In the piece you read for homework, Kathleen Yancey discusses what she believes are four moments happening right now in the field of rhetoric and composition. In response to this, I want you to "have a moment" (or actually three). Up to this point you have read about rhetorical situation(s), the history of rhetoric, and key terms in both rhetoric and composition. You have also read what Yancey believes is happening. Some of what she is describing is not far off from your own experiences. For example, she discusses things like literacy practices and how writing/composing changes from print to the screen. She also talks about a new curriculum that "is located in a new vocabulary, a new set of practices,and a new set of outcomes." You, as part of the EWM major, fit into this idea of a new curriculum.
So, I want you to have a moment or in other words develop your own three quartets in which you describe, explain, explore, create your ideas about rhetoric and composition. This should come as a response to what you have experienced both inside this class already and outside the class (in other classes, but also in real life experiences). What does rhetoric and composition mean to you right now--as part of this class and this major and whatever potential job you might seek.
Be specific with your response. I'm not looking for you to say how hard it is to define these three quartets---that only waste part of your 500 words. I want specific and concrete ideas.
Also be creative. Think about what you want to get across in this post and how you want to lay it out.
Your response should be about 500 words.
And per normal: please engage in conversation with your peers.
Good luck! And I look forward to reading your responses.
Due: Friday, January 21, 2011.
Let’s have a moment
ReplyDeleteQuartet 1
Your view of education changes once you get in a larger community. I went to a very small private high school in Orange Park since I was 5 years old. There were 42 kids in my graduating class. Education was highly stressed here- everyone was on top of their game. The school’s policy was that you didn’t graduate unless you went to college. Everyone went to college. Up until I went to college, I thought everyone highly valued a classroom education, but after meeting a wide mass of people and hearing stories, I realized this wasn’t so. Some girls just got pregnant and stayed at home, others went to blue collar jobs, or even worse others aren’t doing anything. This shocked me. I read in Yancey’s article that today, only “28% of Americans” graduate college” (Yancey, 306). How is the 72% of other American youth formulating ideas, specifically through rhetoric and composition. When they write rhetoric and compose, how can we tell on the web if this is a college grad or not? Taking this into consideration, I think it is an important aspect to reflect on. We as EWM, writing mass rhetoric for the online world need to be as accurate and informing as possible. Also we need to be able to differentiate between fact and fiction.
Quartet 2
I have a fear of online rhetoric sometimes. How are we to tell what online written is propaganda or not? Perhaps a more educated individual could, but what about those who are not taught in terms of filtering this? From this class I have learned indirectly that you should not always trust what you read online. From learning about rhetoric and composition, anyone-- a misinformed person, an uneducated student or even a lunatic could think they have the right tools to compose and post- teaching others outside the classroom. Even businesses try to sway whatever they are trying to sell. There is no regulation for this. We have a responsibility when writing for the online base to think about what we are teaching- outside the classroom.
Quartet 3
Rhetoric and composition can be informative, fun to write, supporting, and it’s what we as EWM majors form our skeletal thoughts on what we want to write overall. Composing is a process; it is taking in the rhetorical audience and considering what their interests are, and then incorporating that with how you want to sway. Rhetoric is the actual written word that gets out there. After reading the stats of Yancey’s article, and thinking about her ideas of quartets, I realize we have a tremendous responsibility to think almost as if we are teachers when writing. The problem is, as Yancey argues, “there are no As, no dean’s list,” so where is the reward? I think there doesn’t have to be. As a mostly technological based society, people are online more than ever. Even if they aren’t looking to the net to learn, they will indirectly.
Make the most of this moment.
ReplyDeleteQuartet 1
I think our exploration of rhetoric and composition should extend way beyond our high school and early college days. This is in concordance with Kathleen Yancey’s assertion that “writing makes a difference both at the gate-keeping moment and as progress through the gateway” (Yancey 306). I, like Alexis, attended a smaller high school with a huge emphasis on academics. I took accelerated classes and approached my education with a conviction that all of my hard work would pay off throughout my undergraduate years. I was upset to learn that to complete the “Liberal Studies” requirement, a student had to take only two core English/Writing classes. To me, this did not seem nearly enough to prepare me past college. I feel confident in my abilities to continue to learn about Writing and Composition but I worry about those who just complete the requirement and never give English a second look. I think we should encourage the furthering of writing education, not only to prepare students for real world experiences, but also to equip them with invaluable skills and techniques.
Quartet 2
I know that as we progress through the years, our technology becomes more and more advanced. For example, we have gone from cassette tapes to cd’s, and now I listen to music on my phone. With technological advances comes a new language so to speak. Like Yancey said, “we have already committed to a theory of communication that is both/and: print and digital” (Yancey 307). While many professors and theorists insist that rhetoric is purely printed and spoken, it is very important to recognize online and other new forms of communication. To pretend they are not influential is silly, especially since communication in these new fields happens at an instant almost every instant. Students nowadays text, email, network, blog, and so on both in and out of the classroom. In order to ensure the continuance of rhetorical education, teachers must make adjustments. These adjustments should include a curriculum that includes traditional spoken and printed rhetoric, but also emphasizes online and other types of “new” rhetoric.
Quartet 3
I think the general outlook on rhetoric needs a drastic makeover in order to survive the previously described technological revolution and the fast pace of the 21st Century. We need to stop looking at rhetoric and composition as only an ancient theoretical concept and make it current and relevant to daily life. I think if we could successfully change the adverse reaction when someone begins a discourse using words like “rhetoric”, “rhetorical situation” and so on, then society can grow as a whole. Once people can see the impact that such theories have in their daily lives, education of Composition/English will progress, with an emphasis on how to be prepared when faced with rhetorical situations and other challenges. For example, I was not aware that I was using rhetorical techniques when I was persuading my sister to attend FSU or discussing politics with my parents. Had I realized that I could affect my arguments by using the canons of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery), I would’ve been more attentive when speaking. Therefore, if we can impart how it is personally beneficial to learn rhetorical techniques, people would be more likely to engage in rhetorical studies.
My first quartet expands on a point Yancey makes about the expansion of the reading public in 19th century England, which is that the movement they made towards public reading and their exploration of new types of books and novels all occurred outside the classroom. I think one of the problems today with our study of rhetoric and composition is that we only ever think about rhetoric in a strictly academic, classroom-contained context. Of course, this is not to say their study in this context is not useful, but as Alex mentions, those who do not major in some type of English are required to take just two courses in English. Obviously that is not likely to be enough to make someone a proficient composer or rhetorician. I think that we need to have a more widespread cultural recognition of the importance of rhetoric and good composition. In previous eras, Rhetoric was the centerpiece of educational curriculums, but now it seems to be mostly thought of as an antiquated field that has more to do with ancient Greece than today’s society. This, however, is far from the truth. We still use the principles of logic, persuasion, and public speaking in our lives today.
ReplyDeleteWhich leads me to my second point, that I think we need to discuss Rhetoric in a more contemporary way. We all have learned about the ancient principles and rules of rhetoric from Aristotle, but they are always seem to be discussed in relation to the time of Aristotle as well. For example, I took a Rhetoric course, and we spent a good amount of time on the five canons, the 3 primary proofs, etc, but we learned about how students of that day and age learned to become rhetoricians. But we never talked about how we might see some of these rules and ideas in a speech we’re all familiar with, like JFK’s inaugural address or MLK’s “I have a dream” speech. I think a more contemporary application of these things, like Alex said, would help people see the usefulness these theories could have in our lives, and I think that would help bring about the cultural recognition of rhetoric and composition’s importance I previously mentioned.
The last point I think will be important to consider moving forward in Rhetoric and Comp is the ability technology has given almost anyone to have their voices heard via the internet. I think that this development is one that obviously is extremely impactful, and has potential to be so in a positive or negative way. I think the internet provides us a forum for a more widespread cultural discourse rather than the discourse monitored and suppressed by governments and other authorities that was unavoidable before the internet gave a voice to anyone with a computer. However, Alexis raises a good point about the dangers of this type of environment because it is so much easier to pass off erroneous information online and spread false ideas that we need to be careful about who we listen to and what we take as fact from the internet.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteSomething I never realized until I got to college was the importance of our adolescent and adult education. Alexis, I completely agree with you when you say that your view of education can change when you enter into a larger, learning community. My high school never really pushed preparation for the oncoming endeavors, and maybe people that attended my high school are still living in the same town they have lived in for years. High school is supposed to be that ‘base’; to further educate you on what is bound to lie ahead. Our country today is undergoing such technological changes. I no longer believe that just a high school and college education will get you the furthest that you can go in life (especially with how this economy is). I used to be told (and think) that once I got my college degree I would be able to do whatever I wanted with my EWM degree. Now, it’s the complete opposite. Interaction needs to place between individuals inside, and outside of the education world. Even things like community service will get you to interact with others, and something I have learned over the years is that we can learn from each other. Yancey states in the article that more interaction in schools now are be one-on-one between the teacher and student. We should all learn to collaborate more together. Most of the things we compose off of come from our own personal enterprises. What we see, what we hear, the situations we encounter; all of these things take part in a huge contribution to our composing, and even rhetoric. It defines meaning behind our every written intent that we create.
Quartet 2
Yancey states, “What do our writing references mean? Do they mean print only?” Some people do believe that writing on paper is the only way, others believe that 21st century technology is what I would say, ‘spicing’ things up a bit. Every couple months there is a new iPod, new cell phone, new video game set, new computers, and even new computer programs. However, agreeing again with you Alexis, I don’t always believe what I see or hear. Whether it be a television show, or a medical group on the internet talk about a cure for a virus. You never know who is sitting behind that computer chair, and I think that is something we as writers need to be more aware of. I agree with you Alex Aaron, when you say to think they are not influential is silly. It is silly because technology has a big influence on everyone these days. I do however think people need to not rely on it as much. I feel the more advanced things get, we unfortunately can forget how valuable it was in the beginning (for example; taking a wonderful book and turning into a movie, that ends up being disappointing and not like the book).
Quartet 3
We all have learned over the last few classes how important rhetoric and composition are to developing a masterpiece of written words. I believe that all of the past studies of the word are wonderful. Again though, agreeing with Alex, we need to start making things pertinent to the life that we are living in today. Whether it’s through our education, through technology, or through our surroundings, at the end of the day we take full responsibility for our own rhetoric and composition techniques.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteWhen I think back to all my experiences I have had with English or writing classes or anything along those lines, the one class that sticks out to me is Ms. Hill’s Writing and Contemporary Literature class I took when I was a senior in high school. The first half, the best half, of the year was the writing part. Little did I know then that that class would open my eyes to rhetoric and composition. It was a class where every paper we were assigned to write was creative in a unique and different way from every other assignment for that class. We kept portfolios that we decorated how we wanted them with all of our completed papers after all three workshops. We had to have peers edit them twice, and they had to be different people. Needless to say it was kind of awkward at first. What if they thought my paper sucked or like I was trying too hard? That’s when I realized I was trying to impress the people who would be reading it so they would tell me good things not bad. I needed to persuade them through my writing of what I was trying to say in a way that would have an effect upon them and they would enjoy reading it. It looks like what I had stumbled upon was rhetoric! Fast-forwarding to the future, actually the present, I’ve never heard the term before Writing, Editing, Printing Online. But it’s been there all along.
Quartet 2
It’s funny how some things make no sense to have without the other. Or in some cases, one thing can exist without the other and have a use, but without it, the counterpart could not exist. Why have toothpaste without a toothbrush? Why have paper without a pen? Why have a flashlight without batteries? It doesn’t make sense. The same is true of rhetoric. Except the other literally cannot exist. Rhetoric is evident in all writing, whether we want to acknowledge that or not. You cannot compose without rhetoric being present. The two basic meanings I’ve deemed rhetoric to have is effective writing and persuasive writing. They go hand in hand. A writer needs to have an effect on the readers whether it’s positive or negative, good or bad, they must strike emotion. They have to persuade to do this. The writer persuades the reader to buy in to what they are writing.
Quartet 3
To be honest, I am extremely happy with my choice in major. I believe Editing, Writing, and Media will benefit me in the future. It revolves around rhetoric and composition. Rhetoric is evident in all composition and composition is part of our everyday lives. Even if I became a scientist one day, I would still have to compose lab reports and data of my experiments. By getting a degree in this major, it will open up opportunities not to things just like book authors or journalists, but possible something exciting like maybe a huge news station or some top-secret government agency. Every career needs rhetoric and composition. It’s part of daily lives.
1.
ReplyDeleteExpanding on Alexis’ third quartet I agree that students are on the internet and learning indirectly quite often. I think that teenagers and young adults are on the internet most of their days. Whether it is on a computer or on their phones. I think quite often, they are obtaining information because they actually want to be educated. I think that people aren’t as stupid or ignorant as they appear. Sure everyone is on facebook in their classes but look at how many students have kindles or Nooks. The art of the written word is not lost on kids, it just needs to be presented differently. The more professors I have as an English major the more I love going to class. Every day I learn something new and I feel so enriched. It sounds corny but that is really how I feel. My English classes do not treat me like I am an idiot, and so many classes are extremely dull and spoon feed you information. The internet and ewm is a way to reach this new generation where they spend all of their time anyway, the internet.
2.
The art of the written word is lost on many many people. The importance of it is completely overlooked and appears to be trivial, “everyone has spellcheck right?” WRONG. I think the emphasis on spelling and grammar needs to be skillfully incorporated into every major’s curriculum. When communicating with your boss, or you future employer, or doing anything that requires you to make an impression on someone via text, the text needs to be flawless. Just receiving emails and text messages from people I want to tell them that they sound like idiots. Spelling and grammar mistakes not only are extremely frustrating but without meeting you, the person reading it already has an opinion about you. And its not a good one. I think people need to realize, and fast, that English is extremely important to their future and current life.
3.
Expanding on what gbyrne4 said, I agree that the study of older literature and rhetoric are important. I agree also that we need to make it more relevant to our lives. With how often the technology changes and the new styles of composing and publishing work, it only makes sense that we have to adapt. We need to start reintroducing the classic styles into our rhetoric but keeping up with the new styles. It seems so often that the study of 18 and 1900s literature is kept completely separate from technique studies. I think they should overlap more often.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the fact that you do learn a lot of things outside of the classroom, I believe it is in the classroom that you begin to explore and be exposed to different subject areas that allow for growth outside the classroom. For example, I took a musical theatre class in middle school as part of an elective. I discovered that I absolutely loved it! I learned so much about the production of the show and getting up on stage and performing that I continued in high school. While I am no longer performing, the lessons and characteristics I gained from that experience are ingrained in my character. If I had never taken that class, I wouldn’t have discovered something I loved. The same is true for any class we have taken in school. Think about it. How did we decide our major? It was something we have learned through other courses we have taken, whether we like it or not, or even if we’re good at it or not. Yancey writes, “the writing public has learned in this case, to write, to think together, to organize, and to act within these forums-largely without instruction and, more to the point here, largely without our instruction. They need neither self-assessment nor our assessment…” Not true. We do need self-assessment and assessment. And we need instruction. But to say we altogether don’t need it underestimates formal education altogether. I learned so much from my teachers throughout my education and if I had not had them guiding and instructing and correcting me, I would have been misled. I agree with gbyrne4 that high school is our base, it gives us our foundation…. but then maybe that’s just me not wanting to admit that my education didn’t mean anything. If we aren’t pushed to our fullest potential there, then we will not be as successful when we go to the next level.
Quartet 2
I agree with Rachel Sandra about how writing emails that have misspelled words and punctuation allows someone to already form an opinion of you. How has our society come to this? When did it become acceptable to misspell a word or abbreviate text? Is it really that much faster? I believe print is not going to die out but I believe the quality of it will diminish if we allow online digital media to take the reins. While I think new forms of technology such as blogs and email and text messages are no doubt enhancing the communication process, I just think we need to be vigilant to the negative effects this has on original print.
Quartet 3
In Yancey’s new curriculum she admits, “Texts circulate: they move across contexts, between media, across time.” But even with circulation and time, rhetoric and composition should remain at the core of all writing. I agree with Alex Aaron when it is mentioned that, “we need to make [rhetoric and composition] current and relevant to daily life.” It’s the only way it’s going to survive in this new era of technology. However, it is good for things to adapt to society and to be updated and changed. But I don’t think it should change in such a way that the underlying foundation is lost when trying to structure in a new way. Sam puts it perfectly when she says that even if she ends up being a scientist she’s still going to have to be persuasive in her lab reports. That’s so true! Rhetoric is everywhere, and it’s effective if used correctly. I think if more people were aware of that they’d be more open about rhetoric and composition as an integral part of daily life.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteI think at the moment, and at every moment, technology is changing. People don’t do the things they used to. Yancey explains that people used to gather together in public places just to read novels out loud. This was something that was done for fun, which could be quite bewildering to some college students, who dread the 50 pages they have to read for class every night. Most reading is done alone, nowadays, and for education. Buts there are different forms of leisure reading and writing circles today. Take facebook for instance. It’s a huge network of people just reading and writing, and it’s for fun. There are billions of people blogging and using other types of social media that may not always bring out creativity in people, but are still considered forms of composing. Whenever we post a new status on facebook, we are using rhetoric. We are trying to get people to notice what we have to say, out of all the other posts coming up on their feed. Even though technology is changing, we will always have writers and readers. They just have to change along with it.
Quartet 2
Yancey talks about freshmen english classes and how they can’t possibly teach enough in two years for a substantial foundation in english. Whenever I tell people I’m an English major, they always say things like “What are you gonna do with that?” It made me pretty hesitant to continue the degree. But then I had a moment, and I thought I could do anything if I can write! Every job out there requires writers, and if you are not writing, than you are speaking. This is why it is important to have a strong foundation in rhetoric. I agree that two years is not enough to have a solid grip on english and how to use it at a job. I think that freshmen english should introduce rhetoric. I hadn’t had much experience with rhetoric until this semester, and though it is pretty boring, I think it’s a very important skill to have. I think teachers need to find a way that is more interesting to college students to learn rhetoric. With all the new forms of media out there, I think that task could definitely be accomplished.
Quartet 3
Yancey also talks about how creating a new curriculum for english is important because of the changes in technology. Print is not the only form of media now, and we need to use the resources we have in front of us to the best of our ability. I agree with Eric when he says, “The last point I think will be important to consider moving forward in Rhetoric and Comp is the ability technology has given almost anyone to have their voices heard via the internet.” The internet provides us with an array of ways to express ourselves creatively. I think it’s great that FSU has created the EWM major because this allows us to learn how to use these tools. Before I began my EWM major, I didn’t know anything about designing websites or using blogs or any other form of internet media. I’ve only gotten the introduction to the vast world of media out there. But I’m really excited to learn more and develop my skills in editing, writing and media.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteI've been an English major for two years now, and one of my biggest complaints with the department, it the utter lack of flexibility that is offered. If you have a major class you need to take, usually theres 1 section, at one time. Some of these classes are "workshops" or writing classes, which all consist of 150 plus students. This concept baffles me. Maybe in a biology class you can get away with a large lecture class, but English? The intimate, and in-depth understanding of writing, speaking, and composing? How can we possibly be getting the education were being promised. To be fair, this isn't the English department's fault. In fact, its the lack of money and the budget cuts that the Florida school board is making. What I find most interesting, is that these budget cuts don't seem to be effecting the sciences and mathematics. Is there really a favoritism problem between liberal arts majors and science/math majors? We all know that in the past 20 years, the academic system has gone through a transformation. One of the most prevalent changes was the decreasing importance of a bachelors degree. This doesn't seem to be affecting business majors, or physics majors. Why is it that a student can major in something like finance and be set after 4 years, but an english major has to go to graduate school in order to even get looked at by employers? It seems to me, that the importance in rhetoric and composition has decreased because of the increasing emphasis on technology. But what most people don't see, is the link between rhetoric and technology. Specifically EWM majors, who are the perfect example of linking the importance of language, speaking, and composing with media and technology.
Quartet 2
Some people blow off writing as something they "cant do". But getting onto Facebook everyday and updating your status to exactly what you think is gonna erk your ex-boyfriend the most...is exactly what rhetoric is. You're formulating a statement that is supposed to effect an audience in a certain way. Technology has completely taken over our ways of communication and with that, comes the assumption that rhetoric has died. But instead, I think rhetoric has just taken on a new form. Facebook, Twitter, and blogs all equally qualify as rhetorical devices.
Quartet 3
Composing takes on different levels. Theres the actual thought that provokes an emotion. That then transgresses into a creative movement. It may be writing, it may be painting, or song composition. Either way theres the conscious effort to portray that emotion you originally felt. While composing, its important to keep in mind that the audience is essential in a composition.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteIn the present, Ive perceived a shift in audience when it comes to rhetoric. In the past, most of the writing being published was written more for the “ivory tower” and academia audience, than for the general public. Writers were looking to impress critics and scholars and receive favorable reviews. They wanted their works to live on in infamy even after their deaths and the only way to do this was to make critics talk about them. However, in this day and age, most writers are looking to catch the attention of the average citizen. Whether its advertising or a teenage novel, the average person is much more valuable as a consumer than a scholar is for all the positive appraising he would do. Writers have discovered that the general public can talk too, and the birth of online reviews has helped greatly in that respect.
Quartet 2
There has also been a shift in the way writing is perceived. Composition and rhetoric was confined to the regions of philosophy and literature. You weren’t a writer unless you’d written some great novel or composed a timeless theory. Now, writing is a more free and liberal institution. A writer can work for an advertising company making billboards: he’d still be composing persuasive speech, even if it must be less than ten words long. A writer can work for a non-profit organization writing newsletters: she’d still be composing persuasive speech, even if she were just trying to convince people to join the organization. Basically, many more professions employ the use of composition and rhetoric than in the past. This may explain why as Yancey states, there has been a 50 percent decrease in the number of students graduating with a degree in English. You can’t base your whole education on the English language only anymore. There is more to it these days.
Quartet 3
More people today are literate than a century ago. I think its very important that so many people can read because it expands the number of genres and ways that people consume content. Before when only a small number of people could read and write, content was limited. Everything was written for this small group of people. Now with U.S. literacy at 98% nationwide, the genres have multiplied to include things such as manga (a Japanese comic that reads back to front) and self help books that can help anyone do anything. I agree with Alex when he says that rhetoric is everywhere and using the rhetoric techniques in everyday life can really help your case, especially when dealing with people close to you. The widespread use of rhetoric is especially apparent in advertising where appeals to the senses (ethos, logos, pathos) are in every single ad.
Three quartets of Rhetoric and Composition:
ReplyDeleteFirst Quartet: Composing is not limited to print as its sole medium, and as Yancey says it circulates through television, the web, and other forms of media. This is why a new curriculum like EWM is such an advantageous major to have in our technologically adept world—because it allows us to work with various forms of media and grasp all of these realistic challenges at once. Bringing different medias to the table in the classroom will give us experience with rhetoric and composition as it is remediated and reapplied to each situation we could possibly encounter. Think about how much we use different methods already; we read a print, transfer information to powerpoint, blog about our ideas, etc. However, I do believe that what students pick up outside of the classroom is even more influential than schoolwork sometimes. Rachael and Alexis, I think you both have extremely valid points when you say that students learn indirectly outside of the classroom, because we are exposed to several different media like the internet and television. Honestly, I think students are more likely to experiment with technology and media outside of classrooms, because it is on their own terms. I personally like playing with powerpoint and different production tools when there are no limitations, expectations, or cap on my creativity.
Second Quartet: The reaction to rhetoric is largely dependent on how people choose to interpret it. I find it interesting that there is not simply one correct way to perceive a speech or text. Most likely, you would engage in reading differently for certain types of writing. For example, rhetoric inspires different levels of attention if you are reading poetry, than if you are reading a novel, than if you were reading a text message. Texts themselves have evolved their own language, and this development should be taken into account when trying to reach an audience that can barely function without their phone at their side. I know if I leave my phone at home I feel a certain insecurity and panic as if I’m not tuned in to the world.
Third Quartet: Rhetorical Situation is omnipresent in all forms of composition. I like what Sam said, that, “You cannot compose without rhetoric being present.” There is no doubt that the rhetorical situation is present in all instances of writing. However, as of today I don’t necessarily believe that writing has to be effective or persuasive to be considered rhetoric. In my avant-garde/experimental literature class, I’ve found that some authors have absolutely no point in their writing—no characters, plot, logic, setting, beginning, middle, or end. You name it; any and all of those traditional elements are absent. Yet, the book exists for a reason; its rhetorical situation is the support of a new form of rebellious experimental literature, and its exigence is breaking free from the rigidity of the conventional rules of literature. In a way, is that not what Yancey was mentioning when she said that we are evolving from the convention of the past? It may not have been going that far but I do believe there is a connection worth exploring. For our WEPO class of course, and for all practical purposes beyond it, I do believe that logic will be inherently expected for any future assignment or job that we will be given and therefore, persuasive and effective writing is necessary and constitutes good writing.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteThe addition of the EWM major is the English department's attempt to keep up with the times. Technology is constantly changing, thus the way we receive and organize information is always changing. Yancey noted that print is always digital now before it is print because it has to be printed from a digital source. This is very profound because this was just changed in the past 20-30 years. Just a couple of days ago, my roommate was showing me that she could watch as the president of an organization that she is a part of on campus made changes to a Google Doc. It was an odd experience. Things on the web change just as quickly as they are made, and this is true with all technology.
Quartet 2
The digitization of the world has allowed the masses to explore their own skills in rhetoric and composition, whether they can acknowledge that they are doing it or not. I liked Amanda's reference to Facebook. When we update our status, however lame and silly, we are practicing rhetoric and composition. And it's not just Facebook. YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Live Journal, and all other web communities or blogs can be included in this. We are sharing our thoughts with people and allowing them to respond to these thoughts.
Quartet 3
Development of a new curriculum means that the scholarly world is accepting these new forms of composing rather than moving against them. I'm looking forward to adding myself to this movement. While I added this major primarily because I enjoy writing, I have come to understand through this class that there is so so so much more to composition than just writing. Learning about rhetoric is honestly tedious, but one of the few skills that are timeless to learn.
Quartet 1
ReplyDeleteOriginally, when I applied to FSU back in 2008, I applied as a Creative Writing major. I thought I had what it takes to express myself creatively, but over the years, I became aware of how competitive the major was, as well as what it takes to succeed in it. In this day and age, a writer must have their own rhetorical situation in mind; their own message that they want to transcribe to an audience. Stacey touched on this her response. She mentioned that authors these days aren't writing with a specific audience in mind, but more so to please the common reader. If you truly study the structure of a book like Twilight, you realize how horrible the writing is. She uses the same figurative language repetitively. There's several typos. Most of the content is cheesy to a great extent. However, Twilight continues to be a successful sell because the average person likes the story. No one cares about how sloppy it is because the message is pleasing. Stephenie Meyer wrote Twilight because she had a great story to tell, not because she was trying to appeal to an audience. Considering this, whenever writing, I'd usually find myself more worried about how my message would be received then what my message truly was. As a result, it'd be difficult for me to organize my own ideas. I've never felt truly effective in that arena. When I discovered the EWM major, I discovered a future where I don't need to worry about inventing a creative message, I just have to take responsibility in getting it across the right way.
Quartet 2
Rhetoric and composition within our major is a focus on audience, while in the creative writing major, the audience is second to the story. In other words, the audience is more or less subconscious to the writer who writes for enjoyment. The writing we take part in takes into account great purpose. This isn't to say that creative writers are purposeless, but no writer in that genre wants to be constricted solely by what their audience wants. They focus more on how pleasing their story is to themselves rather than consciously taking into consideration its function for others. Rhetoric is an art of perfecting language. It's the ability to take the writer's epic work and give it a function. It's about making certain that the audience receives what they should from a work, thereby allowing them to invest in a good story, but also make them think about what the story is telling them.
Quartet 3
This class is effective in that it bridges a gap between rhetoric and story, editor and author, purpose and pleasure. It brings two corresponding elements of a successful expenditure together. In my Children's Literature class last year, one of our writing prompts was "Which is more important, message or pleasure?" The answer is both. Both are vital to a successful work. As an editor, I want to make sure both are present in the manuscripts that I revise. In the end, rhetoric is responsible for this. Rhetoric moves the audience to action. Rhetoric in literature persuades people of several things. It influences their views of the world. It affects how they live out of their lives. Rhetoric in a novel can even be as simple as convincing someone to buy the second installment in a saga. As everyone else has said, with the popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter, it's not hard to see that we live in a very humanistic era. This is why above all else, audience should serve as a focus for our composition.
Quartet One
ReplyDeleteWhen I started high school I began to notice something shocking that has become so common place in many schools: composition and rhetoric (although it was probably never addressed directly as such at that level of education) were subjects taught with little passion by most teachers. This improves somewhat as students continue on to higher education but even so unless you’re an English major of any concentration the subject can be glossed over short of studying grammaticism and improving test scores and as odd as that sounds that’s always insulted me as a person who sees themselves as a writer. Now I see a chance for that to change. My moment is one currently in mid stride. People may not know it but every time they make a blog post they are contributing to composition movement so to speak. Those blog posts are an exchange of information, a way to influence an audience, create change. The difference is that people teaching themselves to be composers without even realizing it. Here I would like to expand on what Gabrielle says about the lack of funding for English departments. I have to agree that there is some deliberate withholding of funds English departments but I believe it is because English has always been viewed as something everyone can do or be taught to do. While you have the math and science majors and not all of them make it through. I believe this is a misconception. Of course you can teach someone to write but can you really teach someone to be great at it? Can you teach them to love doing it and to want to keep doing it for a living? Some people just are not cut out for an English major because their skills can’t match up or their heart just simply isn’t in it but alas, English is still viewed as a lesser art rather than a true profession.
Quartet Two
One of the biggest shifts in composition and rhetoric in recent years has to be the influx of writers/rhetoricians. It is true that with technology the rhetorical and compositional audience has grown larger than it ever has before but I’ve noticed a growth in the number of published work and new and talented authors. It used to be that only people of certain social classes or recognized academic expertise would ever come close to being published. That’s changed dramatically with things like self publishing and self distribution made possible online. An example of this is Amazon’s self publishing site where people can create Kindle eReader files and PDFs and publish and sell them on the website directly. So not only has the audience expanded but they now have more messages than ever to choose from and be influenced by than ever before.
Quartet Three
From what I’ve learned so far in this class and my other Major course that I’m taking I love the idea that everything of composition has a rhetorical message, everything from fiction to speech. This has always been important to me. Yes, I’m an EWM major but I’ve always been a fiction writer at heart and it would sting every time someone brushed off creative work as a meaningless form of entertainment or expression. I’ve always known that any form of expression has to have a message and I’ve always felt like I was waiting for other people to realize it. Being an EWM major gives me the opportunity to learn ways to pass on the message and influence whether its print or digital media, in a speech, essay, article or a piece of fiction.
Uno: The rhetoricians of the past couldn’t even fathom writing to today’s audience. After pondering this too, an idea…pause…I’m having a moment. There is a distinct evolution from the audience of past times and the audiences of today’s rhetoric. Writers were writing to gain influence, receive awards, or to engage in debate. They sought to leave a legacy in their works and become famous, they wrote to impress those who could help them get where they wanted to go. As such, many of the rhetoricians of the past spoke to the elite, and the highly educated citizen. In contrast, the writers of today have a broader audience, many of their target audience do not have degrees, in fact Yancey states that only 28% of the US population graduate from college (Yancey 306). A consumer is valuable regardless of their age, education, or citizenship. The common folk are valuable consumers too; the best writers know how to write to a broader audience without dumbing down their material. As a EWMer I seek to write for everyone, not just people who have graduated college.
ReplyDeleteDos: Creating a new agenda for teaching and engaging in English rhetoric is important because of the primary shift in technology. Not only is there print media, but also Internet and Audio book. Writers must decipher through the new age hype and truly utilize the internet; it diversifies the ways that we can express ourselves. Obviously, we can make the most of our major by truly utilizing the internet and diversifying our portfolio.
Tres: The study past rhetoric and rules of rhetoric is important to understanding present rhetoric. Like gbyrne4 said, we need to have an understanding of what has been said so we know what to say and make it relevant to our existence as writers. The style and composition of new work changes so often that we must constantly adapt to the rules of rhetoric to find our individual style; Re-introducing the classic styles into our rhetoric but keeping up with the new styles establishes our work as ever relevant to new discussions. Classical rhetoric and new age rhetoric should blur the lines so that we can always stay true to our craft.
Quartet One
ReplyDeleteAt the time this blog assignment was originally posted I had just transferred into Editing Writing and Media from International affairs which gives me a different point of view on what Eric and Alex mentioned. I certainly do believe that not enough people are exposed to a sufficient amount of English courses. However, I know that as an International Affairs major and now an Editing Wring and Media major I am really happy that I do not have to take other math or science classes because those are areas I have absolutely no interest in. I think the problem originates in High school where students are reading books and writing papers but not really understanding what they are doing. Yancey’s first quartet is all about the Industrial Age and the “rising middle class” because it was the point in time where education really started to expand. This was because printing was cheaper and people had the money to buy books to literacy expanded. The world is in a similar scenario at this very moment. Especially in the United States, technology is at the fingertips of the majority of the population because these inventions have become affordable to the middle class community. “Today, we are witnessing a parallel creation, that of a writing public made plural, and as in the case of the development if a reading public, it’s taking place largely outside of school- and this in an age of Universal Education” (pg. 5). As technology forms become more prominent it becomes more important that people are informed about rhetoric and composition before a disconnect between books and the World Wide Web vanishes. Now that the nook has been invented, it can be argued, that it already has.
Quartet Two
It has become clear that journalism is known to be a vanishing art but is that really true? It is true that a lot of journalists are struggling and it also true that compositions posted in the internet are definitely not always reliable. My take on these facts is that something needs to be done about all of this. Journalism is moving to a new medium and there needs to be some sort of regulation implemented on information on the internet. Of course this goes against everything that the web stands for, but what if everyone could still post whatever they wanted but could get the work certified and listed on some sort of online database where people could go to double-check their credibility? This is just an idea that I have but I think it is a good idea since the world is evolving into a media frenzy. If that is where the world is going, there should be a place where people can still get clean cut reliable information.
Quartet Three
After reading Rachel’s take on the third quartet I have to agree that both written and web based compositions are important. Written compositions are the foundation which all out educations have come from and the web has given us all a voice. Both mediums have become equally important in this generation. For example, social networking (an example we all know and love) we use Facebook to stay connected with our friends and family, well my dad also uses a similar networking cite to keep connections with other businessmen all around the world, something he wouldn’t be able to do without this new medium.