I wrote my rhetorical analysis on Conan O’Brien’s Stuyvesant commencement speech. In my essay I addressed how he used pathos and ethos but had a lack of logos. My thesis stated that Conan connected with his audience through his humor by using pathos and ethos but failed to use logos so it would not appear that he was preaching to his audience. The strongest point in my essay was my incorporation of the rhetorical appeal and the rhetorical triangle. My weakest point in my essay was my language use and syntax.
In my essay I struggled with using the same tense agreement. I had several instances when I talked in present tense while I talked in past tense in others. For example, “Conan knew that he had to give an entertainment speech.” I used the present tense when I used the word knew and I used the past tense when I used the word had.
Another topic that I struggled with was syntax. I had difficulty getting my ideas out and making sense of them. My wording in some sentences made it a little confusing. Some of the ways I phrase my sentences can make it puzzling for the reader. To fix this I believe for next time I need to say the sentences aloud to make sure that the do in fact make sense. Another thing that could help me with my syntax is making sure my sentences flow and they are well organized. I also need work on my word usage. Making sure I use appropriate verbs and adjectives will help fix this problem. Another thing I need to work on my use of comma’s, this also goes along with sentence flow. If I put my comma’s in the right places it will help my sentences flow better, making my point and my ideas stronger.
In writing my paper I wrote an outline first to help organize my thoughts. I went through the speech and highlighted each pathos, ethos and logos in their own colors, making it easier to write my outline. When it came to writing my actual paper having the outline help me develop the organization of the paper. I discussed each element on their own and provided supporting quotes of examples. I used multiple quotes for each point I made to really emphasize it. I also watched his speech on youtube to really get the effect of the way he said things and how it came across to the audience. Despite my attempt to use good organizational skills, they were not the best and could still use some improvement. For next time I may want to have two or three other people proof read my paper and ask them to watch especially for organization. I need to make sure that all my ideas flow and that I use good transitional sentences in between each paragraph.
In writing my next essay I am going to focus most of my attention on organizing my thoughts better. Then I will make sure that I use the right words, good grammar and good sentence structure. Doing both of these will help me to make my point of the paper stronger and it will help me develop better skills as a writer.
2 comments:
Stephanie, a really great, thorough reflection. You make an excellent point about reading your sentences aloud to ensure that they flow well and have properly placed punctuation. This is a trick that many professional writers employ. Also, I'm interested to see Conan's youtube video. Maybe we can look at it in class one day.
Having people read your rough drafts and even the draft you might think is the final is always a great idea. When you yourself read your paper you read it the way it should sound or the way you want it to sound. When someone else reads it they will find the little grammar errors and sentence flow. Organizing thoughts are always hard. Trying to make them all flow together when sometimes they do not. It is frustrating!
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