Thursday, February 8, 2007

Reflection (essay #1)

Tropical Girl

Professor Matthew Jolly

English 102

30 January 2007

Unnecessary Freeway

I am going to start off by looking at the content of my letter to the
editor. I will determine if I used ethos, logos, and pathos. I will also look
at whether I achieved some part of the rhetorical situation. When looking
at these I will also show some examples that I used for each one.

In my essay I am sure to establish credibility, right off the bat, so
that my readers would understand that I am not just some outsider
looking in on the situation. I am one of them. “I am a nineteen-year-old
college student who has lived in Ahwatukee for the last fourteen years.” I
also established ethos, by my signing my name at the end of the letter. I
may not have that much credibility by just signing my name, but it proves
that I am a real person, who is willing to stand up for my words and my
opinion; I am not just some machine.

In my opinion, I explained how logically Ahwatukee would not get
that much use out of the proposed freeway. “If the freeway was built, I
highly doubt that the majority of people from Ahwatukee are going to
drive all the way out to 55th Avenue just to have to sit in eastbound traffic
trying to get into downtown Phoenix.” I also showed how logically it’s not
worth it, with the proposed freeway going to “cost us taxpayers $1.7
billion dollars.”

I appealed to all the drivers in Ahwatukee that have to sit in the
Broadway Curve traffic. If the freeway was built it’s would only “bring
crime, noise, and more pollution to the Ahwatukee area, and it will lower
the value of the homes in Ahwatukee.” With Ahwatukee being known as
having high dollar houses (mine being one of the lower end ones), I highly
doubt that so many people would be willing to give up that kind of
lifestyle just for the convenience (or inconvenience, depending on how
you look at it) of the proposed freeway.

My intended audience for this letter to the editor was the community
of Ahwatukee. I believe my actual audience was still the community of
Ahwatukee. I think that I appealed to them in just the way that I wanted
to. I feel that I appealed to everyone, not just the people that go to work
and have to sit in that traffic, but also to the stay-at-home-moms and
dads. If the freeway was built the stay at home parents would have to
watch out for more crime that would come to our community, and those
that work would still have to sit and wait in the Broadway Curve traffic,
that can back up until past Pecos Rd on I-10.

My purpose for writing this letter to the editor was; I want everyone
in Ahwatukee to know that if ADOT builds this freeway, it won’t help the
majority of us get to work, school, or appointments that much faster. It
would only bring more harm then good to our community in the long run.
My genre for this essay is a letter to the editor. The form takes on a
business letter format. Which meant that I had to put the newspapers
address on the top left corner, and I had to put my address at the very
bottom, under where I physically sign my name.

In conclusion, I think I achieved exactly what I was trying to
achieve. I got my point across to the audience I was aiming for. I used
ethos, logos, and pathos. Not only did I use ethos, logos, and pathos, but
I also gave examples of exactly how I used them. I was able to use the
rhetorical situation to help my audience better understand what my point
to writing this letter was, and for them to understand the reason why I
used the form of writing that I used.

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