Blog 14

In my essay I began by telling the audience a little bit about my history in the process of learning to write. It's a process that never ends because as you read others work, you expand your horizons.

My paper was split under two Classifications: Tools and The Process. I felt that for the reader to understand what the tools where before working on the writing process would be more beneficial. I went into detail and divided Narratives, Compare and Contrast, Cause and Effect, Classification and Division, Rhetorical Gazes.

Then, the process was divided into brainstorming, rough draft, introduction and peer review.

In the process of explaining all this, I used, rhetorical gazes, narratives and classification and Division.

Writing can be difficult. As you start a paper your mind is blank and a bit of anxiety sets in. Out of all the things to write about what points do you want to make? But slowly as you start with one idea, the rest of your thoughts and paper fall into place. Still, it helps if you have some guidelines to work from.

You have to ask yourself what kind of paper you are writing. Is it informative? How do you share the information? Do you tell a story? A narrative, usually is a bout Rhetorical Gazes. When you use a story, you are also bonding with your reader. I have really enjoyed using this tool because I never quiet understood why or how it was that some writers caught my attention a lot better than others. When I was in 3rd grade I HATED reading Biographies. Biographies made my eyes exercise and put my brain to sleep. However, as I got older and started reading Biographies on people I could relate to, it became a hobby. How did this happen? It was because I could now relate to the people I was reading about. I found humor in their stories as well as similarities and that made the big difference. I would sometimes get a glass of wine or tea as I read these stories and it was almost as if I was chatting with a friend. Strange, maybe but I loved it. I learned so much from these people that I would never meet and yet sometimes when I would tell other people about what I had read, I would refer to them by their first name as if we were friends. Telling stories is not just about informing it's about teaching someone in such a way that they don't even realize it.

I would say that rhetorical gazes are my favorite because you can use this in every type of writing. Whether you are Comparing and Contrasting, Cause and Effect, or a How to paper, the more you can make your audience relate to you what you are saying by telling stories and painting pictures of those stories, the more they will understand. However, it is also very important to have structure and organization so that what you are trying to convey to your audience makes sense. This is where Classification and Division come in. Divide your paper into the main ideas and then further define those ideas in a way that makes sense. Get your audience involved by included open ended questions and comments.

In order to be successful with your messages to your audience they must be able to relate, be interested and understand what you are saying. You have to be able to reach strangers with all the possible common factors and entertainment you can provide.

The Art of Writing

Like most things in life, writing is a process but it is also an art.Most of us have been writing all of our lives and we have had many teachers who have not only taught us but influenced and even inspired us.
My writing path started with the very basic idea of structure. We have all heard it, introduction, body, conclusion. Along with this basic idea came brainstorming, which was how I learned to let my ideas rain on to my paper. The next logical step was to pick, choose and organize ideas into an outline which was the basic skeleton from where my ideas would form into a well written paper (at least in my opinion).
Along the way, I have learned from many other teachers. I have read many stories in many different styles that captured my mind, heart and even caused me to change and grow. I have heard songs that told a story in which I was able to visualize and connect so deeply that I cried and laughed and many times even sang along. I have seen many stories retold in movies, such as "Titanic",which I could not stop thinking about for weeks after. Unknowingly, I learned that telling a story was more than just putting words together, the trick is can you make your audience, visualize and experience your words.
I thought I knew all I needed to know but then there was more. You have to learn how to use the tools you almost instinctively learned to use. As a painter,at first you would think that all you need is a brush and different colors of paint but then you learn that different brushes stroke differently,mixing colors together can create a beautiful effect such as a sunset so real you can mistake it for a picture. This is the effect rhetorical tools have on writing. You tell stories to create Rhetorical Gazes, and use Cause and Effect to make the audience think of consequences. Compare and Contrast are used to make the audience think outside the box. Finally to further organize all the information we Classify and Divide so the the audience doesn't get lost on the way. We can choose to use Process Explanation in order to teach something. Not all the tools must be used at once but the mixture in the correct combination can be as unique and as capturing as the "Mona Lisa".

Definition of Classification and Division

Classification and Division go hand in hand. When you read an article, classifications are all the main topics and can sometimes be found in big bold, centered headings. Divisions are the many points being made by the author about the classification. Think of classifications and divisions as a tree. The Classification would be the trunk of the tree and the divisions would be the branches. Classifications are used because it's a writer's way of organizing and introducing ideas as well as the opportunity to define anything that the reader may need to know before the writer goes in deph. Divisions then go into detail. Detail is important because we all have different perspectives and interpretations of how we understand things and so the more organized detail the author gives the more the reader will be on the same page.

For this blog I will choose three phrases from my chosen article, (Trying to Find a Cry of Desparation Amid the Facebook Drama) and define them.

First Sentence:For adolescents, Facebook and other social media have created an irresistible forum for online sharing and oversharing, so much so that endless mood-of-the-moment updates have inspired a snickering retort on T-shirts and posters: “Face your problems, don’t Facebook them.”

It is so easy for adolescents nowadays to write exactly what they are thinking and posting on social media, where only their friends and family will see it. It has become very comvenient for adolocents to write exactly what they are thinking on Facebook as if it's their very own diary and sent it off to their Facebook world to read. In fact, it has become so easy that they practically do it all the time, some people will even post an udate of their life every 5 minutes.

Phrase 2: And parents have their own conundrum: how to distinguish a teenager’s typically melodramatic mutterings — like the “worst day of my life” rants about their “frenemies,” academics or even cafeteria food — from a true emerging crisis.

Parents who read these posts feel confused as to what exactly they should do about these posts. Some of the posts are just "children" venting but when does a parent get involved? We all know kids can be dramatic at times but how do parents know when the message is truly more than just venting?

Phrase 3:“If they say something alarming on Facebook,” she added, “they know it’s public and they want someone to respond.”

One student who befriended an entire floor of her peers constantly noticed messages of concerns of others being homesic, or having relationship issues. She states that if they are posting something negative on FB for the world to see it's because these people are looking for some type of response whether it's just acknowledgment, advice or a helping hand. Once a message is out there, people should not pretend they didn't see it, especially if the person is someone close to them.

When we usually think of a definition, we think of a simple sentence that lets us know the meaning of the word but there is a lot more to a word than just 3 or 4 words that describe it. Take for example, "Starbucks", different people would tell you different things about Starbucks and in the end you would decide what that place or brand means to you. To some people, Starbucks is just an overprized coffee shop, for others Starbucks is a necessaty, for me, Starbucks is a nice little coffee shop where I can relax and sip some coffee while conversating with my friends or do my homework. However, I wrote a report on Starbucks and I can tell you that the Howard Schultz(Chief Executive), would define Starbucks as more than just a coffee shop. As you can see, defining something is much more than what you would find in Webster's dictionary, it's more about describing something based on your own experiences along with comparison and contrast. In this way writers share their perception of the world.

The article I have chosen is,"Trying to Find A Cry of Desperation Amid the FAcebook Drama". In this article the author identifies different ways in which FB might be more than just a social site. Face Book seems to be the place where most people will speak their mind and based on the research depression is increasing in adolecents and while most teenagers wont tell their parents what is going on in their lives they will post it on FB. Could Facebook be a tool to help others?

We run the risk of being brainwashed and not even know it. We are constantly recieving visual messages that are used to persuade us and we dont even question them, we just take in what the visual rhetoric may mean to us and accept the messages. For example, there are magazines everywhere constantly giving women ideas of what they should look or dress like. Magazines are often blamed for young girls having unrealistic ideas of what their bodies should look like but it's not just the yound who are affected, everyone is in search of what the media has defined as success for us. Success is now defined by the ownership of the "latest" and so many American's have gone into debt trying to meet that definition of success. When did we all become persuaded of this idea? Almost every second of every day we have been feeding our minds with the images that are everywhere constantly planting the seed in our head of what will make us happy. We don't question images the way we would question the newspaper or any information given in a text format. In a text format,rhetorical terms are used to persuade the audience one way or the other by comparing and contrasting the subject matter. Usually the writer uses facts, point of view, and argumentive statements in order to suade the reader in a particular direction.

Some of the tools used to persuade an audience are persuasive themes,master narratives,content and technical signatures, audience resonance and effects.
Persuasive themes is a subject chosen in order to influence the audience. For example, those commercials about children starving in 3rd world countries, they are asking for donations and when you watch innocent children in these conditions it is effective. They could have easily chosen a million other topics to persuade the audience to donate but it is the starving children that brings tears to our eyes.
Master Narratives are effective because they are stories that are specific to that culture or environment. For example, as I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, as a child my mother would persuade me to go to bed on time by telling me a story about a ghost that was out seeking her children. Other cultures might find this inappropriate parenting and in order to persuade one must know the audiences' background.
Content and technical signatures are about having structure and particular characteristics. Finally, audience resonance and effects has to do with being aware of how your communications tactics affects the audience and being able to measure the succesful outcome.
Given the right words and strong arguments anyone can be persuaded to believe just about anything.