better late than never

I agree with the previous posts that writing the assignment was a bit of a task. Needless to say, creating the assignment from a different perspective put a new spin on things. I found myself reading, re-reading and re-reading, trying to make sure someone else could understand exactly what I wanted. I found myself double checking grammar and using the thesaurus quite a lot. One of the handouts had a list of helpful active verbs and in what situation to use them. I think it was orange. Anyways, I found that very helpful to clarify the assignment so I didn't repeat "create" "develop" etc. Your parting comment about which professor surprised me. I guess I would much rather the ambiguous professor with room for creativity. Then, I would probably go and argue after if the assignment was not to his/her liking, but still I see your point. It's a happy medium that (unfortunately) few teachers are able to achieve. I find most of my assignments are either too wordy or so far out in left field I think I stepped into the wrong class. Just curious, what would everyone else prefer -- lengthy assignments or little guidance with room for personal interpretation (note the rhetoric)?

My First Tutees!!!!!!!!!

People finally came to me for FYS help! Two students came to my office hours today to go over their nine-page papers that they have due tomorrow, and voila, i recieved help from them as well!
I realized how truly different writing can be from student to student. Students do not come to tutors just for grammar help as some of our readings have mentioned. One boy came today with tons of research, but not one thought on paper. He needed help organizing his ideas and narrowing his thesis. I helped him brainstorm for a while and told him to come back to me with his introduction (since he was writing in the library anyway). Two minutes after he left, another student came to me! I was so excited to finally do something! The second student had his paper entirely done: well written, organized, strong thesis, but NO citations or scholarly sources. It seemed as though the two students had the exact opposite problems!
As much as I have read and studied tutoring and mentoring this semester, I still learned so much through helping these two very different writers.

The Assignment

I so agree with Laryssa. This assignment made me have a new found respect for anyone in the teaching profession. There were times when I could not get out what I wanted. I knew in my head what I wanted to say but to put it down on paper was difficult. I wanted to be precise and did not want to confuse the students. How can I explain it to them without all the complicating and confusing words?

Another problem was actually assigning the work. How much was fair? There came a point when I was like "they are going to hate me" I felt as a student it was a fair amount of work to ask of a student but knowing how some students think, if I was to give my assignment out, there would be more then a couple of grumbles. Come to think of it, so would I! Those were the many challenges that a professor face, and it was only ONE assignment. Can you imagine a WHOLE semester? Kudos to them.

Am I the only who had trouble with the grading? I really did not know how to grade the assignment. I did know what would make a 2.o paper and a 4.0 paper but i could not find a grading policy. Whew! Who knew that this would be so hard?

Rhetoric and Assignment Instructions

An interesting observation I made when designing an assignment for my FYS class is how important rhetoric is even in instructions. I realized how difficult it must be as a teacher to create assignments with concrete learning goals and being able to explain the assignments thoroughly and concisely on paper. It is also difficult to know how to lay out the instructions for an assignment making sure that every aspect is explained and easy for the student to refer back to at a later date. I know we have all had professors who give little guidance on assignments and you are left with so many questions that you feel you will just be annoying the professor. Then there are professors that write a couple of pages explaining the assignment and evaluation criteria. I would rather have the latter because you are not left making assumptions about the professor's expectations.

Ethos...and public speaking

I agree with what was said in the chapter on speaking Ethos, logos, and pathos. It says that ethos is something that we contantly DO during a speaking situation, but it is not always something we pay attention to. For instance, what we wear is important to how we are recieved by our audience. You would never wear jeans and a tee shirt to a formal debate, and if you did, you most certainly would not be taken seriously by your audience, which in turn depletes your credibility (ethos). It is important to always pay attention to the way you present yourself as a speaker, because your credibility is essential in getting your message across to the audience. If they don't think you are credible, then your message will not be as openly and positively receieved by them.

The Importance of Dialogue

After reading the article by Nicholas Burbules entitled "Dialogue in Teaching", I got to thinking about how we use dialogue in our every day life. Not the fact that we use it, but HOW we use it to relay messages to others. Every time we send a message to someone through dialogue, we are using a mixture of the various forms mentioned by Burbules. It is impossible to only use ONE form when sending or recieving dialogue. We are either engaging in dialogue in a group where we are discussing something (dialogue in conversation) but at the same time throughout that conversation we might be trying to persuade them to think one way or another about a certain topic (dialogue as debate). It is unavoidable to use all four forms at some point. I would go so far as to say that every conversation uses all four forms by the end of it. At least, that is my observation and my opinion. I really liked this article because it really related to what I study as a communications major.

Okay, this is more of a venting post. In one of our first classes, Hillory handed out a worksheet containing many different definitions of rhetoric. We spent most of the class discussing these definitions, as well as the Herrick article, "The History and Theory of Rhetoric." One topic of discussion we focused on was the difference(s) (if it even existed), between rhetoric and communication. According to Herrick, the differences between rhetoric and communication are very small. Herrick states, "If persuasion is central to social organization, and if the art of rhetoric takes in the study of persuasion, then our lives as members of human communities are inherently and inescapably rhetorical." In my opinion, everything humans do is rhetorical. Whether we are designing buildings, talking with a friend, or dancing, rhetoric is always involved. I was a bit perplexed a few days ago when one of my professors brought up the topic of rhetoric vs. communication. I was giving a presentation on visual aids and mentioned rhetoric and the strategies of ethos, logos, and pathos. Since my audience was not quite ready to discuss the differences between communication and rhetoric, I decided to leave the topic out; yet, when my professor brought it up, she stated, "And what I'd like to note now that there is a distinct difference between rhetoric and communication. Communication is the sending and receiving of messages, while rhetoric is communication with intent, motivation, or a goal." I was shocked -- keep in mind that this professor is highly decorated and I would easily consider her a knowledgeable source of information. Naturally, I did not want to correct her in front of an entire class, but I think that in order for rhetoric to advance as a strong term it is important that all are on the same page. A unit or study of rhetoric should be mandatory for all first-years in either FYP or FYS, isn't rhetoric equally or more important than learning how to write a research paper? Rhetoric is involved in daily life and the ability to recognize and employ it is very impressive. Rhetoric is a life skill.

Doing Too Little

Ok, this is sort of a comment to Ryan's post and something I was just thinking about. We talked about minimalist tutoring and how the student the can learn more if we do not engage ourselves too deeply in their work. However, I have a question for you guys, can a tutor do too LITTLE in helping a student? What I mean is, well, we talked a lot about how we, as tutors can do too much but what about not doing enough? Can we find an in-between? By trying hard not to do all the work, is there a chance that we could do more harm then good? I was reading Ryan's post and all these questions just popped in my head and I realized that I did not know the answers, I don't even know if there IS an answer.

I never thought that tutoring could be so hard or so complex. I really thought tutoring would be easy, I would just go in, help the student with their paper and that would be it. Silly me, right? There is so much more to it.You have to worry about too much and then on the other hand, make sure that you're not doing too little, its enough to make someone crazy. Or maybe I'm just thinking about this too much but I think that being a tutor would require me to give it all the thought that I have.

Styles

So this week I observed a few mentors and tutors helping students with papers and projects for our journal entries. I decided to do my two entries on the two mentors that I felt were the most productive and efficient in their job. They both took on the roll of the minimalist tutor very well. I personally admire this approach because it really gets the tutee to think. It helps them more then if they were told what to do, I feel, because if they were told what to do then sure their papers or projects would be good, but would the student learn anything? That’s the real question.

By being a minimalist style tutor, I feel that you really work the student into creating a better way of thinking. The way these two mentors guided the students who needed help turned out to be very effective because each student left with a greater feeling of accomplishment then those who were just told what to do. That is why I support this style, because you are rewarded with that feeling as a tutor as well.

Vagueness, Politics and Rhetoric

As I was finishing the readings for this week, one quote really stood out for me. This quote to me can explain how and why people perceive rhetoric as something evil, especially when used in politics.

"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of the British rule in India...[and] the drooping of the atom bombs in Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness" (Booth 107).

I find this to be true and used too often. There have been many political speeches that I have heard in which the politician answers the reporter's questions without really answering the question. I don't know about you guys but it leaves me scratching my head thinking "what in the world...?" This leaves the audience saying things like "That was all rhetoric" and not really seeing what rhetoric is. I also see this as a person not taking their audience into account. It is like politicians are trying to confuse us on purpose and through all the vagueness and deceit our perception of rhetoric becomes misconstrued. Sure there are subject matters that may be harsh to hear but can cloudy run-around answers really help? The answer that I got from the quote is without vagueness and quite simple...no

Drawing the Line...Where?

As I was observing a tutor in the Word studio, I started to think about the article that we had to read for class last week, Minimalist tutoring: Making the Student do all work by Jeff Brooks. Can a tutor totally NOT involve themselves into the student's work. The article talks a lot about how to tutor without doing ALL the work and we did some role play in class but it may be harder then that. Well, at least for me.

There have been times when I looked over one of my friend's paper or peer reviewed for class and wanted to change the paper to please me! I caught myself thinking things like, "I should put this here or took that away then..." or "This doesn't sound right, maybe I should say it like this or hmm...". Maybe this doesn't all that bad and maybe its a good mark of being an efficient tutor but will I be able to draw the line? I noticed the subject of my thinking was me or "I". If I tutor a student, it should be about the student not me. I would hate to be one of those tutors that completely takes over the student's paper.

One line that I think that all tutors should take in to account is "When you "improve" a student's paper, you haven't been a tutor at all; you've been an editor" This quote hit because as so simple as it is, it holds so much truth. How can a student learn if you, as a tutor, fix the paper yourself? I know I will think about this quote if I ever think I overstepped my duties or didn't perform it adequately.

Visual Rhetoric...beyond the grave

We'll be talking about visual rhetoric in a few weeks, discussing such things as how to help students make posters, PowerPoints, webpages, or handouts that look professional and get the right message across. So I actually did just now snicker out loud when I saw this fake news image from The Onion, captioned "Wrong Font Chosen for Gravestone":

How Can a Man Clam?

I found this quote today in an article by Henry Lous Gates Jr. that I was assigned to read for Methods of Critical Analysis, and I thought it was particularly appropriate since we'll be talking about oral presentations next week. Bear with me, it's a bit long...(he is talking about an incident when he was giving a talk to a college honors seminar on Frederick Douglass)

"Everything was neatly schematized, formalized, analyzed; this was my Sunday-best structuralism: crisp white shirt and shiny black shoes. And it wasn't playing. If you've seen an audience glaze over, this was double glazing. Bravely, I finished my talk and, of course, asked for questions. 'Yeah, brother,' said a young man in the very back of the room, breaking the silence that ensued, 'all we want to know is, was Booker T. Washington an Uncle Tom or not?'
The funny thing is, this happens to be an interesting question, a lot more interesting than my talk was. It raised all the big issues about the politics of style, about what it means to speak for another, about how to distinguish between canny subversion and simple co-optation-- who was manipulating whom? And while I didn't exactly appreciate it at the time, the exchange did draw my attention, a little rudely perhaps, to the yawning chasm between our critical discourse and the traditions they discourse upon."

Okay, so if anyone is still with me after that mouthful...I just think that it is a great example of someone not taking their audience into account. This man felt very prepared, had everything organized and ready, but never thought about how the people actually listening to his speech would feel about it. Lesson learned.

Mentoring Expectations from Students

As an FYS mentor I have had students come to me for help often and it is interesting to observe the way I approach their needs. I have noticed that I tend to start out as a minimalist because I ask my students what I can help them with and what their concerns are about the paper or assignment. Often they are able to tell me, but they have no idea how to approach their concerns. This is when I tend to become more directive or we would both sit there in silence. It can sometimes be frustrating when you do not want to tell the student exactly what to do, but they are not responding to your questions or I have had a student actually say "ok well I don't know, what do you think I should write here". It seems that most students expect mentors to be directive and to tell them exactly how to perfect their papers. It is difficult for me to let them learn on their own because I do know exactly how to fix their papers since I took the FYS last year, but I am there to guide them and not tell them exactly what to do. They will not learn this way. It is difficult because most students expect the answers and not a lesson.

Lonely Mentor

I’ve now been an FYS mentor for four weeks and NO ONE has come to see me yet! Why don’t people want help with their papers? Do they think it will take to much time or that it will be embarrassing?

When we role played in class today, being the tutor and the tutee, it was much easier to play the role of the tutee. The example paper would have been MUCH better if someone –ANYONE- had read it over. I wish I could assure all first years that writing mentors are harmless and can definitely help. For the first years that I am mentoring, I wish I could go to their class and tell them that it is easy to come and get help. Unfortunately, I have class during their FYS meeting time, so I guess I just have to sit in the library and wait for them to come to me on their own.

Rhetoric and Sports Psychology

I just finished reading an article for my Sports Psychology class about the development of coach-training programs. The following sentence was found under the section heading credibility and persuasiveness: "The perceived similarity between a communicator and the target of the message affects the power of persuasion" (Smoll and Smith, p. 468). I found this interesting because of our class discussion involving a long conversation about rhetoric and persuasion. We were trying to decipher the difference between these two words. Smoll and Smith's article, even though they are psychologists, suggests that the most important aspect of rhetoric and communication is the relationship between the communicator and his/her audience. If rhetoric is meant to persuade then the environment the communicator creates affects his/her ability to persuade. Since Smoll and Smith's article is about creating workshops to improve coaching behaviors, the person who will be speaking at these workshops must know how to approach the art of persuasion without purposefully letting the audience, which would be the coaches, know that this is his/her intentions. The following sentence even suggests something else: "With respect to trusting a communicator's intentions, credibility increases when the communicator does not appear to be purposefully trying to persuade the target" (Smoll and Smith, p. 468). This suggests that rhetoric is meant to trick the audience into being persuaded and that this is what makes a good communicator and someone the audience trusts.

Aristotle's Path to Knowledge

I finally figured out how to become a contribut0r!

I just read Gage’s Why Write and it is interesting how philosophers viewed writing and communication. Here is one quote that really struck me:

“Aristotle did not think that there could be anything like a “systematic” set of “rules” that could lead to knowledge” (pg 12).

This reminds me of the different outlooks that professors have on how classes should be taught. Some classes are very structured with a powerpoint for every chapter of a textbook, whereas, some classes are more laid-back discussion classes. I prefer structured or “systematic” classes because I know exactly what is going to be on the final exam. Aristotle might question my preference by asking how much knowledge or material did I retain from each class. The information is more clear-cut in a structured class, but does that mean I’m getting more out of it? Probably not. Gaining knowledge and achieving a certain GPA can be two very different processes.

Emboldened Rhetoric

Although I'll admit that The Daily Show's politics skew liberal, I always admire the way their writers are not afraid to call anyone--of any political stripe--on sloppy uses of language...dare I say, of sloppy rhetorical choices.

A few days ago the show did a great riff on the use of the phrase "embolden the enemy"--something that we're told we do if we, for example, vote for Democrats, question the current running of the war, etc. The montage of clips showed that politicians on every side (even the guest that night, Democrat Joe Biden) had thrown the word around. It was a great mini-lesson in semantics. (I would link you directly to a YouTube page for the video, but Comedy Central's parent company, Viacom, has ordered YouTube to remove Viacom video from the site.)

Here, though, is the way "reporter" John Oliver summed up the way language has gotten tangled:

Well, this is an odd, unconventional war. This isn't like World War II where there were winners and losers. It' s a new kind of war where enemies can either be emboldened or beweakened. So we have to enscare them to the point where they rebecave themselves. We must disimagine the very figment of misunsuccessiveness. That is what we have to bedo.

Welcome, New Rhetors!

Welcome to those of you in the two sections of Rhetoric and Communication Theory and Practice who will be posting to this blog at least once a week. Feel free to read through old entries to get a sense of the range of things you might muse on here. Because the blog will soon be open to all tutors and mentors (and to some graduates who've expressed interest in keeping up with us), it seems the most interesting posts will be ones that touch on real life--tutoring experiences, frustrations at the rhetorical choices of others, things you hear or see in the media, etc. Add links and pictures whenever it seems appropriate, and make connections to interesting quotes from our readings when relevant.

Conference Proposal 1+1=11: A Look Into Faulty Reasoning

What strikes me about the topic I chose is that it is real. I fully advocate that with a better understanding of argumentation, students will gain critical thinking skills and communication skills essential to all fields of college, as well as the real world. Take for instance a tutorial I gave on a bleak Monday evening. A friend of mine was concerned with her organization and needed help with a piece of writing. Being an analytical type of writing, how could I say resist? Coincidentally, this tutorial was the reason why my proposal holds truth. The piece of writing was a Defense Statement made to the District Attorney's Office in response to a speeding ticket.

The student made three main claims, none of which were supported. The claims were good, they were statements that said she shouldn't get a ticket, but they never really explained why she felt so. One more thing I couldn't help but notice, her argumentation was rhetorically declined. Her arguments weren't persuasive enough, or did not effectively appeal to the audience. Being that the District Attorney has more than likely read thousands of Defense Statements made by college students trying to get out of speeding tickets, the argument is going to have to strike a logos with him or her.

So, reinforcing the concept of the necessity of emphasis of argumentation, the proposed argument really does help prepare you for the real world, and can also help you get out of $300 speeding ticket fines.