Context
The Course
The tangible aspects of this course are thus: a 1st draft of a piece we had previously written, a repurposed version of the piece that was inspired by it in some way, a remediated version of the piece that used a different form of medium to present some version of its argument, and an answer to the question: "why do I write?"
The First Draft
This piece originally began as a contrast between the chosen styles of rhetoric of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but soon veered off course, turning into an analysis of rhetoric itself. Here it appears disjointed, as that was the way in which it was written, like separate pieces of a puzzle that would come together to show a complete picture. I didn't get very far.
Repurposing
This new, repurposed piece began similarly to the first, and I tried and tried to find a way in which I could write an essay that acted a bit like pieces of colored glass that would eventually turn into a stained glass window. As it turned out, that was pretty hard, and so I settled on something much more familiar to me: an argumentative essay. Fueled by an experience at a recent debate and by numerous Youtube videos of people arguing with each other, my analysis of rhetoric became an argument about the ways in which our rhetoric shapes the way we argue, and how certain trends and traps we tend to fall into become hazards to civilized discussion.
Remediation
I had originally intended for my remediation to be something of an informative animated video, but as I have no experience with animation, my attempts to do so successfully failed quite miserably. Instead, I chose a Prezi: an fluid sort of Powerpoint that not only allows you to present information, but that allows you to present information in an interactive way, all the while taking into account the perspective in which the information is presented. While Wix has assured me that the code for the Prezi and its page on this site are compatible, it does not seem to be appearing. Instead, I've attached the link.
Why I Write
This piece attempts to answer its namesake question in a manner specific to me. We through out all the generic responses we might have given if originally left to our own devices, in the hopes that we would all push past those ubiquitous responses and find the reasons for why we write that are unique to us all individually.