Exercise 1

1.) a.) A recent experiment suggests that there are dangerous levels of Chemical X in the Ohio groundwater.
b.) Although I should know better by now, I cannot help thinking that this novel has certian flaws.
c.) I've always believed that football is so boring.
d.) It is often said that male students often dominate class discussions.
e.) You would think that the film is really about the problems of romantic relationships.
f.) I cannot help thinking that templates like the ones in this book will stifle my creativity.

Reaction to Eisner

I found the Eisner comic strip explaining comics to be a pretty interesting read. According to Will Eisner, comics have to have sequential art which is somewhat common sense, but he also adds that it is stirctly neutral when it comes to style, quality, and subject matter. Meaning that a comic can pretty much cover any topic. The comic goes on to say that most people stereotype comic books into being for 8 year olds, an offense I am definetly guilty of. The comic often takes to long to get it's point across but still gets the information about comics across. The part about abstracting a real life photo was particularly interesting and the images used were particularly helpful.

Workshop Homework

1.) As a genre, workshop drafts have a few specifics as to what they look like. For instance, most workshop drafts may be more choppy, as the writer is just beginning the process of writing his paper. The draft may also contain grammatical errors that the writer may have overlooked or need rewording, due to it being his first draft. If the writer did a good job, however, the paper should mainly be a preliminary version of what the writer wants to achieve, basically being a written out outline.The audience for a workshop draft is the writer's fellow student as the purpose of a workshop is to get your peer's response in order to improve your paper. The teacher may also be included in the audience if he provides additional recommendations for the writer. A final draft differs from a workshop draft in its purpose and audience in that the final draft is your final version of your paper and is written for only your teacher. Also, a final draft is for a grade where as a workshop draft is not usually graded, atleast in my own experience.

2.) If I were to review Essay R in a workshop I would provide a few reccomendations. First, I would reccomend he looks back over his paper for grammatical errors, as there were many in the essay and it's a simple error to correct. I would also reccomend he provide more sources in his paper as he only cites a website, which has weak credibility. Referencing the WWE's website, for instance, would be a much better option. Another issue the paper had was that while the writer discussed present day wrestling throroughly, he barely touched upon wrestling of the 80's. Seeing how the purpose of the paper was to compare and contrast the two, the focus should be more equal. A last reccomendation would be to reorder some of his sentences and to scrap some of his paragraphs althogether in an effort to improve the flow of his paper, as it felt choppy and oddly ordered.

Grading Essay R

After reading the essay contrasting wrestling today vs. wrestling of the past, I would say the author deserves an A-. The author uses all the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos, in presenting his argument. He has credibility as he cites specifically mentions statistics describing how the WWE generates much more money comparitively to the past, as well as citing that he has been a wrestling fan since his youth. Logos is used as the author uses common sense reasoning, citing facts that contrast wrestlers from two different areas, such as how today's wrestlers are more devoted to stay in shape and lift weights many times a day. Finally, pathos is used as the author sadly notes how wrestling of today is more vulgar than the past and cites specific words to evoke a reaction from the reader. The author has decent diction, his opening and closing sentences are decent as well. One thing he could have improved was the flow of his essay, as some paragraphs are somewhat choppy, although it doesn't interfere with him accomplishing the purpose of his essay.

Exercise 2h

1.) The writer's rhetorical situation seems to be the Primaries for the Democrats in the presidential election. He seems to be writing for the main purpose as to dissuade people from voting for Hilary Clinton, mainly because he focuses on her husband's faults and assumes she will be similar to him in office. His audience would be his fellow college students who also read Collegiate Times, due to him writing an editorial posted by the paper.

2.) The genre conventions used in the text are referring to past errors (such as Clinton's sex scandal) and also making strong claims, as many editorials do. I have never written in this genre, however I have read various editorials and political writings and both the conventions used were familiar to me.

3.) Instead of an Editorial, the writer could have used another genre such as an actual article. An article would have had an advantage of being more fact based and less opinionated, however he may be sacrificing some of his appeal for his side if he does not come off strong enough as he would in an editorial.

4.) The writer could deliver a speech in front of a public space in order to communicate his purpose to another audience altogether. This would allow him to communicate to a wide array of people, as almost anyone can attend a speech. The writer may need to censor himself somewhat, as the array of people attending could vary in age. He would also need to alter his style of writing, as a speech has a completely different writing style than a speech.

5.) Another profession's writings that would have the same genre conventions as an editorial would possibly be movie reviewers or food critics, as the base a lot of what they say on their opinion, which is what editorials essentialy are. I can't imagine a social worker, teacher, or scientist using the same genre conventions.