Rhetorical Situations

      The first thing I did was read the article multiple times to the point where I could reference certain parts of the text and in doing so I started forming my own opinions on the topic and thought about some of the issues that it dealt with. We were asked to agree or disagree with the idea of television having a negative impact on children, and list reasons for why we think what we think. That was one of the Rhetorical situations for this paper. If we had personal experiences that helped shape our opinion those were to be included in our writing. At first I was a little overwhelmed of the assignment but as I broke it down and read it and did what I was supposed to it was a little easier from there. The things I wrote about where things I had picked up from reading the article and opinions I had on the subject. None of it was very biased or influenced by other people. While I did agree with a lot of what the author said, there were some points I felt that had been left out. There were some things that weren’t specified and he made TV out to just be horrible for kids in general.

      After reading the article it was hard at first to find anything to argue against him. Most of what he said was well written and researched, and everything I wrote was based on my common knowledge of the subject, what I had read in the article and just my own opinions on the subject. The main argument I could come up with was that TV is only bad if you allow it to be, meaning that if you let your kids watch bad TV shows, it will have a negative impact on them and if you censor what they watch it could be a very educational experience. So after I wrote all this, I am now supposed to be writing about the Rhetorical Situations. Rhetoric is just using your words to express your opinion on a matter and to try and persuade others to think the same way you do. Rhetorical situations are just the circumstances in which you communicate. Many things can influence what you write without you even realizing it. Who you are, where you have been, what has happened to you are all things that make your writing what it is.