Phase 2 part 1

The text in which I observed an interesting rhetorical strategy was in “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. Tan writes about her exposure to the English language outside of her home. Growing up, she only spoke “broken” English at home, but when it came to the start of gaining her education she had to learn to speak “standard” English. Repetition is an important literary device a lot of writers like to use in order to let the reader know which parts of the text they should pay the most attention to. It allows the writer to provide emphasis without having to use exaggerated language. One way in which Tan uses repetition in her text is by connecting her past experiences to both the English and Chinese language. She does this in order to maintain the focus on her theme. Tan also repeats phrases such as “I” and “I am” in order to maintain the reader’s attention on her personal story. I found it interesting that Tan uses repetition to describe her relationship with language, specifically in English class. She spoke about how math is precise and easy to understand, but that English texts were usually made up of “fill-in-the-blank questions”, and this is something that she never did well on. I believe that Tan wanted to provide emphasis and build her argument with the repetition she used throughout the text. Our mother tongue is the first form of speech one hears shortly after birth and into early childhood and it shapes us as people. Tan’s purpose in writing this text is to allow us to understand that this is not a bad thing, instead, it adds to our literary identity. The intended audience was readers that can relate to her situation, or that have had a negative view of people that have never learned to speak English the “correct” way.

Another rhetorical strategy Tan uses in her text “Mother Tongue” was her use of pathos. Pathos or the appeal to emotion is used to purposefully evoke emotions in order to make the audience feel the way the author wants them to. By evoking emotions in the reader, the author is able to have a greater impact on them. This will ensure that the author’s message will stay with the reader for a longer period of time. By using pathos, Tan gives readers a different perspective on “broken English” by shedding a more positive light on it, allowing the reader to see the difficulties that may come with assimilating into an English-speaking community. One example she gave was when her mother was blatantly treated differently from Tan due to their difference in language capacity. She specified how her mother felt in that moment, which evoked sympathy in me, the reader. I could feel the frustration felt in the situation, as I’m sure Tan intended me to feel. Another example Tan provides the reader is when she explains how she can never find another alternative to the word “broken” when describing her mother’s language. She strategically uses words that prompt the reader to think differently about words used to describe her mother’s English, such as “broken” or “fractured”, by expressing her own discomfort towards those labels.

Lastly Tan uses oxymorons. An oxymoron is a writing strategy that combines contradictory words with opposing meanings to create emphasis. Some oxymorons are used accidentally but reading these words usually causes the reader to pause and think about what message the author is trying to convey. Most of the time oxymorons are used to deliberately draw attention to something. What I found interesting about this rhetorical strategy is that in a way opposites attract, when it comes to using an oxymoron in a sentence usually two or more words that are the complete opposite of each other are used. In the text, Tan draws the reader’s attention to a prevalent issue in society with the use of this writing strategy. Tan gives the example of when her mother is shouting to her stockbroker’s boss in her “impeccable broken English” this example of an oxymoron is used to emphasize that although her mother’s English is broken it is still good enough to get her point across and that’s all that really matters, therefore, making it impeccable. The intended audience is a versatile being as this text can be either for people who feel the same way about broken English or others who may need a little convincing that having “broken” English isn’t such a bad thing after all. Tan wants to build a connection with her audience in order for them to have a deeper understanding of the subject.

Phase 2 part 2

My audience for this rhetorical text are cheaters, the ones who don’t feel remorse to be exact. I tailored my language and rhetorical choices by incorporating both pathos and diction to confront the reader while also making them understand how their actions can affect others. I used harsh and direct language to emphasize how their actions are inexcusable, and how they can be detrimental to one’s mental health. In this phase, I learned how to structure my writing to better execute my use of rhetorical strategies to evoke specific kinds of emotion in the reader. I have learned to be more intentional and how to efficiently convey my writing goals.

 The terms that have better impacted my writing are audience, context, and, purpose. Knowing my audience allows me to better tailor my writing and rhetorical strategies to the reader in a way that they will understand. Context allows me to paint a complete picture, without this term my audience may not fully comprehend my text. I now use purpose as a guideline to better construct my thoughts, as it allows me to stay focused and within the lines of my vision. All of these terms will help me with my future writing assignments.

This phase’s assignment helped me “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.”  After finishing my writing piece, I noticed that drafting up an assignment had become a little easier than it typically was for me. Usually, I would not know what to write about and even when I did, I would have trouble putting the piece together, but because I’ve been drafting a little more often the act now comes quicker to me. I believe that this skill will help me through my college career being as college does require a lot of writing whether it be in future English classes or other classes that require me to write papers in a short amount of time.

A cheater is usually fueled by power and drawn to risk, some like the adrenaline that is felt when on the verge of being caught by their significant other, while others may just like being sneaky and doing things that no one else knows about, but why do you cheat? Why do you feel the need to put others through that kind of pain, sometimes unfaithfulness can scar someone to the point of no return, you can hurt someone so badly that they feel their heart can no longer love, turn them cold and detached, and uninterested to any form of affection. It is evident that cheaters simply do not care. They don’t care because if they did, cheating wouldn’t even be in the question, and yes I’m speaking to you, the reader. Your lack of integrity can be really sickening, because why cheat when you can just let the person know you’re no longer interested? I think the word I’m looking for is cowardly. The fact that you can hurt someone like this and not think twice about it is selfish. And although It may be hard to sympathize with a cheater, I can understand their actions to a certain point. Commitment and faithfulness are both very hard things to maintain but then again if this isn’t something you can put up with then maybe you shouldn’t be in a relationship in the first place.

Believe it or not, there are many alternatives to cheating, like polyamory for instance this way you can cheat on your partner with their knowledge. Okay, that might’ve been a harsh way to put it, so instead, I’ll give you the actual definition according to google. Polyamory is “the practice of engaging in multiple romantic (and typically sexual) relationships, with the consent of all the people involved.” This is definitely an alternative for people that can’t stay in a committed relationship, such as yourself. You probably think that my purpose in writing this is to throw shade, and you’re not entirely wrong, but I actually just want to give you a different perspective on the subject. Imagine being completely in love with someone, so in love that you’re close to the point where you would do just about anything for this person,  and just as you are having these thoughts you get a call from someone claiming to have slept with your significant other. Now how do you think that would make YOU feel? Just as I thought.

 You are now questioning everything, contemplating where you went wrong, wondering if it’s your fault, but you didn’t and it’s not. They simply didn’t love you the way you thought they did and it doesn’t mean you’re not lovable, it just means you loved the wrong one. Don’t CHEAT. 

Phase 2 part 3

The argument I chose for my rhetorical text was cheating and its effects on people. This text is targeted toward the cheaters themselves, I decided on this audience because in order to fix a problem you must always start at the source. The genre I selected was a blog for this same reason. Blogs are usually a person’s personal opinion about a topic and I had a lot to say about this one. A lot of negative things at that, and this brings me to my first intended rhetorical strategy. I chose pathos in order to hopefully get them to sympathize with the people they have hurt. Using pathos for one of my rhetorical strategies was a fit given the rhetorical situation because my hope was to evoke enough emotion in the reader to persuade them to stop being a cheater therefore I feel like this sense of “tough love” or hostility the reader might’ve felt was a good way to get my point across.  In my writing, I wanted to sound serious and almost intimidating in a way, I believe I was able to accomplish this with the help of my second rhetorical strategy.  Diction is a choice of words and phrases in speech or writing, I chose this strategy because I thought it fit well with my other strategy, pathos, and my argument as well. 

I believe that the language used in this text also connects back to diction itself because both of them were what allowed me to convey the tone I was hoping for. Lastly, since this text fell into a more personal perspective the blog genre was the best choice considering blogs are usually less statistical and more of an opinionated kind of writing piece.