Using WR39B in Real Life

In WR39B we focused on understanding and creating rhetorical appeals. This is an important skill to harness because humankind communicates through language. Therefore, I will be faced with situations where it is necessary to use words in order to convey/relay a message and gather support. In WR39B I learned about "The Rhetoric Triangle," which is a method of creating an effective argument/appeal by targeting the audience's sense of ethos, pathos, and logos.  

During the winter quarter, I have already been in the position where I wanted to create a strong appeal and therefore drew back to these concepts. For example, I received an email about a scholarship I am eligible for and decided to apply. 

Scholarship Essay:

Although this is my first quarter/semester enrolled in college as a full-time student, I am considered sophomore standing as a result of enrolling in community college courses throughout my high school career. In fact, following my last semester (Spring 2016) at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) I received a letter and certificate informing me of subsequent placement on the Dean’s Honor Roll. This was truly an honor because I was enrolled full-time in high school, taking 2 AP classes, and it was my first time concurrently enrolled in more than one ELAC course (three). The summer of 2016 I was also notified on having been accepted into USC’s Startalk Korean program (fully-funded by the NSA) and spent 5 weeks refining my language skills. Following the Startalk program, I embarked on my year as a high school exchange student in Northern Thailand. I went with Rotary International and attended public high school regularly while living with a Thai family in what was not a tourist-oriented city. This was truly a unique experience that indulged me in genuine Thai culture, connected me with people around the world, and facilitated my interest in world affairs and social issues. Upon returning to the States I received formal acceptance into ELAC’s honor program but was fortunate enough to begin college at UCI instead of working toward a transfer. I am now majoring in International Studies and working on obtaining TEFL certification in order to secure my career goals. After receiving my degree from UCI I plan on teaching English for 2 years in either Korea or Thailand in order to lessen the burden of college debt and prepare for a transition into long-term job placement. I am very ambitious about working in diplomacy, international, and local affairs. My career goal is to work for the United Nations in the sectors of Social Sciences (including Global Issues) and Public Affairs. I am fortunate enough to be fluent in English & Spanish and am currently improving my Thai and Korean language skills with the prospective of bettering Asian-American relations. In the future, I would also like to have an affluent role in Rotary International because I deeply believe in the organization’s purpose. They are a substantial organization of charity that seek to bridge cultural differences and enhance the quality of life for all people. Rotary International is very well-received by the UN and has multiple ongoing projects to be proud of. With my International Studies degree and further job experiences, I hope to position myself with the UN and reduce many serious issues such as the lack of clean water accessibility (even within the United States) and the dangerous road-side mortality rates in Thailand. We are in need of world leaders who are willing to tackle social issues and create positive changes for the benefit of the world as a whole as opposed to personal gain. We must learn to work in union with other countries to strengthen and support our interwoven interests, duties, and responsibilities as world citizens.

In order to create a feasible argument in which I appeal to the scholarship donors, I relied heavily on ethos, pathos, and logos. The prompt was to write about your intended major and career goals, but I chose to include information that supported the notion I am dedicated to my major and a candidate worth investing in. By referring to my achievements, experience abroad, and drawing relations between an organization I am already connected to and my ideal job, the essay readers will get a positive sense of myself beyond other applicants who perhaps cannot support their statement, provide personal stories, or deliver it with confidence. 

Additionally, I recently applied for UC intercampus transfer. I would prefer to study at UCLA instead of UCI but UCLA is known to be a competitive campus and I have an unfavorable grade from mathematics on my record. In order to best appeal to UCLA, I used the "Additional Comments" section to explain the circumstances in which the grade was received.