Week 7 Readings + Working Thesis Statement

I particularly found the article "Annoying ways people use sources" to be interesting because I am guilty of starting and ending paragraphs with a quote (but not an overly long obnoxious ones). Although I am not like those drivers who know the general rules and practices but just doesn’t care. I agree with the author of this essay in the sense that quotes in the beginning or end of a paragraph can be confusing and disjointed but I also think that if they are used right, they can act as a “hook” or can be thought provoking in the end. I also agree that it is 100% up to the reader as to what they personally find annoying and what they don’t see eye-to-eye on with the writer.

Chapter 20 in Everything’s an Argument was a good reminder of the rules of academic writing, but it did not present me with any new information.  

Just to avoid having to make an entirely new blog post, here is a potential thesis statement in the works:

Happy Dogs Ranch has successfully created a persuasive homepage using the proper genre conventions including a professional structure, tone, language, and by utilizing the concept of pathos to connect with the intended audience. 

Week 5 readings

“How to read like a writer”:

Writing consists of a series of choices. The authors point is that realizing those important connections between reading and writing can influence they way you write. “You are reading to learn about writing” How was the piece of writing constructed? This makes me think about some terms we covered in class, tone, vocabulary choices, targeted audience, sentence structure etc.

It is really about becoming aware of the different techniques that were used to create the written document and if they appeal to you as a reader and whether or not you would use them in your own writing. For example, using quotes, personally if they are too long I find myself skipping over them, but if they are short and enhance the meaning of the text, I am more likely to read them.

Overall, reading like a writer with the hopes of developing as a writer, reminds me of the importance of being able to identify the conventions of the genre you are reading and what makes it successful or not.

“ I take your point” Ch. 11:

What I take away from this chapter is that actively listening and not just thinking about your own response is a lot like writing successfully, the goal is to identify the audience and write what is appropriate.

“Academic Writing Doesn’t Always Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice” Ch.9:

I found this chapter to be particularly interesting because I feel that I struggle with finding the right balance in academic writing. Prior to attending AUSB I was continuously taught to only include the “factual” type of information that was needed to back up my thesis rather than expressing my opinion. Whether this was to keep students from “bs-ing” to achieve a certain word count, I don’t know, but it made writing boring and probably pretty boring to read. 

Week 4 Readings

To my understanding, rhetorical analysis means to take a
deeper look at a text to find out whether or not it is persuasive and exactly how
and why that is. I think the questions that the text proposes; “does it move
your heart, win your trust, and change your mind?” ties back to whom your
targeted audience is and what emotions might appeal to them using, pathos, ethos,
or logos.

I thought the Bob Dylan example was shocking yet interesting

in the fact that besides the shock factor there was a deeper story. I think it
explained rhetorical analysis very well in the sense that there might be more
than meets the eye when analyzing what makes an argument successful and
why. 

A little off topic but the one company that comes to mind as being very persuasive is Dove, and their real beauty campaign. I’m sure most people have heard of it, seen their videos or ads but I think they really do pose a strong argument.Pathos is most definitely an obvious factor in their argument, because it is directed to women, especially young women and it is

emotionally relatable. Secondly they use ethos to promote that Dove is not a normal beauty product but a product that promotes self-care. Lastly logos is a part of their campaign as
they hope women will identify themselves as a unique, strong, and beautiful
independent that will take action to help others feel the same.

I found the Finding Evidence chapter to be overall very informative, however I mostly focused

on the interview section since that is our next assignment. When it comes to
interviews I almost always find myself not knowing whether or not I have
prepared the right questions, so its nice to know that by preparing BOTH
factual and especially open-ended questions, you should be able to get enough information
without having to cover all of your questions.

Email Draft

#2

This weeks readings were a good mix of new information and revision.

In the ‘leaping into identities’ chapter, it really highlighted that social context matters when trying to effectively communicate with a variety of different audiences. Tone was another term that stuck out to me, meaning that you want to connect with your audience in a way that will urge them to feel receptive to your message. Personally this makes me think about how I communicate with the different audiences at work; for example the difference in communicating with adult cliental regarding more serious matter versus interacting with the kids on a more relaxed level, my tone completely changes.

‘Crafting Brief Messages’ covered the basic rules of writing a lot of different forms of social media, texts, tweets, blogs, emails and podcasts. The section on email was kind of a review for me, the basic rules to writing an email were covered and I think that will help me in writing the professional email draft.

One thing that did interest me a little was the so-called rise of the “blog” in regards to the business world. When I hear the word “blog” the first thing that comes to mind is something like a fashion blog or just a personal blog. I never really put much thought into the fact that social media sites such as Twitter are being viewed as micro blogging tools capable of community building. I also found it interesting that some companies view blogs as a replacement option for emailing. To me this seems a little less secure/confidential yet productive in the sense that more audience members can be reached without the possibility of the information being considered spam mail. Now I get the sense that blogs are much more useful than I once thought, and like the text suggests, blogs might be the next best way to “foster positive relationships with colleagues, customers and other important audiences.” 

To tie it all together, I found the reading to be quite informative. I have become more aware of writing for specific audiences, making sure I have the right tone and including only the information that is necessary.

#1

Hello Classmates,

Just to share a little bit about myself, my name is Kari and I am 22 years old and I have lived in Santa Barbara for 4 years. People always ask the same ANNOYING question, “where are you from?” how many times has some random person decided to ask you this question? A lot? Yeah me to… and this is quite possibly the hardest question for me to answer. I was born in San Francisco and moved around California more times than I can count before moving to Sweden, where I spent seven years before making the decision to move back to California on my own for college. With that confusion out of the way, I like to spend my free time in the great outdoors. I am an avid hiker, and when visiting home you can find me out with the many different farm animals, llamas, pigs, sheep, you name it we probably have it. I am also really passionate about photography, portrait photography to be exact and it’s been a hobby of mine for several years with a few odd jobs here and there. 

Some other fun facts, my favorite book is Unbroken, my favorite movie is pretty much anything with Channing Tatum in it, and there’s nothing better than some tacos and a cold beer.

Other than that this is my first time blogging, and hopefully will get better at with time!

When I think of the word “Genre” what comes to mind first, is movies and books but after reading ‘Navigating Genres’ by Kerry Dirk and by using country music as an example, I have a better understanding of what makes a genre. For example in class when we listed what makes a country song a country song, it is really hard to then imagine or categorize a country song that doesn’t relate to any of those conventions.

What really interested me was when Dirk mention that genres function as social actions and that we predict how they function rhetorically without even thinking about it. For example I usually don’t put much thought into things like Facebook statuses, but it makes sense that you write something a specific way to get a certain desired response, consciously or not. This kind of relates to the readings we had on ‘Understanding Rhetoric’ and ‘Everything is an argument’, and how nearly every type of writing can actually be considered some form of an argument. Continuing on with the example of Facebook statuses, I commonly see people using pathos or emotional appeals in their writing to get the response they are looking for. Whether it’s just a cry for attention or to deliberately make others feel things like happiness, jealousy or anger, in this day and age arguments have the ability to become epidemic, now that almost anyone can publicize their thoughts and opinions. Overall I think this weeks readings really highlight the significance of genre and rhetoric and that rhetorical situations can be very dynamic.