Tuesday, September 10th, 2019

English 101: Writing About WritingBreaking Down Rhetorical Analysis: Focus on Audience & Effectiveness

New Questions about Hesse and Stewart?

The CRA Assignment Sheet

✤ Read it to each other in groups of 3-4.

✤ Annotated it as you read-highlight and underline parts you think are especially important.

✤ As a group, negotiate a hierarchy of needs for this paper.

✤ As a group, create a list of questions for me based on the expectations of the genre and my expectations of you.

Parts of a CRA

The introduction provides an overview of the ongoing debate, the authors, and the two texts being compared.

The thesis clearly states which text is more effective in accomplishing the rhetorical purpose and why, with attention to rhetorical concepts and choices.

The paper evaluates the authors’ specific rhetorical strategies (logos, ethos, pathos, organization, etc.) in terms of how they help or hinder the authors’ attempt to get readers to accept new information, feel certain emotions, alter their attitudes or beliefs, or take particular action.

The body of the paper provides sufficient and specific evidence from the texts and clearly explains how the rhetorical strategies used affect readers and accomplish (or not) the rhetorical purpose.

THE CRA THESIS AND BODY OF PAPER: EMPHASIZE PURPOSE & EFFECT ON AUDIENCE

1. Though both speakers are great at appealing to rhetorical devices, DeParle is able to establish a stronger connection with the audience. DeParle makes the better connection by more effectively appealing to ethos in conjunction with pathos. From this, we can conclude that appealing to ethos and pathos, more than logos, will make for a more effective speech. 2. While both have similar messages and purposes—to change the minds of people who think that education gives poor people a chance to succeed economically, DeParle is likely to be more effective in changing his readers’ minds than Marsh because he makes better appeals to his audience to get them to care about the people affected, balances his appeals more fluidly, and makes more convincing use of evidence and in- depth examples.

Audience AnalysisPart 1: Think about who the audience is and how they view the issue.1. Consider some specifics of who the intended audience is:•Age•Education level•Economic status and profession•Political/social beliefs2. What attitudes or stances toward the topic does your audience probably have? What about their background may help explain this point of view?3. What personal stake do they have in the issue? (That is, how would like they like to see the problem/question/issue resolved, answered, or handled? Do they have any personal experience with the issue? Does their job require them to be involved with the issue?)Part 2: Think about what level of information the intended audience has about the subject.4. How much does your audience know about this topic? 5. Does your audience have strong opinions about the topic? Why or why not?Part 3: Consider the audience’s values.6. Based on the information you have about your audience, what do you think they value? (That is, what do they care about? What ideas or concepts do they respect or regard highly?) Explain at least 3 things you think the audience values.7. How might the audience’s values affect how someone should write to them?

Group Work

Discuss what you know about this audience, and what you wish you knew about their values and what they might find rhetorically convincing.

How can we define the discourse community? How do Hesse’s and Stewart’s audiences differ? How can you tell?

Write out your answers to these questions.

Bringing it together …

✤ Look at the identifications you have just made about audience. Compare this with your identifications of purpose from your rhetorical situation reports.

✤ Which writer do you think best caters to his/her audience to get what he/she wants?

✤ Write out which writer is more effective and explain why using specific details about the audience.

Working on Evidence

✤ While your introduction will make a claim on which writer most effectively writes to his/her audience in order to achieve his/her purpose through choices …

✤ Your body paragraphs will identify evidence of those choices and they explain why these choices are the best (or not very good) choices, because of how they appeal or don’t appeal to this audience in a way that will or will not motivate them to do what the author wants.

In Class Writing

1. Choose the article you think was most rhetorically effective.

✤ Make a claim on the article’s effectiveness by assessing how well he/she used his/her authorial assumptions to make optimal rhetorical choices.

✤ Identify the choice, quote or summarize it, and comment on why it is so effective in helping the author achieve his/ her purpose to his/her audience.

2. Choose the article you think was least rhetorically effective.

✤ Make a claim on the article’s effectiveness by assessing how well (or poorly) he/she used his/ her authorial assumptions to make rhetorical choices.

✤ Identify the choice, quote or summarize it, and comment on why it is so in/effective in helping (or deterring) the author achieve his/her purpose to his/her audience.

Creating Outlines

✤ Think about your ideas on the two articles and their respective effectiveness.

✤ Think about the ways in which you are the most critical about their effectiveness. (You would use all of your ideas in this paper, just the ones that help you make your point the clearest).

✤ How will you organize your paper?

Homework

Reading: Student Sample of CRA

Homework: Write outline of your paper, including your thesis and topic sentences. Bring this to class on Thursday. Also bring your in class writing from today and any other notes or pre-writing you think you might could work into your first draft.

https://fennell101.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/101.cra_.fennell.studentsample.pdf