We are all different

Hi Guys,

For this week we had two readings: one from the “Understanding Rhetoric” Comic which I think is awesome and one from “They Say, I Say” which we haven’t read before. After reading these I got the feeling that they were both about how we interpret things differently and how we need to adapt and adjust our writing based on that fact and based on the particular audience we are writing for. Let me explain what I mean…

The first one (Understanding Rhetoric) was about constant change and how to present an argument in an efficient way. It talked about how we all interpret things we read (and see!) in different ways and therefore, you need to be super clear when you are writing and support everything you say with evidence. So since we interpret and percept things differently, you (as a writer) need to make sure that you argue in a way that most readers will understand, even if they interpret it slightly different.

The other reading (They Say, I Say) was about how people interpret things differently and therefore you need to make sure that your reader knows why this is important for him/her and how it is important. “So What? Who Cares?” were the questions that they wanted us to ask ourselves while we are writing. Why does it matter and to who? It was interesting since they showed different examples on how (using easy tricks) you could make your writing more efficient by showing why it matters and why the reader should spend time reading this in the first place.

Even if the two readings have different angles on interpreting and how people are different, I still feel that it is the main focus. We are different, people are different. We read and think about things in different ways based on our own background. Therefore you cannot assume that your reader will understand something or feel the same way just because you do so, you need to back your writing with evidence and be as clear as possible!