Time to think about what we've done

Time to think about what we have done so far in EWPO. For the past two months we have studied rhetoric and composition. We have read about rhetoric and rhetorical situation, composition and its key terms, and we have reviewed what the experts have had to say about these topics.

So what is rhetoric? In the beginning of class we read Bitzer's "The Rhetorical Situation", and his definition of rhetoric is as follows..

"In short, rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not
by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of
thought and action. The rhetor alters reality by bringing into
existence a discourse of such a character that the audience, in
thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes mediator of
change. In this sense rhetoric is always persuasive"(Bitzer 4).

In this, Bitzer is saying that rhetoric creates discourse. By creating discourse he is implying that rhetoric is a subject of composition and the basis of the meaning for it.

So now that rhetoric is out of the way, how about composition? We also spent the past two months learning about composition and making our own compositions. To learn about composition we studied the "Key Concepts in Composition". Composition is a vague term. It basically means putting things together to form a whole finished product. You can write a composition, make a painting, or any other form of media, even music is composition. To see the importance of composition we studied Yancey and her ideas how how we compose.

In learning about remediation we have gone over how things change and progress through time. In relation to knowledge, I believe that it is always in existance and constantly being created. Every process has a background and a relies on prior knowledge. We have learned that remediation is the mediation of mediation, so if that is true, we know that knowleged is built upon prior knowledge and keeps improving.

The last thing we did in class was a reflection. I think that reflection is very important because it is a way for you to look back on your composition, look at what you liked, what you didnt like, and learn from it for the future. Reflection is necesary because it enables you to appreciate your work and grow as a composer. As you learn, your work will get better and better over time.