Stella Lagos 1

Stella Lagos

Gonzalez

ENC 1101

31 October 2023

“Analyzing Personal Works and How they Relate to Rhetorical Situation”

Upon reflecting on my past personal writing pieces, I was able to identify just how

situational writing can be. Analyzing two pieces of mine under the perspective of Keith Grant-

Davie established that there is an exigence, audience, and rhetors in any and all works of writing.

Even referencing works written before I knew about rhetorical situations, I can still connect and

distinguish components from rhetorical situation I unknowingly utilized.

The first piece of writing I chose to analyze was an excerpt from one of my responses to

my college application for the University of Central Florida. The exigence of the first prompt

begins with my ingrained desire to apply to UCF specifically, above all other schools. I knew my

audience as the UCF admission committee and appealed through rhetorical strategies. I began

first by mentioning my familial connection with the school, as my parents were both alumni.

With this familial connection, I gained better credibility to what I knew about the school because

I had resources to recount, “I'm so thankful that my parents were a part of that ever growing

history and I was able to hear and see first hand the way so many different parts of our

communities, and the world have come to know UCF.” (Lagos). Additionally, the personal

element of my parents being alumni strengthens my motive for wanting to attend the school

because of how prevalent it was as I grew up. I began the response by saying, “UCF will always

hold a familiar significance in my heart, as it is a household name for my family, with both my
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parents and multiple family members being alumni. Black and gold always decorated the kitchen

fridge as it's usually cluttered with Knight magnets and memorabilia.”, which proved that UCF

had been a part of my life from the beginning (Lagos).

I made use of logos by referencing how my major fits into the school I was applying to,

saying, “Throughout life I discovered a passion for human connection whether it be through

psychology or journalism. I'm thrilled to know UCF not only caters to my career aspirations but

additionally provides a richly diverse community where I may set out my next chapter; knowing

I'm among a tapestry of people and history that I hope to be a part of.” (Lagos).

I knew my audience and wrote accordingly, making sure to highlight the positive impacts

the university had on myself and its community when responding to the prompt: Why did you

choose to apply to UCF? I was my own rhetor, expressing my thoughts and admiration for UCF,

as well as specific interests to me surrounding that reflect on my potential positive influence and

contribution to the UCF community. I included phrases such as, “I've learned the importance of

selfless serving. Gathering students, community leaders, school administrators, or city officials

takes a unique and diverse skill set… It has taught me the vitality of leadership as well as

collaboration.” to further emphasize all I have to offer for the communities within UCF (Lagos).

Here, I appeal to Keith Grant-Davie’s philosophy in “Rhetorical Situations and their

Constituents” that says, “Rhetors may invite audiences to accept new identities for themselves,

offering readers a vision not of who they are but of who they could be.”. I contribute to this idea

by explaining the skills I have developed and am willing to utilize at and for UCF.

Despite all of my reasonings, my response reads as highly emotional and subjective. With

choices such as “hold a familiar significance in my heart” and “I'm thrilled”, I seem to heavily

rely on emotional appeal. Additionally, my overuse of positive language could have actually
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hindered my acceptance chances because of how generalized I make my perception of UCF out

to be. With language like, “It is a literal incubator for ideas, innovation, and actions. When I

think of the thousands that have gone to UCF, or the millions that have been impacted by its

community of alum, I want to be a part of that. I hope to take in the opportunities offered by the

rich history UCF has come to be known for.” I assume the school is a perfect match with no

flaws whatsoever (Lagos). Furthermore, I lack any type of self critique, and play up my

strengths. This could hurt my chances because it prevents the insertion of personal growth which

is often a more highly praised quality than simply performing perfectly from the start.

To improve upon my response, I could mention more about objective reasons rather than

personal emotional, to balance out the appeals so they feel evenly weighted. Additionally,

examples of self growth or even unachieved challenges or trials would add greater self

awareness.

The second piece I chose was a feature story for a journalism course I took senior year.

The exigence was to create a narrative article that goes in depth surrounding the generational gap

as it pertains to technology. I focused my examples around my grandfather and his experience

and ultimate adaptation to new technologies specifically in his medical practice.

Referencing Grant-Davie’s words, “rhetors often face ‘composite’ audiences consisting

either of several factions or of individuals who each represent several different groups (214-

17).”, I wrote the article with a journalistic approach because of my audience being my

Journalism teacher. However, since the piece was supposed to read like a genuine article, I had

the additional task of appealing to a larger audience. Being that the assignment read as a public

article and discussed a wide range of age groups – specifically Generation Z and the Silent

Generation – my audience now grew to accommodate for these hypothetical readers.

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Throughout the piece, I inserted anecdotes from my grandfather's life to set the scene,

provide context, and relate to his specific experiences within his cardiology journey.

“Innovations toward nuclear cardiology introduced nuclear stress test machines, a totally new

machine that was now necessary to operate efficiently if he wanted to become a successful

doctor…The HITECH Act was enacted in 2009 and enforced the use of electronic medical

records. This was big, seeing as years prior, offices like Dr Gomez’s would manually fill out

each patient’s medical information on a small medical card. However, under the surface, EMR’s

turned out to be a double sided coin. It sought to eliminate file cabinets, leaving more space for

confusion. Regardless, Dr. Gomez braved the formidable depths of early 2000’s software and

came out alive.” (Lagos, 2)

I chose to refer to advancements as a euphemism for replacement in the quote, “This

perspective shifted, as year after year, ‘advancements’ became synonymous with ‘replacement’.”

hoping to invoke skepticism and emphasize the negative perception the silent generation – of

which he belongs to – typically has toward new technologies (Lagos, 1).

Like Grant-Davie suggests, “situations often involve multiple rhetors”, and the rhetors of

the article are myself, the author, Dr. Jorge Gomez, and the modern generation. While I

technically was the one to “define the situation” as Grant-Davie puts it, they are still relevant

contributors even if not directly to the work because of what Grant-Davie says again, “arguably

all of them involved in the sales pitch share the role of rhetor, as a rhetorical team.”.

While I mentioned because the piece was meant to read as an article, the target audience

was pretty large. Due to the wide range of potential readers, the article poses a few constraints,

specifically aimed at relatability. Since I chose to surround most of my research about the Silent

Generation around my grandfather, the findings become a bit skewed. While I did specify my
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comparisons to be made within the medical community, the experiences of Dr. Jorge Gomez

greatly differs due to cultural and personal factors.

Researching more about the common perception Silent Generationers have on technology

would have helped me develop a more unanimous statistic. This could be done through examples

of other individuals in the medical field who share the same age range. As well as simply

addressing the obvious constraints by inserting a disclaimer that transformed the piece into

having a more tailored approach.

Coming back to these two pieces helped me realize just how much framework there is in

every piece of writing I do. Following Keith Grant-Davie’s format of “Rhetorical Situations and

their Constituents”, I discovered constraints that went unnoticed and every component that went

into creating the final results of the two works. Analyzing them through rhetorical situations

additionally aided my understanding of writing and how my approach varies depending on the

audience and or exigence. What’s more is this analysis has now trained my brain to recognize

rhetorical situations in everyday works of writing and especially in future pieces I have yet to

write.

Cited Sources

Grant‐Davie, Keith. “Rhetorical situations and their constituents.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 15, no.

2, 1997, pp. 264–279, https://doi.org/10.1080/07350199709359219.

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