I think that the "Pumped Up Kicks" blog post helped me understand the rhetorical situation the most.   "Pumped Up Kicks" had a very upbeat tempo, but when you read through the lyrics it was completely different. In trying to analyze this song you had to answer many questions.  You had to figure out what was possibly going on and why. You had to figure out why Foster wrote this song the way he did and really the rhetorical situation is trying to figure out the answer to a bunch of questions.  These questions range from what the author thinks and why, if it is effective, who is the intended audience for the song, and whether the author gets his point across.  I think that this post alone made me use pretty much the whole rhetorical situation to correctly figure out the analysis of song and the lyrics.

Semester in Review

The assignment from this serious that has helped me the most with understanding rhetoric would definitely have to be my creative nonfiction paper. My creative nonfiction paper made me understand rhetoric the most because it allowed me to open up my thinking and put my thoughts in a way so that other people could understand them. Before writing my creative nonfiction, I was not really able to understand the whole fact of putting your perspective in a way so that your readers will understand too because I always thought that they would understand my writings just because I did. After writing my creative nonfiction, I was a lot more familiar with allowing my readers to understand and feel what I would feel. Since I was able to do this, it has made me a better writer and has definitely made me understand the definite meaning of rhetoric now. I am happy to say that I can now walk out of this class with a better understanding of rhetoric.

Brooke Kinney (169)

Semester in Review

The assignment from this semester that helped me understand the idea of rhetoric and the rhetorical situation is the blog posts. Each week I have had to do a blog based on different topics and I had to analyze them and then discuss it. After doing so many of the blog posts each one became easier to do and how to analyze what we have to read or watch. Also, writing a two paragraph response helped me know what I need to put in response to different topics for the future. Also, the blogs are an excellent way for people to learn how to express their different ideas and opinions on many topics. It helped me to express my ideas more and how to expand them so that I have a four hundred word response. I may not have wanted to do the blogs in the beginning of the semester but now I am glad that I did them.

Megan Grimes (159)

With all these different topics we had to post to the blogger website I think that helped me understand rhetoric and rhetorical situation would be the Workplace blog.  The main reason being that before I had to actually sit down and thoroughly think about what the sign means.  Up until that point the sign was just another sign hanging in our locker room.  Now that I have thought about it every time I see it I stop and think about what it really means.  So I am glad in a way that we had to do all these blogs on different topics each week because it really has helped me change my thinking on certain things, even though most weeks I didn't want to the blog which I think most people didn't want to but at the end of the day I'm glad I made myself do them.

The Semester in Review

I feel like the blog assignment that affected me the most was the "Workplace Rhetoric." The “Workplace Rhetoric” assignment is where my entire outlook on rhetorical situations began to change. Before we were given this assignment I felt that rhetorical situations were always formally written and conveyed, especially after the assignment on the e-mail from "President Obama" in which we critiqued his lack of formality. In the beginning of these assignments I never thought that a rhetorical situation would be a part of my everyday life, because I would only do formal writings for school, but this wasn’t the case at all. During the "Workplace Rhetoric" assignment I realized how much rhetoric affects my daily life and that it's not just formal means of writing ideas down on paper. I began to open my eyes and later realized that rhetoric can be displayed in so many diverse ways, such as a song, an advertisement sign, or a funny television commercial.

Breanna H.

(154 Words)

Semester in Review

I think my favorite assignment that helped me learn the idea of the rhetorical situation would be the lyrical rhetoric blog involving the song "Pumped Up Kicks," by Foster the People. That assignment made me really think about all of the aspects involving the rhetorical situation. From looking at the song writer's background, to the song's beat, I learned all of the parts included in a rhetorical situation. I remember getting into groups and discussing how the songs beat and the lyrics may have a hidden meaning. The assignment as a whole just kind of put everything in perspective for me. At the beginning of the year, I kind of had a tough time with the idea of a rhetorical situation, but now I just look back at that blog to remember all of the aspects involved. Instead of looking back at the sheet Ms. Jarmer gave us at the beginning of the year about what a rhetorical situation is, I just use the blog as a reference.

David Sacre
(168 words)

This Year in Review

This year, out of all the assignments we have had to do I would have to say that the blog post about "The Woman in the White House" has helped me understand more about rhetorical situations. It showed how she would make the song so that way it would be a good seller, not necessarily true statements in the song though. She talked about how a woman in the White House wouldn't fight and they wouldn't spend money. But those are the opposite of a stereotypical woman would be. Instead of making a true song, she was just more worried about how she could sell the song and make good money out of it rather than getting a true point across and trying to make a difference in society today. She also had the CD cover a woman in high heels with the White House in between her legs. So she didn't put true statements into the song and showed how people really think about women in politics. That helped me realize how people really are in the world today, they will say just about anything and do just about anything if it means they are going to make money whether it is true or not.

Makayla Stark
Word Count: 206