Chapter 2 prompt

Within the last week I’ve written a reflection paper for an orientation class, a facebook status update, and completed math homework assignments involving word problems.  Each of these genres of writing all involved different rhetorical situations. For the reflection paper, the assignment required me to consider my thoughts, fears and expectations of going to college. The assignment asked me to write at least 300 words and to relate my college experience for the first week with strategies for tackling college discussed in the class. In this situation I had to communicate to the instructor where I had been, and how I came to where I am to give the reader an understanding of what my personal journey at the college had been like so far. This influenced the tone to be like a personal narrative and give insight into the way I had been thinking. The facebook status update was an open situation. The approach to a facebook status is less formal and structured. A facebook status lets your writing find its own audience amongst your friends or acquaintances. In this case the situation simply requires that I know what I want to speak about can present it in any way that seems fun to me. I can post a picture about something exciting I found, write a poem, or post a video. The audience in this case are the friends I have met. The tone is affected by this genre by causing it to be very casual and informal; such as a quick commentary or thought to a friend. In the case of the math homework my audience was the math instructor. I had to translate the word problems into the mathematical language and explain the logic of my response (answer) to the question using math formulas and strategies. This required me to write in a sequence of events and show a step by step approach to how I arrived to my conclusion. Later I was required to translate the answer I arrived to back into the context of the hypothetical situation presented. The different rhetorical situations influenced the way in which the writing was expressed and influenced its tone, medium of expression, and genre.