Carly Robinett

Michael Healy

ENC 2135

27 September 2017

Project 1 Reflection

I am slowly, but surely, starting to explore how rhetorical situation, genre, and audience
play a role in every kind of writing.
When I write this essay, I can identify all three components in the essay itself, and how
they are working.
The most confusing part of this process for me is analyzing pieces of writing in different
ways than I was instructed in my AP English classes.
o I am generally used to focusing on tone, diction, imagery, figurative language,
etc., and how those strategies and devices play a role in conveying the authors
purpose.
o In ENC 2135, I am challenged to focus more on the bigger picture yes, I focus
on the authors purpose, but rather than digging into the nitty-gritty of the
content, Ive been trying to focus on WHY the piece was written in the first place
and the other things BEYOND the devices that are used to convey the message to
the audience, SUCH AS
Medium
Design
Exigence
Etcetera
This different approach toward analysis has made it difficult to supply content in my
essay as well as structure my paragraphs.
It has also made it challenging to construct a thesis statement.
I dont really know what to write as my thesis and how to tie my paragraphs back to my
thesis. Perhaps it might need to include something about how rhetorical situation
connects to audience and genre, and my paragraphs will reflect that?

This is how I ended up structuring my body paragraphs:

I started off by introducing the source.
I give the backstory, a.k.a. the exigence, that prompted the author to write
their piece in the first place.
I mention who the intended audience is. In some cases, I mention the original
intended audience, and then how the audience expands.
I then mention the purpose the author is trying to convey to the audience, and
the manner in which they do so, a.k.a. genre.
I attempt to conclude my paragraphs somehow. I believe concluding my
paragraphs was most difficult for me. I was unsure whether I should discuss
the pieces as a whole and how they function in the world, or if I needed to
 give a brief wrap-up of how the three key terms function together (I kind of
did this in my conclusion paragraph).
Because my paragraphs were a little long, I went through and broke up some paragraphs
to help with the flow of my essay.
As the course progresses, I hope to gain a better understanding of the broad terms of
genre, rhetorical situation, and audience.
I believe that the more readings we examine and pick apart as a class, the greater my
understanding of these terms will be.
o If these topics were more specified, it would be easier to find a clear-cut
definition. However, I am discovering that each author must determine what
genre, rhetorical situation, and audience mean for themselves.
o The more examples one is exposed to, the better.
o These are not topics one can grasp overnight.
For future projects, such as Project 2, our research paper, I believe using Project 1 to gain
experience analyzing other components of our sources will allow us to a) be more
discerning in choosing sources for our future projects, and b) get more out of our sources.