Response to Son Ngo's "Rhetoric Digression"

Son makes a good point when he mentions that rhetoric is used all the time in everyday situations, whether people are sarcastic to convey a message or purposefully persuading others to get what they want. I had never even heard of rhetoric until last year in one of my writing classes. Now that I know what it is and how it is used, I find myself paying much more attention to rhetoric in everyday life. For instance, I was over at my mom's house and she was trying to get my younger sister to do something, and when my sister asked why she had to do it, my mom responded, "Because I'm your mom and I said so." This is a perfect example of ethos, where my mom is building up her credentials to express why my sister should listen to her. Children are expected to listen to their parents, and my mom is simply reiterating this through her statement.

A question Son asks in his post is if all the elements of rhetoric; ethos, logos, and pathos, were used together in one sentence, would that increase the effectiveness of persuasion. I believe that one could easily put together an effective sentence using the three elements of rhetoric. However, I feel that it is up to the writer to decide which element, or combination of the three, will work the best with the topic and the audience being persuaded. Sometimes writers may want to use ethos and logos to build up credentials and present a good line of reasoning, while finding it inappropriate to play on the emotional side of things, given the situation.

Chapter 6 & 7 Response

In chapter 6, guideline 2 provides some noteworthy advice when beginning a research project. This guideline suggests making a research plan by determining the various sources that will be used, and the preparation needed to evaluate each of them. The main point in this guideline is making sure that the information is not only appropriate to what it is being researched, but, even more importantly, that it is reader-centered enough to persuade readers. When conducting research, the goal for the researcher should be to find the best information possible. To help meet this goal, one should consider starting with a general search, scheduling enough time to complete research, and examining multiple research methods, as mentioned in the book.

Another helpful suggestion within chapter 6, guideline 6, is to take careful notes during research. The book recommends keeping track of sources by making bibliographic notes that include things like the author, title, year of publication, and so on. One thing that I've found to be useful when researching is to use an annotated bibliography. This is basically a bibliography that has a written evaluation following the citation where the researcher provides a summary of the main points and the relevancy of the source. This is very helpful for going back to review sources at a later time. It eliminates having to read sources over and over in order to remember what they are about.

I found the section within chapter 7 on revealing organization in writing to be informative, especially the headings and visual arrangement of text categories. Some tips within the headings category included:

• Whether to use parallel headings or a mix of headings
• Ways of designing headings (color, boldness, size, hierarchal levels)
  
• The different kinds of headings (questions, key words, and main ideas)

The visual arrangement section touches on using lists, indenting subordinate information, and starting new chapters or major sections on a new page in long communications.

Rhetoric

I guess I would say that I've had a fair amount of contact with rhetoric prior to taking this class. I took a class last year that explored various rhetorical conventions and how they worked to persuade others. While one will always see either ethos, pathos, logos, or some combination within the three in any form of writing, many times one will see rhetorical fallacies as well. Fallacies often occur within arguments that are made in writing. So, a fallacy would be when a writer makes an argument about something and there is an error in the reasoning of that argument. For example, ad hominem is the name of a common fallacy, although there are many others. This fallacy occurs when person A has a claim, person B attacks person A, therefore person A's claim is false.

The 3 Elements of Rhetoric

Ethos: We learned that this is the self or the I in writing. I think of the word ethics. In writing, I believe it to be how you present yourself and your credentials. If you present some information or make a claim, the reader will want to know your experience in presenting such information in order to determine whether or not to trust what it is you're saying.

Logos: Logos is logic. It is the structure in writing. Whether or not one's writing is clear and follows a good line of reasoning.

Pathos: This is all about emotion. How a writer creates emotional feelings in readers. A good use of pathos is to try to find a commonality between the writer and the reader. For example, one might say, "This is our right as human beings," in order to make an emotional feeling of togetherness or equality.

Response to Chapters 4, 5, 16, and 23

What I found most interesting in chapters 4 and 5, was the idea of direct pattern and indirect pattern of organization. In other words, whether your writing should present the main point right off the bat, or wait to reveal it towards the end of the proposal. The book mentions that direct pattern is the most common way to go and is best used with conveying good news or presenting something your readers will respond to favorably or objectively. Indirect is said to be better suited for situations where a reader may be receiving bad or alarming news and a direct method would only create defensiveness in readers, or irritate readers that just want the main point. Obviously proposal writers must understand which method to use, and the book suggests thinking about the reader's moment-to-moment reaction to each format in order to decide which method will be more effective.

In chapter 16, guideline two suggests a useful team project planning tool, storyboards. I've used storyboards in the past and they can be very useful for getting your points and ideas lined up in sequential order, while including the visuals to go along with them. The book provides a layout on page 444 that may be useful for the group project in this class. This layout allows for main points and their subpoints on one side of the paper, and the other side is used for jotting notes or sketching possible graphics that will coincide with what is being communicated.

Chapter 23 will undoubtedly be a beneficial resource for those in the technical writing groups. This chapter provides good insight on what is needed for an efficient instructional guide. I found that there were many useful tips, especially in the "directions" segment of the chapter. Tips such as being succinct and using an active voice, highlighting keywords, numbering and separating steps for quick identification, using many graphics, and distinguishing actions apart from supporting info. I considered that last tip to be the most useful because it makes the actions more noticeable from other material, which is what readers want to get to quickly without having to read so carefully around other, less immediate information.

Response to Sergiy Kondrenko

One of the main things that Sergiy focused on in his chapter 3 post was in issue of cross-cultural communication. This was a major part of the chapter, and Sergiy did a good job of emphasizing the importance of it, even quoting the chapter on the amount of money that goes into international trades. I liked how Sergiy was able to identify with this issue by showing how it related to a class that he took. This actually made me think of my last writing class, and how our main book's focus was on globalization. So, I can really see how important communication with other cultures can be, given that it is a topic that comes up quite regularly in schools, and is something many of us may come in contact with in our careers.

Chapter 3 Response

This chapter demonstrates the importance of the way in which one communicates to readers in their writing. Readers may differ in their organizational roles, levels of superiority, or cultural backgrounds, and it's up to the writer to identify exactly who those readers are. It's interesting to see just how many people may come across something that you write at work, when, in many cases, the people you intend your writing for don't always include all of your readers.

While reading this chapter, it seemed near impossible to predict every potential reader, and even harder to address each of their needs or concerns. There were so many different variables associated with each possible reader. As mentioned in the chapter, one really has to be an expert in order to understand fully those who will come in contact with their proposals, and how they will respond to them.

I think that overall this chapter does a good job of showing all the different kinds of readers, and emphasizing the importance of knowing them and focusing on how each of them will read your message. With this in mind, I like how it's not expected for a writer to be able to meet every single reader's needs, but rather to keep the "stakeholders" of your proposal in mind throughout your writing process. I think page 84 says it best when it mentions that audiences can be complex, and that sometimes a writer may have to focus only on the needs of the most influential members of that audience. And even if that is the case, the writer can only be effective by first identifying each member or group in the audience.

Response to chapters 1, 20, and 22 of "Technical Communication"

After readings these chapters, I get a much better understanding of what technical writing is. It is highly centered around work-related writing, which I feel is a good thing to know how to do. I like the comparisons between work and school writing and how they differ greatly. On the other hand, I also noticed some similarities as well. Chapters one and twenty made me think about my current job, and I was able to relate some of what the book was talking about to what I experience at work, while chapter twenty-two reminded me somewhat of writing I've done in school.

Chapter one mentions the importance of a personal dimension in work writing, where one should be able to communicate effectively. This made sense because in many work-related writings, the message or information being conveyed is often directed to a number of people at all levels of positions, and one must communicate well in order to display the information in the best possible way. One thing I related to in this chapter was the idea that one should only say what is needed and nothing more in order to make things brief so that people can locate information quickly. I often have to read instructions for certain tasks at my job from time to time, and it is always nice to read something that is short and to the point instead of something that is long and wastes my time, without specifically giving me the answers I need.

I found the email portion of chapter twenty interesting and relevant to my current job as well. Emails are said to be effective if they are short and to the point, without including entire messages that have been continually forwarded along. When I get emails that are the opposite of this, I often will not have, nor take, the time to read every last word, and it's a pain to have to search around for what the real purpose is. One thing mentioned in the book that I never really thought about was the fact that emails can be looked over and retrieved by the employer anytime they wish. That makes you think about what you put in your emails.

Chapter twenty-two made me think about my experience writing a proposal paper last semester in school. There were a lot of similarities between each proposal paper, but the biggest difference is that in work-related proposals, one is basically selling his/herself instead of just an idea and a possible solution. One not only has to list objectives and possible solutions, he/she also has to demonstrate how they are going to do what they say they're going to do along with a list of resources, a detailed schedule, his/her qualifications, how the project will be managed, and a good idea of what all of it will cost. It is much easier to write proposals in school when you are not the one that actually has to solve the problem that you are proposing.