[Tyr Zalo Hawk]: 712.Essays.My Dearest Amybelle

November 29th, 2008
My Dearest Amybelle,

To think that it has only been 3 months since we first met. So much has happened in that time that I find it difficult to express in words exactly how I am feeling at this particular moment in time. So many thoughts are swirling about in my head of the times that we shared, the early mornings and the light-hearted debates that we engaged in all seem like one large yesterday now that I know they are coming to an end. I’ve changed so much, Amybelle, and it’s all because of you. Before you I was but a humble writer of research papers, school essays, fictitious storylines, and poetry (only three of which can come in prose form). I understood not concepts like Logos, Pathos, Ethos, Kairos, and other such Grecian terms which all fell under the category of ‘Rhetoric.’ It was all so foreign when I began, but now it has become a part of me that I shant ever forget.
As far as I am able to tell, Ethos has been my strongest suit out of the four. I have a good sense of how to establish myself as believable for most audiences I encounter, due to my rather extremist people watching, and can use this to my advantage. For example, in my second set of essays a miniscule amount of research on both groups that I had to convince yielded me the ability to effectively converse with either. I knew enough to include lines like “Belief can determine how we see everything from the food in front of our face, to the entirety of space and time” when talking to a group of religious mothers, but to not use lines such as “Hell, most people don’t even glance at an ingredient list unless they’ve heard a rumor about how a certain dye shrinks their sperm count” when speaking to that same group of mothers. I have always known how to go about talking to an audience effectively, whether it be a group of my peers, a five-year old, or the President of the United States. I may not have known what the word Ethos meant before this class, but I did already know its principles. It’s always been simple, common sense to me.
On the contrary Kairos has always been a rather sensitive area of my work. It is not that I do not have the ability to efficiently generate Kairos through my organizational skills and evidence, but my lack of world experience and knowledge of current events has, admittedly, dampened my ability to make full use of Kairos. Yes, I might be able to establish a sense of credibility with an audience, but should I attempt to convince them of something that the times have already changed, then my failure is complete before my campaign can commence. In a short assignment that you gave me at the beginning of the year I was to discuss the Kairos of a particular piece of writing about the meat-packing industry entitled “Meatheads.” My discussion, while poignant, was made without the knowledge of the situation in the nation at the time, and my foolish assumption that “Ivins [Just a memory] wants to get a jump on attacking the President’s reelection in the upcoming year” devastated that portion of my argument. It is not that I am incapable of presenting my work with a wholly effective sense of Kairos, it is more that I find myself appearing the fool when I let my recluse show.
Of course, I could not allow myself to finish without mentioning Logos and Pathos, two of our oldest and dearest friends. Once again, I find myself in a situation where I have always kept the two close with me when I wrote, but did not fully understand their subtle nuances until you came into my life, Amybelle. Even from the beginning, phrases such as
“Beautifully constructed images of disgusting truth, wrapped up in a heavily sarcastic shell and flavored with just the right amount of pure, unavoidable temptation. Flocker knows his audience, and knows how to talk to them; that makes him the winner here.”
showed my ability to appeal to an audience on different levels. The images present in the passage give an interesting twinge of Pathos through a food-like connection and word association, while the specifics of my word choice and the summation present Logos into the equation. I’ve known the differences between writing an emotionally moving line like “The grey addict, looking sorrowful, the action packed Taffy in his Karate gear, red as a flaming sun…” and a more logically based “constantly … quoting his book made me feel like such a narrow-minded educator.” However close the three of us may have been before, I feel that Logos, Pathos and I are closer than ever now, Amybelle, and I have you to thank for that.
All throughout the semester that we’ve spent together I have grown as a writer through my experiences in this class. You have challenged me to write to audiences I hadn’t ever intended to write to. You have made me understand everything I could about rhetoric in such a short amount in time. You’ve sharpened the writing tools I’ve gained over the years, and even handed me a new tool or two. Oh, Amybelle, if only we had more time then perhaps more could come of this but… I’m afraid that I must move on with my life. There are other classes out there, other professors I can learn from. Farewell, Amybelle.
Farewell.

Life is beautiful,
-



(P.S. I know that this is kind of last minute and everything, but do you think you could make dinner for forty people tonight? The President is coming over so I kind of need this. Thanks Belle, check ya later.)

© Tyr Hawkaluk (2004-Present)