College Writing Goals Comfort with writing and the writing process. Confidence as a writer and reader. Consciousness as a reader and writer to identify and use rhetorical devices. Critical analysis skills to analyze text (writings), including your own.
Purpose of College Writing THINKING READING WRITING!
In the Beginning So let rhetoric be defined as the faculty of discovering in the particular case what are the available means of persuasion. - Aristotle On Rhetoric, 1355bc
Reading and Writing Analytically Point #1 Reading and writing analytically are not rocket science. To read and write analytically means to examine a text in order: to determine what its meanings, purposes, and effects are to show how its parts work together to achieve those meanings, purposes, and effects.
Point #1 What are the Meanings? Purpose? Effects? Example: How do the parts work together to achieve this?
Reading and Writing Analytically Point #2 All textual analysis is ultimately rhetorical analysis. What people call literary, stylistic, or discourse analysis when it is done well it is a subset or rhetorical analysis. We will be conducting rhetorical analysis of readings and YOUR own writing.
Reading and Writing Analytically Point #3 The practice of reading and writing analytically can be grounded in a body of theory from classical rhetoric it s been around for about 2,500 years. As the initial quote from Aristotle makes clear, it is about DISCOVERY!
Reading and Writing Analytically Point #4 Reading and writing analytically is the good citizen stuff as well as the good student stuff. Good citizen/students need to know: How texts work on them How arguments are constructed How to use rhetoric
Point #4 How texts work? Example: War a Disaster for us and Afghanis A letter last Thursday was titled Military, not leaks, will keep us safe. Neither Wikileaks, nor the current military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, are what will keep us safe and secure. The Department of Defense budget doubled since 2001, yet we are less safe because our war on terror has actually created more terrorists who want revenge for what the United States has done to the people and land of Afghanistan and Iraq. And the cost to American taxpayers has created a huge deficit and economic insecurity here at home. The war in Afghanistan began in 2001. We have supposedly defeated the Taliban, but what has our military occupation accomplished over the last nine years, considering that more than 1,000 American soldiers have died there? An article in Fellowship Magazine states that 850 children die every day in Afghanistan from largely preventable deaths, and one quarter of Afghans children will not reach the age of 5. An Afghan woman dies related to childbirth every 30 minutes. Afghanistan now has the highest maternal mortality rate of infant and second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. How is this kind of human devastation going to make us or our world safe or secure? Bonnie Block, Madison Wisconsin State Journal 8/17/10
Reading and Writing Analytically Point #5 Reading analytically is something most thoughtful people do every day. Twelve year olds debating the merits of a Michael Jackson concert or a Marey Carey video are making the same kinds of claims, counterclaims, and value judgments as those made by published book reviewers and media critics. Gerald Graff
Point #5 It sucks! Is this analytical? Yes, as long as justification is provided. Lame dance moves Corny song lyrics Out dated costumes Translates into analysis of news articles, credit-card pitches,and political ads.
What is rhetoric? Rhetorical analysis (reading or writing) is an effort to understand how people within specific social situations attempt to influence others through language. -Jack Selzer The specific features of texts that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a given situation. Ultimately, everything is an argument.
Randall Leigh s Dilemma Group work
Rhetoric is the faculty = ability of finding = search & discover all available means = language of persuasion = shape thoughts in a particular case = specific situation -Aristotle
The faculty: Take one minute to free write. Free write means continually write, without stopping what ever comes to mind. If you get stuck just keep writing stuck til a new idea crops up. Write your thoughts, experiences,and/or feelings about READING AND WRITING!
The faculty (continued) If you believe you will never be any good at writing, speaking, or analyzing because you simply were not born with these innate talents BOLOGNA! Aristotle has been saying for 2,500 years that these are teachable arts, and people can get better at them. Take Ms. Rad as a case in point.
of finding: To Aristotle, rhetoric was dominated by invention. A systematic process of finding and solving problems. Rhetorical analysts must be consistently and systematically searching. Searching for what?
all available means: Search to discover ALL the things a writer or speaker has done in the text to shape people s thoughts and actions. That is, to achieve meaning, purpose and effect.
of persuasion: Appeals: logical, emotional, personal. First and foremost, a writer builds logical reasoning (logos) using EXAMPLES. No matter how thoroughly a text emphasizes the character of the writer (pathos) or tugs on the emotions of the reader (ethos), logos provides the indispensable proof. (article about Afghanistan).
Analyzing logos means Revealing how the writer capitalizes on unspoken assumptions he or she thinks the audience already believes about the issue at hand; incorporates facts, data, reasoning, and perspectives about the issue; and then substantiates a claim, a generalization, or a point about the issue.
Ms. Magazine article General observations
in a particular case: Rhetors (writers and speakers) operate in specific situations. There is an occasion to writer about, an audience to address, and purpose for an outcome ( what the speaker or writer hopes the audience or reader will DO with the material presented).
The Rhetorical Framework Is made up of: SOAPS SAS FLDS
S O A P S The Rhetorical Framework SPEAKER/WRITER GENRE essay, letter, speech, etc OCCASION Context (time, place, etc.) PURPOSE AUDIENCE SUBJECT
Ms. Magazine Article determinations We will/have determined: What the text means What is its purpose What effect the author intends Why the author was compelled to write Who the immediate audience is Now we have to determine the HOW?
HOW does a writer accomplish goals? How does the text MEAN? How does the text realize its purpose? How does it achieve its effects? How does it make the occasion clear? How does it address or evoke its audience? How does it announce its intentions?
S A S STRUCTURE Organization: intro, body, conclusion (transitions) Modes of Discourse : define, compare/contrast, divide/classify, cause/effect, process APPEALS LOGOS Logic/evidence ETHOS emotional PATHOS personal credibility STYLE
FL I D S STYLE Figurative Diction Syntax Language
Put it all together If you start with some highly visible feature like FLIDS, you need to show how these elements, mediated through organization of the text constitute logos, ethos, pathos, and/or tone, and how these elements provide clues about occasion, audience, and purpose.
Put it together another way While your ultimate rhetorical analysis will probably focus on the text s most salient aspects,for example ethos and diction, or purpose and details of imagery, you must establish a dialectic (conversation) between what you conclude is the meaning/purpose/effect of the text and how you perceive its parts working together to achieve these ends.
Now that s rhetorical analysis! Welcome to the world of thinkers! GOOD LUCK AND BEST WISHES!