River's Lair
For the longest time, I’ve had a somewhat tenuous relationship with writing. I came out of high school having barely passed most of my English classes, and I was absolutely sick of essays, reports, and the like. I put off the big assignments as much as I could; I never met deadlines, and I struggled to write even the simplest outline. Needless to say, after that poor performance, and being nearly six years away from any sort of academic environment, I was nervous about taking the step to give college level English a shot. What if I wasn’t able to keep up? What if I was just as bad at writing as before, if not worse? Worries like these were plentiful as I went through the process of enrolling and picking out my courses, all the way through the first couple weeks of class. But even doubting myself as much as I was, I went through with it; this was something that I wanted to do, and wanted to do right. So I went to class, and I gave my best effort all throughout. These past ten weeks have been hard, but everything I’ve done has paid off, even more than I had initially expected. Thanks to this course, I’ve done more than learn something new; I’ll be leaving with a better grasp on things I already knew, and much more confidence in my own writing than I’ve had in quite some time.
The importance of rhetoric was heavily emphasized in this class. It is a term that I had only ever heard used in a negative way before now, as if it were something only used for malicious or manipulative purposes. I’ve since learned, however, that the concept goes far deeper. Rhetoric itself is not inherently something good or bad, it is simply a set of tools that can be used to influence an audience. Everyone uses and is exposed to it, whether they are aware of it or not. Any type of communication can make use of rhetoric as well, with arguably the most common being advertisements. If the goal is to sell a product, then rhetoric is all of the various design and language choices used to achieve that goal. Every detail, from the colors used to the phrasing and choice of words (if any), is carefully thought out and put together in order to attract the most attention and convince people to buy in. This is far from the only use for rhetoric, but learning how to spot its presence will be a useful skill both now and in the future, especially considering how prevalent messages like advertisements are nowadays.
While it’s certainly important to be able to notice and identify where and when rhetoric is used, the ability to analyze that rhetoric is equally so. Once one is able to point out rhetoric where it occurs, they can begin to understand what a message may be trying to make its viewers feel, and how it goes about doing that. This is exactly what I had to do for my first major assignment this quarter, where I was tasked with rhetorically analyzing a piece of media of my choice. I chose to work on a music video by a favorite creator of mine, analysis of which required paying attention to details such as word choice, the rhythm and cadence of the song, and the visuals of the video itself. I had picked up on all of this before, and it all played into why I enjoyed this particular piece so much, but looking at everything from a new perspective like this helped me to appreciate it more than I had previously.
Before this quarter, had I been asked about the meaning of “genre,” I would have probably responded with something regarding the classification of media like books, movies, and music. Several weeks into the class, however, I was asked to read a paper that greatly broadened my understanding of the term. Navigating Genres, written by Kerry Dirk, goes into great detail on the various nuances of genre. While there are many different genres of novels, for example, novels themselves are a genre, in that there are certain conventions that are generally followed no matter what type of novel it may be. As Dirk puts it in her essay, “genres also help us to make more efficient decisions when writing, as we can see how people have approached similar situations” (259)1. Looking at it this way, it is easy to see how pretty much anything can be considered a genre, including this very essay. There are guidelines that have been put in place to follow, such as having to indent each paragraph or requiring a title at the top, that make this completely different from a letter, a memo, or other genres of writing. Having this broader understanding of genre has already helped me within this class, and I expect it to help even more going forward when encountering new writing situations in my future classes and beyond.
Something I was told about early on in this course was the idea of productive persistence. For those unaware like I was, it is defined as “the ability to keep giving effort in challenging situations, and to use effective strategies as you work through these challenging situations.” This was something I had never heard of in my previous schooling, and certainly not something I’d ever utilized back then. When faced with a difficult or intimidating assignment previously, I would often shut down entirely. I had a hard time getting myself to even start, let alone put some sort of outline or ideas down on paper. However, this past quarter at college I have been making a concentrated effort to productively persist with my work, and it has greatly paid off. While the major assignments in this class were still quite intimidating, they have been much more manageable than any of my previous writing assignments. I’ve been doing my best to pace myself on each one; I’ve been writing plenty of notes to work from, and I’ve given myself room to breathe when I’ve needed to. Sometimes I do still end up stuck, with no other option than to simply sit and try to force something into a document, but it is still a big improvement from how I used to be with writing. Productive persistence is an idea that has helped me greatly this quarter, and I plan to keep using it throughout college, as well as throughout the rest of my life.
Ten weeks ago, I was very nervous – maybe even somewhat scared – about the idea of going to college. Doing the work to enroll here was not an insignificant step, and I was worried that I would just end up wasting my time and money. But looking back, I’ve ended up learning and improving far more than I thought I would in such a short span of time. As I mentioned at the beginning, I’m more confident now in my writing than I have been in years, and I want to use this confidence and knowledge for more than just academic purposes. While I am studying for a more technical degree, creative writing is also something that I have had a passionate interest in for a long time now. Unfortunately, my previous attempts at writing anything tended to end before getting very far, in part due to my own worries and doubts. I’m hoping that, now that I’m feeling better about my writing capability, I’ll be able to properly channel some of that passion into writing for myself, and eventually turn it into something that I can share with others.
1 Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 1, Parlor Press, 2010.