Thlog 4

This week was all about self-editing. It really helped me notice where my paper needed improvement, especially the highlighting and poem exercises. Where the highlighting exercises allowed me to see how I threaded my argument the poem exercise allowed me to see where my sentences were weak and where they were strong and if I needed to restructure them how to do so. In the highlighting exercise I was really able to notice where my argument was lacking either due to poor textual evidence, poor support from the articles, or poor commentary. When I reviewed my highlighted paper I was able to bring in new textual evidence and support from the articles themselves. By doing this I was able to strengthen the overall argument of my paper not only because I had reworded some sentences but because I had brought in more support and evidence to actually prove what I was saying. The poem exercise was equally helpful. I went home and broke up each paragraph in the same way we had in class and was able to see which sentences were lacking, where sentences need to be moved around, or where I needed to add a sentence or two to make my argument more conclusive and understandable to a reader. I think that by doing these exercises and extending I was able to improve my writing a lot. I look forward to applying these concepts to PB2A and seeing how my writing improves as the class goes on.

PB2A

Rhetoric is the use of language and how it enhances speech and writing. We all employ rhetoric in our everyday lives; talking to your friends you will use slang, in section for a major specific class you will use jagons specific to that class, or even the actual diction you use in your speech. An academic research paper will make use of different rhetorical devices than an email that you send to your TA. The rhetorical devices that you use will determine the flow of your writing and either strengthen or detract from your argument.

In a publication by The Journal of Business Communication about how large-group writing occurs there are rhetorical devices that can be noticed right off the bat, such as tone, diction, and a thesis. Each of these serves its own purpose and builds upon the other rhetorical devices employed to establish how the article is written. The writer establishes a serious tone by starting off with to-the-point information. The intro, or abstract, to the piece is simply a description of the research methods used with no “fluff” inserted to add length or create an air of sophistication. The first sentence orients the reader and after that jumps right into a description of the study, “This study is based on a five-year ethnographic study…” This tone continues after the abstract as the writer explains what he is studying. Once again there is no added fluff and he uses language that strictly lies within the constricts of academic writing, which brings up the next important rhetorical device: diction.

Diction is one of the most important rhetorical devices that a writer has in his arsenal. Everything spoken or written has diction, and it is diction that determines tone and clarity. To establish this academic tone the writer chooses powerful diction with word choices like “process-focused management” or “many credit checks were conducted.” In each of those instances the writer could have changed his diction to sound more colloquial. In the first instance he could have written “on-task management” or “competent management;” in the second scenario the writer could have written “credit checks were made” or “there was a credit check on all customers.” By using less colloquial diction the writer was paying attention to who his audience would be: an academic. This knowledge of the audience influences a writer’s decision making whether it be with diction, how he creates his tone, or a thesis statement.

Another important rhetorical device present in any kind of academic writing is the thesis statement. In an academic setting a thesis is more than likely the most important aspect of one’s writing. The thesis is what the writer centers his argument around, in this case the writer’s thesis is posed as a question of whether or not groups tasked with writing together will follow the functional group perspective model of communication. The thesis is normally restated in a sense in the conclusion, in the case of an academic journal where the thesis is a question rather than a statement the thesis is answered in the conclusion and its tendrils can be noticed throughout the piece. In this case the writer states that architecture, or how each group structured their work (another example of diction choice), had a great impact on how the teams were able to complete their work. The way the thesis works in this piece is by presenting a question the writer thinks needs to be answered, then written account of how he answered that question, and finally what his findings from the research performed were and an answer to his original thesis question.

One conveys meaning through rhetoric whether it is academically or personally. Some of the most important rhetorical devices are tone, diction, and a thesis. It is easy to tell that these are so essential because they are present in almost every form of language there is. When you have an argument with your friend you choose a specific tone to reach them, you use diction to display you are learned on the topic, and you have a thesis that you are trying to argue for or against. When you write a paper the tone you choose changes how your audience reads the paper, the diction influences how intelligent your reader perceives you to be, and your thesis is a brief summation of your argument. Without the use of these devices one cannot argue, or write coherently.

Thlog 3

So I guess I’m a little late getting to this thlog, Zack was right about the “Thlogging Thursdays” it’s definitely a good way to make sure you get your thlog done on time. Last week we read about how to peer review writing. Some of the main points were to not only praise the writer, but also to provide helpful constructive criticism. The way to do this is to take a step back as a reader and think about what is effective and what isn’t about what you are reading. You want to make note of what is working by underlining certain phrases and commenting something like “I really like how you used textual evidence to back up your claims.” At the same time you also want to point out the less effective parts of the paper and to do that you might comment something like “That is a fair point, but I think you need textual evidence to back up that claim and validate it.” The best way to peer review is to clearly state what isn’t working and why it isn’t working, but also to point out when something is working very well.

We spent a lot of time in class working on the writing process and what it takes to get your paper out of your brain and onto a document. I concluded that the best way to write is to first outline all of the ideas that you want to write about with no particular order. I then categorize those ideas into similarities and that is what I will form my paragraphs out of. Then from those fragmented ideas I begin to write out full sentences that follow a train of thought. After writing one or two paragraphs like this I take a look at what I have written and the rest of my outline and see where I am going to take my writing. I then write my introduction with a thesis that reflects the main idea of what I want to say. After that I finish writing the rest of my paper then go back and begin the revision process.

Thlog 2

So this week we started off by reading “So What? Who Cares?” which was an in depth explanation of how to keep a reader interested in your writing. The author tells us to question ourselves as we are writing, this questioning of your own writing will develop clarity in your paper. It is especially relevant to our first project, WP 1, in which we must choose a genre and dissect it. By asking questions of yourself such as so what? or who cares? it creates a sense  of direction - you are asking yourself why you are writing and by doing that you can better relate to your reader. By describing the so what aspect in writing you are telling the reader why the information is pertinent and keep the reader’s attention. When answering the who cares question you are telling the reader the actual relevance of your writing and its application in the real world. By asking yourself so what and who cares as you write or as you revise you will create a more cohesive work and keep the reader’s interest longer.

This week we also spent time on argumentation. With the example of listing off the best restaurants in IV it became apparent that to correctly argue you must include as many specific facts as possible. This is because the things that are actually going to sway people’s opinions the most are facts and appealing to logos. To summarize, the most effective argument will include all kinds of specific details and facts which give the reader/listener a reason to listen to what you are saying and you may actually end up changing someone’s opinion.

PB 1B

An excellent way to understand genre is by using a “plug’ ‘n ‘chug” genre generator. These generators are great way to identify the conventions of a genre. By using a genre generator I was able to pick out the conventions of comic strips, memes, computer science research essays, and political rhetoric. By using a genre generator I was able to see many different versions of each of these genres and establish certain recurring conventions within each genre.

An interesting and entertaining genre is the comic strip which in itself is incredibly unique from other genre’s. Some of the more obvious conventions are comic bubbles, easy-to-read font, and their hand-drawn appearance. The purpose of the comic bubbles is to display what the characters are thinking or saying, a thought will often be in italics and in a differently shaped bubble than that of the non-italicized speech. Without comic bubbles the reader would have no way of knowing what was going on in the comic besides what the pictures depicted. An easy-to-read font makes a comic seem more approachable because the most common comic reader is either reading them out of boredom or during breakfast. The appearance that comic strips are hand-drawn adds to the leisurely look of them. A few of the less obvious comic strip conventions are; the use of exaggerated facial expressions to show emotion or the simplistic three segment plot-line. Comic strips often use exaggerated facial expressions to show emotion since the speech bubbles often carry little dialogue, so the facial expressions are used to show the reader what emotion(s) the character is feeling. Comic strips tend to follow an uncomplicated three-segment plot line; this plot-line is made up of an opening, a punch line, and a conclusion. In this comic strip each panel represents one of these three segments. While the comic strip may seem like a simpler genre than others it’s roots and conventions are complex and require understanding to write a good comic strip.

Memes are a modern day genre that most everyone sees every day, but have you ever thought about what goes into making a meme? Just like any other genre it has conventions that apply to most of its pieces. Some of these conventions are the requirement of pop-culture knowledge, the inclusion of irony, and many have depictions of animals. Most memes are poking fun at something in modern popular culture such as this meme of Chuck Norris which plays on the overused joke that Chuck Norris is the greatest human being that ever lived. Pop culture memes can range anywhere from Chuck Norris jokes to making fun of Steve Harvey for announcing the wrong Ms. Universe winner. Many memes also include irony which is a common theme in comedy, most people enjoy a good dose of irony in their memes. Another recurring theme in memes is animals, many memes use animals as their main subject to gerner attention. The depiction of animals can range from an upset looking cat like Grumpy Cat to a koala eating eucalyptus with it’s jaw dropped.

A genre that we all probably have a lot of experience with is research essays. Research essays are different than the previous two genres because they have a much stricter set of conventions that they must conform to since they are academic. A few of the conventions of a research essay are the inclusion of an abstract, a reference list, statistical evidence that supports the claims of the essay, and a conclusion of the ideas and facts presented in the essay. The purpose of the abstract is to orient the reader on what they are about to read and to state the intent of the research presented in the essay. The reference list, which always appears at the end of the essay, is a mere formality so that whomever is reading may research the legitimacy of what has been written in the essay. Statistical support is arguably the most important factor of any research essay, because without that evidence there is no way to confirm the declarations that the essay makes. Without statistical evidence a research essay is simply an unproven theory. All of these factors are parts of a research essay, but research essays are unique in that all of these are actually required to write a research paper. For example if one turned in a research essay with no reference list the professor would more than likely consider it cheating and plagiarism since one would be using other’s work as the basis for their argument.

A genre that we should all be familiar with going into election season is political rhetoric. Politicians use rhetoric to sway voters opinions and state their own views. Some recurring conventions in political speeches are claims of what they will do after taking office, attacks on political opponents, and vows to protect the American Dream. One thing many political candidates will do to earn votes is to make claims of what they will do after taking office to make this country a better or safer place. For example Donald Trump plans to build a wall between the United States and Mexico to keep out immigrants after he is elected (which hopefully will never happen). Politicians will often attack their opponents and challenge their views that they differ on, this is to isolate the two candidates and force the voter to make a decision between the two. Often times the candidate performing the attack will place the other in a negative light. Something that every major political candidate will do at some point in their career is to profess that they are protecting the American Dream. They do this by promising to create more jobs, lower taxes, raise minimum wage, or anything else that they think will impress voters. Political rhetoric is a very interesting form of speech to break down and look at why candidates are saying what they do. Every word a candidate says has been carefully thought out and has specific meaning behind it.

Genre generators are a great way of understanding how to write well. With a genre generator one can look at many different works within a genre and by doing that discern exactly what it is that makes up that specific genre. By understanding what conventions make up a genre it makes writing within that genre much easier. Before writing anything one should research the genre they are attempting to write in, break it down into its conventions, and then begin writing.

PB 1A

A genre that we all see everyday is a course textbook. While textbooks may be for different subjects, and different lengths they all follow a specific set of conventions. Yet it is not only conventions, but rhetoric too that creates the genre. While a textbook normally includes statistical evidence to support its claims, in depth examples, pictorial examples, personal anecdotes by the author or even made up stories as examples. These conventions and rhetoric are pieces of the textbook genre, but there are still textbooks which will not use all of these, or possibly any of these conventions.

One of the main points that Carrol brings up in “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Towards Rhetorical analysis” is the exigence of whatever it is one is reading or writing. Exigence is the requirement of action to fix or make something right. In the case of the textbook the exigence is the textbook teaching one material within the subject matter of the course. To solve this exigence the textbook must take into account the audience because it is them, in fact, that are solving this exigence. In the case of a textbook the problem needing to be made right is the learning of material which is solved by further reading which brings greater understanding of the subject. To solve this issue of exigence the textbook must employ one of the three kinds of logic taught by Aristotle: ethos, pathos, and logos. It would not make sense for a textbook to use ethos, an appeal to the audience’s ego, but there still may be a textbook that employs it to solve this exigence. It would also be unreasonable to expect pathos, an appeal to the audience’s emotions, to be a major convention of textbooks simply because academic writing is normally very factually based. That is why logos, an appeal to the audience’s intellect, is a major convention of textbooks since the goal is to teach.

Some of the more important elements to pay attention to in a textbook are style and tone. Most textbooks have a very similar style; they have multiple authors, they tend to be larger than novels as well as longer, the content is split up into sections which are further divided into chapters, there is a table of contents, and an appendix. The tone of a textbook tends to be very serious and the language very academic. This is because of the audience, the writers of the book know exactly whom they are writing for. Unlike a fiction writer who can use any language they want whether it be Old English, American English, or English slang because their publication is for the general public. A textbook is written with the idea that students and professors will read it, so the language used is catered to those two groups.

It is clear that genre is a very important subject matter of writing and that to write well one must have a clear understanding of it. To understand a genre one must break it down to its core elements and discover why they are inherent to the genre. To write in a new genre one must first analyze it and understand it.

Thlog 1

This week, in writing 2 we focused on genre. I thought that I knew what a genre was and how to pick out genres, but after this week’s lessons I now have an even deeper understanding. Genres are like moods; for example when you feel happy you can be happy for different reasons such as winning a baseball game or finding out that you have just won a scholarship. While in each scenario you feel happy there are different contributing factors that have made you happy, just like there are many different conventions that create a genre. Both winning a baseball game and winning a scholarship will make you happy, but for different reasons. Just like how the conventions of a superhero movie can include: a main character that doesn’t know his origin, police chases, or a bad guy that is friends with the hero. Yet all of these conventions do not need to be present for the movie to fit within the genre of a superhero movie.

We also learned about first and second order thinking. They are very different from each other, nevertheless they are both required for strong writing. First order thinking is the uncensored word-vomit that we start with and second order thinking is the conscious revision of this content. Used together they can be effective in writing. First order thinking should be used in writing a rough draft or outline, first order thinking is what gets the ball rolling and can is actually where a majority of your content and inspiration will come from. Second order thinking is a review of that content, an editing process. These are two different styles of writing; first order thinking is the fantastic writing and second order thinking is the rule-bound kind of writing that we have been talking about in class. When employed together the two thinking processes can create a great research paper, email, text message, movie script, novel, or any other writing genre.

About Me

My name is Zach Aaronson, I am from Modesto, California, although I have not lived there all my life. I lived in Dallas, Texas until I was 3 or 4, I can’t remember, then I moved to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina until I was 8 and after that I moved to Modesto. In Modesto I played water polo and swam from the age of 11 all the way through high school. I am a second year here at UCSB and am a double major in art and communication. Ultimately I want to be a graphic designer, which I have wanted to do since I was the design editor of my high school yearbook. Here at UCSB I have been a part of the ultimate frisbee team for a year as well as surf club. I also currently have 2 jobs on campus, I am a lifeguard at the rec cen and am also the coordinator for intramural water polo with recreational sports. With any free time that I am allowed with such a busy schedule I like to go surfing with my friends, draw, or do anything outdoorsy.