Rhetorical topic

                Writing the assessment essay was difficult for me in ways I did not anticipate. I expected to have a hard time figuring out the thesis and have difficulty with writing within the allotted four hundred words with only two hundred to summarize the article. When I first read the paper I was surprised to see that the whole point of the article was about parents moderating their children’s television viewing habits. Being who I am I decided to re-read the article a few times to fully understand the thesis and in doing so I completely over thought the thesis as the government having to moderate the viewing habits. Then came picking a side, and as with most topics I agreed with some parts and disagreed with others. The hardest part of an essay like this for me is picking a side when I do not generally pick sides in anything. Both sides usually have faults and strengths and I try to view the argument as a whole. So I did what I always do and flip a coin to see which side I am arguing for. I began to write and took occasional breaks so I didn’t burden myself with having to do it all at once.

                While I wrote my paper I thought about who my audience was. I knew that the essay was going to determine whether or not the teacher thought I should be in this class with my current writing skills and thought that I was not going to meet the standards. Most of what I have written has been fictional stories or research papers. So I followed the instructions set forth as best as I could and this helped me due to the fact that I did not feel the need to make it much longer than it needed to be. Having never written a college level paper I had no idea what assessment I would receive from the diagnostic essay. I had hoped that I would be able to stay in the class, but after hearing some rumors about the teacher I decided to go back a revise my paper. I was nervous when writing so I ended up making more mistakes than I would have liked. As a direct result I wish I could go back and change my misinterpretation of the thesis and would have not been as repetitive as I was.

 

                                - Codie Rome (400 words in essay)

 

In order to be able to even start the paper I had read the article on “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” over and over until I completely understood what Jeffery McCall was talking about and what point he was trying to make. After reading and understanding the article I was then asked if I agreed or disagreed with what he was saying and I also had to support my decision with facts.  In high school I had been asked to do this type of writing before, but I have never been asked to be as detailed as I was asked to be this time. Because of the fact that I had experienced this type of writing before I somewhat knew what I was doing and how I was going to start my paper. When I first began to write this paper I was just a little helpless freshman in college on the first day of my first ever rhetoric class, with that being said I was a little nervous and anxious. I think that this affected my writing because I was scared to mess up and I was afraid that Ms. Jarmer would be extremely strict on how she wanted my paper to be and I would be asked to leave the class.

                Before I even read the article or began to write the essay I knew that my audience would only be one person and that person would be Ms. Jarmer. That made me even more nervous than I was before because I was now making my first impression on somebody that knows nothing about me…and she was going to be judging me on how well I can write. I assume that Ms. Jarmer has read the article and knows about the topic fully. If I was asked to re-write this paper or if I even had the chance to re-write this paper I would do things a lot differently. I would have asked questions about the article that I was asked to read because now that I wrote a paper about it and had it graded I don’t think that I had a clear understanding on what Jeffrey McCall was trying explain to us. I also don’t think that I put enough time into my writing. I was writing to get done instead of writing to try and get accepted into a class. With that being said I think that I can say I wasn’t satisfied with the piece I had written and I need to change some things in the future.

Kamaren Cole

words 425

Rhetorical Situation

    When I first read the prompt I felt a little intimidated. We were asked to summarize the article and talk about if we agreed or not, and why we chose this side. When asked to write this Diagnostic essay, I wasn't really sure what it meant. After reading the prompt for the second and third time, I started to find that I agreed with the article. I then explained why I agreed, using some examples in my own life, and general knowledge. I knew the writing was important, simply for the fact that I had to prove I had the ability to stay in this course. I knew my audience would only be my instructor, which had most likely read the article, and had an opinion on the topic also. I wasn't sure what she knew about the topic, so I tried to use general information that was easy for many to see. This also changing how I reviewed my writing. This helped me make the decision to read the article multiple times, edit my work carefully, and meet all of the requirements. After all this was complete, I found this paper to be alot easier then before.
   
    After reading the results of my diagnostic essay there are a few things I would change. Going into the class I had expected it to be a lot easier then it really is. The first thing I would have done differently would be the steps I took to write my essay. I would have collected my thoughts in something close to an outline and continue to write from there. Writing the essay now I also would have thought outside the box. The first time I kind of just read the words of the prompt, without really thinking of the actual meaning. I think that the fact I was not completely sure what the assignment was asking may have had a negative effect too. McCall was very clear on the side of the argument he supported, but I feel as if he implied some things that I did not see. On the Purdue Owl site that was recommended for us to read, it says that rhetoric is any communication used to modify the perspectives of others. If I were to write the essay again today, I would talk more about things I thought influenced children negatively that McCall didn't state in his essay.
   
sincerely,
Karah Trinkle
400 words

Rhetorical Situation

When we were asked to write an essay over “TV’s Negative Influence on Kinds Reaffirmed,” the first thing I did was to read over the article multiple times. As I read through the article I looked for the stance that McCall made and what his theory was. I then highlighted all important information I found so I could use it later. For our assignment we were put in a rhetorical situation where we had to take a stance on the topic and back it up with personal experiences. After I read “The Rhetorical Situation” from Purdue’s Owl, an implied rhetorical situation is to not get influenced by the author’s viewpoint, but to come up with your own reasons and opinions about the topic. When I first started reading the article I did not have a stance on the issue but as I kept reading I was leaning more towards McCall. When I was beginning to start my paper I thought about what McCall said and then I thought about what the opposing side would have to say to him. Most of McCall’s points were hard to argue against and to find a way to contradict them so I ended up agreeing with him.

When I was writing my paper I was having a hard time finding personal experiences to go with why I agreed with McCall. What I kept thinking about when I thinking of personal experiences was that only my teacher was going to be reading it so I did not need to have that persuasive of a paper. When I could not think of any personal experiences I pointed out facts from the article that McCall found and used them as why I agreed with him. I knew by doing that I was not going to get back a very good recommendation paper. I know I am a better writer than that but I did not want to take the time do the paper the way it was supposed to be done. When I received my recommendation paper I was not surprised by the comments I got because I knew what I did wrong and I should have fixed them. From what I have read for the presentation I would not make the same choices. First, I would of the followed the directions better. Second, I would have actually taken the time to do the paper instead of waiting last minute to get it done. Lastly, I would have just made up personal experiences instead of not following the directions.

-Megan Grimes (422 words)

Rhetorical Situations

Experiencing my first essay in college was not quite what I expected. In particular I was not too nervous about the situation which was contrary to my notion that I’d be jumping out of my seat with anxiety; the article itself was like many of the ones I had read in High School about some kind of negative influence on the world. This one in particular though was about TV’s Negative effects on children and like most argumentative papers it was very plain and straight forward with being almost completely biased for one side of the argument.  Whenever I look at this style of paper I often do not mind taking either side of the argument depending on which one I find more fun whether. I found myself in a more compliant mood and agreed with the articles main theme of TV’s evil influences on children. When I first began writing the paper I felt pretty self-assured until I hit the thesis statement, the advice of reading the article through a few times would have helped me tremendously when it came to sorting out the thesis statement but I was being hasty and did not want to put in the proper time and effort in which it takes to do a satisfactory paper.

 I knew my audience would be Mrs. Jarmer and the paper was being tested to see if I had the right aptitude for the course so the pressure was added. I had heard she graded quite harshly so I didn’t want to make a bad impression on my first paper so I ran it over an old high school teacher I had once to check my grammar. I am glad now looking back on it I did check in with my teacher because a lot of my grammar did have mistakes, thankfully they were small enough and easily changeable. Afterwards I went home to revise my paper this time having to put it on the computer which I have a hard time with since I often get distracted with Googling the latest clothing ads. I always try to clear whatever electronics I can away from myself before I write because I know my writing will not be as proficient and take hours to complete if I do not. Having gotten advice from my teacher I was more confident in my paper, I was not too worried about turning it in and was pretty proud of the paper I had written.

-Ashley Koanda

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.

Rhetorical Situations

When writing the essay on television’s negative effects the first thing I did was read the article multiple times. I tried to pick out the important parts, so that I could become more familiar with his stance on the topic. One of the Rhetorical situations in this assignment was to take a stance on the topic, without directly summarizing what McCall said. The object was to explain ourselves and not use researched facts. You were also supposed to give examples, which could be personal, and after reading Purdue Owl’s “Rhetorical Situations” I believe that an implied rhetorical situation was to not let McCall persuade you into believing what he believes. When I began writing the diagnostic essay I didn’t really think into it as much as I should have. I think I let McCall influence me a little bit. Before I read the article I didn’t really have a strong stance on the topic, but as I kept reading, the more and more I started to agree with McCall. What shaped most of my essay, was the fact that we weren’t supposed to analyze the essay.  My main focus throughout this essay was to make sure that these were my thoughts and, and not just me copying McCall.

Choosing a side was difficult during my writing process. I wasn’t sold either way until I read the article a few times. McCall researched the topic well and had a lot of good points, which I agreed with. There were so many reasons to follow McCall’s stance on the topic, while there were few to argue against it. I also thought of who my potential audience would be. I decided that a mother would be most likely to read an article like this and I felt that it would be easier to reach out to her with my writing if I agreed with McCall. When I got my recommendation sheet back I was surprised that I did as well as I did, because I didn’t feel that I fully understood the assignment, but I liked the choices I made within my essay, and the side that I took. After reading the presentations, I wouldn’t change anything about my essay. In Purdue Owl’s “Rhetorical Situations” it states that a rhetorical situation involves somebody using some sort of communication to modify someone else’s perspective. Even though I may have let McCall influence me, I still modified his perspective with my own.

Breanna H.
407 Words