Thank You Catherine
Dear Cath,
Thank you so much for making my experience in your class so enjoyable and impactful at the same time. I have always loved my English classes in the past, however sometimes a good class can be negatively impacted by a teacher who is not passionate about the topic they are teaching. This was far from the truth in your class, and for that I am more than grateful. I loved learning new things from how to spot, as you would say, bullshit to learning how to incorporate passion into things in order to evoke emotion in an audience that would otherwise be left unmoved. All of the things you have taught us may have been small lessons when standing alone; but when put together, every lesson from this semester acted a building block to create an amazing foundation of skills to move forward and utilize for the rest of our lives. Thank you.
Thank you so much for making my experience in your class so enjoyable and impactful at the same time. I have always loved my English classes in the past, however sometimes a good class can be negatively impacted by a teacher who is not passionate about the topic they are teaching. This was far from the truth in your class, and for that I am more than grateful. I loved learning new things from how to spot, as you would say, bullshit to learning how to incorporate passion into things in order to evoke emotion in an audience that would otherwise be left unmoved. All of the things you have taught us may have been small lessons when standing alone; but when put together, every lesson from this semester acted a building block to create an amazing foundation of skills to move forward and utilize for the rest of our lives. Thank you.
Learning Outcomes
Rhetorical Knowledge
The importance of rhetorical analysis has always been emphasized in my English classes. Everything has some sort of reasoning and is intentional. The first piece we analyzed this semester was from Gee. He utilized appeals to emotion by relating his argument to the audience on a more personal level.
“Gee effectively argued his claims by using thorough explanations to describe the reasoning behind them. He also uses plenty of examples that can be applied to the everyday lives of the majority of his audience. Like Jay Heinrichs said, ‘arguments play on your emotions, change your attitude and talk you into a decision.’ Gee did this through the appeal to emotion by relating his argument to the audience. He used examples of teaching institutions and professors to make the audience apply his argument to their firsthand experiences in the real world. He also addresses counterclaims like when talking about institutions generally. He admits to their effectiveness and necessity but then tears them apart by proving how trivial and old-fashioned many of their ideals are. By doing this he is using the ‘They say I say’ formula discussed in the book by Graff.”
This was my journal entry analyzing the piece and picking apart every intentional strategy that we had learned so far.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing
This course helped me to establish good habits when it comes to researching topics, using the information I found to build a sufficient argument, and turning multiple random thoughts into one cohesive statement. One habit the course taught me was to narrow down a few focusing questions before diving into research. An example of some focusing questions I used for my classical argument include “What are the effects of captivity on these animals and their trainers, why were animals brought into captivity in the first place, and what is an alternative educational source for people if animals were to no longer be brought into captivity.” By coming up with these few focusing questions, I knew exactly what I should be looking for when sifting through the information in my potential sources.
Processes
One of my favorite exercises in this class (and all of my classes before) was the fast writes about things that piss us off or break our hearts. This has become such a good exercise for me to get my passion and creativity flowing before starting assignments. The first one I wrote was about intolerance in today’s society.
“In today’s society intolerance is so prominent it has become the norm. Intolerance of race, religion, sexuality, political beliefs, the list goes on and on. I believe that if someone is doing something that makes them happy and it does not harm others, they have every right to do whatever that is free of judgement. Similarly, when others force their beliefs down the throats of those around them, it does nothing but create tension. Debating ideas is an important part of learning new things but it has become so negative that it no longer introduces new ideas but rather suppresses those that don’t align with those of the person doing the arguing. Also, seeing minorities in the media does NOT count as forcing it on the public and especially not small children. It is NORMAL to see homosexual couples or transgender people or people of color in the real world so if it offends you that two guys just kissed on Modern Family, you’re completely disconnected from reality”
Later on I did a similar fast-write, but about Sea World and animals in captivity, which would later become the topic of my Classical Argument Essay.
“I know at this point Seaworld seems to be an old and tired topic, but it still makes me so angry. Most animal captivity, for that matter is just infuriating to me. The documentary Blackfish really brought to light some of the dark things going on inside parks like Seaworld. The mistreatment of the animals and trainers alike sparked much controversy. There was already a tornado of controversy circling around the park with the deaths and injuries of many orca trainers. It lead to the debate over whether or not these Killer Whales should be held in captivity. I personally believe no animals should be held in captivity at this point. Initially, zoos were good for educational purposes, as information about animals from Africa or Antarctica was much more scarce and not as easily accessible. Today with the internet and the millions of informational sites it is home to, there isn’t any need to go see a polar bear pace in a concrete cage. Contrary to most human belief, the earth and its’ inhabitants are not here for our entertainment. If you want to see a giraffe, get your happy ass on a plane to Zambia and see one in its’ natural habitat or hop on google. Especially when it is at the disadvantage of the animals, captivity is unacceptable. Animals are not disposable things for humans to gawk at while they slowly die. There is no reason for animals to still be in captivity today.”
Both of the topics I fast wrote about were things that both pissed me off and broke my heart. For this reason, they were things that I could easily talk about for as long as necessary. I have always believed that things done with passion are done well, and if you don’t have passion for what you are doing you should not do it at all.
Knowledge of Conventions
The most challenging yet beneficial topic for me this semester was learning APA style. Never before had I used this formatting in any of my previous classes. It was almost as if I was learning a foreign language for the first time. One of the hardest things about APA style is citing references, as it is so different to MLA which I have been accustomed to every other year of my academic career. Below is an example of one of the sources from my classical argument essays.
Beyond the Zoo: How Captivity Affects the Mental Well-Being of All Animals. (2015, November 13). Retrieved from https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/how-captivity-effects-the-mental-well-being-of-all-animals/
The importance of rhetorical analysis has always been emphasized in my English classes. Everything has some sort of reasoning and is intentional. The first piece we analyzed this semester was from Gee. He utilized appeals to emotion by relating his argument to the audience on a more personal level.
“Gee effectively argued his claims by using thorough explanations to describe the reasoning behind them. He also uses plenty of examples that can be applied to the everyday lives of the majority of his audience. Like Jay Heinrichs said, ‘arguments play on your emotions, change your attitude and talk you into a decision.’ Gee did this through the appeal to emotion by relating his argument to the audience. He used examples of teaching institutions and professors to make the audience apply his argument to their firsthand experiences in the real world. He also addresses counterclaims like when talking about institutions generally. He admits to their effectiveness and necessity but then tears them apart by proving how trivial and old-fashioned many of their ideals are. By doing this he is using the ‘They say I say’ formula discussed in the book by Graff.”
This was my journal entry analyzing the piece and picking apart every intentional strategy that we had learned so far.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing
This course helped me to establish good habits when it comes to researching topics, using the information I found to build a sufficient argument, and turning multiple random thoughts into one cohesive statement. One habit the course taught me was to narrow down a few focusing questions before diving into research. An example of some focusing questions I used for my classical argument include “What are the effects of captivity on these animals and their trainers, why were animals brought into captivity in the first place, and what is an alternative educational source for people if animals were to no longer be brought into captivity.” By coming up with these few focusing questions, I knew exactly what I should be looking for when sifting through the information in my potential sources.
Processes
One of my favorite exercises in this class (and all of my classes before) was the fast writes about things that piss us off or break our hearts. This has become such a good exercise for me to get my passion and creativity flowing before starting assignments. The first one I wrote was about intolerance in today’s society.
“In today’s society intolerance is so prominent it has become the norm. Intolerance of race, religion, sexuality, political beliefs, the list goes on and on. I believe that if someone is doing something that makes them happy and it does not harm others, they have every right to do whatever that is free of judgement. Similarly, when others force their beliefs down the throats of those around them, it does nothing but create tension. Debating ideas is an important part of learning new things but it has become so negative that it no longer introduces new ideas but rather suppresses those that don’t align with those of the person doing the arguing. Also, seeing minorities in the media does NOT count as forcing it on the public and especially not small children. It is NORMAL to see homosexual couples or transgender people or people of color in the real world so if it offends you that two guys just kissed on Modern Family, you’re completely disconnected from reality”
Later on I did a similar fast-write, but about Sea World and animals in captivity, which would later become the topic of my Classical Argument Essay.
“I know at this point Seaworld seems to be an old and tired topic, but it still makes me so angry. Most animal captivity, for that matter is just infuriating to me. The documentary Blackfish really brought to light some of the dark things going on inside parks like Seaworld. The mistreatment of the animals and trainers alike sparked much controversy. There was already a tornado of controversy circling around the park with the deaths and injuries of many orca trainers. It lead to the debate over whether or not these Killer Whales should be held in captivity. I personally believe no animals should be held in captivity at this point. Initially, zoos were good for educational purposes, as information about animals from Africa or Antarctica was much more scarce and not as easily accessible. Today with the internet and the millions of informational sites it is home to, there isn’t any need to go see a polar bear pace in a concrete cage. Contrary to most human belief, the earth and its’ inhabitants are not here for our entertainment. If you want to see a giraffe, get your happy ass on a plane to Zambia and see one in its’ natural habitat or hop on google. Especially when it is at the disadvantage of the animals, captivity is unacceptable. Animals are not disposable things for humans to gawk at while they slowly die. There is no reason for animals to still be in captivity today.”
Both of the topics I fast wrote about were things that both pissed me off and broke my heart. For this reason, they were things that I could easily talk about for as long as necessary. I have always believed that things done with passion are done well, and if you don’t have passion for what you are doing you should not do it at all.
Knowledge of Conventions
The most challenging yet beneficial topic for me this semester was learning APA style. Never before had I used this formatting in any of my previous classes. It was almost as if I was learning a foreign language for the first time. One of the hardest things about APA style is citing references, as it is so different to MLA which I have been accustomed to every other year of my academic career. Below is an example of one of the sources from my classical argument essays.
Beyond the Zoo: How Captivity Affects the Mental Well-Being of All Animals. (2015, November 13). Retrieved from https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/how-captivity-effects-the-mental-well-being-of-all-animals/
Portfolios of my Peers
After reviewing the content of the websites that my peers have created for their final portfolio project, many interesting things have been brought to light. First of all, I noticed how creatively inclined so many of my classmates are. In addition to the visually pleasing aspects of the websites, many of my classmates had thoroughly developed ideas that they had organized into their classical argument essays and advanced appeals. One of the most coherent and mentally stimulating of these essays was that of my classmates, Tiffany Ellington. Her argument was so well developed that it would have passed as one of the pieces we analyzed in class. She discussed the anxieties of students and how educational institutions have failed to prepare their students for the issues of the real world. Tiffany was not alone in impressing me with her works. Megan Newsham was another peer of mine who impressed me with her work. Her advanced appeal took the comedy of satire to another level while still providing content and commentary on the roles of men and women in the future of their children’s lives. There were so many impressive portfolios produced by my peers and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what they had been working on all semester. It was an amazing semester surrounded by some remarkable students.
Response to Heinrichs
Heinrichs wrote in the final chapter of his book, Thank You for Arguing, about how we have lost the ability to argue. He also discusses the importance of rhetoric and the role it plays in so many things that lead us to where we are today. One of his main arguments is that rhetoric could be the solution to our political issues in this nation. Heinrichs writes, “I intend to show you the indispensable role that rhetoric played in founding the American republic, and how its decline deprived us of a valuable tool of democracy,” (Heinrichs). Without rhetoric and constructive argument, our society has declined. This statement shows the raw importance of rhetoric and its’ involvement in all aspects of life.