Author: Daniel Libertz

Professional writing differs from other types of writing in various contexts. Professional writing is geared to the workplace; it functions as a call to action, as a set of instructions, to persuade, to inform, and even to discuss goals. The form of writing allows different sectors of the workplace to actively communicate, regardless of their differing line of work.

Rhetoric is crucial in professional writing. The way you speak to the general public is going to vary greatly from the way you speak to a well-informed audience, your boss, or even your subordinate. Audience, as Bowden and Scott (2003) argue on page 27, play a large role in rhetorical stance. A speech or paper for a client is going to use more persuasive language than say that to a coworker. When writing professionally, the audience is the most crucial. Your audience is the basis of why you are writing, and therefore needs to determine how you speak and write. The writer needs to consider how much the audience knows, what level of language they understand, what they hope to get from the information, how they value the situation, and why the writer is expressing the ideas. The audience’s needs and values must be considered and reflected in the professional writing realm in order for the piece to be purposeful.

Appeals within the rhetorical triangle also play an important role. Ethos; the appeal to ethics, logos; the appeal to logic, and pathos; the appeal to emotions, all develop the tone of a written piece. Ethos establishes the writer’s trustworthiness (13). As described by Aristotle in the piece ethos is, “like persona, the character a writer projects through text,” (13). How the writer conveys themselves to the audience will influence how likely the audience is to listen to what they have to say, how much they will believe it, and even how they are going to respond to it. Furthermore, the appeal to reason and logic allows writers to validate premises. As the text states on page 15, “The key to an effective argument is persuasive, well-supported reasons.” Logos gives the audience a reason to listen; it supports the writer’s claims. Finally, pathos connects the audience to the writer, “emotional appeals can be used to establish a bond with an audience, create goodwill toward and audience (a connection to ethos), or ensure the safety of an audience,” (14). Despite the professional realm of writing, emotions still carry some weight. Emotional appeal requires a fine line; too much or too little use will likely influence the audience to underwrite its trust in the writer.

 

As a reflection, water scarcity is not a well-known public issue in my opinion. Water scarcity and water stress within the United States is a real problem that we don’t see often in the media. Generally speaking, the first solution to the issue is investment; specifically in infrastructure. That being said, the information on water scarcity and water stress cannot be proposed like an ASPCA commercial, but rather how the cost of investment now will decrease the cost of maintenance. The audience requires consideration of how you are going to present the issue. Their values, their reasons, and how they perceive you will influence their choice in investment. Rhetoric assists in the realm of professional writing for these very reasons. Generally speaking, your word choice needs to stem from the audience’s experience with your topic. It needs to reflect how they are going to feel; build the connection the article touches on. It needs to consider how they are going to respond to you; give them reason to trust you. It finally needs to give them reason to respond and act; give them validation and reason to act, if a claim is made there needs to be information behind it.

Rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. Professional writings in many ways encompasses rhetorical approach. This type of writing has persuasion as a main objective, which pursuits audiences’ acceptance of their writings.  Professional writing is also different from some other types of writings due to its emphasis on audience.

An approach in professional writing would be the rhetorical triangle of appeals which are logos, pathos and ethos. These appeals are crucial in professional writing make a deeper development and support for persuasion. In ethos, persuading the audience require the communicator to build credibility and character that is favorable. This is important in professional writing because writers represent themselves as well as the company or organization they work for. Persuasion is more effective if the writer could show that they have a great understanding and knowledge on the subject. Pathos on the other hand, focuses on the appeal to the audiences’ values or emotions. This would help create a bond with the audience and keep them invested with the issue. The third element of the rhetorical triangle is logos which is the appeal to reasoning. This is important in professional writing as discussed by Bowdon and Scott that this type of writing requires a secondary persuasive claim and that effective arguments need persuasive, well-supported reasons.

In addition to the rhetorical triangle, professional writing recognizes the importance of the writer’s purpose(s). This is one of the most important part in professional writing, considering the purposes of the text. The purpose(s) of the text could come from the writer or the people above him. The writer needs to have an objective of writing the text including the effect he hopes to bring from the text. I believe that this aspect of writing professionally helps create a better and more persuasive writing.

In the previous post, I discussed the issue of gender equality and women’s rights. This issue obviously affects women everywhere, but the text was meant to bring realization to everyone. It is important that for the text to appeal to both men and women. For the text to be effective and persuasive while still being written professionally, the rhetorical triangle could be implemented in it. The purpose(s) of the text should be considered when tackling the issue as well.

Firstly, the ethos appeal could be implemented in this writing by building credibility with the audience. This could be done by providing a good understanding and knowledge of the issue by citing a well- known organization.  To persuade and keep the audience invested, I wrote about my personal experience on the issue. The connection or bond established by getting the audience emotionally invested in the text would help the piece to be more effective and create a bigger impact. Providing evidences and reasoning is also crucial, so in this particular issue, there are a lot of research and statistics that could support it. I would also need to consider the purpose of my text. I want this text to bring realization to everyone that this issue still happens today and that even with progressive developments, we are not truly progressing in this matter. I want women to feel proud of who they are and not scared to voice out their opinions. The text should then include more empowering stories and motivational language.

Using these aspects of rhetoric in professional writing would hopefully bring a more positive outcome from the text.

Part of the beauty of writing is the myriad of forms in which it can be practiced. This is something we have discussed in class–how writing styles can differ depending on the audience. We all write differently when writing merely to ourselves than when writing even to a close friend or loved one. Similarly, we write differently when writing to a close friend or loved one than when writing to a more distant acquaintance. And following the progression, we naturally write differently when writing to an acquaintance than when writing to a larger group of strangers. Writing to large groups of strangers like this–or, in other words, writing for the public–is arguably the most difficult writing style to master. It can require extreme technicality, such as writing for a scientific journal, or great persuasion, such as writing for a company’s advertising. How does one effectively win over an audience of people they have never met? That can require walking fine lines at times, such as to not offend any of the readers. Other times, the writer wants to anger some of the readers, to make them feel passion. Writing for the public requires impressive use of rhetoric and rhetorical devices.

 

When writing for the public, a writer is typically tasked with persuading their audience of something. Persuading them to purchase a product, to care about a cause, or any number of other things. When trying to persuade an audience, probably the most well-known rhetorical appeals are the “rhetorical triangle:” ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is an appeal to the “writer’s credibility and character,” pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions, and logos is an appeal requiring sound logic. A strong argumentative piece, however, often requires more than one of the three, as stated by Bowden and Scott, 2003 (Page 12).

 

These three rhetorical appeals are a part of a larger piece of rhetoric that is essential to strong public writing: the five canons. In order to effectively write for the public, a writer must ensure that their work meets the standards of these five canons. The five canons are:

• Invention- includes ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as analysis and research
• Style- being clear, concise, and properly emphasizing the most important points
• Delivery- ensuring that your work suits the outlet or medium through which it will be delivered, and visual/design elements
• Memory- Colors and fonts/typography styles
• Arrangement- Integration between verbal and visual elements, accessibility and navigability

Last week, I wrote about how my family has impacted my public interests. In doing so, I found it extremely important to use quite a bit of pathos. When asked what public interests are important to me and why, my answer comes largely from raw emotion. So naturally, in writing about it, it is important to keep the audience in touch with their emotions, and to try to help them understand the emotions I feel. That being said, ethos and logos are also essential in this scenario in order to allow pathos to work in the way it is intended. An appeal to the audience’s emotion is worthless if the writer has no credibility. If the audience does not have an appreciation for the writer, the sympathetic side that the writer is trying to reach will simply not be there. Similarly, if the problem the writer is addressing does not make logical sense, the audience will lack sympathy for it, as well.

 

While I feel like I used ethos, pathos, and logos somewhat effectively in my writing for last week, I think an area I could improve on is my employment of the five canons. While I was content with my invention and delivery canons, I strongly believe I have a lot of room for improvement on style (I struggle mightily with being concise), memory (I rarely change colors, fonts, etc.) and arrangements (almost no visual elements are involved, so there’s not much to integrate). These are skills I hope to learn to improve on over the course of this semester.

Writing is an incredibly broad term that encompasses all aspects of life. One form of writing is professional writing, defined by Bowdon and Scott in terms of a duty to relay information to a user and help the user apply the information correctly. Therefore, the goal of professional writing is often to not only inform, but also persuade.

 

One of the most important aspects of professional writing to consider is the rhetorical triangle, the balance between logos, pathos, and ethos. I believe these three concepts lay the foundation for any writing addressed to any audience, not only professional writing. The author must first establish credibility and connect with their readers, evoking ethos and pathos, since this connection must be established for the writing to inform and influence the reader. Only then can facts and reasoning be applied to support the argument. Though the emotional aspect of ethos is not necessary in all cases, the consideration of the reader’s values and reasoning are crucial to this author-reader connection. If the reader does not believe the author is credible, feels alienated, or disagrees with the reasoning, they are unlikely to be affected by the writing and may stop reading altogether. The need for this balance differentiates professional writing from other forms such as entertainment or storytelling since professional writing does not assume the audience is already interested and has higher stakes, as it aims to affect the reader.

 

Bowdon and Scott also identify the five canons of rhetoric as a tool in professional writing. Style, defined as “the expression of a text shaped by word choice and sentence composition,” is much more important in professional writing than other forms. In non-professional writing, such as narratives, an author may choose to use a certain “voice” to portray a personality: for example, choppy sentences can be used to portray someone as absentminded, or a situation as intense or confusing. On the other hand, professional writing may use an unorthodox voice or tone, but must be used without compromising clarity, concision, or coherence. Any claims or suggestions must be explained clearly and concisely, and the flow of the information and argument must be coherent to keep the reader engaged.

 

Since the interests I discussed in my first blog post were related to healthcare, which reaches a very broad audience, it will be crucial to keep the rhetorical triangle and style in mind in my related work. Establishing credibility without coming off as snobby and disdainful is required to gain the attention and respect of the reader, especially healthcare and policy may invoke doubt or even fear in some readers. Equally important is the use of sound logic and reasoning. For this writing to be accessible to a large audience, I need to explain concepts and jargon in simple terms, and guide readers through my reasoning so it is comprehensible to everyone, not only individuals a science background. Throughout every piece of writing, style is employed to tie these elements together: the voice needs to suggest that the author is educated and informed, while the background information and arguments must be explained clearly and concisely and the flow of logic must be coherent.

Writing Professionally for the public includes a lot of what Plato would consider rhetoric. My personal definition of rhetoric aligns itself with the persuasive definition it used to have. Whether you are writing reviews, advertisements, or even informational pamphlets a rhetoric is extremely important. To inform people you have to either reinforce their current opinion, create one, or change their bias (all of those involve persuasion). Writing for a private audience, the writer normally does not feel the need to persuade them. Usually private audiences are small and known. A public audience is broad and normally a big group. When you have a big professional or public audience, it is up to the writer to define the target and secondary audience. Those audiences normally include specific demographics of who will be the biggest listeners/viewers of the content, also called a “Discourse Community” (Bowden & Scott, 2003). As Bowden and Scott had explained, to get a good rhetoric for your work, the writer must be connected to the audience and the subject (rhetorical triangle). The “text”, which is in the center of the rhetorical triangle, connects to each part of the triangle. The using the subject and the audience you can determine the type of vocabulary, the tone, and the format for your writing that will be best for that target audience.

Rhetorical Appeals (Bowden & Scott, 2003) such as ethos, logos, and pathos are a big part of your professional or public writing. Ethos has a big impact on people who write for and represent their specific company and their beliefs (which normally already has a tone and personality of its own). Ethos helps build a companies reputation and credibility. Pathos is really big for advertising because its purpose is to hit people’s emotions. Many advertises use a victim technique which makes people sad and want to buy things to help. There is a comedy aspect that makes consumer’s feel as though they are friends with the company. Even some car insurance companies have mascots that are supposed to be like a father figure making young people feel comfortable and want to use those companies as their first insurance. Last but not least, we have logos. Logos would be the reasoning for why someone should do what you say. For instance, non profits use logos to sway people for donations. The use of statistics and why you should help make a big bump in donations. Rhetoric Appeals and the Rhetoric Triangle and big things to consider with public writing.

Last week I wrote about immigration. To write for the public with immigration you would really have to consider the Rhetoric Triangle. Due to a big opinion difference with this topic through generations, you would have to decide which audience you want to include and the specific type of text and the detailed parts of the subject to get their attention. Interactive public activities and online resources with specific comedic and friendly language would be best for a younger audience. A victimizing situation on TV or direct mail would be a better choice for an older crowd. After you decide your audience and text, thinking about the Rhetoric Appeals and how you will want to use logos, pathos, and ethos would be your next step. With a public issue such as immigration, women’s rights, and the opioid epidemic the professional writer would need to think about which direction they want to go in. Logos would include statistic which can be a big influencer and a big way to persuade and use rhetoric. Ethos would make people feel emotional and want to help or at least learn about the cause. Pathos would be how you act and resemble your cause. Using a combination of the three as well as keeping in mind your target and secondary audiences and the correct texts for them would result most likely in a positive manner for your cause.

In the past and currently, I’ve been extremely interested in crime and the many different types of it. From serial killers to serial rapists (I’ve most recently read about Larry Nassar http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/22046031/michigan-state-university-doctor-larry-nassar-surrounded-enablers-abused-athletes-espn and binge-watched Mindhunter in about 3 days), to drug abusers, I’ve always been intrigued reading articles and stories about people involved with these crimes. In addition to the abusers and culprits of these crimes, I am also interested in the legal aspect, from the perspectives of officers and lawyers.

I watched a Netflix docu-series over winter break that approaches America’s war on drugs from the perspectives of the dealer, the user and first responders. Dope was interesting in it’s portrayal of the war on drugs, but it also left me with a few questions about how legitimate the dealers were who were used on the show, but nonetheless, the viewers are given legitimate facts and figures intertwined with interviews and information about the drugs. There are four episodes, the main one I connected with was the episode on heroin usage in Baltimore, Maryland, a place I live near and frequent when I am home. Baltimore is referred to in the show as the “heroin capital of America,” and is something I wouldn’t have known without watching the second episode of this show. Thinking back to this show after reading the blog post prompt, and the reading, I think I am specifically interested in working with this topic for the semester.

Specifically, I think I’m most interested in working with the heroin and opioid crisis that is affecting the United States. This interest for me I think stems from my family’s involvement with fire and rescue squads and healthcare in Maryland and Pennsylvania. At nearly every family function these crises come up in one form or another. Whether it’s my aunt telling us about how people with serious drug dependencies frequently come into the UrgentCare she manages just trying to get their hands on a prescription, or my cousins talking about their experiences responding to overdoses and how frequently they preform sternum rubs, the stories are rather alarming and spark questions and concerns. I often wonder how people end up in these situations and it turns out that roughly 80% of heroin users started with prescription pills.

An opioid problem in the United States exists. An increasing heroin problem exists and has been linked to the aforementioned opioid problem. The distribution and lacing of heroin has caused problems for not only the users and dealers by possibly killing them/OD’ing, but it has also put the lives of the first responders in jeopardy, as some of the drugs that heroin can be laced with make the users combative and irrational. I’m curious to look into other countries’ issues with the drug, possibly going back to their healthcare and presence of a prescription pill problem, and see what they do to combat this difficult, quickly-spreading issue. I’ve seen that some European countries like Sweden have set up clinics to give heroin to addicts, but don’t know much more about it than that.

With a drug epidemic on the rise, alcoholism has taken a back seat when it comes to immediate concern to the public. As a child of a single mother with an alcohol problem, I know what it is like to feel all alone. Majority of my days were spent alone, with no one to help with my homework, and often times there was no food in the house. I wonder how my childhood would have turned out if I had a little guidance.

There are programs such as alcoholics anonymous and alanon  to help alcoholics and their families cope with the emotional struggles of the situation. There is also organizations to help people who don’t have a place to live or food to eat. However, what would it look like to have a place where children can go to get help with their homework, have a warm meal offered to them, or even a safe place to sleep when their parent or parents are on a bender and are unsafe to be around or they are not around to fulfill parental duties.

If they are alerted, child services will step in and find a “safe place” for these children. However, there has been plenty of issues with these situations as well. Also, this doesn’t solve the problem of the cases that the public is unaware of. There are children who don’t want to say anything, because they are afraid to be pulled away from their families.

If there was a safe place for a child to go, that wouldn’t involve parental approval, maybe more kids would take advantage of it. If they knew that their parents wouldn’t get reprimanded or the government wouldn’t get involved, then more children would feel comfortable getting help.

I envision a place that these children could go to get hot food in their bellies, and help with their homework, but also a place that they wouldn’t feel alone. Even better than that, there would be other people who could relate to them. As an extension to this idea, there could be classes and/or meetings to emotionally and mentally build these children up. Or even go a step further and have programs for the parents who want to get better and make their family a priority. Even classes for the whole family to take together.

These children are just looking for some attention and interaction with people, but this sort of place would offer them more…HOPE.

Something that means a lot to me is normalizing mental health and bringing suicide awareness. Our society is greatly affected by the stigma that comes with both mental health issues and suicide.

In recent years, strides have been made to increase awareness about mental health issues and to fight the stigma that having a mental health issue somehow makes someone less of a person. However, there are still great lengths to be made.

            One of the problems concerning mental health is that there is still this idea that men are weak if they admit to having a mental health problem. This is problematic because this also affects boys. By growing up in a culture where “men don’t cry”, boys are taught to hide their feelings; a lot of guys don’t talk about their feelings and problems, and this can become more troublesome if they are dealing with mental health issues.

It saddens me that by going to a counselor/therapist, you are seen as weak. Even though it is completely normal to see a therapist, people just don’t talk about it. While it isn’t hard to figure out why people don’t share that they see a therapist, I think it would be beneficial if more and more people talked about; it would allow people to see that more people visit a therapist than they think. This in turn would help lead to the normalization of therapy and mental health.

There is also this view about mental health that it is not as important as physical health. This is something that is progressing towards the right direction in recent years, but there are still people, mainly older generations, that don’t believe in mental health issues. In a lot of cases, mental health problems are more chronic than physical health problems.

Throughout my entire high school career, only one of my teachers talked about mental health and that she recognized that that could be a reason for missing school, just like taking a sick day. I came from a state that has high suicide rates, including teen suicide rates. It is discerning to me that high schools don’t take a more active approach to mental health issues; high school is a critical point in a young person’s life.

In high school, after a suicide and an attempted suicide of two students in one semester, my high school implemented a program that helped raise suicide awareness. I co-led the program and I would like to focus my issue on bringing suicide awareness to high schoolers. We can’t pretend that it doesn’t happen; it’s a sad truth that children are killing themselves. Not only is suicide awareness, which plays into mental health awareness, important, but also giving people the tools on how to handle a situation where someone comes to them and tells them that they are suicidal. Most adults don’t exactly know how to handle this situation, let alone kids.

Even as I say that I want to focus on mental health and suicide awareness for teens, I’m disturbed by the fact that most suicides are completed by middle aged people. Is this because we are more focused on teens? Is this because we don’t normalize the fact that middle aged people have mental health issues too?

Through my life, I have always been interested in science and medicine, and as such many of the topics that have caught my attention relate to these fields. Currently, many of the most prominent and costly issues are related to public health and education, caused by factors including socioeconomic inequality and health policy. These include health conditions that have become so prevalent they can be classified as epidemics, such as diabetes, obesity, and opioid addiction, as well as problems with policy such as insurance, affordability, and unnecessary care.

Since I work in the emergency department at UPMC Presbyterian and Mercy, albeit not in clinical care, and as an EMT, I have seen firsthand the consequences these problems pose to people, their families, and their communities. From example, diabetes can cause complications including stroke, and dangerously low or high blood glucose levels depending on the situation. Obesity can result in complications such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and coronary artery disease, which require long-term treatment. These issues, which often present in the emergency department, can be largely attributed to a lack of preventative care and general health education.

There are hundreds of issues associated with this field that I could research this semester. However, there are two types of cases that always strike a chord with me: driving under the influence and drug abuse. Car accidents due to driving under the influence occur early every day, especially on overnight shifts. It is important to realize these accidents are easily preventable, and completely change the lives of everyone involved. One incident that stands out occurred around 4 o’clock in the morning, when two drivers involved in a collision were brought to the emergency department as traumas. The drunk driver who caused the crash was quickly stabilized and sent to the ICU, while the other spent hours in the operating room having his forearm amputated.

Similarly, drug abuse is a problem that occurs in any emergency room daily, and affects individuals, their families, and healthcare providers responding to overdose incidents. One of the first things I learned in EMT class was how to use Narcan when responding to an overdose. However, this is much more of a public health issue than drunk driving. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the opioid overdose crisis stems from physicians in the 1990s who were misinformed by pharmaceutical companies that opioid pain relievers would not be addictive, causing large-scale misuse and abuse of these medications. This problem can be put in perspective considering currently, 80 percent of the global opioid supply is consumed in the United States. Most of the public is not well informed on potency and severity of these drugs: for example, several months ago, a police officer died of an overdose from brushing off trace amounts of fentanyl from his uniform after responding to a call. This lack of education perpetuates the already widespread problem, since many people do not realize the precautionary measures that should be taken and the effects of addiction on their physical and mental health.

By learning about these issues and observing them in person, I have developed an interest in public health and health education, which have an enormous impact on the overall healthcare system. Since I have not had the opportunity to explore these topics in depth, I am eager to learn more about the opioid epidemic to better understand its causes and consequences, and in some way contribute to a solution.

Several public issues that have always caught my attention are women’s issues and issues surrounding the environment. While in today’s day in age‒ especially surrounding recent events‒ women’s issues are particularly vocalized, environmental issues tend to lie slightly under the radar. This may be because environmental issues are substantially more broad than many other issues that concern and are visibly evident to the public. Environmental issues are not only more complex, but they involve consequences that may not necessarily show for years and decades to come. Thus, many people turn the other cheek and disregard these problems because they are so vast and the effects will not affect them. Nonetheless, I see this differently. I remember reading my first book on global warming at age eleven— filled with an abundance of pictures and graphs— and being fascinated by the planet we live on; even more so, the trauma we are causing it. I went through a few month stage of obsessing about global warming and climate change, but when I found that none of my peers or family members were concerned or seemed to care, I gave up on trying to change the current circumstances. While I always cared about it, it seemed to be too vast of an issue for an eleven year old girl to take on. However, after taking a class on social problems last semester and learning about the environment and the government’s control over it, I found myself becoming interested in the cause once more, and ready to learn more about it.

One of the challenges of tackling an issue like the environment is the extensiveness of the issue at hand, and the consequences at stake. The term, ‘environmental issues’ does not even scratch the surface of the damage that is being conducted every day, and the destruction it will eventually cause. Some of the issues that lie within this broad generalization are: global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover, sea level rise, declining arctic sea ice, extreme events, and ocean acidification. These are not changes that are invisible to the public, yet they have not been drastic enough thus far to make enough of a statement that something needs to change. Not only is the Earth’s landscape being destroyed, but animals are dying, along with humans as well. With the amount of natural disasters that have occurred during the last decade, it should be obvious that there is a severe issue at stake that cannot be overlooked any longer. This is especially problematic because the matter has not improved in any way, and has actually worsened almost continuously over the last few decades. In the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report, it was concluded that this level of climate change is, “the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia”. Personally, when I read this, I am truly frightened for the future of this planet, and the generations that will follow mine. This raises a question of why people are not doing more to prevent the current and future effects that climate change will bring. This can be explained by a few main reasons. One of which includes the free-rider affect— the idea that one person will not make a difference in the grand scheme of things and that they could be benefiting by not doing anything about the current issues. In addition, businesses benefit from keeping conditions the way they are. This may explain why the United States, a capitalist country, is the only nation that has abstained from signing the Paris Climate Accord— an agreement to keep the global temperature rise this century below two degrees celcius. The irony in this agreement is that it is negotiated by the “We Mean Business Coalition”, and the goal they set will make little to no impact on actual climate change.

The issues to be discussed within the realm of climate change are extensive, and need to begin to be talked about more. I hope to explore these issues more, and also educate others on them. While putting an end to these issues are certainly not easy, people need to unite and put an effort into solving these problems. This starts with personal change, as well as advocating for global change which can be done by reaching out to legislators and the government in control.