Analyzing Rhetorical Situations

If i were to explain the terms "rhetorical situation" and "rhetorical analysis" to a friend I would first give them the definition of rhetorical which is "a question asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information". So a rhetorical situation would be when you are experiencing a rhetorical event with an issue or complaint. For example, if you are with a child who is being very noisy and disruptive and you say "Why can't you just be quiet?!" You are not literally asking them why they cant be quiet, you are instead telling them they need to be quiet. A rhetorical analysis is a form of criticism that uses the principals of rhetoric to look at relationships between the text, author, and audience.

When I write online I think you appeal most to pathos. I think this because whenever I'm writing, I want my audience to feel the same things I was feeling at that time if I am telling a story. I want them to relate and connect with me on an emotional level so they know what I was going through during that time which ultimately helps them understand my writing more. I enjoy whenever I am reading something and I experience pathos from that author. I connect with the text more and ultimately I enjoy reading it more.

Kairos is a propitious moment for decision or action. In the modern world today an increasingly amount people are becoming a lot more open with their private life online than they used to be. The author's biggest problem with blogging is that it is becoming more public. I don't disagree or agree with the author's concerns. I think that some things are concerning only because some things should be kept private in your life but mainly I believe whatever happens regards to the blogging world and modern day internet will happen for a reason.

Voyeurism is the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects or acts, especially secretively. The importance of voyeurism to how we understand writing and reading has a similarity because when we are reading or writing something we are trying to find gratification if reading something/we write to gratify a certain want or desire that we want to get across to our audience.

Three specific questions or confusions I have about the reading include:
1. What was the author thinking when writing the blog?
2. When was the article written?
3. What did the author want to get out of the blog?

The politicians use facts to support their evidence. Paul Ryan says "The spending bills have been increased by 84%"..."Total spending would grow 300s of 100% less than otherwise." One way the politicians ask Obama questions is by comparing him to other presidents (ex. Kennedy). The tone of Obama includes stating facts about the US that are not necessarily effective, (unemployment rate) but he does not fault himself for these results. He states a fact and then says "but I assume you're not faulting me for that." He also talks about alternative minimum tax, and how it is not a consequence of his policies. He continues to state facts while not faulting himself or other people for its consequences. Throughout this Q&A, logos and ethos are predominately used. Both the politicians and President Obama use facts that are valid, and credible to support their claims. An example of logos would be when Obama states, "If you either increase taxes or significantly lower spending when the economy remains somewhat fragile that that would have a de-stimulative effect and you would potentially losing business and jobs, and that would be a mistake when the economy has not fully taken off." An example of ethos would be at (29:35) The politician states that Obama has said, what we should be doing is tossing bad ideas out and moving forward in refining good ideas. The politician asks when we should look forward to starting a 'new' since the source (Obama) that stated we should be starting a new so the politician asks when this will happen.

logos=logical
ethos=credibility
pethos=emotional

The blog I chose to write about is called “Prep in your Step” written by Dorothy, a nineteen year old college sophomore attending Furman University. Dorothy’s blog has “a mixture of posts ranging from outfits to organization and everything in between!” The blog presents itself in a feminine, organized, and helpful way with a touch of the southern lifestyle. The pictures, color scheme, and fonts display preppy accents on the blog. The well-designed homepage makes the blog appear inviting to new readers and welcoming to followers.

The ideal audience for the blog I chose would be a young college girl, particularly a freshman that is just starting off their college career. These girls are taking a big step in their life and moving away which gives them more freedom to live their life the way they want to. This includes designing your own dorm room with your personal style and deciding how to fit things in your day-to-day schedule. A blog is the perfect insight to help a newcomer figure these things out. Getting advice from someone who has been through it already is substantially helpful when trying something new.

A description of this blog’s audience is a typical sorority girl. Someone who is involved, goes to social gatherings, and enjoys organizing their life. Also someone who is very interested in fashion and design that loves crafting. These girls typically communicate through modern technology and social media. Pinterest, a picture blogging site is very popular among this audience of young women. They use this site to plan for the future or to find new ideas and aspirations. The blogger originally posted picture of her dorm room from this blog post, which is what drew a lot of girls to the blog post.

The blog works with its audience in multiple different ways. The blogger posts her entries and pictures on multiple sources of social media to allow her followers to locate the posts. Dorothy writes entries that are related to the target audience in many different ways. She knows who is reading her posts and gears them toward her readers. Dorothy gives advice about the college lifestyle, fashion, crafts, decorating, schedules, sorority life, and work out routines, all interests of her readers. She knows what her audience enjoys reading and she does a fine job of giving her readers knowledge and great insight.

1. Summarize Gee's definition of literacy. Try using his terminology to illustrate his definition.
It is a piece of folk wisdom that part of what linguistics do is define words. Discourse is similarly related to literacy, being a socially accepted association among ways of using language, of thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or a social network. Also, All humans, barring serious disorder, get one form of discourse free, so to speak, and this through acquisition in which we are better at acquisition than learning. Powerful literacy is control as a secondary use of language used in a secondary discourse that can serve as a meta-discourse to critique the primary discourse of other secondary discourses, including dominant discourses

2. Did this change your understanding of literacy? If so, how? And, how might this affect your understanding of your own literacy story?
This changed my perspective of literacy. I didn’t realize how many different aspects were incorporated with literacy and how many variations of it there are. Literacy goes into account with many different things in life and you can use it in many different ways in writing that I did not know.

For this reading response, assess, from the beginning of Ong's writing, what his general argument is. Find to relevant quotes that help identify his argument in your response.

Ong's general argument is that technology is the basis of literacy and/or writing. His view is very different than Gee's view who believes literacy comes from your background and childhood and discourses. "Illiterates should learn writing as they learned to tie their shoe laces or to drive a car. Such views of writing as simply a mechanical skill obligatory for all human beings distort our understanding of what it is human if only because they block understanding of what natural human processes are before writing takes possession of consciousness" (23)

I grew up in an elementary class of seventy-five in a suburb right out of Saint Louis. Throughout my entire elementary school career, my core group of friends was mostly sporty and active while I was the complete opposite. My favorite color was pink and I insisted on wearing a dress or skirt everyday to school. I got along with all of my sporty friends because we had the same sense of humor. Even though we didn’t share many interests, we got along and laughed together. People were always confused as to why I was apart of my friend group since they all were exceptional at almost every sport they put their mind to. Since a majority of my friends played on my school’s soccer team in the third grade, I wanted to play too so I didn’t feel left out. I also wanted more time to spend with my friends. So I did a crazy thing and joined my school’s soccer team alongside my best friends.

I became a back-up goalie for our team and sucked most of the time I was standing in the goal. They had to put me in sometimes since this was an elementary school team and it was all about fairness rather than ability and success. The only reason I liked going to soccer practice was because I could be with my friends but other than that I loathed it completely. I felt as if I could never get better even when I put in hard work, which became very frustrating. As time went on, I became an okay goalie instead of an awful one. One thing I could never improve on was actually playing in the game, being defense or offense. Since this was something I struggled at, my dad promised me if I ever was playing of offense and scored a goal that he would buy me a brand new Barbie doll. This gave me lots of excitement and drive, but in reality I knew it wasn’t a very high possibility.

One day we were playing a game on a slightly chilly Saturday morning and the game was tied one to one. It was nearing the end of the game and our most valuable player got hurt. Every other player had been put into the game that day so the coach didn’t have much choice but to put me in to try to win it for the whole team. The girl who got hurt was playing on offense. I thought to myself, this is my chance. All of the parents and other players on the team knew I was one of the struggling players but they tried to forget that, as they started chanting and cheering for me. I knew everyone was counting on me to win it all. So the whistle blew and I tried to look like I knew what I was doing. A couple of players started kicking and passing the ball down towards the goal. I was standing in one corner of the goal, not knowing what to do. All of a sudden I realized the ball was right below my feet. Someone had passed the ball to me! I looked at the goal, found an empty corner and pulled back my leg with all my might. I didn’t even have time to process what I was doing and I have no idea what I was thinking. All I remember is opening my eyes and seeing the ball in the goal, I had scored!

I couldn’t believe my eyes, as I looked around I saw every kid’s parents jumping up and down. My fellow teammates and friends started running towards me and tackled me with a big group hug. I could smell the sweat running down on my forehead and the wet grassy field. I felt so many emotions at this time, happiness, success, and pride in myself. I had done what I never thought I was able to do! This made me think I could accomplish anything I put my mind to. All I could hear were people hooting and hollering, I could barely think. I looked toward where my parents were sitting and I could see the biggest smiles on their faces. I could tell how proud they were of me. At that moment I knew I was going to pick out the best Barbie doll at the store anyone had ever seen.

For your reading response, post your favorite lines of dialogue from the reading and write a few sentences on your opinion of Hemingway's style of writing in Hills Like White Elephants.

"We can have everything, no we cant, we can have the whole world, no we cant, we can go everywhere, no we cant it isnt ours anymore"

I enjoyed reading this because it was very interesting and different. I'm not sure if i really understand the hidden meaning behind the passage or what the moral is. I was a little confused while reading and am not sure if i really know what Hemingway's purpose of writing this was.

1. what your article attempts to accomplish
This article talks about how literacy is related to soccer. The author talks about how it is the depth and breadth with which they complete these foundational skills that allow them to develop more sophistication of their skills. In the same way that as my son’s soccer coaches continue to refine his understanding of the sport, we too, must continue to refine and challenge our students.

2. what use value it could have to the paper you're writing
This article is a great explanation and comparison of literacy and my discourse, soccer that i can use in my paper.

http://lisadonohue.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/literacy-is-just-like-soccer/

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