Recently, under the guidance and recommendation of ZJUI Adjunct Faculty Professor Ryan Flanagan and Professor Mary Lucille Hays, Mr.CHU Xiaoyang (‘25, Civil Engineering) and Ms.WU Tianle (‘25, Electrical Engineering), participated in the Spring 2021 undergraduate Essay Contest of UIUC and eventually both of them were selected as winners of the contest with their rigorous logical argumentation and excellent essay organization. Among them, CHU Xiaoyang have won this awards twice both in the Fall 2020 and the Spring 2021. Their essays may be published in I Write: A Writing Guide for the Undergraduate Rhetoric Program at the University of Illinois. It is reported that UIUC Undergraduate Essay Contest is based on its general writing course for the whole students who participate in the Rhetoric Program (RHET), and there are only 10~20 winners which are selected by experts of each semester.
▲ Professor Hays’s RHET Class
CHU Xiaoyang recalled his experience of taking the rhetoric class and participating in competitions, “It was not until later that I realized RHET is not a language course, nor is this competition an English contest. The language contest examines the use of the language, grammar, and vocabulary. The focus of the RHET is above language itself: it is about to analyze, to argue, to refute, to make emotion flow through the texts, and to understand how different viewpoints are supported, so as to identify with the readers and thus to persuade them.”
Professor Hays commented that Xiaoyang was one of her best students who has always been helpful in class last year, “I don't know if any student has ever won the UIUC RHET Essay contest for both semesters, but I'm not surprised that it is Xiaoyang Chu who has achieved this.”
Coincidentally, Professor Flanagan, the instructor of another winner, Ms.Wu Tianle, also spoke highly of the student. He said, “Tianle was a very hard worker; she saw me frequently during office hours and maintained her focus throughout the semester on gradually and systematically improving each draft. I am not surprised that she was a winner in this contest. I am looking forward to hearing about the great things she accomplishes in the future!”
“This award is inseparable from Professor Flanagan. The advice he gave me was insightful and exigent, so I did appreciate it and learned a lot from it. Inspired by his diligence, I tried my best to think deeply and revise my assignments patiently.” Beamed Tianle.
▲ Professor Flanagan’s RHET Class
“Rhetoric is not a class about English language--it's about the construction of ideas within argumentative essays. Use of the English language is not a big factor.” As Professor Flanagan said, the two English writing courses offered by ZJUI (“RHET 101-Principle of Writing” and “RHET 102-Principle of Research”), introduce the basic process of writing, explain how to organize the structure of the whole text and paragraph, how to present arguments, how to make convincing arguments and other writing methods, which provide students with a lot of clear guidance in writing English essay, and also lay a solid foundation for students to learn and develop in the international environment.
CHU Xiaoyang (‘25, Civil Engineering, ZJUI)
My first essay was actually a letter that is adapted from a piece of my argumentation. The purpose of this letter is to persuade a friend of mine to stay away from virtual space-time, reduce time spent on video games, and set off pursuing goals in the real world. The article quoted the claim that "players create the future" from Be a Gamer, Save The World by Jane McGonigal, and usewd other documents and data to refute this point and persuade the friend from obsession of videogames. The second article is titled Cultured Meat: The World-Changing Technology Is on The Way. The article reviewed the development of artificial cultured meat, introduced its current situation, and made a positive prospection on its future. The article quoted some scientific research papers, showing the positive impact of this technology on the environment, human health, animal rights and so on. At the same time, the article also analyzes the obstacles that may be encountered in the popularization of this technology.
I’d like to acknowledge the instructor Prof. Mary, the teaching assistant Molly, and the writing assistants for their help and guidance throughout the year. They overcame difficulties and gave targeted comments on our assignments and projects. When revising and polishing my works, I can also sense the progress I made. RHET is a process of walking up the stairs: you move forward one step, then another, then another… and at one point, when you look back, you will be surprised by the level you are at.
Initially, I participated in the competition only in respond of the continuous call of Prof. Mary, and I didn’t expect any response from the committee. It was not until later that I realized RHET is not a language course, nor is this competition an English contest. The language contest examines the use of the language, grammar, and vocabulary. The focus of the RHET is above language itself: it is about to analyze, to argue, to refute, to make emotion flow through the texts, and to understand how different viewpoints are supported, so as to identify with the readers and thus to persuade them. Of course, I am not denying the importance of language. I have suffered a lot in RHET because of my poor master of English language. What I want to emphasize is: RHET teaches you how to fell a tree, but it’s your responsibility to keep your saw sharpened.
WU Tianle (‘25, Electrical Engineering, ZJUI)
My essay’s name is “Self-contradiction, Fallacy and out of focus: Will Renkl Convince Her Audience? ” It aimed to do rhetorical analysis on Renkl’s article “Even for Bargain Hunters, Green Cars Make Sense”, which was published in The New York Times on Jan. 25, 2021.
From my point of view, Rhetoric courses not only help us develop the basic skill of writing, but also help us to think independently and critically. In rhetoric class, we did not simply trust a writer and we were welcomed to show our opinions about whether the author’s arguments made sense. What’s more, our instructor Dr. Flanagan’s classes were so funny that we did enjoy ourselves in his class. But when it comes to writing, he would be quite strict. The advice he gave me was insightful and exigent, so I did appreciate it and learned a lot from it. Inspired by his diligence, I tried my best to think deeply and revise my assignments patiently.
For the students that are taking this course, hopefully, you can revise, revise, revise, then you will gain a lot. What’s more, I highly suggest that you use the knowledge you learned before flexibly, and do not limit it to the corresponding assignment. For example, the characters of academic audience and non-academic audience, which I learned in RHET101, is still a useful source in RHET102 and it still helped me a lot in appealing to different kinds of audience. Hopefully, you can also think critically and show your unique ideas to others.
I think I am very lucky to earn this prize, especially as a non-native speaker. But this does not mean I am an expert at writing, actually, it’s just a reward for my progress and I still need to practice more and learn more. At last, I sincerely appreciate the generous help of my instructor Dr. Flanagan, which helped me do better than before.
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