I am not an organized person when it comes to writing. I will probably try to organize my whole process but could never follow through. I always start research early and have all my information written down to have an idea on how to structure my essay. However, when it comes down to sticking to my outline and start writing any type of essay I would never know how to start. As I am writing this, I have done research on different types of writing theories that students have and the way that they found their voice on their writing.
I have been writing essays since first grade. Learning to organize different words together, following the rules and how they would affect each other starting to create sentences to paragraphs. Yet, I was born in Spain where the regulations were different. When I had to transition to learn a new language it became difficult to learn everything over again. I found difficulty in finding a voice within my writing.
In high school teachers instruct you to write papers that are straightforward to a prompt without allowing you to search for your voice. The teachers would only teach you how to fix your grammar and focus on answering all the points from the prompt. It’s like they build robots just for them to pass you on your regents and pass onto the next grade. However, as I got to college, I was able to understand the whole process of writing by doing research on different styles depending on the assignments. It was more open, and I learned that it did not just have to be based on the assignment but more of exploring the rhetorical impact that it has upon your writing. My view of the word rhetorical changed its definition from high school when I was told that it was just questioning to college when I was taught that it meant an active conversation.
As I have been exploring on my speech class the impact that this idea of rhetorical impact it has upon your writing. The more rhetorical terms being used into your writing the more your audience begins to connect to how you deliver it. I have done multiple speeches but the main thing that I realized was that it was all based upon this idea of who is the audience. Without an audience there is no sense on what direction your speech is heading since it’s creating a tone and making connections.
For example, for one of my speeches we had to deliver an informative speech of our own choice. In which I focused on a topic that my audience and I would have a connection finding it interesting. My speech class is filled with college students who range from freshmen to juniors which helped me narrow down my choices. The main thing in New York City is that young people always go out but spend more than thirty dollars when we go out, however, I decided to inform my class about the different free events that take place at Bryant Park. I had to work alongside my audience to have a sense of direction in terms of the language being used for them to feel engaged and enjoy the information.
During my speech, I gave an example of an event, “ Yeehaw nights that are extremely interesting since the atmosphere changes and they make it feel like the south with people dress up like cowboys. As this year they brought a mechanical bull and had different activities like learning square dancing, and so on”. This illustrated an event at Bryant Park that people from all ages could take part on and would catch their attention to spend time there. It targets my audience who is young and wants to go out without spending more than twenty dollars. They would be informed of the free event that they have at Bryant Park and take advantage of other events that occur at Bryant Park.
Engaging my audience is not the only target but also establish a tone that it could be entertaining and beneficial to engage in these free activities. Bryant park “focus on relieving stress for workers around the area and hold painting lessons to help them relieve their stress and connect with other people”. Workers are not the only ones who are stressed but college students who need to release stress without spending great amounts of money. The tone affects the language being used since it is straightforward to not bore students out and not be confused on the different things that they could explore.
Focusing on this tone creates a stance that college students need to save up money by taking part in free events at Bryant Park or any public park that holds events to be entertained and relaxed. The relationship between the audience and the tone establish a base for the language and stance of the speech since there is connections of how one could develop the next one. A relation that has been built on how the rhetorical situation pushes people for a change.
Understanding that writing comes from the concept of people who are trying make a change by capturing their largest audience. I first try to know the type audience I’m trying to reach to have research shaping my topic, to be more defined on how you want to lead my work. I always try to establish the type of language and direction to be based on my audience. For example, if it is doctors than I should focus more on scientific terms rather than college students who prefer straightforward language. In which is tight up by the tone to understand the direction that the author is leading the story to build on. Therefore, the rhetorical terms are used to structure the direction that the writing is leading but starts on the direction that your audience would lead you to understand the stance.
In conclusion, my theory of writing is based on the concept of how the audience is the foundation of every piece of writing. It all works on how you explore the topic and see who you are trying to create an impact on but to do that it needs to be based on your research. The audience is the component that allows you to figure out how in depth a piece can go in terms of the language. The language is the depth of how many would be able to understand your piece and how the stance could be portrayed clearly. The rest of the rhetorical terms work based on the audience which are led by your research and use of language.
