College Writing Goals
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Comfort with writing and the writing process.
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Confidence as a writer and reader.
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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
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THINKING
READING
WRITING!
In the Beginning…
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“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
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Reading and writing analytically are not
rocket science.
To read and write analytically means to
examine a text in order:
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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
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What are the
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Meanings?
Purpose?
Effects?
How do the parts
work together to
achieve this?
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Example:
Reading and Writing Analytically
Point #2
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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
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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!
Point # 3
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EXAMPLE:
DISCOVERY
Reading and Writing Analytically
Point #4
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Reading and writing analytically is “the
good citizen stuff” as well as “the good
student stuff.”
Good citizen/students need to know:
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How texts work on them
How arguments are constructed
How to use rhetoric
Point #4
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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
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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.”
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Gerald Graff
Point #5
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Is this analytical?
Yes, as long as justification is provided.
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“It sucks!”
Lame dance moves
Corny song lyrics
Out dated costumes
Translates into analysis of news articles,
credit-card pitches,and political ads.
What is rhetoric?
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“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
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the faculty
=
ability
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of finding
=
search & discover
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all available means
=
language
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of persuasion
=
shape thoughts
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in a particular case
=
specific situation
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-Aristotle
The faculty:
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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)
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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
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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
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General observations
in a particular case:
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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
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Is made up of:
SOAPS
SAS
FLDS
SOAPS
The Rhetorical Framework
SPEAKER/WRITER
GENRE
OCCASION
essay, letter,
speech, etc
Context
(time, place, etc.)
PURPOSE
AUDIENCE
SUBJECT
Ms. Magazine Article determinations
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We will/have determined:
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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
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Now we have to determine the HOW?
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HOW does a writer accomplish goals?
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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?
STRUCTURE
SAS
Organization: intro, body, conclusion
(transitions)
Modes of Discourse :
define, compare/contrast,
divide/classify,
cause/effect, process
APPEALS
LOGOS
Logic/evidence
ETHOS
PATHOS
emotional
personal
credibility
STYLE
FL I D S
STYLE
Figurative
Language
Diction
Syntax
Put it all together…
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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…
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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!