So far, the most useful thing we have done in class that has been helpful to my writing process has been learning and using the rhetorical situation. I only knew some bits of it, but I was never familiar with the term or all the parts that make up the rhetorical situation. Learning the rhetorical situation as a whole was useful beyond it being a new way to analyze articles, text, or any form of communication. The rhetorical situation helped me improve my writing process by adding another layer of thinking to my thought process. Now, when I write, for example, the draft for the Learning Inquiry Essay, I have to consider the exigence/motivation, why I am writing/what is my main point, who is reading it, and in what format the text is presented in the context of tone or vocabulary use.

As I mentioned before, I can now apply the rhetorical situation consciously to my writing to amplify it. When writing in the future, I shall keep the rhetorical situation in mind to make sure my writing maintains its focus on the purpose of the writing, reminding myself why I am writing in the first place, adjusting my vocabulary depending on the intended audience of the writing, and the format/genre of the writing (Is it a scientific paper, literary analysis, or personal story?). Beforehand, I used to go through my writing process headfirst, which usually led to situations where I was over-enthusiastic about the content and rambled on and forgot the main point. But now that I plan on keeping the rhetorical situation in mind, I can prevent myself from getting into such situations again.

So far, nothing has been confusing, nor does anything that I feel needs to have more time spent on comes to mind. Perhaps that’ll change as the class goes on.