One communication modality I use regularly is emailing. It allows you to write a series of medium-to-long paragraphs without being rushed like you would if you were texting. Usually, I try to determine the purpose of the communication when someone contacts me using email by looking at the subject of the email, which usually tells me what the email is about, and what the reason is for the communication. Sometimes, however, it is the context of the email, if there is no subject for the email. It is usually very clear when an email is asking me to do something, since I can usually discern that from the subject of the email.
If I had chosen to ignore the subject of the email and go right to the content of the email, I probably wouldn't have much of a different view of what the email is trying to do. If there was no subject, for example, I would be forced to go right to the content of the email. In some cases, if the subject is inaccurate to the actual content of the email, looking at the content first probably would significantly change my understanding of the email's purpose. However, under normal circumstances, I would just look at the subject to get a clear understanding of what the email is trying to do. Looking at rhetorical strategies before thinking of purpose would not help me since I would probably not understand what the strategies are about or what they are trying to do if I do not know what the purpose of the email is about in the first place.
That's all for Writer's Journal #18.
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