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.”

- AristotleOn 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?

How do the parts work together to achieve this?

Example:

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!

Point # 3 DISCOVERY EXAMPLE:

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, MadisonWisconsin 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

PURPOSE

SPEAKER/WRITER

OCCASIONContext (time, place, etc.)

GENREessay, letter, speech, etc

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 SSTRUCTURE

Organization: intro, body, conclusion(transitions)

Modes of Discourse : define, compare/contrast, divide/classify, cause/effect, process

LOGOSLogic/evidence

APPEALS

ETHOS emotional

PATHOSpersonalcredibility

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 meaning/purpose/effect of the text and how you perceive its parts of the text and how you perceive its parts working together to achieve these ends.working together to achieve these ends.

Now that’s rhetorical analysis!

Welcome to the world of thinkers!

GOOD LUCK AND BEST WISHES!