers interested, and knowing who is going to be reading it is important, but I have a new perspective on how to get deeper with the audience.

1. Genre – To me genre is the type of writing I am doing, what is the main point of what I am writing. This will play a big role because genre is one of the first things I have to figure out when writing.
2. Audience – Audience is the readers who are reading my writing. This plays one of the biggest roles in my writing because I have to understand my audience when writing.
3. Rhetorical Situation – I believe this means a point in your writing when you are trying to persuade. This is important to my writing because I prefer to write persuation pieces.
4. Discourse Community – I believe this is a group aiming for the same goal by sharing ideas. I’m not too sure how this will affect my writing, but maybe with peer edits.
5. Knowledge – This is basically how much you know about the topic you are writing about. If I am uninformed about my topic I won’t write a good piece of writing.
6. Purpose – The reason for writing what you are writing. With my writing I must figure out the reason why I am writing my pieces otherwise there is no point to it all.
7. Context – This is the meaning of what you are writing. The between the lines narrative. This is something I should have in my writing because it’s an intelligent deeper form of writing.
8. Reflection – The afterthought and hindsight after writing. As a writer I should always reflect my work, see if it’s truly what I want, and if the meaning I meant got across.

The reading I read written by Anzaluda changed my views on the audience a bit. It changed my views that you can actually write almost as if you are conversing with your reader. The way she writes, she asks questions, tells you to think, it is a much more engaging way of writing.

On page 85, the final passage, you can tell that she is speaking to a specific ethnic audience. She says her people understand how to survive under pressure, and deal with being forced to abandon their ways on the surface.

I also feel her talking to a specific audience when on the second page she tells that her mother was upset with her speaking Spanish, with an accent, and that she talked back. Not to an ethnic audience but to the people who cannot help but speak back to things they feel aren’t fair.

Implications that there might be more than one audience I believe are slim, but you can tell because she makes a point to really connect with the reader at a few points and it feels like she’s trying to say you aren’t so different from her.

This piece makes me realize I can write in a way that grabs the reader’s attention by communicating to them through experiences and shared feelings. The language she uses really makes you as the reader feel as though she is writing specifically to you, and I can try to do the same.

I define writing as the written expression of thoughts, feelings, actions, and memories of people. Sometimes it can be easier to write these things than speak them. I see successful writing as the ability to write in a way that the masses can read and understand what they are trying to convey. Many words that don’t make sense is not writing, its quality over quantity. I do not see myself as a very good writer or a frequent one, but I see myself as a persuasive writer. I have been told I am good as evaluating and arguing points towards an argument. An argumentative writer is what I see myself as.

Terms:

1. Vocabulary
2. Detail
3. Ethos, Pathos, Logos
4. Setting
5. Emotion
6. Atmosphere
7. People

From Billy Collins commencement address we learn that writing is an art, and a great form of communication. This text is successful based on what I wrote earlier because it is a very convincing address with impactful speech. I think after reading it I will keep my terms as they are.