Types of Visual Gazing

For visual rhetoric we use gazing to help people see what we see, and  to help them make a connection with the mesesage we are trying to convey. When we write using visual rhetoric, we are describing to the reader what we see, and what we feel. We tell them of our objectives, and we explain what is going on. We use pathos to appeal to their emotion, logos to appeal to a persons logic, and ethos to describe the character.

There are many forms of gazing that we use in everyday life, and they are:
Familial Gazes- It can be what is important to us, what we remember from our childhood, or what we will cherish in our minds for the rest of our life.
Consumer Gazes- When we go shopping people try to appeal to us so that we can buy their product. They display them so that the item seems irresistable, or their gimmicks and jingles get stuck in our heads.
National Gazes- The icons that correlate with our country such as the American flag, or the Bald Eagle. They always make us think of the U.S.
Traveling Gazes- These are images brought to our memory and we have either been there, or would like to go there.
Cultural Gazes- Are different cultures and how they interact with the world that makes you remember them. How you were brought up on a certain tradition will always reflect your cultural gaze.
No matter which gaze we use they are all familiar to us in one way or another because they help us visualize our most intimate and happy moments.

I would always associate this as a picture of home, because of the mountains, and the snow. It is both familial to me because of the mountains, yet it is also a traveling gaze because it is a landmark that I recognize.

Cause and Effect

There is a cause and effect to everything we do in life. The cause and effects are a sequence of events that can be closely linked together like a chain. When you allow the readers to see your chronological order of events, they can easily understand your story. They then know why a certain thing happened, what did it cause you to do, and what progressed from then on. It is a way to show the flow of the conversation at hand, and allows people to arrive at the same conclusion.

The chain of events should always occur in a chronological order other wise it would not make sence to the person who is reading. If you went from point 1,2,3,4,5,6,7...etc. you can follow the chain easily, however if you went out of sequence like 1,4,2,5,6,3,7 the chain is so twisted that you wind up going in circles trying to find how you got from 1-7. Read the story,and mentally road map the sequence of events. Always look for connections so that you know you have the story straight.

The idea of a Peer Review

What is a peer review? It is only a helping hand given to us by our class mates. We may write our stories the way we like, however if we do not know how others perceive, or view our writing style we cannot reach our audiences the way we had planned. I appreciate my peers who took the time to look over my narrative essay. It showed me that I had a lot to fix punctuation wise, and to broaden my stories. Peer reviews are not to criticize or demean someone, but to uplift and enrich the other students, so that they can be more productive in their own styles of English writing. This is only constructive criticism, and we can only learn what we take from others.

Arthurian Rhetoric tools

The author Mary Frances Zambreno creates quite a compelling essay on the Arthurian structure of writing. She describes to the reader the many ways, that the narrative structures are used to help captivate, and hold the attention of the readers. Once we understand how to configure our narrations using carefully structured strategies we can then use them, to make our writings excel.

The first form of writing that she uses is called "Mutability or Plasticity", which are the ways in which the material can be reshaped for new audiences. She gives example through the story of King Arthur the ways in which others have been able to manipulate the story, and focus on points that characterize the story like romance, or the characters, etc. The way people view these stories allows them to manipulate and change it to their liking. Another story that has been reshaped for audiences is the tale of Robin Hood, it can be focused on the point that he steals from the rich and gives to the poor, to also be focused on the romance between Robin, and the Maid Marryanne. Next she discusses the "Piecemeal" of the story, which is how the story has adapted over time. The story of King Arthur has been floating around for generations, many different people have told their own versions of the story. Over time the story has been changed, remolded, and adapted to suit the modern age. Which is like most legends that have been around, like the Lochness monster, big foot, or aliens. Next she refers to "Windows of Opportunity" Which are blank spots in the historical record. The gaps or windows can be filled in over time by the readers, they are filled by other stories, new stories and perspectives. The people feel the need to fill in the blank spots that are left out, so that to stories feels more complete. In movies the perspective from the directors get put in the movies, more than the actual stories, the directors don't necessarily read all of the book so they fill in the gaps with their perspective.(Which is why the movies suck a bit more than the book you read.) And finally Zambreno talks about the "Open ended Closure" if the reader wants more stories they are going to have to find them themselves. The stories turn into a to be continued to the reader. The use of cliff hangers in most modern literature is used to captivate the reader, and leave them wanting to read more. So writers who want to sell more books in their series often leave cliff hangers to make the reader go and buy their second book, and if the book is not out yet the reader thinks of the books possible endings for themselves.

The important elements of a Narrative

We have narrative structure to help us convey our point of view to the reader. We elaborate through narrative structure to help others to understand using imagery of the setting, time, place, characters, attitudes, plots, and themes. when we have one or two elements helping the readers, the readers can't fully comprehend what is going on in the story, argument, or essay. However when we combine all of these elements together, the readers can go more in depth with the writer on a more personal note. We can see the characters, feel what they feel, see what they see, and finally get the conclusion that the reader ultimately wants you to get to at the end of their narrative. In narratives you can also use flashbacks, and flash forwards to go back in time or forwards to help the reader understand the minor details that otherwise would have been left out. like an inside joke, you would not get the joke unless you were there at a certain point of the story in the past, or if someone flashed back and helped you along with the storyline.

In my last blog , the example of narrative that I used had all sorts of elements combined in it to get my view across to the readers.The character being a studious college girl, going to the computer lab to concentrate and do homework. the setting being her in the computers lab with rows upon rows of computers, and her being at the back of the lab near the library. The evil characters in their plot to break her concentration are the NUAMES kids cackling, and playing video games. The girl felt her concentration breaking, and wanted to yell at the skinny, slight, squirrely NUAMES kids that looked like girls. The ending to the story was that the girl just got up and left so that she could finish her homework at another time.In the end my mini story combined a lot of the elements to get my view across to the readers. As should most stories.

Narrative

The importance of narrative in one's writing is to convey to the reader the picture that you have painted in your mind. We use descriptions of characters to envision how they look, show their personality, and to identify their co-existence with the the storyline. We use setting to give a little bit of background information, and to show the scenery of what is going on around the character. We use the setting to further make a connection with the reader. For example if we said someone was thirsty and they need a drink of water, you would just think that some everyday average person wants water. But if you say, The ever expanding, dry, and heated desert was too overbearing for the hitch hiker and he was going to die without a drink of water you would get a different image of the story. We use plot to send the story in motion. There always has to be something going on or the story would seem bland,and very boring. We use plot to take a course of action in the story, and we use subplots to give the story its twists and turns, so that the readers feel and experience that emotional roller coaster. Finally we use theme, to show how the characters tie into the story, and to show their personality, whether they are a good character or an evil one.

There once was a studious college girl in the computer lab. She came to this lab filled with rows upon rows of computers to work on class assigned homework while she  awaited the allotted time for her next class to begin. She was given dreadful tasks that she could accomplish only in a quiet area where she could concentrate. There she sat at her carefully chosen computer at the back of the room next to the library ready to work, when some evil little NUAMES kids chose to occupy the seats right across from her. They were a squirrely little bunch, Most of them were so skinny and slight with hair that was so long, you could almost mistake them for girls. They wanted to play "Video Games!". The next thing the girl knew, her peace and quiet was getting interrupted by the cackling voices of the NUAMES kids. The girl could not concentrate! She wanted to scream, and tell them to play their meaningless games elsewhere. But she couldn't do it. She finally just got up and left the lab to finish her work at another time.