Rhetoric

Rhetoric, to me, is the words someone uses to convince or persuade another person to agree with their view or to influence another person to do something. Everyone uses rhetoric. Since this is an election year, ethos, pathos and logos are prevalent in rhetoric. Politicians employee rhetoric to convince voters to vote for “me” using emotion and logic. A person is exposed to rhetoric everyday. It can be seen on television or through casual conversations.

Chapters 4,5, 16, and 23 response

Chapter 4 focuses on planning for your writing. Guideline 1 focuses on identifying the questions readers may ask while reading a communication. A writer not only needs to predict the questions readers may ask but also needs to include information that your readers may need to know, even if they do not realize this. Guidelines 2 and 3 focus on the organization of the communiqué. Proper organization makes the communication easy to read and helps the reader find the data they need. Guideline 5 touches on using superstructures. This technique appeals to me. It helps the writer identify the needs of the readers. Another helpful technique for writers is also using an outline before writing a communication.

Chapter 5 also focuses on planning. The focal point of Chapter 5 is planning how to persuade your audience. Like Chapter 4, chapter 5 lists ten guidelines giving strategies to write with persuasion. Guideline 2 makes an important point: knowing the readers’ goals and values. A writer who does not know this will probably not be able to influence the readers. To me, this guideline is the key to effective writing. Another important guideline is the fourth one: reason soundly. If a writer is not able make the proposal sensible, then the reader probably will not be persuaded to agree with the writer. A writer does not only need to sound reasonable but should be able to back up what they are writing with evidence.

I have only experienced one group project, and that was for a class my first semester back in college. Reading Chapter 16 before working with a group would have been beneficial. The group I worked with basically divided the work and worked independently. I believe the project would have been easier if we had designated a leader. We knew when the presentation would be, but we did not make a project schedule. Because of this, we ended up scrambling to finish our project just days before the presentation. This chapter gives valuable guidelines for those working on a team project.

How I wish everyone who has ever written an instruction manual or instructions had read this chapter. This chapter provides clear, detailed instructions on how to write an effective instructional manual that people will want to use.

response to Jeff Schafer's Chapter 3 posting

Jeff gives a good summary of the chapter. I agree with Jeff’s assessment regarding the near impossibility of predicting every potential reader and addressing their needs and concerns. I also expressed those concerns. Asking for the input of more experienced writers will help a writing acquire the ability to write effectively for a broader audience.

Jeff touches on the importance of keeping the “stakeholders” in mind throughout the writing process. I concur with Jeff that doing this is very important. I believe the process of keeping the stakeholders in mind helps the writer deal with ethical problems. The points that Jeff touched on were important parts of Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 reading

Chapter 3 focuses on defining your objectives before starting your writing. Techniques for defining your objectives are divided into ten guidelines. Each of the ten guidelines gives valuable information about writing in a professional capacity. I understand the importance of knowing your readers and writing an effective communiqué but the amount of information needed to meet the readers’ needs seemed overwhelming. Guideline 4: Learn Your Readers’ Personal Characteristics and Guideline 5: Global Guideline: Learn Your Readers’ Cultural Characteristics seemed especially cumbersome. Perhaps to an experienced writer this task becomes second nature, but to a new employee this seems daunting. Guideline 7: Ask Others to Help You Understand Your Readers and Their Context did address some of my concerns. I agree that it would be very valuable to be able to interview your readers. The worksheet for defining objectives (Fig.3.5) is also a very useful tool. This worksheet uses questions to help the writer define the objective of the written work and seems to make the task of addressing each reader easier.
Guideline 8: Learn Who All Your Readers Will Be is a difficult task. I know that most memos will have phantom readers, but how do you write to these readers when you do not know who they will be? How do you write to future readers?
Guideline 10: Ethics Guideline: Identify Your Communication’s Stakeholders is an important guideline. This guideline deals with ethics. I agree that an ethical perspective should be used in every stage of a writer’s communication.
The examples of defining objectives given in this chapter were helpful in helping me understand how to write for very readers, but I now realize how much practice is needed in order to write an effective communication.