Rhetorical Analysis of Place

     Since I do not live on campus, besides riding on the bus and sitting in classrooms I spend most of my time in the Science & Engineering Library.  It is very close to all of my math, engineering and science classes.  As you walk up to this library, you do not feel the same as when you visit the recently constructed Thompson Library with its atrium and glass ceiling.  The SEL does not look like a library. It is a brick rectangular four-floor building. It looks more like a regular office or classroom building.  However the many high Roman arches in the entrance way make this library feel larger than it really is.  The design development was approved in April of 1991 although construction was not complete until 1993.

     On the first floor there is the Terra-byte cafe where students can get a snack, sandwich or coffee.  It is always very busy at lunch and this causes the first floor to be pretty noisy.  Having a café in a library still seems out of place, but it is a nice addition.  The second floor is the Music and Dance collection area along with study rooms and staff meeting rooms.  The third floor is the Digital Union with lots of computers and study tables and even a sound proof room. It is a loud and more talkative area that tends to have a lot of Indian Students congregated there.   The fourth floor is where the Science and Engineering books and journals are shelved.  This is the area of the library that I visit most often.  There are a lot of study tables with chairs. It is very quiet and a lot of Oriental students seem to study there.  The tables are all lined up in pairs of two.  It is a huge room but does not have any decoration or special features.  I spend a lot of hours here in between classes and it works as a good study area for me. The purpose of this room is to encourage studying so there is no need for it to be fancy.

Place and Identity

     I have never thought much about Place and Identity but as I reflect on them I can see that they are a crucial part of the way people relate and communicate with each other.  My identity like everyone’s is made up of all kinds of characteristics, connections and experiences. My place has to do with the fact that I have spent my whole life in central Ohio but I have traveled a lot in and out of the country.  I have been “identified” as a hard working student with a passion for extreme sports.  At an early age I wanted to ride anything that was motorized.  I have been racing motocross for five years.  The identity and place of a typical motocross racer would not be someone like me here in central Ohio with its cold winters and many rainy seasons.  A more typical rider would be living in southern California and riding every day of the year.  I guess the point I’m trying to make is that a person’s identity does not have to be defined by their place.   One of my writing assignments from high school was a research paper on the career of Engineering.  Doing that assignment helped me decide to go into the field of Engineering. I think that it will be very important in this field to be able to consider the “place” and “identity” of my fellow students, my clients, and my co-workers.  In order to convince people to do things that way I think they should be done, I am going to have to think about who they are and where they are coming from.