Writing Log 2A

PART ONE

My first hotspot is “Your purposes for writing are always more complex than the simple desire to meet an assignment deadline” found on page 21. I found this interesting because I never thought of it this way. You do write papers or articles for all three of these reasons, but while you are writing it, you are usually only thinking about turning it in and getting a decent grade. The way that I look at it, is we didn’t’ choose to write the paper so we work our hardest to get the grade that we deserve, but while we type the paper, we look up information, do research as well as turning it in on time and with perfection.

The second hotspot that I found was found on page 6. “In our experience, beginning college writers are often discomforted by the ambiguity of the rules governing writing.” This sentence instantly made me start thinking about how it refers to me. I am a college student and am terrified that my level of writing will never change from the high school level to a college level. After reading this section it gives us examples of when it is appropriate to use the word “I” which is a common word people add into their papers when it is inappropriate. This is a common mistake that many high school and college levels writers make, after taking this course I hope to have a better understanding when it is appropriate.

After reading these three sections, I have learned more about how to become a better writing and different techniques to use. I have also noticed I have a lot of work to do to my writing to change my high school writing into college writing. I see myself as an efficient communicator because I do get my message a crossed. There is more effective ways to make my message clear and more understandable. My audience may think that I know how to recite what I know and state my opinion on it, but they most likely want to know more about what I understand.

The more I know about my audience the easier it will be to get your message a crossed. Before you begin to explain anything to your audience you need to ask yourself questions. What are my readers’ motives? What is my relationship with my readers? What does my audience already know about my topic? All of these questions will help me understand what the important points are to share with my audience.  When I am in front of different audience I feel the need to come across in different ways. If I am in front of my sister, I don’t feel the need to be as grammatically correct, or using college level thinking or words, whereas if I am in front of a teach or boss, I must show my full capability of having an adult conversation or way of thinking. I still must consider the questions of what my audience might already know and what level of thinking they are on, but for every set of audience I will use different language and different ways to come across with the information I am attempting for them to understand.  


PART TWO

This first hotspot that I chose is concept number 5 on page 32. They explained that good writers use exploratory strategies to think critical about subject-matter questions. They also say that one of the more important discoveries of research in rhetoric and composition is extent to which experienced writers use writing to generate and discover new and different ideas. I agree with this to the very bottom of its meaning. Every since we had to write, whether it was a free write, paper, in a journal or for a school project, our teachers had always told us to being with brainstorm. The idea is to get all your thoughts out of your head and onto the paper in front of you. This helps you collect all your ideas, link them together and put them in an appropriate order for your readers best understanding. There are different types of strategies that you can use to help get your mind flowing with ideas before you put your paper together, these include freewriting, focused freewriting, idea mapping and dialectic talk.

            The second hotspot that I had found was on page 29. The concept of “Wallowing in complexity.” This is where you write according to how you think you professor is going to grade your piece of writing. Most new students write about the actual concept and don’t want to steer far off of the main subject or get creative because they are unaware of what their teacher wants and how they are going to grade. What most students do is write how they feel their professors want them to, and take in the critical feedback their educator gives them and fixes their paper for according to their advice. Students understand that educators want students to understand more than just the outstanding concept, they want them to get creative and think outside of the box. Although students know this, they want to play it on the safe side and do what they think is right and take in the advice after they turn in their paper. I can relate to this concept because as a freshman in college, I feel the same way and am unsure of how these papers are going to be graded.


PART THREE

            Concept 9, on page 55, Messages persuade through appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos, caught my attention because I have learned part of this concept in my Public Speaking class last quarter. I used this tactic while I was writing my persuasive speech. This is where you use powerful words that the audience can imagine writers or speakers trying to sway their audiences toward a certain position on an issue. While using these types of words, it can make your audience go from thinking one way, to the complete opposite. A Logo is the appeal to reason. Ethos is the appeal to the character of the speaker or writing and pathos is the appeal to the sympathies, values, beliefs and emotions of an audience. Using logos, ethos, and pathos can strengthen all different types of writings.

            The second hotspot that I had found was within concept number 8. It explains about the angle of vision in writing or speaking. They brought up a good point about different responses you may give different people who are talking to you. Two people may ask you the same question but you will respond in different ways depending on who they are. If your boyfriend is asking about your weekend, you will go into more detail that he will understand and be interested in compared to if my mother were to call and ask what I did. This was interesting to me because everyone does this on a daily basis without even realizing it. Concept 8 is about messages that persuade through their angle of vision. After reading the example of an angle of vision, I have a better understanding of how to include that into my writing as well as conversations that I have that will give two different meanings to specific people.