Dear Reader,

As you read my introductory letter I will tell you about the learning outcomes and the change in my theory of writing which were sparked by this course. To be specific the learning outcomes that I will be further elaborating on are as follows: Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations; Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing; Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.

Throughout this course, my progress in understanding the theory of writing has drastically evolved. Before entering this course when I was assigned to create a piece of writing, I usually thought that it had to be in a specific format which I was provided with in my English class and that all my work (including the works that I created outside of my school) had to follow that format or else it wouldn’t be considered worthy enough for recognition. The format included a basic Introduction with a thesis, two to four body paragraphs addressing the prompt provided or the topic of discussion, and a conclusion which would summarize up the essay in a short brief paragraph. After entering this course I realized that there was more to writing than just clamming all information together and placing it in a fashion that would satisfy the criteria of a given format. When trying to explore writing in further depth, I have been introduced to the world of rhetoric. This has helped me tremendously in breaking free from a routine which I was stuck in due to the formats provided to me in my high school years, and helped me evolve my style of writing in many different ways. For example, In writing I learned how to identify a rhetorical situation which is crucial in helping me to understand the purpose and the context behind the piece of work which I’m analyzing. When trying to identify a rhetorical situation I asked myself various questions such as: who is the audience?(who is the writer addressing), What tone did the author use in their writing and why? What is the purpose of their writing? and etc. I have found this questions to be significantly useful not only in identifying rhetorical situations in other pieces of work but help me understand how to make my own writing more comprehensive and how to convey the ideas in my writing more clearly and precisely to my intended audience, by knowing the right questions to ask and which rhetorical elements to use. For example when creating my essay for “Composition in Two Genres” which the topic of focus oriented around ” The Correlation Between Attachment Styles and Adult Relationships” I have stated various ways which rhetorical elements have helped me out in the process, one of them was tone: “Tone can also influence the attention or the way which my composition would be perceived in. I chose my tone to be empathetic because I believe that the type of audience which I’m appealing to tend to appreciate this type of tone more than something that is informative. The reason being is that it makes me sound understanding of the audience’s feelings and makes my work look emotionally appealing.” Emotional appeal played a big role in trying to convince my audience of the importance of my writing, because attachment styles had been proven to have a big impact on adult romantic relationships, and things that deal with romance tend to involve human feelings. Being able to understand the effectiveness of this rhetorical element is already a long way from the first essay which I have written in the beginning of this course. In the beginning I was not fully able to grasp the influence that rhetoric has on writing, so my earliest piece of writing (The Source-Based Essay) strongly resembled to the format which I have been using before entering college. The reason why I was able to see the improvement more effectively was, because this essay was also about a correlational study, only this time the things which were being compared was “Poor Mental Health” and “Workers in High Steak Finance Positions”. In the process of reading this essay, it could be seen that even though I have provided explanation for the evidence which I have cited from sources, I have still not clearly elaborated the use of rhetorical elements or identified the rhetorical situation. Even thought me and my peers have done many useful assignments prior related to practicing and identifying rhetorical situations and incorporating different aspects of rhetoric into our writing, I believe that the more we worked on it the better our writing has become over time, and that is why my progress was much more visible towards the end of the course. In the process of exploring the art of rhetoric, me and my peers have also learned how to identify genre and how it could change the intent which my writing carries. For example, in my Composition assignment I have used a poster as one of my genres, because I believe that this type of genre would be most convenient and appealing towards my intended audience. Like I have mentioned previously understanding rhetorical elements and devices takes time and requires a lot practice. With the inquiry based essay that is exactly what I have received. Creating the inquiry based essay required a lot of drafting, in the process of drafting I have completed various assignments that allowed me to brainstorm my ideas and give me time for trial and error, to experiment with the way I used rhetorical elements. While in the process, having support from my peers and being able to hold peer reviews and discussions have helped me improve my writing by identifying errors more quickly and efficiently. Reviewing other people’s writing has also helped me to questions my own which forced me to look for answers by diving deeper into my work.

On this website I have included all of the main three essays, including assignments which played a crucial role in the drafting process of the inquiry-based essay, as well as Composition for two genres. Hope that you will be able to see the evolution of my writing and use of rhetoric.

Sincerely, Dea Abzhandadze