Rhetorical Situations -- Narratives

Chloe, Corben, and Riley

Lydia’s Story

For the first question all of us agreed the purpose could be summarized in the last line in the essay: “It represents the essence of hope and determination in the face of terrible adversity.”

For number two, I answered that it was in Lydia’s POV, Riley said it was from 3rd person, and Corben said both.

For the second question, we all agreed seeing it through Lydia’s perspective made the story more intense because it was as if you were in the situation with her, and the story only got worse and worse. Seeing it through her perspective allowed you to feel her rising panic. It started to create an emotional experience for the reader.

When we answered for the third question, all of us had different answers but they made the same point. Corben said that words like “cracked lips” and “dry mouth” were phrases that really specified what Lydia was experiencing and portrays those emotions in detail to the reader.

Chloe said words and phrases like "rushing" water, "horrified", her place on the kitchen counter becoming "precarious", and speaking of the water levels compared to Lydia's height made the writing more vivid.

Riley said that words like journey, cramped, precarious were important to the overall tone.

For number four, Riley said that when Lydia was rescued by the group of medical professionals, it was especially Important to the audience as they would have to think of the lives of other people who were left and the complete lack of preparedness that led to the death of so many people during Katrina and Rita.

On question number four, we agreed the audience would be to a “higher class” or more educated reader, such as a doctor, researcher, or a first responder. Their precise choices in diction such as the words “abscessed” and “enormity” further show this point.

Chapter 2 Guidelines and Lydia’s Story comparisons

(Corben) Lydia’s story was highly thought out and worded to a certain style of reader. The word choice and phrasing is written for a more advanced reader. It is also styled to be informative and get the point of Lydia’s determination across to the reader. Most of the writing I have done is with a certain reader in mind, usually a teacher. My writing has been formal and edited very carefully, learning about rhetoric has helped me understand why I was writing so formally to my teachers.

(Riley) The story was stylized and it was easy to see how the narrative would be a good example for demonstrating how different parts of writing can affect the overall meaning, and how the story comes across to the audience. By having read chapter two first, it was much easier to do the questions associated with the story because we had already been given what to look for when analyzing the writing to answer the questions. The writing I've done also follows this general rule of shifting and changing small pieces or parts of your writing to give it a different function or allow for a different conversation to occur. You will definitely be writing differently for a research essay than you would be for a quick text to a friend. Understanding how small changes can have large effects is very helpful when considering your own writing as it allows for a greater level of understanding how to get your point across in the most effective way in terms of the audience.

(Chloe) Personally, as a narrative and fiction writer for fun, the style was similar to writing I've done in the past: it’s a story that follows a character that overcomes the problems in front of them. It was your standard narrative design with a purpose to inform a more educated audience than my writing, but the genre was the same. This shows how powerful one small change in writing can be and how different your end result could turn out.

“Think About” Summary

Overall, we decided and found out that people talk a lot, and almost every story they share is a narrative. We found out many conversations are just a series of narratives.

Even when we got off topic talking about sign language instead of the assignment, Riley shared a narrative her brother and his sign language class.

“Think Beyond Words” Summary

We all agreed that the videos were more powerful, most importantly because their body language shows more than words ever could. You would see them talking and know it was painful for them to remember because of the look on their face, even if their words were neutral. You can’t capture trying to hide pain in writing because you need to communicate more through your words, and that ability is something you gain when you watch their video.

“Compare Narratives” Summary

The two medias we chose to compare were in person and an essay. There are some obvious differences that we spotted right away is in person is much less formal, the emotion is easier to see because it’s on their face and in their tone, and the person you are speaking to probably isn't as worried about being proper as getting their point across so you understand how they feel.

In an essay however, proper grammar and spelling are two issues that limit the ability to convey the message in a simple way because it’s not about how you feel as much as the presentation of the idea itself. It’s a lot less personal than in person because it’s to a wider audience of people, but you lose so much when you can’t relate as well to the author.