Sambeg Raj Subedi
ENGL 21007-S
Prof. Jesse Rice-Evans
Weekly Assign#1
02/11/2019

The comic article “Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing” was quite informative in nature. In this article, the author mainly focuses on the definition of Rhetoric, views of ancient people and it’s importance in today’s writing and communication. Rhetoric, being a broad topic covers Ethos, Pathos, Logos, and Kairos. During ancient times, people had a mixed opinion regarding Rhetoric. According to Plato, ancient Greek philosopher “Rhetoric is intended only to hide flaws, not to encourage self-improvement” which clearly reflects his negative view about Rhetoric. He believed that it negatively impacted the young peoples by disabling their ability to speak the truth. In his opinion, sexual and violent crimes committed by actors on the stage helps spectators to imitate bad actions. I am quite unsatisfied with his views because it is not true that people will always grab a negative aspect of the play and try to imitate it. It totally depends on the individual’s ways of thinking. Unlike Plato, Aristotle is quite positive about Rhetoric. He considered Rhetoric to be one of the foundations of education. He believed that to be effective in communication and writing, three aspects Ethos, Pathos, and Logos must be taken into consideration. Ethos means credibility that speakers or writer brings to the subject. Pathos means the use of emotion on the subject and finally, Logos means the use of logic behind the argument. In order to make a complete meaningful argument, there must be the inclusion of all those factors. I am totally impressed by his opinion because while reading this article, an image of a Political leader appealing his citizens to vote for him came into my mind. If we deeply analyzed their speech then we could find the inclusion of all three factors. Apart from this, the author also highlighted on Kairos which simply means doing the right things on the right moment. It is obviously true because it makes no sense if somebody tries to make fun in a funeral ceremony. Things will be effective only if it is done at the right time.
Two other articles “When Your Grades Are Based On Labor” and “Labor Log” were basically about the grading system. It was mentioned that student is graded based on time and labor which means as long as the students put their effort on their paper and submit on time, they can expect a good grade. In order to improve students writing skills, students are allowed to revise their paper which is excellent because I think in next attempt students will certainly use their previous experience and be more creative to do better than previous.