Final Journal - Raeann Niebel

The WEPO course has taught me so much about the terms, “writing,” “editing,” and “composing.” The key terms such as rhetoric, exigence, medium, constraints, circulation, audience, and author all are crucial in the writing, editing and composing process.  One of the major things this course has taught me is that these terms are interwoven, but they need to be analyzed individually to understand how they all work together. Not only that, but one of my favorite concepts I learned in WEPO was the idea that a work is never really finished. It is always being interpreted by different lenses. Perhaps the work is always being circulated in new formats, or translated, or being remediated. This whole process really puts an emphasis on the individual thought that drives a work (exigence), and the key terms make it easy for one to view the work as a response to exigence by the author. Project two was really fun for me to complete because I was able to correspond with the artist who created the assemblage I analyzed. The most interesting thing that happened in that project was this: after I completely ripped apart the piece and analyzed every detail, I sent her a link to the blog I wrote about it. She responded saying that she was inspired by my analysis, but however, she didn’t really think about the things that she did when she created the piece. Nothing was purposeful, yet to me (the audience) everything seemed so intricately thought out. So through the second project, I came to the conclusion that maybe we hold authors on a pedestal that they never even intended to be held on. It made me appreciate pieces or texts alone, without considering the author. This is a really refreshing thing for an English major to learn. Outside of this course, my knowledge of editing, writing and composing is filtered through other classes I have taken such as Post-Modern and Modern Poetry, and many concepts from Rhetoric made this class more interesting. They helped because much of WEPO focus’ on online circulation, while other classes touch on audience response and textual circulation. One thing I would change about my original key terms map from the beginning of the course would be more of an emphasis on constraints. Constraints both divide and unite us as an audience. The circulation of it all is very fascinating. We are all audience members to the things we encounter in life, whether that be the act of getting a speeding ticket or reading a John Steinback novel. Sometimes, an exigence occurs within one audience member. This audience member experiences a need to portray this idea, thus facilitating a response to a new audience, even if that response is indifference. This happens on large and small scales everyday, and is constrained to our own understanding. With this claim, constraints would have to be an important term that I would add to my map.