Learning Rhetoric Online (continued)
It is usually after a post has already had feedback that writers begin to use disclaimers and less assertive language to bring up an idea. In one discussion, the student who made the original post quoted a part of the essay to support her opinion. Most of the students who responded agreed with her opinion and added more support. In one of the last responses to this post, however, a student introduced his response with first an acknowledgement of her idea and then a padded disagreement: "great quote but do you agree with it? I kind of think that the bad might come with the good." From reading the previous responses to a post, students develop a better understanding of audience. Knowing that he might be posting an opinion different from the rest of his classmates, his audience, this student is very careful in bringing in a new point.
Students also begin to recognize ways that they might gain credibility in the discussion by introducing their own personal experiences or examples when they state their opinions. One student presented her perception of Robert Ramirez' essay "The Barrio" by stating, "I like the way Ramirez described his tasty foreign, elegant, culture orientated foods. "Tortilleria", we have tortillas in my culture, I can totally relate." These personal examples often prompt other writers respond, reaffirm, or ask questions when they make their own posts, thus strengthening the class' sense of who their audience is made up of.
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