Respond to Amela

I liked how you compared reader-centered research to how we research in school. Who you are writing for depends on how you will research. In school we are writing for a professor to show what we have learned. In the work place we are writing for superiors or co-workers to inform, share, or persuade them. There has been one exception to this when I took my speech class. Of course this is orally communicating our research instead of written communication. The teacher was more concerned about how we were delivering, but the students/readers were more concerned with the information we were communicating to them. The research was more centered to the reader/listener than for ourselves and it does seem to make a difference.

Chapter 6 and 7

Chapter 6
Chapter six is all about how to research effeciently and effectively. The beginning of the chapter reinforces that we must consider our readers needs and what information will be valuable to them. Then we must make a plan by taking our reader's questions and find possible sources to answer them. Also, it's a good idea to assess each source and know when to consult the source. The book makes a good suggestion to check each source for other sources. I have done this in the past and found it very useful. Sometimes the sources I accidentally found were better than the original source. It is also a good idea to have a credible source, otherwise how are your readers going to believe you. If they have any doubt about the source, then it could prove a lot more difficult to persuade your readers.

Chapter 7
Chapter 7 touches on five research methods. When I think of researching methods, I think of researching books and the Internet. However, I never considered brainstorming and taking what I already know as researching. After reading this chapter, I realized that brainstorming is something I always do before I start researching other sources. My favorite way to brainstorm is cluster sketches. A lot of my classes in the past have used this technique as class exercises and I have found it very useful. It tells you what you already know and what you want or need to find out. Searching the Internet is the source that I usually go to first. You can do it in the comforts or your own home and find a lot of useful information. I find a useful tip for searching online is using boolean operators. I have used them before, I just didn't know what they were called.
The library can also be very useful. My experience in the past is that I have found more in depth information at the library.I have never interviewed or conducted a survey. I think both would be very interesting to do and probably more useful when conducting research for on the job.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is something that we use everyday without even realizing it. I always considered rhetoric as something we use only when we write. However, everyday we are using persuasion in our conversations to express ourselves or our thoughts. There are three types of rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos. I will use examples of the the three rhetorical devices that I use at my work in a clothing store.

Ethos is the identity of the self and how we define ourselves to other people. We are doing this everyday whether it's someone that we just met or someone that we have known our entire lives, we are always defining ourselves to other people. Work, personality, interests and hobbies, etc. are all things that define us and persuade people of our identities. In retail, we can use ethos by expressing ourselves through our clothing styles.

Pathos is the emotional aspect of rhetoric. We use emotion to let others know what we are feeling. Our values and beliefs influence our feelings and how we react to everyday situations. If I feel strongly about one of my values then I can use pathos to persuade someone to do the right thing, whether it be recycling or treating people with respect at work. In retail, I use pathos by letting customers know what clothes are the trendiest and what I feel looks the best on them.

Logos uses logic and factual evidence to persuade others. Logical evidence can be very persuasive because it uses the cold hard facts. I use logos to tell customers that we are an easier store to shop at because we do convenient returns compared to other stores in the mall.

Chapter 4

I felt like chapter 4 is very useful information for workplace writing. How to organize your document is very essential and can either make or brake you. Organizing hierarchically, group together the items your readers will use together and putting your bottom line first are all important strategies. I feel like giving the bottom line first, especially in the work place is very important to do because people don't have time to sit around and read long documents all day. Getting straight to the point will enable your reader to know what you want without all the nitty gritty details. However, whenever the point is negative or if you are trying to persuade someone then it is probably best to save your main point until the end. Otherwise, your reader can become defensive and not really consider what you have to say/write. I also think that adding modular designs or graphs are very effective ways to get information across. They will grab your reader’s attention better than a paragraph explaining the information, especially for visual learners.

I also find outlines to be very useful. However, they do not seem as useful in the workplace. I think of most workplace documents as short pieces 1-2 pages long. If the document is going to be any longer than I think it is very essential to write an outline to organize your thoughts and information. I was unaware that there were computer programs to help outline your paper and move certain parts around easier. I thought it was really cool and something that would be very useful to students and workers.

Respond to Chris Marshel

I thought you brought up a good question at the end of your blog. Is ethos, pathos, or logos the most rhetoric in the work place? I really think that it depends on the profession. For example, grade teachers or social workers probably focus more on emotion and how the other is feeling so they would use pathos. They would really take into consideration how other people would react in certain situations.
On the other hand, scientists or engineers would probably take the more logical approach and focus on logos as their rhetorical device. They use step by step procedures and hypothesis to come up with certain results.
I couldn't quite think of a profession that would have more ethos for persuasion in their writing. Maybe advertising companies or businesses that are trying to identify themselves to the public or stakeholders. Either way, I think they all play important roles in the business world and some rhetorical device may be used more just depending on the profession.

Ch. 3

Geez! There are so many different things that you must take into consideration about your reader to write an effective document. First, you must figure out why the reader is reading your document, what they want from that document and how they will use the information. Then, you must define your reader's attitudes and learn their personal characteristics. When reading this part, I was skeptical because how do you really know what you reader is thinking and their personal characteristics? Yes, you can sit down and interview them. However, I don't think that that really happens in the business world. In this section, the book also pointed out that each reader is unique and the writer must try to take into consideration each and every reader without abandoning the others. This almost seems impossible to me to cater to each of your readers attitudes. The best writers must have the ability to do this and/or they are experienced writers who have gone through a lot of trial and error.

I agreed with the book that understanding your reader's culture is something that should be taken into consideration. I also feel that this is a more possible obstacle to overcome. The book had some really good examples between American culture and Asian culture and this is information that you can learn before writing to different to people of different cultures. It's information about whole group of people, not just certain characteristics that can be so specific and hard to obtain.

Other things to take into consideration were to learn who all your readers are such as phantom readers, who may be hidden from you but are still important. Also, future readers and having a complex audience are considered. Ethics also play a part including considering stakeholders who are very necessary to consider in the business world.

There are so many things that come into play when writing for your reader. I did not realize that it was so complex and that you really must break down you objectives and who your readers are before you can persuade them. The next time I write an important document or even give a speech I will take into consideration these guidelines and see how they effect my writing and my readers/listeners.

Melissa Bonneville

Free style on writing

English was never my strong subject. I am the student who always excelled at math instead. However, I do like to write for myself and I have been known to keep a journal every so often. Grammar is where I seem to struggle the most in English because there are so many different rules and exceptions to the rules. Hopefully this class will help me perfect my grammar and really concrete the grammar rules that I have learned before.

Research papers can also be interesting to do because you learn so much while you are researching. It also helps to retain the information you are reading by putting it into your own words even though that can be difficult at times.

At the work place, the only writing that I do is emailing my district manager. I am an Assistant manager at a retail store and that is the most common way we communicate to one another outside the store. The major way I communicate with my management team is orally. Otherwise we will write informal notes to one another. Communicating through email with my district manager is also very informal, but I would like show him through my writing that I am more professional. I think that even though it is informal, my writing style could still make a statement about me and could make me look better in the long run.

Melissa Bonneville