Bushra Zaman
English 360 Sect 1
Essay #4- Reflective Piece
Thursday, December 6, 2011
As a Rhetoric and Professional Writing major, one would think that knowledge of the ancient and modern rhetoricians is automatic and widely known. However, it was not until taking Principles of Rhetoric that the full knowledge and application had been acquired. English 360, Principles of Rhetoric, had truly helped in extending my rhetorical outlook, as well as growth in my overall writing skills.
While my analytical strengths as a writer are a constant shiner, writers are constantly growing and learning new techniques. For most the favorite part of writing may be the creativity and the endless possibilities, but I personally enjoy taking pieces apart and getting down to the true nitty grittiness of them. After reading from The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present, and Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, as well as blogging about the readings, my understanding of such devices had truly widened. I had begun to notice the devices that which I had already been familiar with, as well as those I hadn’t. For example, just a few weeks into this class, after readings had been done, I had seen how the use of proofs had been added to my papers soon after blogging. Later on in the semester, after my writing and truly grown, I had used premise and rhetorical examples in my writing pieces. Throughout the semester, as a whole, I could truly see my arguments and ideas coming together, as a result of the readings and the blog entries. By computing blog entries I was able to comprehend the readings and read and comment on what my fellow students had said. This had truly helped in the initial stage of the writing process because the class as a whole began to correlate the theories and materials from ancient and modern rhetors, and apply it to everyday curriculum. By blogging we were able to exchange ideas, helping me see that such writing often calls for out of the box thinking, for there isn’t always just one right answer, but rather different dimensions.
Rhetorical proofs are important because they appeal to the audience’s emotions. While rhetoric may rely on logic to back up its arguments, it is key to engage the audience and persuade them. This is done by appealing to their emotions. Aristotle stated that by understanding these emotions, one can then engage and use them in their arguments, making a real impression. These proofs are then slotted into two different categories: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic proofs are ones that are not made up, but rather found in the rhetorical situation at hand. Examples of this include data, facts, testimony, and witnesses. However, according to Cicero extrinsic proofs relied heavily upon authority. These proofs are found in the forms of politics and law, serving as key to all rhetoric because it provides the audience with real proof coming from the case at hand. This type of device was seen in essay number two, where I discussed Walter Ong’s “Orality and Literacy” which states that oral language cannot exist without verbal expression, and vice versa. In the paper I had used extrinsic proofs to prove my point by applying Ong’s theory to modern everyday examples. “When a text is read out loud, it is adapted into sound, which is derived from spoken language itself. Oral culture in turn leads to verbal production, and speech is then recorded and written down” (Zaman, Essay #2). In this quote I directly show how oral, written, and spoken language are all interconnected, just as Ong’s theory states. Essay number two was one of the first pieces I had written for the class, that being said, I can see areas where I had learned new material and ideas, and I can also see areas where improvement was needed. However, by looking to the pieces and blog entries after essay number two, I can proudly say that improvement was made.
Premise, the opening statement in an essay, sets the stage for the argument at hand. I had learned very early on in my schooling and writing that it was this very opening statement that would truly captivate one’s audience. From then on I had made it a clear point to always have a clear and convincing “grabber.” One piece of writing in which I had illustrated this was in essay number three. In the paper I had discussed late Professor Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture and the rhetorical devices he had used. Pausch’s premise was truly important to his lecture as a whole, because he wanted to draw the audience into his reality, stating that he wasn’t in denial about his diagnosis, and in order for him to truly understand the lecture, they must understand this first and foremost. No matter what kind of argument one has, the use of examples will only make it stronger. Examples help prove one’s point by using either personal stories or experiments. For rhetorical examples, specifics are key. The true rhetorician is one who evokes sensory details from examples; the audience should be able to identify sights, sounds, and even smells when walking through the rhetorical examples. Such reactions from the rhetor exemplify that the use of examples was properly used. I have found that my writings throughout the semester drew upon examples that attempted to delve into the audience’s emotions. My reason for doing so being that I had wanted to take the audience back to their own personal experiences, being able to truly relate with the argument given, thus being persuaded to agree. Essay number three being the last paper, by the end of it, and upon receiving it back, I could truly see with my own eyes the growth that I had gone through in the class. My ideas as a whole were better formed, showing that I had now understood how to apply the devices and theories learned to modern pieces as well. I had also learned how to take evidence from the piece and to take it apart bit by bit, showing that my ideas were not simply figments of the imagination, but rather solid well thought notions. At this point the sections that we had finished discussing in the book also helped in my progression as a rhetor. Referring to the dates this paper had been assigned and turned in, I can see that my blog entries had become less forced, and more fluid in their structure. My understanding of the reading material was more noticeable, in that I could actually reiterate the information that I had read. By having a better understanding of the material as a whole, it had become easier and more natural when applying it to the assignments.
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