Assignments – Week #8
- Drafts Due : As you know, the drafts of your Rhetorical Analysis of Political Speech essays are due on Wednesday, before our class. To submit your draft, please name your file using your name plus “Rhetorical Analysis Essay” and place it in our English 2100 F20: Writing and Democracy Folder.
- Peer Review: Once again, we will be working together in small groups to offer one another support and feedback during the essay writing process. I will explain the process and set you up with your groups on Wednesday.
- Read Laura Bolin Carol, “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” (available under the “Texts” tab above.). Please respond to this reading in a separate blog post (approx. 300 words) in which you a) identify three things you learned from this essay (This could be new terminology or words you had to look up), b) share a quotation from the essay and explain its significance, and c) describe one specific way in which this essay will affect the rhetorical analysis you are currently working on. These posts should be shared by Friday, October 16th.
- Read Donald M. Murray, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” (available under the “texts” tab above). Once you have read this short essay, please identify, in a short comment on this blog post, one piece of Murray’s advice that you want to follow in revising your Rhetorical Analysis Essay. These comments are due by Sunday, October 18th.
- Due Date Changed: In light of Monday, October 12th being a holiday and other scheduling considerations, I have decided to push back the due date for your Rhetorical Analysis Essay. Essays are now due by midnight on Wednesday, October 21st, rather than on the 19th as originally scheduled. Of course, you are still welcome to turn your paper in the the 19th, but I hope that you will use the extra time for editing and revising your drafts.
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“Writers must learn to be their own best enemy. They must accept the criticism of others and be suspicious of it; they must accept the praise of others and be even more suspicious of it. Writers can not depend on others. They must detach themselves from their own pages so that they can apply both there caring and their craft to their own work”.
” writers have to listen to their own voices. Voice is the force which
drives a piece of writing forward. It is an expression of the writer’s authority and
concern. It is what is between the words on the page, what glues the piece of
writing together.” I find this quote really important because I have always said this. A writers voice is one the most important things in any piece their writing. Voice helps the reader understand you and keeps them reading.
“Writers often read aloud at this stage of the editing process, muttering or whispering to themselves, calling on the ear’s experience with language. Does this sound right – or that? Writers edit, shifting back and forth from eye to page to ear to page. ” Reading a written piece out loud is really helpful because it’s easier to pin point mistakes rather than reading quietly. I learned this from experience.
“Writers look for meaning in the information. The specifics must build to a
pattern of significance. Each piece of specific information must carry the reader
toward meaning”. Making sure what I point out about the speech has a meaning is essential to lead on to a another major topic.
“Next writers look for meaning in the information. The specifics must build to a
pattern of significance. Each piece of specific information must carry the reader
toward meaning.” Creating meaning in what you are writing creates a sense of relation between the writing piece and its audience. Also when a writing piece is relatable to its readers, it brings awareness and makes them look at certain things in a different way.
“The writer must learn to read critically but constructively, to cut what is bad, to
reveal what is good” this is something that all writers must learn to do. As a writer we must be our biggest critics and at times can mean be harsh at ourselves. “The
writer must survey his work critically, coolly, as though he were a stranger to it”. This is the piece of advice that I will take when revising my rhetorical analysis essay.
“Good writing is built on a solid framework of logic, argument, narrative, or motivation which runs through the entire piece of writing and holds it together. This is the time when many writers find it most effective to outline as a way of visualizing the hidden spine by which the piece of writing is supported. ” This piece of advice impacted my knowledge on how to format my essay. An outline allows us to plan our ideas and concepts in order to express it in a clear manner. This allows our essays to be as organized and well developed as possible.
“It is what is between the words on the page, what glues the piece of writing together. A good piece of writing is always marked by a consistent, individual voice.” In this piece of the “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” I will follow in revising my Rhetorical Analysis Essay, including my own voice to tie my writing.
“Once writers are sure the form is appropriate, they must then look at the structure, the order of what they have written. Good writing is built on a solid framework of logic, argument, narrative, or motivation which runs through the entire piece of writing and holds it together. This is the time when many writers find it most effective to outline as a way of visualizing the hidden spine by which the piece of writing is supported.” I plan to follow this advice when revising my essay. Even when all the other advice was also great, this made me realize the importance of looking over and revising is crucial and it isn’t just a simple look over.
“Then the writer, counsels novelist Nancy Hale, “should be critical of everything
that seems to him most delightful in his style. He should excise what he most
admires, because he wouldn’t thus admire it if he weren’t…in a sense protecting it
from criticism.””
This quote is the advice I will be taking when revising my essay because multiple times before when I thought I wrote a beautiful essay it turned out to be a much worst quality essay than I initially thought.
“Writers make sure that the form is appropriate to the subject and the audience.
Form, or genre, is the vehicle which carries meaning to the reader, but form cannot
be selected until the writer has adequate information to discover its significance
and an audience which needs or wants that meaning. ”
This piece of advice from Murray is going to help mr revise my essay by making sure I have an abundant amount of information and explain it well in my essay.
“Next writers look for meaning in the information. The specifics must build to a
pattern of significance. Each piece of specific information must carry the reader
toward meaning”. The information I use should be clear so that it can be easier for the reader to understand. Also, the information I use should be significant and relevant.
“writers have to listen to their own voices. Voice is the force which
drives a piece of writing forward. ” I find this quote important because I feel like sometimes I forget that although I am analyzing something, that is still my own voice and my analyzation and that I must keep that in mind to make my statements for concise.
“Most people think that the principal problem is that writers are too proud of
what they have written. Actually, a greater problem for most professional writers is
one shared by the majority of students. They are overly critical, think everything is
dreadful, tear up page after page, never complete a draft, see the task as hopeless. ”
When revising my Essay, I will be sure not to be so critical with my work. Instead of deleting a whole paragraph, I will find a way to develop the thoughts I have on paper.
“To produce a progression of drafts, each of which says more and says it more
clearly, the writer has to develop a special kind of reading skill.” This quote shows that when editing drafts you must have the ability to reread your essay correctly in a way in which you can spot flaws so you can work on it. I agree with this advice because sometimes, when I’m editing drafts I tend to overlook minors flaws because I believe that it sounds good when in reality it is something I have to work on.