Eng109cb Cover Letter

Yingxuan Shan

Professor Nugrahenny Zacharias

ENG 109CB

03 March 2017

Cover Letter

Dear Readers,

        The past few weeks, I prepared my second inquiry. The purpose of inquiry two was to do the rhetorical analysis of the text which was my professor provided. We needed to find the rhetorical strategies of selected text, to write the description of the evidence the author used in that rhetorical strategies and to show effect of this rhetorical strategies. It is a good skill to practice in the college because rhetorical analysis can be applied in many fields in the future life and working. In my inquiry two, I really want to let the readers realize the rhetorical strategies the speaker used and apply in our presentation and speaking. The text I chose was a TED Talk “Not Good With Names” which presented by Cynthia Win. This text is to let the people who don’t realize Burma’s naming system know Burmese don’t have family name. Before I started to write my inquiry two, my professor led us brainstorm the map of the inquiry two. This process let me feel more easy to organize my idea and can easily find the example for each rhetorical strategy.

        I think I did successfully in finding the sources for the appeal to ethos which can give the audience more credibility and truthiness. The sources must be strong and strengthen to convince the listener and to let the listener trust the speaker. I found her Burmese name and speaker compared her name with her brother’s name. In the class, we also discussed this TED talk, we figured out other examples. It is really effective for us to write the inquiry. Also, I think I did well in introduction part that I included all the things that my professor provided and I had the hook at the beginning of my introduction that can attract the reader reading further.

        I still have challenges to find the rhetorical strategies. I had the ethos part and organization part. Another one is difficult for me to choose. I wrote the tone of the presentation, but my professor’s feedback told me it wasn’t clearly to know what tone and it was difficult to write that in the presentation. At that time, I wanted to get high mark in my inquiry, so I asked my professor how to find it. My professor told me, you can write the easy way that informal language and real experience which you like. My professor gave me direction and lots of helping on my inquiry.

        After writing the inquiry two, I thought language is a magical thing that can let people have different thought. We needed to catch any detailed thing, such as picture, color and word choice. And I learned a lot during the weeks of inquiry two. I knew how to do the rhetorical analysis and how the logos, ethos and pathos work and persuade the target audience. All in all, it is an important strategy for college student to learn.

Best,

Yingxuan Shan

No Family Name in Burma

The people who are in China, the United States and so many countries all have last name, but have you ever known a country no family name in the world? Burma is this unique country. This incident discussed in the TED Talk “Not Good with Names” presented by Cynthia Win. The speaker used many examples to talk about the unique naming system in Burma as no family name and she wanted more international people realize her country’s naming culture that no family name.  The purpose of this presentation is to let the international people who don’t realize Burmese naming system know Burma’s people are without family name. I’m interested to rhetorically analyze it because I can realize Burma’s culture and to study the strategies the speaker used and apply into my future speaking and writing. The speaker effectively persuades the people who don’t know Burma’s naming system using the ethos, the logical organization and informal and repeating language.

Firstly, throughout her presentation, Cynthia used many strong examples to build and to strength her credibility and truthiness of her argument and appeal to ethos. First, at the very beginning of the presentation she showed a map of Burma picture. Second, she said “I was born in Myanmar”. Third, she explained the meaning of her Burma’s name Ma Shwe Sin Win. “Ma stands Miss, Shwe Sin is Burma’s naming system about birth of date and Win represents pure gold”. Last, she compared her name “Ma Shwe Sin Win” with her brother’s name “Maung Ye Yint Aung”. By using these examples, Cynthia established her nationality Burma that corresponded to her presentation’s content which about Burma’s naming system. Also, Cynthia compared her name with her brother’s name, the audience can clearly find there are no common words between her name and her brother’s name. All of these can directly let the people who didn’t know some people don’t have last name trust Cynthia’s point that in the world, the Burma is the country that no family name. Additionally, Cynthia as a speaker so her examples in the presentation are first-handed experiences. It is easily and effectively to gather credibility from the audience.