Getting started

Being thrown into the middle of a story is always complicated. It makes it difficult to understand the story. Without the backround information, which is what the introduction truely is, the reader is lost trying to find out what the story is about. Introductions are needed to tell the reader what they are about to read, and a little background information on the subject.

Introductions should have a good opening sentence. Something that makes the reader want to read the paper, essay, or article. Following a good opening sentence, there should be a good explanation of what the paper is going to discuss. What is the point of writing the article? Now would be a good time for definition of the subject or main point of the story. Summarize what you are going to talk about. Tell what the paper is going to discuss and let it merge into the actual paper. The body of the paper should follow, with the conclusion wrapping up the paper.

Classification and Division. What it actully means.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear classification and division, I think of math, or recently, of English. In both cases, it makes me yawn and want to sleep. So, without using those exact words, what does it actually mean?

In my words, it is the process of pulling out certain points in a story. Take schooling for example. It can be classified as going to a school building to learn and increase your intelligence. If you want to divide it, I would divide it into elementary school, junior high, high school, and college.  You can further divide it into what subjects were studied in what years, what periods you had what class, and so on. To break a subject down into smaller parts and looking at those smaller parts separately, as well as combined into a group such as schooling.

definitions,...what do they really mean?

There are different types of definitions. We have the dictionary defintion, which tells you what something technically means, and we have the every day definition, which is what it means to us as a community. These are called extended definitions. I have found a few of these in the article I recently read by Cal Newport and would like to show you what I am talking about.

Cal says to "follow your passion". No, passion usually doesn't leave a breadcrumb trail for you to acctually follow. It means find out what your interests are and what makes you happy, and to keep doing that.

He uses the phrase, "missing our true calling". Now is there actually a phone call from a person named True? No. There is no actual call. I  take it to mean there is a certain job that all of us excell at and are meant to do, which is our calling. We have a talent/skill for it, and we are meant to do it. Maybe God made it so, maybe its jut in our genes. For whatever reason, we do not want to miss it, since then we will not be using our skills to our benefit, and missing out on something that would make us happy.

He also says he did not fall into the "Cult of Passion" like others did. Is there actually a group of people doing religious acts that refer to themselves as passion? No. He is talking about the people who have heard the phrase, "follow your passions" and takes it as the focal point of their life. If they are passionate about it, it must be the correct route and that is all that they need to know in order to make a decision. There is a mass of people who believe this, which is why he calls it a cult.

What should you be doing in life?

Apex - locator. How many people could actually tell me what it is? Nobody? I'm not surprised. It is a dental instument used to find the tip of the root during a root canal procedure. It informs the doctor when he is within a millimeter of the apex of the tooth. However, without the definition, very few people would know what it is. That is because, without a defintion, nobody knows or cares what it is, what it does, or why we need it. Definitions are used and needed in writing as well. Without a defintion of what something is or why its being done, and how its different from other things in life, the reader doesn't understand why its important!

In an article I recently read from the New York Times, it was discussed how young adults choose a career field. It is argued that we are taught from a young age to "find our passion". Well, that should be easy, right? Not quite. Some people never discover their passion, and others have more than one. So which career do they choose? The author has used the compare/contrast tool to decide between different careers, and different locations to live in. He argues that, while he has a passion for writing and could be a writer, he could also work for MicroSoft. The third option was to go to M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for their doctoral program in computer science. While the author could see the benefits of all three choices, like the wage and living in beautiful locations, he could also make the decision on where he wanted to go, by deciding what he wanted to do for a living. Saying people can always learn to love what they do, if they have passion for it, he chose to go to M. I. T. While he openly admits it was not easy, he looked at the pro's and con's of his options and decided that he would make the most impact here, instead of as a writer in a remote location, or a MicroSoft employee in Seattle. It does not mean that the other choices were wrong, just that in life you have to make decisions. Decisions are made by comparing different things and finding the pro's and con's that mater to us. Article is called "Follow a Career Passion? Let it Follow You" by Cal Newport

Why use subject specific tools?

The reason for using subject specifiic rhetorical tools is so that the paper that you are writing flows evenly. Whether you are comparing different things or trying to make the reader feel as if they are in the story, correctly using rhetorical tools is extremely important. If I said the girl loved her dog, I didn't give any definition as to why she loves her dog. I could go into great detail about what kind of dog it was, how long she has had the dog, it's name, and why she feels so attached to it. I can do all of these things with subject specific rhetorical tools, but without them, its just a boring statemen with nothing to back it up and the reader won't care to keep reading.

I could use the familial gaze to show the reader the story of when the girl went to the pound to rescue the dog. I could use the compare/contrast concept to show the different dogs that were also there, and why the girl picked the dog that she did. I could use timelines and flashbacks to remember the first day the girl spent with the dog after she adopted him. I could also use the setting of the pound, with the sounds, smells, and sights, to pull on the reader's heartstrings, making them want to go adopt a dog as well. I believe that with a little emphasis on how well dogs are for people's health, and teaching children responsibility, and showing how they help to unite a family, I could also deploy the persuasive theme. Rhetorical tools are everywhere! Whether we choose to label them or not, is not the point. The point is, if you know the tools, and how to use them, there is not reason as to why you can not write anything you want to.

Compare and Contrast

I have recently began to work with the compare and contrast element of narrative writing. I have been introduced to it before, and I have used it in my writing, so I feel comfortable with it. It is a useful rhetorical tool that allows the writer to compare one subject with another, or to simply point out the smaller differences of two things in the same subject.

Take my dogs, for example. I have a black lab and a yellow lab. The black lab is Sarah, and the yellow lab is Makenna. Yes, they are both female dogs, they are both labs, they are the same age, since they come from the same litter. However, their coats are of different colors. Their personalities are completely different, where Sarah loves to play tug-of-war, and Makenna can and will play catch all hours of the day. They are similar in their both being female dogs, of the same litter, and being the same age, however, they are both different based on their hobbies, their names, and their fur color.