Writing Log 2A

Chapter 1

In the first chapter, I learned a variety of different things about writing like strategies and other ways to improve my writing process. One thing that caught my attention was “How Writers Think About Genre” on page 24. This is relating to the different categories, types, and styles of writing. You use different genres depending on what you are writing for or who your audience is. I think it is interesting that they made an analogy connecting that to different types of clothing in people’s wardrobes. I think it is a very good analogy as well. The example they gave with the man dressing for the job interview not wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sandals made a lot of sense to me and got a good point across about genres.

Another hotspot that stuck out to me a lot was the article “How Writers Think about Audience” on pages 22, 23, and 24. You have to decide who you’re intending your writing for and then write your paper accordingly. Different people reading your paper could change a lot of things like the tone or style. If you didn’t write your paper for a specific audience, it could turn out very bad. However, writing papers in college could be much different because our only audience a majority of the time is just our professor. Our professor often uses an audience that many people like to call the “generic academic audience”. This refers to how many of the student peers have practically the same knowledge level and expertise because they are normally in the same field and classes as me.

Chapter 2

When reading chapter two in “The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing”, one of the hotspots that caught my attention was “Learning to Wallow in Complexity” on page 29. The reason I chose this is because it says that wallowing in complexity is not what many first-year college students aspire to do. It says how we shut down our thinking process and try to put end to the problem entirely too early. I never thought about it before, but now I do realize that I tend to do this a good bit. I need to realize the demands of college and figure out what my professor is expecting of me. I should take action now and adjust to this now, rather than later on in my college career.

Another big topic in chapter two that really stuck out to me was “Playing the Believing and Doubting Game” on page 36. I think that Peter Elbow has really come up with a great tool to use while you’re writing with this game. The believing side of this game is when you are agreeing with a point of view or other certain ideas. It has to be extremely hard to try and believe in something that you already completely disagree in. On the contrary, the doubting game is asking for you to find something incorrect about whatever the subject or idea may be. You have to be the devil’s advocate with whatever you are talking about. Again, it is easy to disagree with things you don’t like. However, if you are sincere with this idea, you may find it challenging to do so.

Chapter 3

In chapter 3, I learned a lot about think rhetorically in many different ways. I realized that you can think rhetorically about many different things other than just text. My first hotspot that I found was “Analyzing Angle of Vision” on pages 54 and 55. This determines what is “seen” and “not seen” in a given piece of writing. It also determines things like what is looked at as negative or positive, what gets highlighted, or what gets thrown into the shadows. You might picture someone one way, but if it is not stated, than it still remains unseen to the reader. In most great pieces of writing, the author will get you to visualize this without you even realize it. They can make it very unsubtle, but it still has a great effect. You could really get an image in your head without the slightest clue of doing so.

The second hotspot that I chose was “Concept 9 Messages persuade through appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos” on pages 55 and 56. You can try to imagine the person doing the persuading trying to sway the audience to their side of an issue. All of the different types of persuasions can use these appeals on their side. Logos are the appeal to a reason or quality of the point that they are trying to make. Ethos is the appeal to who the writer/speaker is. This can let you determine how much you can trust what this person may be saying. Pathos is the appeal to the audience’s beliefs, mood, and values. These can be altered through different pictures or the way things are worded. I chose this hotspot because I think that it is a big issue in the way things are ran today. Many different companies or representatives for companies try to unfairly persuade people without them even knowing it. If you think about all of these appeals, you may not get suckered into believing something that you shouldn’t.