Samuel Cox

Professor Jorgensen

ENGL 2010

12 December 2023

Summative Metacommentary

During English 2010 I was able to learn about how rhetoric is used including all the

different places people use it. Rhetoric is everywhere and it is important to be able to recognize

it. Below I will write about how the classwork in this class was able to directly impact me.

The rhetoric of music was something I never thought about. Through this class I was able

to open my eyes and see how rhetoric is in many places we wouldn’t even think about. Music

reaches the hearts of so many people and it can really connect with people on a personal level.

Through can influence the way we feel with its tones and writing persuading to feel however,

and the lyrics of music can also convey a message that it wants its listeners to hear. Rhetoric is

all over music and may be the greatest form of rhetoric.

The rhetoric of service was an interesting unit for the class. Often when people hear the

word service, they just automatically think of people doing community work to pay their dues.

But service can be anything and is so much more, service can be its very own thing for everyone.

Through my project I was able to talk about the importance of service to my own family

members, talking about the importance of service was rhetoric itself. And the only way to have

more people do service is through spreading the information, and we can only spread the word

with effective rhetoric.

The final project of the class was to formulate a ted talk. Being able to convince an

audience you must be able to use rhetoric the best way you can in a public speaking matter.
Through much research of previous ted talks we were able to learn it is essential to connect with

you audience for them to truly listen to you. A great way to connect with your audience is

through stories and many other smaller factors. But learning how to effective ways of public

speaking is essential for being able to understand and use rhetoric.

Through this class I was able to learn about rhetoric in ways I would have never thought

about before. Understanding all the different aspects rhetoric and how it is used in such different

scenarios was really eye opening. Overall, I am happy with what I was able to take away from

the course.

Rhetoric is something I am going to use for the rest of my life. We are always trying to

convince people and people are always trying to convince us. I am now able to recognize

rhetoric in a better way than I ever could have before. I am also able to use the lessons from this

class to help me whenever I need to use rhetoric.

Through this class I was able to learn the importance of rhetoric and how it used in so

many ways. Being able to apply rhetoric in public speaking is still much more difficult than I

imagined. Learning all about rhetoric is very useful, but sometimes my nervousness still beats

me and I hope my public speaking skills get better with more practice and time.