Reflective Essay: Rhetoric In The English Language

In the first lesson we have went over a lot of material and in turn I have learned a lot. A major thing I have learned from this first chapter is rhetoric. Rhetoric is the fluency and ability to get to the point across in your writing while using all the “laws” of the English language correctly. Although hard to do, in order to have good rhetoric you must avoid Engfish, show don’t tell, and have good word choice.
Engfish is writing how you think someone else would want you to write instead of how you would like. Nearly everything we have written up to now and more than likely many more things we write in the future will be Engfish. Though it may sound difficult to do, the pure simple solution to Engfish is to make the assignment your own. When having trouble writing an assignment, the best thing to do is to “use some butt glue” and “write about dogs” which basically just means sit down, remove as many distractions as possible, and write about what you know. When writing about something that you know it is easier to avoid Engfish and in some cases will even lead to a better grade.
Another major point in this lesson that I learned was to show not tell.
In your writing your word choice means everything because every word has two definitions—a denotative and a connotative. The denotative meaning of a word is the meaning of the word that you would find in a dictionary while the connotative meaning is the personal meanings to each individual about the word. If you are shooting for a positive outcome from what you are writing you are wanting to focus on the general connotative meaning behind the word. Along with good word choice, you also have to be aware of the grammar within your writing. When bad grammar usage is found throughout the paper the best thing the reader is capable of thinking is that you’re stupid while the worst is that you don’t care at all about what you are