OPEN ENDED QUESTION

Instructions: Please respond to the questions that follow with as much detail and description that you can. The more you put into reflecting now on the complexities of your language and literacy development, the better off you’ll be in completing our major assignment for our first phase of this course. Take as much space as you need.

When it comes to your experiences with language (speaking and listening) and literacy (reading and writing), what specific moments in your life can you recall that are particularly vivid or that emerge as being significant to you? Yes, it could be an example from your earliest memories of learning to speak, read, and write (in school or elsewhere), but it doesn’t have to be. It could be a memorable encounter—a moment of tension, confusion, or triumph. It could be about experiences developing additional dialects/languages and advanced literacies (i.e., learning to speak/write in different peer groups, at school, at work, with family, online, in different locations across the nation or world, etc. Please select 3 moments to describe. Then, explain why each is interesting or significant.

I think I have a good personal story to tell. I used to work as an aircraft technician in the Royal Jordanian Air Force. In 2014, I decided to change something in my life to get a B.A degree. I applied for the university and after one year of struggling to get the approval to start a degree, they told me the only major compatible with my career was English language and literature which was the option I even did not list, not because I do not like the English language, but rather it is because I cannot even remember the English letters. Having no other option, I started studying eight – to ten hours daily so I could fill the gap and enhance my English competence with myself.   I remember that I was really scared of the professor asking me to stand and tell the English letters for the first semester. To make a long story short, I decided to start participating in the classroom and break the ice, which was the toughest period in my academic life. The students could not hold themselves from laughing at my language – do not blame them- my language was horrible as I used to hear myself when recording the lectures to summarize them later.  What made it worse was my mental status, not only my language, but, also, it was that feeling I was not smart enough to speak English. Well! It happens that I graduated with an excellent G.P.A. and I was listed on the honor board more than 4 times on the college level and once on the university level.  After that, I got admitted to the rank 1 university in Jordan, The University of Jordan, with an M.A. degree in linguistics, from which I graduated with a higher excellent G.P.A. After all of that, I believe there is still too much to learn about the English language, yet my passion is with engineering.

What specific materials or artifacts (i.e., objects, writing, learning materials, pictures, video recordings, etc.) from your past can you locate/recall and that in some way represent a meaningful moment in your reading/writing development? This can be something like a journal or book, but also anything at all (e.g., a toy, piece of furniture, cereal box, art supplies, etc.) What memories and feelings can you extract from these examples you’ve gathered/recalled? Explain.

I was thinking it was possible for me until I took the course of introduction to literature. The whole semester, we had to analyze the Wuthering Heights novel, which I fully analyzed and fully understood. After reading WH, I read The Scarlet letter, Great Gatsby, Arabian nights, the Fault in Our Stars, and others.

For better or worse, who and what impacted how, when, and why you developed your languages and literacies? Who in your family, at school, among your peer group, or in your community played a part? How did your particular situation or experience shape your literacy? That is, what sorts of issues, experiences, organizations, or life circumstances played a part? What kinds of languages and literacies did you gain from those people and your particular situation? How? Why? Explain.

It has always been the same for me, I do not want to die a number, I was dying a name; this is what gives me the motivation to move forward and pave the way for me, hopefully one day I will do something worthwhile. By the way, my father used to tell me “get married and have children in this way you will not die a number, your children will hold your name”, maybe he is right maybe not.

In what ways do you see your language, reading, and writing capabilities as having social consequences or impacting your life circumstances—that is, what advantages did/do you have and what disadvantages did/do you face as a result of your language and literacy learning?

My reading and writing skills are a blessing. In other words, I am sure that I could not achieve anything in this life without the lingua franca. Writing helped me a lot in my previous job, such as writing emails. Also, reading helped me expand my knowledge, so it does impact personality in terms of intellectuality.

How might your experience with language and literacy connect to larger social realities (e.g., of your life, family, generation, gender, race, culture, nation, geographic location, historical moment, etc.)?

It is well connected to my social life. In the family, I am the one who corrects my brothers’ emails and helps them get better grades in courses. In addition, my friends speak English as a first language which I believe is far better than me (for now), but when it comes to reading and writing, they ask me to do that for them. On the large scale, I feel like everything I am doing is connected to these skills and without them I definitely can do nothing.

English Composition

Essay

I cannot believe it is the end of the seamster, yet I think what I have learned opened my eyes to things I believe very important, which I will discuss in this essay. In general, I will discuss the incomes out of this course by answering the forementioned questions in the assignment.

The first question is about analyzing how views regarding linguistic conventions strengthen or constrain individuals who use languages. Asking this question in specific proves that you planned very well for this class because this is the first point I would discuss in all cases. I have been studying linguistics for more than 6 years and the idea that to express yourself away from linguistic restrictions is brilliant, not exaggerating. This is the first time I focus on the content/ideas of the text rather than dividing my attention between linguistic mistakes and ideas. Not denying the importance of linguistics at all, however, it is very useful to write freely without caring about linguistics, this way, it unleashes your strength and empowers your creativity in writing.

 Eventually, we write to communicate or to convey meaning, message, or idea, so since you can write and the reader receive the ideas or the message, then the essential purpose of writing is met. For example, Amy Tan and her mother, her mother used to say broken English, yet she was able to deliver the message, even Amy Tan’s essay itself was not perfect in terms of linguistics yet we enjoy reading it. Bottom line, linguistic standards oppress the language users more than they empower them in certain contexts, type of writing, purpose of writing. The next paragraph will discuss the second question about rhetorical devices and genres.

The second question is about investigating and evaluating a range of genres and rhetorical contexts via writing and reading. This is exactly what did in my research essay, I compared different genres such as short story, essay, poems, and narratives (fictional realism) with reference to the rhetorical devices. What I have learned out of conducting that comparative study is that rhetorical devices overlap between genres in which one rhetorical device can be used in all genres such as simile. However, some of rhetorical devices are best to be used in certain genres over other genres, for example, alliteration is commonly connected to poetry rather than short story, yet it can be found the short story such as Shooting an Elephant.

 Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing. From my perspective, I developed the strategy of drafting; indeed, I studied this skill, and I knew about the importance of drafting, however, this course helped me put it into practice. The way the assignment is designed is to allow drafting which helps a lot in improving the writing and avoiding mistakes. Furthermore, I was able to develop the skills needed to use rhetorical devices in writing because part of my research was to analysis them in different texts, which leads to expanding my comprehension on how I can employ them during writing. Since I started writing my own book, I believe this skill will be a great tool to attract readers and make my writing creative. In addition, this is the first time I add pictures to a text I write. Honestly speaking, inserting pictures describing the moment what I write about is brilliant, as you add species to the meals, exactly as we did in the first assignment (writing about a challenging moment in learning English)

Finally, I realize something important is that what controls the texts whether they are poem, short story, novel, or essay is the writer mental conditions; if a reader is a prisoner, s/he will write about something related to imprisonment. In other words, what controls the content of the text is our conditions not what we want to write about solely. For example, Orwell was in situation of being the colonizer and, therefore, his story was about his condition as colonizer, some goes for Amy Tan who had an issue with language acquisition.

In summary, prioritizing content over linguistic correctness to enhance creativity in writing was valuable insights gained out of this course. Furthermore, exploration of genres and rhetorical devices through a research essay, noting the overlapping use of rhetorical devices across different genres enhanced my ability to perceive the literary texts before and after writing. The development of drafting strategies and the practical application of rhetorical devices, particularly in their own writing endeavors, such as crafting a book will help me a lot in my writing. Additionally, I cannot forget appreciating the innovative inclusion of pictures to complement the writing. By the end, realizing the influence of the writer’s mental state on the content they produce emphasizes how personal circumstances shape the themes and narratives of texts. Overall, my essay celebrates growth in writing skills, understanding of rhetorical devices, and a deeper awareness of the creative process influenced by personal experiences.

Comparative Study on Utilizing Different Rhetorical Devices in Several Genres

Part 1: Introduction

According to the second edition of John Frow, genre provides a thorough and understandable introduction to the subject. Genre is an important tool for classifying various kinds of literature and culture, but it is also a great deal more than that as follows: genres actively produce and influence our understanding of the world through discourse and writing, music and visuals, cinema, and television.

This paper examines is divided into two parts. The first one is to compare the four texts which have different genres in terms of rhetorical devices: Mother Tongue (essay) / The Haunted Oak (Poetry)/ Shooting an Elephant (short story)/ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (magic realism). There are rhetorical devices that this paper considers are Alliteration, Amplification, Anacoluthon, Anadiplosis, Antanagoge, Apophasis, Chiasmus, Euphemism, Hypophora, anaphora, and Similes. For the second part, the paper supports Whatever has been discussed in the first part alongside the other scholars’ perspectives. I will start by analyzing each text and check which of the rhetorical devices are used to do a linguistic function in the texts.

First, Mother Tongue is an essay by Amy Tan about her mother’s language and how the language of immigrants and Chinese affected her way of seeing life. The essay mainly derives its authenticity from the events happening with her in real life, which is one of the most effective methods to persuade the reader. When it comes to rhetorical device use, the first thing that comes to mind is Anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses). In the first and second paragraphs, she repeats “I am” more than nineteen times. The repetition used for several reasons: directing the thought of the reader that this is about personal experience and about establishing a connection with the reader by introducing herself, which all clustered the repetition of the word” I am.” She continues using the same style until the very end of the essay which resulted in building a strong connection with the reader and, at the same time, engaging the reader emotionally. A second rhetorical device that caught my attention during my reading is asyndeton (a literary device in which conjunctions are intentionally omitted to change a sentence’s tone). For example:

“Grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother.”

Out of many purposes of using asyndeton in writing, she wants to emphasize how much she is about realizing English language usage. Also, there is a sense of mentioning a point quickly without stopping on it. This rhetorical device is employed to emphasize the idea swiftly.

Now let us move on with the analysis of The Haunted Oak by Paul Dunbar, the poem describes a horrible scene that happened to an innocent man. In my perspective, the poem is a style of writing in which a writer wants either to say something indirectly or to make it brilliant in terms of description figure of speech and so on; in The Haunted Oak, based on the time writing and the condition of the writer, I would say it is the former, saying something indirectly.

The writer uses some rhetorical devices in the poem. First, an indirect reference to the person, event, or place is called allusion in poetry, it is used when the author believes that the reader will be able to make a connection with the reference. Paul Dunbar uses allusion in many places in his poem, for instance:

1.“And the rope they bear is long.”

2.“Oh, the judge, he wore a mask of black,

  And the doctor one of white,”

Here the author refers to the people in authority by the long rope and to describing the doctor and the judge indirectly. Second, he uses asyndeton which refers to the connecting the words, phrases, and sentences without conjunctions. For example, I found this rhetorical device used in the below stanza:

“I am burned with dread, I am dried and dead,”

The most rhetorical device used in his poem is cacophony: it refers to the use of discordant and unpleasant word choice. There are many examples in the poem such as dim, weird, pains, moan, tremble, old crime, wail, dog howl, jail, and others.

Now Shooting an Elephant is a short story by the British writer George Orwell. First, Orwell used alliteration well during times of high stress and to emphasize the situation. During the elephant’s demise, George constantly employs the letter ‘S’ to describe what is happening. He describes the elephant as “suddenly stricken, shrunken, sagged, and slobbered.” The repetition increases the tension of the scene in the readers’ minds. Alliteration is used many times in this short sorry; in brief, when Orwell described the man killed in the mud. For sure there are many rhetorical devices used in this short story.

Finally, we have A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Márquez, to tell the truth, this is the first time I heard about the magic realistic genre, however, I read similar fictional stories with the same context and connotation, but this is a topic for different research, and it sounds interesting. Gabrial uses simile (a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox) in different parts of his story, for example:

“He was dressed like a ragpicker… his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away any sense of grandeur he might have had.”

Part 2: Discussion

                First, according to Sag and Hankamer (1976), there are two main ways to interpret anaphora as a rhetorical device: The transformational position and the interpretive position. They explain it linguistically in which the former is independent, whereas the latter is more referential anaphora as it must have a reference in the external world. In our example in the first paragraph about the repetition of the pronoun “I”, Amy Tan was referring to an external referential which is herself; so, she used the interpretive position according to Sag and Hankamer. The discussion about this process is lengthy in terms of linguistic behavior involving deletion but will stick to this limit for the assignment.

An asyndeton is a rhetorical technique that indicates an ellipsis, consisting of “coordinated sentences or phrases without obvious conjunctions or connectives.” (Wales, 2001, p. 33).  Asyndeton includes three types: namely, adversative asyndeton, causal asyndeton, explicative asyndeton, enumerative asyndeton, copulative asyndeton, summative asyndeton, and consecutive asyndeton, according to Leenknecht (2015). In the fourth paragraph, the example Amy Tan uses in her essay is in line with the last type, consecutive asyndeton. Leenknecht (2015) stated that consecutive asyndeton adverbs indicating chronological or logical sequence, such as ‘first’ or ‘and then’, are eliminated. He also discussed the idea that various activities or occurrences are recounted in sequential or spontaneous order. This kind can enhance storytelling and provide a sense of movement.  The following paragraph discusses the allusion employed by Paul Dunbar in The Haunted Oak.

Sarah Annes Brown (2009) defined allusion as an act of making indirect references to other texts, incidents, or popular culture inside a literary work that enriches the meaning and context of the text. To illustrate the example stated in the sixth paragraph about allusion in poetry, Heather Dubrow (2002) indicated that “Allusion and intertextuality are closely connected, serving as points of connection between texts, allowing for the exchange of ideas and the construction of literary meaning.” In my perspective, the closest definition to the example we cited from The Haunted Oak is what Soledad and Utrera (2018) said about illusion; they illustrated that, in historical fiction, allusion refers to the delicate insertion of references to historical events, individuals, or texts inside the story, allowing authors to locate their stories within specific historical settings and deepen the reader’s understanding of the era.  As discussed in the class, Paul wanted to discuss a historical event (hanging the man which is a historical story told about by his grandfather). The other example was about asyndeton but since we already discussed it, will move forward with other examples of different genres. Cacophony is also functioned in the poem, the example in paragraph nine. Out of many definitions of Emily Dickinson (2016), and Robert Frost (2019), I found Ralph Cohen’s definition relates more to the example I provided. He defined cacophony as a tool that refers to the purposeful use of loud, disruptive sounds in poetry or prose to create a feeling of dissonance or disorder, which typically mirrors the work’s thematic subject or psychological tone, which is the case with negative words in the poem. The next paragraphs discuss alliteration as a rhetorical device in Shooting an Elephant.

Even though alliteration is commonly associated with poetry, I found it in the short story of Shooing an Elephant which is illustrated in the example in paragraph ten. O’Connor (2022), in her recent paper, discussed alliteration in short stories which is, as she said, rare. She stated Alliteration may be used in short stories to create atmosphere, establish patterns, and underline significant themes or motifs in a subtle yet effective way. She added authors use alliterative tactics to improve the aural and aesthetic characteristics of their work, attracting readers’ attention to key events or imagery in the story. Next, we will discuss simile and allegory which are found in A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Márquez.

Gonzalez (2019) Similes are utilized in magical realist writing to bridge the gap between the commonplace and the supernatural, allowing authors to generate surreal imagery while keeping it grounded in recognizable terms. Similes function as channels for readers to explore the extraordinary inside the commonplace, blurring the line between reality and imagination in the narrative world. Therefore, what has been recognized in the story about simile is supported by this statement. In addition, Harris (2018) stated “Similes serve as powerful tools in literature, allowing authors to vividly convey complex ideas and emotions by comparing one thing to another using ‘like’ or ‘as.’ Through similes, writers create rich imagery that resonates with readers, facilitating deeper engagement with the text.” Basically, while reading about similes, similes and metaphors are somehow connected by explaining one thing by another. In the example we provided from the story, Márquez uses similes to make the image vivid and to make it more entertaining, from my perspective.

In conclusion, this comparative analysis sheds light on how different rhetorical strategies are used in diverse literary genres. We investigated how authors use rhetorical devices to enrich their writing and convey meaning by analyzing works ranging from essays and poetry to short tales and magical realism. The analysis of Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” demonstrated the successful use of rhetorical techniques like anaphora and asyndeton to develop personal connections and accentuate language intricacies. In Paul Dunbar’s “The Haunted Oak,” the use of allusion, asyndeton, and cacophony helped to create a dark atmosphere while also exploring themes of injustice and suffering. Proceeding on to George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant,” we saw how alliteration was used effectively to heighten suspense and depict the narrator’s mental agony. Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” exemplifies how similes may blur the barrier between ordinary and exceptional in magical realism. Finally, this study emphasizes the relevance of rhetorical techniques as effective instruments for literary expression across genres. Examining its use in different situations allows us to grasp the subtle ways in which authors use rhetoric to build fascinating narratives and enhance the literary environment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hankamer, Jorge, and Ivan Sag. “Deep and Surface Anaphora.” Linguistic Inquiry, vol. 7, no. 3, 1976, pp. 391–428. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4177933. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.

Wales, Katie. A Dictionary of Stylistics. 2nd ed., Pearson Education, 2001.

Dubrow, Heather. “Allusion and Intertextuality: The Nexus of Rhetoric and Poetic.” Poetics Today, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 1-18

Brown, Sarah Annes. A Familiar Strangeness: American Fiction and the Language of Photography. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Fernandez Utrera, Maria Soledad. “The Function of Literary Allusion in Historical Fiction: A Case Study of Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace’.” Journal of Historical Fiction, vol. 4, no. 2, Fall 2018, pp. 87-104.

Cohen, Ralph. “The Sound of Silence: Exploring Cacophony in Contemporary Poetry.” Modern Language Quarterly, vol. 78, no. 3, September 2017, pp. 421-439.

O’Connor, Patricia T. “The Art of Alliteration in Short Fiction: Enhancing Narrative Texture and Meaning.” Journal of Short Story Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, Spring 2022, pp. 45-62.

Gonzalez, Maria. “Figurative Language in Magical Realism: Exploring the Function of Similes in the Works of Gabriel García Márquez.” Journal of Magical Realism Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, Fall 2019, pp. 78-95.

Harris, Robert A. “The Power of Figurative Language: Exploring Similes in Literature.” Journal of Literary Studies, vol. 45, no. 2, Spring 2018, pp. 87-104.

Johnson, Emily. “Unveiling the Depths: The Function of Allegory in Contemporary Fiction.” Literary Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, Winter 2021, pp. 321-338.

Leenknecht, Annelies. “An Analysis of Asyndeton in Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The Lowland’ and Its Dutch Translation.” Master’s Thesis, Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte, 2015. Promotor Prof. Dr. Lieve Jooken. Vakgroep Vertalen Tolken Communicatie.

Old is Gold:

An interview with my father

Transcript of the interview:

The first question was a general one: do you think life is better now than in the past? Or the other way around? 

He told me in what aspect? Be more specific. To evoke him, I reminded him of the first phone my uncle brought to the neighbourhood, it was the first magic I saw in my life. Then I asked him about whether technology has made life better or worse for his generation. His answer was not clear, he told me it was a double-edged knife question. While we are happy reaching each other fast, I mean the family members, a lot of things we lost since technology invaded our lives. He continues talking about weddings in the past and how the families used to gather and celebrate each other. Nowadays, they hold weddings in luxurious hotels and spend a lot of money but do not experience the same happiness we used to have.  I think this was my next question about the change in behaviour, however, you did not tell me what this has to do with technology.

He told me after Ramadan, we used to prepare ourselves to go and visit our closest relatives on the first day, we used to travel for hours and spend like two days to do so, but what’s happening now? people send only two text messages to all people on the WhatsApp app and that is all. You do not see them physically and you do not have the same sense as when you travel and visit them physically. According to my father, although technology makes it easy to reach anyone anytime, people nowadays do not know each other. We used to know the root of each family even to the seventh grandfather. In addition, if a new person comes to live in the village, all people will know in a couple of days. In comparison, the last time is visited the village I heard that there were cousins living next to each other for years without knowing that they were living in the same building.

Then I asked him about the third question since he already answered my second question (behaviour). Do you think the language has changed? I mean do you think people speak different accents or dialects, if yes, why? His answer was “Well! Villagers always look at the people living in the city as superior to them and, as a result, they try to imitate them in terms of language. In past, this phenomenon tends to be rarely noticed because of the distance between us and the cities, nowadays, you use the internet and learn Chinese. In this way, we started to see new words used by the new generation and, unfortunately, lost some original words we used to use for communication. According to my father, one reason for this is the geographical shift; in other words, people who live in the same geographical area almost speak the same dialect, whereas those who interact with different strata, have their language mixed up.

He continued talking about how the people of the village try to imitate the people living in the cities show off and how this demolishes our heritage and customs. He also talked about how even when we could not visit each other because of the long distance, diseases, or even bad weather, we used to go to the post office and stay in line for hours to send the envelope. Nowadays, it is only one click and you send too many envelopes to all people you know you do not even know.