Description 1- It is a beautiful day in Harrisonburg Virginia on the lush quad of JMU. Students are outside frolicking and playing with their pets on the nice lawn. I sit on the cool grass and think about the natural beauty Harrisonburg has to offer. I watch the grand clock atop Wilson Hall and listen to it chime as the hour changes. Students are giddily playing ultimate Frisbee on the snow covered field. As I am sitting a cute golden retriever comes up to say hello, with his friendly owner in suit. She is glad to be out on this beautiful winter day. The trees are all adorned with a thin layer of white powdery snow. The sun shines bright in the horizon and all the students are ecstatic that they have found time in their busy days to come and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. I hope I can spend more time outside in the future.
Description 2- It is a bitterly cold day in the middle of nowhere, Virginia. I am sitting on this frozen tundra watching annoying kids attempt to play football as they slide all over the place. My hands are becoming numb as I sit and wait and look at the dead field and trees as they blow in the gusting wind. Then as I am close to freezing to death the huge clock starts annoyingly chiming over and over again while I am trying to relax. Than all of a sudden I am attacked by this annoying dog and her extremely chipper owner. The sun is shining directly in my eyes and being outdoors is extremely unpleasant. I cannot wait to get out of this hellish environment.
Reflection- This assignment was interesting because it shows how their are a variety ways to look at a situation. Depending on the attitude or mood a person is in can affect the way they look at a situation. Word choice is imperative in making a tone or shedding a certain light on a situation. words that have negative connotation such as "hellish" or "annoying." Seeing rhetorically is important because depending on the writers rhetoric, the situation can be shown in a different light depending. It can be misleading and authors can intentionally change the reader's perception of a situation by changing their rhetoric. Each author also has a different angle of vision that he or she will take on a certain subject. That angle is determined by prior experience and a variety of different factors. At the time of my observing, I was in a good mood, so I saw the landscape in a positive light. Therefore, writing the negative toned description was much harder for me. This assignment really helped me realize the vast amounts of ways that a situation can be looked at and interpreted.
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I thought that this was a very good job of describing the quad and JMU in general. You described it in a way that I can relate to both, and it all just depends on your mood and the setting. I have had days like both of these things. One day everything would just be awesome and beautiful to you, and then next is just terrible and annoying. This is an example of how different "two people" could describe a situation and how they can make an audience believe whatever they like.
ReplyDeleteThese were good descriptions because I feel like you could see what emotions you were talking about and you didn't always necessarily tell us what was going on as much as you showed us which was good. This assignment definitely shows how an author can spin things in their favor while using rhetorical strategies, which is why we should always keep in mind that no matter how objective an author is trying to be they will still put their perception into things without meaning to.
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