My R.A. ...

Rhetorical analysis essays are hard in general I think. Actually according to the grades of every paper I’ve ever written, writing in general is difficult for me. In regards to my rhetorical analysis paper I did pretty much average. I’m suppose to reflect the areas of worked and did not work, what should I do and possibly figure out what shouldn’t I do for this paper and maybe even the upcoming paper.

For the R.A. (rhetorical analysis) paper there were many mistakes most of them or probably all simple grammar and organizational problems. But before I go off ranting what is wrong I’ll talk a little about what did go right, for the most part. What did seem to go right were my thesis and conclusion, rhetorical appeals, and audience awareness. With my thesis I tried to find something that was concrete and straight forward and showed what sort of order I was planning on writing my paper all together, so many idea seemed to have worked and flowed with the paper. Then my rhetorical appeals or triangle, I did somewhat okay on that as well because I have had lots of practice with this thanks to high school, and the fact that when I want to I CAN THINK, AND THINK ABSTRACTLY IF I REALLY WANT TO OR NEED TO, so I guess I was able to pull that off enough for the R.A. paper. The next thing I did alright was my appeal to he audience. I think I usually do okay in this part because I really like putting voice in my papers to make it appealing but sometime I might put to munch, but for this paper I toned it down because it was a very serious and sad topic. Now, onto the areas where I did bad and usually always do badly on. I did poorly on grammar and organization. I figured I’d do bad on both of this aspects because my mind just goes faster than I can put it down, my mind seems to be scattered each time I write a paper, so this explains my organization, and part of the reason for my grammar. My grammar is usually bad because once I have an idea I run with and continue writing till the idea escapes me, then I just press F7 (Spell Check), and assume that everything is right and coherent but it usually isn’t and I forget to re-read the paper because I rush to just finish the paper hoping that its fine and I did a good job.

However, I need to work on the whole habit(s) of just hitting F7 and not re-reading the freaking paper. And I need to have a fresh pair and smarter pair of eyes to re-read the paper , perhaps like the writing center( if they can schedule me in), or my very smart girlfriend, and or even my friends that are amazing with their papers. So I figure that I should stop these debilitating habits and figure a new strategy in writing and perhaps use it in this very next writing assignment.

synthesize...

Michael Moore and James w. smith, the writer of my article, had very similar and basic ideas for there own sort of reports. Each of them discussed a topic of which was or is a major concern during the year that produced their reports. Moore was discussing the unemployment in Flint, Michigan were as James was discussing the recession of 2008 and because of the recession there will be an decrease in jobs with the resulting increase of unemployment.

Yet another aspect in which they both sort of did the same e was attacking the corporate or federal guys for, messing up or deliberately doing what was best for them. But with that Moore did something different he obtained testimonials of people of the state he was documenting, and added a whole other area of pathos and logos. As for James, he only obtained the facts for his article leaving it in a way that it was sort of dull. But Michael Moore’s documentary was intriguing were as James’s article was in its own statistical way of being intriguing.

In regards to what both writers were trying to announce to other readers, besides my self, I believe that they came off informing and showing what each of their points were. However, Moore pulled off in a more boastful manner with intensity to really, really prove his point and in a way himself. Though, James seemed to merely just get across his point, in a more subtle, yet apparent manner.

MY ARTICLE & MOORE....

The article in which I found is based on the inevitable recession of 2008. The article, Navigating the Economic Recession of 2008, discusses the issues, the rising issues, of what is causing the recession and of job unemployment. But in regards to Michael Moore’s video, this article strictly just used Logos , I never really found any sort of specific ideas going towards Pathos, and the only thing that could be ethos is the just the fact that he, the writer, as written multiple reports and or articles before. It could be possible that the writer would assume that the \reader would some how get their own pathos from reader the article because the topic of the article is a huge area of interest lately inn the recent year. With Moore’s documentary It took place during a crisis as well but it was mainly involving one state, actually one city. But even with looking at just the city it seemed that Moore captured way more of all three aspects of rhetoric, rather than just mainly one.

Logos & Moore...

Moore’s video, what to say, what to say?? The movie was actually a documentary discussing and describing Flint, Michigan and the effects of the GM Motor factories that were there then laid of their workers and closed the factories. Well I will say that it had all three aspects of Rhetoric, it contained Pathos, Ethos and Logos. But more importantly it contained Logos. Not saying that it didn’t contain or that the other parts of rhetoric were less important, but Moore had a specific reason for doing what he was doing. Moore traveled basically all throughout most of Michigan State finding testimonies of people that were laid off, information from P.R. personal of GM Motors, and more importantly trying to about the CEO of GM motors response and/or reaction to the shutting down of the factories.

Moore went through a brief history of the city Flint, and how prosperous the city was, the amount of jobs it had thanks to GM Motor factories opening. However, the factories closed leaving the city practically jobless, and many homeless do to the lack of money. I believe Moore produced the documentary to prove to the Big Guys of the companies that the People have a voice as well. The Logos, I think he primarily used, was the testimonials from individuals who had worked at the factories and all the facts and statistics that were announced during the video. Not only did he gain testimonials of the little people of the city and state but of the Public Relations people of GM Motors, but he also pursued and tried multiple times to gain the CEO’s response.

Logos was used so tremendously I was astonished or better yet amazed at the amount of information given on top of the testimonials of the people. I believe Moore did a phenomenal job of portraying the good guys and the bad guys with the use of primarily Logos, but with the help of Pathos and Ethos.

The Comic W/ a Meaning...

The comic was actually sort of funny and yet had a real underlying meaning to it as well. The comic or piece of literature seemed to have me questioning my-self of what is after death, reincarnation, fading into light or black, or heaven or hell who really knows though right. In this piece the writer seemed to use a lot of visual aspects of Pathos then linguistically using Pathos.

The linguistic part of Pathos seemed to very strong at the beginning showing the emotions and bad side of a funeral. The middle and almost to the end was all visual Pathos, which I found to be appealing. But the best part is when the linguistics picks back up towards the end starts discussing life after death or the fading into nothingness.

I found that the writing or comic piece seemed to have real deep meaning with the use of Pathos, it has the reader, well for me, thinking of what really does happen once death catches up with us. The writer shows the response of the character once he realizes that he doesn’t know what happens to himself even after leading a prosperous life. The character and his childhood self continue to talk but yet morph into something different each time, then eventually ‘poof’ the page goes white so it leaves it open for our own interpretation and feelings to guide us on what we believe is to happen to us when death catches up with us.

My response to "The Southland"...

WOW!!! I must say i have a whole new look at and about the south. After, actually during the reading i had at first found myself thinking,"Oh geez, what crap am I reading now, that some old confederate man wrote??", but as I read I became involved ever so deeply with the story. The imagery captivated me in such a way I could not stop reading. I assumed that in a subtle way that the man was using ethos through his imagery, also considerung we have been discussing rhetoric in class. But through his intense, and somewhat passionate writing about the south it seems appropiate to say that the writer has, or had visited "The Southland" and and was able to grab ever so intensly every detail that he saw and witnessed. Also i believe that the writer used Pathos also in the writing, because with the deep imagery and such fluency with his words i feel that he was trying to capture the readerwith some emotion. I think for sure he got my attention.