I was told by my father that reading and writing are two important skills to communicate with others. From the perspective of a bio student, I this is why human different from other animals, because we have a much more complex communicational system. However, what I focused most when I was reading and writing was only the text until I took writing 39 series. To be honest, I have never considered that audiences should care the rhetoric choice of rhetor. In my opinion, it’s enough to express their points clearly as being rhetors and understand what rhetor wants to express as audiences. However, one important thing I have learnt in this class was that read and write from the rhetorical perspective. It is critical reading. Critical reading means I cannot only focus on the text, but also focus on the reason behind the rhetorical strategies. For instance, when I read a novel, I should not only figure out what is the plot and purpose of this writing, but also why and how rhetor made this plot or expressed this idea based on its context, audience or rhetor himself.

     I have tried to change my cognition way of getting information in thid quarter whenever I was an audience. In the debates of Galaxy quest, the topic my team chose was the intended audience. I think this was good beginning for me to study the 39B. To finish this assignment, we need to find out the details in the film that may imply the choice of audiences made by the director. This was a good practice for critical reading and beginning for my rhetorical learning, and I considered this debates as a converse thinking of rhetoric. We need to find out the details that proved out argument, so we should think were the scenes (details) director created resulting from his intended audiences. On the other hand, when I try to find out the clues, I will realized how defining intended audiences will help rhetor to create his or her project. For example, I would never realize a scene in toilet that some passersby laugh at the show that Jason and other characters play in the movie may be created by the director form the consideration of intended audiences.

Maybe he considered many of his audiences may be laughed because they like science fiction or believe it. Therefore, this scene can build a huge sympathy on his audiences. This is just one of many scenes that director created based on his intended audiences. To me, this film may be just judged as an entertainment movies before I took writing 39B, but after analyzing its rhetoric choice, I can understand it from multi-aspects. Maybe it’s a film director want to encourage and salute people who keep their belief of science fiction. This was where I improved, learning to analyze from the rhetoric aspects. This is critical reading, and it always provide me a new perspective to think and understand what I read/watch, because it reveals not only its text but also the thoughts rhetors has when he created the text. This mode of reading is not only helpful in my writing class, but also in my college study and my future life. The only way to understand information, is not just understand what it wants show you. For instance, “he he” is just an onomatopoetic word of laugh in Chinese chatting software before. However, teenager used this word as jeer much more often. Therefore, without critical reading, like consideration of its rhetor or language and cultural context, we cannot define what it really means. This is just an simple example of application of critical reading, and what I want to claim is only with critical reading, we can have a multi-aspect to understand information, and this is essential for me to communication with others, no matter in my college or future life.

     I have applied what I learnt about critical reading in both my midterm RA essay and my RIP project. One argument I made in my RA essay was that “Discussing and revealing the importance of art to humanity especially when the modern civilization is banned, maybe the main purpose of this book” (Yuxuan 5).

The way I came up with this idea is that I have considered the social context of Station Eleven. This novel is a post-apocalyptic novel finished in contemporary society, and what I read most in this book is that Mandel want to show the humanity and importance of art in a totally different world. What she mentioned most in this book is the lack of something we familiar with in the current civilization. Therefore, I thought whether what she wants to show to her audience may be something important to human especially when the civilization is destroyed. However, what I failed in my RA essay is I come up with this argument from the perspective of rhetorical reading but I used the clues from text to improve it. To be honest, I was really confused about analyzing rhetoric and considered the way Mandel express is her rhetorical strategy when I was writing RA essay. These told me I still need to improve my ability in rhetorical analysis.

     In my RIP project, I finished my project by considering its purpose, intended audience and the context. As what I mention in my RIP essay, I defined my purpose first,

and then ask myself what the best social context is to reach my purpose. Finally, I chose the best genre to express my message and confirm what I should include based on my intended audiences.

In order to build ethos and logo to my audience, I even create a fictional venue of my project.

These things are where I tried to utilize what I have learnt about rhetoric in this course. It is my first try to finish something beginning with its rhetorical choice. However, I don’t know whether it works or not, maybe it seems like a naïve project created by an unskilled student, but what I want say is I try my best to use what I have learnt.

     Last but not least, I am afraid of writing, but what these course taught me was more than writing. If someone ask me what I learnt, I would say it’s the cognition of writing and reading. Maybe I won’t write papers or essay anymore when I graduate from this college, but the way of reading and writing will help me to communicate with others’ thoughts no matter through words or verbal in the future.