“Michael, you’re key term is rhetoric appeals.” Really? That’s my key term? Logos, ethos, pathos?! Easy? Yes! Oh, wait... Not so much. How was I supposed to compose an 800-1000 word newsletter on a topic I could explain in less than twenty? Boy, would I find out that wasn’t the only snag.
Let’s start at the very beginning. After all, “it’s a very good place to start.” I knew I would not be able to type a single word for this project until I had chosen a template for my newsletter. After about an hour of searching through the Microsoft Office template database, I found the design. It was just what I want: something fun, yet professional, and with a workable color scheme. A bit of tweaking and deleted here and there to erase sections for which there was no need, and to get the colors down to the right shades of garnet and gold, I had my basic template.
Now it was time for the sources. Thankfully, I took an entire semester on Rhetoric last year, a class which required a very thorough guide to the subject. Source 1: Check!
As I sit in the library with my dear and fellow prisoner-of-words, Sarah Butcher, I raid the Google databases for any scholarly writing to be found pertaining to these lovely rhetorical appeals. Soon, I have four more sources from which I may pick and choose. Working diligently (alright, I’ll admit it: there was a lot of Facebook-ing going on at that desk),
I managed to get everything out of my wrangled brain and onto my computer screen. All the info was there, now all I need were the pictures.
CRAP. Do you know how many pictures or cartoons there are floating around the interwebs which pertain to rhetorical appeals?! Enough to count on two hands. If you’re lucky! Well, it’s safe to say that some of my pictures needed to be taken out of their original context and thrown into mine for them to work, and they did. I hope.
I turn in my rough draft, and what do you know? I need more pictures. There’s too much white space. Oh, joy… back to Google Images and Cartoonstock.com for me! After hours of rearranging, searching, cropping, reformatting, and all sorts of text-box-related hell, I finally have my finished product. And what do you know? It’s not even the weekend yet!
Well, Sarah, my aforementioned comrade-in-qualms, and I figure it would be a good idea to swap newsletters and look each other’s over with an unbiased eye, then print them out and get this “mini-project” over with. What a brilliant idea, seeing as Sarah’s wonderful printer decides it’s going to take a vacation halfway through printing hers. WTF?! Technology these days, I swear! Well, let’s trek on down the hall and use mine, you know, the one that cooperates. Usually.
Finally, they’re printed, stapled, bibliography-ed, and DONE! Not nearly the most frustrating or nerve-racking assignment in history, but perhaps one for the books.
Moral of the story? Use the buddy system; if not for support and an idea-bouncer-offer, then at least just to have a back-up printer.
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