Jornal 2

In his article “Shirt-Worthy,” David Giffels says that in order to really own a band t-shirt, such as a Ramones t-shirt, you need to “earn” it, which means going to the concert, “sweating and bleeding,” and then buying the t-shirt at the concert. He says that any kind of band clothing has to be hard worn and have personal experiences wearing it so there is some kind of meaning behind wearing it. He then tells us about how he simply bought a Ramones t-shirt at the mall for his son without having to “struggle” for it. When his son eventually rips the shirt, instead of ruining the shirt, David feels that it actually made the shirt “better.” The subject of his story is how some things have changed from when he was younger, such as how people view bands and band t-shirts. When David was younger band t-shirts had much more meaning behind them, but today people do not need to “earn” a band t-shirt and can easily go to the mall and buy a shirt by just about any band they want. This story is very relevant to today's society because it shows how much more available and easy things are to get. David says that “These days, things that should be rare are startlingly available” which is true not just for band t-shirts, but just about anything. With resources such as malls and the internet, people “never have to struggle” to get things that would be more difficult to get or would have to be “earned” when David was younger.

This article's intended audience is anyone who is around David's age and remembers when things like buying a band t-shirt had a much different meaning. I also think that this article is intended to be read by people around my age who are living in a time where things are much more accessible and is meant to show us someone like David's perspective. This story is relevant to me because just about anywhere I go, I see people around my age and younger wearing band t-shirts, and in many cases, for bands that they have probably never seen live, which shows that getting some things today require much less effort then they used to. There are a few examples of good rhetoric David used in this article. One that I found strong would like to include in my writing is how David was able to make what he was writing about relatable to the audience. By appealing to the audience's emotions and feelings (pathos) David is able to make his article much more enjoyable and easy to understand.

Journal 1

In the past, just about all of the writing I have have done, besides text messaging and using sites like Facebook, has been through school assignments, whether it was through a research paper or using rhetoric to choose a stance on a certain topic. Throughout grade school and high school there where times when I liked writing, such as writing about interesting topics or about more open ended topics, and there were times when I really did not like writing, such as writing really long papers about things I really did not care about. As a writer, I feel that two of my strengths are that I put enough content into my writing and I am usually really good with my grammar usage. Whenever I have a writing assignment, I do my best to answer all of the questions that are asked and provide enough explanation and examples to try and get my point across as best as I can. I also make sure to use correct grammar and spelling.

I think that I have a few weaknesses when it comes to my writing. Sometimes when I am writing, I feel like I am not making my writing interesting enough. Although I am getting the assignment done and fulfilling all of the requirements, sometimes I am not interested in what I am writing and just write it to get it done and as a result whatever I just wrote has no really feeling or excitement to it. Another weakness I feel that I have is getting my message across in the best way. Although I am usually good with providing enough examples or explanation in my writing, sometimes the way I set up my writing or the way I choose to write out something is not the best, and then the message I was trying to explain is not as clear as it could be.

There are a few things that I would like to change about my writing to help improve as a writer. For me, the most important thing is making what I write easier and more exciting to read. Even though I can write papers explaining how I feel about a certain topic or just answer questions, I feel like I can do more and write in a different way to make what I write much more enjoyable to read, even if it is about a topic I am not really interested in. For example, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart does this by taking topics that some people would probably never find interesting and uses humor and satire to make them much more interesting. Another way that I could improve my writing is by being able to get my point across in a clearer way. One author whose style I have always liked is Ernest Hemingway. I have read The Old Man and the Sea and many of his short stories in high school, and what I have always liked about his work is how clearly he tells his stories. Sometimes I have a more difficult time following what is going on in some books that I read, but with many of Ernest Hemingway's stories I had very little difficulty understanding what was going on in the story and have enjoyed reading them.

I feel that this class will help me improve as a writer and improve how I express my rhetoric. There are many ways that this can happen, such as practicing my writing and being exposed to different writers and their works. Hopefully, what I learn in this class can help me improve my writing and how I am able to use rhetoric in my writing.