When I was first told that I could choose any topic I want to write my essay about, I had a lot of different ideas and strategies on how to get the best mark. Since high school, I only focused on getting good grades and never thought about what I actually like to write and what makes me happy when I write. On the train home, I started making a list on the notes app on my phone of what I like talking about and what makes me joyful. I stopped for a long period of time and I was stuck on this one simple question. However, I know for a fact that overall I am happy and grateful with everything I have in my life. It is just the question of what specifically brings me joy. Then, I realize, my “signature” according to my friends is my laugh. Thus, laughing, even though I am not sure on what specifically I am laughing at, makes me delightful.
My initial theory of writing when I first came to class was to write a topic that the teacher will like reading. I started to look up list of topics that an English teacher would like and nothing came up. I then looked up about politics since in class he would talk about politics for a long period of time. However, it was hard for me to write when the topic did not interest me. I remember attempting to write about politics on my notes, as soon as I wrote a few sentences I realize how dull and dry it was.
“What do you know about politics? Let me tell you the situations right now. In March 10 to March 24, there are 7 parties competing to be president for the democrats. They are Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden. Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the two leading competitors. The current statistic right now is thirty eight percent for Biden and thirty percent or Sanders. Why are they winning? Sanders is winning because many young American “do not feel financially secure not they feel confident about their future. He promised them that he will pay attention to justice in terms of economic and social.”
As an author, I have found that identifying and considering my audience is the most important task. I want to know not only what I need to tell them, but how I can excite them.
Perhaps when you hear your dad making a joke, you think, “here he goes again.” He says, “Hey kid, Why did the picture go to jail? Because it was framed.” Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we roll our eyes. Although most of these jokes are dry, they have the potential to make our daily lives light and unburdened. Little jokes that oftentimes we consider unimportant and embarrassing are part of the little joys of life. Therefore, I want to bring something that we often consider to be unnecessary, which is “Why should we laugh?”
From writing this introduction, I was able to relate to what I write. As human beings, we most definitely have laughed at least one in our lives. I have put being joyful as one of my priorities in life, as I have lived a dull and boring routine before and nothing excites me. A question of “what is the purpose of living?’ often crosses my mind. Therefore, when we take a step back from our daily activities to laugh, we can see how much better life can be.
Furthermore, as an English as second language (also known as ESL) student, I had trouble reading texts in English in long article. When I analyze articles, I never tried to understand what the rhetorical situation is. For the Scholastic Aptitude Test, I looked up a few videos on youtube on how to answer the reading section of the test. They highly recommend ESL students to read the questions first and only look for the sentences that relates to the questions. Therefore, when I read texts, my brain was not used to reading and analyzing the rhetorical features. Now that I am obligated to apply the rhetorical features, such as audience, genre, language, and tone, I start to understand the author’s purpose in writing the texts more. I was able to feel what the authors are feeling when they write the pieces.
Chamarro indicates how people “has not really survived the “personality war”,” meaning that we are going through altering personality in our daily lives. It is a battle in our minds about ourselves that none side has won.
Although I have read the whole passage of this article, when I do not try to understand the rhetorical situations of the article, the analysis can be sidetracked. It is also difficult to understand the deeper meaning and symbolisms that the author use through the texts.
Chamarro believes that people are constantly going through a “personality war,” where people could change characteristics as they live. He then contrasts it to the fact that “people don’t change careers very often.” This highlights the fact that a person cannot constantly change their careers, however a person is constantly changing in personality. Therefore, these quizzes might match our personalities for a week, will it match the next week?
When I slowly read and digest the purpose of the text, there is some transparency that the author is conveying indirectly that can be seen “in between the lines,” even hear the tone. This could potentially lead to another further question and more research to be done. Hence, by understanding the rhetorical features of the text, not only that we understand the one text more, it also gives new and different perspective from other sources. This is a reason why analyzing the rhetorical features is important, especially when one is trying to discover and learn deeply about a certain topic.
Through writing and analyzing articles, I was able to understand the question that I have been pondering, “Why do people write?” As writing could be enjoyable when the topic that we write about is what we actually want to dig deeper unto. In writing a piece, it should be enjoyable for both sides, the author and the audience. When the author demonstrates passion through their writing, the reader would feel more engaged to the text they are reading. The reader can “hear” the author’s tone and relate more to the author. This is also the reason why analyzing rhetorical feature is significant when reading the text. When we read the passage closely, we are able to perceive what the author was feeling as well as their thinking process in writing. When we understand the text, it could lead to more unanswered questions; which is necessary during research. Therefore, when we look closely to the passages and write it down, our ideas and hypothesis evolve and expand to greater understanding of the topic. Writing have the power to alter our perspective and digest the thoughts in our brains.
