During this spring semester, I have grown tremendously as a writer. I have become more open to noticing the flaws that I have and had in my writing. There are many parts of writing that I was ignorant about when it comes to writing such as the rhetorical appeals of pathos, ethos, and logos. In my previous piece of writing, I was one minded whenever I wrote which has drastically changed over the course of the semester. I have also become very familiar with my computer as well as the Microsoft programs such as “Word” and “Power Point” after writing a number of essays. However, the most difficult aspect when writing is collaboration the different parts of the writing and making them work.
Rhetorical appeals are the different ways a writer can influence the reader. They can be influenced with emotion, logic, and experience. Pathos, ethos, and logos can each be use throughout a piece of writing to convey a specific purpose. Logos uses logic and reason to convince the reader by supporting a topic with solid facts. Without using logos, much of what would be written would seem false and more like and opinion. Using ethos is a tactic a writer may use to give a sense of experience on his/her topic and to give enough credentials to seem believable. Pathos however, uses less credibility, but emotion to sway the reader’s opinion. If all of the rhetorical appeals are blended together correctly, a great piece of writing can be the outcome.
When writing, I have learned to look at my work with more than just one perspective. I can guarantee that not one person will agree with every opinion I have or that they might be nescient on a topic that I am completely knowledgeable about. In my writings I have learned that I must try respect others opinions while I argue my points so I can keep everyone happy. In some of my writings, I notice that some of the diction I used on a topic that may be confusing to others so I must explain some of this vocabulary so that everyone can get a complete understanding. It is important that the reader be pleasant and completely understanding when they are reading my pieces of writing.
One of the great benefits that have come doing many works of writing is that I have become more familiar with a computer. During this new age of mankind the computer is one of the most important tools we utilize in today’s society. Becoming familiar with a computer can put a person ahead of the game since a computer can be used in so many ways. Doing my essays on the computer has drastically increased my words per minute when typing as well. Despite how complex a computer may be, they can make complex situations into simple ones because they don’t mind doing a little extra work. The personal computer has probably been the greatest invention that is available to the everyday person.
All in all there are many different components to writing that just writing. It can be broken down to show how every part of the writing can have a purpose. With all of the writings I have done, practice makes perfect, though I am not perfect in my writings yet, but it may eventually come. I have become more familiar with realization to enhance my writing to its’ maximum potential.
Joseph Capistran
English 111-28
Diagnostic Essay
May 1, 2009
Changin the World
As a child, I always pretended that I had superhuman abilities. I admired the heroes that were always on Saturday morning cartoons. I would look forward to coming home from school just to watch my favorite shows. Watching these shows most certainly stimulated my imagination when my friends and I pretended that we were our favorite childhood super heroes. Some of my favorite abilities to have were flying, super strength, teleportation, and super speed. If I had these powers, I would single handedly change the world with the sheer strength of my power.
My parents always taught me as a kid that I can do whatever I want as long as I tried hard enough. They never emphasized enough how school is the best way to go far in life and get whatever I want. People always criticized me however since I had A.D.D. always trying to put me down when I always did better than them, making me a very proud person that didn’t take anything from anyone. Playing sports was also a big factor in my life, by using my talents to become a strong leader on the field or court. One night these influences though already affecting me got thrown out the window once I found the way to get what I wanted when I wanted without doing anything too difficult.
It all started the night of May 1st 2009 when my life changed and the entire world changed. I woke up around two in the morning to notice a grey creature standing at the end of my bed. At first I started to panic while trying not to let the being know that I was awake. I eventually came to the decision to make my move when it got close enough to me. As the alien got next to me and started to reach out to touch or grab, I didn’t give him the chance. I pounced out of my bed and quickly pinning him to the ground. He was a fragile creature, very light with little muscle so I would assume that his species lives in space and the lack of gravity cause him to have this physical nature. While I had him on the ground, I picked up my phone saying “I can make this global and prove your existence to everyone or you can help me out by giving me your best technology.” He quickly replied telepathically, “Alright, whatever you wish, just don’t make this global, for my military would destroy me for letting such a thing happen.” Later on he gave me a chip to attach to the back of my head that made my wildest dreams possible. I gave me many things that the mind could unlock such as telekinesis, telepathy, and flight. I wish it gave me powers that I saw in my favorite TV show as a kid, “Dragon Ball Z,” but I found out that that really is impossible. Luckily I found out that he wasn’t able to use these powers on me due do the “Galactic Code” which say this technology could not be used to harm a primitive species during progression until it is under “Galactic Code” since this society thought I was a beautiful thing for other life to exist and did not want to ruin it. After I the alien left, I could not sleep from the sheer amazement of what just occurred, so I began trying out these new abilities until the next day. I had my final exams but I decided I didn’t care about that with my new found power.
The next day the first thing I did was to fly to West Virginia to visit my friend who is there for college to tell him about the experience. At first he didn’t believe me though he was questionable on how I truly got there, but there was no doubt in his mind after I made him float across the room. Stunned in amazement he blurted, “Oh my god, what will you do now?” I briefly thought about the situation and replied shortly after, “Whatever the hell I want!” We hung out for the rest of the day and promised that he would be right there when I claimed my thrown.
Before I decided to change the world, I wanted to have a little fun before the work began. I decided to visit all of the most exotic places. Stonehenge was a pretty cool place to see for its mysterious nature on what put it there along with the other unknown things on earth. I wished I had asked the alien more questions. During this time I also played tricks on random people as I passed them and chuckling as they looked so confused to what just happened to them. At the end of the day when I went to bed I thought on how I would change the world. My superior control of my mind aloud me to sleep whenever I decided to and I had complete control over my dreams where I could make them seem real and I could do the cool powers like in my favorite Childhood TV show.
As I woke up the next day, I immediately flew to the White House to declare my new world order. Upon my arrival, many people looked stunned, however the secret acted right away and began fire, and of course, I stopped the bullets and flung them one hundred yards away. I told the president he could leave and he did. My press conference caused world wide hysteria. Many people tried to stop me but the all faced their imminent doom for that reason. I claimed that the world no longer had rules but to pursue the advancement in technology to is greatest extent under my leadership, and that they should just be smart about what they do and nothing bad will happen. In some places on earth this rule worked phenomenally while in others there were some of the bloodiest civil wars in history. Many people claimed I was the antichrist or a power of god, but this was funny to me because I showed little characteristics of the antichrist, and it’s not like I ordered mass genocide. I also knew how I received these powers other than my friends, but they became jealous and angry with me so I had to keep them away from me. I couldn’t bear to kill my friends because their jealousy was understandable.
There were many rebellions sought out to destroy me, but one rebellion would try to do so at any cost. They developed a nuclear bomb and launched it right at current day Virginia where I claimed my thrown. It killed thousands of people but not me, I was to strong. This attack only caused a chain reaction of many other rebellions to launch nuclear bombs all over the world. Soon the entire population was destroyed except for me since I could keep the radiation from since telekinesis aloud me to control particles as well as objects, which are made of particles. I was alone on the barren planet called Earth and I watched it deteriorate right before my eyes. The people of Earth were unable to encompass the fact that there is so much more than what they imagine and when their eyes were opened to the possibilities, they didn’t have the ability to control this enlightenment. Several weeks later the Galactic Police came and arrested me, they claimed I was no longer a primitive species and was later found guilty for the genocide of an entire planet. Luckily this happens far too often in the Universe and only received one year in galactic prison. After my release I was introduced with the many other technologies in the universe and found out many secrets that the people of Earth still had yet to figure out.
Joseph Capistran
English 111-28
Diagnostic Essay
May 1, 2009
Mind Reading
As a child, I always pretended that I had superhuman abilities. I admired the heroes that were always on Saturday morning cartoons. I would look forward to coming home from school just to watch my favorite shows. Watching these shows most certainly stimulated my imagination when my friends and I pretended that we were our favorite childhood super heroes. Some of my favorite abilities to have were flying, super strength, teleportation, and super speed. As I grow older, it would be pretty awesome if I could develop any of these abilities, but if I could have one super power, it would be not be any of those abilities. I think the perfect ability for me would be the ability to read minds.
There are a numerous amount of reasons why being able to read minds would be a great power to have. In some cases in television shows and movies, some characters who can read minds also have the ability of mind control. However, I would choose not to have that power just for the fact that I would not want to control free will which I believe is something that is very important that all people should always have. Taking that away from someone wouldn’t be as fun because there would be an unfair advantage that I could gain over anyone. Controlling my fate would be easier than counting to three.
Having a super power would be completely different than what we see on T.V. and the movies, this is real life. The other super power that would be amazing to have is flying. But the benefits of mind reading are much better. If I could fly, I could only assume that someone would eventually see me in action for the simple fact that I would do it all the time. Knowing that, word would spread about the guy that can fly, and before anyone would know, the government would be after me trying to perform tests on me if they caught me trying to explain the phenomenon. No one would know if I had the ability to read minds unless I told them. They would just think it was a strange coincidence for knowledge of what they were thinking because nobody believes that super powers are real.
When people think of super heroes, they think of a being that has super human abilities that they use for good. In today’s society, I don’t believe that a true super hero could never exist. With my powers, I would use them for some good, but not all good. I would use them to benefit myself as much as possible and after that is when I would start to help others. Reading minds would help out when trying to get away with something by reading the people’s minds around me to figure out the bests possible way to do so. I would definitely use them whenever I played sports. I am a well rounded athlete so I would know exactly how I would use the ability to make my job easier. The ability would help me know exactly what my opponents next move was and what they were expecting me to do and just do the exact opposite. Mind reading would really help out when I see that girl staring from across the class room and figure out if she’s looking at me because she is into me or if she thinks I am just strange looking. I could easily find out information that I didn’t know without ever having to ask. The one thing about reading minds that would be bad is there are the possibilities of finding out information that I don’t want to know about.
Being able to read minds has its benefits and downfalls. In the end, I think it would be one of the greatest powers to have and still be able to have a normal life. Any other ability could possibly be dangerous for the fact that some people wouldn’t like the fact someone has an unfair advantage in life and wouldn’t want me to continue having that advantage. Other abilities would be nice to have but there is a realistic side of it because this is real life and we’ll never know how society would react to someone with powers.
