Author: Daniel Libertz

9/11 Blog Post Robison

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Fall 2017

Professional writing is a specialized pursuit. Though much of the literate population could consider themselves competent writers, composing text for the public brings with it a host of specific considerations and warrants the possession of certain skills. Poets write to evoke image and emotion. Writers of technical manuals create a clinical and straightforward set of instructions. Professional writers are tasked with demonstrating their knowledge of a subject and educating their public.

The process of persuasive speaking or writing is known as rhetoric. This art is closely connected to professional writing, and enables a person to better understand the intent and goals of writing for the public. Perhaps the simplest way to understand rhetoric is to perceive the process via the triangle of appeals. This is the relationship between the three most important considerations in a rhetorical approach: logos, pathos, and ethos. One can also represent the triangle through the lens of professional writing using the components of writer, audience, and subject. Logos concerns the logic of an argument and how well the reasons behind it are presented. Professional writers must craft clear, sound texts stemming from direct experience or solid research. They must fully understand the subject if they are to broadcast it to the public. Pathos is an appeal to emotions, which would be valuable for a professional writer to utilize. If you understand what moves your audience, you can write a successful piece. Finally, ethos speaks to the character of the rhetor. Professional writers may find it helpful for their message if their name can be attached to an already-respected publication or organization. Otherwise, they may need to make themselves known as a reliable, trustworthy voice.

When thinking about the difference between professional writing and other forms, it is also useful to consider the ancient study of rhetoric. Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering the available means of persuasion in a given situation” (Bowden and Scott 2003, 29). During the age of ancient Greek philosophy, a number of brilliant minds collaborated and clashed in an effort to understand society, humanity, and life itself. They theorized and debated among themselves, but they were also the authors of public texts and speeches meant to illustrate their perception of very complex truths. Communicating to the public was a profound and complicated task, and one that was highly regarded. Now, in modern times, that also rings true. People are so busy with work, personal matters, health issues, or a host of other tasks. They rely on certain news networks or trusted authors to deliver news and educate them on certain topics. The validity of each source demands to be questioned, so responsible, articulate professional writers are a valuable class.

The marriage of rhetoric and professional writing will guide my personal pursuit of writing about public issues I am passionate about. I am heavily invested in women’s and children’s issues, and if I get the chance to write about them, I want to do them justice as well as build a skillset for myself. The value of ethos inspires me to stay true to my character and always be ethical in my pursuits. I will expose wrongdoings or express disagreement without callously cursing out the opposing parties. I have to research statistics and accounts that would corroborate claims of injustice, not only for the sake of my credibility, but more importantly to protect and honor victims. Just as it was in ancient times, I believe that being able to communicate with the public is an honor. I owe my subject and my audience my best efforts and all my attention.

Blog Post 9/11/17

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Fall 2017

            Every type of writing has its own purpose so no two styles are the same. Professional writing, for example, is utilized to persuade, interest, or inform the potential reader in a more formal voice. In order to make this style of writing more effective, rhetoric is often implemented into pieces of this form of communication. Rhetoric is commonly defined as a means of effective persuasive speaking or writing. This tool is extremely useful for professional communication because it places emphasis on the audience and, as a result, makes the writer more aware of how they are going to structure their piece to make it the most successful among their readers.

            With the guidance of rhetoric to more easily identify the purpose and audience of a writing piece, writers are able to alter the text to make it more effective. One of the most important things to understand as a professional writer is that different audiences have various amounts of experience. Therefore, the structuring of text in one writing may be common for one reader to encounter but it could also be intimidating for another. Technical and professional texts are commonly comprised of specific genres of writing including proposals, instructions, and fact sheets. It’s important to note that these styles of text displaying information are all very different. It is up to the writer to decide which form of presenting the text will most effectively please their audience. For example, someone reading instructions will be looking for a numbered, step-by-step list accompanied by visuals in order to troubleshoot something. Meanwhile, someone reading a proposal will want an explanation of the problem, how one is expecting to solve it, and how they are going to support this plan. Though these are both examples of technical texts, they are executed differently solely based on their audience. Changing the form of text to better appeal to one’s audience is critical because it will allow the readers to more easily follow and later use the information they were presented. Writers, however, not only have to alter their text for the communities they’re addressing but for whom they’re representing as well. This is important to note because there could possibly be restrictions imposed on the writer depending on who they are writing for and what it is that they are writing about.

            Bowdon and Scott also bring up the importance of the style of a professional writing piece. The style is frequently referred to as the presentation of text that is molded by word selection and sentence structure. The principle that the style of a text most fundamentally depends on is the relationship between the reader and writer. The closer the relationship between the two, the less formal the writing style needs to be. For informative purposes, however, the writer must be both clear and concise. Technical and professional writing is generally more simple and succinct than other forms of writing. This is so the text can have a greater amount of clarity. Since this form of writing tends to be more information heavy, it is imperative that the audience is able to easily digest this information so they are able to utilize it more effectively. Along with being clear, a professional writer must also be concise. Since their audience will be looking to scan the document quickly and retrieve the necessary information, the text cannot be too wordy. Too much wording in a text not only makes it distracting but can also take away from a writer’s credibility. More specifically, their ethos. On the other hand, the writing piece cannot be so concise that it is seen as being too simple or boring. In this case, the audience will be disinterested with the information presented and not want to read any further into the piece.

            When writing about homelessness in my personal narrative, I really had to think about the role that rhetoric would play if it were to be produced into a professional piece of writing. Though homelessness is an extremely ubiquitous issue across the globe, I cannot assume that everyone has the same level of knowledge about the matter. Therefore, I would need to find a balance of providing fundamental information regarding the matter while also not overwhelming the audience with a lot of facts and figures. In other words, I need to ensure I’m getting my message across while having a high level of clarity and conciseness.

Blog Post 9/11/17

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Fall 2017

Luke Piotrowicz

Dan Libertz

ENGCMP 0420

September 11th, 2017

Blog Post 1

 

Bowdon and Scott outline the distinctions between professional writing and other types of writing with a few main points. They define professional writing leaning on the extreme side of serious writing. Professional writing carries the burden of attempting to inform people with accurate information in order for them to, then, preform some sort of action after reading the writer’s piece. This style of writing carries a lot of power, and with that comes responsibility to the individual writing the piece. This responsibility cannot be said about most other types of writing such as fiction as an example. Not many people take action after reading a fairytale, whereas someone writing about an issue with real world application could result in a different action. This type of writing is benefited greatly with the use and study of rhetoric.

Persuasion is a rhetorical tactic in a lot of writing types, but plays a very significant role of importance in professional writing. The reason this is such an important point is because whenever a person is reading a professional piece, the reader accepts that this writer is knowledgeable on the topic in question. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on writers of professional pieces, which not all forms of writing can begin to experience. Words that the professional pieces contain are taken for fact at the hand of the public and when pairing persuasion with this writing style, false information can be hazardous.

Another way rhetoric plays a role in public writing is taking into account the audience the author is trying to reach, and writing in a way to cater to that specific target. For example, when writing professionally the author must be able to write generally to whatever target audience he or she is trying to reach. Meaning, the author cannot go in-depth about things that the general person in his or her target audience do not implicitly know. In other words, knowing the audience and what the audience’s comprehension is regarding the topic of choice is essential in this form of writing. Furthermore when taking into account this target audience, the writer must take into account the platform they will use to get their writing out to that specific audience. For example, if someone tries to write apiece on climate change but published that article in a sports magazine. This miscalculation would deter people from reading simply because the piece isn’t reaching its target audience.

My public interest narrative was scientific and theoretically based; to make this more professional I would have to get away from the theoretical aspect that I personally elaborated on. Since I am not an expert in the field I would have to find sufficient research about the potential for this newfound scientific creation. I would then tie in a persuasion aspect in order to try and get people reading to act on the issue I presented them with. This could potentially fund the research for the artificial photosynthesis, and eventually make my theoretic hopes a possibility. When thinking about rhetoric and professional writing, I believe it could sufficiently increase the success of my interest piece in a professional writing environment.

BLOG POST 9/11/17 10AM BY KATHERINE BROSKY

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Fall 2017

Unlike other types of writing, professional writing uses rhetoric purposely to argue or persuade implicitly and explicitly. Also, professional writing has a huge emphasis on the audience. In other words, it accommodates an actual, concrete audience while also conforming the audience to a set standard to make decisions and perform actions. The reading uses the example of “ethical and legal standards”. The author of a professionally written document is under the obligation make the media user friendly as a well as possible for the audience as well as persuade or inform the audience to conform under one idea. Usually, this idea is that of the authors own personal ideas within regards to some higher power (ethics or the government).

The study of rhetoric helps to understand the operation or function of professional writing. For example, the reading discusses rhetorician Lloyd Bitzer’s “rhetorical situation” or the “context of persons, events, objects, relationships, and an exigence which strongly invites”; or plainly, the rhetorical situation is a set of circumstances that calls discourse into action [31]. I particularly enjoy this term to define professional writing, because when a professional paper is written, it is under the circumstance that a call to action is required. For instance, climate change affects the agriculture of the planet; therefore, people are called to action to write and argue or persuade their ideas on what should be done.

Bowdon and Scott discretely focus on the role of the writer. A concept they have defined to analyze the role of the writer is discourse community, or a group of people bound by a common interest who share and regulate specialized kinds of knowledge and ways of communicating [33]. In other terms, Bowdon and Scott realize that the writer has responsibilities to advisers and coworkers, but also they have a responsibility to the audience. The role of the writer is to keep all of these thinking humans in balance by the way ideas and thoughts are communicated, while presenting the cause or purpose that all these people have in general interest. This is a difficult task considering not everyone is of equal power, and maintaining good relations with each person is a discourse community is essential for persuasion.

Another concept brought up to better understand professional writing is the concept of audience invoked versus audience addressed [35]. Bowden and Scott recognize that the relationship between the communicators and the audience is one of the most important elements in any rhetorical situation. Therefore, two specific ways the communicators can reach out to the audience are: audience invoked, the audience the writers call to and help shape through the language of the text, and audience addressed, the actual readers who encounter and use the text [35]. To be more general, audience invoked is when the authors go to the audience, and audience addressed is when the audience goes to the author. I personally thing that audience invoked would be the better method for professional writing, especially if cause or idea must be known.

I can produce professional writing from my public interest narrative in two main ways: by finding my discourse community and utilizing audience invoked. Once I have found a community of people that share my same interest, it will be easier to invoke my audience. I will know exactly who my audience is and my role for writing my professional statement. Thinking about rhetoric in this way will assist my work in that I will be more consciousness about the presentation of my ideals and thoughts. In my public interest narrative, I only considered myself and used first person tense; however, realizing that rhetoric involves the persuasion and communication between numerous amounts of people under one general idea, I must consider their specific ideals and my writing for not for me, but for the public.

Blog Post 9/13

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Fall 2017

     Professional writing is very different than other forms of writing due to its purpose or motive. Professional writing is meant to inform or persuade the reader as opposed to other forms of writing that may seek to entertain or describe a situation. Additionally, professional writing is often very formal because of the writer’s concern for the audience’s opinions. Many professional pieces of writing feature diverse vocabulary, visuals, quotes from reliable sources, or other relevant content. These components are meant to promote a pleasant and efficient reading experience. The study of rhetoric is defined as the art of effective persuasive writing. Rhetoric makes the writer more aware of the audience and allows them to see through their reader’s eyes. A good professional writer should be able to define their audience and even their secondary audience, which is the less obvious group that will read their piece. Being aware of all audience groups encourages audience advocacy. Audience advocacy accounts for audience values and needs and ensures that they are all met, including ease of reading. The ease of reading is directly related to the navigability of a piece of writing. The reader should be able to find anything the need in a timely fashion. Commonly, professional writing will contain bolded words, headings/subheadings, and a table of contents. These components provide the reader with the tools to find the information they are seeking. The details that I have previously mentioned would not normally be found in non-professional writing. For instance, the author of a narrative would be very unlikely to include charts or credible quotes in an effort to tell a story.

      Bias is another idea that is often considered while writing something professional. The author must be able to remain unbiased, that is not write in a way that supports one view more than another. This allows for the reader to have their own view on the subject without being influenced. The reader should not be able to gauge the authors opinions on a matter based on the context of their writing. For example, in my public interest narrative I chose to discuss animal testing. While writing this piece it was difficult to suppress my own opinions or values on the matter. Especially because it is such a controversial topic. In addition to avoiding biases, the author must ensure that they are not offending anyone with their writing. This could be through the use of stereotypes, slang words, or graphic images. The ideas formerly discussed are both things that will take away from professional writing and make it less effective at persuading the reader.

      Overall, in an attempt to bring together professional writing, rhetoric, and the ideas mentioned throughout the paper, I point out that all of these are focused on the views of the public. Writing with the consideration of public views in mind changes the way people write. It forces them to be more aware of their actions and word choices and allows for them to connect with their audience to the point where the writer hopefully understands what it is like to be in each reader’s position. As the writer is also a part of the public they should be able to discern between what is acceptable and what is not. This can be difficult as cultural norms are always changing and what may be offensive to talk about at one time may be a huge topic of discussion at another. The public is constantly evolving so in order to master professional writing, the writer must also be willing to change their ideas and continue to learn. Through understanding the public, the writer can truly deliver a rhetorical piece of professional writing that recognizes cultural standards and is ethically sound.

Rhetorical Toolbox Essentials

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Fall 2017

Writing is most often done with a purpose.  If you’re not writing for a purpose, then why are you writing?  I think of professional writing as writing with a more formal tone in an attempt to please, persuade, or present information to a targeted audience.  Rhetoric is then used to tweak the professional writing to perfection.

Rhetoric, I’ve come to learn, is heavily based on the writer-audience relationship.  Bowdon and Scott also put a large emphasis on the audience.  The writer’s first goal should be to consider who their primary and secondary audiences will be, or who will be directly exposed to their work and who may see it down the line.  An engineering student and a realtor will each respond differently to reading a white paper on what the real estate industry needs to know about insurance and climate change.  This may be because the student does not have the necessary background to fully comprehend the information given, or maybe they just don’t care, while the realtor is intrigued by the subject.  Although the student might not have enjoyed reading the white paper, that doesn’t mean it was a poorly written document.  Bowdon and Scott bring up two types of audiences: audience invoked and audience addressed.  Audience invoked is the targeted readers of the paper while audience addressed is the actual readers, those who the document may not have been specifically written for.  The real estate white paper’s audience invoked should have been realtors while an engineering student stumbled upon it and became a member of the complex audience addressed.  Writers tend to struggle with figuring out who will be a member of their audience addressed and I believe that is a main difference between professional writing and other forms of writing.  By publishing or simply posting your work and not knowing who will eventually see it, you subject yourself to criticism from a hostile member of the audience addressed or praise from a wandering member of the audience invoked.

Another rhetorical canon brought up by Bowdon and Scott is the arrangement of the document.  Arrangement can be applied to every aspect of the document from something as large as the structure of the overall paper to something small like sentence structure and everything in between.  A large subcategory of arrangement is organization.  Bowdon and Scott say that professional papers begin with conclusions, the most important information found in the paper.  This tactic goes back to the writer-audience relationship.  If the writer knows the audience will skim through the paper and only look for the conclusion, it is in their best interest to put it in the beginning, making it easily accessible.  If the most important part of the document is unfavorable, Bowdon and Scott recommend putting it towards the end of the document and trying to lighten the mood beforehand.  In cases such as progress reports and grant proposals, organization plays a big part in presentation.  A progress report to a company to continue their funding of a project which is going very well and one written for a project that is not going so well should be organized differently.  If the project is going well, that should be stated in the beginning of the report, then explain why it’s going well.  Whereas a project that isn’t going as well should explain the process in a truthful yet hopeful tone, describe the outcome, then explain why the company should continue their funding regardless of the previous results.

My personal interest narrative focused on the importance of after school involved of elementary aged children.  Rhetoric is important in this specific paper because if I were to write a paper for the world to see about this topic, I wouldn’t want to sound demeaning or demanding.  I would have to reconsider my audience invoked and addressed, and probably reorganize my paper structure.  I would begin with statistics showing the positive impact of after school involvement and then go on to explain why being involved from a young age is so beneficial.

WRITING TODAY FOR TOMORROW’S AUDIENCE

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Summer 2017

In Composing for Recomposition: Rhetorical Velocity and Delivery, Ridolfo and DeVoss define rhetorical velocity as “the strategic theorizing for how a text might be recomposed (and why it might be recomposed) by third parties, and how this recomposing may be useful or not to the short- or long-term rhetorical objectives of the rhetorician.” The authors pose a series of questions (Image 1) to help establish the necessary composition for your desired rhetorical velocity, or recomposition. They emphasize the importance of understanding who and why someone would want to recompose a piece of work before developing your original piece, however sometimes there does not naturally exist an audience willing to carry your message. In such instances the rhetorician must identify an audience they want to create interest for to facilitate recirculation and further promotion of their message. Careful consideration must be taken to control the message so that it still benefits you when it is out of your control.

My first campaign piece focuses on educator training programs in the United States and how they need to be structured to ensure they are training effective teachers who understand how children learn and who stay in their teaching positions for more than three years. In draft form, I utilized an extensive number of statistics and case studies to provide the basis for my recommendation, in hindsight this format is very dense and does not lend itself well to recomposition in the way that I would like.

My goal is to develop a piece that garners interest from education professionals and potential educators. To accomplish this, I need to take care when deciding how many and which statistics to include. As we discussed in last week’s post about working with numbers, society is growing ever more skeptical about statistics, individual educators may interpret these statistics as personal attacks or distrust their accuracy due to their own experiences. While illustrating the current state of the education system is important I now wonder if that would have the opposite effect of what I intended. Considering the recomposition and circulation of my piece it may be best to focus much more on the case studies and evidence of how we can improve the profession for everyone. Approaching the topic with the demonstrated intent of continuing improvement of the education system, rather than calling the system broken, will likely gain more traction with current education professionals.

The content and audience are not all that needs to be considered though, I need to revamp my format as well. When sharing articles on social media sites such as Facebook, readers often highlight the phrase or quote that impacted them the most. Knowing the case studies are the most emotionally charged pieces of evidence for my campaign, they need to be visibly separated from the body text through boxing, indentation, or other means to help my target audience identify and share the most powerful piece of the campaign – the real-world evidence. To avoid negative appropriation of my recommendations (to the greatest extent possible) I have elected to separate my proposed policy changes from the discussion on educator training. It is important to come to an agreement on the methodology of educator training before involving politics. If a consensus can be reach on the methodology and pedagogical requirements of educator training, only then can we begin to consider the political implications.

 

#RhetoricalVelocity

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Summer 2017

Rhetorical velocity is the conscious strategy on how to deliver an argument. Rhetoricians need to have a specific plan to implement their ideas and how to most effectively convey their message to the public. Some questions to consider while making this plan are: Who is interested in this topic? How will they interpret and then recompose the work? What long and short term effects will this have on the overall delivery of the argument. As I have stated in previous blog posts, it is vital to an effective argument to know both your audience and how to best deliver the message to the audience so that they can understand it. This is a basic foundation of rhetorical velocity. If your audience is mostly from the younger generations, i.e. millennials and generation X, the internet and social media are perfect mediums to deliver a message. For example, the use of hashtags (#) has become a staple of social media today. Hashtags allow users to track what is trending at any moment in social media, the more popular the hashtag, the more people see the posts associated with it. While creating a trending topic on Twitter of Instagram can be a tall task, using hashtags will at least connect you to a community of users that are talking about the same topic. Anything posted online has the potential to reach any person with an internet connection in seconds and it is there forever.  Using the internet has been a main strategy of businesses, politicians and anyone with something to say since the rise of social media and in today’s world, it is almost unheard of to neglect the power of the internet.

Another main part of rhetorical velocity is building the message for the distinct purpose of recomposition – or the aim that the audience will “recompose” you message and distribute it further for their own audiences. Ridolfo and DeVoss claim that using “building blocks” is a good way to do this. In other words, provide your audience with the proper materials and information to and materials to build an argument of their own. Using recomposition effectively can be the difference between creating the next trending topic or being just another tweet in the sea of information on the internet.

Plagiarizing or “Recomposing”

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Summer 2017

The main takeaway from this reading was the idea that published pieces are malleable forms of communication that are meant to be retold and restructured. In fact, these pieces are most effective when they can be “remixed” because it is human nature to try to reimagine and create new ideas from older ones. A successful piece is one that many people use to try formulate their own idea. To this end, it is important for an author to think of their work almost as a spark to start a larger conversation.

One of the first mechanics of piece to consider is its delivery. Whether it comes in the form of a brochure, magazine article, editorial, or video is important because these each have different methods of dispensing information. Some formats are easier to digest than others. It is important for an author to decide which of these formats best allows for communicating the data. For one of my pieces, I chose to create a brochure. These are limited in space to display information so only the strongest arguments can be made or only the most damning statistics can be included. This can also be a blessing, however, as most readers are only looking for eye-catching statistics that they can regurgitate later.

Another thing to keep in mind is amplification. Because of social media, anything can become viral and rack up millions of views. This is something that came to mind when I wrote my editorial. The most successful articles I have read on Facebook have very similar qualities. They are usually hosted on a well-known site, such as NPR or The Atlantic, and call out that our political climate is heading for the apocalypse. I chose to try to replicate these ideas in my editorial. Another idea I thought about was the way I collected my information. All the statistics I presented were taken from other articles I read while doing research and then recomposed to fit the needs of my editorial. I only retained the best figures and points so the next person reads can repurpose them to suit their needs.

Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!

by Daniel Libertz, posted in WFP Blog Posts Summer 2017

I like goofy titles to get you to read. Call it a Brady Bunch-ilicious rhetorical device. You guys and gal may be too young to know the show (or episode), but I think the professor gets my drift. That said, this:

In order to compose documents in such a way that readers can use them to make something else, there needs to be a clear format. There is no room for ambiguity with formatting. If we want people to mimic our rhetorical style, there must be a style and not slop. Furthermore, to compose with recomposition in mind does not mean to compose something with plagiarism in mind. A work that is used to create something else should actually create something else. I don’t like the idea of people taking credit for my words, but I don’t mind them mimicking my format or reforming my words. People are creative enough to do their own work which is original. I don’t mind pushing people in the right direction. I do mind if they steal my ingenuity. The following is an example.

In order to compose my campaign writing for strategic recomposition, I could give a certain template to use, allowing others to put in their own information. I believe people should do original work; however, by offering examples and templates to use, I may aid someone in mimicking my rhetorical style, while not encouraging plagiarism. With my campaign piece in particular, I could encourage others to devise a mental health campaign using the same format and style I used. Perhaps we could swap stories regarding the mentally ill to enhance each others’ work. Sharing the same template would allow us to strengthen our work as we see the well done work of others with the same passion. Maybe there is something in my campaign that is broke and needs fixed. Having others work on their own pieces with said template could strengthen my piece as I see the creativity of others.

How might this play out practically, For instance, in my second campaign piece, I give a speech about mental health awareness. I first give my story. This includes dealing with the disorders and also with people opposed to me as I dealt with them. I then speak of the ubiquity of mental illness. Finally, I give a call to others to educate the ignorant and to be compassionate to sufferers of mental illness. Everyone’s story is unique, so I would encourage everyone in their uniqueness; however, I like how my speech flows, so I would encourage others to use the template I used, namely, give a story followed by underlining the vastness of mental illness and finally the call to compassion and eradicating ignorance. Everyone is unique, so it would be fun to see what others would come up with or how they would say things!