Throughout this process, I have learned a lot about how to write academically. In high school and ERH 101 I was very good at writing the standard five paragraph essay which has been drilled into me since junior high. The research and almost puzzle like quality of creating arguments is much more rewarding than the previous ways I have been taught to write. Instead of the mundane five paragraph essays, which focus one informing and analyzing a topic, these arguments seem to mean something and have the capacity to show how the writer truly feels . Therefore, I believe I have learned a greater appreciation of rhetoric and its power within our society, its ability to give people a voice, and show how people think or what they care about.
One of the most interesting things I have learned this semester is how Rhetoric can illustrate how different people think. Writing from the opposite viewpoint was a challenging task but it reinforced the idea that all arguments have solid points to consider. There is always a reason people lean toward one side or the other which is something most people do not like to admit. Creating room for both sides in the argument helps strength your position, something that is not seen in the stereotypical five paragraph format. Understanding the difference between academic writing and just writing for a grade is something I have not really understood until now. While I might not be able to craft an extremely strong argument yet, I understand the importance, something that at the beginning of project one I thought was an afterthought. In this project, we had to argue for the opposite view of a law or civic issue. I choose the oil pipelines President Trump enabled with a series of executive actions. While my first attempt was still very broad and analytical, through my revision I was able to create more common ground through the ideas of a stronger economy. With this simple sentence “These executive orders shift these jobs
from oversea to the American economy, creating a less reliant economy and a stronger one in general.” (Pipelines) I helped give my essay a clear purpose and argument. This was not the case with the second project. In this paper, we were tasked with voicing our opinions on the civic issue. Giving space in my argument for the opposite view was much harder and my paper suffered because of it. Without any examples of common ground my argument seemed to stop in the middle of my paper. I learned that “Without these lessons, an argument is just an argument, not a tool that the writer can use to educate people about their ideas”(Argument).
Giving people a voice and a platform to display their ideas is something I did not understand Rhetoric could do. While most of my writing experience has been through the five-paragraph format, the ability to craft my essays to fit my topic was a welcome change. A five-paragraph essay format is mainly used to analyze a certain topic or idea, like a novel or theme. The format is an introduction with a thesis and/or antithesis, three paragraphs constructed out of points from the thesis, and a conclusion paragraph. This was the format I wrote for six years, not adding anything to the topic, just analyzing and making observations. The skill of crafting a paper around an argument not only makes for a more enjoyable writing experience, but also lets the writer tell his ideas and attempt to convince an audience, not just inform them. This skill is something I know I will use later in life and is something much more powerful then I believed an English class could teach me.
Understanding how Rhetoric interacts with our society might seem obvious, but for me all I saw was a chore. My first paper as a college student was titled Writings of a Writer Writing about Writing, detailing my thoughts on how I could improve my writing process. While some ideas from that paper were valid, like starting earlier or creating outlines, I just wrote about what I thought the professor wanted to hear. How I had developed a love for writing and was starting
on a new adventure, stating that “Through this reflection I have learned a lot and my view on many aspects of writing have changed. I do not know if I can fly yet but I do know that I am at least confident enough to jump” (Writings). In reality, I just thought of writing as the boring analytical process in which I informed the reader of my views and what I thought was important. While I still don’t like writing, I now appreciate how it can help and how I will use it in my future career.
Help Received: Peer review Quinn Smith
Works Cited:
0551915. “How the Pipelines Will Strengthen our Economy.” ERH 102 Paper, VMI, 2017
—-. “Writings of a Writer Writing about Writing.” ERH 101 Paper, VMI, 2017
—-. “An Argument for Cooperation.” ERH 102 Paper, VMI, 2017