Carefully read two sources related to your topic of choice, paying particular attention to each author’s purpose, audience, genre, context, etc. Analyze each source according to methods described in Chapters 2 and 4 in IAW and the Rhetorical Analysis Supplement.

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Purpose and Description

The ability to analyze texts rhetorically will be fundamental to your success as writers and, more generally, as individuals who can engage critically with ideas and arguments. With these ends in mind, your aim in this assignment will be to 1) learn strategies for rhetorical analysis and apply them toward sources related to your project; and 2) construct an argument that both evaluates your focus texts and explains what you can gain from comparing their rhetorical features. The instructions described below are designed to guide you through this process.

Starting the Process: Invention & Inquiry

Carefully read two sources related to your topic of choice, paying particular attention to each author’s purpose, audience, genre, context, etc.
Analyze each source according to methods described in Chapters 2 and 4 in IAW and the Rhetorical Analysis Supplement.
Identify each author’s central claim and how he or she supports it (e.g., by citing other authors, by narrating experience, by including evidence he or she gathered through research, etc.).
Draft a thesis statement that reflects your evaluation of the two sources and what can be learned by comparing them (i.e., how they “shape up” compared to one another and what such a comparison illustrates about the relationship between academic and non-academic writing).

Completing the Process: Composing Your Essay

Academic research writing takes many forms. For this assignment, however, you will adopt a common organizational structure.

Introduction (Designed to frame your paper and provide context for the type of analysis that will follow, culminating in a clear, argumentative thesis statement.)

Thematic Background (Designed to build from Exercise I. How do these articles relate to our course theme? How do they relate to your specific topic/issue and to each other? How do they help you frame the conversation you’re hoping to enter into?)

Rhetorical Analysis (This is where you’ll present your analysis and comparison of the sources’ rhetorical features and overall effectiveness. This section will make up the bulk of your essay.)

Resolution (Designed to reinforce your thesis. Now that you’ve completed your analysis, what do these two sources and their approach to this issue tell us about the existing research on this topic? What do these sources reveal about how people in academia and/or the public media talk about this issue? What can you as an aspiring academic writer take away from comparing these two sources? What could you emulate from them? What might you avoid?)

Conclusion & Directions (Designed to gesture toward future action/research. What steps are next for you as a researcher? Based on what you’ve read so far, where is your research heading? How will you continue narrowing and refining your research project?)

Identify something in the experience of one or more of the literacy narrative authors that you can relate to. Explain what you relate to and why. What is similar and what is different in the experiences that the authors had with literacy and literacy sponsors?

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Journal 3

For homework, you’ve read three literacy narratives–stories that tell about how a person developed their literacy (knowledge and use of a language). Apply Brandt’s idea of “sponsors” to these narratives and think about who or what provided the authors opportunities to develop their literacy. Make a list of 3-5 sponsors for each author. Then decide which sponsor is most surprising or interesting to you and write about it for five minutes. Explain what the sponsor was and how it operated as a sponsor in the life of the author. Explore and explain why this sponsor is surprising or interesting. (You don’t need to do one for each author–just one in total).

  • Identify something in the experience of one or more of the literacy narrative authors that you can relate to. Explain what you relate to and why.
  • What is similar and what is different in the experiences that the authors had with literacy and literacy sponsors?

On pages 178-183 of “Sponsors of Literacy,” Brandt shows how people can “appropriate” literacy, meaning that they use literacy in a different way from how the sponsor of literacy intended. One example from Brandt is how Carol White’s job acted as a literacy sponsor, teaching her how to write for her job, but White used her new writing skills for religious activities. Do you think the authors you read appropriated literacy from a sponsor (used the literacy they developed in a way not inteded by the sponsor)? Explain how they did or did not “appropriate” their literacy. You can write about one, or two, or all three of the authors you read, but be specific and write for about five minutes.

 

Briefly describes the context in which the text was created and the speaker/author’s purpose and goals. Explains the significance of those rhetorical elements in supporting the speaker/author’s purpose and goals. Discusses how the text exemplifies feminist or civil rights rhetoric.

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Social Movement Rhetoric

Mini-Analysis

Mini-analysis activities are an opportunity for you to engage with our module readings and resources and apply key concepts from rhetorical theory to real-world speeches and texts.

For this mini-analysis you will need to find a text related to either the civil rights movement or the women’s rights movement. This text can be a speech, a letter. a newspaper editorial, or something else, as long as you are able to analyze it through the lens of either feminist or civil rights rhetorical theory.

Assignment

Here are some resources to get you started in your search:

The American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank. Top 100 Speeches. The 1961.1970 section contains several civil rights speeches, and there are women’s rights speeches in both the 1911-1920 and 1921-1930 sections. . Women’s Rights Movement collection. U.S. National Archives e . Women’s Suffrage Digital Collections. Iowa State University e . Women’s Liberation Movement Print Culture. Duke University Libraries e . The Civil Rights Movement Archive e (use “The Movement’. dropdown menu to view documents and speeches) . Civil Movement e U.S. National Archives • Civil Rights Digital Library e

Once you have selected your text. complete a minimum 750-word analysis that does the following:

  1. Briefly describes the context in which the text was created and the speaker/author’s purpose and goals (one paragraph)
  2. Identifies elements of feminist rhetoric (e.g.. feminine style, invitational rhetoric, foreground/background strategies) or civil rights rhetoric (e.g.. reinventing classical rhetorical terms. strategic identity construction, symbolic demonstration) present in the text
  3. Explains the significance of those rhetorical elements in supporting the speaker/author’s purpose and goals.
  4. Discusses how the text exemplifies feminist or civil rights rhetoric.

 

Write about the following option in a 3-4 full page, double-spaced essay: Analyze a speech and discuss how the piece you select uses rhetoric to manipulate its audience to achieve its purpose.

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Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetoric is everywhere. Songs, poems, articles, speeches, etc. are filled with rhetorical devices that are used to elicit some type of response from readers and viewers. We need to be conscious of the way these devices are employed to persuade, change, and/or manipulate our thinking so that we can make our own informed judgments about how to think, feel, believe, etc. about what is presented to us. We want to be autonomous (self-governing) beings who resist coerced thought. We want ours to be a rational, critical decision, free from the many individual and societal pressures thrust upon us. In short, we want control of our own minds, and so it is important that we fully understand how rhetoric seeks to influence us.

Assignment:

Write about the following option in a 3-4 full page, double-spaced essay:

Analyze a speech and discuss how the piece you select uses rhetoric to manipulate its audience to achieve its purpose.

*Note – it will be important to understand the purpose of the work that you choose in order to show how the rhetorical elements come together to further and support that purpose. Also, you cannot write the essay on “The Perils of Indifference” since we have analyzed that in the class.

Truth in 24″ Documentary Movie analysis. Review the attached document for complete instructions regarding this essay.

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Truth in 24

“Truth in 24” Documentary Movie analysis. Review the attached document for complete instructions regarding this essay. This is NOT a movie review, it is an analysis.

The movie can be watched here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFwoxM1MiBw

Here are two movie reviews to utilize in the paper:

Truth in 24 – A Review

https://www.motortrend.com/news/truth-in-24-movie-review/#:~:text=%22Truth%20In%2024%22%20is%20an%20excellent%20film%20for,a%20film%20that%20your%20wife%20can%20still%20enjoy.

What kind of literary device is King using in “Toolbox”? What are the pieces of advice you found in “Toolbox”? Are they good advice?

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”Toolbox” by Stephen King Contains

Toolbox” is a excerpt from Stephen King’s book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. In On Writing, King talks both about his writing and his life. What kind of literary device is King using in “Toolbox”? What are the pieces of advice you found in “Toolbox”? Are they good advice? Use a quotation from “Toolbox” and try not to use the same quotation that everyone else uses.

Create an especially effective way to edit out informality since the non-writer can read each sentence aloud, letting the words hover in mind for a few seconds. 

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Model Report Post and Generating Ideas Table Post

Overcoming the Problem of Informality in WTNG 220 Reports

Note: Make your title page look like this one and study my model report below to see the content requirements for this first report and to answer the questions after it for your “Model Report” post assignment.  Post your answers to those questions, which reflect my grading criteria.

This report covers the common problem of informality in WTNG 220 reports and offers solutions.  At RWU, incoming How Writing Works students are used to writing essays, which usually allow for certain levels of informality due to the academic audience—often RWU peers.  Essay introductions and conclusions both permit brief narrations, audience-grabbing questions, and even personal pronouns, yet the report genre usually requires its writers to remain hidden so that the explained information stands out, not the writer.  In this report, section one covers the causes and effects of informality in reports while section two offers solutions to that editing issue.

 

The Causes and Effects of Informality in Reports

Informality occurs for two main reasons.  Most obviously, personal pronouns create too casual of a tone for most reports because they highlight the writer (“I,” “my,” etc.), the reader (“you”), or both (“we,” “us,” “our,” etc.). Hyland and Jiang (2017) even consider that such pronouns are “often considered the defining marker of informality,…” (p. 41).  Because personal pronouns stand out so clearly, they do “mark” a common WTNG 220 report problem, especially the personal references to “I” and “we.”  If a writer says, “I found that 22% of students felt alienated,” then he or she stresses themselves (what they discovered), not the statistic, and for that reason, report writers should hide themselves.  Along with obvious personal pronouns, informality is created because of conversational phrasing, such as “slang, inappropriate contractions, and unspecified abbreviations” (“Formal,” 2021), as well as clichés, jargon, and emotional wording.  Experts note, “Controversial issues can often bring out some extreme emotions …” (Excelsior Online Writing Lab [EOWL], n.d.), and writers will often express those deep feelings with conversational words: “obvious,” “heart-felt,” “terrible,” “mindless,” etc.  The problem with such verbiage is that they stress the writer’s opinion about a topic, not information about the issue itself.

A problem/solutions report is often called a proposal, which aims to get the audience to take the issue seriously and to act according to the proposed solutions. However, informality in these documents will lead to various credibility damaging effects.  To start, casual wording makes a writer look unknowing—ignorant about the problem.  The concept of informality “presupposes the existence of formality and a recognized set of practices built on a structure, authority or system” (Hyland & Jiang, 2017, p. 40).  If writers don’t “recognize” an element that fails to fit the formal report genre, then they will less likely to be believed.  Another credibility injuring effect of informality is that it implies that the writer is uncaring, that he or she is indifferent to their words’ effects on readers.  Bullock and Weinberg (2019) state, “readers will always react better to a reasonable, respectful presentation than to anger or self-righteousness” (p. 250), two emotions that would stress the writer’s feelings and potentially alienate the audience.  Furthermore, informal report writers will lose credibility by suggesting that they are unskilled since they fail to “use a reasoned tone that is appropriate” (EOWL, n.d.).  For instance, if a writer adds a cliché, such as “two heads are better than one” to explain the importance of getting tutorial help to combat informal wording, then the phrasing will stress the writer’s lack of diction instead of the point itself.  Editing out informality takes knowledge and skill, so when a writer fails to put in the effort to replace conversational words with more neutral ones, readers will conclude that he or she simply lacks grammatical control.

 

The Solutions to a Report’s Casual Tone

To solve the problem of informality in a WTNG 220 report, students can take the following steps:

  • Put  the paper aside for a few days—i.e., this tactic will cause writers to forget what they wrote and thus be able to edit more objectively since they will have forgotten what they said.  Composition experts (as cited in “Formal,” 2021) remind, “Formal writing is … about relaying a message while keeping in line with the ‘formal’ writing customs,” such as neutral word usage.  Inappropriate words will stand out more clearly when full statements are not remembered.

 

  • Use the Ctrl/F function to search for informal words—e.g., “thing,” “quote,” “you,” etc.  This computer tip opens up a search box, so writers can add an informal word (especially ones that they have used in past papers) and find it with a single click.  As professionals suggest, technology can be an effective editing tool (Bullock & Weinberg, 2019, p. 360), especially if a report is long. (Note: For Apple computers, students would use the Command/F keys.)

 

  • Read aloud to hear informality since “formal writers show objectivity” (Hyland & Jiang, 2017, p. 40).  When writers not only see but hear their words, informal phrasing stands out more clearly since two of the senses are being employed.  With this auditory step, personal pronouns like “I” and “we” are especially noticeable and can be edited.

 

  • Get help—i.e., a tutor or even a friend/peer offers an important editing source because, as Bullock and Weinberg (2019) contend, a non-writer might “hear problems” that the writer simply cannot spot (p. 360).  If a writer has a habit of informality, then he or she will easily miss conversational or emotional words simply because of their commonality.  Another person, however, might easily spot such casual prose and point it out.

Steps 3 and 4 above can often be combined to create an especially effective way to edit out informality since the non-writer can read each sentence aloud, letting the words hover in mind for a few seconds.  In fact, when a tutor reads aloud, the writer can often hear the problem him or herself, the different voice accenting informal wording that the writer could easily miss.

The editing solutions to informality will provide two important benefits.  First, by eliminating casual wording, the writer will prevent distractions and thus more smoothly deliver the report’s content.  According to composition experts (Bullock & Weinberg, 2019), proposal writers are “trying to persuade readers to act, [so] … tone is important …” (p. 250).  If writers can avoid interruptions by removing personal references, they can stress the document’s information, and the solutions will more likely be believed and “acted” upon.  For instance, if a writer builds a report around Covid’s effects on college students and possible solutions to that important problem, he or she will highlight the causes, effects, and solutions to the issue, not themselves, if they eliminate all distracting, subjective wording, such as personal examples and emotional adjectives and adverbs (“huge,” “sadly,” etc.).  In addition, another benefit to editing out informality is that doing so establishes the writer’s ethos, defined as the “character or disposition of a person. … As an author, you need to craft strong ethos appeals to highlight the credibility of your own work” (EOWL, n.d.).  To be believable, a writer needs to show objectivity (not subjectivity and “I” stressed), intelligence (with facts, not opinions implied through emotional words), and goodwill (not selfishness through continual informal references to the writer).  In terms of the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), Aristotle considered ethos to be the most crucial one for persuasion (Bullock & Weinberg, 2019, p. 33).

Most incoming WTNG 220 students at RWU have done little formal writing, so they must understand the causes and effects of informality, as well as the solutions to that common problem.  Since informal words are both insidious and persistent, they require extra editing attention.  For more information about formality and informality, students can check the sources below, consult the Internet, or contact their WTNG 220 professor.

 

 

References

Bullock, R. & Weinberg, F.  (2019).  The Norton field guide to writing with handbook. 

New York: Norton.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab.  (n.d.).  Ethos.  Retrieved June 28, 2022, from

Ethos

Formal tone in academic writing: Tips to achieve it.  (2021).  Retrieved June 22, 2022,

from https://besteditproof.com/en/academy/formal-tone-in-academic-writing-tips

Hyland, K. & Jiang, F. (2017).  Is academic writing becoming more informal? English for

specific purposes.   Vol. 45.: 40-51. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2016.09.001

 

 

Questions for Post Assignment

Remember my definition for an “A” report: paragraphs organized logically, focused clearly, developed specifically, and directions followed faithfully, as well as concise, coherent, correct sentencing.  The questions below reflect these ideas.

  • To organize a body pgh logically, use my SERIOUS planning acronym: Steps, Effects, Reasons, Illustrations, Opposites, Units/parts, Similarities.  In my four body pghs above, I use a different plan for each body pgh: which letter do I use for each (fill in—first one done to show what I mean):   1st body: R plan (pgh built around more than one “reason”).     2nd body:                3rd body:             4th body:

 

  • To focus clearly, add a short, clear topic sentence and two or more structural points.  In the four body pghs above, how many ST’s appear in each pgh (i.e., how many times do I STIR to build each pgh?)?  Again, I answer the first question to help you to understand.   1st body: 2 ST’s              2nd body:              3rd body:           4th body:

 

  • To develop specifically, you need to offer research and to ICE right (introduce, cite, explain).  How many times do I offer specific evidence (research) in each body pgh?   1st body:    2nd body:   3rd body:          4th body:

 

  • To follow directions faithfully, you need to add all the required content elements illustrated above to your own report.  Fill in those requirements here.  Number of body pghs:        Number of headings:         Number of visuals:          Number of sources:         Number of research quotes per body pgh:     What goes before the introduction?       What goes after the conclusion?

 

  • Concise sentencing means tight phrasing, mainly of your subjects and verbs.  Which of these sentences shows concise wording?                                             A)  To be believable, it is objectivity that writers must show.                                B) To be believable, a writer needs to show objectivity.                                       C)  To be believable, there are objective steps to be taken.

 

  • Coherence means a smooth flow of ideas.  Which sentence pair below shows that clear flow the best?
  •  A)  The editing solutions to informality will provide two important benefits.  The writer will prevent distractions and thus more smoothly deliver the report’s content.
  •  B)  The editing solutions to informality will provide two important benefits.  When casual wording is eliminated, the writer will prevent distractions and thus more smoothly deliver the report’s content.
  • C)  The editing solutions to informality will provide two important benefits.  First, by eliminating casual wording, the writer will prevent distractions and thus more smoothly deliver the report’s content.

 

  • Correctness deals with editing for grammatical errors.  Which sentence(s) below shows a lack of correctness?
  •  A)  By eliminating casual wording, it prevents distractions.
  • B)  Writers who eliminate casual wording prevent distractions, this leads to a smoother delivery of the report’s content.
  • C)  First by eliminating casual wording the writer will prevent distractions, and thus more smoothly deliver the report’s content.

 

Note: After you post your answers, check them with my “Annotated Informality Report Model.”

Benjamin Franklin is often identified as one of early America’s most influential and interesting persons. Post a discussion in which you argue Franklin’s importance in early America.

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin is often identified as one of early America’s most influential and interesting persons. Post a discussion in which you argue Franklin’s importance in early America.

Consider one or more of the following areas: historic and diplomatic contributions, inventions/innovations, and/or literary contributions.

Incorporate at least one quotation that was authored by Franklin.

Minimum Length: 150 words

 

Complete the sentences with the words in parentheses. Write two new sentences using participial forms of the verb as adjectives.

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Active/Passive

Module 3/Week 3 Assignment (36 Points)

Part 1, Error Correction: The article below has errors in features you studied in weeks 2 and 3 (e.g., passive/active voice verbs, stative passives, “get” passives, passive causatives, adjective forms, etc.). Type the article correctly below the incorrectly typed article. (10 points)

Article with Errors:

There are been many fun (or funny!) nicknames in sports. Some athletes give interesting nicknames as a result of their actions in games. One such athlete was “Wrong-Way” Riegels, who was played in the 1929 Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl is an important college football game that is play on January 1st every year. In the 1929 game, the football was dropped by a player from Georgia Tech, and Roy Riegels from the University of California was pick it up and began to run. It was seemed that Riegels would score easily. However, for some reason, he got confuse and ran 65 yards the wrong way. By the time he got turn around by a teammate, the other team had also run down the field, and Riegels got tackled on the one-yard line on the wrong end of the field. Because of Riegels’ run down the field, his team was lost the game 9-7, and he was nicknamed “Wrong-Way” Riegels.

Sometimes the play, not the player, is gotten the nickname. A famous soccer goal knows by its nickname, the “Hand of God” goal. This goal was scored by Argentinean superstar Diego Maradona against the English team in the 1986 World Cup. When the ball kicked over the heads of the English defense, both Maradona and the English goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, got jumped for it. Maradona was appeared to have hit the ball into the goal with his head, but Shilton protested that Maradona had been hit it with his hand. The goal was permitted to stand, and the game was won by Argentina, 2-1. When the television replays proved Shilton correct, Maradona was declared that the goal had been “a little bit Maradona, a little bit the hand of God.”

Part 2, Fill in the Blanks: Complete the sentences with the words in parentheses. Use the passive, get passive, or passive causative in appropriate tenses. The first one is done as an example. (1/2 point each, 6 points total)

Playing professional sports is the ambition of many young athletes. These youngsters dream of one day being as famous as Michael Jordan, and they hope that they will get paid (pay) a salary like his. However, playing professional sports isn’t easy and can be dangerous.

Professional athletes often __________ (hurt). Over the years, many baseball players ______________ (hit) by baseballs. Few football players ___________ (not, injure) at some point in their careers. Basketball players __________ (knock down) while playing, too. Even figure skaters ____________ (can, injure). During a recent competition, a well-known figure skater ___________ (drop) on the ice by her partner.

Behavior on and off the field can also lead to problems and to lost playing time. Players ______________ (may, suspend) for bad behavior during games and as a result may have to sit out for several games. Hockey players are notorious for fighting. They often __________ (kick out) of the game. Unfortunately, these days more professional athletes ____________ (arrest) for their behavior off the field.

Finally, a professional athlete’s career is often short. When players’ performance begins to decline, players ___________ (trade) to other teams. Sometimes they simply ___________ (not, hire) for the next season.

None of this stops young athletes from dreaming of being a top athlete and asking the question, ___________ (I, choose) to play on a profession team?

Part 3, Sentence Writing: Write two new sentences using participial forms of the verb as adjectives. Keep the same verb tense. (1 point each sentence; 10 points total)

Example: The long airplane ride exhausted everyone.

The long airplane ride was exhausting.

Everyone was exhausted by the long airplane ride.

  1. The unsolved mystery puzzles the nation.
  2. The huge celebration meal satisfied the family.
  3. The buzzing bees annoy the children.
  4. The thunder has terrified the campers in the tents.
  5. The magician’s tricks will fascinate the children.

 

Part 4, Fill in the blanks: Fill in the blanks with the correct participial adjective of the verb in parentheses. (1 point each, 10 points total)

Last night my friend and I went to see a new movie. We thought it was (bore) ___________. It had a lot of stupid car chases, which were not (excite) __________ at all. I didn’t like the characters, either. They weren’t very (convince) ___________. We were pretty (disappoint) ____________ because the reviewers said it was a good movie. They said it had (amaze) ___________ visual effects, but for me, it wasn’t (satisfy) ___________ at all. I was (frustrate) ____________ that I had wasted $12 and a whole evening for such a (tire) ____________ movie. Some people walked out of the theater before the movie was over, but I was too (embarrass) ___________ to do that. The only thing that wasn’t (disappoint) ___________ was the popcorn.

An explanation of your reading process. How did this week’s reading go for you? Discuss specific sections that made you confused or questions that you have about the text.

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Reading Response Journals of the book“Tell Me Who You Are” Chapter 1

Reading Response Journals should include the following:

2 brief summaries of the stories (8-10 sentences) including major events, characters, and important information about setting (place and time).

Your response to the readings (8-10 sentences) including your opinions about and reaction to the assigned chapters. This section is a place to think deeply about the book and the emotions and complex ideas it brings up for you.

2 discussion questions.

An explanation of your reading process. How did this week’s reading go for you? Discuss specific sections that made you confused or questions that you have about the text.

Point out strategies that helped you overcome challenges in your reading. Choose 2 or 3 of the following prompts to develop your ideas:

  1. 5 “significant words” from this particular reading—words give meaning to the chapter, or that you have decided to learn to develop your academic vocabulary define and explain the significance of these words to you or the text.

Book file：https://b-ok.cc/book/5008900/0dbc31