Rhetorical Knowledge

An articulate writer uses rhetorical knowledge by creating a plan for their writing. The writer must
take in account of how their choices as a the writer will affect their reader and compose their
work accordingly. They are given a rhetorical situation, such as the audience, purpose, genre,
context, etc., and use this to sculpt their work into something that will influence or stick with their
intended reader.

This excerpt from my Studio 6 shows use of rhetorical knowledge by giving background
information on Martin Luther King Jr.’s ​Letter from Birmingham Jail. ​The context is explained
about why he is writing the letter and how he got put in jail. His audience was intended for
mostly white people during this time period, however, reached many Americans still to this day.
This is a piece from Studio 3, in which we were discussing commercials and the strategies each
company used to entice their audience to purchase their brand. They both target a specific
audience and use the context of their commercial to appeal to that certain group of people.

Critical Reading
An articulate writer uses critical reading when reading others work. When we use critical reading
we are looking at the true meaning of what we think the writer was trying to say. We take what is
on the surface and take it a level or two deeper. Good writers use critical reading to understand
other writers and their writing process and also to gain inspiration from other writers.

This is one of my responses from an article titled “How to read like a writer” and this is one of my
favorite pieces we read. This article shows a different way of how to read critically by looking at
the how the writer composed it by a bunch of choices. Every sentence or word is a choice made
by the author and by looking at the why they made that choice can help with our own future
writing endeavors.

This was an article about the newly introduced flipped classroom method. The article talks about
if technology is useful to the classroom and if students are benefitting it. When I looked at it I
took it into a deeper level about how the widespread use of technology and how it is affecting
our generation. Using critical reading I looked at this from a different perspective.

Knowledge of Conventions
An articulate writer uses their knowledge of conventions to make sure their writing is coherent
with the format they are writing in. Knowledge of conventions refers to the correct use of
punctuation, the correct use of grammar and the correct formatting of writing. It is important to
be aware of our conventions so we don’t lose sight of our backbone skills of writing. We try to
make our work so advanced that we often forget the basic skills of writing.

This example from Studio seven was when we read an article about the basic uses of grammar.
It had been a while since I reviewed basic writing rules that most teachers at this level expect us
to know. One major thing that I learned from this is that I use way to many commas. I now know
that if you take a sentence and read it outloud you know where you need commas for pauses
and where you don’t.

This is an example from an exercise we did in class about appositives. An appositive is two or
more simple sentences that get combined into one. This has helped my writing because I think it
makes me sound more advanced. I find then when I have a word count I will create more
sentences to meet that requirement, even if they don’t sound good. After learning about
appositives I know the proper skills to combined them and make them sound more complex.
Another example I learned referring to the use of commas is when introducing someone you
don’t always need to use a comma. When I had originally put “College professor, Kathleen
Donovan, breaks down…” I was corrected and told to take the commas out. This is how I have
always written so I didn’t understand why to take them out. However, after reading it through out
loud I realized the commas were unnecessary.

Composing Processes
An articulate writer uses composing processes to perfect their writing into a piece of work that
they’re proud of and something their readers will enjoy. The writer first must begin with
brainstorming about what their piece is about and their plan of approach to their topic. They
must pick a side, come up with arguments, an intro and conclusion. The next step is a first draft
that is usually picked apart by multiple edits and reviews until you have a final copy.

My first thought process of my inquiry question was my inquiry proposal. This piece of writing
took place before any research and was also my first draft of anything that had to do with this
project. Looking back to when I wrote this, I had no idea the knowledge I would gain, not only
about my topic, but also about writing and structuring a thesis. I was able to take simple ideas
from this proposal and use a greater knowledge of writing skills to compose a good strong
thesis.
Part of the drafting period in writing a paper is research. We composed a research chart
consisting of seven sources, their author, summary, quotes, etc.. I found this to be a very
convenient way to keep all of my information in one place. While I was in the composing
process of my draft I frequently visited this chart for references and to gain information to put in
my thesis.

As another part of composing a draft, I conducted surveys to see where the problem of political
bias stands on UNC Charlotte’s campus. This part was not in my original draft and after editing
and revising, I thought it was a nice addition to getting my point across.

Critical Reflection
An articulate writer uses critical reflection to look at their thoughts in writing and to see why they
made the choices they did when writing. They see their errors and fix them, but also they make
sense of why they fixed them and how this improved their work. Critical reflection not only helps
the writer with their current work, but also in their future writing endeavors when making similar
writing decisions.
After writing our thesis for our inquiry project, we composed a reflection on how the thesis
writing process went. I looked back at the whole process and at my finished product and
analyze what I learned and how I put that to words. Through this reflection I was able to learn
more about my specific writing style.

After our studios we reflected things such as how the the process went for us, things we
learned, or things we enjoyed about it. In this particular studio we were reviewing simple
grammar rules. What this reflection taught me was how to make connections from what we learn
in class to how it will help me outside of this particular class.