My expectation from the reading of the articles over the semester wasnt what I was

expecting when the course began. In fact I assumed it would be solely based on
what business reports are, the only expectation I got right was that we did work on
some memos. I saw this course more as a philosophy class that created a lot of
critical thinking, and forced me to put sincere thought into my writing which made
me feel a little bit of a philosopher in how I approach a reading.
When I engaged in the reading of an article usually the first paragraph or two didnt
make much sense, I had to find some common phrases to get some perspective, it
was almost like reading poetry you have to find a way to make sense of it all and
usually that meant gobbling a little sentences at a time and digesting it slowly
meaning I had to read it over a few times before it started to make some sense. Not
all of the articles of course werent that complicated but there were a few brain
teasers, but did my reading practices change? No it did not; I perused it the same
way from the begging to the end.
I wouldnt say the articles made a big impact but it did get me thinking about what
a genre is, and looking at rhetorical situations for what they are. I saw these
particular explanations as a new way of phrasing terminology I already knew, once I
understood the concept in a way that made sense it helped categorized for me the
terminology of rhetorical situations and how to use this new way of thinking. It was
positive new way of thinking from different perspective angels.
I dont mean to sound like a broken record but the rhetorical situation from Lloyd F.
Bitzer was very insightful for me in the explanation of the rhetorical situation. This
was the first time I realized that this particular subject has been debated since
around Aristotle, and for this reason came to the conclusion that this is a philosophy
subject. He showed how rhetorical situations manifested in different communities
that catered for those particular situations. However genre as a social action by
Carolyn Miller was a little bit of a brain teaser, it took me a while to understand the
concept of a genre, and how its molded by different communities to fit different
discourses. This new found understanding of genre and rhetorical situations will
help me understand that my own personal discourse community will be different
from others and it will require different lexis, genres, and purpose to every exigence
for every discourse outside my own.