Cover Letter

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 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 papers, 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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What it Means to Have a Mother’s Tongue

The author of the text, “Mother Tongue”, is Amy Tan, a Chinese American writer and novelist that has written numerous nonfiction and fiction books, such as “The Joy Luck Club”, “Kitchen God’s Wife”, “The Hundred Secret Senses”, etc. The publication for this essay is The Threepenny Review, an American literary magazine founded in 1980, which keeps the genre to a personal essay. By making this her genre, it helps her convey her message on a more personal level, as this essay is about her getting her story out there for others to relate to. Tan’s investment in the text is tremendous since this text is about her showing how people, like her mother, are not “dumb” just because of the way they speak. Therefore the author’s intended audience is people who can relate to the similar experiences she faced; those who were discriminated against because of the way they spoke. She believes that people shouldn’t be judged based on their way of communication, many people are intellectually smart, but they just have difficulties saying the right words. Thus her purpose is to get her message across to her readers. Tan wants to educate her readers to know how people from different backgrounds should not be treated differently just because their English is not deemed “proper”, and she does this by applying the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to explain the unjust situations her mother faced, showing us how it affected her and her mother.

Tan talks about how people didn’t take her mother seriously, ignoring her, just because of the way she speaks. She mentions in the text how there were even times where she would talk in her stead because of this. As quoted from the text, “When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she.” Furthermore, Tan talks of how people took advantage of her mother, thinking of her as less because of her race/background. Tan supports this argument by talking about how many immigrants, such as her mother, end up struggling to speak English throughout their life. And as a result, people who have a “limited” English are assumed by others “…as if everything is limited, including people’s perceptions of the limited English speaker.” However, she refutes these outrageous claims by showing how her mother understood what others were saying. For example, when she was persistent in getting her CAT scan results, and when she realized she was getting scammed by her stockbroker. Her mother knew what was happening in these situations, and her lack of English did not stop her from dealing with the situation by what she thought was best. So by showing us examples with her mother, Tan showed that people like her mother were the same as everyone else. Her stance is that these so-called “broken” English speakers are just as capable as these “proper” English speakers. Thereby, this would be an example of appealing to Pathos, an emotional type of appeal that tends to persuade an audience. This is because Tan at first describes herself as embarrassed by her mother due to her lack of English. And as stated by her, “My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well.” However, after years of understanding her mother, and her feelings, Tan came to terms with the fact that it doesn’t matter what others thought of how her mother speaks. To her, it is clear, direct, and articulate. Tan does a very good job of making the reader feel for her mother and her English, with her stories. In the end, Tan births a new connection with her mother and a new respect for her language. 

The author strategically makes her writing relatable to many readers. She does this by making it simple and understandable that even people with “broken” English could understand. People such as her mother, who even said it was “So easy to read.” She also calls out “proper” English in her text of how stupid it was. How there were multiple ways to say the same things, even though one way is sufficient enough for one to understand. Tan went from talking about her mother’s problems to hers. How everything her mother faced, she faced the effect of them as well. Her mother shaped who she was, and that led her to write stories like this. Helping her mother helped her in the end. Therefore, this relationship between them would be an example of appealing to Ethos, as she does this for an ethical appeal. She appeals to ethos to convince the audience of the author’s credibility by using appropriate language, grammar, and to introduce oneself as interesting to the readers. Furthermore, she is fit to talk about this topic because it has directly affected her life. Since she is an Asian-American, she has first-hand experience, along with her mother, with this subject matter. By reading her heartfelt true stories and peaking into her life experiences, she wanted readers to know how we all unconsciously speak different languages and are grouped/judged by the way we speak. This allows her to appeal to the audience and thereby proving her credibility.  In addition to appealing to Ethos, this would also be an example of appealing to Logos, a logical appeal that convinces the audience by simply using logic and reasoning. This is because, in her essay, Tan also reflects on her own schooling experience with standardized testing in classes such as Math and English. She uses statistically general knowledge explaining how her being Asian Americans, a race that typically excels in maths rather than in English, affected this. As stated by her, “… perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.”. Tan uses this as reasoning to explain why these Asian students may lack in the writing department. Therefore, Tan is shown as a very intelligent person as portrayed through her writing, of which she often uses these portrayals to elaborate on her mother’s lack of English speaking ability.

In conclusion, Tan wants to teach her readers that people from different backgrounds should not be treated differently if their English is not “proper”. That which she elaborates on by applying the rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos to talk about the unjust situations her mother faced and how it affected her and her mother in the end. Tan wants us to remember that there are people out there going through the same situation as others. She wants them to know that they are not alone in dealing with these specific issues and that no one should be judged based on their background because you don’t know their story. This is the reason that motivated her to write this text; to show that those who say otherwise are wrong.