RHETORICAL STRATEGIES REVIEW. RHETORICAL STRATEGIES I. DESCRIPTION.
Chapter 2 Reading for Academic Purposes: Analyzing the Rhetorical Situation.
-
Upload
baldric-long -
Category
Documents
-
view
223 -
download
0
Transcript of Chapter 2 Reading for Academic Purposes: Analyzing the Rhetorical Situation.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 2
Overview
• The chapter looks at two ways of reading, with two sets of strategies:
1. Strategies for close reading
2. Strategies to analyze the rhetorical situation
• It includes an essay by Jonathan Kozol as a writing sample and then demonstrates the various strategies using that essay.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 3
Two Sets of Strategies
• Strategies for close reading help you understand what a text says and means, as well as how a writer presents ideas and conveys meaning.
• Strategies to analyze the rhetorical situation, referring to the larger context of issues, andhow a writer identifies and responds to thecall to write.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 4
Reading… is it Active or Passive?
• Reading is more than letting your eyes glance across the page.
• The first set of strategies enable you to become a more active reader.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 5
Strategies for Close Reading
• Reading is research, whether it is done to prepare to write a formal paper or decide which movie to go see with friends.
• Your reading style is tied to your purpose and the context of the situation.
• The purpose of this set of strategies is to equip you to do active and critical reading.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 6
Strategies for Close Reading
• Underlining
• Annotation
• Summarizing
• Exploratory writing
• Outlining
• Describing the writer’s strategy
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 7
Strategy One: Underlining
• Underline words and phrases to help identify key points and main ideas.
• The text encourages selective use, so don’t underline too much.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 8
Strategy Two: Annotation
• Annotation refers to comments written in the margins; the purpose is to keep you actively engaged as you read.
Several suggestions include:• Point out key features and ideas• Agree or disagree with the writer• Raise questions• Draw connections
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 9
Benefits of Annotation
• Annotation is one of the most powerful skills you can develop; the key ideas you identify should make it much easier to construct an outline.
• It helps you to master the content.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 10
Strategy Three: Summarizing
• Condenses material to focus on the key ideas; generally the summary is half or less the length of the original content.
• The text lists five steps on page 36.
• This section presents a sample summary of the reading about the homeless.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 11
Strategy Four: Exploratory Writing
• Also called freewriting, the purpose is to use what you’ve read for a starting point, and then just write nonstop for five to 10 minutes.
• Don’t stop writing to fix, edit or revise; just see where your ideas take you before stopping to read what you’ve read.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 12
Strategy Five: Outlining
• Creating an outline helps you see how writers have organized or structured their material.
• See page 38 for a sample outline of the reading about the homeless.
• Outlines reveal the relationship of ideas, with main ideas as Roman numerals and the supporting details as Arabic numbers.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 13
Strategy Six:Describing the Writer’s Strategy
• This strategy builds on the outline of key ideas, which helps you to analyze the organization by describing how the writer connects the parts.
• It takes a look at the overall purpose of a document. To do this, divide the document into sections, grouping paragraphs together that fit together and label each section and identify its function. See the sample, page 40.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 14
Writing Strategies
• See the box on page 40 for the complete list.
• It lists a dozen strategies that include narration, description, illustration, definition, compare/contrast, and explanation of causes and effects.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 15
Combining Both Sets of Strategies
• The first set of strategies helps you understand the content of the document.
• The second set helps you to understandits context.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 16
Analyzing the Rhetorical Situation
• Use background information about the context of issues, the writer, and the publication to better understand the essay or document.
• The purpose of this is to examine the writer’s purpose and relationship to the readers.
• It also includes looking at the writer’s use of language (tone, denotation, figures of speech, and stereotypes).
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 17
Sample Rhetorical Analysis
• See the article by Kevin Powell, “My Culture at the Crossroads,” which first appeared in Newsweek magazine.
• It is followed by a student sample of a rhetorical analysis; it is annotated to point out the features and show how the writer pulled the ideas together.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2 | 18
Writing Assignment
• The assignment is to find a persuasive article and then analyze its rhetorical situation, and write an essay that presents your analysis.
• More details are found on pages 54-55; your instructor will let you know whether your class will be doing this particular assignment, and provide you with additional guidelines.