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The argument Robert Hass is making is that poetry, like other forms of writing, is limited by the language in which it's written, and that sometimes it's important that we are aware of this situation.
Hass is making the point that poets normally try to convey through words experiences of another nature (visual, auditory, emotional).  The limits of the written word force poets to equate two elements that might have no obvious link at first, therefore forcing the reader to make new connections and relations in his or her mind.  By explaining scientifically why the tree does what it does, Hass goes to show that if poets were used to presenting facts in that manner, they would not have been able to cause the desired effect on the reader.  Instead, by saying "the tree danced" the poet creates a vivid, clear image in the reader's mind.

Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will.  This line represents the relation between the poet and the reader.  This is the poet telling the reader to join him in his journey, to suspend disbelief and to take rhetoric moves for what they are: ways of using written words to communicate through images.  Oh, I will is a willing reader that has accepted the poet's challenge and joins him in this literary dance floor.

Quiz 4

1. Truth value is the defining characteristic of a proposition.  It is this intrinsic quality that allows us, as recipients of the information expressed on a sentence, to make a judgment on the validity of the information we have received.

2. It is not necessary that a visual claim be linguistically explicable.  This is what happens in advertisements all the time.  The claim of the producers or directors of an ad is basically universal: buy our product because it is the best of its field.  To express this, they rarely use what we would call traditional logic. They mostly appeal to the viewers’ emotional side, by linking their products or services to images that produce a positive effect on the audience’s psyche.  For example, in Peru there is a television ad for flue medicine that consists of showing babies dressed up with animal costumes.  Though extremely cute indeed, it is appealing to our emotions and not to our logic to sell us the product.

3.  Going off on what I explained on the previous paragraph, it is a well-known fact that visual productions play on the audiences’ emotions.  Instead of having to read a say whole paragraph, visual productions have the ability to convey the same dramatic effect in a single 15-second clip.  Furthermore, and just like in literal productions, there are some clichéd forms and constructions.  But unlike their literal counterparts, these are not limited by the barrier of language, which makes them even more universal.

First thoughts - rhetorical moves

I keep thinking about my project 3, and I'm pretty sure my next rhetorical move will be to add or work on the metaphors I already have.  Making up metaphors is not an easy task, so I'll probably go back, read them over and decide whether they really convey what I want to say.

First thoughts - Peer reviewing

I am peer reviewing a colleague's draft of Project 3, and my first reaction is that as a reader, it is pretty clear that the author feels two ways about this place, and why.  The paragraph opens up with a metaphor, and then goes on to describing the negative feelings the author has about this place.  But the last line explains that is precisely because of these "negative" aspects that she loves this place so much.  Maybe I am biased because I share her position, but I think that this paradox really delivers the message she wants to convey.

First thoughts

I've been thinking about my own draft for Project 3, and I have to tell you that it is not finished.  I did not write a conclusion for it, nor did I revise it thoroughly.  Though it was hard to get started, once I remembered why I chose Pompeii as the place I wanted to write about, the ideas started flowing with more ease.  I don't know if that situation translated on to the paper because I was working up until very late on it, but I hope that I managed to at least convey some of the emotions or feelings I had in my head while writing this paper.

A sentence starts out like...

A sentence starts out like an onstage performance. Before the curtain even lifts, before the spotlight hits the stage, there has been an incredible amount of planning behind it.  After deciding on the piece to be performed, the producers or makers need to start the casting process. In the case of a sentence, once a topic has been chosen, we need to pick which ideas we will select to support it.  But it is only after months and months of rehearsals, or many rewrites later, that the play (or sentence) is ready to finally be presented to an audience.

If these walls could talk...

The message Wesch is trying to send with this powerful video is that technology cannot really help us solve the universal problems that we, as a society, as college students, as human beings, are facing.  To do so, he chooses to set the video in a classroom. I think this is an interesting rhetorical move, since the disposition of the classroom we saw responds to the conventions of the early academic environments: a big, seminar-life distribution, when all the students seat at the same level to be able to see the professor, situated at the front, the only real source of knowledge.  Students were supposed to just be passive listeners, since all the information came from the professor's podium.

He does this for two main reasons.  First, it is a way to maintain a link to the past and older technology.  Second, by having his students, part of the audience, give the viewers the information he plays on the former conception of the student-professor relationship, making the message, a critique to the educational system,  even stronger.