Cover Letter 1: The Writing Narrative
In my Writing Narrative, the intended audience was young adults with hobbies and specifically avid book, readers. I wanted people with similar backgrounds and experiences to be able to relate to me and my story. This was also a deciding factor for the language I displayed in my writing as well. Although the intention was to write it formally, I chose to add a bit of personality and informality to appeal to audiences in my age range. Whether it was using humor or the mention of things that would cause nostalgia. For example, iPods, Percy Jackson, and 3DS. My rhetorical choices display this as well. I use a significant amount of imagery to describe the location I was in and the emotions that reading had produced in me at the time. I felt like the imagery could help the readers visualize my environment and could appreciate the descriptiveness.
Some meaningful insight I have gained during this writing phase was to allow my writing and ideas to flow without hindering creativity. It is easy to overthink and consistently hit mental roadblocks because of it. I found myself stewing over little details that did not matter in the long run. Once I got past that I was finally able to let go of my inhibitions and allow myself to write freely. A lesson I will take away from this and will apply to the next writing phases and all writing in the future is to trust the process.
The concept that has impacted my learning and writing practices the most is likely the rhetorical situation. The audience, context, and purpose take precedence in this writing narrative. Understanding how to relate your writing to a large theme such as social, cultural, geographic, or political issues influences my writing and in turn the audience. Writing just to write can be fun but without context, I felt like my writing was only surface level. The same can be said about the purpose of the writing. What I aimed to do through my narrative was to remind the readers of the importance of reading and the value of having hobbies, no matter the circumstances. I was able to present the purpose from a personal perspective. As stated in paragraph one, I tried to appeal to my audience using imagery and nostalgia. I believe the audience is one of the most important rhetorical factors when writing these kinds of narratives. I will be sure to utilize these in my future writing.
This phase’ of Writing Narrative has allowed me to better develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing. After reading through the examples provided by my peers in class, I was able to comprehend what the narrative should be trying to accomplish contextually. I added more details from my life and experiences to better fit the rhetorical situation. I also improved my drafting skills by not fussing over perfecting the draft. Drafts are meant to be critiqued and revised to better help the writer and the readers understand the assignment, which I have a better understanding of now. Collaborating with my classmates also helped provide insight into how I would go about appealing to my audience. My main takeaway from this experience is to have fun with writing.
3 Multimodal elements
Through my presentation and written narrative, I used Linguistic elements. Whether it was through spoken word or me displaying my essay to peers and audience. I used the speech to lay out the basis of my story and its contextual background. I talked shortly about my upbringing in Florida, and mentioned how reading got me through hardships, relating it back to the narrative. I also displayed this element in my writing using word choice and dialogue.
I used Audio elements as well. After finalizing my speech, I presented my audience with a song from my childhood. It was to give them an idea of the music I listened to during my journey into reading and coping through literature which I describe in my written narrative. Finally, I finished my presentation with a Visual element. The visual is a picture of me at a younger age reading with one of the neighborhood cats. It displays what I was doing as well as the setting I illustrate throughout my narrative.
Cover Letter 2: Rhetorical Analysis
In my Rhetorical Analysis Assignment, the intended audience is first-generation Americans and inexorable, close-minded Americans resistant to change. I wanted first-generation people with similar experiences in the past to resonate with the texts I provided. My goal was to showcase my argument in a way that my target audience could resonate with. Whether it be using a meme, displaying different languages in question, or giving the aggressor a MAGA hat. This is evident in my analysis of the meme I created as I felt this was a tense issue to cover with many socio-political factors in it. I managed to simplify a very dense topic and let the meme speak for itself as well.
Some meaningful insight I have gained as an outcome of this writing phase was to improve upon my time management skills and appreciate my peer’s constructive criticism. It was easy to let du dates slip by and end up being drowned in work in the process. In addition, managing my time to allow myself to really delve into a topic and analyze it to the best of my ability will be something I will have to get better at in future writing assignments.
The concept that has impacted my learning and writing practices the most is likely the act of rhetorically analyzing itself. Examining a text or genre of media and being able to discover the deeper meanings behind it and thoroughly explain them in writing. Although I have done rhetorical analysis in the past, I have not experienced them to this degree. It really allowed me to understand what I was trying to convey in Part 2 as well as Part 3 and put myself in the shoes of those I would be trying to attract to my argument. The same can be said about the use of rhetorical strategies. Comprehending how to appeal to an audience using Pathos is a skill I will be employed in future writing assignments.
This writing phase has taught me to have a better understanding of my writing material, as well as utilize rhetorical strategies to enhance my arguments in the future. It is easier to write about topics you are passionate about or are personal to you so going forward, I will put more emphasis based on why I choose to write about certain topics like language and culture. I will also try to be more aware of rhetorical strategies in my writing to help the readers have a better understanding of my argument and hopefully enjoy what they are reading.
Cover Letter 3: Research Essay
In my research essay, my intended audience is young Americans wanting to further their image, older American’s attempting to familiarize themselves with social media, as well as online marketers who want to better advertise their companies or organizations. I wanted younger Americans to recognize the impact that they have had on the English language in recent decades. Most individuals my age is aware of slang, trends, fads, and many concepts that the use of social media has put at the forefront. Although this is the case, I wanted to make them understand the vast social and cultural implications their use of social media has caused. Older generations may not comprehend these effects but I hope my paper could provide some insight for them. My goal was to demonstrate my knowledge and research in a formal manner that anybody who read it could understand. This is evident in my use of various sources like a website that provides help to those wanting to understand online syntax, a New York Times article poking fun at the different ways businesses have taken a shot at getting their brands out there, to a research paper written by linguistic analysts trying to make sense of every factor at play. I was able to summarize and synthesize each source to help the readers better understand the point of my paper.
Some meaningful insight I have gained from this writing phase is how to use sources to your advantage and the process of synthesizing two pieces of information. I feel like this information will be useful in the future when comparing or contrasting multiple sources to better support my argument. Finding the right information with each source and tying them together to create one flowing argument is something I look forward to working on with future writing assignments.
I believe the concept that has impacted my learning and writing practices the most is likely the ability to summarize and synthesize information properly. It’s one thing to put multiple sources but having them connect in your writing is a skill I’d like to hone. Doing the Rhetorical Precis for each source gave me some help with that as well.
This writing phase has been a well-rounded learning experience and most likely the most challenging as the research aspect had stumped me multiple times. Going forward though, I feel like it has improved my ability to support my arguments with sources and research. I also learned that sometimes saying less is more and not overcomplicate explaining each of the source materials.
