My motive for being in a writing class is
to work on an art form. I used to be really proud of my writing and confident
in it. When I stopped practicing it, I lost the ability I once had to paint a picture
with my word choice. I’m not saying that I was such a great writer that I could
have been published or anything close to that, but it was something I felt I
could be proud of; proud of being able to convey a message and feeling through
words. The writings I have done for this class up to this point have really
shown me that if you aren’t at least a little bit rhetorically sensitive, all
you ever will write is fluff.
When it comes to a writing style, I would
probably call it haphazard. I don’t make lists or have a plan and I don’t
usually stew over a topic for days. I know that’s terribly rhetorically
insensitive, but that’s how I write. Cut & paste are my two favorite
friends. In this paper alone, I’ve probably used them five or six times. I sit
down in front of a computer with my topic in mind and I let the words flow out.
I like my thoughts to spill out of my brain and onto the page like paint on a
canvas. I find writing this way quite enjoyable because I often find little
gems of prose that I feel will create an emotion in my audience that I wouldn’t
have otherwise found. Writing helps me learn about myself because more often
than not a thought will come out on paper that I never knew I had. Then that
thought leads to another, and another, and before I know it I’ve created a picture
for myself that shows what I believe. I think that’s what writing should always
do. It should give us new insight into our thought process and ourselves.
I am an emotional writer. I have said it
before, but in my opinion, emotion is the absolute best way to reach an
audience. If you can make your audience feel something, your message is much
more likely to be accepted. When I write, I try to spin my words in such a way
as to paint a picture that will evoke emotion from my reader. I married an
artist and have always been jealous of his ability to create. I’ve begun to
realize that even though I can’t draw the pictures I have swirling around in my
head on paper, I can use rhetoric to share the vivid eccentric colors and
emotions in my mind through words and hopefully help my audience to see those
colors as vividly as I do.
I feel that in a way, I use pathos to
gain ethos in my writing. On a website devoted to explaining what Logos, Pathos
& Ethos are, it says, “Ethos is the Greek word for ‘character’”. By using
pathos, appealing to emotion, I show my audience my character; I give them a bit
of what is inside my heart and that’s what defines a person’s character. As a
writer you’ve got to have heart or you’ll never reach anyone.
I started a blog hoping it would help me
regain my rhetoric, but I’ve felt I couldn’t quite get there. It always felt
like I wrote down fluff because “that’s what stay at home mom’s do in their
spare time,” not because I had a message to convey. My motive wasn’t right. I
was trying to write because it seemed like what everyone else was doing and so
that’s what I should be doing. I’m beginning to realize that I want to write
more for my own self-exploration. I’ve also realized that to truly become a
good writer I need to give more of my heart to my audience, terrifying as that
may be. An artist’s greatest tragedy is to never have their work be seen. Without
that emotional connection, no one will ever read what I write.
All in all, writing this paper has again
given me new insight into myself. It has shown me that I am more rhetorically
sensitive than I thought. I think about the emotions that I want my audience to
feel when reading the journey through the colors of my brain. I think about the
art I am creating for my audience to connect to even if I don’t sit down before
hand a plan it all out.
1."Ethos,
Pathos, Logos Explanation and Examples." Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Explanation and Examples. Web. 25 Feb. 2012.
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