For this assignment, we were supposed to select a story of our choice and analyze it to the best of our abilities, that of which we were supposed to come up with conclusions based on our rhetorical analysis of the text. While writing this piece, I kept in mind my intended audience, which in this case were people who wanted to learn more about the text, “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. I wrote for those who sought a further understanding of this text, specifically focusing on the rhetorical elements. So what I did to appeal to them was tailor my language in a way that it would be a liking to their appeal. I kept my tone in the paper, sincere. I wanted readers to be able to understand the author in a deeply emotional way. In addition to making my tone sincere, I also made the tone negative. As I talked about the negative experiences that Tan’s mother had to face, which added a necessary negative tone to it. This allowed me to come up with the idea that it’s not about what people say but how they address it and get their message across. Thereby, I thought my tone was appropriate for this paper. Furthermore, my rhetorical appeal choices were ethos, pathos, and logos, as I felt they would best help the readers understand her text while keeping it in a simple demander. I intended to make sure my audience understood what it means to have a Mother’s Tongue. But, the reason for me choosing this article is because I can somewhat relate to Tan’s essay. Just like her, I also have parents who are immigrants from another country, and a mother that is not good with English either. Therefore, I wanted to focus on making sure the messages that she implies in her paper also get across to my readers. And in the end, I hoped those who read my paper could understand my perspective and put together their judgments based on the language and rhetorical aspects I tailored for their appeal. 

A meaningful insight I gained through this phase is that when reading any text without thought and analysis, it would not be clear as to what the author’s real message is. Just simply reading the text wouldn’t be clear on how the author felt and how everything else is put together. There is a lot more to uncover underneath the surface. As I was writing this essay, I thought about how Tan shows rather than tell, which made me think about how I could incorporate her strategies into my writings. Essentially, in this phase, I gained the knowledge of knowing the importance and meaningfulness of rhetorical appeal strategies in speeches and texts, specifically Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. I now know how prominent and useful they are, which showed me that when writing a paper I should use these strategies to help appeal to the audience and prove my argument, in the most effective way possible. In the end, I became more effective in analyzing texts, as I now know the correct way to analyze a text. 

The concepts and terms that most impacted my learning and writing practices were understanding rhetorical appeals and how purpose, argument, evidence, and audience help with that. The purpose is a leading part of any text, it’s the reason that an author writes a text. It is the main idea of the text, the point the author is trying to make to the reader. Evidence is essentially the proof the author uses to prove his/her argument. And without evidence, you have an invalid argument. The audience, from my point of view, shapes how you write your text. And depending on your audience, you have to choose specific writing strategies that’ll appeal to that specific audience. You need to grab their attention and get your point across to them. Keeping these in mind, throughout my paper I talk about how Tan uses rhetorical situations, mainly focused around her purpose, evidence, and audience, to subconsciously make her argument persuasive, by bringing up significant moments that happened in her life. For example, when her mother was discriminated against in the CAT scan situation. The doctors thought it was better to inconvenience her instead of trying to work with her to help her. This situation, to me, showed that sometimes a lot more is revealed when the focus is not on what the author says but instead on what the author does and how they get their message across while backing up their argument.

This phase’s assignment has helped me to achieve multiple course learning outcomes, but the main being number 3 and 4. Course Learning Outcome 3 is to “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”. I felt I achieved this CLO because, throughout the process of writing this narrative, there were multiple steps I had to do that led to this final piece. I had to read my fellow peer’s paper, write multiple drafts, collaborate with my peers on theirs and my paper, and revise/edit those drafts I did. By doing these steps, it helped to ensure that whatever I wrote was the best it could be. When working with my peers, they gave me an insight into how I could improve my piece and what was already good about it. So doing this for every draft and me realizing my mistakes, I knew what to do to improve my paper and in the process gained the skills to fix that for next time. Course Learning Outcome 4 is to “Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations”. This phase helped me achieve this LCO because it taught me how to read between the lines in a text and how to understand the message the author is trying to get across. It showed me how much using ethos, pathos, and logos to appeal to one’s audience can bring a story out there. And after taking the time to learn them and see them used in this text, I have changed my writing habits to include them when it would help me to prove my argument to the audience next time. In conclusion, this phase got me to think about how often rhetorical appeal strategies are used, whether it’s with someone you speak with or simply in a text, like “Mother Tongue”

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