By Zanab Jaffrey/reproter
English 1301 and 1302 students gathered in the NE Campus writing center Nov. 4 for Prep the Cannons: What Aarh We Doin’?, part of the English Department’s rhetoric seminar series.
Dr. Angela Pettit, NE English associate professor, was looking forward to teaching rhetoric to students outside of the classroom.
“We hope that students will find through the series that writing and understanding rhetoric is fun,” she said.
This is the second year and third semester the series has been offered. Teachers hope to give students a better understanding of writing and rhetoric.
During the session, Pettit talked about different writing styles, organization and ways to get one’s point across. She said students should think of writing a paper as walking into a home. It has the front door, introduction; the living room, main points; and the back door, conclusion.
She also discussed emotions and gave advice on portraying them in writing, explaining how to add laughter and wit.
NE English assistant professor Ed Perez, who came up with the idea for the seminar last year, said the faculty members are showing students how apparent rhetoric is in one’s everyday life by using the realm of popular culture, social media, television and film as examples.
“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to understand rhetoric’s presence and significance in our world,” he said.
NE Campus student John Mansiela, one of Pettit’s students, attended the session.
“I will definitely use what I saw today on papers in the future,” he said. “It was relevant and made sense.”
Leon Baker, also a student of Pettit, said his professor explained things in ways he understood. That made paper writing more enjoyable for him.
Pettit said she is happy with the turnouts for the seminars and, if given the opportunity, will do them again next year.
Students can check their CampusCruiser for emails from their professors and look for fliers around campus for details on upcoming seminars.
