Revision summary

This revision summary serves to explain the improvements done in the first draft, which
later was revised by my peers. The second draft of the Rhetorical Analysis has suffered
some changes after the peer reviews.
The most important one has been the introduction of two quotes and two paraphrases
from some reading responses from class, as well as one paraphrase for the book
Elements of Journalism. Giving evidence of something is a difficult task to do, but by
practicing and by checking examples it will be easier in the next assignments.
Secondly, a larger explanation of my memorable writing was done; the peer review
showed that most of the writing was focused on the major done back at home, but there
were no details about the article.
Finally, the conclusion was revised, and I found it interesting to add the points that are
not necessary in the journalism field, for example, gossip.
 Writing experiences

For talking about the writing piece I have chosen for this Rhetorical analysis, we have to go
back to my last year major. I was in University of Girona (Spain) studying a major called
Cultural communication. I had chosen this major for different facts: the first one was due to the
lack of major opportunities that Girona have; the second, was because in the description of the
course I read during high school mentioned that some courses of journalism were done. The last
year of high school, the options of study I had were between advertising and journalism. My
father has been doing the job of journalist for years, and my dream is to follow his steps, and
being as a great columnist as he is. In my third semester of University in Spain I had my first
(and unique) contact with the world of journalism. The lessons were so interesting to me, and
our teacher Narcs taught us a wide range of aspects related with the Spanish journalism. What I
liked about him is that he made us write one mandatory article about a speech or event in where
we should attend. So, our tasks were taking notes, and then transform our quick and horrible
handwriting in a decent column. At the various conferences I attended, I had to act as Keith
Grant-Davie said: Rhetors need to consider who they are in a particular situation and be aware
that their identity may vary from situation to situation (354).
For this reason I have chosen the first article I wrote during this course, because it made me
ensure that what I really wanted to be was a columnist. The speech I attended to was one
organized by the own University the 21st of November. It was held by the director of the cultural
website nvol (cloud in English), Bernat Puigtobella. The conference was about the history
and the functioning of the website, as well as his actual situation in the Catalan Journalism.
Puigtobella stated that his main objective was to give voice to the cultural news, which have an
unimportant participation on the journalistic world. Nvol was only a website when the speech
was presented; currently, it has also a printed edition. Its director talked about the possibility of
expanding his areas to the printed journalism in order to prevent the decadency of newspapers
and magazines. Finally, other facts commented were the different opportunities that Nuvol gave
to novice journalists as interns, and how the social networks were influencing his website
content day per day.

When it was time to write the column, I found that it was an easy process thanks to the
indications of the teacher. He provided some useful examples and advice for writing as a real
journalist. Moreover, thanks to my extensive and detailed notes, I had a great deal of
information about the conference, which was reflected in my final article. As Anne Lamot
stated: just get it all down in paper, because there may be something great in those six crazy
pages that you would never have gotten to by more rational, grown-up means. (528).
Almost one year after, journalism has become my major in Sacramento State. Writing has an
important role in journalism world: society knows what is going on around the world thanks to
journalists work. The most common job as a writing journalist is the one that involves writing
columns on papers or websites. Moreover, a journalist can also prepare the notes that will be
said during the news on TV, for example. Whatever the job is, the journalist has to be aware that
the basic elements of journalism have to be respected, and accomplished in every task. This is
explained in the book Elements of journalism: Journalisms first obligation is to the truth; its
first loyalty is to citizens; its essence is a discipline of verification; its practitioners must
maintain an independence from those they cover; It must serve as an independent monitor of
power; or it must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise (Kovach and
Rosenstiel).
Following the criteria of the CSUS Handbook: writing and researching in arts and humanities,
the characteristics are more general for this area, in which journalism is included. Firstly, the
main focuses of writing are the human experiences; writing about it is used to explore and
answer questions about them. Secondly, the writers of this area defense their arguments with
theories and discussions about the experiences. As a consequence, an idea has to be defended or
argued. Other sources are needed to complement the experiences, like researching information
from secondary sources, and gathering this to strengthen the argument. Finally, the way of
writing is so important too; in comparison with scientific writings, humanities and arts focus on
connecting with their audience through an engaging style. This would mean that creativity can
be a good resource when it is time to develop the essay.
What has to be avoided is the use of yellow journalism, gossip, and using rumors for creating
fake news. This type of writing goes against all the elements of journalism.

Comparing the writing created during my course, and the points of the previous part, the
conclusion could be that it would be accepted for a professor from journalism or/and arts and
humanities. The task done has tried to accomplish the elements of journalism (and the most
important, the principle of truth). Reporters have to gather their own information for achieving
the final report: most of the writing is built on the collection of the facts done by the journalist.
Comparing my writing with these statements, the paper would be considered good because I
completed each step prior to writing the final article: I took notes, and reflected, as concrete as
possible, what the director of Nuvol explained to the audience during his speech. About my style
of writing, I tried to make the writing as entertaining as possible.
Nevertheless, the fact that journalism can be understood in a different way in here or in
Catalonia has to be considered. The course taken during the studies at Spain were useful,
because it was the only lesson were I felt that an interactive model of education was carried out;
in other words, it was an alternative to the information-transfer model (Ann M Pennrose and
Cheryl Geiser). The fact is that journalism is my current major now, so I will be able to improve
my writing skills in the near future. In my opinion, it is not only important to defend an
argument; the originality of the writing is crucial to being a good journalist.