Styles from the Stylus

I have read through chapters one and two from our text, “The Wadsworth Guide To Research” (Miller-Cochran, R. & Rodrigo, R.). Additionally I have read/reviewed chapter four from our own Ball State Ball Point PDF. I say that I read/reviewed Ball Point, because it basically said most of the same things that our Text Book stated. There where a couple of unique sets of information incorporated into the PDF however. One was the mention of Ethical Considerations and how important those can be. I appreciate this quite a bit considering the fact that I try to live my life honorably and with integrity. The other main topic difference of note, at least to me, was the detail that Ball Point went into considering Interviewing. It is, in my opinion, almost a lost art. With so much information, including interviews, available online most students don’t usually think about going out and interviewing (in person) a subject matter expert on whichever topic they are researching.
Now that I’ve highlighted the different things I liked about the one instructional document, I’ll mention some of the things that hit home about the other. I really appreciated the quote from Aristotle that was found in the text. It stated that Aristotle defined rhetoric as, “finding the available means of persuasion”. Ethical considerations always on my mind, I believe that when writing or speaking we are always in the business of persuading others. Whether it is to convince others of our viewpoint, to do something we think or want them to do, or if we are just trying to convince our audience that we are competent or deserve that “A” in class, we are usually trying to convince or persuade someone of something.
All in all the reading, again, was not as dry or as boring as I had imagined it would be. Usually text books or policy letters are about as interesting as the husk of an ant on the sidewalk. Our textbook, especially, used colors and new styles of printing lists to “liven things up”. This was greatly appreciated by this reader. That is about all I have to say for tonight on the subject of text of Text.