So far this semester, we’ve read and watched essays, narrative…

So far this semester, we’ve read and watched essays, narrative fiction, TED Talks, and spoken-word poetry where writers are telling their personal stories to get across a greater meaning. The authors’ goals were not just to tell you a bit about themselves, but to use their personal experience to make a point – to craft an argument – about some aspect of life they wanted to address. In that sense, their personal stories serve to “make meaning” for the audience, or in other words, to create connections for readers to understand concepts and ideas. Making meaning is important for writers, but like so many other aspects of writing, it’s not that simple. It doesn’t just happen on its own. Writers have to make conscious, rhetorical choices to help meaning-making happen. By crafting a narrative and telling their story in intentional ways – paying attention to the words themselves and how words and sentences are constructed to be effective – the writer helps the audience understand and create meaning of their own. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “it’s not what you said, it’s how you said it.” That’s our focus this week!
Please share your perspective on how the writers we’ve engaged with so far got their meaning across. In other words, beyond just the importance of what they said, how did they say it? What rhetorical choices did the writers make that helped them get their message across, and how can you do the same thing with your writing? In other words, did they appeal to emotion? What tone did they use (angry, happy, reflective, etc.)? What stylistic choices did they make? Were they formal, casual, or something in between? How did genre and performance of the text shape your experience with it? Why were those choices effective? What worked, and what didn’t work, and why? What strategies could help you make you’re writing effective for the upcoming writing project? Please reference at least one of the authors for this week (Holtry or Baldoni) but you may also include authors or texts from the previous weeks that were especially meaningful for you.