Essentials of College Rhetoric
Week 6:
Ms. Lowery
Class Overview
• Quiz
• Recap
• Thesis Statements
• Review
Differences in Rhetorical Appeals and
Rhetorical Choices
Ms. Lowery,
I didn’t come to class today because I was sick and I want to ask
you if I can have an excused absence. -Beyonce
1)Appeal to pathos- My head felt like someone took a jack
hammer to it and I couldn’t stop vomiting.
2)Appeal to ethos- I come to class everyday, I’m never late,
and I’ve made 100’s on every assignment
3)Appeal to logos- You should excuse me because out of the
23 students in my class, I am ranked in the top 10%. This
unexcused absence may cause me to drop below that.
Rhetorical Choices
1) Beyonce uses imagery to show how immense the
pain in her head was (jack hammer). This helps
her argue that because the pain was so horrid,
there was no way she could have payed attention
in class.
2) Beyonce uses past experiences to demonstrate
her credibility. She shows how good of a student
she is.
3) Beyonce uses statistics to show her rank in the
class and how an unexcused absence may keep her
from being in the top 10% of her class.
What goes into a thesis statement?
• For BA 4: The name of the author and the title of
his work
• The author’s purpose
• Names the audience
• Asserts your conclusion and takes a stand on the
author’s rhetorical strategies
• States what techniques you will be analyzing,
and the impact of these techniques on the
effectiveness of the text.
Thesis Statements (con’t)
• Typically a thesis statement is one sentence, but
if you need two, that is fine
• When thinking about your thesis statement,
consider the scope of your rhetorical analysis.
▫ For example, do you plan to analyze three
rhetorical choices? How should your thesis reflect
that?
▫ Do you plan to show how effective some rhetorical
choices were, but also show the fallacy in the
author’s argument?
Gee Thesis Statements
Activity
Part 1:
• Look at your partner’s thesis statements and
compare. Does it have all the elements of a thesis
statement? Is it the best fit for the scope of the
RA? Which thesis statement best fulfills the
requirements for BA 4?
Part 2:
• Based from your results from the believing and
doubting game, come up with a different thesis
statement that argues against your first.
BA 4
• Description: For your draft 1.1, you will write a rhetorical analysis. See
the description of Draft 1.1 for a discussion of what a rhetorical analysis
is and what you will be expected to do.
• In this assignment, you will continue your preparation for writing your
rhetorical analysis by writing thesis statements suitable for it. Using
three of the four texts from Ch. 12 that I assigned at the beginning of
the semester 1) identify the audience and purpose of each text
and explain what those are in about 75- 100 words, and
2) create a thesis statement for a rhetorical analysis of each
text.
• Remember that to successfully create your thesis statements, you will
need to read these texts carefully (and, usually, several times) so that
you thoroughly understand the audience, purpose, and content of the
texts.
Texts for your thesis statements:
• Sven Birkerts: "Into the Electronic Millennium" pp. 226-233
• Stephen Budiansky: "Lost in Translation" pp. 238-244
• Scott Jaschik: "Winning Hearts and Minds on Plagiarism" pp. 261-266
• Tina Rosenberg: "Everyone Speaks Text Message" pp. 267-271
Review
• What goes into a thesis?
• Be thinking about how you’re going to organize an outline for the article you
choose to write your RA over. (Remember the assigned readings from Ch.
12)
• For the in-class assignment for Week 7 do the following to James Gee’s
article: Begin by writing your working thesis at the top of your paper. Then,
select a minimum of three quotations from the article that you will use as
examples of particular rhetorical choices (sometimes referred to as
rhetorical devices). Write a brief assessment of why each quotation would
be useful to you in composing your draft. Your assessment of each
quotation should include your answers to the following questions:
▫ Where will this quotation fit in your organization?
▫ How does it demonstrate the points you are trying to make about the
author's writing?
You may either write or type your assignment. Bring it to class with you.