Extended Definitions

"All great and precious things are lonely." -- This means that the greatest things in life aren't found in large crowds of things or people. The greatest, most precious things are to be found still and untouched by human hands.

"Ahead, a steely, sunlit sea unfurls to the horizon. Behind, the treeless landscape affords a view of snow peaks, a river still to ford, and my tent, a painfully long walk away." -- This represents a journey of the soul. It is the distance he has traveled to get where he is at that point. Through the struggle and painful walks, the landscape is still beautiful and the view is worth the pain.

"The ruins dotting the landscape drive home the point that I'm alone in a place that no longer belongs to humans." -- The meaning of this is that what the author is seeing is a ghost town of where humans used to live, but no longer do. It is an area that is left to the elements to handle.

Definitions

The way you define something is what is going to make the audience understand the topic or not, and there are two different types of definitions: the classical and the extended. The classical definition would be a definition from your average dictionary. Definitions like these don't relate to an audience because there is nothing to relate to. They aren't very effective for that reason. The extended definition shows the essential nature of something. It goes beyond "what it is" and shows the topics purpose. Definitions like these can reach and audience because there is something to relate to. It makes the audience understand in depth the point you are trying to make.
The article Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, Iceland belongs to a bigger societal conversation than just "Preserving Nature". It belongs to a conversation about finding yourself within nature. The article is about finding a piece of yourself in the nature that has been preserved. With so little nature being preserved and more unseen lands being taken out rapidly, the conversation of the article still fits in with the societal conversation of making sure that we preserve the land that we have, but the broader definition of this article is finding yourself in the secluded, lonely areas of the world.

Link to the article (I think): http://web.a.ebscohost.com.dist.lib.usu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=36a65992-3b87-4254-affb-57856cbe71b1%40sessionmgr4005&vid=44&hid=4207

Rhetorical Terms

Subject specific rhetorical terms are important in the writing process because each different rhetorical term hits different and specific parts of a narrative. For example, a specific rhetorical term would be something like pathos, ethos, or logos. It's important to have the different terms because they express different things. The pathos of a visual, for example, would be the emotion side of the picture, but the logos of the visual would be the logical side of the photo. Two very different things, but both combine to create an effective message. The main importance of the specific rhetorical terms is to reach every aspect of the audience to get the whole message delivered

Pathos: The emotional view of a visual or narrative.
Ethos: The ethical view of a message; it's the credibility of the author that makes the audience believe or disbelieve the message being presented to them.
Logos: Presents the logic of the message. It makes the audience ask, "Does this make logical sense?"
Indirect Persuasion: Not directly leading to a topic, but still enhancing the visual.
Openness: The observation that images are more open for interpretation than a text is.

Compare and Contrast: My Peer's Blog

In comparison to Sam Christensen's blog: Rhetorical Gazes

There can be many differences and many similarities within one topic or assignment. In comparing my own blog with the blog of one of my peers, Sam Christensen, there are many obvious similarities and differences. The similarities include the topic of the specific essay. We both wrote about rhetorical gazes and included a picture that brought some type of gaze to the viewer. Beyond that point there are more differences than there are similarities. These differences include the look of the blog and the pictures we used for our explanation of what a rhetorical gaze is. He included a picture of hands around the world and I included a picture of a man bathing in Doritos. Both images bring a feeling to the viewer, but that feeling isn't the same for both images. Another difference between our two blogs is that I included an example of what a rhetorical gaze looks like in real life, and he did not. He explained it well enough that he didn't need to include an example. The final difference I would like to discuss is our own view of what a rhetorical gaze is. For Sam, he says, "A rhetorical gaze is the process that will, with a certain perspective or history of the viewer, produce the desired image." For me, that definition is, "A rhetorical gaze is a tool used by an author of a text to get his or her message to a desired audience." Both definitions point to the same outcome, but our personal perception of what a rhetorical gaze is different, and that is manifest in our blogs. 

http://www.sam-christensen.blogspot.com/ 

Compare and Contrast

When considering the writing process, it is important to note the idea of compare and contrast. When using compare and contrast in an essay, you are pointing out two typically opposing ideas related to the subject of your essay. By pointing out and analyzing a pair of ideas, it strengthens the ability to remember the key content of the writing. It highlights important details and makes abstract ideas ideas more solid and lessens confusion among readers. Compare and contrast can clarify subjects being discussed and makes comprehension easier. 

We have been focusing on compare and contrast in the writing process alone, but it is also important to consider in visual rhetoric. When looking at a picture, it is important to look at the things in the picture that make the picture what it is. For example, to gather meaning from Pompeian art, you have to compare the skin color of the people, the body positions, the action the are performing, etc. to even be able to determine if the human is male or female. Without compare and contrast, specific meaning would be lost and the picture being depicted would be lost in its entirety as well.