Writing is Magic: Let the Pegasi Fly!

Wearecoming downthemountain! Wooo,weee, and howdy y’all! What a semester! Without further ado, let’s get this issue started!

This Fall’s issue contains three articles. My hat goes off to the authors: Kayla Asbach, Marina Habib, and Koralys Santana. The sheer range of writing styles and genres presented in this issue speaks to the rich tapestry of student voices and interests here at UCF and in the Writing and Rhetoric department in particular. Kayla puts on a clinic for how to conduct a thorough genre analysis. With her meta-awareness cap strapped on, she walks us through the anatomy of a professional restaurant review. As she analyzes examples of reviews, she traces common rhetorical moves in the genre, showing readers how writing elements such as style, tone, and formatting shape rhetorical writing moves and, accordingly, writing genres. Next up we have Koralys Santana, who presents a multimodal personal narrative anchored in her civic identity, walking readers through her lived experiences that led her to seek degrees in both Writing & Rhetoric and Political Science. This genre-bender blends full-page colored illustrations with a more traditional literary narrative to argue for the value of civic engagement anchored in rhetorical awareness and political acumen. Finally, we have Marina Habib, who presents a rhetorical analysis of two creative nonfiction essays. Through this analysis, Habib makes the case that creative nonfiction essays as a genre tend to follow three overarching strategies to establish ethos: flow of consciousness, character building, and style setting. Through these common moves, the creative nonfiction writer establishes an ethos ultimately rooted in experience.

As I finish my first full year as Lead Editor of Convergence/Rhetoric, I’d like to report back and just say it: our student writers rock. It is not that our student writers are smart (they are), it is that they have such a strong motivation to keep working. They want to participate in the editing process. They want to select the artwork for their articles. They are open to revising and resubmitting. They provide images in alternate formats within hours of me requesting them. They ask about internships. They want to see if there are more avenues through which they can publish. Our student writers not only want to work, they seem to enjoy it. And, most importantly, they like their work. They are proud of it. And they should be. They model the kind of opt-in that I hope to instill in the students who take my courses.

But they also remind me of something that I, a teacher first and foremost, must not forget: my students are already more than capable writers, and their writing deserves a wider audience. We must always push our students past their comfort zones while honoring their voices, working to usher them to new writing grounds where they can shine ever brighter.

In short, we have led our student writer horses to the water, and I can tell you as someone who works with them after the course ends: they’ve decided to take a drink. Now let us get out of the way and let the pegasi fly!

Writing is Magic,
Joel Bergholtz