Rhetorical Knowledge
Focus on a purpose
In my writings I do my best to make the purpose of my paper as clear as possible. I learned that finding the purpose of my paper helps me to figure out the central idea and in the future allow the reader to reframe from any thoughts of confusion. To do this I use a thesis statement, which is a sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. This helps to keep your paper in order and professionally put together. In the Rhetorical Ad Analysis Project my introduction paragraph included my thesis and my conclusion ended with an ending statement. This was a fairly easy project because I not only created a clear understanding for my audience but for myself as well, when analyzing the advertisement.
Thesis statement: “This international advertisement is an image of our planet Earth melting on top of an ice cream cone with a message at the bottom stating, "The first signs of global warming are now clearly visible. We urgently need to limit greenhouse gas emissions." This message, essentially persuading all humans around the world to become more aware of global warming or the planet will melt, is very effective. The WWF foundation uses many rhetorical devices to convey their message.”
Ending statement: “The World Wildlife Foundation, created a visually strong advertisement that will catch many people’s eyes around the world. The overall significance of this advertisement is valid. Global warming is an issue that we should all learn about and try to put an end to.”
Respond to the needs of different audiences
Each topic that we have covered over the semester has required us to meet the needs of different audiences with different elements. The most difficult project that I completed was the “Best Of” project. This was most difficult because we were comparing three to four items in the same category but I did not want to make one item seem completely better than the other, so to respond to the needs of different audiences I had to tell why exactly one item did not have what the other may have to keep away from any bias.
“Best Of”Example: “Unlike Tim Story, director Will Gluck (Easy A) creates a more realistic storyline that asks whether it is possible to have sexual relations without falling in love. Friends With Benefits, starring Mila Kunis (Black Swan) and Justin Timberlake (The Social Network) tells the story of how friendship is all about helping each other in times of need, even if it involves intimacy with no strings attached. It appears to be an easy concept to grasp, but Gluck shows just how complicated this can be. “
Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations
As the author of my projects completed this semester, I learned to respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations. For example, in the “Best Of” project, I chose to respond to an audience who has some type of strong likeness for watching romantic-comedy movies. To do this I kept my text very graphically formulated and understandable for an audience who understands movies. Also, in the Rhetorical Ad project, I chose to respond to an audience who may have questioned the World Wildlife Foundation’s advertisement. In the text I was very descriptive and explanative towards any topic that I brought to the eyes of the audience.
Movie Review Example: “Other great assets of the movie would have to be the soundtrack, makeup, and setting. Each song chosen by Christopher Lennertz sets the mood for its scene just right. Most of the special effects in the movie are visual. The ladies are appealing to the eye and desirable through their flawless makeup, manicured hair, and business attire. Their flawless beauty made them appealing to the men, yet intimidating because they all seemed to have control. This movie is different from most romantic-comedies because it is setup similar to a sitcom, which is becoming more popular in the entertainment industry today.”
Rhetorical Ad Example: “Over the years of 2000, there has been much controversy and protesting about the safety of our Earth. People all over the world have encountered an advertisement promoting awareness of either global warming, recycling, climate change, or any popular issue concerning the Earth’s environment. One of the most popular companies that stand for the value of Earth is the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).”
Use conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation
I learned that in every writing situation there will be set conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation. When writing the “Best Of” project, I had to use
the criteria to base the movie reviewing upon. I had to make sure that I did not focus so much on the story-line but on the other aspects of movies such as the actors, director, visual effects, and soundtrack. If I did not focus on those topics, it would have been very hard to complete this assignment because any other conventions would have not got my point across.
Example: “Friends With Benefits did a great job showing how not to fall for the cliché movie love story. Of course no movie is perfect. The biggest issue of the film is including unnecessary characters. The film moves well enough on its own; however, it is as if the screenwriters did not have enough confidence in the leading characters to carry the message of the film and through in other characters that they felt helped out the main characters. Despite the added dimensions in the film, Friends With Benefits is an amazingly hilarious movie to watch.”
Adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality
There were many times throughout the semester where I had to adopt the appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality. One of these instances is when we wrote a 150 word sentence for a blog post. This blog post was very low on the level of formality and so was the voice. I decided to talk about my personal life and my life overall as a college student. However, in my group project to create a mock Kickstarter, our voice and level of formality was very professional. We wanted to be professional because we had to treat this project as if we were proposing our idea to future donators.
150 Word Sentence Example: “My name is Jasmine Blunt, I am a freshman in college and also a student athlete; when people ask me what exactly I want to do for my career, it is always somewhat difficult for me to explain, and this is because I am not so sure about what I want do; because my major is mass communications with a specialization in media production it can get really crazy, especially because there are a number of things that I could do with this degree, such as: become a producer, director, script writer, broadcaster, journalist, or maybe even teach communications at a high school or university but we will discuss that in another life; meaning that I doubt the last option will happen because I tend to get annoyed by people very easily; not saying that I don’t love kids, I just rather work with them when they are more mature.”
Kickstarter Example: www.theartoai.tumblr.com
Understand how genres shape reading and writing
I learned that there are different ways to go about different types of writing. When it came to my classwork it was usually rough drafts and small blog post. These post would most likely not be in any professional format, but clear enough for my professor to understand my thoughts. I found it very important to know how that what kind of writing you are doing speaks to your audience along with your text. I learned how to shape my writing for the type of writing my professor asked for so that it would be appropriate for the reader. For example, in my analysis of MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, I had to be informative since it was an analysis.
Example: “In the letter to the clergymen that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from Birmingham jail, Dr. King uses rhetorical appeals and biblical allusions to defend his justification for the white churches and bishops not supporting what he considers unjust laws in the 1960s. The clergymen did not exactly state anything in their letter about the church supporting the laws, however, because it was the clergymen who wrote the letter about the actions they claimed were uncalled for, Dr. King made his feelings known about the wrong doings of the white church.”
Write in several genres
Over the semester I have written blogs, a portfolio that you are reading), a rhetorical ad anaylsis project, a movie review, and a kickstarter proposal. An example of each of these are on this website.
In my writings I do my best to make the purpose of my paper as clear as possible. I learned that finding the purpose of my paper helps me to figure out the central idea and in the future allow the reader to reframe from any thoughts of confusion. To do this I use a thesis statement, which is a sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. This helps to keep your paper in order and professionally put together. In the Rhetorical Ad Analysis Project my introduction paragraph included my thesis and my conclusion ended with an ending statement. This was a fairly easy project because I not only created a clear understanding for my audience but for myself as well, when analyzing the advertisement.
Thesis statement: “This international advertisement is an image of our planet Earth melting on top of an ice cream cone with a message at the bottom stating, "The first signs of global warming are now clearly visible. We urgently need to limit greenhouse gas emissions." This message, essentially persuading all humans around the world to become more aware of global warming or the planet will melt, is very effective. The WWF foundation uses many rhetorical devices to convey their message.”
Ending statement: “The World Wildlife Foundation, created a visually strong advertisement that will catch many people’s eyes around the world. The overall significance of this advertisement is valid. Global warming is an issue that we should all learn about and try to put an end to.”
Respond to the needs of different audiences
Each topic that we have covered over the semester has required us to meet the needs of different audiences with different elements. The most difficult project that I completed was the “Best Of” project. This was most difficult because we were comparing three to four items in the same category but I did not want to make one item seem completely better than the other, so to respond to the needs of different audiences I had to tell why exactly one item did not have what the other may have to keep away from any bias.
“Best Of”Example: “Unlike Tim Story, director Will Gluck (Easy A) creates a more realistic storyline that asks whether it is possible to have sexual relations without falling in love. Friends With Benefits, starring Mila Kunis (Black Swan) and Justin Timberlake (The Social Network) tells the story of how friendship is all about helping each other in times of need, even if it involves intimacy with no strings attached. It appears to be an easy concept to grasp, but Gluck shows just how complicated this can be. “
Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations
As the author of my projects completed this semester, I learned to respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations. For example, in the “Best Of” project, I chose to respond to an audience who has some type of strong likeness for watching romantic-comedy movies. To do this I kept my text very graphically formulated and understandable for an audience who understands movies. Also, in the Rhetorical Ad project, I chose to respond to an audience who may have questioned the World Wildlife Foundation’s advertisement. In the text I was very descriptive and explanative towards any topic that I brought to the eyes of the audience.
Movie Review Example: “Other great assets of the movie would have to be the soundtrack, makeup, and setting. Each song chosen by Christopher Lennertz sets the mood for its scene just right. Most of the special effects in the movie are visual. The ladies are appealing to the eye and desirable through their flawless makeup, manicured hair, and business attire. Their flawless beauty made them appealing to the men, yet intimidating because they all seemed to have control. This movie is different from most romantic-comedies because it is setup similar to a sitcom, which is becoming more popular in the entertainment industry today.”
Rhetorical Ad Example: “Over the years of 2000, there has been much controversy and protesting about the safety of our Earth. People all over the world have encountered an advertisement promoting awareness of either global warming, recycling, climate change, or any popular issue concerning the Earth’s environment. One of the most popular companies that stand for the value of Earth is the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).”
Use conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation
I learned that in every writing situation there will be set conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation. When writing the “Best Of” project, I had to use
the criteria to base the movie reviewing upon. I had to make sure that I did not focus so much on the story-line but on the other aspects of movies such as the actors, director, visual effects, and soundtrack. If I did not focus on those topics, it would have been very hard to complete this assignment because any other conventions would have not got my point across.
Example: “Friends With Benefits did a great job showing how not to fall for the cliché movie love story. Of course no movie is perfect. The biggest issue of the film is including unnecessary characters. The film moves well enough on its own; however, it is as if the screenwriters did not have enough confidence in the leading characters to carry the message of the film and through in other characters that they felt helped out the main characters. Despite the added dimensions in the film, Friends With Benefits is an amazingly hilarious movie to watch.”
Adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality
There were many times throughout the semester where I had to adopt the appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality. One of these instances is when we wrote a 150 word sentence for a blog post. This blog post was very low on the level of formality and so was the voice. I decided to talk about my personal life and my life overall as a college student. However, in my group project to create a mock Kickstarter, our voice and level of formality was very professional. We wanted to be professional because we had to treat this project as if we were proposing our idea to future donators.
150 Word Sentence Example: “My name is Jasmine Blunt, I am a freshman in college and also a student athlete; when people ask me what exactly I want to do for my career, it is always somewhat difficult for me to explain, and this is because I am not so sure about what I want do; because my major is mass communications with a specialization in media production it can get really crazy, especially because there are a number of things that I could do with this degree, such as: become a producer, director, script writer, broadcaster, journalist, or maybe even teach communications at a high school or university but we will discuss that in another life; meaning that I doubt the last option will happen because I tend to get annoyed by people very easily; not saying that I don’t love kids, I just rather work with them when they are more mature.”
Kickstarter Example: www.theartoai.tumblr.com
Understand how genres shape reading and writing
I learned that there are different ways to go about different types of writing. When it came to my classwork it was usually rough drafts and small blog post. These post would most likely not be in any professional format, but clear enough for my professor to understand my thoughts. I found it very important to know how that what kind of writing you are doing speaks to your audience along with your text. I learned how to shape my writing for the type of writing my professor asked for so that it would be appropriate for the reader. For example, in my analysis of MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, I had to be informative since it was an analysis.
Example: “In the letter to the clergymen that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from Birmingham jail, Dr. King uses rhetorical appeals and biblical allusions to defend his justification for the white churches and bishops not supporting what he considers unjust laws in the 1960s. The clergymen did not exactly state anything in their letter about the church supporting the laws, however, because it was the clergymen who wrote the letter about the actions they claimed were uncalled for, Dr. King made his feelings known about the wrong doings of the white church.”
Write in several genres
Over the semester I have written blogs, a portfolio that you are reading), a rhetorical ad anaylsis project, a movie review, and a kickstarter proposal. An example of each of these are on this website.