The Rhetorical Modes Schemes and Patterns for Papers

Transcription

1 K. Hope Rhetorical Modes 1 The Rhetorical Modes Schemes and Patterns for Papers Argument In this class, the basic mode of writing is argument, meaning that your papers will rehearse or play out one idea against another. Each side is stated clearly and cogently, and though both are developed with details, examples, and the like, the writer clearly favors and supports one particular side against the other and the goal is to write persuasively, which means that the reader will find it persuasive. The best way to go about persuading anybody of anything is to practice writing it down and then revising what you said. For any argument paper you write, you should be able to compose a draft that generally or roughly follows this template, from the book They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. 1. In NAME OF ARTICLE, NAME OF AUTHOR(S) say that Specifically, he/she/they argue that Although XYZ believe ABC, NAME OF AUTHOR(S) insist that In sum, then, his/her/their view is that I AGREE/DISAGREE/HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT For instance In addition Some might object, of course, on the grounds that Yet I would argue that Overall, then, I believe... Argument writing of this sort will be effective if it conveys the issue well, provides sufficient information organized for readers to follow easily, and makes clear both the side the writer takes and how evidence and information support and back up that claim. Additionally, a paper like this will state the counterclaim fairly, indicating why examples, reasons, and evidence support the writer s claim. The structure of paragraphs in the body of an argumentative essay, then, may take a schematic form. Keep in mind that, as with all schemas, this is only a model, but it may prove worth learning from. The following model, a variant on the one above, can be adapted to the standard 5-paragraph model by conceiving it as forming the body of your argument, following the introduction and preceding the conclusion. Also, as the models show, this schema is useful as a composition device for organizing paragraphs as well as entire papers. With this model, you start the body of your persuasive paragraph or essay with the claim you intend to refute. Here, you may use language that makes the claim

2 K. Hope Rhetorical Modes 2 a bit more suspect. When you come around to your own support of the issue, which you introduce by the connective however, you will use language that is more positive and supportive of the claim. Words that tend to minimize or present an issue as questionable include argue, assert, contend, maintain, argue, claim... These tend to raise doubt. On the other hand, words that tend to support the truth or importance of a claim include explain, state, show. These words connote truth and objective observation. You can think of the model as saying something like, My opponent argues / asserts / contends / maintains / argues, / claims... However, the authority I am citing explains / states / shows... You can think of this persuasive argument as having four stages. In the first you state the opposing position, using language that makes it appear debatable, or even untrue. My opponent argues / asserts / contends / maintains / argues, / claims.. Second, you expand or develop the position you oppose, always using language that calls that argument into question. It is also argued / claimed / asserted / maintained / contended / said that... Third, identify your own position with the word however, and using positive language and citing authority to make your claim seem more practical or preferable. As A explains / shows / states... Finally, expand and develop the position you support, always using positive language to convey your message. Moreover,... / In addition,... / Furthermore,... In the 5-paragraph model, then, you will open with an introduction that states the thesis and the plan and conclude with a restatement of the major points. Information on this topic derives from the following web page: Although papers in this course are to be mainly arguments, the other modes of writing as described below are bound to provide clues and strategies for developing your thoughts and improving your writing. In fact, at one level or another, your writing is likely to use any and all of the following modes as ways to present and organize your ideas. Exemplification When we make a point we make it valid or useful by supporting it and backing it up with examples. Exemplification means simply using examples to show readers why something is significant, important, valuable, relevant, interesting, good, and all of that sort of thing, including why something is not significant, important, valuable, and so on. Types of examples include facts, reasons, events, stories, quotations, statistics, and so forth. Often we come up with something to say by way of the examples first, and then find our claim or thesis from them. By far the most successful and welcome examples as far as good communication

3 K. Hope Rhetorical Modes 3 goes, it would appear, are those which derive from good stories and really good descriptive language. Description We use sensory details to draw a word picture of something so that we can see, feel, hear, taste, smell the world we are evoke. Good descriptive language shows rather than tells, with vivid, sensory details. Good descriptive language can enhance any kind of writing or communicating because readers and audiences are made more aware of the subject by means of things tangible, sensory, directly apprehensible by the senses so that we can almost see or smell it. Good descriptive words can be especially useful to help enhance both the force of an argument and the pleasure of a narrative, giving a careful and involved tone to an entire piece. Narration Narratives answer who, what, where, how, and when. We use the preterite (past tense) to help organize events around a significant action that makes a point. Narratives are controlled by our understanding of beginnings, middles, and ends, and by our sense that stories typically concern conflict, transformation, and knowledge, in a sphere which alternates between the personal and the social, that is, between us and everyone else. We often use narratives to help us make sense of things, including ourselves. Every day we tell ourselves story after story, mostly about ourselves. We encounter narrative every day of our lives at home and at work and play. News stories are by definition narratives, so if the President signs a bill, for example, the narrative goes back to what the bill says, who sponsored it, why, and what the likely effects will be. Narratives introduce characters we can get to know and understand sometimes, especially in 5- paragraph argument papers we already know and understand them and are situated in specific places and times. Good narratives provide enough significant details (descriptive writing) to evoke things vividly. A narrative in the form of an anecdote is often a good way to begin a paper by telling a relevant story; they can also make excellent examples to back up arguments. Comparison/Contrast We can explain how two things relate to each other by similarities and differences. Comparisons focus on similarities, contrasts focus on differences. This seems to come naturally to us, as narrative does. We sometimes compare and contrast things by how one part relates to another part, proceeding part by part. We sometimes compare and contrast things by discussing one thing first and then coming to the next. These organizational decisions will be done for rhetorical purposes, that is, to be most effective in reaching the audience. Contrasts tend to make things vivid and clear. Often the origin of a paper can be found in some fundamental opposition we recognize in our lives, or in the strange or surprising similarities that can be found in otherwise different things.

4 K. Hope Rhetorical Modes 4 The ability to point out similarities and contrasts is especially useful for analytical writing, which we use most often to understand something. Classification By classifying things we explain them to ourselves and to others in terms of categories and parts: What smaller parts does something consist of? To which larger categories does something belong? We identify consistent features of things by which they may be described and understood as well as compared and contrasted. A good way to begin a talk or a brief paper is to say, in effect, I have three things to say about... When we analyze something we classify it by its parts, by which we may find what sorts of parts they are, how they relate one another, and how they contribute to the whole. Classification can be especially useful for effective analytical writing because it helps organize parts and their relationships with other parts and various wholes. Definition We explain what a term means by synonyms words that mean the same thing and by identifying what the term refers to what it is and what it does and by how the writer means the term to be understood, and how not. Definitions in a paper almost never rely on dictionary definitions. Rather, a writer will define to make distinctions and to fully characterize any particular subject. Definitions can lead to if...then sequences, not this... but that patterns, in one way this... in another way that schemas, and other sorts of logical schematic patterns that help to create discourse. Cause-Effect We explain something in terms of what or where it comes from and/or what it leads or might lead to. Cause and effect may describe known facts this happened because that happened or speculation if this happens, that may or must happen. Patterns of cause and effect are subject to scrutiny, since causation is not always evident or provable. However, everybody understands (or thinks they understand) how one thing leads to another, and this can be an especially effective way to structure a persuasive argument. For that reason, it is an aspect of any argument you might encounter worth considering as valid. Persuasion Persuasion has many dimensions and is a fundamental mode of communication in society. Much of the communication we experience in our daily lives is persuasion of one sort or another. Since persuasive writing is regarded as critical to citizenship in a free society, it is most commonly the benchmark by which student writing is judged. We speak and write to move people, convincing them that they can accept our own perspective or even do as we ask them to. Generally speaking, the type of persuasion employed will depend on prior attitudes in the audience. The three major sorts of persuasion are by the indirect method, where the writer plays on feelings and emotions in the reader; the direct method, where

5 K. Hope Rhetorical Modes 5 the writer employs reason and valid arguments based on sound data, and the personal method, where the writer is persuasive because of what the audience knows or thinks about the character of the person writing. Analysis Good analytic writing is one of the best tools for inquiry we have, and analytical writing is probably the best sort of writing to practice thinking with. Most handbooks discuss the particular mode of process analysis, by which the writer explains how something is done or how it works, identifying what the processes are and perhaps why and when it is done, what the parts of the process are, and how one step leads to another, including what will happen and even what sorts of things might go wrong. Analysis in general looks at a topic to figure out how it works, what it consists of, and how the various parts relate to each other and to the whole. It is a far more likely sort of writing, when you think about it, since it encompasses things as texts, where the text is an object of study or knowledge. All the arts are texts, as are virtually anything at all when it is studied as such, as biologists study life forms, physicists study the natural world, historians study the past, anthropologists study cultures, and so forth. Entertainment We entertain ourselves and each other to enjoy good times including good food and drink and music and to remember the past, to evoke other persons not currently present, to laugh about funny things, to share feelings with others, including with fictional characters, including feelings which in real life might be too painful to bear, or simply unlikely, or strange, or compelling, or even familiar all in writing. This is the realm of writing that provokes both laughter and tears, the physical and the emotional sensations par exellence. It is also the realm of arousal, the kind of feeling we get when grabbed by a wonderful book or movie, and we are many things at once lost, engaged, provoked, moved, quieted, and impelled to communicate something. Entertainment as a rhetorical mode is both more immediate and more highly dependent on genre and audience expectations than the other rhetorical modes. It is not expected in an academic writing class such as this, though we should always strive to be as entertaining as possible within the formal constraints of academic writing.