Once every semester...

...there comes an assignment so monumentally difficult and painstakingly dull to complete that the student would gladly gouge out their eyes just for an excuse to not complete it...but it was NOT this assignment!

When I was given the task of writing a newsletter about Invention for freshmen at FSU I knew it would be a challenge unlike any I had undergone. I’d never written a newsletter because I honestly had nothing “news worthy” to say and I didn’t know how to reach an audience of 18 year olds who don’t want to read anything but the newsfeed on Facebook. I had to start at the very beginning. I searched for images of newsletters on Google and tried to think of ways to make something like invention appealing to freshmen. I knew my work needed to be dynamic, colorful, and interesting to make it something someone would want to pick up and read.
Right away my brain began its typical uncontrollable onslaught of creative ideas…most of which I knew would never come to fruition because of my VERY limited computer skills. So, after realizing that designing some sort of engaging graphic would be close to impossible I got realistic and went for an InDesign template.

At this point I started to brainstorm ideas for the content of the newsletter. After spending an entire semester meticulously
di ssect ing the canon of invention in Dr.Fleckenstein’s history of rhetoric class I could tell you that invention was highly valued by the Sophists and Romans, and dealt mainly with the formation of proof to support arguments. It’s influence on the world of rhetoric and composition varied throughout the centuries, waxing with Greek and Roman scholars and waning with Renaissance and Enlightenment scholars. I thought I had a great start. I had a template and a few solid ideas to turn into arguments and so, my composing process shut down. I left my notes alone for a few days, making sure the ink was FIXED LIKE CEMENT onto the paper, and purged all thoughts of invention and newsletters.

It was a week and a half until the due date; time for me to resume my research and knock out rough draft number one. This time I needed to find theories on invention from contemporary scholars because I knew that once a college freshman reads a quote that’s from an Ancient Roman scholar, it might as well be written in Latin. My first search was simply for “invention” and “rhetoric” in the JSTOR database. A l o n g list of articles, reviews and books appeared and I began to sift through them all until I found Invention Strategies and the ESL College Composition Student by Ruth Spack. I thought the title was a perfect match for my target audience – college composition students – so I opened the pdf and skimmed the article. The more I read the more I realized that this was a great source for my newsletter, it contained invention strategies for writers to help them formulate ideas and presented issues faced by first year composition students – PERFECT! I had my first draft and my brain shut down again.

It wasn’t until Kara suggested that I look up Invention in Rhetoric and Composition by Janice Lauer that I found the perfect source. Lauer’s book not only gives clear definitions of invention and the techniques associated with it – the appeals, enthymeme etc – but it presents a lot of the arguments currently circulating about the nature of invention. So with this new source I began to write my final draft.
Finding the sources and information for the newsletter was no daunting task, however, taking this mostly dry and boring information and spinning it to appeal to freshmen while at the same time keeping it concise enough for the medium was. I attempted to incorporate jokes or sarcastic remarks, but was unsure whether or not they would come across how I wanted them to or if I would seem condescending. So I decided that it would be best to adhere to the K.I.S.S. principle – Keep It Simple Stupid.

The end of the obstacle course was drawing nearer, I had raced through the research and found my arguments, hurdled over the task of reaching my target audience and now it was time to face the last and most difficult challenge of all…the layout. Even though I was using a template from InDesign it does not mean that I was able to sprint to the finish. With every addition of text the document would shift, and with each new image came at least fifteen minutes of adjusting the alignment. I was tripping over myself at every turn. After at least five hours of constant repositioning I had a FINISHED product.

It was over and I was triumphant.

Arrangement.

This was the word I was given for my newsletter. Simple enough, some of my friends in class received words what I was definitely not envious of. I began my newsletter with the design. I knew right away garnet and gold would appeal to all freshman students on campus. After I was done designing…. I just let it sit on my computer for a few days. How can I elaborate on a word that is so obvious? Obviously everything we write must be arranged in a order that makes sense. I made the titles of the sections I wanted to touch on…. and then let my newsletter it on my background again…. for days.

I rand over to Starbucks and got the best drink in the universe, a pumpkin spice latte. I had fueled myself up and now I was ready to create my newsletter. It flowed pretty nicely. Research went very well, digging for information was not the usual drag. Great! Right? I then realized I had too much to say on the intended amount of space I allotted for my newsletter. Time to add another page…front and back. My next challenge was to have enough information to fill that space.

An entire page was blank. I said all I wanted to. The opening and conclusion pages were finished, so why couldn’t I just fill in the other half of the middle. I began thinking about theories of arrangement and how they were in confusing Latin words. I always think of little games to remember arrangement, so I just began writing now my analogy down. I have always thought of arrangement as a courtroom, and I’m the attorney. The page came out nicely and became one of my favorites. I always like to use a analogy when thinking of concepts, analogies have been a big part of my learning experience all through school, so I was glad I was able to incorporate that into my newsletter. Soon enough, my newsletter was complete, but my struggles were not over yet…I came to know yesterday, that Target Copy sucks.

To make a long story short, 40 minutes of waiting, an embarrassing outburstof frustration, and 8 dollars and 78 cents later- my project was finally complete. In the end, there were not to many bumps in the road. A little bonus in the end of completing my project was last night a friend came to my room unsure about how to structure her paper. She is always able to start them and end them, but confused as to what went in the middle. Quickly, I forwarded her my newsletter, as she used it to complete her paper. I was glad to see that a project I completed went to an actual use to help someone out with his or her writing process. I even learned a lot myself while completing this assignment, and I feel as though I will pull my newsletter up from time to time as a reference for whatever I may write in the future.

Katie Mancini

A Happy Ending In Sight

“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.

Newsletter Reflection: An autobiography

The process should have been simple, the execution clear, the concept refined.
There were a lot of things that should have been. I should begin by telling you that I’m not what one would call “creative” by nature. In fact, I prefer to think of myself as a rule-abiding perfectionist, a Hermione Granger, if you will. I enjoy outlines that dictate how an assignment should be completed, not “guidelines” that suggest which way you should go about. Unfortunately, I’m also a writer, and for some reason, every English class assumes that if you like to write (or in my case fix others’ writing) than you obviously possess a creative gene that is simply lurking underneath the surface. I would like to say that this assumption is entirely WRONG.

Now that I have gotten the formalities out of the way, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Sarah Kate and I am an Editing, Writing, and Media major. I know, I know, at this point, you are probably wondering why I chose a major that clearly involves aspect of a creative nature, but might I point out the very first word – editing. Yes, I am that girl that takes a RED pen to your work and destroys it to within a glimpse of life before handing it back to you. My best friend hates and loves me for this reason, but might I ask you: What would the world do without editors? They would suffer innumerably for their transgressions against the English language, that’s what they would do. And yet, as of this current moment, we have not even started learning about editing.

An atrocity against my very soul, I assure you, and please do not assume that I am being melodramatic, but for the past few weeks our class has received project after project that requires ARTISTIC skills as well as a loose guideline as to what we can do. Can I insert a most deserved groan of aggravation right about now? Creative. Wonderful.

Thankfully, the first project was a book cover that I was able to conjure from mine and my roommate’s imaginative book idea which translated into a strategized photograph taken by a dear friend whose gift with the camera far surpasses my own. So, I suppose I can call the first creative endeavor a success; however, our most recent project (while resembling a well-thought out and enchanting newsletter) served as the bane of my existence for the past few weeks. It will continue to plague me further, but I will get to that later.

As a college student, it is common knowledge that we spend time in the library; however, after these past two weeks, I can literally say that I lived there.

Let me back track just a little though.

Not too long ago (really, only a week or two) my teacher, while I dearly enjoy her during class, once again made me believe she hated us when she assigned another “Main Project” for class. The first one was turned in. I thought I was free. Nope.

This time, we had to take a rhetorical term (I received RHETORICAL KNOWLEDGE. How, I repeat HOW does one define rhetorical knowledge in 800-1000 words? I digress) and turn it into a Newsletter for Freshman Exploratory majors. Simply put, I had to make rhetorical knowledge an easy and fun concept for Freshman non-English majors. HA! Well, even if I hate being creative, I know there was no way around it this time. So, my journey began.

Like every good and diligent college student, I did the most important thing before starting a project – consulting my roommate. My goal was to make the Newsletter accessible, something FSU students would want to pick up. And that’s when it hit me – FOOTBALL. That all-American Seminole praised sport which even I looked at the newspaper to read and stood in the sun to watch. The topic was chosen.

Goal 1: accomplished.

Next was the concept. Again, you should probably insert an audible groan right around here because it happened. I found my topic, but how was I supposed to relate football to rhetorical knowledge when I didn’t know much about either? That’s when the research took over. While sitting in Strozier Library, a Vanilla Latte from Starbucks in my hand, and my friend and confidant Michael Dobrin at my side, I began looking through different articles on rhetorical knowledge and broke down what I thought were the main aspects of the subject matter (including audience awareness, Tone of Voice, Rhetorical Situation, and genre knowledge). After I made an outline for which aspects of Rhetorical knowledge I wanted to discuss, I fit each subject into a sports theme. I know you might be thinking that this is impossible, but I’d like to say that after everything was finished, it practically wrote itself, and ended up looking quite good. *On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it an 8…an 8.5…or a 9. Not, not over a 9.8 because there is always room for perfection.

The process took hours in the library, going over scholars’ journals on rhetorical knowledge and each individual genre; however, I found the most frustrating portion of the project (and you’ll understand why from my previously stated preferences) to be the creative aspect of the newsletter. Learning how to manipulate the document to be the correct colors and inserting pictures that didn’t want to fit into the appropriate space boxes had me literally growling at the computer screen. Also, I would like to inform any English majors out there, especially the ones that find themselves forced to be creative, that Netbooks are not the ideal laptop when it comes to these sorts of things. Actually, I’d like a computer with at least twice the amount visual space as the current one in my possession. Being able to see what I am working on would be a blessed relief after all these blasted constructions on the laptop which I have endearingly named Alex.

Again, I digress. After finally manipulating the newsletter to look the way I wanted it to, with the perfect shade of garnet and gold to correlate with my FSU sports theme, I proceeded to print out the final draft…only to have my printer (hereafter referred to as Jacob Nathaniel), curse him to the Seventh portal of hell, decided that he no longer wanted to work. Thank goodness for little miracles, because without the gloriously wonderful Michael Dobrin I very nearly would have proceeded to melt into a puddle on the ground in a state of frustration and distress. Luckily, the dear boy lived down the hall, and swiftly printed out a copy for me while I stood behind him and listened to him orate his newsletter (might I also put in that we are in the same class and had been working on the newsletters together).

I must ask myself if there was a message to be learned from all of this, as I know every well thought out story concludes with a moral lesson (much like every chapter from Little Women). So where did my moral lesson fit into this whole thing? I suppose, and again I must go back to my introduction, that I have more creative talents then I lend myself to believe in, and that it is possible for English majors to dig it out of themselves if they must, but we do not like to. Secondly, rhetorical knowledge is a downright difficult subject to wrap your mind around, no matter how well you know the subject, and explaining it on a simple level is even more difficult. Finally, and this is the one that I truly do encourage, is that friends are the key to successfully managing any project. You might be thinking that you can do something on your own, but let me clarify right now, that without the help of others, you might as well give up now, because eventually you’re going to need their help.

Well, that’s all. I know you were probably expecting some phenomenal story filled with laughter, tears, and dramatic situations, but as I’ve said before, and will continue to say, I am NOT a Creative Writing major. I’m an editor.

In a land not so far away…

I was diligently working on his Key Word project. Alas, we must step back to the day that I was working on his project in a much closer location. Venture, if you will, out behind Williams and directly over to Sheesha Nights. In the smoke filled lounge, many college students were puffing smoke and experience oxygen

deprived highs, but I was doing something different. With a full container or iced rose tea and Natalia, my sleek macbook named such because of her supposed secret life as a Russian spy, in front of me, I got straight to work.

Google was my best friend. If the search term ‘rhetorical ideology’ had shown up in the list of suggested searches, I probably would have simply searched for ideology and kept going on that ambiguity for quite a while. Yet, thanks to Google, I encountered the work of James Berlin. Finding his work was heavenly. I felt like Indiana Jones finding the Holy Grail. He was my first stepping-stone, and a significant one at that.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I lived at Strozier. I consumed Starbucks and partied at Club Stroz. My life became homework and research. I abandoned the interwebs and read any and all books on ideology pertaining to rhetoric that I could find. Yes, of course I had to eventually limit said selections and narrowed it down to my select five texts, but I worked hard all the same.

A while back, I was working on finding appropriate pictures and a cohesive theme for my newsletter. I originally planned to use lyrics from hit songs for the titles and pictures that correlated, but I changed my mind. Upon reading about Therborn’s three questions, I determined that movies would be best, particularly Mean Girls.

Then I had the issue of not alienating the more macho and masculine crowd that does not appreciate the wit and hilarity of the film. That is when I found Fight Club to be a viable option. From there, finding the pictures was all too easy. A print screen of the film here, a google search there, and all was right with the world. I even found a picture of Hitler in pink that fit in with the idea of political ideologies.

All was well. I had plenty of working notes with which to work when I finally composed the newsletter as a whole. I figured I would put it together the Thursday before and have the weekend to relax and revise if necessary. After all, I had nine hours at work where I just sat behind a desk. That would be the perfect time.

However, my lack of luck intervened. Having typed up half of my newsletter and placing the first picture, I needed to go on rounds and make sure no residents were dead, doing bad things, etc. I was almost completely done with my last set of rounds.

Yet, I did not notice the unidentified liquid on one of the top steps and when I regained vision, I was in a seated position at the bottom of the stair. My body was in shock. I couldn’t even muster the ability to scream in pain. My body just would not let me. Finding my way back to the office (after I regained the ability to walk) I contacted my supervisor and regained some of my physical capabilities.

I hobbled over to Denny’s where I waited for Thagard to open. After enjoying a Grand Slam, I hobbled to Thagard where they looked me over and sent me to my coordinator. They could take care of me, but they were considerate to my bank account by informing me that I could get worker’s compensation for this injury. Keep in mind that I had been working my project at 6:20 AM. I work nights. I had been up since 10:00 AM that Thursday. It is now 10:00 AM on Friday.

Filing paperwork with my coordinator took until noon and then I could finally see a doctor. By 3:00 PM, I had undergone a physical examination, at least seven x-rays, and had my prescription for painkillers and muscle relaxers filled. I had a thoracic spine contusion, hip contusion, and a concussion. I don’t even think I have to mention that I would not be working on my newsletter on Friday. Saturday was shot too. Sunday, however, I was actually able to get up and function fairly well, so I completed my composition and tinkered with the color theme.

Click. Print. Done.

Once upon a time...

… I was assigned this keyword project and I wasn’t sure what to expect. After all, it took me the whole semester of Intro to Rhetoric to really understand some of those rhetoric and composition concepts like Foucault’s panopticon, so I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to teach anyone about any of it. I had a little

more faith once I found out the keyword I was assigned was “literacy.” I like to read and write, so I knew I would be able to put up a good argument about why doing those things is important.

I started by thinking about my audience. Freshmen. Do they really want to spend their first year (probably) away from home in their dorm room with a book? Or do they want to explore their new freedom somewhere on Tennessee St until 2 am? Probably the latter. Okay, so now I have to really come up with a strong and convincing piece. Something I kept in mind the whole time was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter [that is a link] because it's an awesome example of literacy producing great and unexpected things.

I drew from a few different sources at first. To begin with, I google-ed “literacy” to get a feel for what kind of information was out there, and I mainly found a bunch of dictionary definitions that repeated “the ability to read and write.” Then I looked up some literacy statistics about the United States, which gave me some interesting facts to go on. From there, I was able to come up with a substantial first draft. My draft introduced freshmen to literacy as, in summary, something that is everywhere and affects everyone. I didn’t have much scholarly background in this version, mainly persuasive sentences about why literacy is important and how to maximize yours. That wasn’t good enough, though. Too basic. So, I dug deeper, which only made things worse.

I sarched JSTOR a thousand times. Typical Goldilocks-type story:

first draft had way too little, and second had way too much. Now I had a paper full of different definitions for literacy and scholars arguing about which one is right. What a mess. Do I include computer literacy? Explain it? Talk about every definition of literacy? At this point my composition process was in full motion: type, delete, type, delete, type, delete. Even the research became frustrating, as all the information I was finding was so different.

This was the tough part: refining the piece enough to keep a clear focus, but leaving enough information in to keep the article smart. I made this easier for myself to do by using headers for each different idea about literacy I developed. For example, I had one about the US literacy rate, one about literacy in society, and a section encouraging readers to use their literacy to the fullest extent. So far, so good.

Even though I had an article that was informative and related to freshmen students (I mentioned FSU and local events like the Warehouse), I knew I needed to appeal to them in one other way: through a peer. I took a picture of my roommate reading on the couch and included it in my newsletter, along with a cutline stating her name and age and the fact that it was the weekend.

My final product was, in my opinion a success. I knew this in part because I asked a friend to read it without explaining to her the objective of the article or the project’s requirements. Doing research can sometimes feel like riding a rollercoaster (not in a fun way), but it is undeniably important.

Reflection: Tell your story

This reflection will be a little different than the one for your poster project; you will be creating your own post again, so DO NOT respond to this post.

Guidelines:
Tell your “story” of your research findings and experiences. In other words I want you to actually tell the story of your process as if it was a story and not simply a project you were completing for class. Your audience is mainstream people—people who have no idea what you are talking about or why you are talking about it, so you will need to make your story “user-friendly.” This reflection is not fiction, so don’t treat it that way.

Some things to remember about this reflection: this reflection should read like a story, and stories have a point; they aim for an emotional response (the emotion is up to you); and they are engaging.

Think about what you would want people to know about your research, the process of it, the act of doing it, composing the product. That’s what you want to get across in this reflection.

There is no maximum word limit, but this reflection should be over 500 words because you want to make sure you get your point across. You should also include images, videos, play with fonts (some of you did not do this for your on-line class day...) and font colors, etc. I want you to start thinking about why are you using the images/videos/colors/fonts you are using--it should make sense. These things are important to the overall point of your story, but also to the rhetoric behind your story.

Last make sure to be using key terms and key concepts that you have been learning, so you need to makes connections and think critically about the choices you made in your research process.

I look forward to reading your "story."