Exercise 4.m

When I receive an assignment to complete an essay there are many steps which I follow before handing in the final product. After the assignment and guidelines are fully explained, I begin pondering the things in which I want to include in my paper. This consists of everything from overall points to support the thesis to details which may make the essay more interesting to readers. Once I have thought things out a bit, I typically jot them down in an outline based form to ensure I don’t forget to include anything when I actually begin composing.
Next, I generally sit with my laptop at my desk where there are no distractions and I can focus on my work. Personally, I believe the hardest part of the entire assignment begins at this point. I always have to work for several minutes on an opening which satisfies my own expectations. However, once I get the paper going I generally just write it to its entirety on my computer in a single setting as I like begin able to get thoughts out and then easily reword or change them. After I have completed the first rough draft of an essay, I walk away from it for a few hours before returning. I then opt to read the essay aloud so that I can hear how it sounds and I tend to catch more mistakes this way. This also helps me to locate areas that do not flow very well and ones in which I simply want to improve within the paper.
Next, I prefer to read the essay aloud to someone else or have them read it. I make any corrections caught by this individual and am then confident in taking it to class for peer editing and so on. To me, peer editing is an excellent opportunity for a writer if used correctly. Although every person who edit’s a paper isn’t going to provide the same type of feedback, it does bring attention to problematic areas. I also feel that unlike many other readers of the essay, peers fully understand the assignment and can therefore point out aspects that may have been overlooked by the writer. Because I like receiving specific feedback about my work, I try to have a basic idea of what the paper will consist of for this process but know it isn’t the final draft. Once having gone through peer review, I make any additional corrections, do one last aloud reading and am then ready to turn in the completed final copy of the assignment!

Workshopping Draft

I believe a draft used in the process of workshopping should have had some thought and work put into it. Although workshopping is meant to receive peer review for improvement of one’s work, a true idea of what the final paper will consist of will help to provide more effective advice. If the writer were to only “throw together” ideas, the feedback would most likely be more general such as the addition of detail or examples. However, if the text being evaluated was written with more thought and care, the individual workshopping the draft could provide extremely productive feedback which is specific to certain aspects of the paper. Although it is good for a writer to start by simply throwing out ideas and then organizing them, this should be done well before a workshopping draft is composed. Therefore, when one looks over a draft while workshopping it should appear to be a clearly organized paper with a thesis and distinct paragraphs. This is not the final paper but it should still have effort put into it so that detailed suggestions can be made which should make it more successful in the end.

If I were to workshop Essay R, I would have many general suggestions for the writer. Because the paper was filled with so many mistakes, it would be very difficult to provide specific corrections for the entire essay. However, I would definitely suggest they work on all aspects of grammar taking special note of fragments, punctuation, commas and the switching of tenses. I would also suggest each paragraph have a distinct purpose relative to the thesis which needs to be stated in the opening paragraph. In addition, I would ask that more factual information be provided verses opinion especially concerning wrestling in the 80’s. The last suggestion I would give the writer is to add more similarities as the assignment did call for comparison and contrasting.

Exercise 2.h

1. I believe the rhetorical situation to which this text is a response is a college student stating facts and his own opinions in a newspaper article in an attempt to persuade the readers not to vote for Hilary Clinton in the 2008 election. The writer of the article’s main purpose is to sway the votes of the undecided and help others understand while he feels Clinton is not fit for the position of President while West simply was completing a rhetorical analysis of the piece. The audience of the original article is any reader of the Collegiate Times while West’s audience is his professor, classmates and any reader of the original article.

2. The genre conventions I recognize in Bryan West’s analysis are those of any rhetorically sound text. The purpose of the analysis and the audience seems to be kept in mind while writing the piece. He also made use of the of the types of rhetoric (pathos, logos, and ethos) although logos was the main convention used as it was analysis meaning it consisted mostly of factual information. I have written many things in this genre before including many rhetorical analysis of cultural artifacts and election speeches in English 1105 and other papers in high school. I have also read many things in this genre before including book and movie reviews and my peers papers in past classes. The rhetorical conventions are becoming very familiar to me as it is something which was stressed in my previous classes.

3. Another genre West may have used to achieve the same purposes for the same audience could be a speech or perhaps even a visual. The advantages of using the analysis is that it is mostly neutral and unbiased as it states the facts. However, some may find this to be boring or uninteresting and therefore forgo taking the time to read it. The advantages of a speech or visual is that it is more personal and would allow West to incorporate more of his own opinions. However, the disadvantage of this is that those opposing his views may dismiss it altogether.

4. Another genre the author may use to communicate his purposes to a difference audience altogether is a comical paper. This would allow him to poke fun at the points he disagrees with and continue to elaborate on the things he agrees with through jokes. This would most likely appeal to a younger audience or anyone who doesn’t prefer to take things very seriously. The writer would need to adapt his persuasive appeal by not using as much logos but instead focusing on the emotional appeal of pathos.

5. I believe that the conventions present in this writing could be used in almost any profession. His goals were to write a rhetorically sound piece while keeping in mind audience, purpose and the three appeals. This makes for a strong and sound textual analysis and any good writing would contain these same tactics. West’s essay was a review and therefore consisted more of logos while other occupations may differ in this aspect depending on their own personal goals. For example, a scientist would probably tend to use more logos while a social workers would perhaps focus more on pathos.

Essay R

I would give Essay R a C- if I were grading it. This essay contained many grammatical errors including incorrect punctuation, sentence fragments, changes in tenses and typos. Perhaps having proof read would have been of benefit as it could have at the least eliminated the simple mistakes of typing the wrong word. In addition, I feel this essay was poorly organized. There was little to no transition between paragraphs. Also, it was difficult to distinguish the overall purpose of each paragraph. Maybe outlining the points in the opening that would be made through out the essay would have made it easier to read and understand. I liked how in the ending the counterargument was presented that some may disagree that the wrestling industry has evolved over the last few years but details to support the claim would have been beneficial. Although the writer seemed to have a passion for the industry and much knowledge, I believe better planning and more organization is needed.