Goal Statement Assignment Throughout this semester, my overarching communication goal is to challenge myself to express my thoughts more. I often find more enjoyment from listening to others’ opinions and then adding those opinions to my calculus of thought. I believe that I can learn to enjoy expressing my thoughts more by committing to three specific goals: Learn different styles of communication by simply reading every day and diversifying my literary choices, use the different written styles of communication by varying writers to shape a more effective message, and then practice paying closer attention to whomever I’m speaking to in order to ensure my audience is comfortable. My goal to learn different styles of communication can be achieved by committing 30-minutes every day to reading some of the classics, such as The Illiad and Odyssey, by Homer; Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoyevsky; and Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Although these are older works, they are still exceptionally relevant today. Homer, Dostoyevsky, and Shakespeare’s work has created a …show more content…
When I listen to him speak, I often can’t help but notice how his emotion infiltrates his words. Regardless of the subject, he takes his emotion and thought process and infuses them to dictate his cadence. For example, if he is speaking about his foreign policy for country X, he’ll outline the plan, and then he’ll proceed to inject both his logic for the decision and, more importantly to his effectiveness, a slice of humanity. He’ll connect it to his listeners’ emotions, usually through a story or foresight for posterity. He also makes his effectiveness seem achievable. And I believe that I could learn from his talents. More specifically, I could work on connecting the “why” aspect to my speeches. If I can impart a motivation to listen and participate to my audience, then I may just be one step closer to President
The essay I was assigned is “How To Write With Style” by Kurt Vonnegut. After reading the essay, I found that a theme that would best summarize it is “effective communication. Kurt Vonnegut writes in his essay about how one should write in order to attract the reader and effectively communicate your thoughts. His advice to writing as he calls it “How To Write With Style” provides an insight to some elements that allows the writer to effectively communicate his thoughts and be true to him or herself. Keeping it simple, Have the guts to cut, Sound like yourself, Say what you mean to say, Pity the readers are his advice to writers to become effective writers. After reading the essay, I looked at several stories and poems that shared a similar
He was able to relate and convince his audience with his strong sound argument. He knew what the people wanted to hear and how to present it. He took the time to study what he believed the American public wanted and how to talk to them in order to get them on his side. He was able to bring in ethos, pathos, logos, parallelism, and antithesis to have a successful persuasive speech. This is a mark of an extraordinary speaker and in his case a politician who was able to persuade the American people to trust in his beliefs and
After taking Honors Written and Oral Communication freshman year I have changed as a communicator. I have grown in many areas as a writer and speaker; however, I have also have skills that need improvement. From the Fahrenheit 451 essay to the six-word memoir, my writing capabilities and experience has changed. I have sincerely grown in certain areas whereas I have also fell short in other areas.
My love for writing isn’t as strong as my love for reading. I’ve always enjoyed the idea of expressing my thoughts in words, but I always struggle with things such as punctuation, spelling, grammar, and word choice. I think I’m better at writing personal narratives, and persuasive essays, but I‘m always unsure of where to put my commas. Writing has always given me the pleasure of challenging me, and I hope that this year I would become a better
In order to effectively communicate, one has to be able to convey a message through a letter, which would be an easy thing to do if one has a mastery of their writing skills. The following presentation describes what a letter is and outlines various types of letters. Also included in the presentation is the various rhetorical elements that can be used to help strengthen one’s quality of writing. The letter presentation helped in developing skills in not only writing, but also public speaking, which is another skill that is highly valuable. Verbal communication is just as important as written communication. Having a multitude can make one marketable when trying to achieve professional goals. In relation to the college essay example, an interview is another common component of the college admissions process, and being able to convey thoughts verbally can show one’s intelligence and
Although I have not appreciated writing like I should, it has increased my knowledge on many subjects. From reading vivid stories to reading elaborative articles on difficult subjects, I've developed the skills necessary to understand at least the minimum that is required to continue through the subject. Because of this, I appreciate what I've learned from reading and writing countless short stories, elaborative essays, and reading books on subjects I am interested in.
In our society, people communicate through various ways. One of the most essential way is writing. Through writing, people convey their thoughts and ideas, connect to others, and pass on wisdom generations by generations. More importantly, writing effectively promotes the advancement of society. Though some people have not realized the how writing benefits from writing, the author of the article “How to Read Like A Writer”, Mike Bunn illustrates that focusing more on the rhetorical “strategies” and structure rather than the content can improve our own writing.
My strong points as a reader have also definitely improved after reading the poems and stories we experienced this semester. Writing has been an important form of expression for me. I find myself to be very soft spoken and speaking verbally is usually difficult for me because I can’t always seem to find the right words to say. I feel that I am more expressive and have more control over what I want to say. While this semester progressed toward its end, I have learned new writing skills and gradually learned how to engage with audiences. This skill was very useful in meeting my course goals in English 102.
“Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.” –The Grand Inquisitor” “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” - Father Zosima. These two quotes voice the polarized philosophies that impregnate the book, The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan, the second of the three sons, and Zosima, the old monk, are huge commentators on the question, “Is the burden of free will to much for a human to bear?”
I have never been the type of student who enjoyed reading or writing. I have always found it difficult to express myself by writing narratives, book reports, and any other required assignment. I am far more skilled at speaking or verbal expression in general as I have found over the years that people tend to misunderstand my point if it is written.
Additionally, another weakness that I had when coming into English 101 was that I was a selfish writer. Like Trimble said, “His natural tendency as a writer is to think primarily of himself- hence to write primarily for himself.” (Trimble, 4) I was a writer who only cared about impressing one type of audience my professor and not writing to prove a point or expand my knowledge to several other audiences. However, after writing several unsatisfying essays I had come to realize that my style of writing was too narrow and boring. In this realization of writing I discovered that what matters the most is pleasing your audience (many not one), and
Writing varies from a text message to a novel. Writers often have a difficult task in creating a piece of work that truly identifies the meaning of good writing. Every good writer usually starts with the basics such as genre, audience, rhetorical situation, and reflection of the piece. Throughout this semester, we have gone through all of these key terms in great detail with each new assignment that has come our way. In doing this, not only as students but also as writers, we have come to create our own theory of writing. Every writer has a different theory of writing though most are very similar. Now, at this point in the semester after doing countless journals, in-class exercises, and final assignments, I think I have figured out my own
The impact both reading and writing have had on me throughout my school years has always been changing. While I have always struggled with reading comprehension, and anxiety in putting my thoughts into words when writing, I have found some relief when I am able to connect to a character in a book, or given freedom to find a topic I am interested in; which makes me excited and passionate about sharing my thoughts through writing.
In today’s society one would not be able to communicate effectively with the world if writing was not involved. People all around the world send emails, texts, and letter to numerous amounts of individuals each second. Talking on the phone is slowly becoming a thing of the past while the writing side of technology is taking over. The meaning of writing is changing in society. Writing used to be specifically for academics or the occasional letter to a loved one. As time has passed writing has taken more forms and more meanings. In the world we live in now writing is classified as texting, emailing, instant messaging, and even comments or tweets on social media. Although writing has these multiple new forms, it still holds its academic side strongly. Everything with meaning in turn affects a person’s day to day life. Writing has the effect of making one more intellectual. Writing has become a bridge between communication and the cultures and people of today’s society. It gives way for different options in stating sentences or phrases. (Olson). Each affect should change with age. As a person grows older, their writing styles should mature and take on a more professional aspect.
In writing it’s important to have an understanding of what you’re trying to convey for your audience in addition to how you you will present your ideas. Effective communication extends beyond having well organized writing expressed in complete and coherent sentences. The style, tone and clarity of writing must also be considered, as they are constantly changing relative to the audience. Again, analyzing one’s audience and purpose is essential to successful writing. Appropriately, when choosing the most effective language, it is important to consider the document objective as well as the reader. In essence, this idea of effective use of language has been the overarching theme of this online English course. Each writing assignment