WEPO Thus Far and More

So far I have learned so much in this class in such a short period of time that I am still having a hard time trying to let it sink in and grasping it all. Going back to the first day of class, I think this class is just as it is described Writing, Editing, Print, and Online and it just as much work as Kara warned it would be on that first day. 

Key Terms

When it comes to key terms the most important terms I learned were Rhetorical Situation and Audience. 

Rhetorical Situation. The Rhetorical Situation frames what we write.  Everything has a situation. According to Lloyd Bitzer, rhetoric is situational. Meaning the situation we are in frames what we will write or talk about. I learned that the rhetorical situation could be a hard term to grasp if you think to long about it but understanding a simple definition of it makes it so much easier.

Audience. Audience is another important term that shapes what we write. As we have seen with the different assignments and projects we have had in this class, we know we write differently for different people. Audience has different meanings in different situations. According to Key Terms in Composition, James Porter argues that audience "becomes problematic when we assume that it has a fixed meaning." If our audience is constantly changing it is only fair that the meaning will change.

Knowledge

Knowledge to me is the foundation for composition, and life in general, and that's how it relates to this class.  In life you should only talk about what you know. Throughout my life I have always heard you don’t give advice on situations you've never been in yourself because you don’t know anything about it. The same can be said for writing. Even if you are clueless to the subject matter in beginning, in the end you end up writing about you have researched and learned throughout the writing process. I believe that knowledge does exist and that we learn new things everyday that get stored in the knowledge bank. I feel that we do create knowledge because we take what we want to take from different situations.  Like this class for example, I think we will take away the information that most applies to the career plan we set for ourselves.

Reflection

I think knowledge is a great tool to use in terms of reflection. There is a phrased used often by Oprah Winfrey and she even titles her column in her magazine after it called " What I Know for Sure." I think it is important to always go back in reflect in composition, classes, and just throughout the various situations we are placed in life and to ask yourself " What do I know for sure?" and see what you are taking away from the experience.

Composition

After writing this post and reflecting back, I would say composition to me is writing about what I know for a given situation for a specific audience. I have come to this definition from the basis of my own conclusion that all rhetoric is situational, we write for different audiences, and we should always write about we know.