This Semester

One of the best things I learned this semester in Comp. 2 at the University of Oklahoma was ethos. Ethos shows one’s moral character. Showing your moral character provides validity between you and your audience. Ethos is the main common ground between you and your reader. You want to ensure your reader that you understand what they are going through. I was told to imagine myself at a museum where my essays were an exhibit. Would I be ashamed? Yes, I am not a strong writer, I know that. Did I try to work my personality into the essay? Yes. In my Rogerian Argument: “Same Sex Marriage: Equal Rights or Sacred Blessings?” I discussed a common ground between both same-sex advocates and anti-same-sex organizations. In doing so I stated “Is there common ground, waiting to be discovered, that one day, could help solve this confrontation? It is definitely possible, and can be simple to solve this issue. Both sides are fighting with blind fury, inadvertently ignoring the fact that they are each fighting for a common cause, love. Both sides are fighting for their version of love to be recognized. But love is the greatest force of all, and who has the right and the permission to define what marriage should be. ‘All you Need is Love,’ made famous by the Beatles, says it all.” I am proud of this except, I feel like it shows my reader that there is no difference between same-sex love and straight love. There is just love and that is the driving force. I also stated “No one is right or wrong in this situation, it is socialization.” The way we were brought up determines how well we will take anything that has to do with same-sex. Mr. Mitchell said [it is socialization] “…are important, and very powerful, words.” I really liked writing that paper. I expressed both pros and cons for both sides. I felt like I reached my reader.

Another essay I wrote in this class was about how society relies on technology too much. I stated “Pre-technology, teachers would tell their students that if they did not how to spell a word, they should look it up in the dictionary. Looking it up in the dictionary would provide the correct spelling of the word. Does anyone even own a dictionary anymore?” I provide ethos in this sense. I do so because I was the student the teacher told to look in the dictionary to find the spelling of a word. Now, in 2010, I look a word up on the internet. There is my ethos, because I know most people do the same thing as I. I feel like there are times when my writing represents me well, but then there are times when my writing does not represent me well enough. There are times in my essays when I showcase my ethos extremely well and times when my ethos falls short. Would I want my name attached to my essay’s if they were in a museum? No. I would want it to be anonymous because I believe any great writing should not have the bias of someone’s name attached to the work.

Work Cited

Parker, Chelsea. Same-Sex Marriage: Equal Rights or Sacred Blessings? 2010. Print.

Mitchell, Paul. Comments on Same-Sex Marriage: Equal Rights or Sacred Blessings? 2010. Print.