Reading: Textbook; Pages 93-119
Instructions: Once you do the reading ahead of its due date, please enter your first 150-word summary responses as a comment to this post. Feel free to write more if you wish. Your summary response can address any of the questions below or more:
- What did you learn?
- Can you share a personal experience that supports or challenges the author’s key ideas.
- Do you have other pieces of information that connect in some way to the author’s key ideas?
- Make a claim responding to a key idea from the reading (s). The claim must explain: a. How your experiences complicate an author’s key ideas, leading you to a different conclusion than the author has drawn.
OR
b. How a key idea from an author’s essay helps you understand your own experience in a new way. - How is what you learned related to our class, your other classes, your future job, other areas of life, and/or our major assignments?
Be sure to read closely, highlighting key passages and taking notes about your thoughts and reactions. Use the Reading and Annotating Guide to prepare a thorough summary/response.
In “First-Year Writing at Baruch College” in the “What is Rhetoric” article, Graves, Corcoran, and Blankenship describes rhetoric as the choices people make in their writing. They state that “there is no one definition of rhetoric, but a series of ongoing definitions proposed by thinkers across history, many of which remain under debate today” (Graves et al., 2024). Graves et al. describes rhetoric as having multiple definitions growing even until today, which I can see where they come from, as similarly with the world “literate”, it can refer to way more than just literacy in languages. Furthermore, in “Tools for Analyzing Text”, Blankenship et al. (2024) writes that students “have to be open to new ways of seeing and to seeking out new ways for [themselves] in order to learn”. I agree with the author’s viewpoints as I believe everyone should be open minded to new ideas and rhetoric, or new decisions that writers and thinkers use, as it is an important part of growing as both a writer and a thinker. In both articles, the authors helped me understand more about “rhetoric” and how the word can have multiple definitions, such as decisions a writer makes in their work and new ways of thinking.
The textbook ”First Year Writing at Baruch” breaks down the use of thesis statements and rhetoric. It also introduces text analysis and how it is omnipresent. When writing a thesis, some good tips would be looking at what parts of the topic are important, what you observe when reading and find key details in the topic, and interpreting and analyzing details when reading about the chosen topic. The purpose of a thesis is to combine the elements of stating the point of the entire essay so readers know what it is about. Readers want to see a coherent thesis that makes them understand what the entire story is about, so being clear and concise is very much necessary. When it comes to rhetoric, it is the act of persuasion and communication to show the readers interest. Rhetoric is important because it is basically used when doing analysis since rhetoric is omnipresent, meaning it is found in any essays or stories when it uses Analyzation. Rhetoric in Analyzing is to show your best efforts on persuasion and you proving your point. Reading the textbook also shows the difference between a summary, pure analysis, and a mixture between both. Pure analysis focuses on being in depth into the story, discussing the elements of literacy such as the theme, symbolism, etc. Summary only discusses the plot and does not get into much depth about the story.
In the textbook “First-year writing at Baruch” explains more on the importance of rhetoric and how it can help us understand the choices of others and how to make our own choices that serve our purposes for writing o communication. As i continued to read, Something I had learned was how important lenses for analyzing non-fiction text and sometimes fiction texts are. Those lenses were Ethos, pathos, Audience, purpose, genre, media, constraints, exigence, and Kairos. These are all rhetorical concepts used in writing and communication to analyze and craft creative messages. Together these concepts help writers and speakers’ message, persuasive, and well-suited to their audience and context. I also learned more about the difference of summary and analysis. Summary describes the sequence of events like a book and analysis does that as well but digs deeper to provide an interpretation of the text.
In reviewing pages 93-119, I learned two key concepts that are foundational to prepare me for the upcoming major assignment Analysis Essay: the definition of rhetoric itself and the process of an analysis. I now understand that rhetoric is not just about using language, but is seen as a tool to persuade, involving words, phrases, and arguments to influence the audience’s perspective. Rhetoric is also associated with the three elements: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotions), and logos(logic), which are the backbone of rhetoric. These lenses could be used to interpret frameworks, texts, and elicit thinking to explore different viewpoints. The process of analysis simply refers to an evaluation of how effective the author persuades using those tools to establish a thesis, communicate a message, or shape the audience’s understanding and engage with the argument. It’s not exclusive to rhetoric, but it also covers the approach to how a story and an idea is constructed. By recognizing how these key concepts function together, incorporating the knowledge of rhetoric devices and how to critically evaluate a thesis, will allow me to write more analytically, as well as insightfully.
Throughout my experiences in writing with an academic tone, analysis writing is one of the writing styles that I struggled with most. What was challenging is that my writing would shift the focus from analyzation and interpretation into defensive claims for an argument. Without a clear outline, my analysis tends to become a clutter of ideas, jumping from one thought to another without logical flow, making it harder for readers to understand the analysis. From pages 108-112, the author makes statements utilizing Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How as micro-questions to develop a good thesis. Questions to be answered such as “What do I see?” “What do I make of this?” “Why does it matter?” are good pointers for analysis writing. It paves a direction for critical thinking and interpretation to go beyond evaluating the author’s writing, and also discovering ideas on your own. I support this teaching because the implication for these statements are subcategories to what the author alludes to as the big macro-question *your thesis* to expand our insights or contribute to the academic discourse. This is greatly beneficial for writers, including myself, to implement because it incentivizes us to explore the deeper implications of our analyses, and encourages writers to connect our interpretations (micro questions) back to the central thesis (macro question).
Brought to you by the article published on writing power blog, The “So What?” Question, by loren, and the author who wrote the First-Year Writing at Baruch textbook, both reinforce each other’s points of using analytical questions such as “so what,” or others such as “if this then that…” to enrich understanding of an interpretation and uncover lenses for challenging an argument. Loren contemplates how the “so what” questions are what distinguish a good analysis essay between an outstanding one because those questions are a hint of scholarly endeavors instead of completing an assignment just to earn a grade. The two authors converge on these ideas by emphasizing that analytical questioning not only deepens the exploration of a text, but also encourages a more critical engagement with the material, while also staying cohesive.
“Worry not about what will be, but worry about what is…” I remember reading this quote from a thriller, crime-fiction/murder mystery novel and it resonated deeply with me, especially when considering the role of analytical questions in my reflective process. Rather than dreading the potential outcome or future uncertainties, I find that engaging with analytical questions encourages me to be curious and helps me understand different attitudes on ideas, actions, philosophies, religion, politics, and emotions. Outside of writing, this analytical-reflection dynamic allowed me to overcome many differences with people that challenge my assumptions and transformed me into an empathetic person that is able to connect with anyone.
In the text, ”First Year Writing at Baruch” shares about rhetoric existing in our everyday life. The use of rhetoric, is a way for the writer/creator to persuade and inform the reader through a bunch of writing strategies, such as appeals to emotion (pathos), logic (logos), or credibility (ethos). To summarize, all these techniques and strategies are ways for the author to effectively express their ideas so that audience has a better grasp of the written intentions. I agree with this because for example outside of school, such as advertising has a purpose for the graphic they use and the words they chose to convince their target audience to buy their products. This will help with the analysis assignment, to analyze the author/writer choices on why they chose those rhetorical choices in order to execute their purpose for the audience to take away.
I learned the meaning of a rhetorical analysis and what they’re looking for in a piece of writing. A rhetorical analysis involves identifying ways texts and writing attempts to persuade readers and audiences. I also learned that this genre of writing asks you to identify the intended audience for texts you’re analyzing and why this is important. Something that supports what Seth Graves, Lucas Corcoran and Lisa Blankenship say is that analysis is not the same thing as expressing an opinion. An analysis asks us to consider the what, the how, and the why. An opinion is something we believe is correct or right. An analysis doesn’t ask that. Another view on rhetorical analysis that I learned is that it uses anything as something to be interpreted in light of the apparent intentions that went into its creation. Taking in this new view on rhetorical analysis can help me with this upcoming assignment and the way I’ll be able to show my understanding on analysis.
In “First-Year Writing at Baruch College” pages 93 -119 help explain rhetoric and how I can use it. When people first think about the word “Rhetoric” they tend to think of it negatively. Some usually may think of it as manipulative. “What is Rhetoric” discusses in depth that Rhetoric can be defined as a form of communication through people’s choices. Rhetoric helps us understand others’ choices and how to make our own choices. Rhetoric has various forms, “You could think of rhetoric as ways people in certain culture or subgroup in a culture think, and how they use language and other sign system” (Graves, Corcoran, and Blankenship,p.95). Being able to understand rhetoric or best-studying rhetoric can help you dig deep into the things that you read, watch, or listen to and explore what the argument is. By doing this you can learn skills and become a critical thinker.
I learned that “rhetoric” is the ability to elaborate a text and expand one’s personal idea based on one’s understanding. For example, rhetorical analysis is collecting an author’s technique in writing and word choices to analyze texts. This idea can be used in many sources for instance, speeches, novels, articals, films, and even art exhibits. The idea of rhetorical analysis allows one to define the purpose, audience, and rhetorical appeals “topoi”. Allowing one to “describe how we reason, think, and “invent arguments””. Hence, leading to the “big three: logos, pathos, and ethos”(page 96). This helps when you’re trying to identify a text but don’t know where to start. By identifying the big three can allow one to understand what the author is trying to say. An author’s purpose is provided in the text to showcase their message, by using rhetoric analysis helps students write about the author’s purpose.
The textbook dives into rhetoric and the importance of this method as a means of helping us become competent writers and thinkers. Rhetoric is everywhere, and as Blankership, Graves, and Eickmeyer puts it, “everything you encounter in any given day is making demands of you to take it in and act or think a certain way” (p.101) In this sense, you are engaging in an endless amount of content, where your environment shapes your character, your thoughts, and your actions. Such examples could be advertisements targeting a specific audience or a speech given by a politician to garner a public’s vote. From my personal experience, I was persuaded by my brother to help him convince my mom to buy workout equipment for the living room. I was initially hesitant because he would probably get tired of using it, but as he told me that I could also use it with him, how it will benefit my health and his, using a mixture of lenses, he convinced me. On the focus of analysis, there are a number of lenses like ethos, pathos, media, gender studies, and exigence that causes the audience to assume a role almost (or viewpoint) when reading a piece of text. This allows you to examine the author’s work through a focused perspective, enabling you to think critically and it provides you with a deeper understanding of their objective.
In pages 93 to 119 of “First-Year Writing at Baruch College,” rhetoric was explained and discussed from various perspectives. First, the authors pointed out that oftentimes when people think of rhetoric, they often associate it with persuasion or manipulation, which is not accurate. I learned that rhetoric is something that exists in our everyday life, whether it is texting, an advertisement on the subway, or having a conversation with our peers. Formed with three concepts: logos, pathos, and ethos help us discern ideas that are presented, and to develop critical thinking skills. Logos, pathos, and ethos, through the use of logic, emotional appeal, and credentials, they construct powerful and persuasive ideas. In real life, these elements could be presented in many ways, such as images presenting hardships of civilians in war, statements made by professors from prestigious universities, and quotes used by different brandings. Being able to discern and understand rhetoric certainly helps us to become better writers and critical thinkers.
After reading through pages 93-119 in the textbook, I have learned that Rhetoric is the strategic choices people make in writing or speech to help convey a message or communicate something to an audience. Part of rhetoric is logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos is using logic and reasoning to appeal to an audience, ethos is credibility and recognition appeal, and pathos is emotional appeal. Anything can have rhetoric. For example, in an advertisement, the choices of the designers are considered rhetoric. To analyze these choices is called a rhetorical analysis. Some important elements to look at when analyzing texts include, logos, ethos, pathos, audience, purpose, genre, media, constraints, exigence, and kairos, gender studies, queer theory, critical race theory, intersectionality, Marxist theory, and many others. Rhetoric is essential to being a good writer and reader. Some of the stuff I read was familiar to me because I took AP Language and composition but there were also a lot of new things I learned that I didn’t learn in that class. I’ve also written a rhetorical analysis in that class before although I wasn’t that great at it.
In the textbook “First-year writing at Baruch” mentions rhetorical analysis tools such as logos is used to persuade the audience and other key components such as genre, media & etc. These components help dissect the text by analyzing the purpose, historical context and influence of the audience in the message. Another important takeaway from the text is developing a thesis in analytical writing. The thesis emphasizes is called the “point” or “argument” of a claim that is derived from critical questioning of the text. Rhetorical Analysis is crucial because it extends further than speeches and other aspects of people’s lives such as television and social media.
In the book, from pages 93 to 119, it talks about rhetorical writing, which refers to how an author writes for a specific audience and purpose, using persuasive techniques. In my own words, rhetorical writing is about how the writer strategically uses ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (emotions) to influence the audience and achieve their purpose. It’s about mastering the art of persuasion and effectively using language to convey a message.
When I learned this in high school, I had to read influential speeches, like those by Martin Luther King Jr., and articles by prominent figures. We analyzed these texts to identify the rhetorical elements they used, such as how King used ethos to establish his credibility as a leader of the civil rights movement, pathos to emotionally connect with his audience by sharing the struggles of African Americans, and logos to present logical arguments for equality. The goal was to see how these elements made their arguments more credible and how they influenced the audience, as well as the purpose behind their writing.
In analyzing texts, rhetoric plays a crucial role by engaging the audience through strategies such as appeals to readers emotion and logic. Understanding rhetoric helps students create more efficient thesis statements by focusing on key aspects of the topic and interpreting important details. Additionally, the textbook tells the difference between summary and pure analysis, encouraging deeper and more indept analysis of literary elements like theme and symbolism. This understanding of rhetoric not only applies to academic writing but also to real-world situations. Where persuasive techniques are used to influence the target audience on whether if you’re trying to sell a product to a customer. Ultimately, it is important for analyzing how authors make rhetorical choices to achieve their purpose to not only to learn the authors strategy but also understand the authors point of view better.
In the textbook “First-Year Writing at Baruch College” in pages 93-119 I have learned how using different methods can develop one’s writing. Such as incorporating logos, pathos and ethos. Logos is the contribution of using logic in one’s writing. Pathos is the emotional aspect that is included. Lastly, ethos is the credibility and how trustworthy the writing is or the author. These concepts are crucial to developing one’s idea further. Something else I learned was how analysis is supposed to be implemented. Which your analysis can be connected to using logos, pathos and ethos. Analysis is more than an opinion. It should involve the audience, purpose for the texts. Every message, be it an advertisement, a speech, or a work of art, is carefully crafted and can be analyzed for its rhetorical elements. This approach helps us understand not only what is being said, but also how and why it is said in one way or another.
In “First-Year Writing at Baruch,” I learned that rhetoric involves the choices writers make and isn’t limited to one definition which relates to the idea that Writing isn’t just one way of writing. The author also emphasize the importance of being open-minded to new ideas for personal growth as a writer. I also discovered that a strong thesis statement unifies an essay’s main points, guiding readers clearly to understand what my stories are about. Additionally, I learned the difference between summary, which just recounts events, and analysis, which explores deeper themes and has a lesson behind it. Ultimately I learned a lot about creative writing from this article.
In “First Year Writing at Baruch” the article tells readers about rhetoric and thesis statements. The article explains the importance of rhetoric to get across the message we want to present in our writing. Personal experience support a this as tone and everything else expressed helps with communication. So much of my writing has been misunderstood due to my tone not working with my writing. The article discusses ideas of why rhetoric helps with getting all ideas together to have a smooth transition between paragraphs. The discussion of ethos, pathos, logos also further explains the concepts and how to use them in my writing. In a new way the article gives me a deeper understanding of why rhetoric is used, i learned rhetoric as this what I should do in my writing. Never a why and how, so this article helps me have a deeper understanding of rhetoric. This is related to our class as i can now use these ideas and a new understanding of rhetoric in my writing.
In the text “first year at writing at baruch” it identified the definition of rhetoric and the analysis process. Rhetoric is not just language use; it’s a persuasive tool involving ethos (credibility), pathos (emotions), and logos (logic). These elements help you to understand texts and also look at a lot of different viewpoints. The analysis process goes to show how effectively an author persuades, establishes a thesis, and engages with the audience, applying not only to rhetoric but to narrative construction as well.There is also the emphasization on using micro-questions (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How) to develop a strong thesis, guiding critical thinking and deeper exploration beyond mere evaluation. These questions help connect interpretations back to the main point, enriching the analysis. First-Year Writing at Baruch textbook stresses the importance of questions like “so what” in creating a meaningful analysis. This allows to elevate an essay from average to outstanding by promoting deeper engagement with the text and the audience member.
From the reading I learned what it means to read a text with an analytical lens. For this assignment we were asked to read different texts that relate to one topic with an analytical lens. However, I didn’t know how successful I would be at this if I’m clear on what analytical lens means. The reading tells us to “Interpret the text to be doing, not ‘what the author wanted’.”(pg. 98) When reading my assigned texts I would try to figure out what the author is telling and not read it to see what I get from the text. Reading a text the way I have been hurts the power of my analysis. Additionally, through the reading I learned the difference between a summary and analysis. While a summary describes something, analysis “Attempts to dig deeper and provide an interpretation of a text.”(108). I do find myself using more of a summary format than an analysis format when reviewing my text. After finishing this section of the reading I can now go back and review and revise my summary and analysis sections correctly.
From the reading, I learned what rhetoric is alongside the importance of it. Rhetoric according to the reading is not just language but a tool used to influence or persuade one’s thoughts. Elements like ethos, pathos and logos are incorporated into the use of rhetoric, allowing for people’s minds to be able to understand different texts in multiple perspectives. Using rhetoric allows for writers to get their message across in their stories. Rhetoric is used everyday so everything can have rhetoric to it. To analyze the choices of a rhetoric would be rhetoric analysis. I also learned how to read in an analytical manner rather than the way I currently read. I think the way I read does not allow for me to deeply analyze the text as much as I would like to. After learning how to do so, I think I would be able to apply that onto our current analysis essay.
In the textbook, “First-Year Writing at Baruch College” talks about the rhetoric analysis and how to use it in the article “What is Rhetoric”. Specifically, rhetoric is the ability to expand on an idea based on your understanding, and it exists in our daily lives without realizing. For example, conversations with our classmates and friends. The reading explains that three concepts; emotion (pathos), logic (logos) and credibility (ethos) help us recognize different ideas and we can apply this knowledge not only when writing but also in real-life situations. Regarding rhetorical analysis, the “what, how and why” comes in because it is factual and it is crucial in speeches, advertisements, debates, social media, etc. When I first learned about this in high school, I looked at different advertisements and saw the different elements used. Now that I have a better understanding, I will be able to fix my summary and analysis before submitting the final draft.
“First-Year Writing at Baruch” textbook pages 93-119 expresses the ideas about persuasion and rhetoric. Rhetoric is said to be about how well our own interests are expressed to show how well we can understand, compose, and inform when communicating these interests. Using analysis techniques we can see how authors use rhetoric to make their claims. We see what kind of audience they are trying to reach and we do this in our own essays. When writing the reflection letter we explain what audience we want to attract. I would say we use rhetoric in our everyday’s lives, when doing school work, writing text messages, speaking to friends, etc . We all want to get our point across so we use things like emotions, words, etc to do so. Rhetoric might seem bad at first if people are trying to cover up the real messages with a fake message, but with our writing course we want to show how it can help us write to our audience properly. A philosopher named Aristotle made logos, pathos, and ethos, which mean “reasoning, emotional appeal, and credibility” according to the text. It is used by everyone who writes to an audience. Advertisements are a big rhetoric way to reach an audience they grab the attention of people who want what’s being advertised. We can analyze anything and take a guess on what the writer is trying to do but it doesn’t mean we are right, there could be different interpretations. Using rhetoric we can analyze, figure out what the author’s message might mean. We can summarize all the main ideas of the author into one big description. I also learned how a thesis is a big part of an essay because that is the main thing people are able to analyze and see who you’re trying to attract. I think this information is very helpful for any essay we might do in class because it helps us figure out our audience and plan what we want to say and how we want to say it.
From pages 93-119, the textbook, “First-Year Writing at Baruch College” rhetoric is explained as it appears in writing and even everyday life, it is the ability to explain or discern a claim in order to appeal to others. In writing, writers try to appeal to their audience or the readers emotionally, logically or through the credibility of others, this is first done by first discovering who their intended audience is. Through this, writers are able to persuade or make others lean towards a certain side in their argument. This is mainly described as the “big three” being ethos, logos, and pathos, by knowing these you are able to find the author’s purpose about their writing. Using rhetorical analysis, one is able to discern what the author believes in through the choices that they make in writing and why they have made that choice.
In the textbook, rhetoric is described as how certain think and how they use language to explain their thoughts. We use rhetoric to “reason, think, and “invent arguments””, and do this we use Aristotle’s appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is simply defined as a source’s credibility to appeal to someone, pathos is using emotions to appeal to a person, and logos is using logic and reasoning to appeal to a person. To think rhetorically about writing, rhetorical conventions can be used. These may include a writer’s style, trope, genre, and purpose. These could be used to interpret or analyze any type of writing. To analyze writing, the reader must think about a few crucial things. These include what is the point of the text, how does the writer use rhetorical strategies to make this point, and why was this text written: for what audience, what is it’s purpose, and for what reason was the text was written.
I read through pages 93-119, in “First Year Writing at Baruch College, in the”What is a Rhetoric” article. As I read through it I understood that a Rhetoric is described as the choice people make in their writing. Authors in the book state that a rhetoric has many definitions, and the ultimate definition is still debated today. I believe that a rhetoric is very subjective, dependent on the type of person you are, the writer that someone can be. People should be open minded over what a rhetoric is and look into the strategies and conventions used around it. A rhetoric is also ones way of analyzing something, understanding a purpose, reason and the audience of which the text was written for.
I learned the meaning of rhetoric- it is the ability of persuasion and effective communication. It involves influencing an audience’s thoughts, feelings, or actions. This comes up in our daily life without even realizing it. A conversation with somebody, in advertisement, etc… Rhetoric has three key components to it Ethos: Establishing trustworthiness and credibility, Pathos: Appealing to the readers emotions, Logos: Using logical reasoning to support ones arguments. By studying rhetoric more people can enhance their ability to communicate ideas strongly, clearly, and persuasively. It is a tool that people should try to focus on more. I want to study communication so I think this tool for me will be very important and beneficial for me in the future. I also learned from the author not to just summarize my writing, but focus more on analyzing. That will enhance my writing.
Rhetoric can be found in every form of literature or media; billboards, music videos, commercials, etc. It is typically associated with persuasion and thus considered manipulative or deceptive. This is not true and instead “rhetoric is an essential part of the way we communicate with each other rather than a form of trickery or propaganda” (pg.95). Anything that causes one to think or act a certain way can be considered to have rhetoric —which is essential in developing critical thinking. In my past English classes, teachers would always say that a work will always have one or more of the three rhetorical elements; ethos, pathos, and logos. Although the textbook also mentions these elements, it lets it be known that rhetoric can consist of much more. When doing a rhetorical analysis, one must carefully observe small details in the work and build upon them in order to comprehend the entire work as a whole. Lenses/theories allow for a guide one can use as they perform a rhetorical analysis, with some lenses being better suited than others for specific genres of work. It is important to know that an analysis (such as a rhetorical analysis) is not the same as a summary; an analysis takes certain details from a work and deeply interprets them whereas a summary simply states those details. An analysis leads one to a thesis and in an analysis assignment, this is the most important and crucial part one needs to construct. In every one of my English classes, the structure of a thesis tends to differ. I’m assuming that similarly to the way different lenses are used for different genres, a thesis too is structured based on the specific genre its covering. Despite the differences, a thesis remains the most important part of an analysis given that it includes the main thing one is trying to communicate with their audience.
What I learned from the textbook ” First-Year Writing at Baruch”, the topic of thesis statements and rhetoric is explained. Some good tips while writing a thesis would include identifying the relevant parts of the topic, what can be observed while the writer is reading it, and what details are significant in the topic when the writer is reading them. A thesis aims to bring together the characteristics of making a statement of the whole idea of the essay so that readers know what to expect. Rhetoric is important because it is generally employed when analyzing since it is omnipresent, it is used in any essays or stories if they apply Analyzation. Rhetoric in Analyzing is to display what you had exerted much effort on convincing and you arguing for it. They also provide the readers with an example of the difference between a summary, a pure analysis of a work, and an analysis that incorporates a bit of both.
After reading pages 3-119 in our textbook, it brought out the idea of rhetoric in analysis and communication. Rhetoric is about convincing people on my point using techniques to make my argument clear and understanding.Writers use rhetoric to help push there ideas to specific people in which we ca use this in our writing too. For the upcoming analysis essay I should be thinking who I’m trying to reach with my writing and how to influence them. There are 3 main parts in rhetoric that help strengthen our points, Logic, Emotions, and Credibility. Rhetoric will help me in my future essay and will apply it to my analysis paper, to help connect with my readers better. rhetoric helps us look at texts and understand how the author make their points
From this reading (93-119) I understood the meaning of word rhetoric and how to use it in my writing.
I used to think rhetoric was only a form of speaking. I learned that rhotic is also a form of writing that includes many techniques. The intention of using rhetoric is to persuade the readers into believing or supporting you in whatever your topic is. Rhetoric is important for an analysis paper because it helps identify the key points of your paper and what you are trying to prove in your writing. You can use it in many other papers as well and not just analysis.
The text states the importance of rhetoric as a tool to help us become better thinkers and writers, emphasizing that rhetoric is everywhere in our daily lives. As Blankership, Graves, and Eickmeyer explain, “everything you encounter in any given day is making demands of you to take it in and act or think a certain way” as said on page 101. This means that our environment constantly influences our thoughts, actions, and character, whether it’s through advertisements targeting specific audiences or political speeches designed to gain public support. I’ve experienced this myself when my brother convinced me to help him persuade our mom to buy workout equipment. At first, I didn’t want to because I thought he’d stop using it, but he used different approaches, like showing how it would benefit both of us and improve our health, to change my mind. Rhetorical writing, as explained in the book, focuses on how authors use techniques like ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audience and achieve their purpose. I remember learning about this in high school by analyzing speeches like Martin Luther King Jr.’s, where he used ethos to establish himself as a credible leader, pathos to connect emotionally with his audience, and logos to logically argue for equality. These elements not only made his arguments more convincing but also helped us understand how language can be used to influence others effectively.
The writing has provided me with a roadmap for my analysis assignment, not only for this paper but also for all analysis papers I will read in the future. I learned that rhetoric is not limited to language; it applies in daily life. For example, selling a product to a target audience involves rhetoric. A good rhetorical analysis expresses, ‘I think it is doing x, and here’s why it does this.’ The analysis reflects what you’ve observed in the text and differs from a summary, as it answers why something happened instead of just stating what happened, requiring deeper thinking. Overall, an analysis aims to identify the main point of the text, how the writer makes the point using rhetorical strategies, and the reasoning behind the text’s existence. I learned about important lenses for analyzing a non-fiction text—ethos, pathos, logos, audience, purpose, genre, media, constraints, exigence, and kairosThe reading has helped me understand how to write an analysis assignment, and I’ve summarized it as follows:
1. Take write what is going on in the text.
2. Ask yourself analytical questions like why? What u think the work is about?
3. Think about what larger meaning the text serves
4. And isolate the main idea behind the text it could be more than one.
5. Develop a thesis or argument about the text, and what claim you are trying to make.
6. Draft your writing baes on everything you have done so far.
7. Make sure to consider why your text matters, your analysis must matter to the reader not just be done for assignment.
The reading also emphasizes what a thesis is and how to make a strong thesis. It is a product of inquiry and is supported throughout the essay with evidence. Start by asking questions. Think about a big, macro question made up of smaller, micro questions. Begin by asking what you see and then ask ew more questions. Give yourself time to write the thesis-don’t wait until the last moment. Ultimately, the thesis should be easy to identify, regardless of its location in the essay.
In the textbook, it explains how to begin our analysis by breaking down each step.
When analyzing, understanding the concept of ‘Rhetoric’ is important. Rhetoric can be divided into three terms: logos (logical appeal), pathos (emotional appeal), and ethos (credibility appeal). We should keep these concepts in mind to establish our own work effectively, ultimately enhancing the power of our argument. In addition, the authors introduce useful tools(lenses) that help us think more deeply during analysis, such as audience, purpose, and background knowledge, alongside ethos, pathos, and logos.
Sometimes, it’s confusing to differentiate between summary and analysis, so the authors clarify the differences with examples. In a nutshell, analysis provides audiences with insights about a text while a summary simply explains it. Analyzing should reflect major points such as a text’s underlying meaning, its importance, and what it stands for. To achieve this, we need to utilize the tools we’ve learned.
Finally, the authors explain how to develop a thesis. A thesis can also be interpreted as an argument or claim. In developing a thesis, we should keep asking ourselves three key questions: ‘What do we see?’, ‘what do we make of it?’ And ‘why does it matter?’.
I think those three questions align with rhetorical concepts like ethos, pathos, logos, audience, purpose, making it easier to apply to our work.
While reading, I gained valuable insights to develop my analysis assignments. Although many of these concepts were already familiar from class, I could understand them more clearly. For instance, the three questions for developing a thesis will be useful not only for analysis but also for the next assignment: the Argument. From my perspective, to make a clear and robust argument, obtaining background knowledge is essential. This enables me to persuade my audience effectively and convey the exigency of my argument. Additionally, I hope to strengthen my writing by using ethos, pathos, and logos to appeal to my audience on multiple levels.
Pages 93-119 tackles concepts that are applicable to the Analysis Essay: these concepts being the rhetorical strategies and analysis. The foundation of rhetorical appeals are carried by 3 concepts, these being ethos (the author’s credibility), pathos (appeal to emotion), and logos (appeal to logic). What I personally find interesting is that these concepts are used subconsciously by most people when attempting to persuade – these being listed deliberately allows one to understand them at a more direct level. It is important to understand these not just for personal use, but to properly judge other author’s efficacy on persuading their audience. This is the power of analysis, to see how well an author incorporates not only rhetorical strategies, but the rhetoric as a whole: purpose, audience, exigence, author, ethos, pathos, logos, context/setting, and medium/genre.
A personal struggle I find in analysis is that you need to form a concrete understanding of the material and not just hash out cited statements from your source. To have an understanding of why and how, and not just see and restate for what it is – is admittedly difficult. One must ask questions of, “What do I see?”, “What does it mean?”, “Do my values reinforce or challenge the material?” Asking these questions are crucial for analysis, as it helps one to avoid the trap of simply forming a summary of the material. To quote my professor, “If it’s solely a summary, then why shouldn’t the reader just read the source instead of your paper?”
While reviewing pages 93-119, I picked up two key ideas that will help me with the upcoming Analysis Essay: what rhetoric is and how to analyze. Rhetoric isn’t just about language; it’s a tool for persuading others using ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic). These are essential for shaping how we view and understand arguments. Analysis, on the other hand, means evaluating how effectively these rhetorical tools are used to get a message across or make a point. Understanding both concepts will help me write more clearly and critically.
Analysis writing has been a struggle for me because I often get sidetracked and start defending my argument instead of analyzing it. My ideas end up scattered, lacking structure and focus. Pages 108-112 suggested using the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How questions to build a strong thesis and guide the analysis. Asking questions like “What do I see?” and “Why does it matter?” can help dig deeper into the text and contribute more thoughtfully to the discussion. I find this helpful because it pushes me to stay on track and link my ideas back to the main thesis.
Pages 93-119 mainly dive into the concepts of rhetoric and the key components of analysis. First of all, the author highlights that rhetoric is not simply a language, it is, in fact, formed with three different appeals – logos (logic), pathos (emotion), and ethos (credibility of the author) – to help us develop our critical thinking skills. I learned that understanding rhetoric is important because it can enhance our ability to deliver our ideas more clearly and persuasively. Moreover, we will also be able to make more efficient critiques of any author’s works in the future.
Personally, I have been struggling with the analysis assignment not only because researching peer-reviewed papers and analyzing them had never been part of the lessons in my country but also because it requires a deep understanding of such papers to properly analyze. Otherwise, it could easily get under the concept of summarizing, which is, indeed, part of my struggles with it.
After reading the assigned pages – alongside the valuable knowledge from the professor – I have gained much more insight and understanding of the importance of rhetoric, and I believe it can significantly help enhance my analysis and even in the following “argument assignment.”
The reading (pages 93-119) helped me to understand deeper what rhetorical analysis really is and why it’s useful. It is not just about reading or summarizing a text, but thinking about the author’s purpose, who the audience is, and how the message is being delivered. I learned that things like ethos, pathos and other important parts ,are ways people try to persuade others, and these tools show up in lots of places, not just in writing. What I found interesting is that we all kind of use these without realizing it. The reading also made me realize that good analysis means asking deeper questions, not just saying what is in the text. That part can be hard sometimes because it takes more thinking, but I see why it is important. I think this connects a lot to our writing class, and it is something that could help in other subjects too, or even in real-life situations where we have to explain or defend our ideas.
I found out that “rhetoric” means knowing how to explain your thoughts clearly and add more details to your own ideas based on what you understand. For example, when we talk about rhetorical analysis, it’s like gathering the ways an author writes and picks words to study their work. You can use this with many things, like speeches, books, articles, movies, or even art shows. Rhetorical analysis helps you figure out the goal, the people the author wants to reach, and the special ways they try to convince others, called “topoi.” It lets you explain how we think, reason, and come up with arguments. This brings us to the “big three: logos, pathos, and ethos” (page 96). These are super helpful when you’re looking at a text but don’t know how to begin. By spotting these three, you can get what the author is trying to tell us. Every author has a reason for writing, and their message is hidden in the text. Using rhetorical analysis makes it easier for students to write about what the author wants to say.
In the textbook, pages 93 to 119 mainly address the concept of “Rhetoric” and how it can be used in writing, especially for analysis, argument, and persuasion. According to the author, rhetoric mainly refers to Ethos, the use of people that the audience can trust, Pathos, the use of emotion, and Logos, the use of facts and logic.
I also had experience with these three rhetorical elements, during my high school English class I studied them. I was taught that pathos logos and ethos don’t necessarily need to be in writing, they can be in other forms of media.
However, I believe that rhetic would be heavily used in our analysis section of our current writing as well as our next writing, argumentative. I believe this because of how analysis could greatly benefit if we can identify the rhetoric used in the writing, since it will give us better insight into other elements of the writing, such as audience, purpose, and so on.
After reading pages 93–119 of the textbook, I was able to clarify what I need to do for the analysis assignment because it essentially explores tools, process, and steps for analysis. It also reminded me of what the professor taught in class. During class, we analyzed two articles about estrangement using “Lenses for Analysis” such as ethos, logos, audience, and more. To be honest, I didn’t fully understand why we were doing that at the time. However, after reading the textbook, I realized that these lenses are useful tools for analyzing a text with a deeper understanding of its context.
I could also connect the reading to what we discussed in class. The professor explained the difference between summary and analysis in the class with example, and the textbook emphasizes this as well. It states that analysis focuses on interpreting a text, not just summarizing it. While a summary can help jog the reader’s memory, it should support the analysis rather than replace it. In contrast, a summary simply explains what happens or highlights the meaning, themes, and ideas of the writer. With these understanding, I reviewed what I had written in draft of analysis assignment so far and began thinking more carefully about what I need to include in other entries.
On pages 93–119, I learned that rhetoric analysis is how we can persuade or inform others through writing and how this affects and influences people and our critical thinking. Although we may not notice it, we encounter rhetoric in our daily lives, like advertising videos on social media. Studying rhetoric helps us become better writers and communicators. There are many tools for analyzing text, such as Ethos, which evaluates the writer’s credibility or authority; Pathos, which examines how emotions are used to persuade; and Logos, which studies the author’s use of facts and logic. Additionally, one thing I never considered before reading this part of the textbook is the importance of considering the Audience — thinking about who the intended audience is and how the text interests and affects them.
This section was informative, and I appreciate the steps for rhetorical analysis. This topic was difficult for me, and I was feeling lost. After reading, I understood and felt more confident about writing the assignment. I plan to follow all the steps and tips to become a better writer.
The textbook “First Year Writing at Baruch College” from page 93-119 I learned that persuasion is the ability to observe any given case. Persuasion is important part of rhetorical. What is the purpose of studying rhetoric? I learned that that to be a good writer, critical thinker, and a skilled commentator we need the ability to discern the claim behind what you read, watch, or listen and to compose something that does whatever you want to do. Rhetoric is a learned skill that enables creative thinking to persuade, inspire action, and make judgments.
I learn about the big three topics of rhetoric are logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos is the usage of logic and reason to appeal to an audience. Pathos is the emotions appeals to the audience. Ethos, is perception of character strength or influence, established, for example, by credibility or popular recognition.
I learned that I shouldn’t include summary in my analysis, that I should approach analysis thinking that the reader had already read or saw the text already. A quote that I find interesting and helpful for me to kept in mind when doing analysis, “I imagine that my reader has read the book or watched the film I’m discussing, but that they either read or watched it a while ago or were a little distracted at the time.” (Aubry et al., 2024, p. 108)
Lastly, I learned I need to approach an analysis assignment by observe and take notes, describe its content clearly, identify its cultural value and meanings, pose analytical questions, isolate a topic, develop an argument, connect analysis to broader contexts, and explain why the analysis matters.
Rhetorical writing is about how authors write in a way that connects with their audience and achieves a specific purpose. It’s all about persuasion, using credibility (ethos), logic (logos), and emotions (pathos) to make a message more convincing.
Back in high school, I learned about this by studying famous speeches and articles. For example, we analyzed Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches to see how he built trust (ethos) as a leader, used emotional stories (pathos) to connect with people, and presented logical arguments (logos) to support his message of equality. The main goal was to understand how these techniques made their arguments stronger and more effective.
In reviewing pages 93-119, I learned that rhetoric is more than language—it’s a persuasive tool using ethos, pathos, and logos to shape perspectives. Analysis involves evaluating how effectively an author uses these elements to communicate a thesis and engage the audience. Understanding these concepts will help me write more analytically and insightfully.
I’ve struggled with analysis writing, often shifting from interpretation to argument without clear structure. Pages 108-112 introduced micro-questions like “What do I see?” and “Why does it matter?” to guide my thinking and strengthen my thesis. The “So What?” Question by Loren and the First-Year Writing at Baruch textbook reinforce the importance of analytical questioning in deepening interpretations.
A quote I once read—“Worry not about what will be, but worry about what is…”—resonates with me. Engaging with analysis has made me more curious, open-minded, and empathetic, helping me connect with different perspectives both in writing and life.
After reading the pages (93-119), two things stuck out to me, rhetoric, and analysis. Rhetoric is one of those things that’s pretty crucial when presenting something, many people may make choices to enhance what they’re presenting/writing, they may follow directions, some may think outside of the box and soon create a presentation/writing that stands out to readers, this is a way of grabbing the attention. Example of rhetorical usage can be the audience, purpose or style, these three things shows us what the author’s reasoning is to write about, what group of people they want to focus on, and how it’s written, is it a comic? Is it a biography? The analysis is observing & understanding what a specific subject is about, the text gives example like the Marxist theory, where it goes deep into how economies & society should function. It gives basic examples like purpose, what is the text’s main idea? These two things stuck out mostly and it plays a major role when reading something, or writing something.
I discovered that “rhetoric” is the skill of clearly articulating your ideas and expanding on them based on your understanding. When we talk about rhetorical analysis, we’re diving into how an author structures their writing and chooses specific words to convey their message. This method can be applied to a variety of forms—whether it’s speeches, books, articles, movies, or even art exhibits. Rhetorical analysis helps uncover the author’s purpose, the intended audience, and the persuasive techniques. It also gives insight into how we think, reason, and build arguments. This leads us to the logos, pathos, and ethos, which are essential tools for analyzing a text when you’re unsure where to start. By recognizing these three elements, you can better understand the author’s intent and attitude. I think that every author has a clear purpose, and that message is certainly put into their work. Using rhetorical analysis makes it much easier for students to explore and explain what the author is truly trying to convey and express.
I learned that rhetoric is not just about famous speeches but is present in everyday life. Analyzing rhetoric helps me critically evaluate messages and improve my writing and communication skills. Rhetoric is the study and practice of how symbols, especially words, influence human beliefs, emotions, and actions. We are surrounded by messages trying to persuade us. Because of this, rhetorical analysis can be used on anything, not just famous speeches. It helps us understand the purpose behind what we read, watch, or hear. A big example of that is marketing and advertising. Nowadays, we see all kinds of commercials trying to influence us to do something or to buy a product and a lot of the times we fall for it. We are easily persuade when someone tell us to do something because it worked for them. Learning this, helps us better understand people and their strategies.
Pages 93–119 of the textbook emphasize key concepts essential for writing a good analysis essay, focusing on rhetoric and analysis techniques. Rhetoric existing in our everyday life, the use of rhetoric helps us to give what we want to give to our audience with writing strategies, like ethos (credibility), pathos (emotional connection), and logos (logic). Understanding these allows writers to not only build their arguments more effectively but also evaluate how well others persuade their audience.
The textbook also clarifies the difference between summary and analysis. While summaries restate information, analysis digs deeper, exploring meaning, importance, and purpose. Key questions like “What do I see?”, “What does it mean?”, and “Why does it matter?” help guide this process. And I think it is helpful for me since I do really can not find out the difference of summary and analysis for a very long time. And yeah, have a deeper analysis is very important for make a difference between the analysis we write and the summary.
After reading p-93-119, I learned about rhetoric and analysis. I realized that communication is not just about explaining any informations, it is also about persuading and influencing the target audience. Rhetoric involves use of language, tone and structure to make argument more effective. Analyzing rhetoric also helped me recognize the techniques used in speeches and writing.
On pages 93-119 of the text book readding he talks about rhetorical analysis, the main res are phatos logos and ethos that are phatos, in addition to understanding that rethorical analysis is more than just summarizing, we don’t think beyond that, for example what is the motive or the theme that the author wants to communicate to us, In addition to this, it can be used in different parts such as in articles, stories, speachs and movies.
This helped me to notice some errors in my analysis draft that I am completing, I was able to understand the difference between a summary and an analysis and thus be able to complete it, also