Reflecting upon Change

Slowly, slowly, slowly. That is how my writing style is changing. Ever so slowly, I pick up new tricks and attempt to apply them in my academic life. I am not upset that it is quite the arduous journey, though. In my life, change has been my constant nemesis. No matter what activity or state of mind I was in, change was not welcome. New foods weren’t tried, new friends were never usually made…regardless of what I had, I didn’t want to try anything new. So, in a way this e-portfolio and the subsequent one are my attempts at changing who I am as a writer. In this paragraph alone one might sense my personality, which as I mentioned in the previous e-portfolio, never used to find its way onto paper.

Sure, I was writing the paper, but I never was in the paper. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Patricia Cornwell have their own styles and personalities; when you read their stories one knows that they are the author. With me, that is not the case. Like Andrew said, he wrote academically and to get an A. I identify with him totally. My thought process: I am constantly told I need good grades; if I write a certain way (academically) I get good grades; I should write this way. That would be good if my goals in life and school consisted of only achieving high marks. However, that’s not true. Sure, I can write well, but many people can be taught how to “write well”. I want to write using my own style. Ideally, readers would say, “that’s by Chris Linhorst”. If someone knows me, my lack of a writing style would seem strange. I’m smart, but I’m not an academic. I place humor into every situation, and use jokes to handle hard times. It seems that the journey towards good grades takes up my thought process. That’s why this introduction to my second e-portfolio reads like a reflection: because it is.

While writing reflections for my Foundations of Education class, I discovered my voice in the page. After re-reading them, I knew I was the author; it seemed obvious. Apparently, when grades aren’t on the line, I write semi-causally, like how I speak. That realization intrigued me. I wondered how I could transfer reflection-type writing onto more academic papers. I concluded that sometimes, a purely academic paper can be beneficial. If you need good grades and writing a certain way will help to acquire them, then I’m all for it. That thought then led to another: writing academically is not a problem if one can switch to writing that features one’s voice and style. For example, writing every class essay the same way to get a good grade isn’t entirely bad if I can then switch it up and write an essay that accurately conveys my message while sounding like me. I am sorely lacking in that department.

Like I wrote earlier, I want to learn how to write well and in different ways. We’ve talked about experienced writers using different methods to pre-write, revise, and actually write the paper. Those are the writers I want to emulate. I am confident in my memory when I say that for every single essay I have written since freshman year of high school, unless my teacher gave specific instructions on how to start or write a paper, they have all been done the same way. Every. Single. Time. Looking back (and hopefully not into my future writings), I find this a tad absurd. What am I learning if everything stays the same? If I am to battle my unwillingness to change, I feel that writing should be one of the main battlegrounds. This reflection/introduction is here as proof that I want to learn and want to change, and hopefully the rest of this e-portfolio provides practical evidence.

The Art of Persuasion, Convincing...The Art of Everything

Persuading, convincing, selling, brainwashing, talking. Everyone has their personal definition of rhetoric, and mine combines all of the above terms (it helps that most of them are synonyms). Like some of those terms, “rhetoric” has many negative connotations. When Barack Obama spoke, Fox News commentators always seemed to note that his speeches were “just rhetoric”. When terms like brainwashing and persuading, maybe even lying, are involved, people are quick to protest. I disagree with these politically correct people. The art of persuasion, as it’s been called, is of high importance in our world. Social interaction defines today’s times, and how we interact should be heavily stressed.

If there is anyone out there who thinks rhetoric is not involved in many social situations, I beg them to visit a school or university. There, they will find children of all ages doing what they can to climb up the social ladder, whether by spreading rumors, acting differently to different groups, or a multitude of other ways. Rhetoric is simply everywhere. I feel that learning rhetoric’s uses and learning about where one might find it would lead to better citizens. Maybe some people wouldn’t be taken in by every ad, be it political or otherwise, and realize that they are trying to persuade them, and nothing more.
If I ruled the world, no editor would force an author to re-title his work because no one wants to buy a book with “rhetoric” in its title. Rhetoric is much too important to be downgraded. Even if a professor or news commentator doesn’t approve of rhetoric, they should still understand its importance and strive for a greater understanding. Or maybe I’m just naïve and would expect people to learn about that which they do not know. Regardless, my feeling is that rhetoric is one of the important concepts that should be studied. Students may have no need for any type of science in their professional careers, but I bet they would learn a few things from a rhetoric course that taught how people persuade and/or how people communicate.

Everyone would benefit, because everyone experiences rhetoric all the time. A teenager tries to survive through high school, then after school sees commercials and wanders what clothes to buy. Oh, and he can vote. That leads to politics, which is rhetoric at its finest (or worst, depending on who the loser is). My point is that many people downgrade rhetoric because they see it as deceitful or just persuasion, when that might be the reason why it should be studied. When our world revolves around what you can make others think, then the ability to do so is prized. Even understanding rhetoric is important. Knowing a liar, or seeing through the persuasion, is just as important as being able to persuade. Rhetoric should be taught in high school and in college. Rhetoric is important, because rhetoric is everywhere.

Land of the Practice Blogs

These practice blogs, and the reading responses in the next post, will be shown in order, to understand my development in a linear way. Dear Reader, you will notice I progress in some areas, and possibly regress in others. This progression and regression is part of this portfolio's larger focus, which is change. As always, these hyperlinks represent a gateway to all that has been written.

January 19th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-119/
January 26th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-126/
February 2nd http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-22/
February 11th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-211/
February 16th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-216/
February 23rd http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-223/
March 2nd http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/practice-blog/practice-blog-32/

The Reading Responses, They're Everywhere!

Instead of giving a few examples of reading responses or overloading the page with thousands of hyperlinks, I am going to place 8 hyperlinks that represent all the days reading responses were due. Each link will allow you, The Reader, to see everything that has been written. The last link is directed towards my specific post, not everyone's.

January 14th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-responses-114/
January 19th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-responses-119/
January 21st http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-responses-121/
January 26th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-responses-126/
February 4th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-responses-24/
February 11th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-responses-211/
February 18th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/category/reading-responses/reading-response-218/
March 16th http://rhetoriccenter.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/blogs-are-bad-blasphemy-i-say/#comments

Writer's Bio

Here, we have one of the crowning acheivements of English 404: my writer's biography. This fits with my concept of change because it made me break out of my mold as a writer.
http://chrislinhorst.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-boring-to-hopefully-not-as-boring.html