DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Writing Analytically

 

Theory into Practice

This section serves the purpose to demonstrate my abilities to extend rhetorical theory beyond the PWR curriculum.  Aristotle says that rhetoric is the faculty to find the available means of persuasion in each particular case.  So, any adept professional writer or rhetorician should be able to understand how to cater to the needs or requests of any audience, no matter how much the situated context varies

 

In this case, I’ve provided two critiques: one comparing and contrasting Sigmund Freud and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the other critiquing several of Michelangelo’s paintings.  Both of these essays illustrate original critical analysis and an ability to craft an argument so as to engage my audience in a meaningful way.  The audiences for both of these papers happen to be the professors for the respective courses, but as such, they were not only informed audience on the topics I chose to write about, but could be considered experts. 

 

Analytical Engagement

I wrote both of these pieces as a junior and put them in the contexts of stepping-stones: having already extensively studied rhetorical history and theory, I was able to put that theory into practice here while at the same time able to create documents that I could then reflect on and use to propel myself forward in my professional writing education.  As a senior and having reflected upon these pieces in order to improve as a writer, I can say that what I did well was to not only understand my audience but to engage them so that they were active in their reading of the text: they had to rethink what they already knew and then open up other avenues of thought upon reading my documents. 

 

This is what engaging in a discourse community is about – using past texts to create new text so as to influence yourself and your audience in the creation of future text.  Having been told by both professors that I offered insight on the respective topics that they had not previously considered, I feel confident that in their future writing, reading, or even discussion of said topics that my documents will have some influence on the way they approach those conversations, whether it be verbal or textual.  

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.