Rhetoric and Writing - First Year [3 ed.] 9781533914996

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Rhetoric and Writing First Year

Third Edition

Department of English University of Colorado Colorado Springs Phillip Heasley, Stacey Johnson, Omar Montoya, and Kacey Ross

Copyright © 2020 by Department of English, University of Colorado Colorado Springs Copyright © 2020 by Hayden-McNeil, LLC on illustrations provided Photos provided by Hayden-McNeil, LLC are owned or used under license Cover Photos: sondem/Shutterstock.com; Farizun Amrod Saad/Shutterstock.com All rights reserved. Permission in writing must be obtained from the publisher before any part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system.

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Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv Chapter 1.

Critical Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2.

Types of Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 3.

Writing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 4.

Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 5.

Grammar and Punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 6.

Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Chapter 7.

The Rhetorical Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chapter 8.

Rhetorical Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 9.

Ethos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 10.

Logos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Chapter 11.

Pathos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Appendix A. Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Appendix B. Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 iii Rhetoric and Writing

Ac k n ow l e d g e m e n t s As we say in the Rhetorical Situation chapter of this course pack, “writers do not write in a vacuum.” Just as it is true for student writers, it is true for the instructors who teach them. The Stretch Faculty would like to thank all of our colleagues who have collaborated with us on the ideas that have gone into materials for this course pack. We appreciate every hallway conversation, informal office consultation, professional development meeting, and sharing of resources. Specifically, we would like to thank the First-Year Rhetoric & Writing Director, Ann Amicucci, for her help in refining the initial ideas for this project and for her assistance in its final production.

iv Acknowledgements

Stephen Coburn/Shutterstock.com

Chapter

1

Critical Reading An Introduction Reading and writing are interconnected, so strong reading is one way to lay the groundwork for effective writing. What counts as “strong reading,” though, depends on the situation. There are many different reasons to read and just as many ways to read. Readers approach different kinds of texts, sometimes called genres, in particular ways. We read different types of texts in specific ways because each genre and related context expects readers to respond in specific ways. Think about it—when you are browsing the internet, scanning an assignment sheet, or checking the schedule at work, you are probably reading differently. When you read online, you might share an online article or comment on a friend’s post. When you are looking at an assignment sheet, you are seeking key details like due dates and length requirements. When you review your work schedule, you note when you are expected to be present and check for conflicts. Each of these is a particular kind of reading you choose to use (often unconsciously) because of what is expected of you in that specific situation. Critical reading is one way to read; it is the kind of reading expected in college classes because it forces you to really think about what you are reading and helps prepare you to both talk and write about it. In an academic setting, effective reading skills are especially important. They are essential for understanding and writing about complex ideas. Academic writing almost always involves working with ideas of others—ideas you read about. Because effective academic writing requires you to engage with the material you read, strong critical reading skills are a first step toward strong writing skills.

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What Is Critical Reading? Critical reading is a tool for understanding and engaging with complex texts. In this instance, “critical” does not have a negative connotation. Instead, to read critically means to read skeptically. Critical readers are on the lookout for what a text argues and how it argues it. At the same time, critical readers are aware of their own assumptions, beliefs, and opinions because these factors affect how individuals understand a text.

Why Is Critical Reading Helpful? When readers read critically, they realize that surface reading—the kind of reading that works for skimming the internet, grabbing the details of an assignment, or checking a work schedule—is just the tip of the iceberg. Surface reading catches the main points, but critical reading enables you to fully understand a text, its arguments, and its rhetorical components. (More on the rhetorical components of a text will be explained in future chapters.) Critical reading requires readers to be active (rather than passive) participants and to really dig into a text. Even though it is significantly more work than surface level reading, critical reading helps readers do more than identify key ideas in the text. Critical reading prepares you to engage with a text on several levels: to participate in discussion, effectively summarize, responsibly respond, build a sound argument, or perform an analysis.

How Do I Read Critically? There are several different ways to read critically, and different strategies work for different people. Factors ranging from interest in the material to available time to dominant learning style can influence which critical reading strategies work for you. Critical reading requires several passes at a text, so some strategies happen before you read, some while you read, and still others take place after you read. Generally, combining several of the strategies outlined below is most beneficial. Regardless of which strategies you try (and you should try several), critical reading will require:

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A place free of distraction

•

Enough time to look at the text multiple times

•

Close attention

•

Deep thinking

•

Hard work

Critical Reading Strategies Before You Read Pre-Reading Pre-reading is like previewing. This process involves systematically looking over a text before you really read it. You should pay particular attention to publication information (Where was this originally published? Who is its audience? Who is the author and what do you know about him or her?), title, sub or section headings, introduction (this can range from a paragraph to several pages, depending on the length of the text), and conclusion. Taking a few minutes to preview what you are about to read can give you a sense of the text as a whole. It will make what you read seem more familiar when you return to the text for a close reading. There is no need to dig deeply into the text, argument, or details at this point. Instead, note what you can, so that you become generally familiar with the text.

Free Write Writing before you read helps you to recognize what you already know about the subject, and it usually takes at least 5–10 minutes. This strategy is very simple. Write what you already know or think about the topic of the text as a way to warm your brain up for the actual reading. Writing to prepare for reading will enable you to make useful connections between what you already know and any new information.

Recognize Personal Orientation Take the time to recognize, even before you begin to read a text, what you already think, know, or believe about the text you are preparing to read. You might ask yourself: “What are my beliefs about the issue addressed in the reading?” and “How open am I to new ideas on this topic?” Knowing your own biases, sometimes called presuppositions, about the topic or issue can help you to be objective as you read. If you know you have strong feelings about the issue, you may find yourself agreeing easily with the argument or tearing it to shreds rather than thinking about the text’s argument(s) critically.

Predict Skim the text looking for information that will help you get a sense of the text— things like title, headings, introductory material, and footnotes. Use that information to make educated guesses about what the text will do/say. Once you start reading, you can use this strategy to predict what will happen next/later in the text.

While You Read Annotate Annotating means writing on the text as you read it. This is a way to check and note your understanding of what you read. (If you’re not comfortable writing in a book, or if you are using a library source, make a photocopy before you begin reading.) 3 Critical Reading

Annotating involves much more than just highlighting a few key phrases. When you annotate, you can mark the thesis and main points of the text, circle key terms and/ or unfamiliar words, write your questions or reactions in the margins, mark confusing sections of the text (so that you can find and reread them later), and much more. Annotating can be particularly helpful when you begin to write about a text, because it will be easier to find key ideas and important quotes since you marked them while you annotated. On the next page, you can see an example of an annotated page. Although this is only one way to annotate, it shows a reader who is engaged with the text. The reader uses highlighting, underlining, and marginal notes. Notice that the reader highlighted and then defined a key term he did not know (disfranchised). At the bottom of the page, he summarized the writer’s overall message in the last few paragraphs (compares women to slaves). The reader also identified places where the writer introduced new ideas, left notes to himself to avoid confusion later, and began identifying rhetorical moves the writer makes (logos, syllogism). All of these notes show that the reader is reading actively and considering as he goes. It will also be very helpful for this reader if he returns to the text later to study it or to write about it.

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Figure 1-1. Example annotation.

Make a Two-Column Log Making a two-column log in a notebook is a way to record your reactions to a text as you read. It is a simple process and will help you track important parts of the text and your reactions to them. •

Draw a vertical line down the middle of the page.

•

Use one side of the line to copy down significant or interesting passages from the text you are reading. Make a note of the page number the passage comes from, and if you copy down a passage (rather than putting it in your own words), make sure to copy it exactly and put it in quotation marks.

•

Use the other side of the line to record your reactions, including questions, related personal experiences, agreements and/or disagreements with the author’s ideas.

Outline Outlining allows you to identify the basic structure, main ideas, and supporting evidence of the text. Through the structure of an outline, you can track the development of main points within an argument and the specific evidence used for each point. Be sure to use your own words (instead of quotes) when outlining a text.

“Chunking” “Chunking” is a strategy that helps you read, understand, and eventually summarize a text by sections. To “chunk” a text, divide it into sections that naturally go together. Then ask yourself the following questions: What does the author say in this section? What does the author do in this section? Your response to these questions should summarize the primary points the author is trying to make and help you pull out any quotes that are critical to his/her claims. The first question is about summarizing or paraphrasing a smaller chunk of the text and the second question is about thinking through how the author is working to build her/his argument within this section of text. The notes you create by asking these questions can build a thorough summary of any material.

Summarize Summarizing main ideas as you read can help you to remember them later. Depending on the text’s organization, you might summarize paragraphs, pages, or sections of the text. (More detailed information is offered in Chapter 2: Types of Writing.)

Identify Important Language Details Aspects like word choice, organizational structure, point of view, level of formality, inclusion of evidence, personal experience, repetition, aggressive language, and satire can be clues to a text’s purpose and how it achieves that purpose. Keeping the text’s argument in mind, it can be helpful to generate a list of the language details that do work—that matter—in the text. 5 Critical Reading

After You Read Summarize Summarizing a text after you have read is an easy way to check comprehension. If you can restate the main ideas of a text in your own words, you have come a long way toward fully understanding it. Additionally, a concise summary of a text’s primary argument and purpose is often a necessary part of writing. If you summarize as part of critical reading, you may be able to use the summary later.

Reread Rereading is not just something that people who do not understand a text do—most effective readers reread at least parts of a text and often do so more than once. Rather than reading the piece straight through two or three times, try rereading sections you have marked while annotating as particularly important or difficult. Then, once you have worked through those tough sections, go back and see how they fit into the piece as a whole.

Discuss Discussing the text with others is a way to learn more about what you read. If you have friends in the same class, see if they are willing to sit down and talk about what you have both read. It is also helpful to participate in your class discussions of the reading. One useful strategy after reading is to come up with a list of questions you hope will be answered during class discussion. Then, if one of those questions does not come up, ask it yourself.

Reflect Sometimes our beliefs about an issue are difficult to express because they are so ingrained. In order to discover these beliefs, you can explore how a text challenges you. Does it make you feel disturbed, threatened, ashamed, inspired, or some mixture of these? Your reactions are something to pay attention to and try to understand. To reflect on your reactions, you can try to identify the points in the text where you feel your beliefs are being challenged and then choose one or two of the most troubling aspects and analyze your feelings about them.

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Chapter

2 Types of Writing Choosing a Type of Writing There are many different reasons to write, and there are almost as many different ways to write. The purpose, audience, and situation of a text each affect what and how we write. In any situation, writers need to think about these factors to create an appropriate response. Specifically, writers need to think about who they are writing to (audience), what they are hoping to achieve (purpose), and the context (situation). The answers to these questions will affect what kind of text a writer creates and how successful it is. As an illustration of how audience, purpose, and situation can affect a text, let us consider a particular kind of text—a letter. There are several kinds of letters, but they can and do look very different depending on their purpose, audience, and situation. •

Cover letter •

Audience: Potential employer(s)

•

Purpose: To position yourself as the ideal candidate for a job

•

Situation: Applying for employment

Because of this combination of audience, purpose, and situation, cover letters tend to be professional and formal as well as rather short and formulaic. •

Sales letter •

Audience: A potential customer

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Purpose: To sell a product or service

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Situation: Generating business

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We often label these letters as “junk mail,” but they are, nonetheless, letters. They tend to be brief and nonspecific—aimed at piquing the interest of potential customers. •

Email to a friend •

Audience: Friend

•

Purpose: Varied—to make plans, share information, ask for advice or an opinion, etc.

•

Situation: Electronic and often in response to outside factors

Emails, as well as text messages, between friends tend to be short, personalized, and familiar. The language and tone are casual, and they often anticipate a timely response. •

Letter to Grandma •

Audience: Grandma

•

Purpose: Varied—perhaps to share information or offer encouragement

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Situation: Familial history, shared bond

A letter to grandma will likely be more informal, while still being respectful. It may be more emotional and more personal than other letters. Each of these letters has a unique combination of audience, purpose, and situation, which yields a specific kind of letter. It would not be appropriate to send a cover letter to Grandma, or to receive a sales pitch letter from a close friend via email (in fact, when that happens, we often expect the friend’s account has been hacked). The differences between these types of letters demonstrate how different combinations of purpose, audience, and situation affect what the letter ultimately looks like—how it sounds, how long it is, how personal it is, and what it includes. While writing in college is not all about writing letters, it is important to ask similar questions when you approach academic writing. Identifying your audience, articulating your purpose, and understanding the surrounding situation will help you to determine what you need to write, or what type(s) of writing you might use to achieve your purpose.

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Who is my audience? (What are their expectations?)

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What kind of text am I creating? (website, academic paper, reflection, letter)

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What is my purpose? (summarize, analyze, respond, reflect)

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What is the context? (timing, location, process, etc.)

In this chapter, we’ll discuss three types of writing frequently called for in academic writing: summary, response, and analysis. You will often use a combination of these types for a single project. Knowing the differences between the types will help you to write successfully in writing courses, in academia more generally, and in professional environments.

Summary What Is Summary? Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) of another author’s work into your own words, including only the main point(s). Summaries are significantly shorter than the original text and take a broad overview of the source material.

When Is Summary Appropriate? Summary writing is often used as a way to briefly introduce a text and its ideas—before responding to or analyzing those ideas. An effective summary shows you have done your homework—that you understand the key ideas, arguments, and positions in a text. Additionally, you might use a summary to: •

Provide support for claims

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Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing

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Give examples of several points of view on a subject

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Call attention to a position you wish to agree or disagree with

How Do I Write a Summary? There is no one right way to summarize, but an effective summary will be in your own words, stay focused on main ideas, not drift into response or opinion, and will be as brief as possible while effectively representing the originating text. Strategies for summarizing include: •

Reading the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas

•

Summarizing in your own words the single main idea of the essay

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Clearly stating the text’s overarching purpose/argument/thesis

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Paraphrasing important supporting points that come up in the essay

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Using “summary language” to periodically remind readers that this is a summary of someone else’s argument, including the article claims, the author suggests, etc.

9 Types of Writing

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Using strong verbs to identify tasks the writer/source accomplishes: Argues

Assesses

Tells

Synthesizes

Summarizes

Claims

Tests

Reviews

Applies

Lists

Suggests

Evaluates

Replies

Criticizes

Applies

Believes

Discusses

Persuades

Critiques

Asks

Reiterates

Shows

Analyzes

Proposes

Questions

Response What Is Response? In a response, you still assess the item you have been assigned to observe, but you add your personal reaction and impressions to the report. Even though most of a response will come from your own thinking, it is not enough to just state your response; you need to back up your opinions with careful reasoning and evidence.

When Is a Response Appropriate? Much like summary, response is often one piece of a larger writing project. One of the most frequent places for response is in reflective writing, which is an important part of the writing process. Outside of reflection, your own response to a text could be the start of an analysis or could be incorporated in a conclusion, where it is often appropriate to assess how effective/ineffective a text is. Generally, response is appropriate if an assignment prompt asks for your impressions, opinions, or thoughts.

How Do I Write a Response? There are many ways to approach writing a response. After you have read the text critically, you may want to record your thoughts and impressions as these can work as the foundation of a response. It is often necessary to briefly summarize the text you are responding to before presenting your response. The brief summary should include an article attribution (author, text, title, date, publication information) and provide information readers will need to make sense of your response, or to put it in context. On the most basic level, responses will agree or disagree with a text. They can, however, do much more. A response might agree with some parts of the text’s arguments while disagreeing with others, or it might push the ideas in a text further. In an academic setting, whether you agree or disagree with a text, responses should be respectful and polite. Generally, you are being asked to respond to a published text, so it will have some merit—even if you disagree with it. When you are writing a response, the thesis statement should clearly relate your response to the original text’s idea(s). A response-driven thesis statement will look different depending on whether you agree, disagree, or agree with exception with the text’s argument.

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Agreeing Response Models •

If you agree with the text, you might work from a thesis like this: •

Smith makes a valid argument about ___________, an important reality because ___________.

•

I believe Smith is correct in arguing that _________, so the next logical consideration is ___________.

•

I find Smith’s argument to be sound; _____________makes sense, especially because ___________________.

Notice that this type of agreeing response goes beyond saying “I agree.” It explains why the writer agrees. In the body of the paper, the writer would need to combine claims, evidence, and reasoning to support his or her agreement.

Disagreeing Response Models •

If you disagree with a text, you might work from a thesis like this: •

Smith’s argument is faulty because _________________.

•

Since Smith does not bother to explain __________, his argument comes up short.

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Smith’s argument that _________________ assumes that ______________, a position I cannot accept.

This type of disagreeing response does more than say “the author is wrong.” The thesis sets the writer up to provide claims, evidence, and reasons to support their response to the text. An effective response must do more than take a position, it must offer reasoning in support of that position.

Agreeing and Disagreeing Response Models •

If you both agree and disagree with a text, you might work from a thesis like this: •

Although Smith’s argument is sound when he says _______________, the idea that _______________ is not one that I accept since ______.

•

Even though I cannot agree with Smith about ___________, I support his suggestion that we _____________ because _____________.

Like with the agree and disagree thesis examples, it is important to recognize that these models for response thesis statements also force you to give reasons, reasons which you can support through claims, evidence, and discussion. If you are unsure whether you agree or disagree, how you proceed will depend on the assignment. If, for instance, the assignment asks you to take a stance, you will

11 Types of Writing

want to find an agree, disagree, or agree and disagree stance. If, on the other hand, you are writing reflectively, it may be okay to say that you are still uncertain about your position, though you will still want to give reasons for your uncertainty.

Analysis What Is Analysis? Analysis is a tool for deconstructing things to better understand how they work. Historical analyses look at historical factors to understand how they influenced events. Cultural analyses look at cultural forces to determine how culture affects events and people. Chemical analyses look at compounds to determine their parts and results. Regardless of the type of analysis, the goal is the same: identify and examine the components to determine how the pieces affect the whole.

When Is Analysis Appropriate? Many different discourse communities, groups that share communication practices, values, and beliefs, rely on analysis as a tool for understanding. Obviously analysis is appropriate if you are tasked with writing an analysis—in a class or on the job. Analysis can also be appropriate when you are assessing a problem, trying to understand a situation, or seeking to understand alternate points of view.

How Do I Write Analysis? There are many different kinds of analysis, which are appropriate for particular situations and discourse communities. Each kind of analysis is like a specific lens— film critics create film analyses, scholars who study gender might create feminist or queer analyses, philosophers write philosophical analyses, and investment professionals create financial analyses. Each kind of analysis requires that the writer “put on” a specific lens to identify what they will analyze and how they will analyze it. Textual analysis is a foundational kind of analysis. It is a sort of stepping stone to more refined types of analysis you may encounter later in various situations. Textual analysis is focused on purpose, or on how a text achieves its purpose through the use of claims, evidence, and reasons. The goal of textual analysis is to identify the components of a text and explain how those pieces contribute to the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the text’s argument or purpose.

Textual Analysis Strategies PRIOS This analytical strategy can help you engage with complex texts by identifying key aspects, which will affect your understanding. PRIOS is an acronym for those key aspects of the text. When using PRIOS, it is best to think of these features as fluid and dynamic. The goal is not to compartmentalize features of a text, but to recognize how these elements work together. 12 Chapter 2

P:

Purpose

R:

Reader

I:

Information

O: Organization S:

Style

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P: Purpose Identifying the purpose of a text is one of the most important aspects of critical reading. Other ways to think about purpose include identifying the author’s main claim/argument or articulating his/her argument’s thesis statement.

•

R: Reader Identifying audience can be difficult because it is often implied rather than stated and because many texts have multiple audiences. Recognizing intended and actual audiences can help you to understand rhetorical strategies in a text.

•

I: Information “Information” means looking for reasons, especially quotes, that support the author’s main claim. Identifying these key reasoning moments in a text can help you support your own analysis.

•

O: Organization Organization includes structural choices such as narrative, comparison, and chronological order. Organizational clues highlight what is included and what is omitted, so they are also helpful in assessing how the text makes and supports its argument.

•

S: Style Style covers many features of a text. As you analyze, you will want to consider stylistic features (such as literary devices, tone, and genre) that help you understand and support the text’s main claim.

Argumentative Strategies This strategy can help you to see “below the surface” of the text you are analyzing. By looking not only at what the rhetor is saying, but how s/he is saying it, you can uncover important aspects of the text, which will help you to understand why an argument is, or is not, effective. •

Evaluate the logic The two parts of an argument are claim and reasoning (sometimes called support). The claim is what the writer wants the reader to accept. The support is the reasons and evidence that become the basis for that claim. You can critically engage with an argument by applying the ABC test. •

A: Appropriate—Is the text fitting for its audience, time, and place?

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B: Believable—Is the text free from logical fallacies?

•

C: Consistent—Does the text contain contradictory statements?

13 Types of Writing

•

Watch for emotional manipulation Balanced arguments will incorporate emotion, but approaching a text critically means you are watching for emotional manipulation, which sometimes means the author has employed exaggeration or hyperbole. Seeing this manipulation should cause you to be suspicious. You will want to watch for emotionally loaded words, vilifying the opposition, false flattery, and veiled threats.

•

Assess the rhetor’s credibility Another way to critically consider a text involves thinking about the rhetor’s credibility. There can be several dimensions to credibility. Two common ones are invented and inherent. Inherent credibility is the credibility a rhetor has before saying anything. This type of credibility is based on their reputation and who they are. Invented credibility refers to what the rhetor does in the text to establish credibility. Some ways rhetors build credibility are by showing their knowledge of a subject, establishing common ground with readers, and responding fairly to objections and opposing arguments. Recognizing these in any text will help you to maintain a critical mindset as you engage with the argument.

Why Study Different Types of Writing? Determining what to write in a given situation can be almost as difficult as actually writing it. In fact, it is entirely possible to generate terrific writing, and still “miss the boat” for an assignment. A good starting place for figuring out what to write is to think about your text’s audience, purpose, and situation. Each of those components is a key, and together they can help you determine what it is you are being asked to write—what is appropriate. Often this information is available to you as part of the assignment prompt. After you have determined whether you will need a summary, response, textual analysis, or (more likely) some combination of these writing types, you will be one step closer to starting to write.

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Chapter

3 Writing Process Writing Is a Recursive Process Good writing does not just happen. Even experienced writers spend time brainstorming, taking notes, and reviewing sources. They constantly revisit these ideas in order to make sure their writing is as effective as possible. In other words, writing does not begin with the final product; good writing is the result of developing a process that proceeds from inception to final draft, while continually thinking and drawing upon practices of revision and reflection. In order to help you better understand the importance of a well-developed writing process in this chapter we will explore: •

The concept of writing as both a collaborative (shared) and recursive (back and forth) process

•

Strategies for composing and revising your work

•

Reflection as part of the writing process

What Is MY Writing Process? Building a writing process is simply a matter of testing and allowing your writing and thinking to develop throughout a project. Regardless of how you approach writing, remember that the process is recursive. It should not be thought of as linear— working from stage to stage. Rather, effective writing processes continually shift between planning, organizing, and revising as you write.

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Stages of the Writing Process In this chapter, we discuss the writing process as sequential, one that begins with invention, progresses through possible research, focuses on intentional drafting, develops in response to critical peer and instructor feedback, and ends with a revision and an opportunity for reflection. In truth, however, the writing process is far more recursive—or overlapping and entangled—than linear and straightforward, and you may need to return to various steps along the writing journey.

Idea Generation Idea generation, or invention, can be considered the most important stage in the writing process because without a topic to argue, you cannot move forward in the writing process. For some students, idea generation is easy, and for others it might be more difficult. For both types of students, though, idea generation is also a process. There are many idea generation strategies writers use, including the following:

Reflection on Personal Experiences Writers often feel as if their personal experiences will not leave them with enough to write about; however, reflecting on your personal experiences is a good strategy that could help you locate something of interest about which to write. If you write a narrative, a short essay on discourse communities, or are seeking to make connections to a textual analysis, reflecting on your personal experiences can help you connect with some larger conversations or issues. These connections that arise from reflection help establish relationships between your specific personal experiences and more general collective issues (what we refer to as context). For a writer, it is important to identify how your personal experiences connect to larger conversations because these connections enable you to make something personal accessible to a wider audience.

Brainstorming and Asking for Help If you struggle to find a topic for a project, consider some tried and true strategies such as brainstorming (listing possible topics no matter how ridiculous they might seem), discussing possibilities with friends or classmates, searching the Internet or visiting the library for inspiration, visiting the Writing Center, or seeking help from your instructor. In addition to finding a topic, in the process of invention you can discover some of UCCS’s available resources. Also, brainstorming is an ideal time to engage with your peers and instructor as part of a discourse community—working collaboratively on a project can be a very useful part of the brainstorming stage.

Listing and Clustering One way to explore ideas about a topic that interests you is to begin by making a list of problems or issues that are related to your topic. We call this invention strategy listing and clustering. To better explain how this strategy works, consider the following example:

16 Chapter 3

Imagine you are writing an essay on discourse communities at UCCS. You do not know exactly what to write about and you have already thought about your personal experiences and have brainstormed a bit. Drawing a connection across these early invention strategies, you can create a list of possible issues and problems that are related to your topic by listing and clustering.

Personal Experience • My past experience with writing in discourse communities.

Discourse Communities at UCCS • Types of writing used? • How do I use writing in discourse communities?

Potential Issues • How has my idea of writing changed now that I am part of a discourse community at UCCS?

Free Write Freewriting is not about coming up with perfectly formed sentences; instead, it is about being open to pursue any and all thoughts you have about your topic, no matter how messy they may be. Remember, no one expects you to already be an expert on what you are writing about. In many ways, freewriting is one of the most productive strategies for invention because it allows you to turn the ideas in your head into thoughts on paper. No matter how far-fetched your thoughts are or how much work they need, by putting them down on paper you can officially say you have started writing. Reflecting and writing during your invention process can also transform a potential topic into a successful writing project.

Drafting There are several ways you might consider drafting your project. Successful drafting is often more than simply putting “pen-to-paper” or having a topic or outline. To begin drafting, it can help to think about “when” and “how” you begin.

When to Draft Writing is different for everyone. There is no rule about when it is best to begin drafting: morning, evening, or the middle of the night. You are the best judge of the hours when you are most productive. However, “best practices” have shown us that having enough time to draft and then subsequently to revise produces successful writing. This means you should typically not wait until the night before the project is due.

How to Draft Since writing is different for everyone, “how” you write might not be the same as how your peer writes. Regardless of how drafting happens for any one person, it can be helpful to think about when and where writing happens best for you. Some

17 Writing Process

people work best in the morning, and others prefer the middle of the night. Some people like a little background noise, while others find it difficult to work without absolute solitude. Some people like to start at a computer, but there are others who prefer a pencil and some paper for the initial drafting. If you have had success drafting previously, you might reflect on your process and environmental surroundings for that task. If you find a process that works, stick with it. Remember that drafting is a process that takes time, so even if you prefer to write in the middle of the night, choose a night other than the one before the project is due so you give yourself time to work through the drafting process and develop your ideas. Successful drafting requires time, practice, and a constant review of what works for you and what doesn’t. Another key aspect of drafting is constantly reflecting upon the work you have already created. It is helpful to think about the revision process constantly, and not just at the end of a project. Remember that writing is recursive, so successful drafting takes this into account. By no means does your draft have to be perfect. Writing is a process, one that takes you from the rough stages of drafting to the more polished stages of a final copy. A completed draft will have addressed the minimum of the assignment requirements and may also respond to collaborative feedback from your peers and instructor. Successful drafts are often the result of collaborative work.

Revision Revision is often confused with editing, proofreading, and polishing a piece of writing. However, revision literally means that you “see again.” In other words, revision allows you to take a second look at a text. When you revise your writing, consider the following factors: •

Clarity and concision of a thesis

•

Effective, appropriate, and technically correct incorporation of sources

•

Logical progression of your paper and its argument or analysis

Revision is a process that requires you to think about the goals of a project on several levels—holistically (as a whole), sections, paragraphs, and sentences. When revising, look at each level to see whether it does some work to further the purpose or goal of the project. This process will better allow you to re-see your work. In order to demonstrate what we mean by revision as a collaborative and recursive process, here are a couple key strategies for revising:

18 Chapter 3

Peer Review Through having your peers read a draft of your work, you may gain valuable insight for revision. Peer review is an important collaborative component of the writing process, one that can potentially assist you in identifying concerns or issues in your draft. A peer review can also give you the opportunity to look closely at someone else’s writing; however, make sure that you provide the kinds of input you want to receive. When providing feedback to a peer, you should always try to incorporate the following: •

Critical feedback: Identify what is confusing or unclear to readers.

•

Constructive feedback: Provide your peers with options about ways to improve, further develop, or reconsider parts of their drafts.

•

Considerate feedback: Be nice. Identify both strengths and weaknesses and provide positive comments as well as suggestions.

When submitting your project for peer review, the most important item to keep in mind is that your draft does not have to be perfect. The entire point of a peer review is to gather feedback and suggestions that can help you improve your writing.

Reverse Outlining A reverse outline is developed after writing a draft. It takes your draft and creates a new outline based on the structure and information you actually composed. As long as you are accurate—your outline is based on what you actually do and say (rather than on what you intended to do or say); this allows you to identify areas in your draft where you have not yet fully achieved the purpose of your project.

Revision Memos A way to reflect more formally on your text is to write a revision memo. This allows you to process any feedback, record any ideas you have developed, and communicate the direction your project is headed as you revise. As you write your revision memo, be critical, reflective, and thorough. This will maximize the usefulness of your memo—whether you use it to guide your own revision or show it to a peer or instructor for ideas and guidance. To write a successful revision memo it is valuable to think critically about the following: •

The feedback you received from your peer reviewers, instructor, or other writing consultants

•

The strengths of your draft

•

The specific areas of your draft that need improvement

19 Writing Process

Proofreading In addition to revising and editing your work, it is also important to carefully proofread your writing. The more important and formal the writing situation, the more important it is to save adequate time for proofreading. Revision deals with large— global—issues such as your argument, support, and organization. Editing identifies concerns at the paragraph level: issues such as topic sentences or transition statements. Proofreading addresses small—local—concerns such as grammar and punctuation. Misspellings, typos, and grammatical mistakes can lead to confusion and cause you to lose credibility with your audience. A single typo in a vital sentence could undermine the effectiveness of an entire text. Proofreading is usually best saved for the end of your writing process; if you proofread early in the process and then revise extensively, you might waste time proofreading parts of the text you eventually delete, or you may make extensive changes to sections you have already proofread and add new errors. Therefore, careful line-by-line proofreading is usually the last step. Experienced writers plan ahead and save plenty of time for this step.

Why Study the Writing Process? It is important to keep in mind that, as with invention, drafting, and revising, writing is a recursive process. This means that the strategies provided here are not necessarily step-by-step methods to writing successfully, but rather, as you continue to work with sources and compose your essay, new ideas and connections will be made. As a result, you might find yourself changing a thesis statement, adding additional sources, or reorganizing the project. Although this may sound frustrating, it can actually be one of the most rewarding experiences of writing as you see both your writing and ideas grow and develop.

20 Chapter 3

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Chapter

4

Organization Organizing your Essay In the previous chapter we asked you to do a lot of thinking about your writing process and even practice some planning in preparation for writing your essay. In other words, you have practiced different writing processes, read actively, thought critically, and applied new methods of analysis. Now it is time to think about how to organize your ideas to inform and persuade your audience with your writing.

What Does an Essay Look Like? Many of you may be familiar with the standard five-paragraph essay—one model that can be used to organize your essay. This type of essay typically calls for an introduction paragraph with your thesis statement typically placed at the end of that paragraph. Then, three body paragraphs—each which offers specific evidence and reasons—support your thesis. Finally, the essay offers a conclusion, in which you summarize and restate your claim. While this basic five-paragraph form may be familiar, it is unlikely to be sufficient for the writing you will do in college. The writing projects you complete in college-level courses will likely be organized into several paragraphs, in which you further develop your main points (typically many more than five-paragraphs). In this chapter, we will explore how to organize your paper by looking at the purpose of your essay. Always keeping the purpose of the project in mind will help you to better envision the development of your essay.

Organizing Your Essay with Outlines Organizing an essay that supports and develops a thesis statement is a matter of thinking about how all the parts fit together and speak to one another. It can be helpful to start by thinking about the broader parts of your essay such as the beginning 21

(introduction with summary, context, and claim), middle (analysis), and end (takeaway point and connection to your claim). After thinking about the main parts of your paper, you will want to consider how the ideas within each part will connect to one another to move your essay forward. In order to effectively organize, many authors develop an outline. There are several approaches to developing an outline; however, a “best practice” is always putting considerable effort in creating your outline so that it eventually becomes your finished essay. You will want to provide as much detail as possible in your outline, and more importantly, you will want to think about organizing your essay in a way that will be most persuasive for your reader. Outlining can be a useful tool to help us gather our ideas, provide organization and structure to our writing, and keep all our thoughts and ideas cohesive and together. Writing an outline is part of your writing process, so the time you spend planning your outline is time spent writing. Below is an example of ONE way to outline an essay or project: •

•

Intro—Can be one or multiple paragraphs but should address: •

Theoretical info—introduce terms, concepts, and sources you will use to lay the groundwork for your analysis

•

Summarize text—depending on your purpose and the type of text you are working with, it can be helpful to summarize a text before analyzing it so that your reader can “see” it and the argument that you are analyzing

•

Thesis—Your argument about the text’s claims

Body (Analysis Paragraphs) 1. Claim: Rhetorical component/device: Rhetor uses device for effect 2. Evidence: Description of the specific component you are focusing on in the paragraph, often a quote 3. Interpretation and/or Reasons: Connecting claim, evidence, and thesis 4. How: How does the feature work in the argument? How does it contribute to an ethical/pathetic/logical appeal? How does the rhetor use it to support the underlying argument? 5. Why: Why is this evidence important/relevant to your analysis/ thesis?

•

22 Chapter 4

Conclusion of analysis •

What is the takeaway from the analysis of the individual aspect of the text?

•

Is the text successful or unsuccessful, moral or immoral, good or bad in the way it makes the argument?

Developing the Body of your Essay Now that you have an outline of your essay, it is time to construct some well-shaped body paragraphs. As you begin this process, it is important to think about how different paragraphs work together in your essay. The body is where you provide support for your topic. There are many different forms the body paragraphs can take; however, these paragraphs should always be logically organized. They should always refer, indirectly or directly, back to your thesis statement. When structuring body paragraphs, it can help to think about how a specific structure will help make a claim stronger. The details you choose to include and exclude for your readers will alter the effect of your argument as will the organization of what is presented. And finally, body paragraphs must in some way, address the claim or thesis statement. Your job is to convince your reader that a given idea or a paragraph is relevant to the claim. This is often best done using sources to develop and support your ideas as well as organizing and developing your body paragraphs so they work together as a whole.

Paragraphs A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic. Learning to write good paragraphs helps writers stay on track during drafting and revision. Good, coherent paragraphing also greatly assists readers in following a piece of writing. Any writer, including you, can have fantastic ideas, but if those ideas are not presented in an organized fashion, they will lose readers’ attention and buy-in to the argument, and thus fail to achieve the goal of writing.

The Basic Rule: Give Each Idea its Own Paragraph The basic rule of thumb for paragraphing is to keep one idea to one paragraph. If you begin to transition into a new idea, it likely belongs in a new paragraph. There are some simple ways to tell if a paragraph is focused on the same topic or a new one. Paragraphs can have one idea and several bits of supporting evidence within a single paragraph. Alternately, one paragraph can also have several points in a single paragraph as long as they relate to the overall topic of the paragraph. If the single points start to get too long, then perhaps elaborating on each of them and placing them in their own paragraphs is the route to go.

Features of a Strong Paragraph To be as effective as possible, a paragraph should contain each of the following: unity, coherence, a topic sentence, and adequate development. Even though they have different names, all of these traits overlap. Using and adapting them to your individual purposes can help you construct effective paragraphs.

Unity Unity is a term that refers to the overall cohesiveness of a piece—of an entire paper, or in this case, of a paragraph. The entire paragraph should concern itself with a single focus. If it begins with one focus or major point of discussion, it should not end with another or wander within the paragraph to different ideas. 23 Organization

C o herence Coherence is the trait that makes the paragraph easily understandable to a reader. You can help create coherence in your paragraphs by creating logical bridges and verbal bridges.

Lo gica l B ridges Logical bridges help to carry over ideas about a topic from sentence to sentence. This can be done in successive sentences that build upon a topic, which logically connects ideas in a parallel form: Examples: Like, Also, Similarly…; Just as, In the same vein…; This idea can also be seen in…; A similar phenomenon is found in…

Ve rba l B ridges Verbal bridges also help to carry over ideas about a topic from sentence to sentence; however, this strategy uses key words repeated in several sentences to make the connection. Synonymous words can be repeated in several sentences, often as transition words to link ideas from different sentences together: Examples: Thus, Therefore, Then; It follows that, This indicates that, This implies that; From this we can see that, What this means is that…

Topic Sentences A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates generally what idea or concept the paragraph is going to deal with. Not all paragraphs have clear-cut topic sentences, and the topic sentences can occur anywhere in the paragraph (as the first sentence, the last sentence, or somewhere in the middle). However, an easy way to make sure your reader understands the topic of the paragraph is to put your topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraph. Regardless of whether a paragraph includes an explicit topic sentence or not, readers should be able to easily summarize what the paragraph is about. For instance, take a look at this sample topic sentence for a rhetorical analysis paragraph: The first rhetorcal strategy Martin Luther King Jr. uses in his speech is word choice, which he uses to create a sense of common ground with his audience.

Developing Paragraphs The topic (introduced by the topic sentence) should be discussed fully and adequately. Again, this varies from paragraph to paragraph, depending on the author’s purpose. Writers should be wary of paragraphs that only have two or three sentences. It is a pretty good bet the paragraph is not fully developed if it is that short.

24 Chapter 4

Although it is important to note that not all of these strategies will work for every project, below is a list of several methods to make sure your paragraph is well-developed: •

Use examples and illustrations.

•

Cite data (facts, statistics, evidence, details, and others)

•

Examine testimony (what other people say such as quotes and paraphrases)

•

Use an anecdote or story

•

Define terms in the paragraph

•

Compare and contrast

•

Evaluate causes and reasons

•

Examine effects and consequences

•

Analyze the topic

•

Describe the topic

•

Offer a chronology of an event (time segments)

Separating Paragraphs It can be tricky to know when to start a new paragraph. Different situations and audiences can affect how short—or how long—is appropriate for a paragraph. Remember that the most important aspect of paragraphing is to keep one idea to one paragraph. Generally, you should think about starting a new paragraph when: •

You begin a new idea or point. New ideas should always start in new paragraphs. If you have an extended idea that spans multiple paragraphs, each new point within that idea should have its own paragraph.

•

You want to contrast information or ideas. Separate paragraphs can serve to contrast sides in a debate, different points in an argument, or any other difference.

•

Your readers may need a pause. Breaks between paragraphs function as a short “break” for your readers—adding these often makes writing more readable. Paragraph breaks can work well if the paragraph becomes too long or the material is quite complex.

•

You end the introduction or start the conclusion. Introductory and concluding material should always be in a separate paragraph from the body of the paper. Many introductions and conclusions have multiple paragraphs depending on their content, length, and the writer’s purpose.

25 Organization

Transitions and Signposts Two very important elements of paragraphing are signposts and transitions. Signposts are internal aids to assist readers. They usually consist of several sentences or a paragraph outlining what a text has covered and where the article will be going. In a sense, they both rewind and fast forward—reminding readers of what has already happened and forecasting what will be coming soon. Transitions can range from a few words to several sentences. They are parts of the paper that “transition” from one idea to the next. Transitions can be used at the beginning or the end of most paragraphs to help the paragraphs flow from one into the next: In addition to using tone as a way to establish an emotional connection with his audience, Martin Luther King Jr. also uses word choice as a means to garner support for his argument.

Length of Paragraphs Paragraphs are units of thought with one adequately developed idea. Listed here are some rules of thumb to use when paragraphing. As your writing develops, you will be able to break these “rules” to meet your own needs. Until then, these suggestions may be helpful: •

Put only one main idea per paragraph.

•

Be wary of exceptionally short or long paragraphs.

•

Make your paragraphs proportional to your paper. Since paragraphs do less work in short papers, it can be useful to use short paragraphs for short papers and longer paragraphs for longer papers.

•

If you have a few very short paragraphs, think about whether they are really parts of a larger paragraph and can be combined, or whether you can add details to support each point and thus make each into a more fully developed paragraph.

•

You can check on whether your paragraphs are balanced by visually checking to see how it looks on the page.

Writing an Introduction and Conclusion Last but not least, you will want to consider how you will organize the introduction and conclusion of your essay. The introduction and conclusion each serve specific purposes in your essay, so you should think carefully about the information you include and the way you present it. This section provides strategies for developing and organizing your introduction and conclusion.

26 Chapter 4

Introductions Think of your introduction as a first impression to capture a reader’s attention. An introduction helps readers identify and understand the issue(s) that you are writing about, and it gives them a reason to continue reading. While there are many ways to organize an introduction—on some occasions it is useful to dive right into a topic—most of the time however, it makes more sense to ease readers into the topic, providing them some context about your topic and claim. It is important to know your readers and their expectations before organizing an introduction. The introduction serves a specific purpose in a text, so you should think carefully about the information that will be included and the way it is presented. As with all parts of your project, there are many ways to compose an introduction. Although individual instructors may have different guidelines for writing introductions, here are some helpful strategies to help you get started. One way to approach composing an introduction is to think of an upside-down pyramid—moving from broad to narrow. The top part (the broadest part) of the pyramid symbolizes the wide context you want your readers to know about. The tip (the narrowest part) of the pyramid symbolizes the focused section of your text, the thesis statement. This type of introduction not only will help you establish context for your project, but will also provide your readers with a good overview that effectively narrows the scope of your paper. Keep in mind that when you begin to compose your thesis, you are informing your readers of the significance of your claim and why it matters, and equally as important, why they should care.

Conclusions Conclusions, like introductions, are extremely important for your readers. Many readers skim the introduction or conclusion before they decide to read the entire text, so you will want to make sure that your ideas are organized in a way that reminds the reader why the topic you are writing about is important. This can be done in several ways including restating your thesis statement. However, it is not a good idea to simply copy and paste the thesis statement in your final paragraph. Instead, point out any lessons to be learned from the analysis as well as what considerations future readers should think about, ideally by asking them to consider its broader implications. Additionally, you might consider referring to a story or narrative that was used in your introduction as a means to connect back to the importance of the project. Your conclusion should leave readers with a good sense of what you accomplished in your project. While your audience may not agree with your argument, your conclusion should nevertheless convince them that you have responsibly presented important information for them to consider.

27 Organization

Why Study Organization? In this chapter, there are several strategies for thinking about the organization of introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions. Over time you may find them all useful, but it is likely your choices will depend on the situation. Organization comes in many forms and serves many purposes (depending on your writing project’s objectives and goals). You might write a more or less formal reflection essay for your instructor that requires a different type of organization and structure than another type of writing project—a narrative or formal textual analysis perhaps. Whether informal or formal, it is important to reflect upon the organization and structure of your writing. Smart organizational choices can support and develop a claim. Organization is a matter of thinking about how all the parts of a project fit together and speak to one another and most importantly, that your audience is able to understand what you are writing about.

28 Chapter 4

Chapter

5 Grammar and Punctuation Grammar “Rules”

Two Types of Rules English grammar can be puzzling and frustrating even for experienced writers. Many writers can become so overwhelmed by different grammar “rules” that they lose sight of the central goal of punctuation and grammar: to make writing clearer and more readable. Linguists (scientists who study language) generally divide grammar rules into two distinct types: •

Descriptive Rules: Rules that describe the way a language operates

•

Prescriptive Rules: Rules that are created by individuals or groups

Descriptive Rules Descriptive rules are learned naturally from early childhood as we begin to speak our primary language. Children acquire descriptive rules naturally just from listening. Most native speakers of a language almost never break descriptive rules because they are required for your language to “make sense.” For instance, a descriptive rule in English is that we place the subject of a sentence before the verb and the object of the sentence after the verb. This descriptive rule allows us to know the difference between “The man bit the dog.” and “The dog bit the man.”

29

Prescriptive Rules Prescriptive rules are those developed by “experts” or rules of convention agreed upon by users of a language. While descriptive rules describe how a language works, prescriptive rules tell us how a language should work. Much like dress codes or “rules” for appropriate professional behavior, prescriptive rules can be broken, but choosing to break them often has consequences. In some cases, breaking these rules makes your writing less clear. In other cases, it causes you to lose credibility with your audience. Many writers will knowingly break prescriptive rules on purpose in order to create a certain tone or style in their writing. Much like styles of dress, some prescriptive rules change or fade with time. While many experts in the first half of the 20th century demanded that writers “Never end a sentence with a preposition!”, ending sentences with prepositions is now commonly accepted even in formal writing. Unlike descriptive rules, prescriptive rules are not “naturally acquired” even by native speakers. Therefore, they must be learned one at a time and with effort and attention. However, knowing these prescriptive rules can make your writing much clearer and much more impressive to a discerning audience. However, it is up to each writer to decide which prescriptive rules to follow and when to follow them. Since most native speakers naturally follow the descriptive rules of a language, this chapter will explore the most common prescriptive rules and how to follow them effectively in writing.

Sentence Structure Simple Sentences Most prescriptive writing rules focus on punctuating sentences and parts of sentences. Therefore, it is vital that you know how to identify simple sentences and how to effectively combine various pieces of sentences correctly. A basic English sentence has two parts, a subject and a verb. Subject

Verb

Students

study.

Many verbs also accept an object, the noun that is acted upon. Subject

Verb

Object

Students

study

writing.

Most English sentences also contain various types of modifiers.

30 Chapter 5

Modifier

Modifier

Subject

Modifier

Verb

Modifier

Object

Modifier

Fortunately,

many

students

diligently

study

academic

writing

in college.

Modifiers tell us more about the other parts of the sentence and answer questions like when, how, and which one. There are many basic types of modifiers including adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases. Even simple sentences can contain an infinite number of modifiers, still be grammatically correct, and a single sentence.

Complex Sentences Complex sentences are sentences that contain more than one of the three basic sentence elements (subject, verb, or object): •

Complex sentence with two subjects: •

•

Complex sentence with two verbs: •

•

Students and professionals need practice with grammar. Students often learn and apply concepts from class.

Complex sentence with two objects: •

Students need to review the textbook and their notes from class.

Notice that none of these sentences contain commas. When there are only two items of any type in a complex sentence, you do not need a comma to separate them. For instance, the following sentence is extremely long and complex, but it is one grammatical sentence without any lists of three or more, so it uses no commas at all: The student in the back and the student in the front earned As on the test and the essay from the first unit and earned Bs on the essay and the test from the second unit.

Using Commas in Simple and Complex Sentences Although many simple and complex sentences do not require any commas, there are several specific places where a comma is expected even in these types of sentences.

Sentence Modifiers When there are modifiers that come before the subject of the sentence they often modify the entire sentence. When a modifier tells us about the entire sentence, we call it a sentence modifier or a sentence adverb. When a sentence is preceded by a sentence modifier or a sentence adverb, you should put a comma after the introductory phrase: •

Sentence modifiers: •

In my first year writing class, we studied how to use commas.

•

Fortunately, I remembered those rules when I started my new job.

31 Grammar and Punctuation

Both of these modifiers tell us more information about the entire sentence rather than just about one part of it. In some cases, the modifiers at the beginning may only be modifying the first noun (the subject) of the sentence. In this case you do not need a comma after them: •

Subject modifiers: •

Extremely tall students should sit in the back of the class.

Notice that this modifier only tells us about the student and not the entire sentence, so there is no comma following it.

Lists Any time you have a list of three or more, you should punctuate the list with commas. In modern writing, many people leave out the final comma in the list (also called the Oxford comma). However, the Oxford comma can play a useful role in making sentences clearer, so we recommend including it: •

Three or more subjects: •

•

Three or more verbs: •

•

Students can relax by exercising, reading, or napping.

Three or more objects: •

•

Students, academics, and professionals all must write clearly.

Students often go to the gym, the cafeteria, and the library.

Three or more modifiers: •

Students should write clearly, carefully, and persuasively.

Appositive Phrases Many times, writers will want to “rename” a particular noun in the sentence by including another noun after it. When we use this form, the second noun is called an appositive. When you include an appositive in a sentence, you should separate the appositive from the rest of the sentence with commas. Note that there is a comma both before and after the appositive phrase. Noun Phrase

Appositive

Verb Phrase

Amar,

a new college student,

attended the new freshmen orientation.

Connecting Thoughts, Combining Sentences Many times, the idea you want to express requires you to draw connections between two separate sentences or to combine two sentences together. There are many ways to do this, and punctuating each form correctly can be complicated. However, the following passages will show you the most common ways of making these connections and how to punctuate each of them. 32 Chapter 5

Semicolons The simplest way to connect two sentences is simply to replace a period with a semicolon. Using a semicolon tells your reader that two sentences are logically connected. You can replace a period with a semicolon in almost any situation. Many beginning writers tend to overuse semicolons, but experienced writers use them only very rarely (perhaps once in a five or six page text). Semicolons indicate that two ideas are very connected. Often, it suggests that an idea in the first sentence is defined or explained in the second sentence: The student came up with an ingenious plan; he would take classes two days a week and study on the other days.

Independent Markers The English language has a wide array of words and phrases which can connect two sentences logically. Many of them can simply be added to the beginning of a sentence to help explain the logical connection to the reader. These types of words and phrases have many different names such as sentence adverbs, connecting words, and transitions. However, the defining feature of independent markers is that they keep the second sentence grammatically independent from the first sentence. When you use them, you have two sentences not one. Whenever you use an independent marker, you should follow it with a comma: •

Esmerelda really enjoys her Biology class. However, she hates Algebra.

•

Yuki showed up on time for her test. Unfortunately, she forgot her pen.

•

Sara wants to go to bed. On the other hand, she has a lot of homework.

Coordinators There are a special set of seven words in English called coordinators. In spoken language (following descriptive rules), these seven words are used exactly like most independent markers. However, there are prescriptive rules which ask us to punctuate them differently. While many writers chose to break these prescriptive rules in informal writing, it is important for you to know and memorize the seven English coordinators so that you can follow the rule in formal writing. Because the list is “artificial” the only way to master this rule is to memorize the list. Fortunately, the list forms a handy acronym, “FANBOYS.”

English Coordinators F:

For

A:

And

N:

Nor

B:

But

O:

Or

Y:

Yet

S:

So

While other connecting words can create two separate sentences, coordinators always create one compound sentence.

33 Grammar and Punctuation

•

John loves cake, but he hates ice cream.

•

John wants to swim, so he brought his bathing suit.

•

Sara has to go to work, and she has a lot of homework.

In formal writing, you are breaking this prescriptive rule when you begin a sentence with a coordinator: •

INCORRECT: John likes to swim. And, he likes to bike.

•

CORRECT: John likes to swim, and he likes to bike.

While beginning a sentence with a coordinator is officially incorrect according to prescriptive rules, this rule is broken fairly often. Some writers choose to break this rule for effect, emphasis, or to create a particular style (primarily in informal or semi-formal contexts). However, in high-stakes or formal situations, people may notice if you break this rule, and they may consider that when making decisions about you and about your text.

Dependent Markers The previous two forms (Independent Markers and Coordinators) work basically identically in spoken language even though we punctuate them differently in writing. Both Independent Markers and Coordinators appear between the two sentences/ clauses you are trying to connect. The only difference is the way we punctuate the two forms. Sentence One

Independent Marker

Sentence Two

John likes to swim.

However,

He forgot his swim suit.

Clause One

Coordinator

Clause Two

John likes to swim,

but

he forgot his swim suit.

English has another type of connecting word which can be used quite differently. Dependent Markers create one part of a sentence (a dependent clause) which is dependent upon the other part (an independent clause). Because of this unique dependent relationship, dependent markers can appear between the two clauses or at the beginning of the sentence: •

Dependent Marker between the two clauses: •

•

Dependent Marker before the two clauses: •

34 Chapter 5

Steve studies hard because he wants to attend graduate school. Because he wants to attend graduate school, Steve studies hard.

Notice that the punctuation in these two sentences is different. When a dependent marker word appears between the two clauses, no comma is needed. The word itself is enough to separate the two clauses. However, when you move the dependent clause to the beginning of the sentence, there is nothing to tell the reader where one clause ends and the other begins. Therefore, we add a comma between the two clauses to make this clearer for the reader. Dependent Marker

Clause One

Comma

Clause Two

Because

Tyrone wants to pass

,

he joined a study group.

Even though

Sally wants to sleep

,

she has lots of homework.

When

students attend class

,

they earn better grades.

Breaking some punctuation rules can be effective in helping you accomplish rhetorical purposes. However, breaking other rules may cause confusion or make your writing more difficult to read. Placing commas between an independent and dependent clause is one of those rules. Leaving out the comma in this case makes the sentence much more difficult to follow for your reader. Including the comma identifies where each clause ends and begins. Omitting this comma can cause a reader to stumble over your language or force them to re-read the sentence in order to understand it and lose the train of your ideas.

Keeping It All Straight Because there are so many different words that can connect sentences in English, it can be difficult to know which type is which. However, there are two simple tricks you can use to help you identify which type of connecting word you have.

1. Apply the “Flip” Test In order to determine if you have a dependent marker word, see if the word (and the clause it is attached to) can move to a new position in the sentence: •

•

Dependent Markers CAN flip to new positions. •

Because I was bored, I joined a club on campus.

•

I joined a club on campus because I was bored.

Independent Markers and Coordinators CANNOT flip to new positions. •

I was bored, so I joined a club on campus.

•

So, I joined a club on campus. I was bored. (ILLOGICAL)

Notice that the final sentence does not make logical sense. Therefore, you know that “So” cannot be a Dependent Marker. This means that “So” must either be a Coordinator or an Independent Marker.

35 Grammar and Punctuation

2. Memorize the Seven Coordinators While there are many, many, Independent Markers, there are only seven English Coordinators. Therefore, it is much more efficient to memorize the seven coordinators than to try and memorize every independent marker. The handy acronym FANBOYS can help you memorize them. If we return to the list above, we can see that “so” is included in FANBOYS, so it is a coordinator rather than an independent maker word. Remember that the seven coordinators are punctuated differently; they create a compound sentence with a comma before the coordinator.

Sentence Fragments A sentence fragment is a part of a sentence that is grammatically or logically incomplete. Though some writers will include an occasional sentence fragment for rhetorical effect, they are technically incorrect according to prescriptive rules. Using too many sentence fragments in a text can cause you to lose credibility with the reader and distract or confuse your reader. There are several common ways to end up with a sentence fragment: •

A Noun Phrase Fragment with no Verb Phrase: •

John the barber with the missing eye.

Notice that this sentence has no verb. John does not do anything •

A Verb Phrase Fragment with no Noun Phrase: •

Ran to the beach and played volleyball.

This sentence is incomplete because there is no subject. We do not know who did this action. •

A Relative Clause Fragment •

Who likes to go skiing on the weekends. •

Bob needs a friend who likes to go skiing on the weekends.

This relative clause must be part of another sentence to be grammatically complete. •

Dependent Clause Fragments •

Because he didn’t want to get a sunburn. •

Abed stayed home because he didn’t want to get a sunburn.

•

Because he didn’t want to get a sunburn, Abed stayed home.

This dependent clause cannot stand alone. It requires an independent clause to complete it. 36 Chapter 5

•

An (-ING) Fragment •

Supporting her argument. •

Maria is supporting her argument with evidence.

•

Supporting her argument is one of Maria’s strengths as a writer.

•

Maria described the steps of her plan, supporting her argument.

•

Supporting her argument, Maria described the effects of the plan.

Verbs ending in –ing can perform a variety of functions in a sentence. However, they cannot stand alone as a single sentence. They must be completed by adding more to them.

Common Proofreading Errors It is easy to break both prescriptive and even descriptive rules in writing if you do not carefully proofread your work. Good writers always save time for a final read through of a document just to look for technical errors they may have missed. Below are some of the most common errors to look out for.

Spelling and Wrong Words Though spelling errors are common and easy to make, they are also the easiest mistakes for your reader to notice and in some cases can be very distracting and confusing. It is vital that you check any text for correct spelling. Many students incorrectly believe that “spell-checker” software like the kind included in Microsoft Word makes checking for spelling unnecessary. However, these programs have two major drawbacks. First, they only identify spellings that do not form any correct word. They do not tell you if you have spelled the right word. For instance, if you meant alter (to change) but you wrote altar (a holy platform or place), spell-checker will not tell you that this is wrong. Similarly, spell-checking programs will often auto-correct your writing to a form you did not intend. For instance, many writers try to spell definitely (certainly) as definatly. Rather than change this to the intended word, spell-checker in Microsoft Word will auto-correct this to defiantly (in a defiant manner). However, most writers would only notice this mistake if they carefully proofread their own work.

Unnecessary or Missing Capitalization In most formal writing, only the first letter in every sentence and the first letter of proper nouns should be capitalized. Proper nouns are the official titles for nouns such as people, groups of people, places, and things. Remember to capitalize the first letter of all words in a title (Rocky Mountain National Park) and not just the first letter of the first word (Rocky mountain national park).

37 Grammar and Punctuation

Unnecessary Change in Tense This author tries to be persuasive, but he failed. Notice that the sentence begins in present tense, but shifts to past tense at the end. However, the actual time period has not changed. Always stay in the same tense unless you have a reason to shift.

Misuse of Pronouns Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns like he, she, it, they, this, or that. Pronouns always have a specific noun that they refer to, called an antecedent. Antecedent

Pronoun

Arjun chose to write his essay early.

He earned a good grade.

Pronouns can make writing simpler, more concise, and less repetitious when they are used well. However, when they are not used carefully and correctly, pronouns can lead to confusion. Pronouns must always match their antecedent in number and in gender. Male nouns require male pronouns. Plursal nouns require plural pronouns. When a pronoun and its antecedent appear far apart in a paragraph, it is easy to forget the gender or number of the original noun. For instance, look at the sentence below: Good students always prepare for class by bringing any necessary materials and reviewing the syllabus, course readings, and course assignments carefully before class begins. This ensures that he is ready for any in-class activities. Notice that while the sentence above begins with a plural noun (students), the pronoun is a singular male pronoun (he). The greater the distance between the pronoun and antecedent, the more likely you are to forget your original noun. In these cases, careful proofreading is vital to catching these mistakes. In addition to issues of accuracy and correctness, careless pronoun use can also lead to vagueness and confusion in your writing. Pronouns are often used to refer to abstract concepts like theories, previous actions, arguments, assumptions, etc. Sometimes, sentences and paragraphs contain several different abstract concepts, and it becomes unclear which of them the pronoun refers to. For instance, look at the sentence in the example below: Experts in psychology and education have conducted numerous studies on the effects of individual learning styles on the quality of student learning have found that students learn more effectively when instructors tailor their lesson plans to the needs of their students. This suggests instructors should consider that when doing it.

38 Chapter 5

Notice that the pronouns in the final sentence could refer to several of the different concepts listed above. This final sentence would be much clearer and easier to interpret if these pronouns were replaced or improved by adding nouns: This research suggests instructors should consider the learning styles of their students when creating lesson plans.

Passive and Active Voice While many of the concepts covered so far are ways to help you follow prescriptive rules, studying grammar can do more than help you be “correct.” Knowing more about grammar can also help you communicate more effectively and persuasively. One useful grammatical tool is “voice.” In English, there are two grammatical “voices” called active voice and passive voice. There are two ways in which active and passive voice differ from each other—in meaning and grammar.

Meaning •

In an active sentence, the “actor” is also the subject of the sentence.

•

In a passive sentence, the “actor” is NOT the subject of the sentence.

Grammar •

In an active sentence you use the base verb.

•

In a passive sentence you add a “be” verb and change the verb ending.

Active Sentence Subject The student

Object analyzed

ACTOR

the article.

ACTED ON

Passive Sentence Subject The article

ACTED ON

Object was analyzed

(by the student).

ACTOR

39 Grammar and Punctuation

Do not forget that the “by” phrase is OPTIONAL in passive sentences. Both of these sentences are grammatically correct and passive: •

The article was analyzed.

•

The article was analyzed by the student.

Often, the easiest way to identify a passive sentence is with the question “by whom?” If you can ask this question, it is probably a passive sentence: •

The man was analyzed.

•

The man was analyzed by whom?

Using Voice Strategically You can use voice in your writing to achieve several different goals: •

Manage your end weight/front weight.

•

Change the emphasis of the sentence. (Identify what is important.)

•

Give the impression that you are objective/scientific/non-biased.

Manage Your End Weight/Front Weight In English, it is most common to put longer phrases at the END of a sentence. This is called “End Weight.” This also helps make sentences easier to read. Sometimes the long phrase at the beginning can take a long time to read. By the time they finish the phrase, some readers will have forgotten the purpose of the sentence. Take a look at these two sentences: •

Papers with frequent comma errors, excessively complex vocabulary, and which do not use effective transitions and topic sentences can confuse readers.

•

Readers can be confused by papers with frequent comma errors, excessively complex vocabulary, and which do not use effective transitions and topic sentences.

Notice how the first sentence is fairly difficult to process, but the second sentence is easier to understand. This is because the opening phrase on the second sentence is short “Readers can be confused” but the opening phrase in the first sentence is much longer.

40 Chapter 5

Change the Emphasis of the Sentence (Tell the Reader what is Important) In the modern American academic writing style, it is typical to put the most important information first: first in the essay, first in the paragraph, and first in the sentence. Take a look at the two sentences below. Notice how the first sentence indicates the topic of the paragraph will be Native American water rights, while the second sentence misleads the reader into thinking the topic may be the U.S. states: •

Native American groups are being asked to settle long-standing disputes over water rights by many U.S. states facing water shortages.

•

Many U.S. states facing water shortages are asking Native American groups to settle long-standing disputes over water rights.

In the long run, the states may not even be a necessary part of the paragraph. In that case, you could revise further by cutting the “by whom” from the sentence: Native American groups are being asked to settle long standing disputes over water rights.

Give the Impression that You are Objective/ Scientific/Unbiased Numerous studies have shown that passive voice is far more common in academic and scientific writing than it is in fiction, news writing, or spoken language. This is because using passive voice is a good way to remove people as actors from the sentence. In science, people are often a source of error. Take a look at these sentences: •

The lab assistant removed four milliliters from the original sample and analyzed them.

•

Four milliliters were removed from the sample and analyzed.

In the first sentence, the actor (lab assistant) is given. Mentioning the lab assistant reminds the reader that the lab assistant (an error prone human) may have made a mistake in measuring or analyzing the sample. Also, it is not IMPORTANT who did the analyzing. Why waste valuable page space telling your reader something that is not important? Sometimes it is not error that we want to avoid, but the possibility that someone is being unfair or biased. For instance, look at the sentences below: •

Our purchase manager estimated that the materials are worth around $1700.

•

The materials are estimated to be worth around $1700.

41 Grammar and Punctuation

Mentioning directly that the purchase manager made the estimate may make your reader suspicious or make them worry about being cheated. However, phrasing this in passive voice creates a sense that the number is more objective and not biased.

Why Study Grammar? Knowing and following the prescriptive rules described in this chapter can impact the audience’s opinion of you. However, understanding English grammar is not only about mastering prescriptive “rules.” The ability to follow prescriptive rules pales in comparison to the advantages you acquire as a writer by gaining an ability to craft complex sentences and edit your own sentences to make them more clearly express your own ideas.

42 Chapter 5

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Chapter

6

Sources Incorporating Sources into Academic Essays Writers do not write in a vacuum—all opinions and ideas on any subject are part of a long conversation between scholars, religious and political leaders, media, the public, and other stakeholders. As such, when we write academic essays, we are often writing in response to opinions held by others. This means we might reference through summary, paraphrase, or quotes, the words and ideas of others in order to support our own claims. Because of this, academic writers often incorporate outside material into their own projects and always give credit to, or what we will call provide attribution to, their original author/s. You might use outside sources to: •

Support your claims

•

Provide necessary background for your ideas

•

Give examples of several points of view

•

Call attention to a position you wish to agree or disagree with

•

Expand the scope or complexity of your own ideas

In this chapter, we will explore the three primary ways academic writers incorporate outside sources into their writing—summary, paraphrasing, and quoting—as well as the technical punctuation and formatting rules involved in properly inserting these sources into their work.

43

Strategies for Including Source Materials There are three primary ways that writers incorporate outside source material into their own work: summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. As you are reading outside sources and determining how you might include them into your own texts, you might follow these steps: •

Read the entire text and identify key points and major ideas.

•

Summarize the single major idea or argument of the essay.

•

Paraphrase supporting points.

•

Consider words, phrases, or brief passages that should be quoted directly.

Summary A summary involves taking the essence of a piece of writing and putting the major ideas into your own words. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original material and take a broad overview of that material rather than focusing on details and illustrative examples. Your objective is to condense without leaving anything out essential to the original. In a summary, you will leave out your opinion on the material unless specifically required by your instructor. (For more detailed directions on writing a summary, please see the summary portion of Chapter Two: Types of Writing.)

Paraphrase A paraphrase is different than a summary in that it takes a small portion of an original text and rephrases it in your own words. It is important to make sure to first alter the words and phrasing of the original material and then double-check your sentences to make sure the meaning of your paraphrase is the same as the original passage. Paraphrases are usually shorter than the original passage and always require attribution back to the original source: •

Example of a paraphrase with an in-text citation (attribution): •

Students who consistently do their homework and attend classes are far more likely to meet their academic goals (Montoya 223).

Quotes Academic writers use quotations sparingly as a way to highlight particularly important phrases, sentences, or passages in an outside source. You may also use quotations as a way to detach yourself from the opinion of an outside source. This cues readers that the words and ideas you are referencing are not your own. Quotations must match the original source word for word, and they also require attribution back to the original source. A lack of attribution, even when it is accidental, can mean your reader may see your work as academically dishonest: 44 Chapter 6

•

Example of a quote with an in-text citation (attribution) •

Johnson and Ross contend that “rather than being frustrated with, or ignoring, the ubiquitous presence of cell phones, instructors can use mobile technologies to immediately respond to classroom questions or investigate ideas” (12).

Ratio of Your Words to Their Words A good rule of thumb for integrating quotes into your writing is to spend about twice as much page space introducing and reflecting on the quote as you use for the quote itself. As academic writers we want to make sure we prioritize our voices and ideas in order to keep our argument/claims central to the text we are writing. It is important that we do not just “laundry list” a bunch of quotes as evidence and lose the focus on our own ideas in the process. To avoid this, we use what some instructors call the “sandwich rule,” because your words and ideas both amply preface, or contextualize, and follow the quote. Here is an example that incorporates the quote from Johnson and Ross on the previous page:

Attributive Tag

Several professors have investigated the way mobile technology can be used in classroom spaces. For example, Johnson and Ross contend that “rather than being frustrated with, or ignoring, the ubiquitous presence of cell phones, instructors can use mobile technologies to immediately respond to classroom questions or investigate ideas” (12). Anecdotes like this demonstrate that mobile technology might not be the enemy to learning that some educators have claimed. In fact, mobile technologies might be a way to extend learning by using skills the students already have entering into the university as a scaffold into academic writing practice. As the functionality of mobile and other interactive technologies expand, it is important not to become entrenched in old pedagogical frameworks, but to continually adapt and embrace new ways of learning, researching, and writing.

Your Own Words and Ideas

Direct Quote

More of Your Own Words and Ideas

45 Sources

This strategy can be used to develop fully fleshed out paragraphs. The following example shows how a quote from another source is being used as a central piece of evidence to the author’s claim located in the topic sentence:

Example Paragraph for Using a Source to Support your Claims

One way that being personally responsible leads to better performance in college is through being responsible for your attendance. By getting to class on time, you give yourself a chance to prepare your materials and focus your thoughts before the class begins. Missing even one class can put you behind on your work and learning since most college classes only meet two or three days a week. According to Phillip Heasley, a professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, ‘The best students with the best grades in my class always arrive to class a few minute early. They are the students who do all of the assigned reading and homework on time” (17). Professors know which students show up on time and which ones come in late. In addition to these direct benefits, being on time and attending class lets professors know you care about your education and your grades.

Technical Tools for Crediting Sources Each field and profession has specific rules for incorporating outside materials into a text. In the field of English Studies, and several other liberal arts fields, you will be following MLA style requirements. Here we will review some of the technical basics of adhering to MLA professional standards.

Attribution Regardless of the strategy you use to incorporate outside sources, you must make sure you give credit to the original source—even if you are not directly quoting the text. You can do this by using attributive tags, also called signal phrases, within your writing or by including a full in-text citation following the source information. Attributive tags and citation ensure your audience knows which ideas and words are yours and which come from source material. For purposes of MLA formatting, you will most frequently use an author’s name and the page number of the cited material in parenthesis at the end of the sentence.

46 Chapter 6

Example of an In-Text Citation Academic writers report that part of their writing process is making sure their ideas are distinguishable from the ideas of the sources they are referencing (Johnson 35). Unlike other citation models, for MLA in-text citations you do not need punctuation between the author’s last name and the page number. If the source you are using does not have a listed author, you will refer to the first listed content cited in the Works Cited entry in order to determine what information belongs in the in-text citation. Hint: If the source does not have a listed author, the in-text citation will often require the first several words of the source’s title. For more information on formatting a Works Cited page and how works without a specific author or page numbers are properly used in in-text citations, please see the “Appendix” in Praxis. Listed below are a few more rules for formatting appropriate in-text citations for outside sources.

Example of a Quote With an Attributive Tag Selfe suggests, “Young people’s enthusiasm for video and computer gaming has proven an increasingly vigorous arena for public debate” (22).

Example Without an Attributive Tag The literacy debate has not forgotten gaming; in fact, it has been characterized as “an increasingly vigorous arena for public debate” (Selfe 22). Here are a few common options of attributive tags you may use in your writing. Your choice of attribution will depend on your purpose for the quote. Agrees

Claims

Emphasizes

Speculates

Affirms

Comments

Notes

States

Argues

Contends

Proposes

Suggests

Asserts

Disagrees

Predicts

Warns

Believes

Discusses

Says

Writes

47 Sources

Example of an Introductory Phrase and a Comma When leading into quotations with an introductory phrase, use a comma to introduce the quotation. The quotation will begin with a capital letter. Always use an attributive tag to indicate who the quote belongs to: My teacher makes a good point when she says, “Using quotation marks and punctuation correctly is impressive” (Heasley 54).

Example of a Two Complete Sentences and a Colon When leading into quotations with a complete sentence, use a colon to introduce the quotation. The quotation will still begin with a capital letter. Colons can only be used to separate complete sentences: Mary Poppins is an optimist: “Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” (Disney 43).

Example of a Quote Grammatically Integrated into a Sentence If a quotation is integrated into your own sentence structure, do not use introductory punctuation other than the quotation marks. The quote must fit grammatically into the sentence. You cannot change anything in the quote to “fix” the grammar without additional steps: Cell phones in classrooms can often be “visually and audibly distracting for both students and their instructors” (Montarsi 21).

Block Quotes When a direct quotation is more than four complete lines of your text, there are special rules of formatting:

48 Chapter 6

•

Start quote on a new line

•

Drop quotation marks

•

Tab the left side of the entire block of quote an additional ½ inch

•

Continue paragraph without additional indentation.

Example Paragraph with a Block Quote

To set up her argument, Selfe clearly provides readers with the purpose and method of her research. She says, We want to situate some of the issues located at the intersection of literacy studies and computer gaming by focusing on Josh Gardiner, a thirteen-year-old gamer from a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This is the first of a series of case studies of gamers. Listening to what Josh has to say, we believe, can help us understand the personal values that one young person associates with the literacy practices of gaming. These values, I would argue, have to do with the formation of a commitment to personal-selected, cross-cultural literacy communities, the ability to enact personal choice and political agency through and with literacy practices, and the opportunity to shape identitiy within literate envronments. (Selfe 23) Clearly stating this information for the reader indicates that Selfe has nothing to hide and that her methodology is central to her argument.

Additional Information on Punctuation and Formatting Beyond just attributing the quote to its author, there are a few rules for punctuating quotes: •

Place all periods outside of the citation. •

•

If the original quote has an exclamation point or a question mark, put it inside the quotation marks and add another period outside the citation. •

•

Example: According to Adams, “all periods must be placed following the citation” (24).

Example: Nietzsche asks, “Is God Dead?” (25).

If the original quote is not a question, but your sentence is a question, put the question mark outside the parenthesis. •

Example: Do you think John Lennon meant it when he said, “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus” (11)?

49 Sources

The Importance of Properly Using Sources Using sources wisely is an important part of building up your own ethos, or credibility, as a writer. Being sloppy with your citations, improperly attending to MLA conventions, or forgetting to include appropriate attribution can lead a reader to assume that you either do not care about the credibility of your work, or worse, that you are intentionally plagiarizing text from another source.

50 Chapter 6

Chapter

7 The Rhetorical Situation What Is Rhetoric? Rhetoric, as defined by Aristotle, is the act of discovering all “the available means of persuasion” in any given situation (Clark 9). Traditionally, this persuasion comes in the form of appeals to logos, ethos, or pathos (commonly referred to as rhetorical appeals). There are many reasons why it is important to become more critically aware of the rhetoric and persuasion being used all around you. While it is not always easy to do this, understanding how and why rhetoric works for an intended audience and a given purpose will help you to better develop as an independent critical thinker and a more responsible user of rhetoric. This particular Aristotelian definition of rhetoric is a pragmatic definition and describes how authors choose strategies in order to convince specific audiences to do or to think something. Rhetoric, however, can also be constitutive, meaning that the symbols we use to communicate ideas are often themselves so embedded with invisible ideologies and beliefs that the author may themselves be unaware of how their choices unconsciously impact their audience. When we study rhetoric, we are trying to make visible the building blocks of any kind of persuasive messaging. We can do this as writers to create the most effective kind of writing for a specific audience, but we can also do this as critical thinkers in order to deeply inquire into the tools another author utilizes to communicate. For example, we might think about how we specifically frame a text message to a new friend inviting them to an event to encourage the best outcome. Or, we might break down a political speech and think about all the ways the author attempts to connect with his/her audience and compel them to get behind a specific policy. You may have heard people use the term “rhetoric” in a contemporary context to mean the practice of using language to manipulate. For example, you may hear someone say about a political speech, “Well, that was just a bunch of empty rhetoric.” The study of rhetoric, however, has a long and sophisticated tradition emphasizing 51

all the ways meaning is made between a writer (also known as a rhetor or speaker depending on the purpose and delivery of a text) and his/her audience. In this and following chapters, we will discuss how rhetoric helps a writer thoughtfully use symbols, both verbal and nonverbal, to effectively communicate messages to specific audiences as well as discuss concepts integral to rhetoric as a discipline. These include defining the Rhetorical Triangle (author, audience, text/purpose) as part of the larger Rhetorical Situation, which also includes context, kairos, exigence, and textual constraints. It is important to remember that the study and field of Rhetoric and Writing (also called Rhetoric and Composition) is complex and contested. Many experts of Rhetoric spend their professional lives dedicated to defining and unpacking rhetorical appeals and strategies as well as analyzing how these are employed in various texts and contexts. For more information on the various definitions of rhetoric and its history, see The Academic Writer. This text focuses on basic rhetorical principles that will help you become a stronger writer and critical thinker. You will have the opportunity to further explore the study of rhetoric in all of its complexities in higher division courses.

The Rhetorical Triangle As academic writers, we are interested in developing practices of effective communication and honing the skills to analyze communication for its impact on specific audiences. To do so, it is important to develop a working vocabulary for the components that make up communication. Every piece of communication has a text motivated by a specific purpose (the product of the communication) an author (the individual or group who has created the text) and an audience (the people who consume that text). Rhetoricians, people who study rhetoric, call these elements of communication The Rhetorical Triangle. This Rhetorical Triangle is the basic foundation to The Rhetorical Situation, or all the components that make up persuasive communication. When analyzing a text, it is important to remember its author and its audience—to note that these pieces are never totally isolated from each other. All components work together to create a message. Author

Audience

Purpose/ text

The rhetorical triangle.

Text A text is the product of any communication between two or more people and always has a purpose. When instructors use the term “text” in an academic context, we often mean the kinds of editorials or opinion pieces you read in your writing classes, the articles produced in professional peer-reviewed journals you read in 52 Chapter 7

other humanities courses, or even the textbooks you read in your science and mathematics courses. However, the term “text” is not limited to these kinds of products. A text might be the tweet you wrote last night about your favorite television show. A text might be your favorite song. A text might be the emoji you sent in an instant message to your friend. A text might be the movie you watched on Netflix instead of starting your homework. All of these texts can be analyzed as pieces of communication by asking the following questions: •

What is this text’s purpose? In other words, why was it created?

•

How does the text fulfill this purpose?

•

What motivated the text’s production?

•

What are the expectations surrounding this type of text?

•

Are those expectations met? Not met?

Purpose When we communicate with others (through texts), our communication usually serves a purpose or multiple purposes. For example, if you post a particularly flattering photo of yourself at a concert event on a social media site, perhaps you are trying to communicate what you are doing to distant friends and family. You may also be looking forward to complimentary comments from your friends, some of whom might even be with you at the concert. Or, you might be preserving memories for future retrieval. In this course, we are primarily interested in texts that intend to persuade others. A text may be trying to persuade others to agree with a specific claim. It might be trying to persuade others to act in a specific way. It may simply be trying to persuade someone that a certain idea or issue is important and worth discussing. As demonstrated anecdotally above, some texts may serve more than one purpose at a time. An article proposing a specific solution to climate change may attempt to persuade the audience of many arguments at once: •

that climate change is real

•

that it is an important danger to society

•

that it is solvable

•

that a particular solution is the best solution

•

and that the audience should take action by choosing this solution and carrying it out

53 The Rhetorical Situation

While not every text is clearly intended to be persuasive, many are. Most persuasive texts make arguments and scholars have divided these arguments into several types called stases. According to stasis theory, arguments can be divided into four main types: •

arguments of fact

•

arguments of definition

•

arguments of evaluation

•

and arguments of proposal

Audience The audience of the text is any individual or group of people who consume a text. In college classes, you will read many textbooks, watch many documentaries (and other types of film), and listen to many lectures. When you are consuming these texts, you are the audience of these texts. Many of the texts you read and view in the college classroom have been geared toward you as a student audience. Sometimes, however, you will read texts that were not intended for a contemporary academic audience. The effectiveness of any text meeting its purpose is informed by how the audience experiences it. We can analyze a text for its effectiveness in meeting its purpose for a specific audience by asking the following questions: •

Who are/were the intended readers for this text?

•

What did those readers know about the subject?

•

What did the readers think about the subject?

•

What assumptions did the author make about the readers’ knowledge and/or beliefs?

•

What differences are there between the intended audience/s and the actual audience/s of the text?

As an academic writer, you will also consider these questions as you orient your message to specific readers. You are often writing for your instructor, but you should also keep in mind that for most academic essays, you will also consider a greater academic audience. How might you write your essay if you were writing it to share with your classmates? How might you write it if you were writing it for a classmate who may not be familiar with the terms or content of your project? It can be helpful to closely review your assignment sheet for clues about the intended audience for your work. If you remain in doubt, you can always ask your instructor.

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Author The author of a text is any individual or group of people who create or initiate a text; the terms rhetor and writer are equally common. It is important to understand who is making what argument. The authors of most texts we experience in a college classroom are written by people who are experts in the subjects and fields we are studying; however, it can be easy to mistake an unreliable article for a credible academic piece by not examining the author of a text. For example, a student might accidently misunderstand a humorous text like an article from the satirical website The Onion as a serious source if s/he did not examine the authorial information. In a culture of information overload, readers cannot afford to trust an author on instinct alone, but instead should probe texts for biases, special interests, conflicts of interest, and other authorial information to determine a text’s reliability. We can analyze a text for how effectively the author persuades the reader that s/he reliably meets the purpose of the text by asking: •

How does the author establish they are an authority or have a stake in the text?

•

Who published the text? What kinds of texts does this publishing source usually publish?

•

How does the author work toward establishing a good relationship with her/his audience?

•

What genre conventions does the writer follow to establish their expertise within that genre or field?

Similarly, when you are the author of a text, you should consider how you present yourself to your audience. If you are writing for an academic audience, it is important to follow any necessary genre conventions for your particular field. For example, if you are writing a paper in MLA formatting, a requirement for many writing, literature, art history, and philosophy courses, you want to make sure all your formatting and citation choices are consistent with MLA requirements. For more on MLA requirements, see the Appendix in The Academic Writer or visit The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue: http://owl.purdue.english.edu. It is also important that you establish yourself as a credible writer. You do this by carefully attending to assignment requirements and referencing any specific class content/vocabulary you have covered during the course. It is good academic practice to reference the language you use in your course/field to demonstrate your facility with the body of knowledge for that discourse community. Another way you establish yourself as a credible writer is to thoughtfully revise and proofread every assignment. For more on authorial credibility and its importance to rhetorical composition and analysis, see the chapter on Ethos.

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The Rhetorical Situation Analyzing the Rhetorical Triangle of a text can both help readers critically examine a piece of communication for its effectiveness as well as assist an author in making thoughtful choices in creating a text. Simply unpacking how the elements of author, audience, and text work together to create a message is just the beginning to rhetorical analysis. The effectiveness of a text is also informed by the author’s employment of the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) and rhetorical strategies, both of which will be covered in future chapters.

Context—Considering Background and Timing No text exists outside of the time and cultural context when it was created and consumed. Context can be a tricky term to unpack, but generally it means that a responsible reader should understand as much of the conversation around the issue being discussed as possible. We have all been in conversations where a participant begins adding nonsense to a conversation on a topic they know nothing about. This kind of conversation is both unproductive and awkward for everyone involved. Do not be the person to make an academic conversation awkward by being unaware of or insensitive to the context. To understand the conversation around an issue we might take into account its historical background, any social and political influences that might have shaped the author or the audience’s perspective, or any other cultural ideologies that would have influenced the production and reception of the text. We can analyze a text for how the text might have been shaped by its context by asking some of the following questions: •

What is/was going on outside of the text that affected it?

•

Where and when was the text written?

•

What historical, social, political, religious, or other forces might have impacted the text?

•

How did those factors affect what the text could (or could not) say—or how it made its argument?

As a writer, you will also consider these questions as you think about persuading a specific audience. What are other people saying about your topic right now? How might your experience, education, political leanings, and research inform your perspectives? Sometimes recognizing the context for our work can be challenging since we are often close to the issue. Because of this, it is important to read material outside the “echo chamber” of your own beliefs and values and do all the necessary research you can reasonably complete within the time constraints of your writing project.

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Kairos and Exigence Kairos is closely related to the background and context of a text, but refers to the way a rhetor takes advantage of a specific moment to speak or write. The Greeks actually made kairos into a god “and sculpted him as an athlete, beautiful in front and bald in the back, to show the persuasive moment is fleeting” (Heinrichs 227). The author makes the important point here that sometimes the window for making an effective argument is limited. An argument can work or fall flat depending on when it is made. For example, if you want to persuade a friend for a favor, you will not want to do this immediately after she has received bad news. We all respond to the timing of opportunities instinctively in our own lives, but we may not be as aware of the importance of the right moment when it comes to academic texts. As we write, we want to think about what is happening in this moment to prompt the conversation. How you frame your argument, which words you use, and which pieces of evidence you provide will be informed by when you do the arguing. Additionally, kairos can be an organizational principle. For example, when is the best place to bring up a contentious point in a persuasive essay? Authors will often save very controversial ideas for late in their texts so as to first establish goodwill and shared values with the audience. This can help get the audience on their side before asking them to buy into a more challenging aspect of the argument. Kairos and exigence, or the urgency of the argument, go hand in hand. When we are reading or composing a text, we should ask why is this matter, opinion, or idea important now? It can be interesting to consider the optimal circumstances for the presentation of an argument. Who would you need to convince? When is the best time to convince them (time of year, time of day, before or after a specific set of circumstances, etc.)? What would be the best possible circumstances for the argument (location, environment, etc.)? Keeping these matters in mind, you might ask why an editorial was written in the moment it was written. Did the writer find a good opening for the conversation? Why was the topic important in that particular cultural moment?

Why Consider The Rhetorical Situation? All of the elements of The Rhetorical Situation need to be unpacked in order to create a foundation for a Rhetorical Analysis, a type of essay we will explore in great detail in the following chapter.

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Chapter

8 Rhetorical Analysis What Is Rhetorical Analysis? Rhetorical analysis is a term used frequently in writing classes (especially this one). To understand it, it is helpful to analyze it—to look at its parts. Rhetorical analysis is a detailed examination of the elements of a text that contribute to/affect its argument. It is used to understand a text and how it works. To do this work successfully, writers generally work through a combination of steps. Because you are continually both a producer and consumer of texts—of arguments—it is important to be able to recognize those arguments and understand how they work. Practicing rhetorical analysis is one way to cultivate a critical awareness of the ways rhetoric is used around you. In this chapter, we will walk through how to write a rhetorical analysis by considering how to prepare for it, what kinds of things you might analyze, how to build that analysis so that it is meaningful and insightful, and so that reading it will help your reader to better understand a text and/or its arguments.

a·nal·y·sis (/ə'naləsəs/) noun •

Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something, typically as a basis for discussion or interpretation.

•

The process of separating something into its constituent elements

Synonyms: examination, scrutiny, investigation, inspection, study

rhe·tor·i·cal (/rə'tôrək(ə)l/) adjective •

Of, relating to, or concerned with the art of rhetoric.

•

(Of a question) asked in order to produce an effect or make a statement rather than to elicit information.

Synonyms: stylistic, oratorical, linguistic, verbal

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Preparing to Write a Rhetorical Analysis A good first step to writing an effective rhetorical analysis is to approach the task intentionally. Writing a rhetorical analysis is different from writing a summary, a response, a research paper, or even a literary analysis (a genre of essay many people write in high school). If, when you begin to write a rhetorical analysis, you do so thinking about the rhetorical purpose and effect of the text, then you will be in the right rhetorical and analytical frame of mind.

Read Take time to note your reaction to the text you are analyzing, but be careful to keep an open mind. Read the piece through, note what you can, but generally just become familiar with the text. (See Chapter 1: Critical Reading Strategies.)

Map Think about and jot down the key aspects of the rhetorical situation. These will help you later and make sure you have a clear sense of the text’s rhetor, audience, text, context, and purpose as you begin to analyze it. (See Chapter 7: The Rhetorical Situation.)

Read Rhetorically Read to discover what the author argues and how they make the argument. Respond to the text as you read—make notes, underline, and write questions for later. Reading rhetorically involves more than “agreeing” or “disagreeing.” Instead, readers must read closely and think critically to understand how an argument is working. You might consider: •

Is s/he using evidence? What kind? (See Chapter 10: Logos)

•

What rhetorical appeals do you notice?

•

How does the author relate to the audience?

•

How does the author make her/ himself credible? (See chapter 9: Ethos)

Identify Rhetorical Devices Rhetorical strategies, sometimes called rhetorical devices, are language-based aspects of a text that affect the text’s argument/purpose. Rhetorical devices are not rhetorical appeals. They are much more specific. Keeping the text’s argument in mind, generate a list of rhetorical devices that do work—that matter—in the text. Some of the elements of the text that you identify will be what you end up analyzing, so it is important to identify devices that actually have an effect. For instance, if the rhetor uses aggressive language, can you articulate what that does to the text/argument? If the rhetor uses a very casual tone (or a very formal one), can you identify how it helps or hurts her/his credibility and relationship with the audience?

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Satire

Using Facts

Comparison

Personal Experience

Emotional Examples

Level of Formality

Tone

Word Choice

Scare Tactics

Including Statistics

Aggressive Language

Use of First-Person Language

Repetition

Exaggeration

Inclusion of Evidence

Listing Credentials

Emotional Language

Writing a Rhetorical Analysis Introduction: What to Include An effective introduction to a rhetorical analysis can look a variety of ways. As always, it is important to make sure you understand the expectations of your audience and provide the information they will be looking for. Whether your introduction is one, or more than one, paragraph, this section of the text introduces the key ideas that will guide your analysis. Additionally, it provides your reader with important contextual insight to understand what follows in your paper. Many effective introductions include an introduction to the text and its rhetorical situation, definitions of key terms, and a strong and arguable thesis statement.

Map of the Rhetorical Situation The rhetorical situation, which was covered in Chapter 7, is a term that refers to key pieces of information about a text. Since writing a rhetorical analysis requires that you write about someone else’s text, starting with the rhetorical situation is a great way to quickly provide your reader with pertinent information about the text you will be analyzing. It is often helpful to imagine that your audience read the text several years ago—so they have a vague awareness of it, but need to be reminded of the important details: •

Rhetor: The creator of the text

•

Audience: The person/group receiving the text, both intentional and unintentional

•

Text: Title, genre, publication information

•

Context: The time, place, and outside forces—social, political, religious, historical, cultural—that affect the text

•

Purpose: The text’s purpose/ primary argument(s)

Relevant Definitions for the Analysis It can be helpful to briefly introduce, and perhaps define, key concepts early in your analysis. Even if you think your reader knows the terms, giving your definition will help to alleviate possible confusion about your ideas and analysis. 61 Rhetorical Analysis

Thesis Statement or Controlling Argument Often, the thesis statement is the last thing in a paper’s introduction; it serves as a kind of transition into the body of the paper. However, “thesis” is one of those catchy words. Everyone knows that an academic paper needs one. But what it is, exactly, and how to write an effective one is not something that is always clear. One important thing to know about a thesis statement is that it is changeable—just like any other part of your project. Often, writers start with a “holder” thesis statement and then come back to revise it after they have made some progress on the project. For a rhetorical analysis: •

A strong thesis: •

Makes an arguable claim about rhetorical strategies in the text

•

Serves as an organizational guide to your essay

Strong Thesis Statements •

Although Myers includes many convincing logical arguments through the use of historical facts, her readers may doubt her objectivity because of her sarcastic tone.

•

Thompson uses personal stories and tells of his extensive research in the area to make his readers believe in his credibility. These appeals to ethos, combined with his friendly tone, creates an effective argument for ______.

•

Roberts employs the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos effectively. However, his use of unsupported logical appeals causes his readers to doubt his claim that _____ is supported by research.

•

Mitchell’s attempt to convince the audience that _____ is unsuccessful because of his insensitive word choice and angry tone.

•

A strong thesis does not: •

Make a general statement about the topic of the text

•

Simply restate the text’s argument

Weak Thesis Statements

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•

Genetic modification of food is a big issue in the United States.

•

The author claims suicide is a problem in the United States.

•

I am going to examine how this author uses pathos, ethos, and logos to convince his audience.

•

The author uses pathos, ethos, and logos to make her argument.

Body The body of your rhetorical analysis will likely be comprised of several paragraphs, each analyzing a different aspect of the text, often a rhetorical strategy or device, which is significant to the text’s argument. Each body paragraph will support your purpose—or tie back to your thesis. The primary goal of a rhetorical analysis is to explain how the rhetor makes an argument—rather than “what” that argument is or “why” the rhetor makes it. Focusing on the “how” of individual rhetorical devices is important to a successful rhetorical analysis. There are several ways to succeed at this task; what follows here is one method.

Make a Claim about a Rhetorical Device The claim is the topic sentence for an analytical body paragraph. It is your statement that a particular language-based aspect is significant. You will stick to one languagebased aspect (rhetorical strategy) for the entire paragraph, so it should be something you can talk about. Claims do not have to look a particular way, but they should clearly lay out the rhetorical device you are focusing on in the paragraph and the effect of that device. Claims should avoid making summative statements, as summative statements tend to lead to summative paragraphs. Opt for words like “uses,” “relies on,” and “incorporates,” instead of words like “says,” “explains,” “tells,” or “argues.” The first set will force you to focus on how the text is working (analysis), whereas the second set will lead you toward discussing what the text is arguing (summary): The rhetor uses (name of the rhetorical device) in the text in order to (effect of device).

Give an Example of the Claim After you claim that a text uses a particular device, you need to give an example so that your reader has a sense of what you have identified in the text. This is usually a quote, or evidence, from the text you are analyzing. If, for instance, your claim says “The rhetor uses an aggressive tone to intimidate the audience,” then your evidence would be a quote from the text that demonstrates the aggressive tone. It is sometimes appropriate to use multiple examples in one paragraph, but remember that yours should be the loudest voice in your paper: One time [name of rhetor] uses [rhetorical device] she says, “a direct quote from the text that demonstrates the device” (MLA citation).

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Break the Example Apart to Examine It Often it is necessary to unpack the evidence for your reader. Be proactive in connecting the claim and the evidence. By doing so, you will decrease the possibility of your reader not understanding your analysis. If the device is word choice, identify which word you are honing in on. If it is repetition, tell how many times it is repeated. If it is graphic language, demonstrate which words are graphic and why you have labeled them as graphic in relation to the text’s intended audience: If you are analyzing repetition, for example, you might say: The repetition of the word “[repeated word]” happens 12 times in one paragraph, which suggests that it was an intentional choice on the part of the rhetor.

Explain How the Rhetorical Device Contributes to the Rhetor’s Argument This step often seems obvious to the writer, because s/he chose to write about it. It is not as clear for the reader. If you have decided that the use of personal examples helps or hurts the argument, the paragraph needs to explain how. Often, keeping the text’s audience in mind is the best way to fully develop this kind of analytical reasoning. The key in this section is how—how the device affects the rhetor’s argument. In this section of the paragraph, you will likely make connections to the rhetorical situation of the text and the text’s purpose. What you say here should not be repetitive of what has been said earlier in the paragraph.

Discuss Why the Rhetorical Device is Important for Your Analysis/ Purpose The “how” and “why” sections of analysis sometimes overlap, and that is okay. The “how” should focus on how the rhetor uses the rhetorical strategy/device in her/his argument. The “why” is about why that rhetorical choice is significant for your argument—for your thesis. Thinking about them separately can force you to be sure you have answered both questions. In the following textbox, the author is rhetorically analyzing an essay by Sojourner Truth.

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Sample Rhetorical Analysis Paragraph

Truth both demonstrates her own power and points out the fallacy of the opposing argument that assumes men’s superiority through incorporating her own experiences with hard, manual labor. She does this at several points throughout the text. In one striking example, Truth tells her audience, “I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no many could head me!” (323). By incorporating her own experiences as a former slave, Truth offers an alternative view of womanhood—one that complicates the picture painted by the man who spoke before her. Truth is responding to the claim that women need to be treated with care, helped out of carriages, and lifted over puddles, all of which point to their inherent weakness. In contrast, Truth seems to tell her audience—I don’t think so! She shares her own experiences with manual labor to clearly declare “I’m a woman, and that’s not my experience.” In fact, she seems to use her experiences to ensure that her audience knows her experience shows strength, not weakness. By contrasting her own experiences which differ from “accepted” views of women as fragile and in need of care, Truth suggests that women aren’t inherently fragile, and certainly that not all women are the same. Her experience not only highlights race inequities, it presents a clear contrast to challenge the idea that there is an “accepted” or “normal” view of women’s experiences. The contrast between a delicate privileged woman who likely does not do work and Truth’s experiences in the field adds undeniable strength to her argument.

In this example, the rhetorical device is “incorporating personal experiences.” Notice that some version of that phrase appears seven times. Similarly, the rhetor’s name (Truth) appears seven times—in almost every sentence. This is appropriate in a rhetorical analysis body paragraph because your purpose is to analyze how Truth uses a specific device within her argument. It makes sense that nearly every sentence mentions the rhetor, the device, or both.

Conclusion This paragraph is your chance to wrap up your analysis and ensure your readers are leaving with the insight you want them to have about the argument you chose to analyze. It should be the final paragraph in your paper, and it may be shorter than other paragraphs.

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Look back to your introductory ideas (and your “holder” thesis) and make sure what you are saying in your conclusion is in line with what you said you would do in the paper. Your conclusion should: •

Avoid introducing new ideas

•

Have minimal repetition

•

Offer your readers a “so what” or “takeaway point” so readers might: •

Think a bit differently about the argument you analyzed

•

Understand the text differently

•

Think differently about the issue the text addresses

Why Study Rhetorical Analysis? Rhetorical analysis is a process that requires careful attention and consistent critical thinking. Practicing rhetorical analysis will help you to develop a rhetorical lens through which to view arguments—in school, in work, in entertainment, and in relationships. You may start to notice both rhetorical devices and the rhetorical appeals—ethos, pathos, and logos—in the everyday. Learning to look for how language is working around you will enable you to recognize, respond to, and craft strong arguments.

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Chapter

9

Ethos What Is Ethos? Ethos is related to the English word ethics, but it is more similar to the word reputation or identity. Ethos is the moral, ethical, or societal position held by the author or by other people, groups, documents, or concepts that the author introduces into an essay. It encompasses how the author wants to be seen by the reader. It also involves using the reputation of others to support an argument or to discredit one’s opponent.

Who Has Ethos? Ethos of the Rhetor One of the most common ways of using ethos in an argument is for the rhetor to manage his or her own ethos. To do this, the author tries to manage the way the audience sees him/her. For instance, the author may list off credentials like awards, titles, or degrees they have earned. The author may claim membership in some group like Americans, Christians, Democrats, or people from a poor family. S/he may try to make her/himself seem more or less sympathetic to a specific cause. The author may try to seem distant and superior to the audience or bring themselves closer to the audience to be “one of the gang.” However, the overall goal when a rhetor constructs his/ her ethos is to affect the reader’s impression of the rhetor. Though we may talk about the ethos of other people or groups, the term ethos is most often used to describe the reputation or identity of the author/rhetor of the text.

Ethos of Others Another tactic authors can use is to rely on the ethos of outside groups or people to support a certain position. For instance, if an author wants to make an argument about physics, it might help to quote Stephen Hawking because he has positive ethos in that field. If an author wants to make an argument about racial justice, perhaps 67

Nelson Mandela would be a good choice. This tactic can also work in reverse. The last resort of a desperate rhetor is always to compare their opponent to Nazis in hopes of smearing them with the negative ethos of Hitler and the Nazi party.

Ethos of the Audience Another common tactic is to try to make the audience consider their own ethos. For instance, the author might say something like “all good citizens know that taxes should be higher.” The implication is that if you agree with the author, you will be a good citizen. Conversely, the author may try to make the audience feel that by disagreeing with the argument, they are members of an unpopular group or have poor qualities like greediness or laziness, or they may describe a certain action or position as un-Christian or un-American. The key feature here is that the author is trying to manipulate the way the audience sees themselves.

Ethos of Texts and Institutions While ethos is commonly applied to people, the concept can also be applied to certain texts and institutions. For instance, holy texts like the Bible, Torah, or Quran have strong ethos with particular religions. Other texts like the Analects of Confucius or the Declaration of Independence are the foundational documents for governments and cultures and have a special ethos among their citizens. In academic and professional circles, certain books or journals may have a reputation for reliability and a sense of authority among members of that field. Similarly, institutions like non-profit organizations, governments, corporations, organized religions, or news organizations may have a reputation a positive ethos of trustworthiness, accuracy, or a certain ethical stance. On the other hand, some audiences may see these texts and institutions as biased and unreliable and thus their negative ethos becomes a problem which the rhetor must overcome.

Inherent vs. Invented Ethos In some cases, an individual or group may have a reputation with the audience before the audience begins the text. For instance, most people already have a negative opinion of Adolph Hitler and view him as immoral and racist; most people have a generally positive opinion of Mahatma Gandhi and know him as a tolerant person in favor of peace and equality. Similarly, a rhetor may be already well known to the audience. When Ban Ki Moon (the Secretary General of the United Nations) gives a speech, most audience members will grant him a certain amount of positive ethos simply due to his title; they might assume he has authority to speak on issues of global politics and that he is intelligent and well-intentioned. These people have inherent ethos, ethos present in the minds of the audience before the argument begins. This is also sometimes called the situated ethos or the intrinsic ethos of the rhetor. On the other hand, many rhetors (or other groups and individuals they discuss in the text) are completely unknown to their audience at first. In this case, the rhetors must take steps through their writing to create ethos. They may try to subtly convince the audience that they are trustworthy, moral, and have the authority to speak on this issue. This is called invented or created ethos. 68 Chapter 9

Types of Ethos Establishing a positive ethos is essential to making convincing arguments. This ethos can be vague and hard to define. In some cases, it may simply involve getting the audience to “feel good” about the rhetor. However, we can break positive ethos down into several useful categories.

Authority A rhetor may try prove that s/he has the right to speak on this issue. Sometimes this authority is inherent. For instance, the politicians of a country have the authority to discuss politics. The Pope has the authority to speak about morals and religion. However, other times, the rhetor may try to establish authority through her/his writing. S/he may try to prove knowledge of a field by citing current research. S/he may discuss first-hand experiences (professional and/or personal). Sometimes, a rhetor may try to claim s/he is justified in discussing some topic by describing how s/ he has personally suffered because of the problem. When the topic is particularly complex, a rhetor may establish authority by offering the audience proof of his/her intelligence through word choice, complex reasoning, etc.

Goodwill In many cases it is helpful for the rhetor to prove that s/he has goodwill or cares about people. In particular, a rhetor may try to show that s/he cares about the stakeholders of the argument (the groups and people effected by the outcome) or that s/ he cares about the audience of the text. Similarly, a rhetor may try to appear honest and trustworthy. Most importantly, the author wants to give the impression that s/he is not biased, that s/he does not gain personally from the outcome. While the author may not always be 100% unbiased, s/he usually tries to appear this way to the audience. When this is clearly not possible, a rhetor may simply admit to the audience that s/he is biased in an attempt to appear open and honest.

Common Ground One common tactic of rhetors is to establish a sense of connection and common ground with the audience. A rhetor may try to claim membership in a certain group they share with the audience; “we are all Americans,” or “we all care about the environment.” The author may offer humanizing experiences from her/his own life (like the time s/he did something foolish or embarrassing) to seem relatable and more like a real person.

Identity A final important step in managing ethos is to create an identity through writing. While some people argue that writing should express one’s “true” identity, many proficient writers would disagree. Most writing takes place within discourse communities, and individuals often perform different identities within their different discourse communities. People have one self around their friends, another self around their parents, and yet another at work or school. This is not to say they are being 69 Ethos

dishonest. Being able to perform more than one identity is a useful, and some would say essential, part of being human. By using rhetoric, a person can craft a specific identity through their word choice, tone, choice of evidence, etc. Does the rhetor want the audience to see them as a learned scholar, a humble public servant, a witty skeptic, a hopeful reformer, or something else entirely? Creating this identity (the impression you leave with the audience) is tricky and subtle, but can greatly impact your ability to persuade the audience.

Why Study Ethos? Crafting and using ethos with an intended audience is essential to creating persuasive texts. Heart wrenching appeals to pathos and brilliant logical proofs often fall on deaf ears if the audience dislikes or mistrusts the rhetor. Carefully interrogating the ethos of rhetors can make you a more critical reader and a savvier consumer of texts ranging from academic articles to political propaganda. Creating your own identity through writing is often a life-long task, but it remains an important part of joining and participating in discourse communities throughout your personal and professional life.

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Chapter

10

Logos What Is Logos? Logos is commonly defined in English as logic or reasoning. Logos describes the way that rhetors convince their audience that an argument makes sense or seems logical. In some cases this may mean the rhetor systematically and carefully provides evidence to prove a specific claim. In other cases, the rhetor’s argument may be simpler and easy for the audience to follow without much explanation. Logos is sometimes unfairly oversimplified to mean just using statistics and “hard data.” However, logos involves something much, much more complex. Truly mastering the art of logos often requires that we think about the way our minds work. Considering logos is taking a first step into epistemology, the study of knowledge and justified belief. Epistemology asks a simple but difficult to answer question; how do we know what we know? Epistemologists (philosophers who study this question), logicians (who study logic) and rhetoricians (who study rhetoric) have devised models, theories, and many terms to describe the ways we know and prove things to others. Though you may not know their formal names yet, you most likely employ these techniques in order to make convincing arguments every day. This chapter will look at ways arguments can be structured and how rhetors can use these techniques to create persuasive texts.

Arguments Logos can be thought of as the technique of creating arguments. In general, arguments have three parts: •

Claims

•

Evidence

•

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Claims The claim of an argument is the idea which you intend to prove or support. A claim is a statement that is still open for debate. That is, a claim must be arguable. Some people may already agree with you, some may disagree, but it must be theoretically possible to agree or disagree. Additionally, an arguable claim should be one that you can support with evidence or reasoning. If there is no way to prove or disprove the statement, it is not very arguable. Consider the following statements: •

UCCS should have more parking.

•

The UCCS campus meets the state safety requirements.

•

The UCCS campus has a pool.

•

I love the UCCS campus.

How arguable is each of these statements? Can someone both reasonably agree with them and reasonably disagree with them? Can you provide evidence or reasoning to support these statements? Can you devise an alternate or opposite position? If you can answer yes to the questions, the statement is probably arguable. In general, the first three statements are considered arguable. It is reasonable for people to disagree with them, and we could collect or create evidence and reasoning to support these claims. We can also create reasonable opposing or alternate statements. For instance, I can both reasonably agree and disagree with the claim that UCCS should have more parking. I can provide evidence to support the position by showing a picture of full parking lots, by citing the total number of students on campus, and by explaining that students who cannot find parking will be late to class, etc. I can also formulate an opposing statement, “UCCS does not need more parking.” The fourth statement (“I love the UCCS campus”) is the least arguable of the four. In this case, the rhetor is reporting on his/her own personal feelings about the matter. It is not very reasonable for anyone to disagree with the rhetor about his/her own internal feelings. The rhetor cannot provide an audience with real evidence of what is happening in his/her own mind. Also, the opposing statement (“You do not love UCCS”) seems strange and not particularly relevant. On the other hand, if the rhetor said something more specific such as “UCCS has a great campus” or “UCCS has a well-planned campus,” these statements are much more arguable and a rhetor could begin the process of supporting them by providing evidence and reasoning.

Evidence Evidence is the information provided to prove or support a claim. Though many people only think of evidence as “facts and figures,” evidence can come in a surprising variety of types.

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Facts Before we take the time to consider logic and epistemology, the idea of a “fact” may seem simple, but the concept is actually quite complex. People commonly think of a fact as something that is true. However, the very reason we need to use logos is that people disagree over what is true. While most educated people today believe the world is round, there are still people alive in remote areas of the planet who do not believe this. For them, this is not a fact. Six hundred years ago, the majority of people on earth would have disagreed with this fact. Simply telling them that it was a fact would not have convinced them to risk a dangerous voyage across the ocean. To convince them to take the risk, a rhetor would have had to provide other evidence.

Common Knowledge and Presuppositions Though people six hundred years ago might have needed convincing, the majority of people you meet in your life will agree that he world is indeed round. In cases like this, we can assume it is common knowledge. This means that a rhetor can assume or presuppose her/his audience knows and agrees with the statement before s/he begins to argue. Common knowledge like this, which a rhetor presupposes an audience knows, is often the bedrock upon which the rhetor will build larger more complex arguments. A rhetor may occasionally remind the audience of common knowledge, but a rhetor does not need to prove it because rhetor can presuppose the audience knows/agrees already. Presuppositions may also be more complex than just “facts” like the earth is round. A rhetor may also presuppose that their audience has certain values, defines or understands a concept in a certain way, or is aware of complex systems and relationships. The presuppositions an author makes can also play a large role when using appeals of ethos and pathos.

Numbers One of the most compelling forms of evidence comes in the form of numbers and statistics. Numbers can be used to establish the scope of a problem, to compare the size or frequency of two things, to predict the probability that something will happen in the future or has happened in the past and much, much more. When using numbers as evidence, it is vital that the audience trust in the accuracy and reliability of the numbers. The audience must believe there were no errors made when counting and that the counter was fair and honest. They must also believe that sample was “representative.” That is, the audience must believe that if someone chose to count again, the count would come out roughly the same. Critical audiences are aware of the ways numbers can be bent or manipulated to support a certain cause. If an advertiser claims that a tooth paste is 50% more effective than before, a critical reader might question whether it was effective at all before. If a poll shows that 95% of people agree with a position, a critical reader might ask what types of people were included in the poll and where/when it was conducted. Numbers can be extremely compelling, but the more critical the audience, the more care a rhetor must take with explaining the method used to collect those numbers.

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Personal Experience If the audience trusts the rhetor (see the chapter on ethos), a rhetor can use their own personal experiences as evidence. Students who took a class can report to us on what kinds of assignments they were assigned or on the quality of the course overall. Survivors of concentration camps can report to us on the horrors they faced while there. So long as audiences trust in the rhetor, these can be extremely convincing forms of evidence. Sometimes, a rhetor may report the experiences of another person. For instance, if a student in a class is writing about the holocaust, they may choose to include a quote or paraphrase from a survivor who published their experience or who the student interviewed. Again, the strength of this evidence relies heavily on the reputation (ethos) of the person who had the experience. Personal experiences may come in the form of specific details or observations. However, they often come in the form of narratives.

Narratives Narratives are more commonly called stories. However, the word “stories” may sometimes indicate the experience is untrue. The term “narrative” does not have that connotation. A narrative may be true, a lie, a fiction, a parable, etc. Narratives generally have a beginning and an end. A person could provide a narrative of their first day of college, a month spent working on a complex engineering project, their growth as a writer over fifteen years of school, or of the process of shaking a soda loose from the vending machine. Narratives show a progression through time with one event following another. Narratives have been used to teach for centuries. Consider a narrative as simple as “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” A boy guarding sheep plays a practical joke on his village by crying out that a wolf is attacking the sheep. The villagers rush to the scene to help and the boy laughs at them. The boy does this several more times. Finally of course, a real wolf arrives and no villagers respond to help. No one is arguing that this actually took place in any one village, but many people know the story in many cultures. The narrative itself can function as evidence to support any number of claims about morals, behaviors, the effects of lying, etc.

Textual Support In academic writing, one of the most common forms of evidence is the work of other scholars. Academic writers may choose to quote, paraphrase, or summarize the work of others. In some cases, the specific words and opinions of an author are important while in other cases it may only be necessary to summarize their conclusion or the findings of their experiments (for more information see the chapters on Kinds of Writing and Using Sources). Academic writers are diligent in providing citations to give credit to the original authors. The ethos (reputation and credibility) of the group or scholar cited plays a crucial role in the strength of this evidence. In some cases, it is not the author’s ethos that is important, but the ethos of the group who published the author’s work. Academic Journals (that publish scholarship and research) have reputations among the members of a discipline, and well-informed audiences pay close attention to which journal has published the text being cited.

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Reasoning No matter the type of evidence a rhetor chooses, evidence itself is rarely enough to prove a claim. There must be some reason why the evidence proves the claim. For instance, imagine a rhetor wants to prove to you that an education from UCCS is a good buy for your money. As evidence, the rhetor informs you that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though the rhetor’s evidence is true, has s/he convinced you that going to UCCS is a good financial decision? There must be some kind of logical connection between the evidence and the claim for you to be convinced. This sense that the evidence is connected to the claim is called reasoning. Reasoning is the act of helping your audience see this connection and agree that the evidence does support or prove the claim. In the case of the freezing point and UCCS, no reason comes to mind. In most cases, the connection between the evidence and the claim is a mixture of connections that are stated by the author (reasoning) as well as unstated connections which the audience makes on their own. We call these unstated connections warrants. Warrants are the underlying premises for any argument. For instance, if a rhetor argues that UCCS is a good school because it has small class sizes, there are several possible warrants that might support this argument: •

In small classes, instructors have more time to review students’ work.

•

In small classes, instructors can better adapt their teaching to the class.

•

In small classes, students can easily make friends and feel less isolated.

It is possible that the rhetor will never even mention these statements in her text; the rhetor presupposes that her audience agrees with these warrants and can see the value in small class sizes for themselves. In cases like this, reasoning is obvious to the audience and the rhetor can allow them to make this connection for themselves. However, in other cases, the reasoning may be difficult for the audience to understand and the rhetor may need to make the warrants explicit by providing careful reasoning in their text.

Artistic and Inartistic Arguments While some arguments require complex reasoning to connect the evidence to the argument, in other cases, there is very little or no reasoning needed. Arguments that require reasoning are called artistic. On the other hand, when there is little to no reasoning required, we can call these arguments inartistic. For an example, consider the “fact” that we discussed earlier, that the earth is round. Today, we have photographs and video of earth from space. For most people, all the evidence needed to prove that the earth is round is a picture of the earth from space. Assuming you trust the authenticity of the photograph, you do not need to engage in any complex thinking to make the connection from the photograph to the knowledge that earth is round. On the other hand, sailors in the 14th century had no photographs to rely on, but they did have another kind of image they could use. For centuries, sailors had watched 75 Logos

ships sail away on the horizon, and ships always disappeared from the bottom to the top. As the ships sailed away, first the hull disappeared from view, then the masts, then just the tips of the sails. Eventually, people used this visual evidence to support the claim that the earth was round. If the boat disappears from the bottom to the top, it could be because the earth curves downward from you in every direction. Coming to this conclusion is not obvious and may have required navigators to explain it in detail to cautious sailors and to the people who funded their expeditions. The connection between the evidence (the image of the sails) and the conclusion (the earth curves) is not direct or simple. This makes it an artistic proof. When the navigators explained the connection to skeptics, they were providing reasoning for their argument and employing logos.

Logical Formulas While not every type of reasoning can be easily categorized, there are several particular ways that evidence can connect with claims that we can name and identify. When rhetors use each of these formulas, they are enacting a specific kind of logical claim. Learning different types of logical formulas can allow you to assess them when you see them in rhetoric and allow you to employ them when crafting your own arguments.

Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Inductive (bottom up) and deductive (top down) are two of the most common terms we use to describe reasoning. Inductive reasoning works from specific to general. That is, inductive reasoning uses specific cases, detailed examples, and data as evidence in order to prove complex claims. We can call these complex claims theories or premises. On the other hand, deductive reasoning works from general to specific. Deductive reasoning uses complex premises or theories (which we have already accepted as true) in order to make claims about the behavior of specific cases, examples or data. For instance, when you drop a pen from your hand, it will fall to the ground. By using this specific example and repeating it several times, we can devise a theory to explain this behavior. One of the theories used to explain this behavior is the theory of gravity. By adding more data (the behavior of the earth, stars, planets, etc.) we can refine this theory. Using this data to create the theory of gravity is inductive reasoning. Once the theory has been accepted as generally true, we can use it to make predictions about specific instance. For instance, by applying the theory of gravity, scientists have been able to make very specific claims about the movement of an asteroid named Apophis. Using the theory of gravity, scientists have determined that Apophis will pass between the earth and the moon in the year 2029, but most scientists believe there is a zero percent chance of Apophis striking either the earth or the moon. Applying the theory of gravity to this specific case is an example of deductive logic.

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Cause and Effect One of the most common logical formulas is the relationship between cause and effect. Eating an unhealthy diet may lead to obesity or various health problems. A bruise on someone’s skin is an indication that he may have been hit by something. A rhetor can provide evidence that the cause (an unhealthy diet) took place in order to predict the claim (health problems). A rhetor can also provide evidence that the effect took place (the bruise) and reason that the cause took place (some kind of impact or injury).

Correlation In some cases, two events may not cause each other, but may frequently occur together for other reasons. When events happen frequently together, but do not cause each other, we can say that they correlate. For instance, students who earned a 4.0 in high school are likely to do well in college. The high scores in high school are not the cause of the strong performance in college, but we can use the high school scores as evidence to support the claim that students will continue to do well for several reasons. First, we might collect data that shows a statistical correlation. In this case, we can use the statistical data as our reasoning. On the other hand, we might notice the correlation ourselves and devise our own reasoning; if students did well in high school, it could be because they are intelligent and hard working. Those skills are likely to help the student in college as well.

Metaphor and Analogy One of the most common ways to reason is through comparing two things in the form of an analogy or metaphor. Many people associate metaphor and analogy with literature and poetry, but metaphor and analogy are essential to our understanding of complex topics in science, politics, and many other subjects. In general, metaphors and analogies use a topic we know about as evidence in orPlant – Student der to make a claim about a topic we want to make a claim Sunlight – Reading about. For instance, we might argue that students are like Physical – Mental flowers and reading is like the sun that helps them grow. Growth Growth The claim we are trying to prove is that students should read. In some cases, a metaphor can be much more complex. For instance, in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. uses the metaphor of a boil (a large cyst or pimple in the skin) to explain why we must directly address injustice: Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured (King 189).

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Though this passage is quite beautiful from a literary perspective, it is also a complex logical argument that involves mapping our understanding of boils onto our understanding of political tension in order to support a claim about political policy.

Syllogisms Syllogisms are the most classic form of logos and one of the most common. According to some ancient philosophers, a syllogism is the only way to prove something to absolute certainty when using artistic reasoning. However, modern rhetoricians tend to see syllogisms as only one among many ways to persuade. A syllogism creates a system whereby you can prove a claim by proving two previous statements which serve as your evidence. There is a very specific formula for a syllogism. You cannot simply use any two statements. The statements must form a pattern where A is B, B is C, and, thus, A is C. In the example below, note that there are only three elements to the syllogism; Socrates (A), being a man (B), and being mortal (C). While most arguments will not fit neatly into a classical syllogism, they can still be a very useful tool in crafting arguments when they fit the claims and evidence at hand. Evidence

A is B

Socrates is a man.

Evidence

B is C

All men are mortal.

Claim

A is C

Socrates is mortal.

Complex Arguments Crafting of an argument as a rhetor or assessing an argument as an audience can be a very intricate process even when there is only one claim involved. However, texts rarely include only one claim. Even a short text of five pages can make many different claims. Sometimes, the text may make more than one central argument. Also, a text will often arrange arguments carefully, so that one argument can be used to support another.

Argument Chains

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Students learn less.

EVIDENCE

Students are sleepy in class.

CLAIM

Students will be sleepy in class.

EVIDENCE

Students are awake later.

CLAIM

Students will be awake later.

EVIDENCE

CLAIM

Caffeine keeps you awake.

CLAIM

A complex text may create chains of arguments in which the claim for one argument serves as the evidence in the next argument. For instance, if we wanted to prove that drinking caffeine after 10:00 PM leads to poor grades we might create a complex chain of arguments that looked something like this: Students learn less.

Students get poor grades.

Notice how the claim in each of the bottom boxes then becomes the evidence in the next box on the top. Most academic arguments rely on this system of creating argument chains in order to work from common knowledge or hard data to more complex claims.

Multiple Proofs or Sub-Arguments Sometimes, one argument (claim, evidence, reasoning) is sufficient to prove a particular claim. In other cases, a rhetor may create more than one argument or multiple proofs to support a particular claim. When you combine this process with creating argument chains, the system can become fairly complex. For instance, look at the diagram below as an example of a complex chain of arguments with multiple proofs: Students should join on campus clubs or organizations Joining a club leads to better grades.

Joining a club leads to better jobs.

•

Students who join clubs have friends to ask for help.

•

Joining a club looks good on a resume.

•

Student who join clubs are relaxed and happy.

•

Joining a club helps students develop leadership and teamwork.

•

Students who join clubs learn to manage their time.

•

Students who join clubs learn to manage their time.

Why Study Logos? While pathos and ethos are valuable persuasive tactics, academics and professionals are quick to notice arguments which are not well supported by logic and evidence. The more informed your audience and the more exigent the topic, the more the audience will demand clear and well-reasoned logical arguments. Knowing the logical formulas you are likely to encounter can make you a more critical consumer of logical arguments and, thus, more able to spot a hole or misdirection in a rhetor’s argument. Similarly, knowing these techniques can allow you to employ them in crafting logical arguments that will persuade even the most skeptical of audiences.

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Pathos What Is Pathos? Pathos is related to the English words “pathetic” and to the concepts of sympathy and empathy. A rhetor will employ pathos to use the emotions of an audience to convince them to do or believe something. It is important to remember that pathos usually focuses on the reader’s emotions, as opposed to the emotions of the rhetor. Through pathetic appeals the author deliberately tries to make the audience feel a specific emotion in order to achieve his/her purpose.

Identifying Pathos One of the best ways to identify appeals to pathos is to keep track of what emotions you experience as you read or listen to an argument. When you feel something emotionally, rather than just thinking about an argument logically, there is a good chance the rhetor did something to affect your emotions. To see how a text appeals to pathos (or emotion), critical readers look for specific features like vivid descriptions, narratives, or emotionally compelling examples. Authors are notorious for relying on pathos to construct and present an argument, so appeals to pathos, or pathetic appeals, are often easy to identify, though they can be difficult to describe. A pathetic appeal works by invoking a particular kind of emotion(s) within the audience. A critical reader might ask the following: Does the text make you feel sad, angry, or does it elicit some other type of emotional response? To analyze for pathos, you need to find rhetorical (language based) details in the text—things the text does— that work to affect your emotions in order to shift your perception of the argument.

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Here are some questions to help you better understand how an author uses pathos: •

How does the author attempt to convince his/her audience through emotion?

•

What specific emotions does the rhetor elicit in the audience?

•

In what ways is pathos used effectively? How might an audience react negatively to the use of pathos?

Ways to Create Pathos Often, appeals to pathos appear in a variety of ways. Below are some of the most common strategies rhetors use to evoke emotions in their audiences.

Word Choice Word choice affects what readers envision and how they feel about what the author is discussing. For example, the words wiry, slender, lean, skinny, and scrawny mean basically the same thing, but we perceive them differently because they have individual emotional connotations.

Vivid Examples An example that includes things about which people are likely to have positive feelings—rainbows and puppies—can put readers at ease, which makes them easier to persuade. The use of an example that puts people on edge also evokes emotion. The same puppy after he has been treated poorly, for example, might motivate people to volunteer at an animal rescue. Vivid examples can happen in words and images. Either way, if you are composing a rhetorical analysis, you will need to fully describe them—so your reader has a sense of the example—before you start analyzing its effect.

Personal Experience and Specific Examples The use of a personal example might make you inclined to feel sympathetic, which the rhetor can use to her/his advantage. A personal example could work to make you feel angry or aggressive, which the rhetor can then use for her/his purposes. Look at this example of President Obama using the narrative of one schoolteacher to discuss the need to increase education spending. By focusing on this specific situation, he is able to create more emotions in the reader than by listing statistics on the issue or speaking generally: It means that the teacher that I met in Las Vegas, a wonderful young lady, who describes to me—she’s got 42 kids in her class. The first two weeks she’s got them, some of them sitting on the floor until finally they get reassigned. They’re using text books that are 10 years old (Obama). 82 Chapter 11

Scare Tactics Scare tactics can be presented through several kinds of reasoning including narratives, numbers, and hypotheticals. Similarly, when rhetors use scare tactics to create an emotional appeal, they may do so hoping for a variety of emotional responses. A scare tactic might arouse concern or interest, and so keep the reader interested until the end of the text in hopes the rhetor will present a solution. A scare tactic might also raise a reader’s interest in the issue, making him/her inclined to accept the rhetor’s call to action.

Sensory Details Sensory details including sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch directly affect our body when we experience them. The choice to construct a direct bodily connection is great for increasing emotion in an audience. Take a look at this description of the conditions in a puppy mill by the ASPCA. By emphasizing the sensory details of the situation, the author has heightened the emotional impact of this information: Puppy mills usually house dogs in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, without adequate veterinary care, food, water and socialization. Puppy mill dogs do not get to experience treats, toys, exercise, or basic grooming. To minimize waste cleanup, dogs are often kept in cages with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs—and it is not unusual for cages to be stacked up in columns. Breeding dogs at mills might spend their entire lives outdoors, exposed to the elements or crammed inside filthy structures where they never get the chance to feel the sun or breathe fresh air.

Why Study Pathos? Pathos, like logos or ethos (rhetorical appeals), is a rhetorical strategy used to convince or persuade an audience of a particular claim or argument. The ways in which we use pathos differ greatly upon an intended purpose. Pathos is particularly interesting to study because while an author may use pathos with the intent to illicit a specific emotional response from an audience, emotions are unpredictable. The intent and the reality of an emotional experience are not always in line with each other. Being able to identify and understand pathos will enable you to become a more critical consumer of the rhetoric around you—academic and otherwise. Studying how other rhetors use pathetic appeals will also help you harness pathos in your own writing. Emotion can be a powerful force in an argument, but it is important to think critically about your intended goals and what you want your audience to know. Using pathos to appeal to your audience can be a very effective strategy when it is used intentionally, ethically, and judiciously.

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Appendix

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Glossary 1st Person: Referring to yourself in a text by using “I,” “Me,” “We,” or “Us.” 2nd Person: Referring to your audience in a text by using “You.” 3rd Person: Referring to others in your text by using “He,” “She,” “They,” or “Them.” Academic Discourse: Language and arguments that meet the expectations of an academic audience. This includes language use, evidence, and other components. Analyzing: To look at a text or system to understand its purpose and its components. Annotations: A method of marking a text while reading that aids understanding. It can include highlighting, note taking, leaving comments in the margins, etc. Argument: The attempt to prove or support a particular position. It typically includes a claim, evidence, and reasoning. Brainstorming: Creating possible ideas to discuss in a text at the earliest stages of the writing process. It might take many forms such as listing, clustering, freewriting, etc. Citations: A method for documenting ideas/quotes which are not from the original writer of a text. Different academic fields use different styles of citation. English courses use MLA style. Claim: The statement you intended to prove in an argument. Collaboration: Working together. Critical Thinking: Thinking both broadly and deeply about a text or issue. Thinking outside the box. Challenging your assumptions and beliefs to develop new, richer thought patterns.

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Dichotomy: A division or contrast between two things that are represented as being opposed or entirely different. Discourse Communities: A group of people who share a set of communication rules using a certain discourse (basic values and assumptions and ways of communicating about them). Drafting: The process of working through multiple versions of an idea/text. It is part of the writing process. Editing: Changing a text at a “middle” level. Typically when editing, a writer feels confident with the ideas and goals of the text, but they may need to improve the organization, add or remove paragraphs, improve the coherence or unity of paragraphs, or include more evidence. Ethos: The rhetorical appeal related to using reputation and identity. The reliability, trustworthiness, and reputation of a particular person, group, or text. Evidence: The information you provide to prove a claim in an argument. Exigence: The “importance” or “priority” of an argument or text. When an argument or text is important to the audience, we can say it has high exigence or is exigent. Feedback: Information provided by a peer, editor, or instructor on a project or text. Usually, it is intended to help the writer improve the text. Genre: A type of text that is recognized and used by members of a discourse community like a letter, lab report, proposal, or rhetorical analysis. It typically has consistent goals, sections, and formatting features recognized by members of that discourse community. Kairos: The timeliness of a text. A text can be given at a time when the kairos is helpful to the argument or at a time when the kairos is harmful to the argument. Logos: The rhetorical appeal related to logic. It involves how a rhetor makes logical arguments using claims and evidence. MLA: The Modern Language Association. Students and academics in English and other humanities often use the MLA style to format texts and cite outside sources. Multi-modal: Using more than one “mode” of communication (Written, Visual, Audio, Video, etc.). Narrative: Information provided in the form of a story with a beginning, middle, and end that usually proceeds in chronological (1st to last) order. Outlining: Creating a sketch of a planned text. A simple outline may only contain the main ideas of the text, while a detailed outline may include the topic of specific paragraphs, quotes, or scholarship you intend to use, and sample topic sentences. Pathos: The rhetorical appeal associated with using emotion to persuade the audience.

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Peer Review: A method of getting assistance and feedback on a text or project. This practice is common in college courses and useful for both students and professionals. Pre-Writing: Writing about the topic before trying to craft the final text. It may take the form of freewriting, outlining with notes, careful annotating, or organized prewriting assigned by your instructor. Proofreading: Reading a text to look for technical errors in spelling, grammar, formatting, etc. It is the most “local” level of formatting and typically focuses on individual sentences. Recursive: Characterized by recurrence or repetition, in particular. To repeat a pattern or to revisit a stage within the writing process with the intent to “re-see” your work. Reflection: To think about something deeply. To consider a topic or an experience and look backwards, forwards, inward, and outward. Research: The systematic investigation into materials and sources in order to establish facts, reach new conclusions, or advance a conversation. Revision: To change and try to improve a text. This is the most “global” level of changing a text when you reconsider your purpose, content, and organization. Rhetoric: The art of persuasion. The study of how language is used to accomplish things in the world. Rhetorical Situation: The situation surrounding a rhetor, audience, and text. It may include the context, kairos, and exigence. Rhetorical Strategy: A particular strategy or tactic which is used by a rhetor and is intended to persuade an audience. A rhetorical strategy is often more specific than a rhetorical appeal. A rhetor may employ many different rhetorical strategies in a single text. Rhetorical Appeals: The three approaches to persuading an audience originally identified by Aristotle: Logos (Logic), Pathos (Emotion), Ethos (Reputation or Identity). Scholarship: The written work of academics and professionals who study and write about a particular field. Stakeholders: People or groups who are directly affected by the outcome of a policy or argument. Stasis Theory: A way or organizing arguments into various types or “stases.” Typically scholars identify four stases; arguments of fact, arguments of definition, arguments of value, and arguments of policy. Summary: A piece of writing which seeks to condense only the most important ideas from another original text. It is typically much shorter than the original text and may be written by the original author or by another writer.

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Thesis: The central argument or purpose of a text. In academic writing, it is usually written in the “thesis statement,” one or two sentences usually given at the beginning of the text. Topic Sentence: A sentence that describes the main idea of a particular paragraph. Usually, it is the first or second sentence of the paragraph. Warrant: A premise which helps to connect a particular piece of evidence to a particular claim. Often warrants are implicit or unstated by the rhetor. A single argument may have many warrants.

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Appendix

B

Works Cited Ede, Lisa. The Academic Writer: A Brief Rhetoric. 4th edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016. Print. Heinrichs, Jay. “Seize the Occasion.” Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion. New York: Three Rivers, 2007: 226–236. Print. Luther King Jr., Martin. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” African Studies Center. University of Pennsylvania. Web. 26. July 2015. Obama, Barrack. “October 3, 2012 Debate Transcript.” Commission on Presidential Debates. 3 October 2012. Web. 26 July 2015. Transcript. Selfe, Cynthia L, Anne F. Mareck, and Josh Gardiner. “Computer Gaming as Literacy.” Gaming Lives in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillon, 2007: 21–37. Print.

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