Discovering Relevance In Rhetoric
A detailed account of my growth as a writer and rhetor in Writing 39B
My growth as a writer and student over the past 10 weeks in Writing 39B is unparalleled to my growth in any other class that I have ever taken. Never have I had the opportunity, or more like the task of, observing a text’s effect on an audience simply past rhetorical techniques such as syntax and diction. This class has required me to take ownership of a process that I did not know I had, and this process has evolved in ways that I know will assist me immensely, not only in future writing courses, but in any course taken at UCI and in the professional world as well. In this portfolio, I will be showcasing the evolvement of my process through two major assignments: The Rhetorical Analysis (RA) paper, and the Rhetoric In Practice (RIP) project. Through the annotations of each of my RA drafts, I demonstrate how I learned about the importance of peer review as apart of the creative process, how my organizational skills from draft to draft improved in paramount ways, and how I developed a stronger ethos appeal in my writing. And through the reflection of my RIP project, I demonstrate how I ultimately came to understand the importance of creating relevance for a specific audience through rhetoric in order to communicate purposefully and effectively. Throughout this cover letter I will examine my triumps, epiphanies, and struggles as a writer that are highlighted by these two greater works of rhetorical analysis and practice. I came into this class with hesitation as to what investigating the horror genre could do for me as an intellectual. It in fact proved to be much more than investigating horror, though that was the foundation of our exploration. I now understand how to communicate effectively, how to revise and edit with purpose, and have developed a genuine interest in the importance of rhetorical reception across all mediums of creative production.
Triumphs and struggles within the RA
As previously stated, this class forced me to take ownership of a process that I did not know I had. This process is simply getting all of my ideas out on paper, and then going back and revising paragraph by paragraph. It's somewhat like a "stream of conciousness", and sometimes this tends to show in the organization of my writing. Though it makes sense in my head at the time I'm writing, it sometimes will not make sense to me when I go back in for revision or even to a peer when they read it over for the first time. For example, when we did the topic sentence peer review exercise in class, it proved to be a real wake up call for me and forced me to reconsider my entire paper's organization. My partner organized my paragraphs based solely off of my topic sentences and when I got it back, I realized how my previous draft's organization made little to no sense, and my topic sentences did not flow with the preceding paragraphs. This was huge for me, because at this point in the process I was feeling very stuck and frustrated with the paper, and really didn't see where it was going. It wasn't until I had a fresh set of eyes, aside from mine and Professor McClure's, to give me a new perspective that I realized where my errors were and finally had the inspiration to revise. Specifically, revising my topic sentences to flow insightfully and cohesively with the idea preceding them was a large part of this. Also, the overall order of my paragraphs shifted for the better, as I originally jumped around from discussing Neville, then Ruth, then cultural context, and then back to Neville. So in my final draft, I made sure to revise, always keeping in mind that I had to keep similar ideas flowing one after the other. So if I was discussing the characterization of Ruth in a preceding paragraph, I could then move on to discuss her actions in another paragraph and how they assist in promoting Matheson's overall message. Here is this example below:
On the left is my final draft, and on the right is my first draft.
As you can see, the left side was entirely revised to fix the faults of the right side. The right side's preceding paragraph ends with a brief, vague discussion of a quote with little analysis of that quote. Also the topic sentence on the right is underdeveloped and generic in comparison to the left side, and greatly lacks a cohesiveness with the last idea of the preceding paragraph. The left side, however, has a much more in depth and original discussion of the characterization of Ruth in the preceding paragraph, and then ties it in to the purpose of Matheson's novel. Even the topic sentence on the left side sounds more mature and developed. It not only flows with the idea from the paragraph before, but it also addresses specific rhetorical techniques used by Matheson in order to prove my argument instead of making broad, generic claims that do nothing for my ethos or my argument in the slightest.
This peer review process assisted me in adding on to my personal list of criterion that I utilize when revising. Especially during this course and through learning to take ownership of my process, I am beginning to realize how I revise and with what criteria I revise with. After this exercise, I realized that I am paying much more attention to the working flow of ideas throughout all pieces of my communication; not just in Writing 39B but in other courses as well. Organizational flow brings a stronger sense of ethos and formality to any argument, and without a structure, an argument can be viewed as undeveloped or ultimately not persuasive.
Establishing ethos was another area that I struggled in throughout the RA process. It wasn't until my final draft, after drafting nearly four times, that I finally began to establish a sense of authority and confidence in my writing. One of the most important things I've learned in this course is how crucial it is to be confident not only as a writer, but as an intellectual at a scholarly level. This being the first academic paper I've written, you can assume how intimidated I was to begin writing it, and how much pressure I felt to get it right the first time. But the power is in the process, and this proved true for me as it took me many attempts at perfecting what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it in order for my final draft to be one that I was proud of. Here are some examples of transformations within my RA:
As you can see, the left side was entirely revised to fix the faults of the right side. The right side's preceding paragraph ends with a brief, vague discussion of a quote with little analysis of that quote. Also the topic sentence on the right is underdeveloped and generic in comparison to the left side, and greatly lacks a cohesiveness with the last idea of the preceding paragraph. The left side, however, has a much more in depth and original discussion of the characterization of Ruth in the preceding paragraph, and then ties it in to the purpose of Matheson's novel. Even the topic sentence on the left side sounds more mature and developed. It not only flows with the idea from the paragraph before, but it also addresses specific rhetorical techniques used by Matheson in order to prove my argument instead of making broad, generic claims that do nothing for my ethos or my argument in the slightest.
This peer review process assisted me in adding on to my personal list of criterion that I utilize when revising. Especially during this course and through learning to take ownership of my process, I am beginning to realize how I revise and with what criteria I revise with. After this exercise, I realized that I am paying much more attention to the working flow of ideas throughout all pieces of my communication; not just in Writing 39B but in other courses as well. Organizational flow brings a stronger sense of ethos and formality to any argument, and without a structure, an argument can be viewed as undeveloped or ultimately not persuasive.
Establishing ethos was another area that I struggled in throughout the RA process. It wasn't until my final draft, after drafting nearly four times, that I finally began to establish a sense of authority and confidence in my writing. One of the most important things I've learned in this course is how crucial it is to be confident not only as a writer, but as an intellectual at a scholarly level. This being the first academic paper I've written, you can assume how intimidated I was to begin writing it, and how much pressure I felt to get it right the first time. But the power is in the process, and this proved true for me as it took me many attempts at perfecting what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it in order for my final draft to be one that I was proud of. Here are some examples of transformations within my RA:
ORIGINAL: |
ORGINAL: |
ORIGINAL: |
Although these originals held solid ideas, they did not possess the authority or scholarly ethos that a formal paper should always have. They also lacked original and thoughtful analysis and made basic claims. To get to the final draft versions of these statements and the final draft of my RA, it took going back and engaging in a closer critical reading of the section of text I was analyzing in the first place, as well as looking again at my list of criterion in order to revise properly and give certain statements purpose in my paper. I looked at not only grammar and sentence structure, but how these thoughts fit in with their specific paragraphs and with my argument as a whole. I asked myself questions including: "How could I make this more concise?" "How can I relate this back to Matheson's message?" "How is this relevant in proving my thesis?" Self reflection and revision are by far my most powerful tools when it comes to creating sound arguments and thoughtful communication. And now that I have reflected on my strengths exemplified through the RA process, I will discuss my strengths that were exemplified through the RIP process, and how I ultimately came to my biggest epiphany yet concerning rhetoric and communication.
Learning the Power of Reception through the RIP
After successfully completing the RA paper, I felt eager and prepared to take on the RIP with my improved understanding of the power of genre expectations and cultural contexts. This being a group project made me a bit nervous, because although we did alot of group work throughout the quarter, I've never really been a fan of it and normally prefer working on my own. But this really got me out of my comfort zone and i'm glad it did, because I learned valuable lessons about teamwork and collaboration through this project. My group members and I created a short film using our new understanding from the previous RA paper in order to convey a larger message about the horrors of loneliness. However, at the beginning of the process we were much too consumed with the idea of creating a horror film than we were with the idea of practicing our rhetorical skills to convey a message. We were so obsessed with satisfying horror genre expectations and trying to make it seem scary, that the first couple of shots ended up not being scary at all, but sort of cheesy. In addition, we didn't realize how crucial reception was for the film, and how the entire point of the project was to ultimately get across a message with simply the assistance of the techniques we learned. Click on the images below to view two short clips from our first day of filming, in which we tried to create our "monster"...
Our vision was to create a ghost-like figure that would haunt our main character and ultimately drive her to her own insanity and eventually to her death. With proper editing and film equipment, there's a chance that this might have worked. However being on a budget of $0 didn't help us out too much, and most of all we weren't creating our monster to be received willingly and with interest by the audience in which we were creating the film for. We came to realize that if every single aspect of the film didn't appeal to or draw in the audience in some way, then our means of communication would have been essentially pointless. We ended up going back to square one and simplified the entire film, cutting out the physical monster but instead creating a ghost-like figment of our protagonist's imagination. By not ever actually showing the monster in our final film, it insinuates that because the protagonist is isolating her self from those around her, she is slowly starting to lose her mind and in fact this "monster" is just her psyche beginning to catch up to her. This not only highlights our overall message discussing the horrors of loneliness, but in fact appeals to our college aged audience as well in the way that we have all dealt with loneliness and resorted to self isolation at one point or another. This film is in part trying to demonstrate why this is dangerous to do and encourage the audience to engage in connection with others rather than separation from others when we get overwhelmed or stressed out.
Ultimately what I took from this is that it takes more than flashy word work and hardcore editing in order to communicate a point across to a specific audience. It took me an entire day of filming scenes and watching short horror films on Youtube all day, like this one and this one, to understand that it's simplicity over everything that provides the scare effect, but it's ultimately how you create relevance to a specific audience that gives the film purpose for existing at all. I remember on the first day of brainstorming in class when Professor McClure came around to each group to ask us what our ideas were. We pitched our original idea, with the ghost and the haunting and the elaborate plot, and I specifically recall him asking, "What's your message?" "What's your purpose?", and not really thinking anything of it because I didn't see it's importance at the time. I tend to focus on entertainment and pleasing an audience rather than creating a meaningful message, however I understand now that I should always be focusing on the overall purpose of my creation instead of a "wow factor". In Tony Magistrale's and Michael A. Morrison's, Intro To A Dark Night's Dreaming, they explain that “Most of what occurs in horror art is symbolic; that is, its deepest meanings exist on a subtextual level. Beneath its veneers of tormented horror consistently reminds us of human vulnerability” (Magistrale, Morrsion 2). Art was created as a means of communication, not as a means to please its viewers. So if you can't relate to your audience through means of rhetorical reception or cultural context, then your art and your communication are essentially pointless.
Ultimately what I took from this is that it takes more than flashy word work and hardcore editing in order to communicate a point across to a specific audience. It took me an entire day of filming scenes and watching short horror films on Youtube all day, like this one and this one, to understand that it's simplicity over everything that provides the scare effect, but it's ultimately how you create relevance to a specific audience that gives the film purpose for existing at all. I remember on the first day of brainstorming in class when Professor McClure came around to each group to ask us what our ideas were. We pitched our original idea, with the ghost and the haunting and the elaborate plot, and I specifically recall him asking, "What's your message?" "What's your purpose?", and not really thinking anything of it because I didn't see it's importance at the time. I tend to focus on entertainment and pleasing an audience rather than creating a meaningful message, however I understand now that I should always be focusing on the overall purpose of my creation instead of a "wow factor". In Tony Magistrale's and Michael A. Morrison's, Intro To A Dark Night's Dreaming, they explain that “Most of what occurs in horror art is symbolic; that is, its deepest meanings exist on a subtextual level. Beneath its veneers of tormented horror consistently reminds us of human vulnerability” (Magistrale, Morrsion 2). Art was created as a means of communication, not as a means to please its viewers. So if you can't relate to your audience through means of rhetorical reception or cultural context, then your art and your communication are essentially pointless.
Conclusion
After an in depth walkthrough of my epiphanies, downfalls, and creative processes, I hope to have demonstrated how I have developed in unparalleled ways as a writer and communicator throughout this course. As for my writing skills, my ethos and organizational skills have improved immensely and I now possess new personal revision criteria that will assist me in further building on these skills in future writings. I also have identified and taken ownership of my creative process, which has in turn given me confidence in my communication and I know will assist me in my future endeavors in the professional world. Most importantly, I've learned how crucial it is to provide purpose in your work and truly connect to an audience.
Please continue to take a look at the rest of my portfolio, including in text versions of the projects mentioned above, and weekly blog responses and selections that showcase some smaller work that i've conducted throughout the quarter.
Thank you!
Please continue to take a look at the rest of my portfolio, including in text versions of the projects mentioned above, and weekly blog responses and selections that showcase some smaller work that i've conducted throughout the quarter.
Thank you!