Monday, February 28, 2011
Summarizing the feedback you received, looking ahead to your revision
When you finish discussing all three posts, please write a summary of the feedback that your peers gave you and post it to our course blog. In this summary, I would like you to identify 2-3 features of your post that are especially effective in this draft, and 2-3 features that need further work, and explain why they’re effective or not. As you look ahead to completing your final draft, what revisions will you prioritize as a writer?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Continue drafting your individual blog post
Over the weekend, I’d like you to continue drafting your individual blog posts in preparation for our peer review workshop on Monday. To help you with this process, I would like to remind you to review all the rhetorical strategies of invention that we’ve studied this quarter and encourage you to use them as a way to generate your draft.
To help generate a focus for your argument, you might consider returning to the stasis questions or the common topics. Clarifying the kind of question that you’re answering might be one powerful way to help you frame your argument about your topic. Or, you might start by appealing to kairos and situating your discussion in relation to whatever current debates are going on in relation to your topic. You might also find a way to address appropriately a very specific audience who’s invested in this issue (and again, think of one that might be somewhat skeptical to your approach). Similarly, you might think about how you could develop your logical appeals or the reasons behind your argument, cultivate your ethos within your piece, or appeal to pathos. As we’ve also been talking about, identifying and presenting extrinsic proofs are also a compelling way to persuade your reader.
However you proceed, please aim for a draft of 3-4 pages by Monday so we can make use of our peer review time most productively. If you have any questions or run into any difficulties, please post a comment here and explain what kind of help you need. Feel free to respond to your classmates if you’re able to help out, and I will do the same. Good luck drafting!
To help generate a focus for your argument, you might consider returning to the stasis questions or the common topics. Clarifying the kind of question that you’re answering might be one powerful way to help you frame your argument about your topic. Or, you might start by appealing to kairos and situating your discussion in relation to whatever current debates are going on in relation to your topic. You might also find a way to address appropriately a very specific audience who’s invested in this issue (and again, think of one that might be somewhat skeptical to your approach). Similarly, you might think about how you could develop your logical appeals or the reasons behind your argument, cultivate your ethos within your piece, or appeal to pathos. As we’ve also been talking about, identifying and presenting extrinsic proofs are also a compelling way to persuade your reader.
However you proceed, please aim for a draft of 3-4 pages by Monday so we can make use of our peer review time most productively. If you have any questions or run into any difficulties, please post a comment here and explain what kind of help you need. Feel free to respond to your classmates if you’re able to help out, and I will do the same. Good luck drafting!
Problems finding extrinsic evidence?
If you’re having difficulties finding sources that will provide you with extrinsic proofs, then please let me (and the rest of class) know by commenting to this post. In your comment, please explain what kind of information you’re trying to find, where you’ve looked or how you’ve searched so far, and what you’ve found so far. If you’re able to help other students out, then please share any resources you’ve found. I’ll also follow up and assist you, too.
Responding to your team’s rough rough drafts
In lieu of class today, I would like you to read the rough rough drafts of the writers on your team and post a comment here providing them with an initial response to their draft. (Basically, post a comment here to each writer, and make sure you make it clear in your comment who you’re writing to.)
First, tell them what you like so far about what they’ve written. What seems promising or interesting to you about their piece? Second, what questions do you have or could you pose about their piece? Include three questions that might help them evolve their argument as they continue to draft over the weekend. Last, identify at least one outside source that you think might provide them with a compelling appeal to extrinsic evidence and include it in your comment.
First, tell them what you like so far about what they’ve written. What seems promising or interesting to you about their piece? Second, what questions do you have or could you pose about their piece? Include three questions that might help them evolve their argument as they continue to draft over the weekend. Last, identify at least one outside source that you think might provide them with a compelling appeal to extrinsic evidence and include it in your comment.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Rhetor’s Notebook Post #9: Rough Rough Draft of Your Individual Blog Post
Before class on Wednesday, I’d like you to post a rough rough draft of your individual blog post here as a comment. In this draft, I’d like to see you expand on what you drafted in class on Monday, using the rhetorical proofs as a way to “invent” your argument and support for this piece. In addition to appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos, I’d like you to begin including appeals to extrinsic evidence that will support your argument. Find at least one outside example that will help you in this regard. Also, explain what kinds of additional evidence you might need to enhance your argument’s persuasiveness. Aim for (at least) 250-350 words in this initial draft.
Revising with an eye towards style
To help you practice revising your writing on a stylistic level, I’d like you to pick a (substantial) paragraph from any assignment you’ve completed thus far this quarter. (This includes your essay on stress and the high school student, or your first or second DenveRhetor posts.) Identify at least one—but no more than two—elements from today’s reading from Ancient Rhetorics and see if you can use them as you revise your paragraph’s style.
Here are three suggestions if you feel stuck on which element to practice:
First, if your language in this paragraph isn’t as clear and direct as it might be, consider re-writing it (sentence by sentence) to clarify or state more directly (and precisely) the ideas you’re trying to convey. Keep in mind our textbook’s suggestion to “use words in their ordinary and everyday sense” (330), or to avoid circumlocution.
Second, review your paragraph for appropriateness of style. Have you written it in too grand a style or too plain (to use our textbook’s classification)? If so, how could aim for a more appropriate level to your style considering your audience? For many of you, you should be writing at a high-middle level. That is, you’re writing for well-educated audiences, who are not specialists, but expect a thoughtful and semi-formal style.
Third, as you revise your paragraph you might focus on sentence composition. If you tend to use the same kind of sentence (simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex), then revise it to include a variety of sentence types. Or, if you want to have a bit more fun, write your paragraph using one kind of sentence exclusively. What happens if you all of your sentences are simple ones or complex? Then, once you see how this looks, go back and vary your sentence composition to achieve different effects.
Fourth, if you’re feeling more adventurous, pick a figure of language, figure of thought, or trope, to include in this paragraph. Identify a moment in your paragraph in which using such a figure would enhance the impression you’re giving to the reader not just for ornamentation’s sake, but in a way that will enhance your argument.
Once you finish revising this paragraph, post the original one and your revision here as a comment.
Here are three suggestions if you feel stuck on which element to practice:
First, if your language in this paragraph isn’t as clear and direct as it might be, consider re-writing it (sentence by sentence) to clarify or state more directly (and precisely) the ideas you’re trying to convey. Keep in mind our textbook’s suggestion to “use words in their ordinary and everyday sense” (330), or to avoid circumlocution.
Second, review your paragraph for appropriateness of style. Have you written it in too grand a style or too plain (to use our textbook’s classification)? If so, how could aim for a more appropriate level to your style considering your audience? For many of you, you should be writing at a high-middle level. That is, you’re writing for well-educated audiences, who are not specialists, but expect a thoughtful and semi-formal style.
Third, as you revise your paragraph you might focus on sentence composition. If you tend to use the same kind of sentence (simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex), then revise it to include a variety of sentence types. Or, if you want to have a bit more fun, write your paragraph using one kind of sentence exclusively. What happens if you all of your sentences are simple ones or complex? Then, once you see how this looks, go back and vary your sentence composition to achieve different effects.
Fourth, if you’re feeling more adventurous, pick a figure of language, figure of thought, or trope, to include in this paragraph. Identify a moment in your paragraph in which using such a figure would enhance the impression you’re giving to the reader not just for ornamentation’s sake, but in a way that will enhance your argument.
Once you finish revising this paragraph, post the original one and your revision here as a comment.
Getting started on your individual blog post
To get started on this assignment, I’d like to imagine that you’re writing your individual blog to readers who are somewhat skeptical about the argument you’ll be making. They aren’t exactly hostile, but they certainly won’t automatically be in agreement with you. As you imagine these readers, try to identify a few groups of people who might fit this profile of a skeptical audience.
Now that you have this audience in mind, I’d like you to write a paragraph that explores the following: 1) Describe the larger debate that you are entering into and characterize the issue or the problem as you see it. 2) State as directly as you can (at this point) what you think your argument or your main claim will be. 3) Anticipate the counter arguments that your skeptical audience might state in response to your argument (or even in the way you’ve framed the debate). Identify two or three points that these readers might make against your argument. 4) Identify at least three rhetorical proofs that you could use to strengthen your argument in relation to these counter arguments. Explain how you would use each one as specifically as you can. (That is, don’t just write that you would appeal to pathos; instead, describe as precisely as you can what you would do to cultivate a certain emotional state within your reader and how you would use that emotional state to move them into agreement with your argument.)
Now that you have this audience in mind, I’d like you to write a paragraph that explores the following: 1) Describe the larger debate that you are entering into and characterize the issue or the problem as you see it. 2) State as directly as you can (at this point) what you think your argument or your main claim will be. 3) Anticipate the counter arguments that your skeptical audience might state in response to your argument (or even in the way you’ve framed the debate). Identify two or three points that these readers might make against your argument. 4) Identify at least three rhetorical proofs that you could use to strengthen your argument in relation to these counter arguments. Explain how you would use each one as specifically as you can. (That is, don’t just write that you would appeal to pathos; instead, describe as precisely as you can what you would do to cultivate a certain emotional state within your reader and how you would use that emotional state to move them into agreement with your argument.)
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