...[pic] English 101 Assignments Unit One Rhetorical Situation Analysis Report (Graded as homework) Completing this rhetorical situation analysis “report” will help you to understand the context—the rhetorical situation—in which a text was written, identify the writer’s intended audience and rhetorical purpose, and consider how effective his or her strategies are for accomplishing that purpose. Text: “My View: Should Everyone Go to College?” by Mike Rose (Report due September 3rd) http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/09/my-view-should-everyone-go-to-college/ “What Value Really Means in Higher Education” by Karen R. Lawrence (Report due September 17th) http://hechingerreport.org/content/value-really-means-higher-education_15129/ Present your responses in the form of short answers to the questions below (not in essay form). Note: As you answer the questions, be guided by the information Rhetorical Choices: Analyzing and Writing Arguments provides in Chapters 3 and 4 to refresh your understanding of rhetorical situation, purpose, audience, kairos, the ethos, pathos, and logos appeals, and rhetorical analysis. 1. Where did this text originally appear? 2. What is the genre of the text? What are the common rhetorical purposes for texts in this genre? (See pp. 22-24 in Rhetorical Choices for examples) 3. What can you discern about the discourse community in which this text is operating? Who is part of the discourse community, what values...
Words: 1042 - Pages: 5
...Jason Francis Herbert Pimlott Rhetorical Analysis November 13, 2012 This essay argues that the Globe and Mail (G&M) article, ‘Don’t Teach Until You See the Whites of Their Eyes’ (18 August 2012), is persuasive with its primary target audience of G&M readers. Clifford Orwin, the author of this article, is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. Furthermore, the main focus of this article deals with the fact that: “Real education requires real teachers and students, not disembodied electronic wraiths.” Through the rhetorical analysis of this editorial, this paper will demonstrate that its persuasiveness can be attributed to four key aspects: through an emphasis on the use of deliberative stasis; its use of ethos and logos; and through its effective use of rhetorical imagery. Before the case can be made for understanding how and why this article is persuasive, we need to begin with setting the context of the issue or exigence to which the article was responding and whether that response was timely and appropriate. To understand the exigence of this article, the interpretation of Orwin’s implied audience is necessary to grasp how the two concepts within exigence, kairos and phronesis, both link text, context and audience together. Through an extensive analysis of the assumptions made by Orwin, the implied audience consists predominantly of instructors. Moreover, Orwin’s motto: “Don’t teach until you see the whites of their eyes.” Also used as...
Words: 2331 - Pages: 10
...Rhetorical Analysis of An Academy for Woman Education is an important part in everyone’s life and should be treated as an opportunity. Back in the seventeenth century women did not have this opportunity to go to school so an author known as Daniel Defoe provides the reader a rhetorical analysis of how women should be able to receive an education and the reader is able to see the uses of Ethos, Pathos and Logos. First off, Defoe provides Ethos by stating and outside source that provides information to improve his arguments to make it seem more logical. Defoe informs the reader of how he remembered “a passage which I had heard from a very fine woman” (Defoe, pg. 581). He also states how that woman had “wit and capacity’ (Defoe, pg. 581) but was unable to get an...
Words: 441 - Pages: 2
...Reflective Self-Analysis My portfolio demonstrates my understanding of persuasive writing. My idea of persuasive writing is that a good essay will affect the reader in some way shape or form. I believe combining effective uses of logos, pathos, and egos along with structure are very important. My persuasive writing reflects the way I think about argumentation in general. I can see how easy it can be to write a paper arguing a point, but not doing it in the correct manner. For example, if a writer just argues his point without giving any strong evidence and offers no counter-argument the paper will not be effective in persuading the reader. While my writing demonstrates strengths in organization and thesis development, I will continue to work to improve proofreading skills and sentence structure. What’s helped my writing this semester is that I feel confident about work. My writing demonstrates my strength in organization. A lot of this strength originates from class activities and notes. The class that had the biggest effect on me was when we learned about rhetorical analysis structure on page one of my handwritten evidence. In my notes I specifically write down the structure along with extra notes under some categories so I fully understand how to attack the assignment. This led to me getting a perfect ten score under the argumentative structure part on the grading rubric on my rhetorical analysis essay, which is titled “Exposing Education.” Since that learning moment...
Words: 1643 - Pages: 7
...Kenneth Burke on Dramatism and Rhetorical Theory I find it regrettable that social scientists automatically ignore Aristotle's Rhetoric. I don't say Aristotle has given us the last word on these matters. But I submit that his actual treatment of topics is fundamentally correct. You could add new topics and develop accordingly. But what you got 2,000 years ago was the kind of approach that can be built on in principle. (Burke 1967:327). While researching many of Kenneth Burke’s books and essays I found that Burke's writings on rhetorical theory demonstrate his passionate concern with artistic communication within social life. His work provides a broad, useful approach for understanding various ways theorists have constructed in the development of their theories of how people use language within social contexts. The theory of Dramatism, constructed by Kenneth Burke, is one of the most radical and complex theories in communication studies. Kenneth Burke struggled for many years to build, reconstruct, and define the aspects of his theory. The use of different articles that either focus on certain aspects of Dramatism and rhetorical theory provide examples of how they can be applied, to simply make more sense of Burke’s concepts and in turn, assert its legitimacy as a very important interpretive theory. Undoubtedly, Dramatism has sparked much debate about rhetorical criticism. It is also undeniable that the heart of Burke’s research and the theory of Dramatism in general is...
Words: 2326 - Pages: 10
...Using Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis Jane Mathison Fife The attraction of Facebook is a puzzle to many people over the age of thirtyfive, and that includes most college faculty. Yet students confess to spending significant amounts of time on Facebook, sometimes hours a day. If you teach in a computer classroom, you have probably observed students using Facebook when you walk in the room. Literacy practices that fall outside the realm of traditional academic writing, like Facebook, can easily be seen as a threat to print literacy by teachers, especially when they sneak into the classroom uninvited as students check their Facebook profiles instead of participating in class discussions and activities. This common reaction reflects James King and David O’Brien’s (2002: 42) characterization of the dichotomy teachers often perceive between school and nonschool literacy activities (although they are not referring to Facebook specifically): “From teachers’ perspectives, all of these presumably pleasurable experiences with multimedia detract from students’ engagement with their real work. Within the classroom economy technology work is time off task; it is classified as a sort of leisure recreational activity.” This dichotomy can be broken down, though; students’ enthusiasm for and immersion in these nonacademic literacies can be used to complement their learning of critical inquiry and traditional academic concepts like rhetorical analysis. Although they read these texts daily...
Words: 7879 - Pages: 32
...CHAP TER Rhetorical Modes 1. NARRATION L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S 10 1. Identify the purpose and structure of narrative writing. 2. Recognize how to write a narrative essay. Rhetorical modes simply mean the ways in which we can effectively communicate through language. This chapter covers nine common rhetorical modes. As you read about these nine modes, keep in mind that the rhetorical mode a writer chooses depends on his or her purpose for writing. Sometimes writers incorporate a variety of modes in one essay. In covering the nine rhetorical modes, this chapter also emphasizes these as a set of tools that will allow you greater flexibility and effectiveness in communicating with your audience and expressing your ideas. rhetorical modes The ways in which we effectively communicate through language. 1.1 The Purpose of Narrative Writing Narration means the art of storytelling, and the purpose of narrative writing is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration. In addition, a narrative can be factual or fictional. A factual story is one that is based on, and tries to be faithful to, actual events as they unfolded in real life. A fictional story is a made-up, or imagined, story; the writer of a fictional story can create characters and events as he or she sees fit. However, the big distinction between factual and fictional narratives is based on a writer’s purpose...
Words: 14947 - Pages: 60
...lot about myself, including what I want out of my college experience, and what my passion is. Despite the numerous papers, multitudes of exams, tremendous amount of course work, and athletics I believe I have done well. One of the many demanding classes this semester was English 101. In this rigorous course, students were asked to gain rhetorical knowledge, engage in critical writing, perform research writing, and improve their style and grammar. These goals are closely related to those of the WPA Outcomes published by the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The WPA...
Words: 1088 - Pages: 5
...Example 1 Summary: This presentation is designed to introduce your students to a variety of factors that con- tribute to strong, well-organized writing. This presentation is suitable for the beginning of a composition course or the assignment of a writing project in any class. Contributors:Ethan Sproat, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Allen Brizee Last Edited: 2012-04-27 10:46:02 Example 1: “I Have a Dream” Speech A lot of what was covered above may still seem abstract and complicated. To illustrate how diverse kinds of texts have their own rhetorical situations, consider the following examples. First, consider Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Because this speech is famous, it should be very easy to identify the basic elements of its particular rhetorical situation. Text The text in question is a 17-minute speech written and delivered by Dr. King. The basic medium of the text was an oral speech that was broadcast by both loudspeakers at the event and over radio and television. Dr. King drew on years of training as a minister and public speaker to deliver the speech. He also drew on his extensive education and the tumultuous history of racial prejudices and civil rights in the US. Audiences at the time either heard his speech in person or over radio or television broadcasts. Part of the speech near the end was improvised around the repeated phrase “I have a dream.” Author http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/08/ Page 1 of 9 Purdue OWL: The Rhetorical...
Words: 2614 - Pages: 11
...COMMUNICATION THEORY A review of Stephen Mailloux’s (1995, ed) discussion of “Sophistry and Rhetorical pragmatism” (pp1-30) and West and Turner’s (2010, pp.312-327) discussion of “Rhetoric”. This essay is a review of Stephen Mailloux’s discussion of Sophistry and Rhetorical pragmatism (Mailloux, 1995) and West and Turner’s discussion of Rhetoric (West & Turner, 2010). The writings in question discuss the origins and evolution of Rhetoric, with Mailloux introduce a historical and philosophical criticism of “sophistic Rhetoric as applied in the modern American context” (for example, neopragmatism and poststructuralism), and evaluated in the rest of the book, whilst West and Turner enlighten the reader about the heurism and globalism of Aristotle’s Rhetorical theory with a focus on the discipline of public speaking. Mailloux introduces sophistic Rhetoric as founded on the pragmatic doctrine that “Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not”, a phrase attributed to the Sophist Protagoras (Patrick, 2006). Others Sophists of note include Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias and Thrasymachus – quoted in Plato’s Republic as saying “… ‘Just’ or ‘right’ means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party” (Plato & Lane, 2007)). West and Turner’s account of the Rhetoric show that the first teachers of Rhetoric were the "Sophists”, who were nomadic teachers of public speaking that were respected for their intellect...
Words: 2288 - Pages: 10
...STEM education,” was effective, ineffective, or both. I came to the conclusion that she was effective. I believe I did an effective job at analyzing Feldman’s article by analyzing her sources she uses as evidence and breaking down how she uses a personal anecdote to use in order to use the rhetorical appeals to persuade her audience. At first when this paper was assigned to me I was terrified by the idea of starting it but as I moved along in the process it became apparent to me that writing is not a scary process. After struggling I became attached and writing became quite pleasant, but stressing none the less. The toughest part about this essay was definitely begging it and ending it. The easiest was writing the third body paragraph since it includes a personal experience. Since I am biased towards my grade I would reward my self with an A and although someone else might not think it is I wont go lower because part of my lifestyle is to never put my self down. In this essay I focused on capitalization. In the future I hope to improve on my grammar. I look forward to see my writing improve this year! STEAM vs. STEM “STEAM Rising: Why we need to put the arts into STEM education,” authored by Anne Feldman, an article whose purpose is to push the audience, those invested in the hard sciences and educators, to integrate the arts into the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math, also known as STEM. Feldman addresses a flaw in STEM education being...
Words: 1366 - Pages: 6
...which enhance the relationships between people. The symbolic-convergence theory is also known as the fantasy-theme analysis, which can be created in small groups or interaction between two people, thus creating a similar perspective. This theory states that individuals tend to believe certain things or think a certain way because their point of view has been molded by society. The symbolic convergence theory has different concepts that can be applied effectively to generate articulate conversations. Ernest Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory illustrated a method of looking at a group interaction and cohesiveness. According to “Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory,” by Denise Young she stated that this theory meets the scientific standards of explanation of the outcome, relative simplicity, and practical effectiveness. But it also meets the humanistic standards considering the community agreement and the reform of society. It brings the group together through symbolic interaction and can continue expanding from one person to the next one. Bormann's theory provides a straightforward strategy of examining the relationship of group membership. One of the concepts that contribute with the symbolic convergence theory is fantasy themes. They take a small role in the composition of rhetorical visions, which are larger, longer, and more complex stories. Rhetorical visions are related points of view of the past, present, and the future. Fantasy themes are not considered fictitious...
Words: 2079 - Pages: 9
...Rhetorical Analysis Revised Name Institute Professor EN1320: Composition I_V2.0 Rhetorical Analysis Feminism is defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). This definition is a good description of Crystal Eastman’s view- points. She was a socialist feminist in the 1920’s. Eastman was a pioneer in her day, pushing for the equal rights of women in the United States. The end of World War l, the unequal treatment towards women, including the lack of voting rights, were a couple of driving forces for Eastman’s speech “Now We Can Begin: What’s Next?”. But maybe there was another, more personal reason Eastman believed women were equal and deserved to be treated as such. In 1889, Eastman’s mother was one of the first women to be ordained as a minister. Eastman recalled, "when my mother preached we hated to miss it. There was never a moment of anxiety or concern; she had that secret of perfect platform ease which takes all strain out of the audience. Her voice was music; she spoke simply, without effort, almost without gestures, standing very still. And what she said seemed to come straight from her heart to yours. Her sermons grew out of her own moral and spiritual struggles. For she had a stormy, troubled soul, capable of black cruelty and then again of the deepest generosities. She was humble, honest, striving, always beginning again to try to be good." (Eastman, 1889) With her mother paving the way...
Words: 1061 - Pages: 5
...An Approach to Corpus-based Discourse Analysis: The Move Analysis as Example THOMAS A . UPTON AND MARY ANN COHEN Abstract This article presents a seven-step corpus-based approach to discourse analysis that starts with a detailed analysis of each individual text in a corpus that can then be generalized across all texts of a corpus, providing a description of typical patterns of discourse organization that hold for the entire corpus. This approach is applied specifically to a methodology that is used to analyze texts in terms of the functional/communicative structures that typically make up texts in a genre: move analysis. The resulting corpus-based approach for conducting a move analysis significantly enhances the value of this often used (and misused) methodology, while at the same time providing badly needed guidelines for a methodology that lacks them. A corpus of ‘birthmother letters’ is used to illustrate the approach. Biber et al. (2007) explore how discourse structure and organization can be investigated using corpus analysis; they offer a structured, seven-step corpusbased approach to discourse analysis that results in generalizable descriptions of discourse structure. This article draws on the themes in this book, but focuses in particular on analyses that use theories on communicative or functional purposes of text as the starting point for understanding why texts in a corpus are structured the way they are, before moving to a closer examination and description of...
Words: 8985 - Pages: 36
...Rhetorical Analysis Are too many people going to college? This question has been contemplated over for years. The increased cost of college throughout the years has caused the question to become even more relevant. Charles Murray, an author from the American Enterprise Institute, wrote the essay entitled “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Murray’s essay sought ought to explain that universities are being filled with students who are either not prepared for higher education or who are compelled into attending college and are unable to succeed because the lack of inherent abilities. While Murray makes many pertinent points about America’s infatuation with the B.A as a standard into a class of intellectual elite the essay does not take into consideration the individual influences that may lead to a student’s success. This essay will analyze and critique Murray’s view of why the pursuit of a B.A can lead to more harm than good. Murray’s main argument throughout his essay is that the perceived reward of a college degree disseminates to those seeking higher education and inevitably does more harm than good. He argues that many students do not have the ability to enjoy and finish a four year degree. This leads the student to being stigmatized and in debt due to his or her failure. Murray further establishes his argument by saying that more people continue to go to college because they are programmed into believing, regardless of their abilities, to pursue college as an essential...
Words: 1299 - Pages: 6
