Evaluation Rough Draft

Loful Elyardo

Professor Brandon

English 111

06 May, 2013

English 111 Evaluation

            English 111 taught me a valuable lesson is in communication and influence. The process of understanding audiences so you can better communicate with them when writing an essay, speech, or argument is called audience analysis. This skill is very important to have. Understanding the audience’s interests and feelings is a very is an essential step in audience analysis because it is the key to not violating the audience’s expectations. People will not listen if their expectations are violated. Finding connections in experiences the author and the audience share closes the distance between the author and the audience making the message to be delivered and comprehended. Changing how an audience feels, act, behave, and thinking are kinds of influences used. The appeals triangle of logos, ethos, and pathos helps craft the author’s message to appeal to the audience and assert influence on them. Being aware of ethos, logos, and pathos in my own writing helped me to create texts that appealed to my audience in many different levels. Ethos appeals to the author’s credibility, authority, or character using that to support claims. Pathos uses feelings, desires, and fears to appeal to the emotion of the audience. Logos appeals to the reasoning and common sense of the audience. It uses examples to demonstrate points made. I learned that an author’s ability to influence an audience is based on how well the author appeals to the audience. I used these skills on my rhetorical analysis on a commercial featured in the 2013 Super Bowl posted on my blog. I expressed how I recognized the appeals in the commercial and analyzed the influence it had on the audience.

            During my days in English 111 one of the main lessons I learned was on rhetoric. Rhetoric is the study of available means of communications. According to Dr. Wheeler from Carson-Newman College, when we write or speak to convince others of what we believe, we are rhetors. When we analyze the way rhetoric works, we are rhetoricians. One of the things helpful in learning rhetoric was the rhetoric triangle. The triangle is made up of the three appeals. The general means of persuasion are ethos, logos, and pathos. As a communicator I learned that I have to use my credibility to back up my reason to deliver my message and to hold the audience’s attention. The communicator has to have the right appearance for his message, enough authority, and persuasiveness. The message has to have concrete information backed up by evidence. It should have strong argumentative reasons and appeal to the audience’s common sense. The audience’s beliefs and values also come into play for rhetors. The author must craft the message to appeal to their beliefs and experiences so they can better understand the message and be influenced.  Each corner of the triangle is needed for the success of the communication. This course has turned me into a rhetor, helping me become a better leader in this society.

            I learned how to a write a memo during our course. A memorandum is a paper document that is usually short used for communicating inside a group. It was my first lesson on it and I’m glad I learned how to write memos because further down the line it will be imperative that I know how to write a memo. For example, on my blog I wrote a memo to the professor giving him information on a paper needed it to be done. It is informal and informed the professor about new information and updates.