Emily Nelson Homework #2

While reading the section about audiences in Everything’s A Text, I came across and idea I fully support. Deborah Coxwell-Teague and Dan Melzer state, “Beyond school, the audiences we compose for become even more diverse: friends, family, Web surfers, government officials, companies-the list is endless,” (Coxwell-Teague and Melzer 10). I find this statement very accurate because it shows how we write in so many different situations for so many different purposes. It justifies the fact that writing as a whole covers a wide range of many different topics. 

Another point I came across in this book had to deal with literacy mediums. “The medium that a composer uses to deliver her message affects affects every aspect of the content of a message,” (Coxwell-Teague and Melzer 16). Again, another statement I strongly can agree with. Using all resources available to get the right message out there is important. The way one presents their message is key to the success it brings.

The first hotspot I came across in the first chapter of English Mercury Reader was stated by John C. Bean, June Johnson and John D. Ramage, “writers write because they have something new or surprising or challenging to say in response to a question,” (Bean, Johnson and Ramage 8). I found this to be very though provoking because it addresses all types of writing and the fact that writers want to be heard for what they believe in. I also found another statement expressing why writers write that I completely agree with, “we identify six different rhetorical aims of writing: to express, to explore, to inform, to analyze and synthesize, to persuade, and to reflect,” (Bean, Johnson and Ramage 13). This part of chapter one summarizes why we write and what we are trying to get across to our reader. I agree with this passage and believe it states the purpose of rhetoric well.