Brown, 1

Avery Brown

Dr. Angela Miss

2/13/17

UWRT 1104

Rhetorical Analysis

While some people may not think it would affect them, the actions people commit and

see can have an effect on one's writing. Your culture can change the way you view different

things in the world and that in turn changes your writing. Someone from another part of the

world will normally have a different way of seeing things as someone from the U.S. would. I

would have a different take on the world and the people and places around me than almost

anyone in the world.

However, our culture does not only affect one's writing but it also affects one's behavior

and decision-making ability. An example would be hanging out with certain people can influence

someone to do things someone would not normally do. This applies to me as well. I act almost

completely different when I am with my friends versus for example if I am by myself. I act more

open and friendly when I am with my friends as opposed to being quieter and reserved as for

when I am by myself. Along with people affecting someone's choices. Everyday activities can

have an effect on your decision's you make.

Someone, for example, might instead of studying for a test or writing some of a paper

that is due instead ignore his more important responsibilities in order to do something more

appealing and fun for them. I am no stranger to this as it is something I do more than I would like
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to admit. Being the nerd that I am it is surprisingly easy to blow off doing homework or

studying. I will most of the time ignore studying in exchange for watching a show I really like or

talking to friends. There are countless other activities I do that could be instead used to improve

my study habits and get ahead on homework.

However, all activities don't have to be counterproductive like the ones mentioned. There

are actually a lot of positive activities that one could participate in. Such as setting times to study

or attending SI sessions. For me, this is something that I need to improve on tremendously, as

mentioned I am quite the gamer and nerd and I tend to let other things cloud my thoughts from

what I truly should be doing which is studying or getting ahead on homework. These bad habits

eventually end up affecting my writing some ways for better and some for worse.

The writing I decided to review was a courtly romance story I wrote in high school. I think it

encapsulates a lot of who I am as a person and in general, it feels as if it is one of the better

things I have written.

The overall theme of the paper was meant to be a courtly romance, a romance filled with

knights, kings, and chivalry. However, just from a slight skim through of the paper you will

notice it is not your normal knightly tale. It takes place in a very different world than your

normal medieval tale. There once was a knight, he was revered throughout all the land of

Freljord, an icy and prosperous domain. I, of course, would thank my love of video games for

giving me some of the most interesting concepts and ideas to write stories about such as the one I

am doing this analysis on. Video games have always been impactful in my life and they have an

influence on me no matter what I do and they definitely have an impact on my writing as a

person. Most every time I am assigned a writing assignment or need to write something creative

I look to my experiences in video games as a way to get ideas for a story.

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I don't only get ideas from some of the games I play, however, the romance theme of the

story was thought of due to the shows I have watched. Some of my friends are really big in the

romance genre of shows and movies. So I thought about giving them a try and I have been

hooked ever since. Some movies can tell stories that would be impossible in the real world and

drives the imagination wild with some of the most detailed and emotional narratives in the world.

I try to incorporate some of these elements into my writing in hopes of being able to create a

story that can do have the same effect on someone that the movies do. Though, these ideas don't

always transition well.

A common pattern in my writing has always been trouble with transitions. The transitions

throughout the story are rather choppy and the overall flow is there it's just not up to what I

would like it to be. The transition between each paragraph is fine but can still use some work by

not just using the same few words over and over again. The paragraphs tend to start of the same

as well leaving it to feel like there are almost no transitions. The flow, however, I think is not as

bad as the transitions, the story flows how it should except for a few parts that could be changed

and added to make the story seem complete and less choppy.

Another pattern that I noticed in this story was the "duels" in the story were very

straightforward and not too detailed. All of them start and end the same. The main character gets

pushed around, main character figures out weakness, the main character exploits weakness,

fights over. The fights or "duels" in the story could have been more flushed out and more thought

could have been put into them. More detail into the fights scenes would have helped the overall

feel of the story.

This courtly romance story is still, I would consider being, one of my better writings and

I feel expresses who I am as a person very well. The imaginative fantasy world that I was able to
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construct due to the help of the games that I play. The romance aspects that I incorporated from

the multitude of different things I watch thanks to my friends and I feel with just a little more

imagination and attention to detail this could be the best thing I have wrote in my time as a writer

in school.

Bibliography

Brown, Avery. Freljord. Courtly Romance class assignment. Southern Lee High School.

Sanford, NC. n.d. Print.