Why I am in RHE 309K

I am in this class because I feel that I need to improve on my writing skills. I know I will need these skills later on when writing papers for other classes. In general, I also need to learn how to write better so that I can send the message that I want to send to the reader. I have had misunderstandings because of my writing and I want to fix this. Sometimes a person reads what I write and thinks the opposite of what I am trying to say. It's become a stressful problem. I want to be able to express myself on paper without others taking my message the wrong way.

I need Rhetoric!

Rhetoric. I personally dislike writing because I don't think I am that great in it. I feel like my problem is that I can't arrange my thoughts together the right way so that it makes sense to others that are reading them. I fear writing papers because I can't put the words in my head on paper. I know that there is so much to say but my writing skills need help so that they can be easily understood.
The reason I chose this class is because I want to become a better writer. I really want to be able to arrange my words in a way that makes sense. Writing is not my strongest ability but reading is. I love reading and I really envy how some people can arrange their thoughts, especially when it comes to arguments.
I am planning to declare as a Public Relations major and I know that for that kind of major I need to be a strong writer and know how to arrange my words to where I can make a straight point. This is the reason that I chose this class. I want to become a better rhetoric student and not feel like I have underdeveloped skills in speech. I want to know that I will be able to respond quickly with the right words whenever I am asked a question or to defend my case. I know that I have a lot to say, the problem is that sometimes I cannot find the words to use and what I say is sometimes taken the wrong way.
I can't wait to continue with this class and learn more about the history of Vietnam because I feel that it's a subject that I never covered in any part of my education. I know the general idea of Vietnam but I want to know more because I think that it is a beautiful culture and I want to be more knowledgeable about it.
So far, I have learned from that last lectures that I will really enjoy this class because you allow us to think for ourselves and you actually seem to care about what we have to say. This class will really be worthwhile!

Why the heck am I in Ben 1.106?

Hmmmm... when I realized I had to take Rhetoric 306 AND 309..I got a teensie bit nervous. I will admit that I am NOT the best writer. I have my good essays and my not so much essays. What ran through my mind was, "Why didn't I just take that AP test and do those dreadful timed writings!" Oh well, it was my bad. For Rhetoric 306, I basically scrambled to just fit into a course and didn't consider who I was going to have to listen to for a semester or if there was a topic, but thank goodness it turned out well. I had little desire to write 15 more essays this semester, but I knew I had to. I knew I had to just get through it to finally get to my classes for athletic training. After surviving my first semester of college and rhetoric, I had to think carefully if I wanted to go through that again and there was one aspect that made me say yes...well maybe two actually.

While most are enjoying themselves and typing their lovely essays, I enjoyed watching shows with my dad focused on wars and history. For some reason I actually like American history, WWII, and all that fun stuff, but couldn't enjoy writing a research paper. Crazy, I know. History holds mystery, lies, and all the juicy details that always make life interesting, so when I heard that I can take a Rhetoric class that actually involves some history, I was kind of interested. I figured if I HAVE to take Rhetoric 309, I might as well learn some history along the way! I also wanted to actually know the reason behind the war and knew this would help me out since my time is so limited as a broke college student. Love for history + Writing is not too unbearable = Not too bad! I'm actually looking forward to gettting into Vietnam.
To seal the deal, who passes up the complicated name Krzysztof Piekarski?!

AP Credit Just Didn’t Cut It? Well...Kind Of

In high school I did everything in my power to test out of all college English and Writing courses. AP scores came back and I thought I was golden- no rhetoric classes for me! Then I took a look at my degree plan and saw that RHE 309 was required for Public Relation students. I made this wonderful observation over Christmas break and I was real excited about it (booo). I looked at the options and the only ones that would really fit with my schedule were either this class or the Rhetoric of Comic Books. I’m basically in love with history so my choice was an easy one…until I saw the beautiful words, “8 AM” out to the side of TTH- I could barely do my 10 AM last semester. While this stipulation would normally be considered a crippling factor in most of my other class scheduling debates, I was not about to sit in a class and talk about comic books. That’s just not me. I sucked up my hate for waking up and got on the waitlist, but then I was hit with a whole new fear.

My high school graduating class was only two hundred people and out of those two hundred, maybe only twenty actually cared about school. I come from a small, non-competitive high school. While there I was always considered to be a pretty good writer, so I had hoped that some college professor would never get the opportunity to prove that to be false. So I guess one reasons I’m here is to see if my writing can still hold merit when in a competitive academic environment. I have my fingers crossed.

However, and perhaps more importantly, I’m in this class because I love history and Vietnam is a subject that has always sparked a special interest with me. This war is often only glanced over and I really want to know more than a general history class can give me. I’m excited to be here and I look forward to this class every morning. Everyone in there seems really nice and Professor Piekarski seems to really care about us as students and what we have to say. I think it’s going to be an amazing class.

Choosing 309

When my friend Chelsea suggested I take this class last semester I was very skeptical. Half of my senior year high school English class was devoted to the literature of war, in particular Vietnam. Although, all the boys in the class seemed intrigued I had absolutely no interest. When I explained this to Chelsea she promised it would be different, that she really enjoyed this class and that the writing experience that she gained was unparalleled to anything she had taken in her AP English classes in High School. Thinking back on all of my English classes I realized that I had to take this course and improve my writing, which I have always struggled with.

So far this class has been even better than what Chelsea had hinted. She did not go into the learning record details or tweeting but I believe that these elements are necessary for me to understand and become engaged with the topic of Vietnam. I think why I despised the Vietnam unit in High School was because everyday all we did was listen to the teacher lecture. We never were able to discuss with each other or to find out information on our own. I look forward to seeing the growth and improvement in my writing and I am thankful that I am taking this class as a freshman so this style of learning and rhetorical analysis will be vital and exercised all facets of my college career. 

why i am in this class

All through my life i have enjoyed writing but only when I was writing about something that I enjoyed learning about or if the topic was something that I could write about easily. For instance I can write history essays or papers easily while writing a paper for a boring English topic was never my cup of tea. So that brings me to this class, I signed up for this class because I had read that professor Piekarski was a great professor and that his class was very enjoyable even though the class time was at 8 in the morning. So once class started to my great surprise I found out that the topic for this class was the Vietnam War one of the many wars I have studied on my own free time because I love military history. So once I found out this information I knew I was going to stay to see what new information I would learn about the war and hopefully my prior knowledge would greatly improve my writing. Plus having a topic I would enjoy writing about was a major plus to me and from that moment I knew I was going to stick with this 8 am class. Even better all the movies he has on the list I have seen before and will gladly watching them again without an argument. This class this semester to my belief will be very enjoyable to me see what everyone else thinks of the war and to see what the professor has to say about the war also. Plus with the different way the class is set up should be a new experience that so far I think I am going to enjoy.

Why am I taking this class?

First off, you are the only professor I have had that asked me why I am taking this class, other than the fact that it is required. I had to think about it for a little while since I have never had to answer a question like this before. I am not confident in my writing because it is not one of my strong points. In fact, last semester I had to write a fifteen page paper (please don't get any ideas about assigning us this) and it was a nightmare, I had no idea where to even start. Although you are not making us do anything that insane, I have a feeling that I am going to learn a great deal in this course. Another thing is that I did not come into this class having any prior knowledge of the Vietnam War. When enrolling in rhetoric 309K i heard there were different topics but I had no idea what they were. However, after reading some general information about the Vietnam War I am interested in learning more. The last thing about this class is that I am not a genius when it comes to the computer. All I know how to do are the basic things (facebook, email, surfing the web, and shopping) so hopefully I can get used to the netvibes and learning record and so on. All in all I don't have much experience with anything for this class but I'm interested to learn!

Writing has always been one of my most disliked activities. I've even let my lack of enthusiasm towards writing dictate my future by choosing professions that seem light on writing. Unfortunately, I really can't completely escape writing and this is why I need to finally face my fears and take Rhe 309k. While I am no pro at writing, I am also no history buff. I gravitate towards science classes which contain minimal amounts of historical information and technical writing. When the time comes to write the inevitable course paper, I get a little bit queezy and do everything I can to avoid it. Essentially, it is now time to face my fear of writing, learn about a significant time period in history and hopefully figure all of these websites out. I would also like to gain confidence in my writing abilities and hopefully stop cringing at the site of a writing assignment. :)

Get to the point already

Let me clear the air: the sole reason I am taking this class is because it is required. If it wasn’t required for communication students to take RHE 309, I wouldn’t be here, but because it is, viola! Of all the RHE 309 classes, “RHE 309k” sounded the best because the topics were actually interesting. This class you may ask? This particular subject matter? Well I don’t care too much for the Vietnam war to be honest; however, after reading many of the tweets about the subject, I have grown to understand the war efforts and the shenanigans that went on behind the scenes. My FIG mentor recommended this class in particular to me; he said Krzys’ class was an amazing teacher and this could be my last opportunity to get into his class. I, for some strange reason, trusted that Krzys’ class was what it had been cracked up to be; so far, it is.

For some reason, people have always told me what a great writer I am. Most of the time I dismiss their falsities because I feel as if my writing is mediocre at best, especially after one of my professors last semester tore (figuratively, not literally) apart my papers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I learned a lot from that professor. This class will benefit my writing and make my arguments more persuasive—or that is my hope. Debating is something I hold dear to my heart; I will pretty much debate about anything. Taking this class will upgrade my arsenal of debating tactics and, more importantly, improve my writing skills, or persuasion skills rather.

The vibe I got when Krzys mentioned using social media, Twitter and Blogger, was uneasy. I enjoy and embrace social media, but it appeared as others hadn’t—not yet anyway. The aspect social media was a key selling point to me. We shall see how the class pans out, but overall, if nothing else comes from this class,--I anticipate perfecting my writing skills--I will learn how to be concise while tweeting (this, in turn, should help me define topic sentences better, and get to the point faster).

My reason for choosing this class

The title itself immediately sparked my interest as a History major and hopeful double-major in Political Communication. Judging by the title, I felt like both of these majors would be represented in this single class. I also feel like writing is one of those things that will always be around but will never be perfected. I wasn’t expecting to master anything by taking this course; instead I would like to focus on strengthening by writing in general. I have been interested in the Vietnam War since I saw Forrest Gump for the first time when I was about seven years old, so it seemed like the right choice.
More importantly, I took this class because I have always felt that the Vietnam War and the current War in Iraq are very similar. The War in Vietnam seems to have lasted far too long, with various Presidents making (or not making) important decisions that led to the long stay overseas.
By taking Rhetoric of Vietnam, I want to be able to find more of these similarities and differences between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq, as well as the political and/or cultural events that caused them. Vietnam had a huge role in defining that particular generation, and the War in Iraq will have the same affect on our own generation. Another reason I chose to take this course is because there are so many opinions on how the situation in Vietnam should have been handled many years ago, as well as thoughts on how to handle the War in Iraq, and I want to be able to explain my personal opinions on both more effectively.
I plan to attend Law School after graduation and would like to be as prepared as possible to argue and explain myself intelligently. When signing up for this course I thought these particular skills would benefit directly. If by the end of the semester I am able to persuasively write over a topic as vast as the Vietnam War, then I have improved as a student and a hopeful Law student, which was my initial intention.

Another English Class??

Honestly, I always saw myself as a weak writer. My parents immigrated from India, and I was brought up with my native language. I started pre-kindergarden without knowing much English. Throughout the years, I have sharpen my English but haven't brushed up my writing skills. The interview assignment made me realize that I am not as weak as I thought I was. All through grade school, I always excelled in my all of my courses, except English. I would get Commended Performance in other TAKS tests I would take, but I would never manage to get it for English. Ever since I started first grade, I active in UIL events. First grade until the day I graduated, I excelled in the Math events for UIL. I definitely knew there was no way I was going to be an English major. I thought I was done with English courses once I graduated. Unfortunately, it was required for my science major. In the previous semester, I did extremely well in my first Rhetoric class. I improved my writing skills, and I am still trying to find ways to improve more of my skills. Now moving onto the next sequence, I chose Rhetoric of Vietnam because I enjoy History. If I wasn't a science major, I would have been a History major. Many people find History boring, but I highly enjoyed my History courses that I have took in college. I enjoy learning about the past and comparing to how it is now in the present and what can be done for the future. I enjoyed writing papers about History through grade school, which I have competed in over seven History Fair projects throughout my life. From my hometown, I had many friends whose relatives fought in the Vietnam War. I recall one History Fair project, of the the students had brought in their relative and I was fortunate enough to meet them.

I am not the biggest fan of 8am classes. Trust me, I am one person that loves to sleep! However, this class is much different than I thought it would be and I look forward to this class to see what neat YouTube videos we will be watching. I think Kryz is being really unique, by involving everyday fun websites used towards are education. If this was a different class, I would have tried desperately to find a different time. I know this class is going to a workload throughout the semester but I feel I am ready to take this challenge. However, this class seems like it would be a great way to really sharpen up my writing skills by tweeting, blogging, and using Learning Records and NetVibes.

What is the reason I am in THIS RHE 309K Class?

So if someone would have asked me before Spring classes started why I am taking RHE 309K I would have simply replied with because my advisor suggested it and my fig mentor told me he took this class with Piekarski, so I figured I'd follow their advise. Only now I've realized there really is a deeper reason why I am in this specific class. I know that I need to improve on many of my writing techniques and become a less independent learner since I struggle to ask for help whenever I think I can figure things out on my own. I believe that everything happens for a reason and feel that I am in this class for a reason. I have learned new things about myself as well as my learning abilities and look forward to learning more about my writing abilities and how they can improve. Since I am an advertising major communication, such as writing, is a huge part of my field and there is always room to improve it.

Also, I have to say the reason I am in this class is to learn from others. In most of my classes the teachers and professors simply get in front of the class and lecture, but in this class I realize I must learn from my peers while learning about Vietnam's history. Already I am learning so much from the technology we are using together. It is definitely a new approach I do not tend to experience in many of my other classes.

Hey, man, why are you even in that class?

Rhetoric of Vietnam isn't a class that I knew I'd be taking a year ago. I'm not the best writer in the world, so I'm trying to take as little English classes as possible. In fact, the last place I want to be at 8 in the morning is in an English class.

So why did I do it?

1. I need to learn how to write better, and the only way to get better is to write more. I knew that this class will have a lot of writing assignments and whatnot, so it would give me a little more experience. Since the only downside is having to write a lot, I think that Future Ron will be glad that he took it.

2. The Vietnam Conflict era is the most interesting time period ever. This is where politics in America was shown to be dirty, people clashed in the streets over civil rights, and the music was pretty groovy. The war changed everything that was previously thought of in wars, mainly how Charlie used guerrilla tactics to fend off the much mightier forces fighting against them. All of these sort of things mean that there are a lot of possibilities when it comes to subjects that we'd be writing about, so there won't be any repetition and boredom when it comes to writing assignments.

3. Any class with Walter, Donny, Smokey and the Dude on the cover of the course packet has to be great.

A Greater Appreciation for the Vietnam Nation

Writing used to be something I loved to do in Elementary when they gave you free writing time. I remember I would come up with the most interesting stories, and my imagination would go wild every time my pen would hit the paper. Some where down the road, I could no longer write short stories before I went to sleep, or anytime for that matter. Writing became something I had to do to complete a TAKS test prompt. Writing became something I was forced to do. Just like with every other skill, when you do not practice often, you lose the skill all together. I lost my skill along with my love for writing. I want to gain that skill back, but most of all I want to gain that love back. I want to write something I am interested in. I want to write to the point where the words just flow out in great form. Since opinions are appreciated more written down than expressed out loud, this class is perfect for me. I will learn how to write what I am thinking, but with much more thought process installed than usual.

The rhetoric involved with war and with uprisings is very convoluted, and comes with some of the most persuasive people. These leaders convince a mass amount of people that the violence they want to create is actually for the good of the country, and sometimes it is, but a lot of the time it is not. For this reason, the last reason I am taking RHE 309K is so I can learn how these leaders convince so many people to be violent.

Why am I here again?

I can’t pick one grand, specific reason I’m in this class. A myriad of minor reasons exist, sure, but there’s no epic, over-arching scheme explaining why I’m here every Tuesday and Thursday at 8 AM to hear Krzys talk and watch Youtube videos.

One pretty big reason is because I’m currently looking for a double major to go along with my English degree, and Rhetoric/Writing is a possibility. I’ve always enjoyed writing and persuasive speech (aka BS and arguing), so I was curious to see how it would pan out in a formal academic setting.

Also, the Vietnam War is an interesting and provocative topic in general. This is especially true in a class setting organized around argument instead of historical studies (though that certainly plays a part in it.) I’m looking forward to learning more about the war and how people perceive it.

While those two reasons would be enough to get me in a noon or 2:30 class, it’s not quite enough for the aberration dubbed the 8 AM class. I decided to go with it though, when I saw Krzys was teaching the class. Having already grown (trudged) through Piekarski and his LR pet before, I knew that with the metric shit-ton of work (and it will be all 2204+lbs of it) came a great deal of learning and entertainment.

Why in the world am I taking RHE309K?

Of course, the most obvious reason as to why I'm taking Rhetoric would be that I'm an English major and this class would therefore be helpful to me. I've also heard that Rhetoric is a great tool to have in the future, so I'm pretty sure it'll come in handy for my future endeavors. However, I haven't taken an actual Rhetoric class since high school, something that is definitely worrying me immensely (and not just because my English teachers in high school made it seem as if Rhetoric was a death wish). I'm pretty sure my writing capabilities have drastically deteriorated since then. So, I'm taking this class in the hopes that it will help me improve my writing (or, at least help me recall how to write an analysis, assuming my brain decided that retaining information from high school was not an option). Ultimately, I want to become a more confident writer/reader, and maybe gaine a better appreciation of the art of Rhetoric in the process.

Why I wake up at 7 in the morning and drag myself to RHE 309K

To be honest, I've always thought of myself as a weak writer. I never really thought I could write that well. I just felt like I made stuff up in English and somehow scrambled by with an A. I finally got a wake up call when I got my AP scores during orientation, passed Chemistry and Calculus, and failed Literature. I had never failed any of my AP tests, I guess there was a first for everything so it didn't really bother me, well it did, of course it bothered me, no one likes failing, but I accepted it, I was a bad writer and I couldn't do anything about it...until now. I was thinking about doing a writing course since in anything you do, you have to be able to be good at writing, it is an essential skill if you want to make something of yourself. I had been recommended by my friend Kaylinh to take this class because she found this class insightful and engaging and I was already interested in it because I thought it could help me write better and I would actually pay attention since the topic was over something I am really interested in. I ultimately chose to take this class for a couple of reasons, to improve myself as a writer and take myself out of my comfort zone of sciences, redeem myself from my previous failure, and to be able to write with confidence and knowledge about something that I do care about, a topic that I do find interesting, yet know so little about. I hope that by taking this course I will not only become more adapt to the many different aspects of rhetoric (that I have since completely forgot) but to become confident in what I say and what I write and not think I'm just making up stuff to get by.

Purpose for RHE 309K

As a senior PR major, the importance of writing has been emphasized in almost every upper division class I have taken over the past three and a half years. Not only does it provide a way to thoughtfully craft opinions and ideas but it also serves as a key outlet to demonstrate intelligence in what is currently a very competitive job industry. For this reason, writing will remain an essential skill regardless of a student's degree or future career aspirations.

I am taking this class because I believe that there is always room for improvement in the area of writing. I see it as an opportunity to address certain strengths and weaknesses I have identified for myself as a writer and work to improve those areas over the course of the semester. Additionally, I am looking forward to learning about an important time period in a way that I haven’t previously done so before.

I'm in RHE 309K simply because...

I feel that RHE 309K can be of value to me for future endeavors. I'm self-teaching myself the ways of marketing and advertising as of now. Way into the future, I hope to achieve the art of persuasion and demonstrate why anyone/everyone should buy my products, whatever they will be in the future. Learning to identify different arguments are my main interests in this class. I know this class isn't just about identifying arguments, but that is what I'm excited to learn more about. I want to be able to read or watch a television show and be able to recognize the different kinds of arguments (if any) presented. I'm not looking forward to the usage of all of the online websites because I'm usually more of an offline person when it comes to school. Everyone uses facebook, gmail, and everything and I do too, but the internet isn't what I want to be on 90% of the time when I'm studying/completing homework for a course. Although this is one of those 8am classes, I don't feel like it's so hard to attend this class even though I live off of campus, because I know every second I miss is every bit of knowledge I miss in gaining more knowledge on how to identify and create arguments.

Why I chose RHE309K

The main reason why I chose to take RHE309K is that I want to become a better writer than I am now. Even though I'm not totally new to writing, I still find it hard to make my papers organized and meaningful while at the same time not losing my voice by following all of those "helpful hints" and formats teachers sometimes give their students. It's difficult for me to think for myself and still conform to those criterion found in a rubric. I know what a paper should look like, but I also know that it should sound like me. Another reason is that I believe this class will help me learn to speak for myself. I have no problem talking and making new friends (given the right time of day), but I do find that I can't express my opinion because of the fear that I'll be judged. I hope that I'll grow to feel comfortable about saying what I have to say. I hope that this class will not only help me become a better writer, but also to become more comfortable with expressing my opinions and beliefs and not be afraid of how I might be judged.