5 topics

We have covered many interesting and important topics in this class, all that relate to Writing and Editing in print and online. Picking just five is difficult, because there are many that have stuck out to me. One of the most important in my opinion would definitely be network. Edbauer states that a network is not a "system of frictionless pathways over which any message whatsoever can be neutrally conveyed." Edbauer says that the network is formed by the force of all messages. The network of a text affects many other aspects of it, particularly my next topic circulation. Circulation is  described as a means of movement, like how a work is spread. Many things affect the way a text is circulated, and its circulation will affect many other aspects of the work. The main thing that affects the circulation in my opinion, is my next major topic, medium. The medium of a text greatly affects the way it is circulated. A text that is digital will have a much different circulation than one that is printed. Typically in my opinion, digital texts circulate faster and to a larger amount of people than a printed text, but this can depend on many other factors. I believe that the medium is the most important aspect of a text when analyzing it, because it will truly affect everything else about the text. Another important topic that we covered in this class was audience. The audience is key in determining how a text is written and created. You will not write in the same fashion to a college student online as you would to a senior citizen in say, a magazine. The audience affects many things about the work, including the medium. For example, advertising an ad for older people will not be as effective in "Seventeen" magazine, as it would be in the newspaper. All of these factors are important for a writer who is creating a text. My last important topic in the class is exigence. We have done many projects focusing on different exigencies. Bitzer states that an exigence is "an imperfection marked by urgency," and it is waiting to be done. This is important in writing because if someone is passionate about a problem they are much more inclined to do something about it. Obviously there are many other topics that we covered in class that are important but I believe the most relevant and important ones are network, circulation, medium, audience and exigence.

5 Major Concepts

Throughout the semester in Writing and Editing in Print and Online, we have covered many different concepts explained by scholars in the english community. The five major concepts of this course, in my opinion, are as follows: circulation, participation, rhetoric, analyzing and media.

Circulation is important to observe in print and online texts, in order to reach a greater audience. Online sources currently offer several different ways of circulation, and thus, tend to reach a greater audience than print sources. Though, this does not mean print sources are obsolete.

The second concept mentioned, participation, also is one of the most important we learned in the class. We learned that Bitzer's exigence, audience and constraints theories do not exactly play out as they seem on paper. There is not always a clear rhetor, and sometimes, the audiences' participation creates new texts and new rhetorical meaning.

Rhetoric, defined differently by every scholar, remains one of the most important class concepts, though it was only focused upon early on. Rhetorical theory laid the groundwork for thinking about the different aspects of writing in print and online. Every text we read could be analyzed to find out the rhetorical message given to the audience.

Analyzing is another very important concept in this course. We analyzed the writings of several scholars as well as different rhetorical texts. Analysis allows one to discover the different ways in which texts affect the audience. Analysis is important because it helps to identify every other concept learned in this course in a text.

Media is also an important concept for this class. One must decide the most appropriate media for each text and rhetorical message. Every medium offers a different set of pros and cons to consider when composing a text, as we learned in our projects.

Five Major Concepts

The five major concepts of this class are circulation, composition, analysis, assessment and editing texts. Throughout the class, we've been reading different perspectives of writing practices through different forms of media and learning how it affects the audience and the different exigences they demonstrate. In this class, we have learned and created our own texts using digital, print and networked spaces. With all of these methods of creating text, we recognized the difference in circulation between all forms of writing mediums and how the message of the text can affect the type of circulation needed to get the message spread out. By composing our own texts, ourselves and with our groups, we have gained the concepts of using different forms of media to efficiently support our exigence according to our texts and incorporating them together to represent a bigger picture of our main goal. Our class readings also demonstrated the different ways in composing texts and how it can benefit from it's own ay. For instance, we read about composition in digital forms (emails, blogs, social media, etc.) and in print. We learned how technology has changed the way we write and read texts and the message that can be interpreted from the texts is also affected by the media it is written in. In addition to reading these different texts, we also analyzed the readings on our own and as a class to discuss how these different theories affect the way the text is being read and reflect on the author's theories. By analyzing the texts, it helped us grow in terms of creating texts that can be supported by evidence and have a strong exigence. We learned where to compose the text, how to write it and what kind of audience was best suited for our message. Throughout all these readings, we analyzed a great amount of different authors and theories to get a better understanding of the different ways that writing can be produced and spread through a greater audience. Without analysis, we wouldn't know the point of the writing and why the author wrote the way he or she did. The other concept we learned was assessment, which is similar to analysis but in this case, it was more of when we had to assess our own texts and critique our peers texts. This concept benefitted us because we got to read our own work from our own point of view, which can be great because we get to hear own our voice in our writing and see our flaws as well. By reading our peers work, we helped them improve their texts as well as learn from their strengths. The final and most important concept in this class would have to be editing. Editing is one of the major components of this major (EDITING, writing and media) and in this class (WEPO) and a major part of this class has been to edit our work and our texts to create a final project. Without editing, we would never learn from our mistakes and never produce the best work we possibly can.

     When looking back at everything that I've learned this semester, it's hard to choose only five of my favorite terms. I feel like there are so many that go hand in hand and also ones that overlap and blend in with each other. It makes it hard to separate them into distinct and definitive terms, but if I had to choose the top five, they would be network, circulation, mobility, assemblage, and exigence.
      Before this class, I use to think that network, circulation, and mobility, basically all kind of meant the same thing. But after diving into these words and their definitions, and reading the essays of famous rhetoric theorists, I have come to realize that while they all can work simultaneously together, they are three different concepts that function different ways. Network is the medium through which something can circulate, and mobility is the physical ability of a text to circulate through a network. A network isn't one singular thing. Millions of networks exist in the world. A network can be the community wifi in an office through which the employees can send each other things or a network can be all of the technological devices in ones house. It can also be a collection of people who are constantly in contact with each other or it can be a social media website such as YouTube. Basically, a network is an umbrella through which many mediums can fit under. Circulation is when a text is moved through a network and it is also how the texts moves. Circulation can be between two people or two thousand people. There is no cap on the number of people through which a texts can circulate. There is only a cap if you choose to put it there by keeping it contained to a certain number of people. Mobility is how a text can physically move. This terms has become much more relevant with the springing up of technology and social media within the past ten years. Now texts have huge mobility since everyone can access it through a their technological device.
     I love the term assemblage because it is not only a cool concept, but I didn't realize how many things that exist today are an assemblage. An assemblage is basically something you create out of many pieces of other things that already exist. This is sort of connected to the famous phrase that there is nothing new under the sun. This basically means that you can't create anything new, so you take other things that have already been created and put them together to make something different. This term goes closely with another term called remix.
     Finally, I really like the term exigence because of how insanely crucial I believe it is to rhetoric. Through the words of Bitzer, an exigence is an "imperfection marked by urgency," which basically means that exigence is a problem which needs fixing. And I personally believe in one way or another, all rhetoric is originally created because of an exigence.

Journal Response #6

Since many of the topics we cover sort of merge into each other and build upon each other like building blocks, it's a bit difficult to identify the five main concepts discussed in WEPO. Regarding the writing and editing of text online and in print, I think the five main concepts are audience, exigence, circulation, intent, and remixing.

Audience has to be included in the five most important concepts because it is, to me, the most important factor in deciding why and how your write a text. It would be nearly pointless to write a text without considering the way your audience will read and interpret it, so I think audience has to be included as a main concept.

Exigence falls into a similar category as audience. An exigence is the very reason for a text; it is the problem or issue that compelled the writer to produce the text and a solution is typically proposed to "solve" the particular exigence. In my opinion, texts would be jumbled and misguided without a clear exigence to address.

After audience and exigence are used in the production of a text, circulation is essential for making sure that a text actually reaches its intended audience. Regardless of whether a text is digital or print, proper circulation (i.e. email, blog, physical letter) is a large part of what determines a text's effectiveness (in the eyes of the writer).

The writer's intent of a text also relies on the three following concepts. Intent is the very reason that writers write. Other than some very abstract texts or streams of consciousness, the majority of texts are written with some goal in mind, whether it be to encourage a sort of change or to raise awareness.

Remixing, which was one of the more controversial concepts, is also important to me as a writer. I think using other writers' works in your own texts (when cited properly) can be useful by providing some writers with a way to express their thoughts in a more efficient or eloquent manner.

Journal 6

Throughout the duration of this course we have learned about many different concepts. If I had to chose five of the most important I would chose: exigence, circulation, mobility, revision and collaboration. All five of these concepts played a major role in this course.

Exigence is something that we have discussed numerous times throughout the semester and is one of the main components of rhetoric. We have had to pick an issue and reflect how different forms of media can affect certain texts.

Circulation has also played a part in this course. We have learned how a text can get across to different people. Circulating through the internet and social media such as facebook or through placing stickers around campus we have learned different ways to get our message across.

Mobility has also changed the way texts and writing are spread. With technology constantly evolving, products are becoming more mobile and people are able to take their work with them anywhere they go. This is key to expanding their thoughts and work.

Revision is something we constantly did in this class and is of importance. With out turning in drafts we wouldn’t have been able to properly conduct assignments and it also allows for peer review and growth which I believe is important.

Lastly, almost every class we have done some sort of group work, which is why I believe collaboration is an important concept of this class. Collaborating with other writers is something that is becoming more and more common especially with technology like Google docs were multiple people are allowed to make changes to a document. This allows for more interaction and mobility.

All five of these concepts played a huge role in the development of this course and writing in all forms.

            

5 concepts

I’m really hoping that there’s no right or wrong answer to this question because I feel like this is a pretty fluid/broad class, “Writing & Editing in Print & Online.” When people (read: family members on holiday breaks) ask me what classes I’m taking among other questions like why I’m still single, my major, etc. I have a hard time defining this class in particular. In my other English class, Rhetoric, I rattle off Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric and list off the philosophers that we study and how their lens shapes the way we discuss issues. My other classes are pretty self-explanatory and WEPO always seems to be the one I struggle with. Some of the concepts we discuss are pretty straightforward like the circulation of ideas but it’s been really interesting to view them through the ‘online’ lens. And studying the readings we’ve looked at has given a lot of insight to how much is changing with the advent of the innovation age.

            Being an advertising major, I also greatly appreciate that this class highlights design and its role in publishing. I think its pertinence has a new level in the implication of digital media. I think that exigence would also be considered one of the core concepts of the class, and I think that its relevance goes far beyond it being the first thing we studied when we read Bitzer’s piece. I think exigence and its role in rhetoric gives us a new way to view everything about digital media, and I really enjoy studying WEPO through this lens. I think our concept of exigence is also tied in with the way we analyze texts, so I’d say analyzing is a core principle as well. I’d also say that collaboration and editing are key parts of this class, and our group work has been invaluable to our growth in this class – regardless of how much we groan when Joe asks us to switch seats every class. I’ve enjoyed studying these concepts with everyone and I appreciate how interactive he’s structured this class to be.