One Down, One to Go!

This is really the home stretch and I'm pleased with the way that things are going. Yesterday afternoon I was able to conference with one professor and wrapped up all of the work for Teaching Writing. Since then, I've been able to turn my full attention to completing my paper for Rhetorical Traditions. Ok, I admit to taking breaks for food, more food, and a decaf iced latte, but the general routine from now until tomorow morning is work, work, read, write, marinate, write more. And it only seems natural to pause for a moment to post to this blog. The night before a paper is due, when dealing with a limited period of time, is "cauldron-esque." Yes, I wish that I had more time to develop this particular paper because I really enjoy the topic and all of the supporting material. I'm doing an analysis of the visual rhetoric in fashion magazines and am able to draw from many of the sources that we've been reading in class (Aristotle, Perelman & Obrechts-Tyteca, and Burke). By choosing this particular topic I've been able to read more about visual rhetoric, something that I'm fascinated by. This is why being a doctoral student is so much fun and such a priviledge. I had been looking forward to the intensity and concentrated nature of the summer coursework at IUP and I have felt neither disappointed nor overwhelmed. The expectations of my professors have been extremely reasonable and it is possible to balance the work since we're in class for four days per week then have a three day stretch to continue our work independently. What has pleased me about the Rhetorical Traditions course is that we've had new material to read every week including this last week. The learning has been continuous and this has been a solid introduction into Rhetoric. Ok, enough blogging and back to paper writing!