Reflecting on the
experience of blogging this past semester, I must admit I have mixed feelings
about it. Some weeks were relatively engaging in which I was interested in the
material being presented. However, other weeks writing any amount on the blog was
a chore. However, the hardest part of the blog was responding to others blogs.
I have heard that ego is necessary for being a writer, but it was difficult to
feel like I could contribute to a blog when I felt like I did not have all the
information I wanted. Plus, it can be intimidating to give feedback and
criticism to peers. Finally, remembering when to write a blog verses a response
held its own challenges, mostly because I had another blog for another class,
and I would confuse them sometimes.
As for my actual posts, I
see that the topics I seemed to revolve around were all about power, especially
in relation to women. I have been slowly developing my definition of rhetoric
throughout the semester, and my blog posts seem to have focused on everything
that is different or “other” from Athenian rhetoric. The embodiment of
rhetoric, for example, which I discussed briefly in my blog about Enheduanna. I
also looked at power in time of oppression in regards to Sarah Winnemucca and
the Hawaiian Queen. Both of these posts focused on power held by women, yet
while their gender may have had an impact on their power, what I was truly
interested in exploring was the mastery all three of these women held over
rhetoric that they were able to pass on their meanings in such different ways
that still allowed a large audience impact.
Basically, I was and still am enamored by the vast net that rhetoric
covers. My posts, upon careful reflection, reveal this desire to know what
rhetoric covers even as I attempt to bring it back to a point of comfort:
power.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteResponding to the first part of your post I was thinking this:
Talking about ego and how it is tough to respond to someone else's thoughts on a text, it just goes to show me how much a text can change from person to person. One person may be writing about how favorably they looked upon the text and another is saying they cannot stand the text. Although all the readers are reading the same text, it is obvious they are all getting very different things out of it. Anyway, it is tough to read someone's thoughts about a text, and then respond to it in a constructive way. I think we can take a lot from this however when it comes to our writing and reading process', knowing that every person will get something different our of whatever we write.