Final Reflections
Throughout the course of this class, I learned about the rhetorical situation and how it pertains to various texts across my discourse community and others. By going through each of the minor assignments, I was able to gain intricate knowledge of other, more scientific discourse communities and learn how to apply it to my own. When completing the major assignments, I was able to better understand how to analyze the rhetorical situation of multiple discourse communities in the business realm. All in all, every assignment was able to enhance my learning in a unique and relevant way. These skills not only relate to the current Advanced Writing for the Sciences class, but are more than applicable in my professional life moving forward.
While completing the minor assignments, it became clear to me that many of the skills I was learning were very relevant to analyzing the rhetorical situation of texts throughout my discourse community. For example, minor assignments two and three I was able to analyze documents from the business world and get a feel for the type of genres and styles used throughout business writing. The genres I noticed during my endeavors were mainly memorandums and letters to shareholders. While I chose to do the physical assignments on genres that were not either of these, it was easy to identify scientific discourse across the finance discourse community. It was this that helped set me up for my preliminary analyses decision.
For my preliminary analyses, I chose to do my analyses on business letters to shareholders. I figured there was no one better to study than Warren Buffett. It was really during this assignment where I feel like I learned the most. I was really able to grasp each of the three appeals while looking for them within Warren Buffett’s letters to shareholders. For the most part, business writing includes a lot of logos as people are generally trying to use logic and statistics to back up their reasoning in the business world. Furthermore, I went on to better understand style and the type of tone used in my discourse community. I realized that finance people use a clear tone and focus on keeping their thoughts concise while also fully explaining them. While these two things can sometimes work against each other, it was interesting to examine the way they are both crafted into business writing. However, many of these terms simply felt like just terms to me and I couldn’t fully grasp their relevance until I recently edited this major assignment.
While editing the preliminary analyses, I feel like I had a full grasp of the appeals and canons we examined throughout. In particular, I was able to better understand how an author can use his tone and his purpose to create an effective document. By effective document, I simply mean that Warren Buffett was able to keep his audience interested and have them understand what he is talking about despite the complex nature of many things he is tasked with explaining. I feel like I better understand what it takes to communicate across the field of finance. I believe the biggest key is understanding your audience. You must know who they are and what they can understand. It is imperative to leave the audience with as few questions as possible and this can only be achieved by knowing the audience. It is clear Buffett knows and understands his audience and simply reading his letters can help give anyone a better understanding of writing as it relates to communication in finance.
Continuing on with the minor assignments throughout the rest of the course, it was refreshing to read about political issues such as the debate on climate change. I found it interesting that the article claimed that both sides of the argument were ignoring science. I feel that looking back on this minor assignment I can understand exactly why. By ignoring science, both sides are able to better communicate with their audience who is only looking for an argument. This is the root of why many people like politics and is a problem when it comes to serious issues such as global warming. I think it is necessary to understand the rhetorical situation in order to solve problems like this.
All of my experiences throughout the class helped me when it came to the final project. The project that my group completed for Gloria Gemma was completely comprehensive. Throughout the project I found myself constantly questioning the rhetorical situation. For the most part, the audience was the most relevant aspect of this. The key challenge was to find a way to communicate to Gloria Gemma how millennials respond to certain communications. I feel I played an intricate part in this group, not only pulling my own weight, but also constantly editing the final document. I corrected numerous grammar error that could have potentially gone unnoticed into the final document. Additionally, I feel our hard work payed off based on the reaction we received from them in response to our powerpoint.
In conclusion, I feel I learned a lot this semester especially in relation to the rhetorical situation. It was an honor to help Gloria Gemma throughout the semester. It was a pleasure working with Professor Hendrickson for another semester. I learned valuable life skills I will take with me moving forward.
While completing the minor assignments, it became clear to me that many of the skills I was learning were very relevant to analyzing the rhetorical situation of texts throughout my discourse community. For example, minor assignments two and three I was able to analyze documents from the business world and get a feel for the type of genres and styles used throughout business writing. The genres I noticed during my endeavors were mainly memorandums and letters to shareholders. While I chose to do the physical assignments on genres that were not either of these, it was easy to identify scientific discourse across the finance discourse community. It was this that helped set me up for my preliminary analyses decision.
For my preliminary analyses, I chose to do my analyses on business letters to shareholders. I figured there was no one better to study than Warren Buffett. It was really during this assignment where I feel like I learned the most. I was really able to grasp each of the three appeals while looking for them within Warren Buffett’s letters to shareholders. For the most part, business writing includes a lot of logos as people are generally trying to use logic and statistics to back up their reasoning in the business world. Furthermore, I went on to better understand style and the type of tone used in my discourse community. I realized that finance people use a clear tone and focus on keeping their thoughts concise while also fully explaining them. While these two things can sometimes work against each other, it was interesting to examine the way they are both crafted into business writing. However, many of these terms simply felt like just terms to me and I couldn’t fully grasp their relevance until I recently edited this major assignment.
While editing the preliminary analyses, I feel like I had a full grasp of the appeals and canons we examined throughout. In particular, I was able to better understand how an author can use his tone and his purpose to create an effective document. By effective document, I simply mean that Warren Buffett was able to keep his audience interested and have them understand what he is talking about despite the complex nature of many things he is tasked with explaining. I feel like I better understand what it takes to communicate across the field of finance. I believe the biggest key is understanding your audience. You must know who they are and what they can understand. It is imperative to leave the audience with as few questions as possible and this can only be achieved by knowing the audience. It is clear Buffett knows and understands his audience and simply reading his letters can help give anyone a better understanding of writing as it relates to communication in finance.
Continuing on with the minor assignments throughout the rest of the course, it was refreshing to read about political issues such as the debate on climate change. I found it interesting that the article claimed that both sides of the argument were ignoring science. I feel that looking back on this minor assignment I can understand exactly why. By ignoring science, both sides are able to better communicate with their audience who is only looking for an argument. This is the root of why many people like politics and is a problem when it comes to serious issues such as global warming. I think it is necessary to understand the rhetorical situation in order to solve problems like this.
All of my experiences throughout the class helped me when it came to the final project. The project that my group completed for Gloria Gemma was completely comprehensive. Throughout the project I found myself constantly questioning the rhetorical situation. For the most part, the audience was the most relevant aspect of this. The key challenge was to find a way to communicate to Gloria Gemma how millennials respond to certain communications. I feel I played an intricate part in this group, not only pulling my own weight, but also constantly editing the final document. I corrected numerous grammar error that could have potentially gone unnoticed into the final document. Additionally, I feel our hard work payed off based on the reaction we received from them in response to our powerpoint.
In conclusion, I feel I learned a lot this semester especially in relation to the rhetorical situation. It was an honor to help Gloria Gemma throughout the semester. It was a pleasure working with Professor Hendrickson for another semester. I learned valuable life skills I will take with me moving forward.