Response to Shipka's Article


In an environment full of projects and essays, students like myself, are accustomed to following a specific layout and criteria due to the similar, yet continual expectations. Not much thought is needed as it is almost a routine to present the information in the same format time and time again. In contrast, this class has expanded my ideas on what is necessary to complete a project. A traditional English class would require me to write traditional essays explaining the rhetorical situation, however, it follows Shipka’s ideas instead. These projects have shifted the focus on how students have to approach projects. The concepts are there, as one is required to identify and analyze the choices that were made to convey the specific rhetorical situation, but they are just approached differently. For example, for our last project, choosing an assemblage to do a project on, forced me to truly dissect what assemblages are and how one can be transformed to another. If we were just given a generic assemblage, it would be harder to create a transformed assemblage that was unique and of strong rhetoric. Our chosen assemblage broadens our understanding of what an assemblage does, for we are in control of every aspect of it. There is a purpose as to why we chose our assemblage and those reasons have led to the choices we make when we transform it into something new. This project truly showcases the very concept Shipka was discussing in her article. It allowed us to work in new ways and make connections about concepts that we may not have discovered if the project was given to us in a more traditional fashion. There was no limit to our creativity and it allowed for a broad range of ideas that allowed us to understand the term “assemblage” in an even better fashion. Despite the flexibility with the text of choice, we all still were able to dissect them and analyze the rhetorical choices that were made to convey both the given and transformed message. The creative process truly makes every choice made intentional and more focused on communicating the rhetorical situation giving the project much more depth and understanding. We are involved in every part of the process, through choosing and creating a new text that are analysis of them in retrospect will be so much more in depth than would have been possible if we were just given a text to analyze.

Comments

  1. Mrs.COctober 30, 2017 at 10:24 AM

    Yes, and I think Shipka faces two different critiques again and again: 1) the belief that this kind of composing somehow takes less effort than writing an essay; 2) that students won't see how this relates to other classes/composing environments. I'd be interested to know what you think

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