chapter 9 commentary: identifying patterns of meaning

Chapter 9

Commentary: Identifying Patterns

of Meaning

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 9 | 2

Overview

• Commentary is a genre using analysis and interpretation to find patterns of meaning in events, trends, and ideas.

• Commentary goes beyond reporting facts to helping readers make sense of them.

• Examples of this genre can be found on TV and radio, as well as in magazines and newspapers.


Key Feature ofCommentary— Personal Opinion

• Takes a position

• Presents an explanation from a perspective of the commentator

• Presents an interpretation that is intended to persuade readers


Three Functions of Commentators

• They label current trends (Generation X, the information superhighway).

• They encourage us to think about the causes and consequences of trends and events.

• They often praise or blame, and take a moral stance on events or trends.


Commentators reflect society

• Commentators often have regular readers or viewers (depending on the media) who look forward to the next article or program.

• They seek to both inform and persuade their audience, and to help make sense of the world and what is happening.


We are all commentators!

• All of us have opinions and share them with family, friends, classmates, and coworkers

• Our choice for president

• The latest scandal on Wall Street

• A movie sequel (worth seeing?)

• The war in Iraq (justified?)

• Possible layoffs at work


Commentary in our world

• It grows out of our desire to analyze (or look carefully at) and explain what has happened.

• Everyday communication functions as “social analysis.”


Readings

• Eric Liu, “Remember When Public Spaces Didn’t Carry Brand Names?”

• Lundy Braun, “How to Fight the New Epidemics”

• Ayn Rand, “Marilyn Monroe’s Sad, Lonely Cry for Help”


Blogs

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq

• A 25-year old Iraqi woman in Baghdad began to blog in August 2003. A complete archive and current blogs can be found at: <riverbendblog.blogspot.com>.


Visual Design: Parody

• Forkscrew Graphics, iRaq.

• Adbusters Prozac parody.

• An analysis follows, examining how the parodies make use of recognizable ad campaigns to make a visual commentary.


Further Exploration

• Another option, mentioned under working together, is to put together a casebook.

• A casebook is a compilation of commentaries on an issue; write a brief introduction and identify the writer.


Writing Assignment

• Write a commentary that addresses a topicof interest to you. The chapter gives yousix options.

• Your instructor will let you know whether your class will be doing this particular assignment, and provide you with additional guidelines.


Planning and Drafting

• See four suggestions for naming a topic,page 306 .

• Four questions to ask yourself to discover what you already know about the topic

• Frame the issue; chapter lists six ways to frame the issue in the introduction

• Four things to do in the conclusion


Peer Commentary and Revising

• See page 310 for three questions to use when doing peer commentary with a classmate.

• See page 311 for a list of five questions to use when incorporating ideas from the peer commentary into your revision.


Student sample

• Rachel Smith, “Socially Acceptable Discrimination”

• Three questions about her essay, pages 316-317.

• Three questions to reflect on your writing or to interview a classmate about his or her essay.


Ethics and commentary

• Commentators often speak on behalf of others.

• In doing so, they play a “vital role in a democracy, holding accountable those in positions of power and explaining what the public’s stake is in events, trends, and ideas” (3.9-54).


Ethics and Commentary, cont.

• Commentators need to be ethical in howthey write about other people, and shouldn’t stereotype groups, such as single motherson welfare.

• This practice tends to create a sense of “us versus them” and does not treat groups fairly.


Student Companion Website

• Go to the student side of the Web site for exercises, chapter overviews, and links to writing resources for this chapter:

http://college.hmco.com/pic/trimbur4e

chapter 9 commentary: identifying patterns of meaning

Documents

work slide

visual commentary

overview commentary

functions of commentators

consequences of trends

society commentators

current trends generation

regular readers