Week 4

Week 4 is over and I am two readings smarter than last week.

Out of this week’s readings, I found a lot of good information in Carroll’s “From Backpacks to Briefcases” that helped me to understand how deep writing can really be. Prior to this class, writing for me was just a form of communication which you used when you were too lazy to call or talk to a person face to face. Genres, styles, and contexts was nothing I considered nor cared about when I structured my messages. But as the weeks fly by, the thoughts behinds the texts are coming more and more often and I have to admit, it is very interesting to see how much you can affect people by using different styles and genres.

In Carroll’s text, the author paid a lot of attention to the first impression and how fast people are when it comes to judging people. Due to earlier experiences, humans generalize people depending of what they have learned in the past. By generalizing, we put people into different folders depending of who we think they are and unfortunately, that makes us treat people differently. I can only speak for myself but I am sorry to say that I treat people very differently depending on who I think they are and how they look. It is nothing I decide to do but it comes automatically. When I see someone who seems to have the same interests as me, I personally act in a nicer way compared to when I see a person whom I seem to have nothing in common with. What this behavior depends on is hard to say but I assume I treat the first person better because I know the odds for us getting along and become good friends are better compared to when I talk to the person whom I observe as “strange”.  It happens way too often and it is a shame I have to write these words. Fortunately, I am aware of the problem and that makes it easier to correct it.  

Carroll’s text did also talk a lot about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos and for me, those three words has always been about speaking  but I have never considered it when it comes to writing. Just as speaking, writing is all about persuading people and you need to connect with your audience on a deeper level in order to accomplish a connection. Either if you use your intellectual side (Logos), emotional side (Pathos), or your credibility and trustworthiness (Ethos), you need to involve these three parts if you want to affect your audience. Personally, I have a lot to work on when it comes to both speaking and writing and if I can develop my ethos, pathos, and logos, I will be able to develop my skills and hopefully become a better communicator both verbally and on paper.

In the second reading for this week, it was a lot of instructions of how you do an interview and since it is only a week until we are doing our own interview, it was a lot of useful information which I will use when it is time to sit down and talk to the CEO of Melonboard. If you have not heard about that company before, I recommend you to go to melonboard.com and check it out.

Have a great weekend and see you again on Monday!