Completing phase 2 of English 11000 has given me much insight, much like Phase 1 has done to highlighting language and literacy when it comes to writing, about how authors use their knowledge and strategy to creating a rhetorical reading to grab their audiences attention, especially when it comes to figuring out what their main thesis is in their reading. A rhetorical reading is a form of persuasion that authors use in order to construct their book or essay to place their argument, What Phase 2 has showed me was the introductions to how people create their first steps into writing a book, and that is to use a method of sculpting their reading to contain all the pieces of materials that are needed. We know an author first needs to find what kind of audience they want to attract when creating a book in order to create their topic of interest. The audience can be towards school children, young adults, parents, teachers, people who come from different parts of the world, etc. Choosing your audience is crucial to creating your book. The next thing would be the author’s thesis and their main argument. An author can write a fictional or non fictional story, however either genre can still hold a main theme hidden in their pages and it is up to the reader to discover it. It can be bold or direct or indirect, but the point is that there needs to be the main argument the author intends to include. In Amy Tan’s case, she spoke up about her relationship with her mother and how it has shaped her into the person she is today. What helps is Amy Tan’s reputation as an author with her other novels involving mother and daughter relationships.  When it comes to the side of the reader, this is where a Rhetorical Analysis comes into play, where it is the reader’s opportunity to break down an author’s work to find their exigence. This method of strategy can go both ways into creating and breaking down a story. For my own interpretation, choosing “Mother Tongue” was a wise choice for my Rhetorical Analysis because it doesn’t just give one main theme, but three that are scattered throughout Amy Tan’s short story, which I find all true that I see as common issues people still suffer from today. This reading was a good way to learn better of how an author can create their own stories with their personal experience and thoughts to give it more meaning. 

A lot of writers and authors share a common trait amongst themselves when it comes to writing a novel or essay or poem or any form of literature. They directly or indirectly show their rhetorical message/theme in their writing based on the structure they use to build their story. A rhetorical essay is a persuasive form of writing where the writer engages with the audience with their form of writing to express their argument. Many might not be able to comprehend the rhetorical argument at first glance when reading a novel or essay, and so it is advised to create a Rhetorical Analysis of a reading to better break down its components and determine its exigence and what it aims for in an audience. A story we could break down with a rhetorical analysis is “Mother Tongue” , an essay written by Amy Tan, who has shared her story of her childhood and her relationship with her mother in her youth in her essay. To start, the author of this story is Amy Tan, an Asian American author who has written novels that go into depth into her early childhood memories and how her youth has shaped her into the person she is today. One particular story she wrote is “Mother Tongue”, which shares her early relationship with her mother and how their connection Impacted her perspective on not only her mother, but herself as well. In her short story, she starts off by giving the audience her perspective on the idea of language being a beautiful and remarkable form of communication  that can be used as a universal tool for discovering new ways of learning. She then begins her storytelling by comparing how she speaks two different variations of English in her life, depending on who she is around during the day.  She speaks very sophisticated English when she is alone or with a group of people,  however when she is with her mother, she breaks her English down to a more limited approach, making a comparison between the two. However, even though to others her mothers English is not easily understood and can seen as “broken” to others, Amy Tan makes it clear that she can still understand her mothers english perfectly well, not just because she can interact with her limited english, but because she interacts with her mother and realizes it’s her mother’s tongue. Her story then begins to shift into her perspective on how she viewed her mother in her early youth, describing their relationship as embarrassing and shameful, going into detail how she viewed her mothers skill of speaking English. Amy Tan then brings up one of the important themes into her story, which is how her mothers english caused people to take advantage of her mothers vulnerability, which can and has affected many immigrants who have been taken advantage of and exploited. Her mother had been scammed out of her money and had not received an apology regarding her hospital losing her CAT scan involving a benign brain tumor, and so Amy Tan would translate not just her words, but her emotions as well. Another main message Amy Tan brings into her story is how she makes the claim that her mothers English has influenced her own developing language skills and limiting her potential in life. This method of introducing a sociological and psychological disadvantage for many children who are influenced by friends or peers by showing her own personal experience. She elaborated further by going deeper into her early days of school, where she admits English was not her best strong suit, but with other school topics such as math and science was where her intelligence resided. She helps the audience understand in her own perspective, breaking down that math is one linear path that leads to one answer, while it is the opposite with English, as there are many different components that make up “Perfect English” that complete a correct answer. This is how she introduces the stereotype of Asians being successful in the fields of math,science and engineering, and questions if there aren’t any asian Americans in the field of writing and literature. So with this, she makes a clear argument of how society always has a role in creating and shaping the way young children, especially those who come from immigrant families, are pressured into becoming a genius in math or science, which is the whole point of the stereotype. With that, she makes the big decision to go against it and decides to join college and become an English major. Years later, Amy Tan began to write her own fictional stories and then began to write her stories revolving around mother and daughter relationships. Finally, she ends her short story with pointing out what it is she wants her audience to become and that would be mothers who reminded her of her own mother. Her story of “Mother Tongue” gives recognition to her other well written books too such as “The Joy Luck Club”, written in 1989, and “Two Kinds”, which was also written in 1989. Her structure in building her main message in “Mother Tongue” creates this new perspective for anyone who reads her novels, to give insight on how truly influencing language can be and how it affects the relationship of family and what it can be used for. To summarize, her main arguments are that a person’s thinking and language skills cna be influenced from the likes of others, how important a relationship is to developing new sociological changes and how immigrants are seen through the eyes of others based on their ability to communicate and how they can be at a disadvantage. Amy Tan does a great job at breaking down her perspective of this situation and she does it in the manner of expressing her thoughts through sharing her own childhood memories to compare herself and her mother to her audience, which catches the eye of readers to connect with them and to show connectivity amongst groups of people.