Rhetoric Matters:
Language and Argument in Context
Edited by Jason Carabelli and Brogan Sullivan
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by University of South Florida.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable
copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33617
Contents
Copyright
2
Acknowledgements
6
Introduction: Academic Writing
7
1: Writing in the University Setting
10
Forms of Academic Writing
11
Writers Emphasize Complexity
16
Writing is an Ongoing Conversation
21
Writing is a Process
26
2: Critical Thinking and Arguments
33
Introduction to Logical Fallacies
34
The Audiences of Various Media
37
What is an Argument?
41
Identifying an Argument
45
Understanding Claims
52
Understanding Visual Arguments
58
3: Rhetoric
63
What is Rhetoric?
64
Why We Study Rhetoric
69
Logos: Appeals to Logic
76
Ethos: Appeals to Authority and Credibility
81
Pathos: Appeals to Emotion
87
Kairos: Appeals to Timeliness
91
Quick Reference Guide: Rhetorical Appeals
96
Quick Reference Guide: Logical Fallacies
98
4: Conducting Research
100
Research as Conversation
101
Research as Discovery
106
Finding and Evaluating Sources
112
Defining Evidence
116
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
121
Why We Create an Annotated Bibliography
125
Organizing Research to Construct a Synthesis Matrix
128
5: Drafting an Argument
132
Formulating a Thesis
133
Thesis Models
140
Making and Supporting Claims
144
Considering the Opposing Side
153
6: Constructing the Essay
159
Considering Audience, Purpose, and Genre
160
Classical Argument Structure
167
Tracing a Logical Progression
177
Constructing Paragraphs
181
Constructing Paragraphs: The Nuts and Bolts
185
How to Write an Engaging Introduction
191
How to Write a Compelling Conclusion
195
Citing Your Sources
200
Document Design
206
7: Peer Review
209
Stop Searching for Errors: How to Read Holistically
210
Writing Helpful Peer Reviews
213
Making the Most of Peer Feedback
218
Making the Most of Instructor Feedback
222
8: Revision Techniques
227
Revising is Not Editing
228
First, Second, and Third Drafts
232
Author Bios
235
Acknowledgements
As editors of Rhetoric Matters, we are proud to participate in a long tradition of homegrown innovation. Our community of administrators, instructors, and students has
collaborated to produce a dynamic, robust curriculum. The rich, pedagogical contributions of our teachers-writers in our e-text are tangible evidence of the synergism reflected in this collaborative culture.
We remain indebted to the colleagues and editors whose tireless dedication forged
the First-Year Composition Program’s (FYC) tradition of developing teacher-scholar
textbooks for our undergraduate population. In particular, we are grateful to Cassie
Childs, editor of last year’s textbook, which as a print volume became, in many ways,
the predecessor of our current e-text.
Finally, we thank Dr. Joe Moxley and Dr. Dianne Donnelly, whose unflagging support
of collaborative scholarship empowers the entire University of South Florida FYC community.
Jason Carabelli and Brogan Sullivan
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Introduction: Academic Writing
One of the most common sentiments we hear our students express in discussions
about writing is this: “I’m a horrible writer.” The anxiety that lurks underneath such
statements is palpable—and completely understandable. Writing is hard. Just ask
anyone who makes her living as a writer. And yet, as teachers and as human beings,
our first inclination is to encourage our students that they are not horrible writers, to
insist that writing is easier than they think.
So what are we to do with this set of conflicting ideas? Is writing easy or hard? Are
our students horrible writers? Or have they been operating under a false assumption since elementary school? The truth is probably a mixture of both. Writing is hard
because you can never become a perfect writer; there’s always something more to
learn about it, always a better way to say something. But writing is also easy, because
you’re been doing it ever since you can remember, ever since you learned to string
words together in meaningful sentences that describe what you did today and how
you feel about it.
“Okay, sure,” you say. “I know how to talk to my friends and loved ones. But that’s not
writing.”
Sure it is.
It’s also not. It’s true that there’s a difference between having a conversation about
last night’s football game or the movie you saw last week and writing an essay about
the effects of the Vietnam War on socioeconomic class in the American Midwest or
the use of irony in the novels of Ernest Hemingway. But it’s not a huge difference.
Either way, you’re using language to communicate ideas. On the most fundamental
level, that’s all writing is: meaningful communication. The only real difference is the
form that communication takes; everything else is just details. The details are what
this book is about.
In the next eight chapters, you’ll discover how to transform your already considerable
talent for communication into a lifelong capacity to reach out to larger audiences, to
thoughtfully confront and respond to the seemingly endless stream of information
that competes for your attention, and to contribute in a meaningful way to the ongo7
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ing exchange of human discourse. In short, you will learn how to speak up. Writing in
the 21st century means taking an active role in the creation and distribution of knowledge. It means paying more attention to what’s being said on radio, TV, and the Internet. It means making sense out of what all too often seems like nonsense, and carving
out a space in which your own voice and your own ideas become important.
In this textbook, we focus on academic writing, which is simply the most common
form of writing you will encounter in a university setting. It is by no means the only
form, nor the most popular. It is, however, the one that you will use most often in
your college career, and the strategies and skills you learn here will apply to the writing you do for the rest of your life, whether you go on to work in business, science,
engineering, medicine, the arts, or politics. You will also find these skills useful in your
personal life, for creating and maintaining a blog, for instance, or communicating with
family and friends via email or other social networking venues. In each of these human endeavors, the ability to express your ideas with respect, clarity, and style translates into more effective exchanges overall.
This textbook also focuses on exploring the art of rhetoric, or argument—that is, the
use of writing to persuade an audience. Broadly speaking, argument constitutes only
one of the three purposes of verbal communication. The other two purposes of writing are to describe (the type of writing you might see in a travel magazine or a movie
review) and to entertain (stories, novels, plays, etc.). In practice, these three purposes
tend to work together; in order to persuade an audience, you will most likely need to
describe certain things, and no one wants to read an essay that does not also entertain. However, with academic writing, the ability to argue effectively is fundamental.
In fact, the ability to argue—effectively, thoughtfully, and cordially—also enhances
your capacity to navigate everyday life, to become an active participant in our increasingly complex global society. It is common for individuals to feel powerless and
voiceless, to feel as though their lives do not affect the outside world. With a solid
understanding of rhetoric and its uses, you can counteract that tendency, and gain
agency—the capacity to change things for the better despite the forces that promote
stasis and stagnation. Using the skills you will learn in this book, you will be able to
interpret the often conflicting, always complicated messages that the world sends at
you, to organize your thoughts and feelings about those messages, and to articulate
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insightful, vigorous, and persuasive responses, all of which are the hallmarks of responsible and active citizens.
In summary, this textbook is about more than simply learning how to write better. It’s
about learning how to recognize and develop talents you already possess. It’s about
giving you the tools you need to fulfill your destiny as an active participant in the human story. Fundamentally, it’s about you, your opinions, your ideas, your voice. The
world is waiting for you to speak up. What will you say, and how will you say it?
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1: Writing in the University Setting
10
Forms of Academic Writing
11
Writers Emphasize Complexity
16
Writing is an Ongoing Conversation
21
Writing is a Process
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Forms of Academic Writing
By Vernetta K. Williams
From Appetizer to Entrée: Expand Your Writing Appetite
During their first year of college, many students discover that writing expectations at
the university level differ vastly from those at the high school level. Writing a research
paper and responding to literary works in written form, via questions, short answer
or essays, typically define the high school writing experience. Having practiced these
two forms of writing in high school English classes causes many students to develop
a cookie cutter approach to writing that does not suit the college classroom. Consequently, many new students approach writing assignments in the same fashion,
which does not reliably produce work that meets the requirements of academic writing.
If students view the five paragraph essay model and research paper given in high
school as appetizers rather than the main entrees on the menu of higher education
writing, they open themselves to crafting an exciting array of written works during
their college tenure. While students have ample time to sample numerous items on
the college writing assignment menu, producing solid academic writing also results
from understanding three writing forms that permeate academic assignments.
Before delving into these three forms of writing, a review of fundamental communication concepts will supply the proper context for understanding the range and depth
of academic writing. Writing should be recognized as one form of communication that
occurs naturally and frequently in a literate society. For instance, most people engage
in assorted modes of communication each day, from texting a friend to reading a sign
to talking on the phone. Most people unconsciously adjust aspects of their speech,
like inflection and tone, to fit a particular communication situation. While written and
oral communication demand a different set of skills, adopting a fluid approach when
engaged in both forms the written work or speech appropriately reflects its communication context. In fact, effective writing and speaking share a common foundation: a
consideration of purpose and audience.
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Most composition and public speaking textbooks explain that every form of communication has one of three objectives: to inform, to persuade or to entertain. While
informative or entertaining elements may surface in a persuasive piece, the primary
objective of persuasion is distinct from the primary objective of informing or entertaining. Once writers and speakers identify a central reason for communicating, they
can determine which strategies allow them to accomplish their objective.
Secondly, writers and speakers must pinpoint the audience who will benefit from
their communication. For example, the type of writing information provided to a
group of first year graduate students with four years of college writing experience differs from the information given to a group of undergraduate students who lack even
one year of college level writing experience.
Understanding the fluid nature of writing allows for an examination of three writing
modes (writing as invention, writing as discovery and writing as knowledge-making)
that actively exist when composing academic assignments. This textbook provides
specific strategies for conducting these three types of academic writing (i.e., how to
write to invent, how to write to discover and how to write to make knowledge); however, the following section highlights each form.
Writing to Create, Uncover and Produce
When you write to invent, you write with the goal of creating or producing. You write
to document original angles, perspectives, thoughts or information you have about a
topic; writing to invent can take place in an informal or formal manner. Imagine writing a research paper on the controversial issue of abortion. Your paper would not be
effective by simply restating arguments about women’s rights or the point at which
a human being forms in the womb; instead, your goal would be to note new considerations, questions or answers to the topic. For example, a recent legal battle could
spark an innovative idea or approach that becomes the central or marginal content
for your paper.
In many instances, writing to discover and writing to invent converge with one another. Typically, when you write to invent, you have composed unique ideas, notions and
information prior to conducting research. Several years ago, the decades-long debate
on abortion revived because of a woman’s right to request a “late-term” abortion.
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Medically, late-term abortions were not a novelty because doctors performed them to
preserve the health and life of at-risk pregnant woman. However, the procedure became a viable option for women wanting to terminate a pregnancy, which resurrected
the topic. While some responded quickly with interesting perspectives, others withheld their written reactions until gathering additional information.
By definition, when you write to discover, you open yourself to ideas and insights
about a topic that have yet to be considered by writers or scholars, and even yourself
at times. Therefore, writing to discover often results from exploring, unearthing and
exposing all aspects of a topic, especially opposing viewpoints. When you write to discover, the result may be invention, more discovery or the production of new knowledge.
When you write to generate knowledge, you write from a confident position to relay information that you have acquired. Returning to the late-term abortion paper,
once you have conducted adequate research, stated your original ideas and included
other perspectives in a manner that supports what you have discovered and invented
about “late term” abortions, you have written to produce knowledge about abortion,
whether in the form of a solution, call to action, theory or stance.
A Writing Challenge
Now, you have the opportunity to read how writing to invent, writing to discover and
writing to make knowledge work together to complete an academic writing assignment. The paragraphs below detail a writing assignment that requires students to
address aspects of one of the most controversial films in history, The Passion of the
Christ. Writing about a subject for which you possesses strong beliefs, such as religion,
can be challenging; however, college requires you to exercise critical thinking skills,
which involves a willingness to challenge, prove or dismiss information based upon
your personal values. Within the academic world, opinions, beliefs and values only
become valid written arguments once they are supported sufficiently.
The film The Passion of the Christ chronicles the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ;
though a commercial success, people of varying religious beliefs as well as scholars
and film reviewers criticized it heavily. Therefore, strong written reactions from both
supporters and opponents of the film exist.
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Some students recall being banned from watching the film, encouraged to watch it or
too young to view it upon its 2004 release; they share what they have heard and know
about the film with classmates who have never watched or heard of the film. Initial
reactions to the assignment range from apathy to excitement to intrigue to disbelief
regarding what could possibly be controversial about a film about Jesus Christ.
Regardless of their knowledge level of the film, students recognize the contrasting
thoughts, perspectives and beliefs about the film. Noting their thoughts, they begin
to initiate the writing as invention and writing as discovery processes. Then, students
move from an awareness of the general praises and criticisms of the film to an intimate knowledge of the staunch opposition as well as mass support of the film. With
nearly 10 years of dialogue, articles, interviews, blogs and reactions to investigate,
students quickly realize they know very little about the rich and dynamic conversation
about the controversial film, thus continuing the process of writing to discover and
writing to invent.
The details of the conversation emerge as students scour newspaper articles and
movie critiques, from both the pre- and post-film release period. Students dissect
perspectives, opinions and commentary from Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, American,
Muslim and International communities as well as blogs, organizational websites, editorials and journal articles by religious leaders, historians, devout Jews, faithful Christians, experienced movie critics, church leaders, teenagers, bible scholars and the
general movie-going public. The students locate interviews and a website devoted to
the film where the director, Mel Gibson, repeatedly defends and explains his artistic
and cinematic choices.
With a fuller understanding of the controversies surrounding The Passion of the Christ,
students unearth other issues, like agreements between Christian and Jewish leaders
over the representation of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council, and the role they played
in the crucifixion of Jesus. Other tangential subjects located include real-life violence
depictions that contemporary movie-goers expect, the role of technology in visual
presentations and the “passion play” genre of theatre and film.
Once they complete their research, students focus on aspects of the controversies
that appeal to them, confuse them, engage them, cause them to reflect, etc. Armed
with knowledge, support and personal engagement, students watch the film to as-
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sess their sources, form their own conclusions and contribute to the body of written
knowledge about controversies surrounding The Passion of the Christ. As you can see
from this detailed description, the three forms of writing repeatedly occur while completing this academic paper.
The journey of writing at the college level encompasses a range of activities, from
thinking to fact gathering to researching. However, embracing your responsibility to
utilize writing in order to invent, to discover and to make knowledge will equip you to
explore all that the college writing menu has to offer.
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Writers Emphasize Complexity
By Ella Bieze
One of the things we see most often in academic writing is that authors have to deal
with complex topics or issues. An issue or topic might be considered complex if there
are multiple points of view on the subject. It’s important to understand that when we
say multiple points of view, we mean more than just two; that’s one thing that makes a
complex issue or topic complex. Typically, there are going to be multiple groups, organizations, or individuals who have a stake in any given issue or topic, and each of their
perspectives on the subject is going to be slightly different. Each of these separate
groups, organizations, or individuals, with their separate perspectives on the subject
at hand, can be called a “stakeholder.” A complex issue or topic might have three,
four, ten, or a hundred different stakeholders involved. As an author, it’s important
for you to be able to articulate multiple points of view on any given issue or topic and
to do so in a way that emphasizes the complexity of an issue in a respectful, appropriate way.
Let’s discuss these ideas of stakeholders, multiple points of view, and the differences
between simplifying a topic and emphasizing its complexity by using an example from
recent current events in this country. As you read through the rest of this article, pay
attention to the tone and word choice in my writing and in the excerpts I’ve selected
from other sources. Using appropriate tone and word choice is one way that you can
demonstrate that you understand the complexities of the subject matter you’ve chosen to write about.
On January 31, 2012, the world’s largest breast cancer organization, Susan B. Koman
for the Cure, announced that it would no longer be funding breast cancer screenings
and health education programs run by Planned Parenthood affiliates. Without knowing too much about these two organizations or the multiple stakeholders involved
with this issue, it could be relatively easy to oversimplify this topic by relying on assumptions and binary thinking. “Binary thinking” is when we assume that there are
only two perspectives on an issue or topic; often these are categorized as a “right”
perspective and a “wrong” one. Approaching a debate like this one by relying on binary thinking is typically an oversimplification of what is in reality a vastly more complex
issue or topic.
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In this example, relying on oversimplified, binary thinking to understand this debate
might go something like this:
“I don’t know that much about either organization, but I do know that the Komen Foundation is a breast cancer organization that organizes “Race for the Cure” – that’s a good thing,
because it raises money for breast cancer research. I also know that Planned Parenthood is
often associated with abortions. I’m not sure how I feel about that but I know a lot of people
are against abortions – they think abortions are bad things. The Komen Foundation must
have cut funding to Planned Parenthood because they perform abortions. Therefore, The
Komen Foundation is right and Planned Parenthood is wrong.”
The first problem with the above conceptualization of this current event is, of course,
the lack of evidence. Look at the first sentence. The speaker says, “I don’t know that
much about either organization, but…” This is a common first mistake in oversimplifying complex issues or topics. Research is an important way to gather more information, and will allow you to approach a debate like this one thoughtfully.
As you may suspect by now, this issue is much more complex than the binary thinking
above illustrates. According to the New York Times, “A spokeswoman for the Komen
foundation, Leslie Aun, told The Associated Press that the main factor in the decision
was a new rule adopted by Komen that prohibits grants to organizations being investigated by local, state or federal authorities. Ms. Aun told the A.P. that Planned Parenthood was therefore disqualified from financing because of an inquiry being conducted by Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, who is looking at how
Planned Parenthood spends and reports its money.”
Our hypothetical speaker above assumed that the Komen foundation was no longer
contributing financially to Planned Parenthood because the organization is labeled as
one that provides services including abortions. But the statement made by the Komen representative, Leslie Aun, indicates that there are more complex issues at stake
here.
Let’s consider for a moment the stakeholders we know about so far in this debate.
While it initially seemed as though there were only two stakeholders (the Komen
foundation and Planned Parenthood), we can move past that binary thinking and realize that this topic is much more complex than that. The stakeholders we know about
so far include: the Komen foundation; Planned Parenthood; Planned Parenthood af-
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filiates; employees of the Komen foundation like Leslie Aun, a spokeswoman for the
organization; Representative Cliff Stearns; and perhaps even the people that Representative Cliff Stearns represents.
Let’s also consider the stakeholders who may seem less obvious. The ones we’ve listed above are mentioned or implied by the paragraph cited from the New York Times,
but if we think critically about the Komen foundation and Planned Parenthood it becomes clear that there are other people who are impacted by each of these organizations and thus also count as stakeholders in this debate. These stakeholders might
include: men and women who have or are survivors of breast cancer; the families
of people with breast cancer; people who have made donations to the Komen foundation; people who have made donations to Planned Parenthood; and the nearly
five million people who use Planned Parenthood to access affordable health care or
educational resources about sexual and reproductive health, including “585,000 Pap
tests and nearly 640,000 breast exams each year, critical services in detecting cancer”
(www.plannedparenthood.org). Each of these people care about this debate for their
own particular reasons. They are all stakeholders in this debate, and when the Komen
foundation defunds Planned Parenthood, it impacts each stakeholder in a slightly different way.
But wait—it gets even more complex. According to the New York Times, “Anti-abortion
advocates and Web sites have criticized the Komen foundation’s financing of Planned
Parenthood for years. And in December, LifeWay Christian Resources, which is owned
by the Southern Baptist Convention, said it was recalling a pink Bible it was selling at
Walmart and other stores because a dollar per copy was going to the Komen foundation and the foundation supported Planned Parenthood.”
Now, in addition to all the stakeholders we listed above, we need to include: antiabortion advocates and websites; LifeWay Christian Resources; the Southern Baptist
Conventions; and Walmart.
So maybe our initial assumption that this action had something to do with abortion
wasn’t too far off. But look at the difference between the number of stakeholders we
started with and the number of stakeholders we’ve ended with. This is clearly a complex issue; binary thinking oversimplifies it, and leaves us without a comprehensive
understanding of who and what is truly at stake here.
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And remember at the beginning of the article how I asked you to pay attention to
tone and word choice? The defunding of Planned Parenthood by the Komen foundation has connections to one of the most debated topics in our country today: abortion. Often we see a lot of inflammatory language and emotional rhetoric surrounding this topic. But if you look at the tone and word choice I’ve used in this article, and
which the New York Times used in its article, you’ll see a fairly balanced presentation of
the multiple perspectives on a complex topic. Keep these things in mind as you write
about whatever issue or topic you’re interested in, and you’ll be able to avoid binary
thinking, you’ll be able to devote your attention to multiple points of view, and as an
author, you’ll demonstrate an awareness of how truly complex many of today’s issues
are.
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Works Cited
Belluck, Pam. “Cancer Group Halts Financing to Planned Parenthood.” The New York
Times. N.p., 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 June 2013.
Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org
The Susan G. Komen Foundation: http://ww5.komen.org
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Writing is an Ongoing Conversation
By Brittany Cagle
“Writing well means engaging the voices of others and letting them in turn engage
us.” – Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
So this might sound a little strange, but everything you’re about to learn (or have
already learned) in college has been or will be debated about by somebody, somewhere in this world. Think about that. Every single thing—even the information you
learned as a known fact could be only one person’s understanding of that material.
That means any main idea out there has already been interpreted in a number of different ways. There’s already a conversation in place all around us (just hopefully not
inside our heads because that’s a little creepy).
Well, who exactly is on the other end of that conversation? Other writers. Writers who
already have their own judgments, beliefs, values, and experiences. Writers who may
very well be stubborn and ready to argue, or writers who will inspire you to contribute
a new idea of your own to what has already been said. Kenneth Burke, a philosopher
and rhetorician, introduced a metaphor for the ‘unending conversation’ encounter.
He famously described a parlor in which a person has arrived late and finds that
there is already a heated discussion taking place about a topic. His metaphor emphasizes that the discussion never does truly end. As the conversation proceeds in
the academic world, you, as a writer, will be responsible for conducting research and
responding to previous claims about your topic made from others. It is important to
identify these conversations—whether that is through referencing academic journals,
conferences, books, or dissertations—because the people writing for these topics
have (or should have) a strong knowledge and understanding of the topic.
Your instructors have now assigned you to write for a specific project in your writing
class. They have asked that you think critically about a specific topic and formulate
your own claim, or thesis, about it. You have been assigned to make an interpretation about that given subject and examine your own interpretation of it. Will you defend that subject? Refute it? Offer a new view of your own? For any position you take
on your topic, you are being asked to do much more than regurgitate already known
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information or facts. High school is now behind you and the days of gathering and
summarizing information seem far-gone. Now you must develop your own point of
view from your given materials and provide evidence to support your claims. You are
now conducting research and entering into that scholarly conversation happening all
around you.
Ever been caught daydreaming in class? Did your instructor put a spotlight on you
and ask an odd question that you had no idea how to answer? Your heart started to
race. You felt everyone’s eyes burning into your skull and you hoped that somehow
your answer hadn’t already been said. You took a deep breath, while hoping for the
best, and began to speak…
This scenario is very much like conducting research and entering into an ongoing conversation. You want to know what’s already been said and what evidence is already
being presented out there on your topic. That way you aren’t just being repetitive
(and criticized by a large gathering of eyes). This process of listening and responding
in an ongoing conversation, or debate, allows for a new introduction of viewpoints
and findings in academic writing.
In our own everyday conversations, we listen (hopefully) to other voices, reflect upon
what has been said, evaluate the language, and respond using our own appropriate
language, tone, and gesture. We follow accordingly to conventions of polite behavior. Our writing is very much the same. When we think of writing as a conversation,
we are introducing what others have already said about our subject, reflecting upon
those main points, evaluating what these viewpoints or findings mean for our topic,
and responding to these viewpoints accordingly to academic writing conventions. In
our own writing, we also respond using appropriate language or diction according
to the project guidelines. Depending on the form of argument we’re being asked to
write, the audience we’re writing to, and the purpose of the assignment, we adjust
our writing style accordingly.
For example, when asked to write a bibliographic essay, the writer must discuss a
number of different works of previously published writing on that same topic. You
pinpoint a topic, visit credible sources, and see what others are already saying about
your chosen topic. You are identifying that already existing conversation by looking
through the available evidence. Another example of entering a conversation could be
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when you’re blogging or posting on a networking site. These websites provide a space
for productive conversations where one can actively create and critique arguments.
You might expand upon a writer’s point on a thread post or status. You may either
agree or disagree with that person’s statement, but in either case you are contributing to an ongoing conversation.
When you are positioning your argument for your paper, it is important to present
your claim as a part of the larger conversation. These other views will help to frame
and clarify your own position on your topic. Once you get your argument positioned
for your paper, this will help structure the direction of your text. Although there isn’t
one explicit formula for writers to enter into an ongoing conversation, the writing
textbook, They Say, I Say: is one valuable source that writers may use to start their
writing process. The text emphasizes the importance of starting a paper with what
others are already saying. They offer writers a basic template to follow:
In discussion of X, one controversial issue has been..........
On the one hand, ..........argues..........
On the other hand, ..........contends..........
Others even maintain..........
My own view is.......... (Graff and Birkenstein, 24)
The authors of They Say, I Say: tell writers to ensure that their writing maintains a
sense of mission and urgency from start to finish. There are many ways to include the
conversation surrounding the topic into the text. You could use simple phrases such
as “according to the author,” “the author states that,” or “the writers point out that…”
There are many variations on these formulas. For example, the writing textbook They
Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing lists other phrases useful for introducing summaries and quotations from an ongoing conversation.
• Verbs for making a claim: Argue, assert, believe, claim, emphasize, insist, observe, remind us, report, suggest
• Verbs for expressing agreement: Acknowledge, admire, agree, celebrate the
fact that, corroborate, do not deny, endorse, extol, praise, reaffirm, support, verify
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• Verbs for questioning or disagreeing: Complain, complicate, contend, contradict, deny, deplore the tendency to, disavow, question, refute, reject, renounce
repudiate
• Verbs for making recommendations: Advocate, call for, demand, encourage,
exhort, implore, plead, recommend, urge, war (37)
After following the conversation of your topic, you will learn how to decipher what
sources are not relevant to your topic or research. You will learn to evaluate what the
writer says as you read, and check to see if your own conversation differs or matches
the author’s opinion of the same topic. So go on and use the scholarly conversation
all around you to engage and respond to your written ideas. By critically reading from
these outside authors, you can strengthen your own argument and get back to daydreaming.
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Works Cited
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic
Writing. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
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Writing is a Process
By Anna Angeli
Writing is a process. And we mean more than the painful process of sitting down and
blurting out thoughts onto a Word document in the two hours before an essay is due.
Really good writing is a long and rewarding process of idea generation, research, multiple drafts, peer review, and revision. All successful writers eventually come to accept
that, despite common misconceptions, writing is not a spontaneous burst of creative
genius but a series of steps to be learned and carefully repeated.
Before we can begin to discuss effective writing, let’s tackle that misconception: anyone who claims to write best under pressure is simply justifying procrastination. Your
first draft is never your best draft, just as your first attempt at anything that involves
attention to detail, meticulous planning, and solid structure is never your most polished work. The great novels you’ve read (whether War and Peace or Twilight) did not
spring complete and perfect from their authors’ brains onto paper.
Now imagine the following familiar scenario: your instructor has assigned an essay.
Let’s say it’s some variation of the argumentative essay. You have a vague notion of
what you’re supposed to do: pick a topic, argue something about it, and back up your
argument with evidence. You turn on your computer, open Word, and stare at the
blinking cursor. Instead of panicking when faced with that blank page, learn to refine
the necessary steps in the process of writing. These steps are discussed in more detail
in later chapters, but this introduction will help guide you as you prepare to master
the writing process.
Idea Generation
This first crucial step in writing often seems to be the most difficult for students preparing an essay. If your instructor has given you the choice of topic, or if you are writing for an upper-level course in which you are expected to hone in on a theme or a
concept, idea generation can be daunting.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is to start thinking about your paper
topic early. Don’t sit down to write the essay on a deadline with no topic in mind -- it
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will likely cause anxiety and will rob you of the chance to fully perform the later steps
in the process.
Next, make sure that you come up with something that is interesting to you. Students
sometimes grasp at topics that seem familiar, such as social issues they hear about in
the news or concepts they’re learning about in their courses. While it may seem like a
good idea to pick a topic simply to learn more about it, if you pick a topic that’s boring
to you, you’re much more likely to procrastinate, skimp on research, and ultimately
write a weak paper. And if you hate your topic (and your paper), chances are that your
instructor will too. On the other hand, if you can’t stop reading about your topic, and
you find yourself telling anyone who’ll listen to you about it, the writing process will be
much easier and more rewarding. You’ll want to get your thoughts coherent and onto
paper, and your instructor is likely to sense your involvement and respond positively.
Let’s return to the above scenario. You are staring at a blank document that is destined to be a brilliant 1000-word argumentative essay incorporating at least four
sources. You browse your university library’s online catalogue, your Facebook feed,
your diary, some favorite blogs, and Twitter and come up with the following five possibilities:
• gun control (because it’s all over the news)
• Skunk Ape (what is that thing?)
• horror/zombies in film (The Walking Dead = amazing)
• abortion (isn’t this a topic instructors like?)
• obesity (once again, it keeps popping up on social media)
• standardized testing (ugh)
• Chuck Norris as a cultural phenomenon (because everything you do, he does
better)
Even making such a jumbled list is better than grasping at the first thing you think of.
Often, your instructor will define parameters that will help guide your choice. If not,
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simply spend some time in front of your computer, browsing the library’s shelves for
titles, or bouncing ideas off of friends.
The most important things to keep in mind during this part of the process are to start
early and to care about your topic.
Research
Once you’ve decided that you absolutely have to find out more about the Skunk Ape,
or whatever you choose as your topic, it’s time to start researching. As you start viewing writing as a process, you’ll see this step as one of the most enjoyable in the process of writing a paper. You’ll also realize that it’s one of the longest. As you delve into
your topic, you may discover new and interesting aspects that help you narrow your
argument and scope. This is also the stage that will help you eliminate topics that are
too narrow, too broad, or simply not practical.
Skunk Ape, for example, might prove to be tricky. Upon a quick perusal of some databases, Google Scholar, and the library catalogue, you see that there is not much out
there. What you do find is that he’s the Floridian relative of Bigfoot and Sasquatch, or
alternately a common black bear with facial fungus and a BO problem, which is fascinating but not a great topic.
When you run into a snag like this, you can always try to reshape the topic into something more manageable. You might ask questions about Skunk Ape: Why is this bear
stinky? What’s wrong with his face? And what’s going on in the Everglades that leads
to ill bears in the first place? This line of thinking might lead you to other topics to
explore, such as the ecological implications of airboat traffic, agricultural run-off, or
even invasive species for the Everglades.
Some common pitfalls that panicking students fall into and that you should learn to
avoid are:
• only using Google and not the library databases
• reading a source only long enough to find a good quotation that supports your
own argument
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• stopping your research after the first four sources, even if they aren’t that useful
The library is your greatest resource, and your university spends countless dollars
keeping literally millions of sources at your fingertips. Take advantage of it! In “Finding
and Evaluating Sources,” you’ll also learn the importance of reading sources in their
entirety and exploring many options before settling on a few to incorporate into your
writing.
Lastly, the most important thing is to enjoy your research. If you find yourself unable
to concentrate on reading or to retain anything you read, return to “Idea Generation”
and pick a topic you care about.
Drafting
Now that you have found a topic and have read a lot of material about it, you have
ideas floating around in your head. It’s time to get them down on paper. Instead of
diving right into your introduction, however, it’s a better use of time to first write an
organizing draft to get your ideas into a structure you can use. An outline is a great
way of getting organized, but if that’s daunting, you can start with a simple list of major subtopics or themes you’ve learned about. You’ll also have to develop an argument, or thesis statement.
For example, your research on the Skunk Ape, and then subsequently on the ecological issues associated with the Everglades, might have led you to believe that the
invasive species running amok in the region pose a threat to the ecological health of
the Everglades. To make this argument, you’ll have to bring in evidence by giving examples and citing your expert sources.
Arranging these is a question of balancing what is most logical to you and how a reader can best navigate your argument. Here is an example of one possible outline for
this topic:
I. Introduction to historical context of the problem
A. Everglades
B. Who is supposed to live in the Everglades?
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C. Thesis: Invasive species such as the feral hog and the Burmese python are
destroying the Everglades by upsetting the delicate ecosystem; the python
preys on native species of animals and the hog outcompetes deer and destroys
native plant species.
II. Python
A. Eats everything, difficult to eradicate
B. Population explosion could lead to extinction of native species
III. Hog
A. Outcompetes deer
B. Rooting destroys necessary plant life
IV. Conclusion
A. Why should it matter who lives in the Everglades?
B. Some ideas to solve the problem
Your outline can be as detailed or as sparse as you prefer, but often, a detailed outline can make drafting the essay much easier.
Drafting the essay simply means writing as many drafts as you feel is necessary to
achieve a polished and effective final product. Although you should always write to
the best of your ability, expect your first draft to be fairly rough, especially if you’ve
never written about your topic before and the material is new to you. All writers write
multiple drafts as they work out the kinks and expand the aspects that are underdeveloped in their works.
Peer Review and Revision
In addition to learning how to generate ideas, do research, organize ideas, and create drafts, you should also master the skill of giving and receiving effective feedback
through peer review. Instead of regarding peer review as a hurdle you’ll have to clear
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in your writing course, consider it as an opportunity to develop and practice a lifelong
skill that will greatly benefit you later.
Giving and getting feedback is a necessary step in any writing you’ll do in college and
beyond, especially when the stakes are high. You’ll want to create the most perfect
draft possible when you hand in a major research paper, apply for a grant or scholarship, or create documents for a promotion at your workplace. Asking peers to read
and review your writing will help you do this.
Your peers might point out to you, for example, that your paper on the Everglades is
missing key information about how invasive creatures were introduced into the region, and by whom. They might point out minor details -- you forgot a title! this is a
comma splice! typo! -- but they may also pose questions that reveal some major structural flaw or lapse in logical progression of thought.
Peer review and revision go hand in hand. As you learn to work with your peers in the
classroom, you’ll learn when to accept or reject their advice regarding your writing.
Ideally, you’ll receive polite but critical feedback that will point out the strengths and
the weaknesses of your argument, giving you the chance to revisit, rethink, and revise
your draft several times before submitting a final draft. Your instructor’s feedback will
also be valuable to you in showing you which areas to rework and improve. “Making
the Most of Peer Feedback” and “Making the Most of Instructor Feedback” will help
you interpret and make the most of both your peers’ feedback and your instructors’
for effective revision.
While the writing process involves all of the above stages, from Idea Generation to
Peer Review, the stages may not always be as clearly defined as the examples given
here. Although there is a specific time you feel you are generating ideas, you’re actually always brainstorming as you write. Similarly, your research may start well before
you even get an assignment and may continue long past the due date. Each stage of
the writing process is interconnected with the others, making for a fluid progression
towards the final product: a polished final draft. And although good writers generally
use all of the stages mentioned above, no two writers use them in exactly the same
way. As you develop as a writer, you’ll learn how to adapt these stages to produce
your best work.
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Writing is rarely a single burst of exertion, nor is it an individual effort. Effective writing incorporates all of the above steps in a process that spans weeks and results in a
polished result that reflects the hard work of both the author and her reviewers. As
you learn to master each of these steps, remember that if you weren’t a conscientious follower of these steps, you might have handed in that last-minute paper about
Skunkape the hairless bear, or even worse, a limp argument about how Chuck Norris
doesn’t fall off a horse, a horse falls off Chuck Norris.
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2: Critical Thinking and Arguments
33
Introduction to Logical Fallacies
34
The Audiences of Various Media
37
What is an Argument?
41
Identifying an Argument
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Understanding Claims
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Understanding Visual Arguments
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Introduction to Logical Fallacies
By Brogan Sullivan
By now you know that all arguments operate according to an internal logic. No matter
which of the four rhetorical appeals the author uses, a fault in that logic will weaken
her argument. When such a breach occurs, we say that the argument is not sound. In
classical logic, an argument is sound only if all of its premises are true and the argument is valid. And an argument is valid only if its conclusion follows logically from the
combination of its premises. For example, Plato’s classic syllogism, “All men are mortal; Socrates is a man: therefore, Socrates is mortal” is both valid and sound. Its premises are true, and the conclusion is undeniable given an understanding of the definitions of the terms.
Plato’s syllogism is an example of a deductive argument; that is, it relies on a process
of reasoning from general statements of common knowledge to arrive at a specific
and logically consistent conclusion. But most of the arguments you will encounter in
college and in life in general take the form of inductive arguments, which move in the
opposite direction: from statements of specific instances toward a general conclusion.
For instance, if I say that the sun has always risen in the morning, and then conclude
that the sun will therefore rise tomorrow, I have formulated an inductive argument.
Notice, however, that my conclusion is not necessarily valid given the definitions of the
terms. I can be fairly confident that the sun will rise tomorrow in the morning, but I
can’t be absolutely certain of it. After all, the sun might go supernova overnight.
Of course, given the fact that astronomers suggest that the sun isn’t likely to die for
at least another 4 billion years, my inductive argument’s lack of absolute certainty
shouldn’t bother anyone. The point is that because my argument relies on a specific instance known to be true (“the sun has always risen in the morning”), and then
moves to a general conclusion (“the sun will therefore rise tomorrow in the morning”),
the possibility that I have committed a logical fallacy in the course of my argument is
relatively high. That is, somewhere in the chain of reason leading from the premise
to the conclusion, I might have unknowingly violated the internal logic my argument
needs in order to succeed. The term “logical fallacy” refers to the point—or points—at
which that chain of reason snaps, rendering the conclusion invalid.
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Not all inductive arguments commit logical fallacies. Indeed, many of the argumentative texts you will encounter in college manage to avoid such faulty reasoning, mainly
because successful authors have learned how to avoid such pitfalls. They know that
inductive argumentation is vulnerable to logical fallacies, not only because such arguments start with specific premises and move to general conclusions, but also because
their premises so often rely on human values and abstract concepts. Furthermore,
poorly constructed inductive arguments often make statements that on the surface
appear plausible, but after consideration or further research reveal inconsistencies or
outright falsehoods.
For example, let’s say that I’m writing an essay attempting to prove that same-sex
marriage is wrong and should not be allowed. One of my premises suggests that if
same-sex marriage were legal, pretty soon humans would be marrying their dogs.
This statement commits a number of logical fallacies, but the most egregious of them
is called the slippery slope, which describes a situation in which a generally unacceptable situation (humans marrying dogs) is proposed as the inevitable outcome of a
particular event (legalizing same-sex marriage). But no evidence exists that such an
outcome will in fact result. Furthermore, the argument commits a variant of a categorical mistake, because dogs and humans do not belong to the same species; a dog cannot consent to or decline a marriage vow, and marriage legally requires that both parties are willing and able to provide consent. A reader who accepts such arguments at
face value simply cannot make an informed decision about the issue at hand. Logical
fallacies do a disservice to the reader and undermine the author’s credibility; therefore, an ethical, responsible author avoids them.
Many more logical fallacies exist than can be included in this article. In the article that
follows, you will find explanations of some of the more common examples as they
play out within the context of the four rhetorical appeals. Further research in the library and on reliable websites will yield an inexhaustible amount of information on
the various logical fallacies (see some example websites below). As you read assigned
texts and write your own argumentative essays, you should constantly test the arguments they contain, examining the premises and their links to one another and to the
conclusion. Learning to recognize logical fallacies is a skill essential to college-level
writing and to critical thinking in general.
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Further Research
• The OWL at Purdue lists some of the most common logical fallacies with examples: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/659/03/
• The Writing Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a more
extensive list: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/writingthe-paper/fallacies
• Finally, the Fallacy Files devotes its entire web presence to all things fallacious:
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/
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The Audiences of Various Media
By Jason Carabelli
Try to remember, if you can, the last Twitter entry or Facebook post you read. What
was it about? How was it written? Think about its style. Now consider the last textbook chapter or scholarly article you read, perhaps for one of your classes. What was
it about? How was it written? It is not hard to imagine all of the differences between
a tweet and a scholarly article or book. It is important to remember, though, that
these differences attract unique audiences to read these media. In many ways, different media are shaped by the expectations of their audiences. Readers of scholarly
journal articles expect to see lengthy discussions of academic topics, whereas Twitter
followers expect to find information that they can grasp in 140 characters or less. Of
course, this does not mean that someone who reads scholarly articles cannot also be
an audience for Twitter, but that reader will have very different expectations for each
written work. It also does not mean that the topics discussed on Twitter or Facebook
cannot be up for discussion in a scholarly article or book but rather that they will be
discussed in very different ways. When examining different media, it is important to
keep in mind the audiences to which they appeal as well as the expectations of those
audience members.
Newspapers
Newspapers are a good example of a medium that is intended for a very general audience. Though it is true that certain newspapers are marketed to readers of a particular political affiliation, all newspapers are written in a way that make them available
to readers with little to no prior knowledge of the subject matter. This is why many
newspaper articles that report on a development in an ongoing story will recap some
of the events that led up to the one being covered. Because of the audience of this
medium, newspaper writers and editors work to ensure that any content discussed
is easily accessible and understandable. Newspapers also have specific requirements
about language use and style that are intended to keep articles simple and easy to
read. It is important for newspaper reporters to avoid using jargon or slang that
would not be familiar to most of the general populous. For many papers, it is critical
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that their intended audience remain as general as possible in order to ensure a large
readership.
Emails and Letters
On the other hand, emails or letters are examples of two media that have a very small
audience. Even mass emails and junk mail are sent to targeted individuals (usually
based on the sites they have visited or their physical proximity to certain retailers),
and most other kinds of emails or letters have only one or a handful of readers. Because of this, readers don’t have the same kind of expectations for a letter or email as
they do for a newspaper and would probably find it odd or jarring to read a personal
email that was written like a newspaper article. For instance, while a newspaper article (not an op-ed piece) would never incorporate a second-person pronoun (“you”), a
writer would find it difficult to write a personal email without using it. Personal emails
are a rather extreme example of media with small audiences though, and there are
many less extreme ones that can be discussed, such as scholarly articles, magazines,
and blogs to name a few.
Scholarly Journals
Scholarly journals, as previously mentioned, are one example of a medium with a very
specific readership. A scholarly journal that focuses on advancements in biomedical
engineering, for instance, will probably only attract readers who are interested in the
topic and who likely already possess expertise in the area: readers of an article about
biomedical engineering will already know what biomedicine and engineering are and
how they are related and so will not expect to have these terms defined for them in
the article. A newspaper article about the same topic, though, would most likely explain a little about these terms since its audience does not have the same expectations as the audience for a scholarly article. Additionally, scholarly sources will often
employ jargon and language that is catered to the understandings of its audience,
whereas a newspaper (as noted above), would avoid this based on its broader readership.
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Magazines
Magazines—both online and print—are another type of media that have very specific audiences. Discover Magazine, for instance, publishes articles about scientific developments and technology and attracts a certain kind of reader. Although Discover
Magazine articles read much like newspaper articles, where little prior knowledge is
expected, they also usually discuss highly scientific information. Because of this, many
readers who are not interested in science and technology might have difficulty following the stories and thus would probably not be considered part of the intended audience for Discover Magazine.
In some ways, the audiences of journals and magazines are defined by the periodical’s topics. However, there are differences between the audiences of scholarly journals and magazines even if those publications cover the same kinds of topics. Magazines like Discover, Time, Newsweek, and the like are all considered popular sources,
whereas texts like The New England Journal of Medicine or The Journal of Field Archeology
are considered scholarly sources. Many popular sources have audiences that expect
to be able to browse and skim through most of the material, while an audience for a
scholarly source will expect that they have to read most or all of an article in order to
comprehend it (and even then may still need to reread it in order to fully absorb the
information). This is not always the case, but it happens enough that it has become a
part of the expectations of each audience.
Blogs
Blogs are another example of media with a specific audience. Although blog topics
range considerably—from personal narratives, to funny pictures, to science, history,
and philosophy—they are all usually much less formal than traditionally published
writing. While both popular magazines and scholarly journals have individual standards for writing and content, blogs usually do not. Even bloggers who are paid for
their work have much more freedom to write how and what they want than most
writers for magazines or journals. Audiences for blogs expect this freedom of style
and content and are probably more comfortable with an informal, conversational
tone in a blog than a traditionally published piece of writing. Blogs also generally have
a space for reactions and comments by readers, and so audiences will likely expect
that they are able to participate in the ongoing conversations of a blog. This kind of
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participatory media draws many different expectations on the part of its audience
than traditional media—for instance, television—where audiences are usually imagined as passive receivers of information who do not participate in its development.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are similar to blogs in that they are
informal and involve audience participation. In fact, it is often difficult to distinguish
the difference between a reader and a writer on a social networking site, since most
individuals do a great deal of both writing and reading. While a blog usually has one
or a few dedicated bloggers that write most of the content, sites like Twitter and Facebook do not have this kind of singular voice. Instead, the audiences for social media
sites are also the writers. This, then, is part of the expectation of the audiences for
social media—that they will be able to involve themselves in the way the conversation takes shape through writing. The emergence and popularity of social media has
developed a very unique kind of audience that has very different expectations from
those of traditional print media audiences (like those discussed previously). Because
of this, and the important ways that audiences shape all kinds of media, it is important to consider audience before reading or composing in different writing situations.
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What is an Argument?
By Ryan Blank
What is an argument?
An argument can be a mere disagreement, consisting of two or more conflicting
points of view. It can be some form of communication with the intention to persuade.
Perhaps even a heated disputation, like those that are all too common on shows like
Jerry Springer. The most successful arguments are those that peacefully encourage
an audience to change the way it views an issue through a new understanding of it.
Ultimately, we argue for the purpose of furthering or achieving some cause—getting a
person or people to respond or act in accord with our goals. This can take the form of
arguing the importance of a product so that potential customers will be more likely to
purchase it, or arguing that the environment deserves more of our attention.
Argumentation, that is, the art of persuasion, achieved great public recognition 2500
years ago in Ancient Greece. Educators began teaching this art of public speaking, arguing, and persuasion; they were called rhetors (the word from which English’s orator
originates). Back then, Ancient Greek citizens had just established their first democracy; the novelty of a government ruled by the people created a demand for speakers
skilled in argumentation, and so began the study and principled teaching of argumentation. So effective was their art that it withstood the test of time and is still taught
and practiced today.
This section will provide you with some questions to help you analyze arguments, as
well as introduce you to some Greek terms that were used to describe argumentation
2500 years ago. Because we still analyze and compose arguments based on these inherited terms, it is useful to understand how they fit into argumentation.
Why is it important to analyze arguments?
Not all arguments are aggressive or even outwardly assertive. In fact, some arguments are subtle by design, and it is important to understand these arguments in order to act responsibly on the information they convey. Some arguments will challenge
your beliefs—arguments about diet, environment, or technology—while others will
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encourage you to act in a certain way—purchasing something or volunteering time
and money. In order to best respond to arguments, as well as to compose more effective arguments of your own, an understanding of how arguments work is essential. By
analyzing arguments, then, you can make calculated, educated responses to the arguments you are faced with while concurrently learning to improve your ability to communicate effectively.
But how can arguments be analyzed?
The first thing to do is to consider the medium that an argument takes, i.e, oral, written, or visual (an infographic or advertisement in a magazine). This will give you some
indication of the contexts it was composed in and for. Print images are static and
therefore unchanging, so these visual messages rely heavily on the setting in which
they appear. Is it an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper? A flyer? Maybe a
poster? Why would the creator of an argument choose a static medium? It could also
be a more fluid visual, like a commercial on TV or a GIF on a website. These contextual
choices are made in order to optimize the efficiency of an argument on a target audience, and if you come across these in magazines, on TV, or on the Internet, chances
are that you are the target audience.
The next thing to consider is the source of the argument. It must be coming from
someone somewhere, so who is this person (or group of people) that is trying to
persuade the audience? Is this person someone you are familiar with? What is the
purpose of her argument? What does she seek to accomplish? While exploring the
motives driving the argument, you can examine the character of the author. Is the
person a part of your community (someone that shares your values)? How does she
demonstrate this? The character presented by the composer of the argument is often
referred to as her ethos.
The argument should also be analyzed for the claims that are made and the evidence
used to support those claims. What is being argued? How is it supported? Does the
combination of claims and evidence truly make sense? Using evidence to support
claims in an attempt to make the argument logical is called logos.
Finally, we can observe the ways that the argument appeals to our emotions. These
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serve additional attention from the audience. Before assenting to the propositions
of an emotionally charged argument, ask yourself: am I assenting to this argument
based on my intellect or emotions? Looking past the emotional arguments, are the
claims and evidence logically sound? That is not to say that emotional responses
should be disregarded—they can be quite important. Rather, weigh that response
against the validity and soundness of both logical and ethical components as well.
Applying Analysis to an Argument
In order to get a feel for argument analysis, consider an anti-tobacco ad that you
might see on TV. Numerous groups, for instance, have taken to the streets to prevent
the continued use of tobacco products. A TV commercial promoting smoke-free living is responding to a large body of contemporary research that shows the negative
impacts of cigarettes on the human body, both first- and second-hand. The desired
outcome of this commercial is likely twofold: to get smokers to take serious steps
towards quitting, and to get the family and friends of smokers to help in this process.
Commercials often employ a moving, visual narrative with audio (music, speaking, or
sound effects) to support the message, and therefore have a wider range of possibilities than a face-to-face argument. Consider how this argument might differ it were
found on a billboard (a static image without sound) or in person (conversation, no
visual story or special effects).
Having determined how TV as the medium affects the ways we receive an argument,
we can now examine the evidence used to support this argument. So what information might this commercial contain? Statistics showing the mortality rate of smokers
or the growing number of cancer-related deaths sound practical. Perhaps some information about how costly the habit can become will be provided. While this approach
sounds logical, it doesn’t yield the desired results: not enough people have quit. With
that in mind, we can see how commercials have evolved to fit the contexts of today:
statistics and appeals to logic, logos, alone aren’t enough to persuade the audience
to change a behavior, so more extreme examples through character, ethos, and emotion, pathos, are often utilized.
Taking an alternative approach to presenting evidence, then, commercials today are
likely to have a person whose body—and therefore life—has been ravaged by cancer
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explain how bad smoking is. We, the audience, believe this person because she has
physical proof (his or her body) that shows the damages of smoking. Additionally, this
person is probably associated with a reputable organization, like the American Cancer
Society or the CDC, to boost her credibility. Having established authority in several
ways, the speaker then talks about her experiences, evoking images of family, friends,
and life-before-cancer. This argument now speaks powerfully to our emotions and
intellect.
The importance of argument analysis cannot be overstated. Arguments permeate
many aspects of our lives, and their presence is realized both in and out of academic
settings. Because of their enormous impact on our lives, it is important to analyze and
understand them. This process of argument analysis enables us to evaluate the information we receive so that we can respond intelligently not only as students, but as
civic-minded, informed adults.
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Identifying an Argument
By Karen Langbehn
As a reader, a developing writer, and an informed student and citizen, it is extremely important for you to be able to locate, understand, and critically analyze others’
purposes in communicating information. Being able to identify and articulate the
meaning of other writers’ arguments and theses enables you to engage in intelligent,
meaningful, and critical knowledge exchanges. Ultimately, regardless of the discipline
you choose to participate in, textual analysis—the summary, contextualization, and
interpretation of a writer’s effective or ineffective delivery of his or her perspective on
a topic, statement of thesis, and development of an argument—will be an invaluable
skill. Your ability to critically engage in knowledge exchanges—through the analysis of
others’ communication—is integral to your success as a student and as a citizen.
Textual Analysis: The Thesis
A foundational skill of textual analysis is the ability to identify a writer’s thesis—the
component of an argument that communicates his or her position on a particular
topic.
In order to learn how to better recognize a thesis in a written text, let’s consider the
following argument:
So far, [Google+] does seem better than Facebook, though I’m still a rookie and don’t know
how to do even some basic things.
It’s better in design terms, and also much better with its “circles” allowing you to target posts
to various groups.
Example: following that high school reunion, the overwhelming majority of my Facebook
friends list (which I’m barely rebuilding after my rejoin) are people from my own hometown.
None of these people are going to care too much when my new book comes out from Edinburgh. Likewise, not too many of you would care to hear inside jokes about our old high
school teachers, or whatever it is we banter about.
Another example: people I know only from exchanging a couple of professional emails with
them ask to be Facebook friends. I’ve never met these people and have no idea what they’re
really like, even if they seem nice enough on email. Do I really want to add them to my
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friends list on the same level as my closest friends, brothers, valued colleagues, etc.? Not yet.
But then there’s the risk of offending people if you don’t add them. On Google+ you can just
drop them in the “acquaintances” circle, and they’ll never know how they’re classified. But
they won’t be getting any highly treasured personal information there, which is exactly the
restriction you probably want for someone you’ve never met before.
I also don’t like too many family members on my Facebook friends list, because frankly they
don’t need to know everything I’m doing or chatting about with people. But on Google+ this
problem will be easily manageable. (Harman)
The first sentence, “[Google+] does seem better than Facebook” (Harman), doesn’t
communicate the writer’s position on the topic; it is merely an observation. A position, also called a “claim,” often includes the conjunction “because,” providing a reason why the writer’s observation is unique, meaningful, and critical.
Therefore, if the writer’s sentence, “[Google+] does seem better than Facebook” (Harman), is simply an observation, then in order to identify the writer’s position, we must
find the answer to “because, why?” One such answer can be found in the author’s rhetorical question/answer, “Do I really want to add them to my friends list on the same
level as my closest friends, brothers, valued colleagues, etc.? Not yet” (Harman). The
writer’s “because, why?” could be “because Google+ allows me to manage old, new,
and potential friends and acquaintances using separate circles, so that I’m targeting
posts to various, separate groups.” Therefore, the writer’s thesis—his position—could
be something like, “Google+ is better than Facebook because its design enables me to
manage my friends using separate circles, so that I’m targeting posts to various, separate groups instead of posting the same information for everyone I’ve added to my
network.”
In addition to communicating a position on a particular topic, a writer’s thesis outlines
what aspects of the topic he or she will address. Outlining intentions within a thesis
is not only acceptable, but also one of a writer’s primary obligations, since the thesis
relates his or her general argument. In a sense, you could think of the thesis as a responsibility to answer the question, “What will you/won’t you be claiming and why?”
To explain this further, let’s consider another example. If someone were to ask you
what change you want to see in the world, you probably wouldn’t readily answer
“world peace,” even though you (and many others) may want that. Why wouldn’t you
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answer that way? Because such an answer is far too broad and ambiguous to be logically argued. Although world peace may be your goal, for logic’s sake, you would be
better off articulating your answer as “a peaceful solution to the violence currently
occurring on the border of southern Texas and Mexico,” or something similarly specific. The distinction between the two answers should be clear: the first answer, “world
peace,” is broad, ambiguous, and not a fully developed claim (there wouldn’t be many,
if any, people who would disagree with this statement); the second answer is narrower, more specific, and a fully developed claim. It confines the argument to a particular
example of violence, but still allows you to address what you want (“world peace”) on
a smaller, more manageable, and more logical scale.
A Thesis Should...
• Communicate a writer’s position on a particular topic;
• Identify the writer’s intentions for his or her particular argument, including
subtopics to be addressed; and
• Be organized in a manner that is critical, logical, and consistent with the order
of the writer’s argument.
Since a writer’s thesis functions as an outline of what he or she will address in an argument, it is often organized in the same manner as the argument itself. Let’s return
to the argument about Google+ for an example. If the author stated his position as
suggested—“Google+ is better than Facebook because its design enables me to manage my friends using separate circles, so that I’m targeting posts to various, separate groups instead of posting the same information I’ve added to my network”—we
would expect him to first address the similarities and differences between the designs
of Google+ and Facebook, and then the reasons why he believes Google+ is a more
effective way of sharing information. The organization of his thesis should reflect the
overall order of his argument. Such a well-organized thesis builds the foundation for a
cohesive and persuasive argument.
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Textual Analysis: The Argument
“Textual analysis” is the term writers use to describe a reader’s written explanation of
a text. The reader’s textual analysis ought to include a summary of the author’s topic,
an analysis or explanation of how the author’s perspective relates to the ongoing conversation about that particular topic, an interpretation of the effectiveness of the author’s argument and thesis, and references to specific components of the text that
support his or her analysis or explanation.
An effective argument generally consists of the following components:
• A thesis. Communicates the writer’s position on a particular topic.
• Acknowledgement of opposition. Explains existing objections to the writer’s
position.
• Clearly defined premises outlining reasoning. Details the logic of the writer’s
position.
• Evidence of validating premises. Proves the writer’s thorough research of the
topic.
• A conclusion convincing the audience of the argument’s soundness/persuasiveness. Argues the writer’s position is relevant, logical, and thoroughly researched and communicated.
An effective argument also is specifically concerned with the components involved in
researching, framing, and communicating evidence:
• The credibility and breadth of the writer’s research
• The techniques (like rhetorical appeals) used to communicate the evidence (see
“The Rhetorical Appeals”)
• The relevance of the evidence as it reflects the concerns and interests of the author’s targeted audience
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To identify and analyze a writer’s argument, you must critically read and understand
the text in question. Focus and take notes as you read, highlighting what you believe
are key words or important phrases. Once you are confident in your general understanding of the text, you’ll need to explain the author’s argument in a condensed
summary. One way of accomplishing this is to ask yourself the following questions:
• What topic has the author written about? (Explain in as few words as possible.)
• What is the author’s point of view concerning his or her topic?
• What has the author written about the opposing point of view? (Where does it
appear as though the author is “giving credit” to the opposition?)
• Does the author offer proof (either in reference to another published source or
from personal experience) supporting his or her stance on the topic?
• As a reader, would you say that the argument is persuasive? Can you think of
ways to strengthen the argument? Using which evidence or techniques?
Your articulation of the author’s argument will most likely derive from your answers
to these questions. Let’s reconsider the argument about Google+ and answer the reflection questions listed above:
• What topic has the author written about? (Explain in as few words as possible.)
• The author’s topic is two social networks—Google+ and Facebook.
• What is the author’s point of view concerning his or her topic?
• The author is “for” the new social network Google+.
• What has the author written about the opposing point of view? (Where does it
appear as though the author is “giving credit” to the opposition?)
• The author makes a loose allusion to the opposing point of view in the explanation, “I’m still a rookie and don’t know how to do even some basic things”
(Harman). (The author alludes to his inexperience and, therefore, the potential
for the opposing argument to have more merit.)
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• Does the author offer proof (either in reference to another published source or
from personal experience) supporting his or her stance on the topic?
• Yes, the author offers proof from personal experience, particularly through
his first example: “following that high school reunion, the overwhelming majority of my Facebook friends list (which I’m barely rebuilding after my rejoin)
are people from my hometown” (Harman). In his second example, he cites that
“[o]n Google+ you can just drop [individuals] in the ‘acquaintances’ circle, and
they’ll never even know how they’re classified” (Harman) in order to offer even
more credible proof, based on the way Google+ operates instead of personal
experience.
• As a reader, would you say that the argument is persuasive? Can you think of
ways to strengthen the argument? Using which evidence or techniques?
• Yes, I would say that this argument is persuasive, although if I wanted to
make it even stronger, I would include more detailed information about the
opposing point of view. A balanced argument—one that fairly and thoroughly
articulates both sides—is often more respected and better received because
it proves to the audience that the writer has thoroughly researched the topic
prior to making a judgment in favor of one perspective or another.
Summary
Textual analysis is the term used to describe the process of critically reading, examining, understanding, and articulating a writer’s argument. An effective argument communicates the writer’s position on a particular topic; explains existing objections to
the writer’s position; details the logic of the writer’s position; proves the writer’s research is thorough; and concludes with summative statements pertaining to the relevance, logic, and confidence of the writer’s position.
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Works Cited
Harman, Graham. Object-Oriented Philosophy. WordPress, n.d. Web. 15 May 2012. See
<http://doctorzamalek2.wordpress.com/author/doctorzamalek>
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Understanding Claims
By Julie Gerdes
A claim is, more or less, an opinion whose truthfulness a writer is fairly sure of based
on evidence. Claims are perhaps the most essential component of academic writing
because they keep conversations going; without them, writing would be largely descriptive and offer no new points of view. Writing a claim is not often easy because it
requires writers to be assertive and fairly confident in their positions. Ineffective arguments break down when they include unsupported or broad claims.
Let’s consider an extended example of how claims work in an argument about water
purification projects. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one of every
three people lacks a source of clean water globally, and the problem is getting worse.
Water.org is an organization that was co-founded by American actor Matt Damon and
entrepreneur Gary White in response to this problem. This group makes claims of
fact, value, and policy that work together to support its activist goals.
Claims of Fact
A claim of fact is one that presents information as a truth. It uses direct language to
state a condition or historical piece of information. Let’s take the water initiative example from water.org. The organization’s website reflects many claims of fact, including several that run with infographics down the left navigation bar of each page:
• Every 21 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness
• Women spend 200 million hours a day collecting water
• More than 3x more people lack water than live in the United States
• The majority of illness is caused by fecal matter
• More people have a mobile than a toilet
• Lack of community involvement causes 50% of other projects to fail (Source:
water.org)
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Fact claims are generally written by experts and acted upon by readers who believe
in the writer’s credibility (ethos) or the information’s logic (logos). As a rule of thumb,
claims of fact should be able to be supported by original research. In the water.org
example, can you think of ways in which a reader could, with the necessary research
tools, investigate these figures and determine whether they are true?
Remember that all claims can be refuted. Claims of fact rely on agreed-upon definitions, which is something writers must consider. I might ask how water.org knows
that women spend exactly 200 million hours a day collecting water, and I might attempt to refute the claim by countering that they are including or excluding young
girls in that estimate. In other words, I might question the definition of “women.” Similarly, I might question the definition of “collecting water,” which can be done efficiently and methodically or as a social event that takes up time in a positive way, allowing
for women to interact and even make professional connections through the chore.
Furthermore, some women in very dry countries must make overnight trips with canoes to fill up with water. Are researchers including sleep and cooking time for those
trips? Does this claim about sanitation define toilets as working flush toilets or does
it include traditional latrines, which are often referred to verbally as “toilets” despite
their lack of reliance on modern plumbing? The writers might be able to answer these
questions, but it’s important to realize that the infographic itself doesn’t. Instead, the
writers rely on the reader’s trust, which they use ethos to develop through celebrity
endorsements and attractive web design.
Claims of Value
A claim of value, as it sounds, is one that asserts moral or social value. These claims
involve judgment and evaluation. Few topics are evaluated in the exact same way by
all people involved. Therefore, claims of value are generally more controversial than
claims of fact. While some claims of value can be dangerous because they can immediately turn off a reader who doesn’t share those values, they are important to include in an argument about a controversial topic because they show a writer’s awareness of her own biases. In fact, claims of value are inevitable for some arguments
because they try to persuade readers to adopt a position about a subject for which no
objective facts exist.
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While claims of fact are generally descriptive, claims of value are normative; that is,
they can usually be constructed using the auxiliary verb should or a phrase like “it is
unethical to...” or “it is good/better/bad/worse to...” These value claims can fall flat
because they ultimately assume that there is a universal moral code, although philosophers have spent centuries debating the very existence of such a code. For instance, if a writer is convinced that “murderers should be sentenced to death row,” on
the basis that murder, no matter the circumstances, is morally wrong, then there is
not much more to the argument. A reader will either agree to the same set of morals
or he won’t because the claim relies on purely subjective moral ideas and leaves no
space for compromise.
However, claims of value do not have to draw binaries. In fact, they can enrich an
argument. By using supportive evidence to back a normative claim, a writer may convince the reader to adjust her own set of values or to at least question the cultural
and moral principles that guide her convictions. Personal and cultural values lend
themselves to flexibility. While the premises of fact claims are generally rigid (research
either convinces a reader or it doesn’t), the basis for value claims is malleable. A successfully supported claim of value might lead the reader to say, “I’d never thought of
it that way” and reconsider the grounds on which she makes decisions. Therefore, it’s
important that writers are self-reflexive, use appropriate language and refrain from
aggressive value claims.
Claims of Policy
Claims of policy can be considered the final step of an argument about a practical
issue because they rely on claims of fact that opposing sides have agreed upon and
claims of value that allow for a common ground. Claims of policy often arise organically, out of a need for practical and pragmatic solutions to an issue.
Once an argument has advanced to the stage of policy decisions, it gets complicated
because the policies are sometimes hypothetical. Let’s return to the water.org example. There are many people involved in this campaign, from environmental engineers
to the media to the global citizens that the organization purports to support. If we
consider the website as a composition, and the left navigation bar as a list of claims
of fact, then we might consider the points listed under the tab labeled “solutions” as
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claims of policy. The organization’s policy reflects a move past describing the issue
and why it’s important and towards a practical approach to solving that problem.
While values are embedded in their solutions, the claims the group makes on this
page argue that using a multifaceted approach that involves local community members, technology, education, and evaluation is the best solution to global water problems. To convince the reader, the organization then details each part of the solution
with evidence of how it is logical and successful. In this discussion, there is a mix of
value and fact claims.
Effective writers begin generating ideas about possible solutions during the brainstorming process, particularly if they are arguing about a controversial topic. An argumentative paper that just tries to convince others to believe in a set of values might
not need claims of policy. However, common writing projects often have a more pragmatic agenda—to solicit change. Once a writer has convinced readers to agree with
his or her set of facts and values, he or she can call readers to act in accordance to
those understandings. For unique topics or ones that are just emerging, it can be difficult to guide readers to action because there might not be a way of knowing whether
a solution will work. In these cases, writer use their expertise argue why a proposed
solution is better than what is currently being done or why it is the best place to start
in developing a long-range solution.
Putting It Together
Sometimes, a thesis in a solution-driven argumentative paper will combine these different types of claims then use the length of the paper to expand on just one. For
instance, a thesis statement might be structured:
“Because children are dying of water-borne illnesses in Angola (claim of fact), and the American government should care about less fortunate global citizens (claim of value), the Department of State needs to form a panel of experts that includes environmental engineers, politicians, and African studies scholars to meet biannually in Angola (claim of policy).”
This thesis sets up a paper that will focus on at least one of these claims; deciding
which one relies on awareness of audience and purpose. If this writer is preparing a
paper or speech for an environmental group that works in southern Africa, then he or
she will probably be able to take the claims of fact and value for granted because the
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audience will already be convinced of them. But perhaps the audience doesn’t understand the implications of bringing African studies or cultural scholars into the conversation. Maybe they have gotten used to the status quo of meeting independently to
make decisions. In that case, explaining what it would look like to organize a larger
scale meeting and the basis for the opinion that these meetings are the next best step
in developing a long-term solution gives the paper a pragmatic purpose.
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Works Cited
Water. World Health Organization, March 2009. Web. 1 June 2013.
Water.org. Water.org, 2013. Web. 1 June 2013.
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Understanding Visual Arguments
By Julie Gerdes
What is Visual Rhetoric?
When scholars discuss rhetoric, the immediate implication is that they are referring
to written or spoken language. For instance, one thing rhetoricians study is how writers, including bloggers, journalists, business proposal writers, science writers, students, penpals, and others use distinct tones and methods to reach their audiences
and accomplish their purposes. However, with new media and technologies, the way
in which persuasion happens with words is changing quickly: text messages present
new linguistic standards, tweets force writers to stick to character counts, and eBooks
change the way readers interact with texts. However, as much as it has affected the
way writers construct words, digitalization may have changed the landscape of composition most profoundly through its effect on images and visual rhetoric.
As recently as the 1990s, the term “mobile phone” was reserved for clunky receivers
in fancy cars. Today, wireless handheld cell phones can be found in the hands of
Americans in nearly any public space. Popular smartphone apps include Google
maps, Instagram, Facebook, and snapchat, which all rely on one’s ability to compose
and share images. As technology develops and encourages more and more casual
writers to join Facebook, twitter, and other social networking forums, it is also turning
more people into graphic designers. Although snapping a photo may seem effortless,
your work can have serious implications for persuasion in the same way that writing
choices do.
For example, in March 2013, many Facebook users in support
of marriage equality changed their profile pictures to a red version of the equal sign logo of the Human Rights Campaign. This
political statement was purely visual; without words, it became
evident which side of the controversy some people stood.
Some personalized the logo with extra images or shading, and
others objected to the movement by changing their profile
pictures to images that countered the gay rights movement leading up to a Supreme
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Court vote on Proposition 8. Consider what other images have been used as political
statements, historically and more recently. These are examples of visual rhetoric—attempts to persuade others to believe or to act based on a viewer’s reaction to an image.
Analyzing Visual Rhetoric
To understand the central persuasion techniques of a composition, particularly one
that combines textual and visual elements, you can start by breaking the composition
into manageable elements then analyzing the rhetorical appeals of each element. Fortunately, there are countless elements that comprise visual compositions, so images
lend themselves to rich analysis. It can be easy to get caught up in the details of image analysis when each design decision contributes to an overall message, so it’s important to keep in mind the purpose and audience of your specific analysis in order to
select the 3-4 major visual elements that play into the message you are interpreting.
So, what should you be focusing on as you try to understand visual rhetoric? A good
thought experiment is to consider yourself as a designer. Imagine that you are using
an app on a tablet or smartphone, a graphic design program on a desktop computer,
or even a pencil and paper to compose a message from scratch. What decisions do
you need to make? What decisions are you able to make with the tools you have?
More importantly, you should first consider questions about (1) the audience, (2) composer, and (3) context (the rhetorical triangle). In other words, what will my audience
expect? What is the point of the image you are using? How do you want to persuade
your audience? Think of a social issue that you feel passionately about, and draw up
an ad that would convince your family and friends to join your cause. As you draw (or
think about what you would draw), write down the decisions you make as you come
to them. What person, animal, or object are you featuring? Why? If you’re using the
image of a person, what age and ethnicity is that person? What is he or she wearing?
What kind of lighting or shading are you using? What effect do these considerations
have?
It’s likely that your answers relate to rhetorical appeals. If a designer uses dark shading and close-up shots of a child’s downward eyes, she is using pathos to evoke an
emotional response from her viewers. Obviously, bright colors and a smiling child
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would have the opposite emotional effect. If you are conducting a visual rhetorical
analysis of an image that you feel emotionally about, think about what details are
working together to create that feeling. If there are some elements that contradict
that feeling, then the designer may be asking the viewer to reconsider common associations. For instance, an ad that features a smiling child with bright clothing may
evoke a sense of innocent joy, but if the picture is covered by text written in a dark,
bold font about child homelessness, then the contrasting elements may be prompting
the reader to reconsider the connections we make between childhood and innocence.
Similarly, a trophy or blue ribbon would indicate success and build ethos, but used in
a document that supports equal access to education, those symbols might encourage the reader to realize a disconnect between competition and education. Lastly, a
series of graphs on a scientific poster uses logos to back research conclusions, but
those same graphs could be put in a different context, for instance next to statistics
from a larger study that show opposite results, to lead readers to throw out the initial,
small-scale results and replace them with the author’s more comprehensive research.
Both cases use logos to draw readers in visually and convince them of an argument;
however, analyzing how that analysis works can help you understand the composition
and the argument. Ultimately, a successful visual analysis will not only pull out details
about an image but also consider how these details work together towards one goal
that supports a central purpose.
In her article on understanding visual rhetoric, Mary Hocks emphasizes the hybrid
nature of verbal and visual rhetoric. In other words, because we receive compositions
as entire packages, we should not try to divorce visual elements of a piece of writing
from the text but instead remember that they work together. We do not live in a binary world, so rather than consider just the text or just the image, we should strive to
interpret compositions holistically as working together.
International and Cultural Considerations
As we grow up, we develop associations that are often supported by societal influences such as parents and guardians, teachers, and surrounding media. Oftentimes,
these associations become engrained, and we don’t question them on a daily basis.
For instance, people who have been involved in the fight against breast cancer might
associate a pink ribbon with that cause. They might have a magnet on their car, wear
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a fundraiser teeshirt, or iron a patch into a bag with the symbol to show support and
rally. However, ribbons have only been a symbol of solidarity since the late 1970s, and
the first pink ribbons were not given out until the early 1990s (Fernandez, “History of
the Pink Ribbon”). While they may be commonplace now, it’s important to understand
that images like this are the product of movements, and only those in similar cultural
settings will automatically draw associations between two things like a pink ribbon
and breast cancer research.
Because cultural values vary in context, an image that is interpreted one way by one
audience may be confusing or even offensive for another. Pink is not an international symbol for femininity, and the original ribbon symbol emerged as a response of
an American military wife to the Gulf War (Fernandez, “History of the Pink Ribbon”).
Thus, using a pink ribbon to on materials distributed to raise funds for breast cancer
research might confuse people where in countries like Botswana, where women traditionally wear a wide spectrum of bright clothes, and ribbons are not generally commonplace. Using a more recognized symbol for femininity, like a bracelet, might be
more effective in achieving the intended goal.
Consider international McDonalds menus. Cultural gastronomic values determine
that not all global citizens favor greasy cheeseburgers and fried chicken nuggets for
fast food, so the company developed new menus that accommodate the preferences
of local populations. Imagine, for instance, if the company marketed a hamburger to
countries with predominantly Muslim communities, where pork consumption is forbidden by the religion. Not only would the product not sell, but also it might be so
offensive to the Muslim community that its members might stop eating at the restaurant altogether. For this reason, the sandwich is labeled “beefburger” for clarity.
Organizations must be able to anticipate confusing or offensive cultural assumptions
in diverse environments, and visual analysis can be an important starting point for
understanding the cultural values that an organization reflects. As you perform this
kind of analysis, think about whether the connections that a designer relies on for
understanding are universal or, if in a different context, they might be read very differently. This extra step will help you support claims about the message of an image
as you deconstruct it.
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Works Cited
Fernandez, Sandy M. “History of the Pink Ribbon.” Think Before You Pink. Breast Cancer
Action, Web. 10 June 2013. Rpt. of “Pretty in Pink.” MAMM June/July 1998.
Hocks, Mary E. “Understanding visual rhetoric in digital writing environments.” College
composition and communication (2003): 629-656.
Human Rights Campaign. Profile Picture. Facebook, 25 March 2013. Web. 1 June 2013.
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3: Rhetoric
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What is Rhetoric?
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Why We Study Rhetoric
69
Logos: Appeals to Logic
76
Ethos: Appeals to Authority and Credibility
81
Pathos: Appeals to Emotion
87
Quick Reference Guide: Rhetorical Appeals
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Quick Reference Guide: Logical Fallacies
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What is Rhetoric?
By Jason Carabelli
If you enter “rhetoric” as a search term in Google, you’re likely to come up with a
messy list of dictionary definitions, recent political news, course syllabi, and maybe
even a few reviews of Ancient Greek manuscripts. If you’re looking for a quick definition of rhetoric because you just read it or heard it and weren’t quite sure what it
meant, these Google search results might not leave you satisfied. This is because the
word “rhetoric” has come to signify many different things to many different people
over the last few thousand years of Western thought and popular culture. So much
for getting an easy answer from our casual Google search.
Because rhetoric has such a long and complicated history, scholars are sometimes
reluctant to pin down one definitive answer to the question “What is rhetoric?” In fact,
if your writing instructor studies rhetoric, asking her this question might get you into
a much longer conversation than you care to have. This article doesn’t give you one
answer to the question “what is rhetoric?”—that would not be cool with your writing
instructor—but it does give you a foothold for understanding some of its most popular uses today.
When “Rhetoric” Was the Ancient Art of Persuasion
If rhetoric was a superhero in a comic book, it would need what comic book aficionados call an “origin story.” How did Batman become Batman? What kind of inner demons and motivations sparked a guy to dress up like a flying rodent and fight crime?
If you don’t know the origin story, you don’t know the superhero, and hardcore comic
book fans probably won’t take you seriously. Just like Batman, the rhetoric we know
today has an origin story. As you’ve probably guessed though, it’s long and complicated, so consider this the movie version of the origin story that serious comic book fans
pick apart in the YouTube comments.
In its original sense as a word referring to the ancient art of persuasion, rhetoric begins with the Greeks. The term “rhetoric” was coined by the Ancient Greeks, and they
are widely considered to be the first civilization to devote a formalized, comprehensive course of study to the art of persuasion. Additionally, “rhetorician” was popular-
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ized as a term to define those that studied persuasion, and “rhetor” came to designate someone who spoke or wrote to persuade others. Young Greek men, usually
politicians or businessmen, often paid copious amounts of money to be taught the
art of speechmaking from professionals, and this skill was called rhetoric. The most
renowned of these scholars of ancient oratory were called “sophists.” Unfortunately,
they didn’t write much down, so most of their history is muddled by the political motivations of those that wrote about them.
The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle, on the other hand, wrote all the time about
a variety of topics, and one of them was rhetoric. His book, On Rhetoric, is widely
considered the first major treatment of the topic in Western thought. In it, Aristotle
describes quite a few theoretical concepts that still form the basis of most studies of
rhetoric today. For instance, you may be familiar with the terms ethos, pathos, and
logos. Those are Greek terms and they show up in Aristotle’s Rhetoric as ways to describe different aspects of arguments. Aristotle did not “invent” the study of rhetoric,
but he has arguably become the poster boy for the ancient study of rhetoric thanks to
his writings. For comic book fans, he’s like the Adam West Batman—not the first Batman portrayed in comic books, but the first to bring him to a wider audience by portraying him onscreen.
After Aristotle, the Romans picked up the torch of making a seriously big deal about
the importance of studying persuasion. They also started to make more connections
between rhetoric and writing, though some of the Greeks did this too. After the fall of
the Roman Empire, though, rhetoric as the ancient art of persuasion would fall in and
out—mostly out—of favor in formal education, which is why many people today are
unaware of its history as the formal study of how to persuade people through oral
and written communication.
It’s also important to know that there is a difference between talking about the study
of rhetoric, and the study of persuasion. Rhetoric does usually have something to do
with “persuasion,” but only for world cultures that have built their educational and
philosophical history on the Ancient Greeks. These cultures are often called “Western”
cultures, and the United States is one of them. Rhetoric is the way that the Greeks
and their successors explained persuasion, but they were obviously not the only culture in the world to think about what it means to persuade someone else. Ancient
scholars from other world cultures, for instance in Asia, did not build their cultural
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history of persuasion on the Greek study of rhetoric. Though the Greeks were unusual in their emphasis on the importance of learning about persuasion, they were by no
means the only culture to study it.
When “Rhetoric” is Empty Words
With our history lesson veiled by cheap comic book references finished, we can move
on to what has become the most recognizable use of the term “rhetoric” today: the
one with the negative connotation. If you’ve ever watched a presidential debate or
campaign speech, you’ve probably heard phrases like “that’s just rhetoric,” “there’s
nothing behind the rhetoric,” or “that’s just the same old rhetoric.” In the news media,
if someone says a politician’s words are “just rhetoric,” he is definitely not complimenting how skillful and inspiring that politician’s speech was (as an Ancient Greek
might have meant). Rather, he is probably accusing the politician of using meaningless phrases and slogans to obscure the truth and deceive the public.
So what the heck happened between Aristotle and today’s political pundits? Well, that
whole “rhetoric fell in and out of favor” thing mentioned earlier was no joke. Many
ancient scholars didn’t take too kindly to what some people could do with a formal
education in persuasion. In fact, philosophers like Socrates and Plato were so worried that “rhetoric” would lead people to lie and deceive just to get their way that they
spent a good part of their careers turning it into a dirty word. That is why today, when
someone says “rhetoric,” they are often referring to a hollow, deceptive kind of persuasion.
When “Rhetoric” is Part of a Writing Course
This is all well and good, but if you were really searching for the word “rhetoric” in
Google, it was probably because it had something to do with your college writing
course. If rhetoric got such a bum rap in the last few hundred years, though, why on
earth would someone decide to use it in the title of a book that’s supposed to help
students become better writers? Why would writing courses at many universities put
rhetoric in the syllabus, or teach rhetoric courses? As you’ve probably guessed, it has
something to do with the first history of the word rhetoric discussed above, when it
was the ancient art of persuasion.
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American universities care deeply about the communication skills of their graduates.
They care so much, in fact, that they include writing in the list of general education
requirements for all university students nationwide. These courses, sometimes called
“composition” courses, usually have the goal of preparing college students to persuasively compose their ideas for an audience. Because of this need for successful writing instruction, many scholars devote their careers to researching how to better teach
writing (your instructor might be one of them). Additionally, a few decades ago many
of these scholars started dusting off old copies of Greek and Roman texts on rhetoric
in their search for a way to teach courses like yours. What they found was a rich history of theory and practice to aid student writers, and so more and more writing programs started to recover rhetorical theory for college writing courses.
That is why you find yourself in a writing or composition course that is using a book
about rhetoric to teach writing. Your university writing program or your individual
instructor decided that rhetorical theory offered a tangible answer to the question:
“how can we teach writing?” The study of rhetoric hadn’t gone away completely in academia, but rather different theories of teaching writing were fashionable for a long
time. In fact, there are many different ways to teach college writing skills. For instance,
you may have friends in different universities who are studying classic literature or
oral communication to fulfill the same requirements as your writing course.
What’s important to take away from this is not that “rhetoric” gets a bad rap and that
it really means the study of persuasion (and look how cool we are for knowing it now.
It’s like we’re in a secret club). Rather, it’s important to keep in mind that “rhetoric”
can mean different things that are appropriate in different situations. Your instructor or university has decided that rhetoric is a useful way to teach writing, and this
book is an invitation to you to explore what learning about rhetoric can mean for
you as a student and developing writer. If you’re asking yourself “what does rhetoric have that’s so great about teaching writing?” the answer is—you guessed it—long
and complicated. Nobody can answer that question for you, either. To know how you
answer that question for yourself, then, think about how the content of this book
relates to your daily life as a living, breathing, communicating rhetorician. The concepts described in this book and by your instructor are not meaningless, superficial,
or exchangeable. Learning about college level writing through the study of rhetoric is
different, sometimes way different, than writing instruction you have previously en-
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countered. Think about what you can use from this book as a persuader—a rhetor—
but also what doesn’t quite fit or seem relevant, and you’ll be well on your way to answering “what is rhetoric?” for yourself.
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Why We Study Rhetoric
Or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing
By Kyle D. Stedman
The Web site eHow has a page on “How to Freestyle Rap” (“Difficulty: Moderately Challenging”), and I’m trying to figure out what I think about it. On one hand, it seems like
it would be against the ethos of an authentic rapper to use a page like this to brush
up on freestyle skills.
But on the other hand, the advice seems solid, encouraging the reader to follow an
easy, 7-step model:
1. Learn the basics.
2. Just start flowing.
3. Write down some good rhymes ahead of time.
4. Work on your wordplay.
5. Practice at home in your spare time.
6. Have a rap battle.
7. Rap what you know.
(www.ehow.com/m/how_2034496_freestyle-rap.html)
The page addresses freestyle rap as an art that can be practiced effectively by anyone, as long as he or she is willing to research, take risks, spend time developing the
craft, practice with a community and for an audience, and stay true to him- or herself
(i.e., to “keep it real”).
And here’s the thing: I think of rhetoric the same way. That is, it’s an art that can be
practiced effectively by anyone, as long as the rhetor (the person who is communi-
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cating rhetorically) is willing to research, take risks, spend time developing the craft,
practice with a community and for an audience, and stay true to him- or herself.
That’s right: Rhetoric is an art. But not necessarily in the way we think of art. The ancient Greeks called art techne, a word they used to mean “a craft or ability to do something, a creative skill; this can be physical or mental, positive or negative, like that of
metalworking or trickery” (Papillion 149). Other examples of techne? Ship-building, for
one. [1] You’d better not muddle your way through the art of building a ship, or you’ll
ruddy well sink.
Rhetoric developed as an oral art, the art of knowing how to give an effective
speech—say, in a court, in a law-making session, or at a funeral. And if you muddled
your way through a speech, not convincing anyone, not moving anyone, looking like a
general schmuck in a toga, you’d ruddy well sink there, too.
So, rhetoric is an art. But, of what? The shortest answer: communication, whether
written, spoken, painted, or streamed
Now, how do you judge when communication has worked—that is, when it’s effective?
In other words, how do you know when someone has used rhetorical skills well?
That’s easy: when an audience says so.
• An anchor on a conservative news program makes a jab at President Obama.
Conservative watchers thought the jab was well deserved and well timed; it was
rhetorically effective for them. Liberal watchers thought it was a cheap shot; it was
not rhetorically effective for them.
• A student writes an essay arguing that advertisements are so pervasive in the
United States that he can’t even go to the bathroom without seeing Coca-Cola’s
logo. His roommate reads it, not thinking that advertising is a big deal; he’s not
convinced, so it’s not a rhetorically effective essay for him. But his teacher reads it
and thinks it’s cleverly argued and bitingly true. For her, it works and is rhetorically
effective.
• Eminem ends a rap battle to raucous applause from most of the people in the
club, but the old grandmother in the back thinks it was all a lot of noise.
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Rhetoric can’t be judged completely objectively. It wouldn’t make sense to say that
someone’s rhetoric was “right” or “wrong,” although we might claim it can be “good”
or “bad.” It all comes down to the audience.
You’ll notice that the above examples describe situations in which the rhetor is being
persuasive in one way or another. Another common definition of rhetoric: the art of
persuasion. And persuasion is important—we’re constantly trying to convince others,
either subtly or overtly, to understand our points of view, and others are constantly
trying to convince us to understand their points of view.
But I like to think of rhetoric as being about more than just persuasion. Rhetoric is
also about making a connection with an audience. It’s a series of techniques to help
us share the way we see things with others. And depending on whom I’m sharing
with, I’ll use different techniques. I wouldn’t communicate my views to my wife in the
same way that I would to the U.S. president, or to Jay-Z.
The best rappers are surprising. Listening to them, you find yourself leaning over,
laughing at unexpected wordplay. You smile, get into the groove, listen more carefully, and later remember how much you enjoyed it. The communication was effective.
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in my senior year of high school, but
I didn’t really get it. The author kept talking about rhetoric, and even after I looked up
the definition, it didn’t make any sense to me. Looking back, I think that’s ironic: the
beating, blood-pumping heart of rhetoric is a consideration of audience. Speaking or
writing or composing something that works the way you want it to, for the audience
you want it to work for. The author (Robert M. Pirsig), on the other hand, was thoroughly unrhetorical in his discussion of rhetoric.
But I don’t think senior-year me was the intended audience of Zen. If I had been, the
author was a pretty lousy rhetor, because he did not well enough explain what rhetoric means. After reading his book, I was neither convinced nor riveted.
However, when I read the book now, I’m moved. I understand and accept Pirsig’s
views. Without the text changing at all, I became his audience. I get it now.
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So, why study rhetoric? The answer is the same as that of the question, “Why study
freestyle rap?” Both are a set of skills and techniques that can be learned and improved upon by studying methods that have proven effective in the past.
“Why study painting?” Because by studying how others paint, you learn techniques
that can make you a more effective painter.
“Why study business?” Because by studying how others do business, you learn techniques that can help you become a more effective businessperson.
Why study ship-building, or basket-weaving, or trickery, or any other subject that you
might be able to muddle through, but which you’d be much better at in practice, with
some training and technique? Isn’t it obvious?
Within the realm of communication, the same theory applies to rhetoric. Why not
learn some techniques that will increase the chance that your audience will think or
feel the way you want them to after hearing, reading, or experiencing whatever it is
that you throw at them?
And that’s only thinking about you in the composer’s role. What about when you’re
on the receiving end, hearing, reading, or experiencing ideas that have been carefully
crafted so that you’ll buy into them? A scary list of rhetorically effective people: politicians, advertisers, supervillains. (You want rhetoric? Just listen to the slimy words of
the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, or the words Lord Voldemort beams into everyone’s
brains in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two.) Studying rhetoric can also
open your eyes to the ways in which others wield their communication skills, for better or worse (in the cases of the Emperor and Lord Voldemort, like evil weapons).
My wife to me, the other day: “Ugh. Carrie just wrote something inappropriate on her
fiancé’s Facebook wall again.”
Me: “What’d she say?”
My wife: “I don’t even remember. It was something all gushy and uncomfortable. I
skimmed back a bit and saw she’s been doing that a lot. Doesn’t she know that she
can write messages that go just to him and not the rest of us? She doesn’t have to
post that stuff on his wall!”
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As I thought about this conversation, I realized that Carrie (not her real name) was in
some ways exemplifying a rhetorical failure. Yes, her fiancé, whom Carrie certainly
intended to be the primary recipient, pro ably found the message very rhetorically effective. That is, he surely felt the gushy emotions that she meant for him to feel. Her
message worked. How rhetorical!
But because a Facebook wall is to some extent public, others—hundreds of people—
will read Carrie’s post too. What is the intended message for them? If we trust and like
Carrie (and if she’s lucky), then we may think, “Oh, it’s sweet when people are public
about their love for each other!” If we’re kind of sick of Carrie, we might think, “She
just plain doesn’t get that we don’t care about her digital smooches and hugs.” And
if we’re mad at her, we might think, “She’s publicly declaring her love to him because
she wants us to feel bad that we don’t have the kind of true love that she has!” In
short, after reading the message, most of us would think either (A) “That’s nice!,” (B)
“Oh, gross!,” or (C) “That hussy!”
Why study rhetoric? Because, communication is difficult, and even more difficult if we
are not rhetorically aware.
We’re still beating around the bush when it comes to what rhetorical skills actually
look like. Up to this point, you could say, “You keep talking about these different collections of skills, but other than by freestyling, I barely have any idea how to go about
being effective at this stuff.”
Among others, here are some of the decisions rhetors (including you as a composition student!) must make:
• The basics (e.g., how to determine the best time and place to communicate, how
to clarify what a communication is about, and how to learn about an audience)
• How to choose appropriate ideas and evidence to use for a given audience (e.g.,
freewriting, open-minded research, and other forms of what we call “invention”)
• How to organize material presented to a given audience (e.g., as in a business
report, a classical six-part speech, or a thesis-driven research essay)
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• How to shape the style of a message or argument in ways that will be both understandable and exciting for an audience (e.g., using rhetorical figures to liven up
sentences or varying sentence length and type)
• What medium to use when communicating to a given audience (e.g., a speech,
an essay, a video, a recording, a painting, a sticky note, a letter made from words
cut out of magazines)
Yes, I keep writing the word audience over and over again. That’s because the audience is at the core of any rhetorical endeavor. Remember? All of the considerations
described above can be summed up in one sentence: Thinking rhetorically means
thinking about your audience. And that means communicating in a way that doesn’t
make you look stupid, mean, or confusing. And that means communicating in a way
that makes you look smart, nice, and clear.
It sounds obvious, right? I think so too. But then, why are people so bad at it?
The shortcomings of a failed rhetor are those of a failed freestyle rapper, too. He gets
up to start a rap battle and seems impressive at first (i.e., he has a strong ethos—a
word we use a lot when analyzing communication from a rhetorical angle), but then
things go badly when he gets the mic. He starts blundering around, looking like he’s
never done this before. (He should have followed eHow’s advice to “[w]rite down some
good rhymes ahead of time.”) In desperation, he lashes out at his opponent with attacks that seem like low blows, even for a rap battle. The audience groans; he broke
an unspoken rule about how mean he can be. Rhetorical failure. He can tell that he’s
losing the audience, so he changes his tactics and starts blending together all kinds
of words that rhyme. But he fails at this too, since nothing he says makes any sense.
Eventually, he’s booed off stage.
Why study rhetoric? So you can succeed in rap battles. I thought that was obvious.
[1] Thanks to Dr. Debra Jacobs for pointing this out to me.
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Works Cited
“How to Freestyle Rap.” eHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 15 July 2011.
Papillion, Terry. “Isocrates’ Techne and Rhetorical Pedagogy.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly
25 (1995): 149–63. JSTOR. Web. 19 July 2011.
Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New
York: Morrow, 1974. Print.
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Logos: Appeals to Logic
By Emily Lane, Jessica McKee, and Megan McIntyre
“Logic is the anatomy of thought.” – John Locke
“Logos” is the appeal to logic. Logos isn’t logic like the formal logic in math, philosophy, or even computer science; it is the consistency and clarity of an argument as well
as the logic of evidence and reasons.
In formal logic, in abstraction, the following is the case: if A is true and B is true and A
is an instance of B, then the repercussions of B will always be true. The problem, however, is that this kind of logic doesn’t work for real-life situations. This is where argument comes into play. Formal logic would say that speeding, for example, is a violation of traffic laws. A repercussion of violating a traffic law is a ticket; therefore, every
person who speeds gets a ticket. However, in real life, not in abstract theory, things
aren’t that cut and dried. Most people would not agree that all speeders, in every
circumstance, should receive a ticket. In an argument about a real-life situation, the
audience needs particulars to make their decisions. Sometimes there’s an exception.
Why was that person speeding? Well, if an eighteen-year-old is speeding to show off
for his friends, then yes, most people would agree that he deserves a ticket. However,
if a man is driving his pregnant wife to the hospital, then maybe he does not deserve
the ticket. One could, and probably would, make the argument that he should not get
a ticket.
Let’s examine how the appeal to logic would work in an argument for the speeding
father-to-be.
Because arguments are based on values and beliefs as well as facts and evidence, it
is logical that the argument must coincide with accepted values and beliefs. The enthymeme is the foundation of every argument. Enthymemes have three parts: the
claim, the reason, and the unstated assumption that is provided by the audience.
All three of these things must make sense to your audience in order for your argument to be considered logical. The claim of an argument for the father-to-be could
be something like, “This man should not get a speeding ticket.” That’s it. The claim is
pretty simple. It is your educated opinion on the matter. The reason would be some76
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thing like “because his wife is in labor in the backseat.” So the two stated parts of your
enthymeme would be, “This man should not get a speeding ticket because his wife
is in labor in the backseat.” Now, this seems obviously logical to us; however, what
is our underlying value, our unstated assumption about this argument? Most of us
would probably agree that a hospital is a better place to give birth in than a backseat.
That is the third part of the enthymeme. Your audience must agree that your assumption is true in order for your argument to be considered logical. If your readers don’t
have the same assumption, they are not going to see your logic. You must find an enthymeme that works for your audience. The pregnant wife enthymeme is fairly easy
to see. In more volatile claims and reasons, the unstated assumptions can be trickier
to identify and work out with your audience.
Reasons like “because his wife is in labor” are motivations for the driver’s actions,
not evidence. Most audiences need facts. Evidence is the facts. Both reasons and evidence are used in an appeal to logic; however, reasons cannot be your only support.
Evidence as to why the man should speed might include studies about the problems
with births in difficult or dangerous circumstances, interviews with women who have
given birth in automobiles, and infant mortality rates for births that do not occur in
hospitals. As you can see, there are many different kinds of evidence you could provide for this argument.
Consistency means not changing the unstated or stated rules governing your argument. Consistency is essential to logic. Let us continue with the speeding example.
If, for instance, you are arguing that the infant mortality rate is too high for babies
born outside the hospital and that the father is required to speed for the safety of his
unborn child, then you may not want to include evidence of the high infant mortality
rate in car crashes. Although this information may be part of the infant mortality rate,
it goes against the underlying assumption that speeding is acceptable because of the
high risk of harming the baby if it is born in the backseat.
So why should you care about logos? In your own writing, logos is important because
it appeals to your readers’ intellects. It makes you readers feel smart. Logos is the
part of the argument where you treat your audience like purely rational, “only the
facts, ma’am” kind of people. Also, gaps, leaps, and inconsistencies in logic, no matter
how well developed the other appeals may be, can tear apart an argument in short
order. This is the same reason you cannot ignore logos in others’ arguments either.
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All the appeals are linked together; for instance, if you use as evidence an article that
has leaps in logic, or relies only on authority and emotions, this article could damage
your own ethos as an author. It is important to remember that all three appeals must
be well developed and work together to make a good argument.
Identifying Logos
As you now know, logos can be defined as a writer’s or speaker’s attempt to appeal
to the logic or reason of her audience. Let’s look at some examples of logos that you
might commonly find when reading texts of various media:
• Statistics. When a writer employs data or statistics within a text, you can probably assume that he or she is attempting to appeal to the logic and reason of the
reader. For example, an argument in favor of keeping abortion legal may cite the
May 2011 Pew Research poll that found 54 percent of Americans in favor of legal
abortion. This figure makes a logical argument: abortion should be legal because
the majority of Americans support it, and in a democracy, the majority makes the
decisions.
• Causal statements. When you see an “if-then” statement, with credible supporting evidence, the writer is likely appealing to your reason. Consider an argument about lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18: a writer might suggest that, if
the legal drinking age were 18, then people between 18 and 21 would be less likely to drive under the influence. If the writer offers evidence that the reason that
some between the ages of 18 and 21 drive drunk is that they fear calling a friend
or parent because they have illegally ingested alcohol, then this causal statement
would be an appeal to a reader’s sense of reason.
• Relevant examples or other evidence. You might begin to think about logos
as evidence that doesn’t involve an appeal to your emotions. Even expert testimony, which would certainly be an example of ethos, also could be an example of
logos, depending on its content. For example, in a discussion about recent cuts in
education funding, a statement from the Hillsborough County, Florida, superintendent would be an appeal to authority. But if that statement contained a discussion
of the number of teachers and classes that would have to be cut if the state were
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to reduce the district’s funding, the statement from the superintendent could also
be an appeal to logic.
Fallacious Logos
• Appeal to Nature: Suggesting a certain behavior or action is normal/right because it is “natural.” This is a fallacious argument for two reasons: first, there are
multiple, and often competing, ways to define “nature” and “natural.” Because
there is no one way to define these terms, a writer cannot assume his or her
reader thinks of “nature” is the same way he or she does. Second, we cannot assume that “unnatural” is the same as wrong or evil. We (humans) have made lots
of amendments to how we live (e.g., wearing clothes, living indoors, farming) with
great benefit.
• Argument from Ignorance: Assuming something is true because it has not
been proven false. In a court of law, a defendant is, by law, “innocent until proven
guilty.” However, judges and jurors must hear testimonies from both sides and
receive all facts in order to draw conclusions about the defendant’s guilt or innocence. It would be an argument from ignorance for a judge or juror to reach a
verdict without hearing all of the necessary information.
• Straw Man: Intentionally misrepresenting your opponent’s position by overexaggerating or offering a caricature of his or her argument. It would be fallacious
to claim to dispute an opponent’s argument by creating a superficially similar
position and refuting that position (the “straw man”) instead of the actual argument. For example, “Feminists want to turn men into slaves.” This statement fails
to accurately represent feminist motivations—which can be very diverse. Most
feminists agree in their goal to ensure women’s equality with men. Conceptions
of equality can vary among feminists, but characterizing them as men-haters detracts from their true motivations.
• False Dilemma: Assuming that there are only two options when there are, in
fact, more. For example, “We either cut Social Security, or we have a huge deficit.” There are many ways to resolve deficit problems, but this statement suggests
there is only one.
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• Hasty Generalization: Drawing a broad conclusion based on a small minority.
For instance, if you witnessed a car accident between two women drivers, it would
be a hasty generalization to conclude that all women are bad drivers.
• Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (With This, Therefore Because of This): Confusing correlation with causation—that is, thinking that because two things happened
simultaneously, then one must have caused the other. For example, “There has
been an increase in both immigration and unemployment; therefore, immigrants
are taking away American jobs.” This statement is fallacious because there is no
evidence to suggest that immigration and unemployment are related to each other—other than that their rates increased simultaneously.
• Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (After This, Therefore Because of This): Assuming that because A occurred before B, A is the cause of B. This differs from the
previous fallacy in temporality (A before B versus A and B happening simultaneously).
• The Slippery Slope: We already noted that the slippery slope argument is often a way to scare readers or listeners into taking (or not taking) a particular action. The slippery slope argument can also function as a false invocation of logic
or reason in that it involves a causal statement that lacks evidence. For example, I
might argue that if the drinking age were lowered from 21 to 18, vast numbers of
college students would start drinking, which in turn would lead to alcohol poisoning, binge drinking, and even death. This conclusion requires evidence to connect
the legality of drinking with overindulgence. In other words, it does not follow that
college students would drink irresponsibly if given the opportunity to drink legally.
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Ethos: Appeals to Authority and Credibility
By Megan McIntyre and Jessica McKee
“Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.” – Friedrich Schiller
I’ve always wondered why candidates have to “approve this message”; I mean, if President Obama is on camera talking about himself, then can’t I assume he approves the
message? Why does he have to state that he approves it at the end? There’s certainly
a law that governs what must be said at the end of a political advertisement, or else
President Obama wouldn’t say exactly the same thing as every other politician at the
end of an ad, but there’s also an element of persuasion at work here. By appearing on
camera saying that he approves the content, the President is giving the ad credibility.
It’s about him, his work, and his beliefs, and by saying he has approved the ad, President Obama is saying, “You can trust this information about me.”
This appeal to credibility is known as “ethos.” Ethos is a method of persuasion in
which the speaker or writer (the “rhetor”) attempts to persuade the audience by demonstrating his own credibility or authority. I think the best way to understand this kind
of appeal to the credibility of the author is to look at the three most common ways a
rhetor attempts to demonstrate authority on a topic.
Intrinsic Authority
Intrinsic authority is authority that comes from the rhetor herself. It might come from
her work experience or college degrees or generally good morality, or it might come
from how well she demonstrates that she can speak or write about her topic.
Aristotle, who coined the term “ethos,” said that “persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible.” This is true, he said, because an audience will “believe good men more fully and
more readily than others.” For Aristotle, though, this kind of persuasion shouldn’t
derive from who the person is exactly; rather, it “should be achieved by what the
speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak.”
For us, however, in an age in which Google is a click away, the speaker’s character and
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achievements have an impact on the way we think about what she says. It’s unavoidable. But the person’s ability to speak authoritatively on her topic is just as important.
Remember, though, that a rhetorical situation, in which a speaker or writer seeks to
purposefully persuade her audience, is an artificial situation: an author shares only a
part of herself with the audience. To put it another way, as M. Jimmie Killingsworth, a
scholar of rhetoric from Texas A&M University, does in a 2005 article in Rhetoric Review: “The author’s position is not simply a personal account of himself or herself. The
author is a complex individual who selectively reveals (or invents) aspects of character
pertinent to the rhetorical work required at the moment” (251–52).
Borrowed Credibility
Sometimes, though, a speaker or writer doesn’t have enough of her own credibility to
convince the audience. What should she do then? Well, this is usually when a rhetor
borrows credibility from somebody else. That’s one of the reasons it’s important to
know how to cite credible sources. The sources we use when we write give us some of
their credibility. As the Yale University Writing Center encourages students, “Incorporating other people’s ideas into your writing allows you to stand on their shoulders as
you explore your topic.”
Think, for example, about the way I quoted Aristotle earlier in this discussion. I’m a
teacher, so I have some authority. You’re reading the information in an open textbook, and that also gives me some credibility, but those two things combined may not
be enough to convince you that I’m an authority on the subject. So, I borrowed credibility from the man who first wrote about ethos. I used quotes from Aristotle’s most
important book on rhetoric, and those quotes help establish my own credibility on
the subject at hand.
“Oh, that makes sense.”
There is also, however, the credibility that comes from saying or writing something
that the audience already believes or that reinforces the audience’s experience. We
should treat this kind of ethos with a healthy dose of suspicion. Just because something sounds right to you or makes you feel good about what you believe does not
mean that it is true.
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Take, for example, the idea that the Founding Fathers of the United States were Christians. Many well-known commentators and politicians have made this claim, and it
has been generally accepted as the truth. The statement has the authority that comes
from being the conventional wisdom. The problem, however, is that the Founding
Fathers weren’t all Christians. Some of the most prominent members of this group,
including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, were actually Deists. They didn’t
believe that Jesus was God, which is a central tenant of Christianity, and wrote extensively about their Deism. (Refer to Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and
Later Writings, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay, and David Holmes’s The Faiths of the Founding Fathers for information about this.) There is a lesson in this for both audience and
speaker. It’s dangerous to accept something just because it sounds true. Credibility
can’t be established just by saying what the audience wants to hear.
Identifying Ethos
By now, you’ve hopefully gotten an idea of what ethos is: an attempt to persuade by
appealing to authority or credibility. You might be wondering, though, what ethos
looks like in writing or in speaking. Here are a few examples:
• References to work experience or life experience related to the topic.
When an author writing about the stock market talks about his years working for
an investment bank, that’s an appeal to credibility.
• References to college degrees or awards related to the topic. When your biology instructor makes clear in the syllabus that he has a PhD in biology and that
you’ll be using the textbook he’s written for the class, he’s reminding you of his
authority and credibility on the subject.
• References to the character of the writer. When a politician writes in a campaign brochure about his years of public service and the contributions he’s made
to the community, he’s letting you know he’s trustworthy, a good person, and a
credible source of information about the community and the issues that affect it.
• The use of supporting sources written by authorities on the subject. When
a student writes a paper about why school hours should be changed and uses
quotations from principals, teachers, and school board members (all of whom
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know something about the topic), he’s borrowing their credibility and authority to
increase his own.
• References to symbols that represent authority. When a candidate gives a
speech in front of an American flag, he or she is associating him- or herself with
the symbol and borrowing the authority it represents.
Fallacious Ethos
• Ad Hominem (Argument to the Person): Attacking the person instead of the
argument. For example, “You say I shouldn’t drink so much, but you drink every
day.” The validity of the argument (drink less) can’t be based on the behavior of
the person making the argument. Instead, the validity of the argument should be
evaluated on its own terms—separate from the person making the claim.
• Argument from Authority: Claiming to be an expert and, on that basis, to be
deserving of trust. It’s important to remember that there are different kinds and
levels of expertise: My weekend cooking class doesn’t make me an authority on
recipes, though I can honestly say I’ve studied cooking. So, I might be an authority
on some elements of cooking, but not all of cooking. When faced with an argument from authority, it is important to investigate the credentials of the speaker
or writer.
• Appeal to Authority: Using a statement taken out of context as authoritative
support. For instance, it would be fallacious to use Malcolm X’s declaration “by any
means necessary” to justify an oppressed group’s violence against police officers.
Such an assertion ignores the context, and therefore the complexity, of Malcolm
X’s statement.
• Argument from False Authority: Using an expert in a specific field as an expert
in all related fields. For instance, if I am writing a paper about heart disease and I
quote my chiropractor, Dr. Wallace, then I would be making an appeal to fallacious
ethos; despite being a doctor, she is not an authority on heart disease.
• Appeal to Anonymous Authority: Using appeals to nonspecific groups (e.g.,
doctors, scientists, researchers, and so on). For example, “Research shows that all
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women are inferior to men.” Or, “Studies indicate that all college students binge
drink.” Neither of these statements offers a specific credible source, so both
claims lack authority.
• Inflation of Conflict: Using a conflict between two authorities as a reason to
dismiss their arguments and knowledge. For instance, it would be fallacious to
assert that global climate change does not exist because two scientists disagree
about its effects.
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Works Cited
Aristotle. On Rhetoric. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. The Internet Classics Archive. Web. Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 July 2010.
Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings.
New York, NY: Library of America, 2005. Print.
Holmes, David. The Faiths of the Founding Fathers. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 2006.
Print.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “Rhetorical Appeals: A Revision.” Rhetoric Review 24.3 (2005):
249–63. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 July 2010.
Yale Writing Center. “Why Cite?” The Writing Center. Yale U, 2009. Web. 4 July 2010.
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Pathos: Appeals to Emotion
By Kendra Gayle Lee, Jessica McKee, and Megan McIntyre
“Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives, and we
obey them without realizing it.” – Vincent Van Gogh
Remember those after-school specials that aired on TV when you were a kid? They
always had some obvious moral (like “don’t drink and drive”). And they were often really emotionally driven. At the end of the show, the camera would pan out, showing
the protagonist alone and suffering for the poor decisions that he or she had made.
When you were a child, that sort of heavy-handed emotionalism was effective in getting a point across. Now that you’re an adult, it becomes easier to feel frustrated, and
even manipulated, by an overload of emotion. Emotion, or “pathos,” is a rhetorical
device that can be used in an argument to draw the audience in and to help it connect with the argument. Relying too much on pathos, though, can make your writing
sound like an after-school special.
Pathos works in conjunction with logos (logic) and ethos (credibility) to help form a
solid argument. However, not every argument employs all three rhetorical devices.
Each writer must choose which combination of rhetorical devices will work well for his
or her writing and will suit the chosen topic. Used correctly, pathos can make a bland
argument come alive for the audience. Pathos offers a way for the audience to relate
to the subject through commonly held emotions. However, it is important to determine when pathos will be useful and when it will only serve to muddy the argumentative waters.
Take, for instance, a student who is writing an essay on human trafficking. Human
trafficking—abducting or entrapping people (usually women and children) and subjecting them to horrific working situations—should be a subject that is already fraught
with emotion. However, once the student starts working on the paper, he notices that
he has a collection of facts and figures from which the audience will easily be able to
disconnect. What the needs is to make the topic come alive for the reader. He needs
to make the reader feel sympathy and horror. Then he comes upon a first-person account of a teenager who was trafficked into the United States. By incorporating her
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account into his essay (with proper citation, of course), he allows the reader to experience the teenager’s disbelief and fear. And by experiencing this emotion, the reader
begins to develop his or her own emotional response: sympathy, horror, and anger.
The student has helped the reader connect to his argument through the effective use
of pathos.
Pathos becomes a liability in an argument when it is inappropriate for the subject
matter or genre of writing being used. For instance, if you are writing a letter to Publix supermarket to express your displeasure with its corporate response to migrant
farmers’ call for a living wage, then a narrative encouraging sympathy for the plight of
the migrant worker might not be as effective as a straightforward statement of purpose: if Publix doesn’t change its policies, you will take your business to a supermarket that is more interested in supporting social justice.
An audience can also find an overload of pathos to be off-putting. For instance, after September 11, 2001, the majority of people in the United States experienced an
overwhelming sense of anger and fear. However, when references to 9/11 were used
extensively in some of the 2004 presidential campaigns, many people were outraged.
Why? Because they felt as though their intense feelings about the tragedy of 9/11
were being exploited and cheapened by the candidates, and they were intentionally
being made to feel fearful. They felt as though their emotions were being manipulated to obtain votes. In this case, an overload of pathos backfired on the candidates.
Understanding pathos is important for readers and for writers. As a reader, you want
to be in tune with the author’s use of pathos, consciously evaluating the emotions
the author tries to elicit. Then you can make informed decisions about the author’s
motives and writing methods. As a writer, you want to be aware of proper uses of
pathos, paying close attention to both your subject matter and your audience. There
is no need to sound like an after-school special, unless, of course, you are writing for
one.
Identifying Pathos
It’s probably clear by now what pathos does: it evokes an emotional response from a
reader by appealing to empathy, fear, humor, or some other emotion. Now let’s look
at a few examples of pathos that you may find in written, spoken, or visual texts:
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• Anecdotes or other narratives. When a writer employs a narrative or anecdote, he or she is usually attempting to connect with the reader emotionally. For
example, beginning an essay about human trafficking by relaying the personal
story of a victim captures the attention of the audience because it humanizes the
problem and draws on readers’ empathy.
• Images or other forms of media. When a writer uses images, songs, and other
types of nontextual media, he or she is often attempting to engage a reader’s
emotions. Songs and pictures produce emotional responses. For example, Toby
Keith’s post-9/11 anthem, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue,” seems to embody the nation’s anger after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While you may not agree
with the song’s sense of justice, the lyrics recall a painful time in our nation’s history. For many, that recollection prompts an emotional response.
• Direct quotations. Though quotations are used for a myriad of reasons, direct
quoting from an individual who has been personally affected by an issue is usually an appeal to the emotions of a reader. For example, if I were writing an essay
about breast cancer and I quoted a cancer patient, that quotation would be an attempt to humanize the topic and appeal to the sympathy of my readers.
• Humor. When a writer uses humor in order to illustrate a point, he or she is employing pathos. Though there is logic to satirical humor (as used on The Daily Show
or The Colbert Report), the main appeal of such television shows is that they make
viewers laugh.
Fallacious Pathos
• Argument by Dismissal: Rejecting an idea without providing a reason or explanation for its dismissal. For instance, there is a tendency to cry “socialism”
when faced with calls for a single-payer system in the ongoing health care debate.
Such a dismissal of the single-payer system may include the observations, “This is
America!,” or, “You are free to live elsewhere if you prefer.” While we do live in the
United States and people are free to live wherever they want, neither of these observations actually addresses the argument, either for or against the single-payer
system. The observer relies on the simple (and fallacious) dismissal of the opposing viewpoint.
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• Argument by Emotive Language: Using emotional words that are not supported by evidence and/or are unconnected to the argument being made. For example, in abortion debates regarding a woman’s right to choose, the argument sometimes shifts from a discussion of medical or legal rights to a graphic description of
the abortion process or extreme analogies between abortion and genocide. Most
would agree that genocide should be prevented and that the destruction of a fetus is a violent procedure, but these observations distract from the conversation
about a woman’s medical and legal rights.
• Appeal to Pity: Drawing on irrelevant personal experiences or feelings in order
to produce a sympathetic response. For instance, if I were writing about the necessity of universal health care and I included a personal anecdote about falling ill
in Canada and being unable to receive free health care, that anecdote would be a
fallacious appeal to pity. My personal experience, though interesting, does not illuminate the issue of universal health care.
• The Slippery Slope: Suggesting that a particular argument or course of action
will lead to disastrous consequences without offering evidence. This fallacy usually
produces an emotional response. A common example is the assertion that legalizing gay marriage will lead to polygamy, bestiality, and/or pedophilia.
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Kairos: Appeals to Timeliness
By Kate Pantelides, Megan McIntyre, and Jessica McKee
“This is the right time, and this is the right thing.” – Sir Thomas Moore
“Kairos” is an ancient rhetorical concept that has gained importance in different disciplines over the centuries. So what is it? Kairos is knowing what is most appropriate in
a given situation; for our purposes, let’s think of it as saying (or writing) the right thing
at the right time. Appeals to kairos in written form try to make use of the particular
moment—attempting to capture in words what will be immediately applicable, appropriate, and engaging for a particular audience. Kairos is timeliness, appropriateness,
decorum, symmetry, balance—awareness of the rhetorical situation or “the circumstances that open moments of opportunity” (Kinneavy; Sipiora; Vatz; Bitzer; Hill 217).
Kairos is crafting serendipity, like when the sun comes out at the end of a romantic
comedy after all the conflicts have been resolved.
In Greek, both kairos and chronos literally mean “time,” but kairos does not mean
“time” in the same sense as used in contemporary English. In Greek, kairos represents
a kind of “qualitative” time, as in “the right time”; chronos represents a different kind
of “quantitative” time, as in, “What time is it?” and “Will we have enough time?” (Kinneavy; Stephenson). Kairos means taking advantage of or even creating a perfect moment to deliver a particular message.
Consider, for example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
The speech was rhetorically powerful: it changed minds, persuaded people to support
the civil rights movement, and served as a powerful rallying cry for a generation of
reformers. But the speech was so powerful in part because of its kairotic moment: the
timing and atmosphere of the speech lent themselves to powerful oratory. Together,
the “where” (the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.), the “why” (the
culmination of a march on Washington by thousands of members of the civil rights
movement), and the “when” (during the centennial celebration of the Emancipation
Proclamation, at a time of day when broadcast networks could carry the speech live,
and during a march which had drawn more than 250,000 people to the capital) cre-
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ated the perfect moment for King’s message to reach the largest number of receptive
listeners.
Although kairos has long been a key word for many disciplines, within the study of
writing, kairos has been the topic of much debate in the last few decades. James Kinneavy is largely credited with reintroducing the importance of kairos into the discipline of Rhetoric and Composition and, thus, the composition classroom. According
to Kinneavy, kairos is “the appropriateness of the discourse to the particular circumstances of the time, place, speaker, and audience involved” (84). Other scholars suggest that “kairos refers to a struggle, at the point of rhetorical intervention, between
situational factors” (Sheridan, Michel, and Ridolfo). Both definitions get at the elusive,
jaguar-in-the-jungle nature of kairos. Kairos is so hard to pin down because, as Phillip
Sipiora suggests, it is “a dynamic principle rather than a static, codified rhetorical technique” (10). So, the rhetor must be “accomodative,” waiting for the right time, matching her text to the precise moment in order to be most successful (Sipiora). It’s sort of
the Goldilocks rule of writing: you don’t want your message to be too big, too small,
too soft, or too hard; it should be just right.
So far, kairos seems pretty slippery, a sort of “I’ll know it when I see it” kind of principle. In some ways, kairos represents the ephemeral, “fleeting” nature of “the right
time.” In terms of writing, we try to capture the moment of balance, the kairotic moment, and thus move the audience by appealing to that specific context.
Because kairos is so tied to the particular moment, or rhetorical situation, it is hard to
provide concrete examples out of context. But a good way to think about kairos is to
consider how rhetors try to persuade audiences based on unique timing and current
events. For instance, consider the way restaurants, bookstores, and various campus
entities appeal to incoming freshman students. Vendors have signs declaring “New to
the university? Join this club to meet new people and learn about the campus!” and
“First-year students, this week only: $100 off your first month at this apartment building!” They reference the particular moment, first stepping onto a new campus, to persuade you to do everything from opening a new bank account and buying logo bumper stickers to ordering a dozen pizzas. Effective uses of kairos take advantage of the
particular time and place to make texts unique and give them a sense of immediacy.
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Kairos is undoubtedly a pretty heady term, something ancient philosophers, modern
rhetoricians, and contemporary composition students have wrestled with. But it’s
worth wrestling with. For your own writing, you can skillfully employ kairos by doing
the following:
• Examine the rhetorical situation, the factors that create that particular moment.
• Consider the order and timing of your text.
• Be accomodative; appeal to each specific context.
By using kairos as a guiding principle for your own texts, you can bring interest and
timeliness to your writing projects. So when you begin to write, think of the moment
that your writing will enter into—the audience that will read it, the conversation that
it joins, the history surrounding the topic, and the words you use to craft your argument. Awareness and use of this knowledge create beautiful writing that, like turning
the key in your door at the end of a long day, seems perfectly timed, effortless, and
just right.
Identifying Kairos
By now, you should know what kairos is: an attempt to persuade through appeals to
timeliness. Here are a few possible examples of kairos:
• Calls to “Act Now!” An appeal to some particular fast-approaching moment is
often a rhetor’s attempt to create a perfect kairotic moment for his or her message by creating a sense of urgency. You’ve likely seen a commercial or infomercial that pleads with the viewer to “Call now!” to receive some important prize or
to avoid missing some sort of opportunity; this type of commercial or informercial
employs kairos.
• The use of deadlines or goals. Such appeals to kairos are often seen as part of
fundraising literature: by connecting a reader’s or listener’s response to a particular deadline or goal, the writer creates urgency and excitement.
• References to “current crises” or impending doom. Such references are prevalent in political and social campaigns. Consider, for example, the large number of
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financial bills, laws, and investigations undertaken by legislative bodies throughout the country after the most recent economic recession. Lawmakers were responding to and taking advantage of the kairotic moment created by the crisis in
order to persuade their fellow lawmakers and constituents to support a particular
fiscal policy.
Fallacious Kairos
• Red Herring: Introducing irrelevant facts or claims to detract from the actual
argument. For instance, our invasion of Iraq was predicated, in part, upon the connection between the attacks of 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. The war was described
by some as an appropriate response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, but in reality,
the connection between Iraq and Saddam Hussein was a red herring. Hussein was
not connected to Al Qaeda, the terrorist network that perpetrated the attacks, or
9/11.
• Argument from Authority: We already noted that an argument from false authority involves a speaker or writer claiming authority in a particular area without
giving evidence of that authority. These claims of authority are obviously connected to ethos, but depending on the argument, may also be connected to kairos. For
example, when a political candidate claims that, if action is not taken right now,
the nation risks ruin, he or she is identifying him- or herself as an expert on both
the nature of the problem as well as the timing.
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Works Cited
Hill, Carolyn Erikson. “Changing Times in Composition Classes: Kairos, Resonance, and
the Pythagorean Connection.” Sipiora and Baumlin 211–25.
Kinneavy, James L. “Kairos: A Neglected Concept in Classical Rhetoric.” Rhetoric and
Praxis: The Contribution of Classical Rhetoric to Practical Reasoning. Ed. Jean Dietz
Moss. Washington, DC: Catholic U of America P, 1986. 79–105. Print.
Kinneavy, James L., and Catherine R. Eskin. “Kairos in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” Written Communication 11.1 (1994): 131–42. Print.
Peeples, Timothy, Paula Rosinski, and Michael Strickland. “Chronos and Kairos, Strategies and Tactics: The Case of Constructing Elon University’s Professional Writing
and Rhetoric Concentration.” Composition Studies 35.1 (2007): 57–76. Print.
Sheridan, David, Tony Michel, and Jim Ridolfo. “Kairos and New Media: Toward a Theory and Practice of Visual Activism.” Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and
Culture 6.2 (2009): n. pag. Web. 8 July 2010.
Sipiora, Phillip. Introduction. Sipiora and Baumlin 1–22.
Sipiora, Phillip, and James S. Baumlin, eds. Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Albany: State U of New York P, 2002. Print.
Stephenson, Hunter. “(Re)Claiming the Ground: Image Events, Kairos, and Discourse.”
Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture 6.2 (2009): n. pag. Web. 8
July 2010.
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Quick Reference Guide: Rhetorical Appeals
By Karen Langbehn
Rhetorical Appeal Abbreviated Definition
Ethos
appeal to credibility
You may want to think
of ethos as related to
Reflective Questions
• Why should I (the reader)
read what the writer has written?
“ethics,” or the moral
• How does the author cite
principles of the writer:
that he or she has something
ethos is the author’s
valid and important for me to
way of establishing
read?
trust with his or her
reader.
• Does the author mention
his or her education or professional experience, or convince me that he or she is a
valid, educated, and experienced source?
Pathos
appeal to emotion
You may want to think
of pathos as “empathy,”
which pertains to the
• How is the writer trying to
make me feel, or what has he
or she written that makes me
want to do something?
experience of or sensi-
• What specific parts of the
tivity toward emotion.
author’s writing make me feel
happy, sad, inspired, dejected, and so on?
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Rhetorical Appeal Abbreviated Definition
Logos
appeal to logic
You may want to think
of logos as “logic,” because something that is
logical makes sense—it
is reasonable.
Reflective Questions
• What evidence does the
writer provide that convinces
me that his or her argument
is logical—that it makes
sense?
• What proof is the author offering me?
Kairos
appeal to timeliness
You may want to think
of kairos as the type of
persuasion that per-
• Does the writer make
claims that are particularly
important given what is happening right now?
tains to the right place
• How is the author making
and the right time.
the most of the moment or
attempting to speak to the
concern of his or her audience?
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Quick Reference Guide: Logical Fallacies
By Megan McIntyre and Jessica McKee
• Ad Hominem (Argument to the Person): Attacking the person instead of the
argument.
• Argument from Authority: Claiming to be an expert, and on that basis, to be
deserving of trust.
• Appeal to Authority: Using a statement taken out of context as authoritative
support.
• Argument from False Authority: Using an expert in a specific field as an expert
in all related fields.
• Appeal to Anonymous Authority: Using appeals to nonspecific groups (e.g.,
scientists, doctors, researchers, and so on).
• Inflation of Conflict: Using a conflict between two authorities as a reason to
dismiss their arguments and knowledge.
• Argument by Dismissal: Rejecting an idea without providing a reason or explanation for its dismissal.
• Argument by Emotive Language: Using emotional words that are not supported by evidence and/or are unconnected to the argument being made.
• Appeal to Pity: Drawing on irrelevant personal experiences or feelings in order
to produce a sympathetic response.
• The Slippery Slope: Suggesting that a particular argument or course of action
will lead to disastrous consequences without offering evidence.
• Appeal to Nature: Suggesting a certain behavior or action because it is “natural.”
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• Argument from Ignorance: Assuming something is true because it has not
been proven false.
• Straw Man: Intentionally misrepresenting your opponent’s position by overexaggerating or offering a caricature of his or her argument.
• False Dilemma: Assuming that there are only two options when there are in
fact more.
• Hasty Generalization: Drawing a broad conclusion based on a small minority.
• Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (With This, Therefore Because of This): Confusing correlation with causation—that is, thinking that because two things happened
simultaneously, then one must have caused the other.
• Red Herring: Introducing irrelevant facts or claims to detract from the actual
argument.
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4: Conducting Research
Research as Conversation
101
Research as Discovery
106
Finding and Evaluating Sources
112
Defining Evidence
116
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
121
Why We Create an Annotated Bibliography
125
Organizing Research to Construct a Synthesis Matrix
128
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Research as Conversation
By Melissa Vosen Callens
Entering the Conversation
You may have heard your writing instructor refer to writing as a conversation, and
your instructor may have even asked you to read the following passage by Kenneth
Burke.
In his book, The Philosophy of Literary Form, Burke writes:
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded
you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause
and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before
any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that
had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of
the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes
to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending on the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the
discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, and you must depart. And you do depart,
with the discussion still vigorously in progress. (110-111)
But what did your instructor mean? Why did he / she ask you to read this passage?
Let’s try a different example.
Imagine you were invited to a friend’s party. You decide to go, but you arrive late.
Instead of a parlor, you enter your friend’s dimly-lit basement. At this party, you see
some friends standing in a corner next to a foosball table, arguing over which players
your school’s football coaches should recruit next year. As a devout fan, you have an
opinion on the topic, but you quickly decide it would be rude to interrupt the conversation that has been going on for quite some time before you arrived. If you interrupt,
you know it is highly unlikely you will be successful at making your point. You don’t
want the group to think you are a poor listener or rude. You want the group to agree
with you, so you figure it is better to frame your opinion after you get a better understanding of the group and their opinions on the topic. Before jumping into the conversation, you seek answers to the following questions:
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• What are other people saying? What reasons do they give to support their opinions?
• Do they feel strongly, or do they not care?
• What are the latest developments?
After you obtain answers to your questions, or at least most of them, you offer your
thoughts. How can the coaches not at least try and recruit the phenom from West
Monroe, LA?
When you write a research paper, you are entering a conversation too, just like you
did at the party. For example, if you decide to write your final paper on why the federal minimum wage should be raised, it is important to realize other people have written papers on this topic too and that it would be difficult to successfully convince your
reader to agree with you if you completely ignore what is currently being discussed
by others. Just like the conversation at the party, you need to understand the greater
context of your argument.
When you go to do research to find out what others have said about raising the federal minimum wage, you will notice there are other authors who have closely studied and carefully researched your topic. They may even be experts from universities
across the country or, in the case of minimum wage, work in the economics and banking industries. It is important that you draw on their work. You may also find people
who have expressed their opinion on the topic, but are not experts in the field, but
their ideas can be important too.
It is important to remember that you do not have to agree with everything others
wrote, but in order to develop an informed opinion, and persuade your reader, you
will need to acknowledge what others are saying. According to the authors of They
Say, I Say, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, “Academic writing in particular calls
upon writers not simply to express their own ideas, but to do so as a response to
what others have said” (IX). In other words, you should explain how your ideas align
or do not align with the ideas of others. Not only will researching help you develop
an informed option, citing professionals who you agree with you can help make your
argument stronger. Citing professionals who you disagree with you can be important
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as well. It gives you a chance to explain why you think your argument is stronger, and
it gives you a chance to explain to your reader what you see flawed in the opposition’s
argument. In addition, it also shows that you acknowledge there are other ideas out
there. It makes you sound knowledge and reasonable.
In summary, it is important to remember that writing is a conversation, but it is not
a one-sided conversation. The product of your research should not simply be a summary of sources, nor should it consist of your ideas alone. If you have ever been in a
one-sided conversation, where the other person does all the talking and fails to listen
to anything you have to say, you know how annoying—and unproductive—the situation feels. Each party needs to listen, and each party needs to contribute. When writing, you should be creating a dialogue among perspectives: they say, I say. In addition,
it is also important to remember that the discussion continues even after you turn
your paper in.
Successful writers do not write in a vacuum; successful writers engage the voices of
others and let other writers engage them. Your writing instructor will expect you to
position your argument in relation to what others have said in the field. Even the actual act of writing is a social act, just as social as the conversation you had at the party. Even though it may not seem like it when you are alone in the library late at night
researching for your paper or in your dorm room writing your first draft, writing, and
the concurrent act of researching, is a very much a collaborative effort.
Research: A Collaborative Effort
In a similar argument, Karen Burke LeFevre views invention, the process of developing and refining an argument, as a social act that is initiated by writers and concluded
by readers. It is important to recognize the role invention plays in the writing process;
it also important to study how the individual inventor (or author) and readers are interconnected in the process. Some call this interconnected process collaboration.
Collaboration can come in many different forms. Some papers are written by more
than one author, a more formal collaborative effort, while some texts are written by
one author drawing on a variety of outside sources such as a colleague, partner, or
even a database. Many people call the latter collaboration as well. While many view
collaboration as the act of writing together and only writing together, there are other
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ways to collaborate with, or seek the assistance of, other people when writing your
paper.
Rebecca Moore Howard asserts that all writing is the result of a collaborative effort.
Howard believes there are three types of collaboration used specifically in writing
classrooms, like the one you are in now: collaborative contributions to solo-authored
texts, writer-text collaboration, and collaborative writing (Collaborative Pedagogy 5967). Below is an explanation of each.
• Collaborative Contributions to Solo-Authored Texts: Collaborative contributions to solo-authored texts are “most often used in writing classes for collaborative responses to individually drafted texts” (59-60). An example of collaborative
contributions to solo-authored texts would be peer review. In this case, one person writes the text, but one or more persons give feedback on the draft.
• Writer-text Collaboration: Writer-text collaboration is when a writer draws
on another text. While this is most commonly referred to as citation or research,
Howard argues that this too is an example of collaboration because it is a dialogue
between the author and text. It is a conversation. Traditionally, writer-text collaboration has been viewed mostly as “quotation, paraphrase, summary, synthesis,
research—or plagiarism” (66). Howard argues that this is the least acknowledged
type of collaboration.
• Collaborative Writing: If more than one person, however, writes a text, this
would be an example of Howard’s collaborative writing (Collaborative Pedagogy
62).
In your English course, you will be asked to do research for many of your assignments; in other words, you will be expected to participate in writer-text collaboration.
In order to do so, you must first determine how to enter the conversation on your
chosen topic, how to enter the parlor. By creating a dialogue between your work and
the work of other authors, you are doing much more than simply entering a conversation; you are also extending a conversation as well.
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Works Cited
Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action. 3rd ed.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: UC Press, 1973.
LeFevre Burke, Karen. Invention as a Social Act. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.
Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic
Writing. New York: W. & W. Norton & Co., 2007.
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Research as Discovery
By L. E. Cagle
When asked to picture a researcher, many people imagine a scientist in a white lab
coat busily mixing up smoky liquids or preparing tiny slides for a microscope. This
stereotype is likely a far cry from the research you have been or will be asked to do
for many of your classes, including this one. Instead of puttering around a lab, you
will conduct your research in the library or online. Instead of beakers and slides, your
research tools are books and databases.
However, the classic image of a scientist in a lab does suggest something important
about research,: that there is a close connection between research and discovery.
Many of us have heard the phrase “scientific discovery” before. This isn’t surprising,
considering that the goal of much scientific research is discovery. As the classic quip
attributed to Albert Einstein goes, “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not
be called research, would it?” In the sciences, research is consciously linked to discovery. Your research, even if it isn’t scientific, can and should be a process of discovery,
too.
You’ve probably heard before that writing an argument requires more than just sitting down and putting words on paper. While you might already have an argument in
mind, you also need to do research. Through research, you can discover the relevant
facts and most common arguments to ensure that you can make your argument convincingly. While researching, you can also discover any misconceptions or logical flaws
that weaken the argument you already have in mind. Discovering those weaknesses
gives you the chance to address them, thereby also strengthening your argument.
In addition to supporting your argument, there’s another reason to approach research as a process of discovery. Discovering facts and arguments you didn’t already
know also lets you reconsider the argument or opinion you originally brought to your
topic. In other words, research helps you develop your ideas in new directions, or
even change your mind.
The chance to discover new ways of thinking may be the greatest benefit research has
to offer us. When your research involves finding and reading texts on the topic you’re
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investigating, you get access to ongoing scholarly and popular conversations about
ideas that play out across books, journal articles, newspapers, websites, blogs, magazines, new media, and a variety of other outlets. Learning what others think about
something you care about can validate your interests and inspire further learning.
Discovering New Facts
New facts are research discoveries that provide you with support for your argument.
Researching and evaluating facts can help you ensure that you aren’t basing your arguments on unsupported assertions or misinformed arguments. When you use facts
from trustworthy sources, you bolster your credibility and persuade your readers that
you are a knowledgeable writer who has taken the time to discover relevant facts and
present them in the service of a strong argument.
Let’s look at an example of how discovering new facts can help you strengthen your
argument and establish your credibility. Imagine that you’re shopping for a new car.
You plan to take out a loan to pay for the car, and you are asking a family member to
co-sign on the loan. Before you ask your family member, you want to be sure to have
arguments ready about why buying a new car rather than a used car is worth the extra cost. As you research the loan options available, you discover that a loan on a new
car will have a lower interest rate than a loan on a used car. You plan to share this information when you ask your family member to co-sign a loan; you know it strengthens your arguments about the benefits of buying new, and it also highlights that you
are knowledgeable and trustworthy, thus bolstering your credibility.
The new facts you discover can also lead you to modify your argument or even completely revise your line of thinking and change your mind. Let’s return to our SUV vs.
Prius scenario to see an example of how discovering new facts can lead you to make
a different argument than you originally had in mind.
Imagine again that you’re shopping for a new car. Although you like SUVs, you’re on
a tight budget, so you want a car that will save you money. Your friend who drives
a Toyota Prius is always bragging about how little she spends on gas, so you expect
you’ll buy a Prius. Before going to the dealership, though, you do a little research
online to find out the total cost of ownership for the Prius. On Internet Autoguide’s
website, you discover that one of Toyota’s SUVs, this year’s FJ Cruiser, only costs a few
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thousand dollars more to own than a new Prius over five years. This research suggests that maybe the Prius isn’t your only low-cost option after all.
In this example, research into a topic has uncovered facts that cause you to revisit
your original idea about the topic. On the basis of these new facts, you may alter your
car-purchasing plan. You certainly have gained new insights into the topic of car ownership costs; these insights resulted from approaching research as a process of discovery.
Discovering New Arguments
Your research can also uncover lines of argumentation that you hadn’t yet considered
when formulating your own view of a topic. These new lines of argumentation may
support the view you already have of a topic. Incorporating them into your arguments
about a topic will strengthen your arguments and add to your credibility by making it
clear how knowledgeable you are.
Let’s return to our car-buying scenario. You recently purchased a used car because
you wanted to spend as little as possible. Your roommate says that was a bad idea,
though, because a used car might cost you more than a new car in repairs over time.
You worry that buying used was a mistake, so you hop online to do some research.
On websites like edmunds.com, cars.com, and consumerreports.org, you discover
that experts writing about the cost of ownership of a car use lines of argumentation
that include not only the purchasing price and estimated maintenance costs, but also
the cost of interest on loans, monthly insurance, taxes, and Department of Motor
Vehicle fees. Including arguments about these additional costs allows experts to conclude that, typically, owning a used car that is not too old is cheaper than owning a
new car. These additional arguments strengthen your confidence in your purchase of
a used car and give you a way to respond to your roommate’s critiques.
New arguments, like new facts, can also lead you to change your mind about arguments you previously agreed with. Let’s consider a scenario to illustrate the process
of discovering new arguments which can reverse your thinking on a topic or issue.
Imagine yourself again as the owner of a newly purchased used car. You aren’t loyal
to any one car company, so you chose your car based on test drives of the used cars
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that were available at your local car dealerships. After hearing about your used car
purchase, a friend comments that you should have bought a hybrid car because it
would be better for the environment. This critique bothers you; you recycle regularly
and use energy-saving lightbulbs and appliances. You know that hybrid cars use less
gas than most cars, which is better for emissions and preservation of energy resources. But you wonder if your and your friend’s assumption that hybrid cars are better
for the environment is true. If not, you don’t have to feel guilty about getting a great
deal on a used car.
So you decide to do some research. While searching online for “used car” and “environmental friendliness,” you discover a 2009 article in Scientific American titled “When
Used Cars Are More Ecofriendly Than New Cars,” which compares used cars’ and hybrid cars’ environmental impacts. The article reports that some used cars have less
environmental impact than hybrid cars because many used cars created fewer emissions during manufacture. This idea of looking at total environmental impact, rather
than just gas usage, catches your interest. You open up the library database and begin searching for articles on “environmental impact” and “vehicles.” You discover the
field of environmental impact assessment, which uses concepts like life cycle analysis
and system boundaries to determine how environmentally friendly various products
and technologies are. This field’s arguments about the need for a comprehensive definition of environmental impact supports what you read in Scientific American about
used and hybrid cars. With just a few hours of research behind you, you can now
explain to your critical friend that, because of the relatively small amount of energy
that went into your used car’s production, your car is actually more environmentally
friendly than any new hybrid car.
You have changed your own mind on this topic, and have the opportunity to present
a new line of argumentation to change your friend’s mind as well. Without research,
you would not have known to consider the arguments made by environmental impact
assessment experts. Research allowed you to discover arguments that led you to a
new way of thinking about a topic you previously had a different idea about.
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Avoiding the Cherry-Picking Approach to Research
One of the main benefits of treating research as discovery is that it helps you avoid a
cherry-picking approach to research. Cherry-picking is the practice of using research
to find only those sources and quotes that support what you already know or think
and repeat facts and arguments you already have in mind. Cherry-picking can happen
when your mindset towards research prevents you from being open to discovering
new facts and ideas that will shape and change the arguments you have in mind already.
Sometimes, of course, you do know that a specific fact will strengthen your argument,
and you use the research process to discover a credible source from which you can
cite that fact. The trick is to find a balance between cherry-picking and disregarding
the facts and arguments with which you are already familiar. Neither approach will
allow you to grow your thinking on a topic while rooting your thinking in prior knowledge, experience, and education.
Going Down the Rabbit Hole
Changing your mindset about research to focus on its potential for discovery can
have unexpected consequences. When you view research as simply a task to be completed before writing, you may feel comfortable spending little time on the research
step, even if it means your argument is not as strong or credible as it could be. When
research becomes a process of discovery, however, you have the chance to get truly
interested by and caught up in the new ideas and arguments you discover. You might
find yourself going down the rabbit hole and spending more time on research than
you ever have before. While this may seem like a risk to your limited time, remember
that your research can pay off by presenting you with new facts and ideas that can
help you make more thoughtful arguments that represent your best thinking on a
topic. The more time you spend researching, the more opportunities you give yourself for discovery.
Summary
Research isn’t about finding sources that report things you already know and just
need a citation for. Rather, research is a process of discovering new facts, ideas, and
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arguments about whatever topic it is you’re interested in. When you treat research as
a process of discovery, you avoid the pitfall of cherry-picking sources to cite in your
arguments. However, you also run the risk of getting lost in your topic and spending
more time researching than you have for past writing projects. Just remember: that
risk is worth taking if you want to make your arguments stronger and if you want to
be open to developing your ideas in response to the many discoveries your research
may turn up.
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Finding and Evaluating Sources
By Brogan Sullivan
Research in the Age of Information
We occupy a world awash in information. This was not always the case. Just a few
centuries ago, only the most elite scholars knew how to benefit from reliable, authoritative sources of data. With the advent of public libraries, average citizens gained
access to a wealth of information, a change that transformed the ways in which the
developed world created and made use of human knowledge. Today, the Internet has
further increased the scope of that access and the speed with which information becomes available.
But with added scope and speed comes increased complexity. The Internet makes the
process of accessing information easier, but it also makes it harder for the earnest
seeker to find reliable sources of data. Anyone with an Internet connection can publish content to the Web. The quality of that content varies considerably, and the sheer
volume of it can seem daunting at first. How then should the student writer proceed?
Consult an Expert
Fortunately, as a college student, you have access to tools that the average citizen
does not, the most important of which is your university library. The library should be
your first destination when beginning any new research project. Most university libraries have websites dedicated to helping you navigate the research process, and all
of them employ professionals who are specifically trained to assist the student writer
with any research-related questions. These librarians can help you learn how to use
search strategies to locate and access reliable, pertinent sources.
Shape the Search to the Project
The types of sources you need to consult will vary by project and will depend on the
topic about which you are writing. For example, if you were writing a movie review,
you might consult sources that concentrate on the film industry. Periodicals like Enter-
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tainment Weekly or Variety would be a logical first stop. You might also consult movie
reviews from local or national newspapers, to see what other critics have already written about the movie you’re writing about. If, on the other hand, you were writing a literature review about a new medical technique, you would instead consult more rigorous sources, like peer-reviewed journals or technical manuals. Each topic will require
a slightly different set of sources. Again, if you are unsure which kinds of sources apply to a specific subject area, ask a librarian to point you in the right direction.
Go the Extra Mile
Don’t limit yourself. The sources that are easiest to find are often the most unreliable
ones. Many student writers limit their search efforts to Google or Wikipedia. Unfortunately, as helpful as these sites are, they are not reliable sources of information at the
university level. Google searches the entire World Wide Web, and yields results based
on algorithms that are not designed for scholarly work. In other words, your Google
search might produce tens of thousands of results, but only one or two that apply to
your subject; not the most efficient use of your time. And since Wikipedia can be edited by any user with an account, the information it provides is considered unreliable
for scholarly work.
Not only should you look beyond Google and Wikipedia, you should look beyond the
Internet itself. While a vast quantity of research material exists online or in electronic
formats, a considerable amount still resides only in print. Your library contains thousands upon thousands of books, newspapers, periodicals, and other resources that
do not reside on the Internet. Do not overlook these sources of material simply because they require extra effort to find. Often, consulting a print source will make the
difference between a good paper and a great one.
Evaluate Your Sources
Finally, once you’ve gathered your sources, you should evaluate them for their applicability to your topic and their quality. Just because a source mentions key terms that
apply to your subject doesn’t mean that it will prove useful for your project. Take the
time to consider the following questions when choosing the sources you will ultimate-
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ly consult in your writing project. Begin with your initial list of possible sources and try
to narrow it down.
• Does this source seem relevant to my topic?
• Is this source timely? Does the information it provides still apply to the current
situation?
Eliminate any sources that do not pass these basic criteria. Now that you have a narrower list of topics to choose from, filter your sources even further using the checklists provided below.
Checklist for Evaluating All Sources
• Does this source seem reliable? What are the author’s credentials?
• Will my audience find this source reliable and persuasive?
• Does this source represent the best information possible? Does it merely summarize or interpret data I might find in another source?
• Am I selecting sources that reflect a range of different opinions about or aspects
of my topic? Can I find at least one source that reasonably disagrees with the others?
• Can I verify the information in one source by consulting other sources? Does this
source make claims that do not stand up to the scrutiny of others?
Checklist for Evaluating Print Sources
For Books:
• Is the book published by a respectable press?
• Is the book broad enough in its focus and written in a style I can understand?
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• Does the book relate directly to my working thesis, or is it only of tangential interest?
• Do the arguments in the book seem sound, based on what I have learned about
critical reading and writing?
For Articles from Periodicals:
• Is the author’s name given?
• Is the periodical respectable and serious?
• How directly does the article speak to my topic and working thesis?
• If the article is from a scholarly journal, am I sure I understand it?
Checklist for Evaluating Electronic Sources
• What person or organization produced the website? A commercial entity, a nonprofit entity, a student, an expert? Check the electronic address for clues about
the site’s authorship. If there is a link to the author’s homepage, check it out to
learn about the author. Does the author have an affiliation with a respectable institution?
• What is the purpose of the site? Commercial? Educational? Entertainment?
• Does the author provide citations for any fact-based data? Can you verify the
credibility of these sources?
• Is the site authoritative enough to count as credible?
• When was the site published? Has it been updated recently?
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Defining Evidence
By Eric Walsh
What is evidence?
When you think of the word “evidence,” what comes to mind? Typically, we think of
evidence as something complex, like what might be utilized in a court of a law or uncovered by a great detective. However, evidence can take a wide variety of forms.
Even if you don’t realize it, you use evidence every single day, dozens, if not hundreds,
of times.
Consider the following statement:
You: Whoa, did you see that girl/guy/puppy? She/he/it is hot/ripped/the most adorable thing in
the world. Look at her legs/his arms/its itty bitty paws.
Your Friend: I see her/him/it. You’re right/wrong/still talking? You had me at “puppy.”
In this exchange, you have introduced a topic (the girl/guy/puppy); you have made a
claim (he/she/it is hot/ripped/the most adorable thing in the world); and you have attempted to support that claim with evidence (her legs/his arms/its itty bitty paws). Your
friend, in turn, has weighed the evidence, and decided whether or not your argument
was convincing. For our purposes, then, it may be useful to consider the following
definition of evidence: evidence is anything that helps increase your authority (ethos)
in a given rhetorical situation.
Recognizing the rhetorical situation
Not all evidence is created equal: just as your friends would most likely ridicule you
mercilessly if you tried to provide a list of statistics when judging someone’s attractiveness, a scientist would likely reject a hypothesis if it were based solely on a sonnet.
Put another way, one type of evidence may be perfectly convincing in some contexts,
but fail utterly in others. Thus, when you are deciding what types of evidence to use in
your writing, you need to first define your rhetorical situation: the specific circumstances surrounding that writing. To do this, ask yourself the following questions:
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1. What is my topic? What do I actually want to write? What kind of authority do I
have as a writer on this topic?
2. Why do I have this purpose? Why do I want to write this?
3. Who is my intended audience? Who am I trying to convince of my statement,
and what types of people are they?
4. Where/when is this writing taking place: in what culture or context?
5. How, given the answers to the previous four questions, can I be as convincing
as possible? How might I make my writing more authoritative in the eyes of my
readers?
While the first four questions outlined above will help you understand the rhetorical
situation in which you are writing, the last question will then help you decide which
types of evidence will be the most persuasive in that specific situation.
For example, the evidence you will want to use to convince your professor that your
thesis is correct is probably not the same evidence you would want to use on Facebook to convince a friend to go out to a party. Similarly, the evidence you might use
to convince that friend to go to a pool party is almost certainly different from the evidence you’d use to convince that same friend to go to your grandmother’s birthday
party. It is crucial that you spend some time thinking about these five questions before any writing project to ensure that you select your evidence appropriately.
Picking the right tool for the job
While it is hard to adequately list every possible form of evidence—since evidence is
really just whatever your audience would find convincing or authoritative—one way of
thinking about evidence is to divide it into two broad categories: referential and personal.
Referential evidence relies on outside sources to support your writing, bolstering
your own authority via the inherent authority of those references. Such evidence is
often useful when you feel you may not be as knowledgeable on a topic as your audience would expect, and therefore would want to cite another, more well-versed
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opinion. You would also want to include referential evidence when you are striving to
make your writing more scientific or objective. Common examples of referential evidence in writing include the following:
• Direct quotes: when you cite verbatim something that someone else has said
• Example: According to Dr. Smith, “Cats are superior to dogs.”
• Use When: you want to include an expert opinion, and you believe that the
quote is so perfect that it would be hard for you to paraphrase it
• Paraphrasing: when you cite what someone else has said, but rephrase it in
your own words
• Example: Dr. Smith claims that cats are better than dogs.
• Use When: you want to introduce an expert opinion, but it doesn’t matter how
that opinion was precisely worded
• Summaries: a broader form of paraphrasing, in which you briefly describe
someone else’s lengthy concept in your own words
• Example: This paper supports the opinion that cats are better than dogs.
• Use When: you want to speak generally about an expert opinion, or there is
simply too much information to be more specific
• Statistics: verified numerical proof of an expert opinion
• Example: 89% of Americans agree that cats are better than dogs
• Use When: your audience expects concrete data as support for a claim, such
as in more scientific contexts
Conversely, personal evidence comes from you, rather than an outside source. While
this doesn’t necessarily make this type of evidence weaker than referential evidence,
it does mean that you are asking your audience to accept your own authority as adequate for the given rhetorical situation. As such, you would typically see personal
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evidence relied upon more when you are discussing something personal or commonplace, and less in serious scholarship where your own opinion may carry less weight.
Common examples of personal evidence in writing include the following:
• Hypothetical examples: imagined scenarios that are related to a given topic
• Example: Imagine a world without cats; think of how depressing that would
be.
• Use When: you want to help your audience envision the potential ramifications of an idea or event
• Anecdotes: personal stories that are related to a given topic
• Example: I’ve had both dogs and cats, and I’ve found cats to be much easier to
care for.
• Use When: you want to demonstrate your authority on a given topic
• Figurative language: the poetic expression of an idea, such as a with a simile or
a metaphor
• Example: Cats are as adorable as babies.
• Use When: you want to lend an idea more emotional weight (pathos), or help
the reader better understand an idea by encouraging connections to other
ideas
Of course, different types of evidence are not exclusive: you can mix and match both
personal and referential evidence as much as you like, as long as they remain appropriate to your rhetorical situation. Indeed, your paper will often be strengthened
through the incorporation of multiple forms of evidence.
For example, if you need to write a paper on cancer, and you have a grandfather that
died from cancer, you may wish to include quotes from cancer researchers, in order
to enhance the authority of your claims via expert opinion, as well as personal anecdotes describing the experience, since those experiences also lend you a certain degree of authority on the topic.
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Practice makes perfect
Although it may seem weird to think about evidence being more than just what you
quote or cite, considering the rhetorical situation of each piece of writing you do can
help strengthen your ideas, ensuring that your audience views them as authoritative,
and thus, finds them more convincing. Below are several different writing situations
that you are likely to encounter at some point in your college career, or in the course
of your everyday life. For each, think about what type(s) of evidence might be most
effective. Remember to first step through the questions provided above in order to
consider the rhetorical situation before you decide on your evidence.
• A Composition research paper that asks you to defend a side on an issue of your
choice
• An online review of a television show
• A personal blog entry about cooking
• A text message inviting a friend to come over
• An email to a professor asking for an extension on an assignment
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Summarizing and Paraphrasing
By Kristen Gay
When writing an academic paper, it is important for writers to refer to sources that
can support and add credibility to their claims. Perhaps the most obvious method for
integrating such sources is to quote them directly. Quoting does serve writers well in
certain contexts, such as when the source’s exact wording is important, or when the
writer cannot state the message more concisely in his/her own words. On the other
hand, quoting excessively can detract from the writer’s voice and cause readers to get
lost in the shuffle between quotes from various sources. Instead of solely relying on
quotes to represent ideas from sources, writers can summarize and paraphrase to
represent the source’s ideas in their own words. Both of these methods are useful because they allow a writer to convey a source’s ideas without losing her voice. For example, think of a film critic’s role in reviewing a movie—the critic does not usually directly quote from the script; instead, he or she simplifies and condenses specific plot
points in his or her own words and describes the overall theme of the entire work.
The purpose for the review is not to retell the story—since readers can go see the
movie themselves if they want to know the entire plot—but rather, to make a claim or
state an opinion about certain aspects of the story as it translated into film.
When someone begins to tell a long-winded story, it is not uncommon to hear someone else (perhaps an unwilling listener) say that the storyteller does not “know how
to make a long story short.” What the person is asking for in such a situation is the
gist or general point of the story—they do not want to hear the details or the entire
sequence of events as much as they want to know the point or outcome of them. Essentially, this person’s comment asks the storyteller to summarize her point. Summarizing can be very useful in writing situations when the reader only needs to know the
main point or idea from a source being referenced.
Summarizing a source means that a writer captures the source’s main idea and/or
overall thesis, or synthesizes the writer’s argument. A writer might choose to summarize a source if he or she wants to give readers a general idea of the entire source’s
point, meaning, or idea. For example, a writer may summarize an entire book’s main
theme, a general plot for a movie, or an overall argument for a speech. Summaries
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are not usually tied to a specific lines or pages in the text; instead, they tend to represent the work as a whole.
Summaries are most useful when writers want to convey general or overall meaning
without relying on a specific passage or moment within the text. For example, imagine that I want to summarize Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. As a
summary of the entire plot of the book, I might write:
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a young orphan learns that he is a wizard. Because of
this new knowledge, he enters the world of wizardry, where he makes new friends, demonstrates courage, and resists dark magic.
This summary provides a broad overview of the entire book. But notice that the summary focuses on the specific points that I want to stress, as the writer. If I wanted to,
I might summarize the book in terms of the theme of friendship, or magic, or something else altogether—like the use or abuse of power. Thus, summaries allow writers
to take a main point from a source and tailor it to fit their context. This ensures that
the summary supports or illustrates a point that the writer is making.
In other situations, you might hear or read a specific passage that is interesting but
could be stated in more clear or concise terms. Or, the phrase might make sense
to you—as a person with some expertise on a given topic—but it might need to be
translated for a different audience who lacks such expertise. As a writer, it is your job
to consider which statements from sources might be confusing to a reader who lacks
the full source’s context, and to restate this information in your own words in order
to clarify the point while limiting the use of jargon and reducing wordiness. Using a
source in this way is an example of paraphrasing.
Paraphrasing a source means that a writer focuses on local, “smaller picture” ideas
and restates them in her own words. For example, a writer may take a complex sentence in a paper and restate it more clearly. Or, a writer may take an entire paragraph
from a book and restate the ideas within that section more concisely—perhaps the
main idea from this short excerpt could be restated in one sentence. Paraphrasing
should reference a specific section of text and should capture the main point or idea
from the text; however, the wording should belong to the writer. Changing one or two
words does not mean that a quote has been paraphrased. The wording should be
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significantly changed in order for the writer to have successfully paraphrased a given
section of text.
Paraphrasing is useful in situations in which a writer wants to simplify or translate the
meaning of a specific sentence or paragraph for a reader. For example, consider the
following original sentence and paraphrase:
• Original sentence:
“Gender is the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid
regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being” (Butler 45).
• Paraphrased sentence:
Judith Butler argues that gender does not exist as such—instead, repeated performances of
“man” and “woman” create the illusion of gender (45).
Notice that the first sentence assumes a shared knowledge on the part of the reader—that they should understand what “regulatory frame” means, for example. The
second sentence clarifies the original sentence’s point, which means that the writer
does not have to explain the unnecessary jargon from the original quote. The second
sentence also makes a more pointed claim: Judith Butler argues that gender does not
exist. Perhaps this claim from Butler will be useful for a point about gender stereotypes, for example, in the writer’s paper. Paraphrasing allows writers to more quickly
connect the source to their own claim because it offers a pointed explanation of a
particularly useful section. This also enables readers to better understand how the
source’s information relates to the writer’s argument.
Overall, summarizing and paraphrasing can be useful strategies for incorporating
sources into papers and supporting your ideas as a writer. They can help the writer
maintain the focus on her own voice, and they can also help readers to better understand information from sources. Perhaps the most important strategy for incorporating ideas from sources is to think carefully about whether quoting, summarizing, or
paraphrasing will be the best method for integrating evidence.
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Works Cited
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic, 1999. Print.
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Why We Create an Annotated Bibliography
By Quincey Upshaw
At this point in your academic career, you probably know that college writers integrate sources into their work to support their claims. You should also know that when
you use sources, you have to cite those sources in the text of the paper and on some
sort of list, like a Works Cited page or—to use an antiquated term—bibliography.
Aside from the fear of plagiarism and fearing the failure that comes with it, most college students understand that it is only right to give credit to the writer, thinker, scientist, or artist who created the original work. Students also understand that if, in their
own discussions of a topic, they cite respected experts in the field, the students’ own
arguments are thereby strengthened through borrowed credibility.
But why, then, create a detailed list of sources by itself? There are many reasons, and
the list below addresses most of them. This called an annotated bibliography. An
annotated bibliography is the MLA (or APA or Chicago Style) citation for, and a paragraph or two about, the work. Creating an annotated bibliography is a step towards a
larger academic project relating to the topic you choose, and it is an important one. In
order to truly gain knowledge about a topic, it is critical to understand the conversations in that field and the most important or influential people in that area of study. A
thorough annotated bibliography provides an organized way to begin understanding
the often messy, wildly disparate opinions and voices in a field of study.
1. Prove you did valid research. When you write an annotated bibliography,
don’t just find the citation information and slap it onto a document. Read over the
information. What kind of publication is this? Does the publication specialize in
this topic or is it more of a general interest publication? What credibility does this
publication have? Does this publication pop up again and again when you search
the topic, or does a relevant article appear only once?
2. Organize different perspectives about the topic. Truly, there is no fight like
an academic fight, because to paraphrase a popular hip hop refrain, an academic
fight DON’T STOP. Seriously. Physicists fight about string theory, artists fight about
what “post modern” means, English professors fight about what is considered
“literature” and therefore worthy of study, and so on. Every field of study has its
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own controversial topics and academics entrenched (yes, like soldiers) on either
side. In order to become an expert in a topic, you need to know how people who
have devoted their entire academic lives to the topic think and feel about it. It’s
like walking into a war; if you don’t know why these crazy people are firing guns
(or academic papers and articles) at each other, you may seem out of place,
stumbling around the battlefield.
3. Familiarize yourself with the major voices on that topic. To continue the
“academia as warfare” metaphor, we create annotated bibliographies so we can
know who the leaders are on each “side” or “school of thought” on a topic. Those
leading experts are the ones that can lend their strong voices to your own papers
via citation, therefore helping your prove your argument and bolster your own
credibility.
4. Familiarize yourself with the publications that deal with that topic.
Annotated bibliographies help the researcher and the reader understand what
publications carry articles or essays on a particular topic. Therefore, if in the
future the researcher needs to look into another facet of this topic, he or she
knows what publications to call up. Online sources can be particularly helpful in
this, as blogs by experts or specialized digital publications often have a page called
a “blog roll” or “sites we like” that provides links to other digital sources that deal
with the same or similar ideas.
5. Save time. An annotated bibliography can also help you save time as
you continue to work on the topic. The organized format of the annotated
bibliography can work as a helpful aide because it forces you to pull out the
main ideas and important information in each piece. You don’t have to go back
and read over the whole article because you have already documented all the
research you have done. Therefore, as you work, you can continually refer back to
your annotated bibliography for additional support for the ideas you articulate in
your project.
6. Research as a creative act. Often students go into researching a topic with
one set of feelings and opinions, but finish the research with quite different
ideas. What happens to make these beliefs shift? Research. Research itself can
generate the ideas a researcher wants to explore. This happens one of two ways.
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First, the researcher can find new perspectives on the topic of which he or she
was unaware, and that can lead to a shift in opinion and therefore a shift in the
direction of the resulting project. Additionally, a researcher may find that his
or her ideas have not been articulated by another researcher, though perhaps
similar ideas have been, and this revelation can lead to creating new work in the
field. Research can be the spark that creates new ways of seeing a topic.
A comprehensive and detailed annotated bibliography can guide a researcher to both
a greater understanding of the history of the topic and how it is debated, as well as
point toward future ideas in that field that the researcher can explore. Successful and
comprehensive annotated bibliographies can be used by future researchers in the
field, and, because of the extensiveness of the work involved, can sometimes be published as stand-alone works.
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Organizing Research to Construct a Synthesis Matrix
By Heather Fox
When using multiple sources to research a topic, our notes sometimes become unwieldy. We want to demonstrate that we have consulted several sources, but, at the
same time, there are a variety of perspectives on the same topic. When this confusion happens, writers negotiate multiple claims through specific tools that organize
researched information, to visualize relationships between sources’ point-of-views,
and to construct an argument that integrates both the sources’ evidence and the
writer’s voice. Examples of tools for organizing and managing research include a web,
a timeline, or an outline; but there are both benefits and limitations to each of these
methods. For instance, a web creates a map-like visual that connects source ideas,
but might not be linear enough to organize those connections in order to construct
an argument. An outline provides the linear organization lacking in a web, but might
not enable the writer to easily see source connections. A timeline arranges sources
chronologically, but does not address other relationships between sources or explicate how specific evidence supports those relationships. In fact, it might be helpful to
use a combination of these tools for your research project.
Another possible tool for visualizing and organizing connections between sources is
the synthesis matrix. A synthesis matrix is a graphic organizer that provides a visualization of research so that you are able to see what you already have, what you
might eliminate, and what you still need for your research project. Visually, it is a
chart with rows and columns that identifies and connects sources to one another. In
terms of organization, the synthesis matrix compiles all of your sources’ arguments
and evidence which support those arguments, into one location. Think of it as one of
the “tools” you need to build a researched argument.
Steps for Creating a Synthesis Matrix
A synthesis matrix begins as a blank grid. The number of columns depends on how
many sources you are working with and the number of rows depends on how many
connections you discover between your sources.
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• Begin with a research question, or a question that guides your research process.
It helps to include it at the top of your synthesis matrix as a reminder of the direction of your project. However, your research question may (and should) evolve
over the course of your research process.
My research question began with an observation. During a North Carolina beach trip, I
watched baby sea turtles being rescued. Volunteers dug up nests, from which some sea
turtles hatched a week or so earlier. It was an unforgettable experience to watch the baby
sea turtles emerge from their nests. Some knew how to get to the ocean on their own, but
others needed help from the volunteers. Some of the turtles were not alive, or their eggs
had not hatched; and some turtles had deformities, which meant that they had to be relocated to a local aquarium and might never be capable of surviving in the ocean on their own.
As much as I wanted all of the sea turtles to survive, I wondered about the sea turtles. I recognized that sea turtles are an endangered species, but I questioned if any of them would
survive without human intervention? Conversely, why were they endangered? If we alter a
species’ environment, is it our responsibility to repair the damage or help the species survive
in a new habitat? In other words, my research question was
How does human intervention impact sea turtles and the environment; and what are
the consequences of this intervention?
Linking this very broad question (concept) to the specific observation about sea turtles (topic), I began to find sources to read about sea turtles and the environment.
• Next, determine how many sources you plan to include in your project and create columns for those sources. If, for example, you have five sources, construct
a table with six columns. (The first column remains blank.) Label the first box in
each column with either a source’s name, the author’s name, and/or the website
so that you can easily identify it.
Originally, I found ten sources but chose five. These sources were all written by reliable
sources, conveyed a clear argument, and supported the argument with specific evidence.
Gass, Scott. “The Survival of the Sea Turtle.” TedEd. Web. 23 June 2014. [TedTalk]
Mrosovsky, N. “Distorting Gene Pools by Conservation: Assessing the Case of Doomed Turtle
Eggs. Environmental Management. 38 (2006): 523-32. Print. [scholarly article]
Pike, David A. “The Benefits of Nest Relocation Extend Beyond Recruitment: A Rejoinder to
Mrosovsky.” Environmental Management. 41 (2008): 461-64. Print. [scholarly article]
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Spotila, James R. “Sea Turtles in the Modern World: Where Do We Stand Today?” Sea Turtles:
A Complete Guide to their Biology, Conservation, and Behavior. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP,
2004. Print. [book chapter]
Stern, P.C., O.R. Young, and D. Druckman. “Human Consequences and Responses.” Global
Environmental Change: Understanding the Human Dimensions. Washington, D.C.: National
Academy Press, 1992. Print. [book chapter]
• Think about the concepts or broad connections between your sources. In order
to think about sources this way, imagine that you have invited your sources to a
dinner party. What would they talk about? They do not have to agree with one
another, but more than one source must be able to contribute to the conversation. It would look strange if James Spotila was at a table by himself, talking to
himself! If, for example, you have four concepts, add five rows to your synthesis
matrix’s columns. (The first row remains blank.)
• Then, under the appropriate source and concept, add examples of evidence using quotes and paraphrased statements. Be sure to include the page numbers to
help you locate this evidence when you write.
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There may be overlaps where a quote/paraphrase fits into more than one conceptual
connection. As the researcher and writer, you will need to determine the best fit for
your evidence. Additionally, not every source will have evidence for every concept.
Therefore, some of the squares in your grid will remain blank. Finally, you may need
to increase or decrease your columns and/or rows based on your project’s needs.
Your synthesis matrix will help you write your first draft. Each of the concepts can
become a section of your essay’s argument. The evidence in each of these concepts’
rows supports your reason and links back to your thesis. As you complete further
research or think of new ideas, add them to the matrix. Like your research question,
the synthesis matrix will change as your research and writing process evolves with the
project, helping you to organize and categorize additional research.
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5: Drafting an Argument
Formulating a Thesis
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Thesis Models
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Making and Supporting Claims
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Considering the Opposing Side
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Formulating a Thesis
By Andrea Scott
You’ve probably heard many times that a good essay needs a strong thesis. But what
does this really mean? Let’s start with a definition. A thesis is
The main idea that is at the center of your work. A thesis should summarize the one thing
that a text is attempting to assert or prove. It is often one or two sentences in the introduction of a paper that clearly and concisely tell a reader what the paper is “about” (“Thesis”).
In other words, the thesis statement crystallizes your paper’s argument. But what
makes a thesis “good”? Well, for one, a strong thesis is arguable. This means two
things. First, it goes beyond merely summarizing or describing to stake out an interpretation or position that’s not obvious and that others could challenge for good reasons. Second, a good thesis is arguable in the literal sense that it can be argued, that
is, it can be supported through a thoughtful analysis of your key source or sources. If
your argument lacks evidence, readers will think your statement is an opinion or belief as opposed to an argument, which always rests on evidence.
Why do I need an arguable thesis?
It helps to back way up and think more broadly about why readers of academic writing value the arguable thesis. What larger purpose does it serve? And why is this function important? Knowing the answers to these questions helps writers understand
their readers who bring a set of expectations to texts. The better you can anticipate
the expectations of your readers, the better you’ll be able to persuade them to consider seeing things your way.
Academic readers (and readers more generally) read to learn something new. They
want to see the writer challenge commonplaces, either everyday assumptions about
issues in the world or truisms in the scholarly literature. In other words, academic
readers want to be surprised so that their thinking shifts or at least becomes more
complex by the time they finish reading your essay. Good essays problematize what
we think we know and offer an alternative explanation in their place. They engage
critically with what we think we understand and leave their reader with a fresh perspective on a problem.
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We all bring important past experiences and beliefs to our reading of texts, objects,
and problems. You can harness these observational powers to engage critically with
what you are studying. The key is to be alert to what strikes you as strange, problematic, paradoxical, or puzzling about your object of study. If you can articulate this and
a claim in response, you’re well on your way to having a strong arguable thesis.
How do I write an arguable thesis?
It may seem obvious but all good writing has a purpose or motive for existing. The
thesis is an argumentative response to this problem. This is why it seldom makes
sense to start a writing project by stating the thesis. The first step is to articulate the
question or problem your paper addresses.
Readers will be surprised by your argument, and will recognize your thesis as arguable, if you use the introduction to set up a problem, puzzle, or question. Your thesis
statement, which appears at the end of the introduction, is your particular stance on
this problem. Articulating a problem or question helps invest your reader in your paper’s thesis. It helps your reader see why your thesis is important and what problem
or issue it helps us see in a new light.
Here are some possible ways to introduce a conceptual problem in your paper’s introduction. Experiment with adapting one to match your assignment and interests.
1. Challenge a commonplace interpretation (and your own first impressions).
• How are readers likely to interpret this source or issue? What might intelligent
readers think at first glance? (Or, if you’ve been given secondary sources or have
been asked to conduct research to locate secondary sources, what do other writers or scholars assume is true or important about this primary source or issue?)
• What does this commonplace interpretation leave out, overlook, or under-emphasize?
2. Help your reader see the complexity of your topic.
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• Identify and describe for your reader a paradox, puzzle, or contradiction in your
primary source(s).
• What larger questions does this paradox or contradiction raise for you and your
readers?
3. If your assignment asks you to do research, piggyback off another scholar’s research.
• Summarize for your reader another scholar’s argument about your topic, primary source, or case study and tell your reader why this claim is interesting.
• Now explain how you will extend this scholar’s argument to explore an issue or
case study that the scholar doesn’t address fully.
4. If your assignment asks you to do research, identify a gap in another scholar’s or a
group of scholars’ research.
• Summarize for your reader another scholar’s argument about your topic, primary source, or case study and tell your reader why this claim is interesting. Or, summarize how scholars in the field tend to approach your topic.
• Next, explain what important aspect this scholarly representation misses or distorts. Introduce your particular approach to your topic and its value.
5. If your assignment asks you to do research, bring in a new lens for investigating your
case study or problem.
• Summarize for your reader how a scholar or group of scholars has approached
your topic.
• Introduce a theoretical source (possibly from another discipline) and explain
how it helps you address this issue from a new and productive angle.
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Drafting the Thesis
Once you have a sense of your paper’s purpose—the particular conceptual problem
it addresses—you’re ready to craft your thesis in response. A good thesis will be focused—that is, it will be focused on your object of study (as opposed to making a big
claim about the world).
Here is an example of one way to limit your topic. Try experimenting with this rubric if
you need help articulating your thesis:
By examining __________________ [topic/approach], we can see ____________________ [thesis—
the claim that’s surprising], which readers might otherwise miss. This is important because
___________________________ (Simpson “Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis”).
Here are some other ways of getting started:
At first glance it appears that ________________ [commonplace interpretation], but when we
look more closely at _____ [evidence] we can see _____________ [surprising interpretation].
Although ____________ [commonplace interpretation], __________________ [counterintuitive response].
Notice how all of these sample rubrics invite writers to make statements that challenge easy or obvious interpretations. They present alternative viewpoints that help
the reader recognize the thesis as an important intervention.
A quick caveat: there are lots of ways of drafting a thesis statement. Rubrics like the
ones above can help you warm up and you can adapt them or discard them when you
find the best way to articulate your paper’s main claim.
Examples of Arguable Thesis Statements
Below you’ll find examples of arguable thesis statements.
A paper that only analyzes a primary source:
“By examining the role of so-called freaks in the film Sixteen Candles, we can see that the
film defines its protagonist as “normal” by setting her apart from characters that are represented as “others,” which is important because it helps us understand how popular culture
is preoccupied with policing the boundaries of normalcy.”
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Notice that the thesis statement does something unexpected. Instead of focusing on
Molly Ringwald’s character, the protagonist, the writer chooses to focus on how the
film defines her normalcy in relation to characters that are minor and represented as
outcasts. This is the writer’s particular intervention that’s interesting, surprising and
arguable.
Others could also disagree with it. Someone could argue, for example, that Molly
Ringwald’s character is herself an outsider—that she’s not defining herself against socalled freaks, but is one herself, which makes us empathize with the film’s outsiders
(as opposed to identifying ourselves against them).
And finally, the writer explains why the thesis is important. The larger issue at stake
for this writer is that the film helps us see how popular culture plays a social role in
defining for viewers what’s normal and what’s not. The essay’s conclusion will address
this larger point, situating the paper’s local thesis statement into a global debate
about how popular culture conditions our responses as viewers.
A research paper that engages with multiple sources:
“By analyzing Sixteen Candles through the lens of Georg Simmel’s writings on fashion, we
can see that the protagonist’s desire to be fashionable is the expression of her desire to be
recognized as an individual and accepted as a member of the group. This is important because it helps us see that the film is not merely a superficial teen movie about high school
cliques, but rather a deep investigation of the ambivalent yearnings of middle class youth to
fashion themselves as both special and normal.
Even though this thesis statement appears in a research paper, the same principle is
at work. The writer has opted to say something new by using the sociologist George
Simmel’s writings on fashion to explain the protagonist’s desire to distinguish herself
by belonging to the popular crowd. Notice how the writer addresses an interesting
paradox in the film—between the need to belong and the need to be seen as different and unique. Simmel’s writings help her articulate this claim.
She claims that the thesis is important because it gives us a more complex interpretation of the film and its engagement with class and youth culture.
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Testing Your Thesis
You can test your thesis statement’s arguability by asking the following questions:
• Does my thesis only or mostly summarize my source? If so, try some of the
exercises above to articulate a problem to which your thesis responds.
• Is my thesis arguable? Can it be supported by evidence and is it surprising and
contentious? If not, return to your sources and practice the exercises above.
• Is my thesis about my primary source or case study or is it about the
world? If it’s about the world, revise it so that it focuses on your primary source or
case study. Remember: you’ll need solid evidence to support your thesis.
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Works Cited
“Thesis.” Glossary. Writing Commons. University of Southern Florida, n.d. Web. 27 June
2013.
Simpson, Erik. “Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis.” Connections: A Hypertext Resource for
Literature. Grinnell College, n.d. Web. 27 June 2013.
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Thesis Models
By Brianna Jerman
The purpose of a thesis statement is to summarize the main idea of the paper and
inform readers what to expect when reading. Even though all thesis statements have
these goals in common, they do not take on a single form or follow a simple formula.
This is because the construction of a thesis statement largely depends on the purpose
of the paper. Before writing a thesis statement, students should think carefully about
what the assignment is asking them to do, what their agenda is for writing their paper, or what kind of essay they will be writing.
Analytic essays and thesis statements
When students are asked to analyze something, they are being asked to think about
and explain what something means, how or why something is effective or not, or
what purpose something serves. Analysis requires a person to fully understand a
concept by breaking it down into parts and then evaluating how the parts work either
separately or as a part of a system. In an analytic essay, writers provide their interpretation or make a claim about what their analysis illustrates. Therefore, an analytic
thesis statement should clearly state what the author will be analyzing and the conclusion of this analysis.
For example, if an assignment asks students to analyze how a specific image or ad
campaign reflects the goals of a company or organization, a thesis statement for this
essay should include the name of the advertiser and a statement about how one or
more details from the images reflect the specific goals of the organization. One such
thesis statement might sound like: “Using the image of a human body in place of an
animal body in several provocative situations, PETA forces viewers to associate animals with humans in order to communicate their message that animals should be
treated as equal to humans and should therefore not be eaten.” This thesis statement clearly states the thing that is being analyzed—an image used in several PETA
advertisements—and what the author concluded about this image through his or her
analysis—that PETA uses this image to communicate their stance that animals and
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people should be treated equally. Readers then know what to expect when reading
the essay.
Expository essays and thesis statements
Expository essays describe or explain something like a concept, process, place, person, or event without positing an argument or making a judgment about the topic. In
this kind of essay, the writer’s purpose might be to present new information, add to
an existing conversation, or clarify what other writers have said. When constructing
an expository thesis statement, writers should begin by identifying the topic they are
discussing, what they will be explaining, and why this conversation in important to
readers. This will help the author decide what information needs to be included in the
essay and will help the author construct an appropriate thesis statement.
An expository thesis statement should clearly state the goal of the paper by relaying
the topic and what the author will be explaining. For example, an essay that explains
Florida’s new texting and driving laws might include a thesis statement that says,
“Florida’s lawmakers seek to enforce a strict no texting while driving policy by tacking
on additional fines when traffic violations occur while driving.” This thesis statement
tells readers that the essay is going to explain more about how this new law works.
While an expository thesis simply provides the factual explanation of the laws, an
analytical essay might methodically examine the Constitutionality of the laws.
Argumentative essays and thesis statements
An argumentative or persuasive essay takes a position on an issue or asserts a claim
and then uses various rhetorical strategies to support that position or claim. Usually,
the purpose of an argumentative paper is to persuade readers to agree with the writer’s point of view. An argumentative thesis statement, then, clearly states the author’s
position or argument and when possible, includes a brief list of the major supporting
points. For example, a sample argumentative thesis statement might say, “Pharmaceutical companies should not use animals to test medications because these tests
do not provide accurate enough results to outweigh the economic and ethical costs
that come with animal testing.” This thesis statement clearly establishes the author’s
position on the topic of animal testing that they will argue in the rest of their paper.
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Proposal argument essays and thesis statements
Sometimes arguments come in the form of proposing a solution to a problem. In a
proposal argument essay, writers address an issue and suggest a possible way to fix
it. Proposal argument essays work to convince readers that the proposed solution is
effective and realistic. There are two types of proposal arguments: A practical proposal argument seeks to solve a more local or simple problem with a tangible solution.
For example, if a certain school is having a problem with weapon-related violence, a
practical solution might be to install metal detectors at all access points and increase
police presence. This is a practical proposal because there is a very clear cause-effect
relationship between the action and its effect and because the resources needed to
enact this solution are measurable in terms of cost and supplies.
A policy proposal argument, however, works to solve more large-scale issues that
might require changes to policies, procedures, or ideologies. Solutions to these kinds
of issues may not have a simple, clear, or measurable effect on the problem, and it
may not be possible to accurately measure the resources necessary for enacting the
solution. These kinds of arguments are thus more complex. For example, there isn’t
a simple solution to decreasing the unemployment rate in the United States. Many
people think that the simple solution is to increase the number of available jobs, but
there may be additional barriers such as the kinds of jobs we need to add and the
qualifications of those people who are unemployed. The solution may be to add more
jobs, but a policy proposal also suggests a method for enacting this solution.
Whether writing a practical or policy proposal, authors should construct thesis statements that clearly communicate the issue at hand and the author’s solution. For example, one such thesis statement might be: “In order to protect patients’ rights and
ensure ethical treatment, donors should be able to track these samples as they are
used for research and should be compensated if these samples are used for monetary gain.” This thesis statement clearly alerts readers to the issue at hand and briefly
lays out the author’s proposed solution.
Clearly, each type of thesis statement serves a distinct purpose. It helps indicate to
readers whether the work is explaining a place, event, or theory; analyzing a system
or concept; or trying to persuade the audience to feel a certain way about an issue.
Writers need to construct their thesis statements according to their purpose so that
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readers can clearly identify the writer’s goal and follow their thoughts throughout the
essay. Thus, an experienced writer will carefully assess their purpose for writing before composing a work.
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Making and Supporting Claims
By Brogan Sullivan
You’ve picked a topic, done your research, identified some helpful sources, and generated a working thesis. So what now? Do you just plunge into writing your paper, assuming that the right words will come to you in the right order? You could try it; some
writers are blessed with the ability to write as they think. But for most of us, a little
preliminary planning can make the difference between a passable essay and one that
sparkles with life. In fact, some writing instructors will ask you to turn in an organizing
draft before you write a full draft of your paper. This might be as simple as an outline
or flowchart detailing the basic premises and general organization of your argument.
But even if your instructor doesn’t ask you to do this, it’s a good idea to spend some
time organizing your thoughts before you set out to write your first draft. If you follow
the steps listed below, you might just save yourself a lot of time in the long run.
Know Your Purpose
In “Understanding Claims,” you learned that all claims can be divided into three categories: claims of fact, claims of value, and claims of policy, and that each type of claim
functions differently from the others. Because each claim tries to argue the truth of a
different kind of statement—that is, each type of claim has a different purpose—the
nature of your claim affects the choices you will need to make as you draft your paper. For example, if I want to convince my readers that global warming will cause sea
levels to rise in the next 50 years (a claim of fact), I will need to ask and answer a certain series of questions. If I want to persuade them that we as citizens owe it to the
next generation of citizens to do everything in our power to halt global warming (a
claim of value), I will need to ask an entirely different set of questions. And if I want to
argue that the United States needs to develop alternative energy sources to combat
the effects of global warming (a claim of policy), a third series of questions becomes
necessary. If you don’t know which type of claim your paper is making, you won’t
know which questions to ask or how to answer them to your reader’s satisfaction.
Often, the choice of which type of claim your paper will make will be decided for you.
For example, your instructor may ask you to write a paper that argues for or against a
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certain law (a claim of policy). Or she may ask you to write an essay that defends your
preference for one film over another (a claim of value). In many cases, you will have
the freedom to choose for yourself. Either way, keep the nature of your claim in mind
as you flesh out your argument.
Question Your Assumptions
In order to meaningfully communicate with other human beings, you have to assume
quite a lot. At the most basic level of discourse, face-to-face conversation, you take it
for granted that your conversation partner knows the meaning of the words you use.
For more complex communication, you often assume other things: that your audience shares certain historical knowledge with you (what the phrase “9/11” means, for
example), or that you have certain ethical values in common (that it is wrong to enslave other human beings). You can see that without resorting to assumptions at least
occasionally, conversations would take a lot of time. Assumptions are, by their very
nature, rhetorical shortcuts.
The problem is, assumptions can often backfire. For example, let’s say you’re trying
to convince an acquaintance how amazing the latest blockbuster action film was. You
describe the explosions and chase scenes in lovingly graphic detail; you talk about
how believable the computer-animated aliens were; you hint at an intense, climactic
standoff without giving away too many spoilers. But this whole time, you’ve been assuming that your acquaintance likes action films. If he doesn’t, your argument won’t
even get off the ground. By the same token, in academic writing, you can’t always rely
on your assumptions.
To begin with, check your thesis statement for hidden assumptions that might derail
your audience’s ability to understand or accept your argument. Do you use any confusing key terms in your thesis statement? If so, you might need to simplify your language. At the very least, you will need to explain the confusing terms in the body of
your paper. Do you assume that your audience shares your aesthetic, cultural, social,
or religious values? If so, you might need to alter your argument so that it doesn’t rely
so strongly on those values.
You should also examine the assumptions you make in order to ensure your argument is sound. A weak thesis statement often fails because one or more of the as145
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sumptions that operate underneath it is faulty or illogical. Catching problematic assumptions before you write your first draft ultimately helps you make your argument
stronger.
To see how the process of questioning your assumptions works, let’s take a look at a
sample thesis statement:
Solar power is the best alternative to fossil fuels because it relies on an inexhaustible source.
This thesis statement looks sound. It makes a clear, arguable claim (that solar power
is the best alternative to fossil fuels) and offers a compelling reason (the sun is an inexhaustible source of energy). But let’s examine the underlying assumptions that the
claim implies:
1. We need to find an alternative energy source to fossil fuels
2. Solar power is a viable alternative to fossil fuels
The first statement seems like a fairly safe assumption. A large amount of research
exists to support the idea that fossil fuels do not represent an infinite source of energy. Furthermore, history has shown that obtaining access to fossil fuels like oil and
coal comes at a significant cost to the environment. As long as you incorporate evidence to back up this assumption in your paper, you can move on to the second assumption.
The second assumption is more problematic. Even the most cursory examination of
the current literature will show that the technology to completely replace fossil fuels
with solar power doesn’t yet exist, and that even if it did, the overall cost to convert
the power infrastructure would be unrealistically expensive. Unfortunately, this assumption is not strong enough to support your claim.
However, you don’t have to scrap your thesis and start from scratch. In fact, by identifying this problematic assumption, you have given yourself the chance to make your
thesis stronger. Instead of claiming that solar power is the best alternative to fossil
fuels, you could alter the wording of the thesis to embrace a more realistic claim:
Developing better and less expensive solar power technology is an essential step towards
replacing fossil fuels because, combined with other alternatives like wind and hydroelectric
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power, solar power ultimately represents a cheaper, safer, and more plentiful source of energy.
This claim is not only more realistic but also much more complex than the original. It
acknowledges the current problems with solar power and admits that the solution to
the fossil fuel problem is far from simple. But it also demonstrates the potential benefits of adopting your solution, and anticipates at least one possible objection to your
original claim. By increasing the complexity of your claim, you have made your entire
argument potentially stronger.
Appeal to the Audience
Earlier, you learned how other writers use rhetorical appeals in their arguments. At
this stage of your drafting process, you get to use the same tools to shape your claim
toward your audience. Each appeal uses a different set of tactics, but they work together to persuade the reader. Using logos, pathos, and ethos in concert, you decide
how best to support your claim.
Using Logos
Logical appeals demonstrate the reasoning behind your claim. They show how one
idea leads to another through causality: x causes y, which then causes z. If you think
that the previous statement looks like an algebraic equation, you’re absolutely right.
The language of pure logic is essentially mathematical. However, you don’t need an
advanced degree in math to use logical appeals; in fact, you use logos every day. For
example, let’s say you’re trying to convince your parents that you need a new car. You
might tell them that your old car keeps breaking down, and reason that making payments on a new car would be cheaper overall than the monthly mechanic bills you’ve
been racking up. Congratulations; you’ve just used logos!
Logical appeals generally follow two patterns of reasoning, inductive and deductive.
Although they often work in concert in any single argument, it’s helpful to know the
difference.
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• With inductive reasoning, you reason from specific instances to general conclusions. (Every time you turn your key in the ignition, your car makes a brief series
of clicking noises. You reason that you have a bad starter.)
• With deductive reasoning, you reason from general premises to a specific conclusion. (It’s cheaper to buy a new car than to keep on fixing an old one. My car
keeps breaking down. Therefore, I need a new car.)
A logical appeal is any collection of words, pictures, or ideas that tries to establish
either an inductive or a deductive chain of reasoning between one state of affairs (my
old car keeps breaking down) and another (my parents need to buy me a new car).
There are a lot of ways to make logical appeals, but the following represent some of
the most common ones:
• Clear statements that show your premises and how they lead to your conclusion
• Examples that establish historical precedents that support your idea
• Examples that use narrative to demonstrate the consequences of accepting or
rejecting your idea
• Citation of reliable authorities who support your idea
• Demonstration of a cause-and-effect relationship that leads from the current
situation to your idea
• Visuals (infographics, charts, photographs, schematics, etc.) that help your audience picture abstract or hard-to-process information
Let’s take a look at logos in action. For your claim about solar power as a necessary alternative to fossil fuels, you might begin your argument by clearly stating your premises and how they lead to your conclusion (fossil fuel reserves will eventually run out;
solar power, along with wind and water power, will never run out; therefore, we need
to find a way to replace fossil fuels with these alternatives). You might then cite authorities who support your premises (Professor Y from X University has claimed that
fossil fuel reserves will run dangerously short by the year 2050). You could follow this
expert opinion with a discussion of what effects the lack of fossil fuels will have on the
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economy and quality of human life. You might then turn to demonstrating how turning to alternatives like solar and wind power can mitigate these effects, using an infographic to chart the gradual retooling of the infrastructure year by year. All of these
are examples of logical appeals.
Using Pathos
Pathos, the appeal to emotion, attempts to persuade the audience to accept a claim
by causing an emotional response. Logos demonstrates the reasons why a claim is
true; pathos makes the audience want to do something about it, to act on that knowledge, to believe in it. You use pathos when you appeal to your roommate’s sense of
team spirit to get her to join you at a home football game or get a friend to go to the
gym with you by reminding him how good he felt after the last workout.
In academic writing, emotional appeals are most effective for claims of value and
policy because the success of such claims relies on the audience’s validation. Claims
of fact seek merely to establish the truth of something, to generate data that can then
join the pool of general human knowledge. Claims of value and policy go further; they
ask the audience to participate, either through belief or action, and nothing motivates
belief and action as effectively as genuinely felt emotion.
However, because of their power to motivate action, emotional appeals should be
used responsibly. A fine line exists between appealing to an audience’s emotions and
manipulating the audience for your own purposes. Emotional appeals can express
truth, but they can also distort it. When you make an emotional appeal, ask yourself
if your intent is to help your audience understand the issue or to distract them from
it. An ethical emotional appeal sheds light on your argument, encourages your readers to see the issue in a new and interesting way, or helps them understand how the
issue affects them personally. An unethical emotional appeal clouds the argument,
tries to divert the readers’ attention from an unpleasant aspect of your claim, or actively misleads them.
Some of the most common ways to appeal to an audience’s emotions include:
• Concrete, specific, descriptive details that paint a verbal picture for your reader;
don’t rely on abstract concepts
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• Figures of speech, like metaphors, analogies, and similes, are powerful because
they make comparisons between your topic and something else that help the
reader understand what you’re trying to say
• Citations from people affected by the issue (such people count as reliable authorities for the purpose of emotional appeals; after all, they’ve lived through what
you’re talking about)
• Examples that use narrative to engage the readers’ emotions
• Visuals that elicit an emotional response
Let’s look at pathos in action. Say you’re writing a paper about the damage oil drilling does to the environment. After coming up with your logical appeals, you might
decide that you need to help the reader imagine what an oil spill looks and feels like,
and why it might matter to her. You might describe dead fish floating on the water
and the iridescent slick of petroleum glistening on the surface of the water. You could
then use a pertinent metaphor to put that image in perspective: “An oil spill is like a
shroud; it hides the dead from view so you can’t see what it looks like. Underneath
that slick of oil, every living thing in the water is slowly suffocating.” You might quote a
fisherman, whose business has been ruined by the oil spill, and include a photograph
of him on his boat, looking out over the water. Each of these elements is designed to
elicit an emotional response from the reader. None attempt to mislead the reader or
manipulate unwarranted sympathy; instead, they help the reader understand the issue on an intimate level.
Using Ethos
Ethos refers to your credibility and trustworthiness as a writer. It’s helpful to think
of ethos as a set of responsibilities you owe to the reader. For example, you owe it
to your reader to cite only the most reliable sources on an issue; you owe it to your
reader to treat those who oppose your point of view fairly and to avoid distorting
their position; you owe it to your reader to distinguish between your own ideas and
those of others. These obligations are part of your ethos, and they are mostly passive;
that is, you don’t actively use them in the same way you use logical or emotional appeals. Instead, you simply abide by them.
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However, you can actively establish ethos through other means. The most common
ones are listed below:
• Demonstrate knowledge. If you are writing about a topic you have experience
with, you can include this information in your argument, thus establishing yourself
as a reliable authority.
• Try to find common ground with the opposing side; by doing so, you establish
yourself as fair-minded and open to the ideas of others.
• Include and respond to one or more counterarguments, treating the opposing
side’s argument with as much dignity as you do your own.
• Practice full disclosure. If you changed your mind about something while drafting your argument, admit it in your paper. If you are consciously limiting the scope
of your discussion in the interest of space or clarity, make sure you clue the reader into the omission and what effect it might have on your claim. If your disclosures are honest (and they appear early in your argument), you build ethos.
Let’s look at ethos in action. Say you’re writing a paper on the benefits of buying organic produce from local farmers. You spent a year working on your uncle’s organic
farm, and you have firsthand knowledge of the process. You might describe your year
on the farm with a brief narrative, and then move on to a short statement of how that
year changed your own beliefs about buying and supporting organic farms. You could
then admit that buying organic produce is very expensive and probably out of reach
for many if not most working families. Playing off that admission, you might then
spend some time talking about how federal agriculture subsidies work and suggesting
that these subsidies might be effectively redistributed to reward farmers for growing
organic produce. Throughout this argument, you built and maintained ethos by balancing your desire to prove your argument with your duty to treat both your reader
and those who oppose your view fairly. In so doing, you strengthened your own argument.
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Summary
We’ve covered a lot of ground in this section. Hopefully, by now, you realize that much
of the writing process happens long before you start typing your first draft. In fact,
for many writers, this is the hardest part of that process. But if you work diligently,
it’s also the most rewarding, because most of the work is already done. After drafting
your thesis, determining the nature of your claim, checking your assumptions, and
coming up with rhetorical appeals to support your claim, you most likely have pages
and pages of material from which to choose. You’ve seen your claim grow from a single statement to an entire argument, and hopefully gained valuable insight into your
topic along the way. You’re ready to write your first draft. Good luck!
Checklist for Making and Supporting Claims
• Determine the nature of your claim (fact, value, or policy)
• Identify and evaluate the assumptions your claim implies
• Revise and refine your claim if your assumptions are weak or faulty
• Generate logical appeals
• Generate emotional appeals (if appropriate)
• Check to make sure your claim does not violate your ethos
• Generate ethical appeals
• Review your claim
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Considering the Opposing Side
By Stephanie Phillips
The Importance of Using a Counterargument
While researching and formulating an argumentative essay, it is important to consider
counterarguments. A counterargument is a claim that opposes your own claim. If
I want to argue, for example, that women should be allowed to play in the National
Hockey League (NHL), I would want to look for a source that reveals why women are
currently not allowed to play in the NHL. It would be difficult to make an argument in
favor of a co-ed league without understanding why women are currently excluded.
Thus, finding, understanding, and utilizing a counterargument is important in order
to get a complete picture of the complex issue you are arguing for or against and
strengthens your credibility as an author.
Let’s look at an example of an argument and counterargument about women playing
in the NHL:
In 1992 Manon Rhéaume, a Canadian ice hockey goaltender, took the ice for the Tampa Bay Lightning, a National Hockey League team. Rhéaume became the first, and
currently only woman to play in an NHL game. Though she was moved to the minor
league system after her short appearance, Rhéaume became an example for women
playing in a “league of their own,” suggesting that women could feasibly compete with
men’s athletic abilities. Rhéaume’s example of breaking the gender boundary in professional sports put the issue of discrimination by professional athletic associations in
the spotlight. Women are given ice, jerseys, and teams, but they are segregated from
their male counterparts.
While the story of Rhéaume’s game with the Lightning suggests the possibility of developing an argument in favor of co-ed professional sports, it would be unfair to make
the assumption that women are unjustly excluded without first understanding why
women are excluded. Women’s ice hockey has identical rules to men’s hockey with
one glaring exception: women are not allowed to body check or hit an opponent. The
no-checking rule makes it harder for women to compete at a professional level. Women are not allowed to check due to the supposed physical differences between them-
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selves and male athletes. While it is possible for women athletes to achieve a large,
muscular body type, in many cases men will still have a height and weight advantage
over the female players, which would make body checking extremely dangerous in a
co-ed league (Beacham).
These physical differences would exist across many different sports, making competition unequal, no matter how skilled a female player may become. The issue of women playing in a professional sporting league, then, is a very complicated one, and any
argument in favor of coed sports would have to address this complexity. I began this
discussion about women playing professional hockey to demonstrate how complex
an argument can become when we consider counterarguments. The counterargument to my point about discrimination in the NHL is that women playing in a checking
league would face considerable physical danger. In this case, the counterargument
makes a very good point about why women should be excluded. As a writer, you may
even find the counterargument convincing. This is okay and shows that your ability
to analyze and consider evidence is becoming more mature. Showing your readers
that you have considered all viewpoints about your argument will only increase the
strength of your argument and your reliability as a writer.
Allowing the counterargument space within your paper will also show that you are
confident about your own argument. For example, I respect the viewpoint of those
who wish to exclude women from professional sports because of the large injury risk.
The article I have been referencing, however, has not changed my opinion as a writer
or a female athlete and I still feel that sports will inevitably include a risk of injury
whether all female, all male, or co-ed. I am confident enough about my own argument
that I could include the counterargument to show that I am aware of the opposing
viewpoint. If I am able to incorporate the counterargument within my paper, my argument will be strengthened because I will be able to show my awareness of other ideas
while also defending my ideas against the opposition. Ignoring the opposing viewpoint within your paper could lead your readers to wonder if your exclusion of the
opposition indicates a lack of confidence in your argument or a lack of research and
could weaken your position. Arguments, such as women’s right to play in professional, male athletic leagues, are complex, multi-sided arguments that cannot adequately
be discussed by focusing solely on your own opinion of the matter. Integrating a
counterargument demonstrates both confidence in your argument and your maturity
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as a writer to research and integrate the opposing viewpoint while working with complex arguments and opinions.
Addressing the Counterargument
Confronting a counterargument about a topic we are personally invested in can be
difficult because, instinctively, we have a bias against the counterargument. As a female hockey player, I want to believe that women are just as skilled as men. The truth
is, however, that physically, women are built a little differently, and this may cause
some issues when integrating professional sporting leagues. It would feel very natural
for me to call the counterargument “ridiculous” because I disagree with it. However,
disrespecting the counterargument by simply dismissing it would discredit me as a
writer; it would show that, although I found a counterargument, I was not open to the
new information that this opposing viewpoint suggested. Therefore, when approaching a counterargument, you should keep an open mind. You should ask yourselves:
Who is making this argument and what group of interests is the author representing?
It is helpful to know about the person (or people) making the counterargument. Is
the author a male, is he an athlete, is he attributed to a particular religious or political group? For the sake of my argument about women in sports, it would be helpful to
consider the gender of the author and whether he or she is accurately representing
the viewpoints of male or female athletes.
Who is the author’s audience?
Based on the author’s rhetoric, does it sound like he is appealing to a particular group
of people? Try to consider how this knowledge would be relevant to your piece. Is the
author writing to persuade children, or people of specific religious or political affiliations?
What point is the author trying to convey to this audience?
We want to identify what message the author wants to convey to his audience. This
means identifying his arguments and his reasons for making this argument.
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What methods does the author use to convey this message?
Is the author using sources or examples to prove his point? When talking about
women playing ice hockey, for example, it might be helpful to see whether the author
of your counterargument offers any examples of women being badly injured due to
co-ed competition. You can also consider what kinds of evidence (outside statistics or
studies) the author uses and how he uses these points to support his argument. For
example, the article I consulted when researching counterarguments against women
playing in the NHL interviewed female ice hockey players who support gender-segregated leagues. In the case of this counterargument, the author’s inclusion of these
interviews greatly strengthens his argument because he has now given support from
both male and female athletes for his argument.
When approaching the counterargument, considering the above questions will help
to keep an open mind. You always want to make sure that you treat the counterargument with respect. Your goal as a writer is, of course, to formulate your own opinion
on a subject, but this does not mean that you use harsh or inappropriate rhetoric to
refer to the opposing viewpoints. When discussing a counterargument in an essay,
give it enough space to adequately disclose its perspective. Discuss the counterclaim
with empathy and understanding and try to identify a place or time in which this
counterargument would be valid.
Integrating a Counterargument
When integrating a counterargument, you don’t want to allow the counterargument
to take up the entire essay and overshadow your own argument. Transitioning phrases such as “however,” “although,” “conversely,” or “on the other hand” will help to indicate where you are beginning a discussion about the counterargument and when you
are transitioning back to your own argument. Consider the following introduction to a
counterargument:
While many women feel discriminated against for not being allowed to compete at a professional level, many doctors and coaches believe that the physical risk associated with women
and men competing together are too great.
This sentence shows a transition from an argument about why women should be allowed to play in professional sporting leagues, to an introduction of the counterargu-
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ment. I used the word “while” as my transitory word to indicate to my reader that I am
transitioning between ideas. Moving from the counterargument section back into my
argument in favor of gender equality may sound something like this:
Although women are typically smaller than men, and competing with them athletically comes
with a high risk of injury, female athletes understand these risks and believe that their skills
will outweigh the possibility of becoming injured.
This sentence shows a segue, or transition, from the counterargument back to the
argument that women accept the possibility of injury and still want the chance to play
professionally with men. Here, I used the word “although” as my transition word. Notice that my transition back to my personal argument did not discredit the counterargument. My transition actually acknowledges that the counterargument has a point
and, while it was considered, I still believe in my side of the argument and will continue to develop my claim that women should be allowed into sporting leagues with
men.
Combining our knowledge about how to address a counterargument, let’s look at an
example of the entire counterargument section:
While many women feel discriminated against for not being allowed to compete at a professional level, many doctors and coaches believe that the physical risks associated with women and men competing together are too great. In an article titled “To check or not to check?
Women’s hockey debates,” author Greg Beacham interviews women hockey players, one of
whom claims, “Do we really need to see girls crushing each other? I really like my teeth, and
I think one day in a wedding photo, having no scars would be a bonus” (qtd. in Beacham).
The female hockey player interviewed is five foot four and less than 200 pounds, which is far
smaller than most male ice hockey players. Beacham also cites to female athletes who feel
that their skill on the ice is not diminished by the no checking rule. Women hockey players,
claims Beacham, are not interested in playing in a checking league due to the associated
physical risks. Without checking, these women athletes still perform at a very high level,
without the risk of injury, and clearly demonstrate that they are exceptional hockey players
and athletes.
This paragraph about a counterargument to why women should be allowed to play
in professional men’s hockey leagues addresses the counterargument respectfully
and considers Beacham’s point of view as relevant. I used examples and arguments
from Beacham’s article to show instances during which Becaham’s claim that women
should not play in a checking league would be valid. I try to demonstrate that I am
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empathetic to the views that Beacham, and others who are against women in checking leagues, express.
Addressing a counterargument in your essay only demonstrates your abilities as a
researcher and writer. If your views evolve and change from reading and considering
the counterargument, this only shows the maturity of your viewpoints because you
are able to consider multiple possibilities for your topic. In summary, when integrating the counterargument, remember to:
• Use transitional words and phrases
• Attempt to empathize with the conterargument
• Always be respectful toward the counterargument
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6: Constructing the Essay
Considering Audience, Purpose, and Genre
160
Classical Argument Structure
167
Tracing a Logical Progression
177
Constructing Paragraphs
181
Constructing Paragraphs: The Nuts and Bolts
185
How to Write an Engaging Introduction
191
How to Write a Compelling Conclusion
195
Citing Your Sources
200
Document Design
206
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Considering Audience, Purpose, and Genre
By Dr. Dianne Donnelly
Let’s say you’ve been assigned a paper in which you’re asked to stake a claim on a
particular issue and argue from an informed position. Consider first, that whatever
you write—be it an email, a text, a letter, an editorial, a journal article, a speech, an
essay, or even a multimodal piece—you face some kind of rhetorical situation which
impacts all of the contexts in which you write. In simpler terms, the rhetorical situation is that circumstance which requires a response (written, visual, or spoken) which
is targeted to a specific audience. Some refer to the elements of the rhetorical situation as the context. For the scope of this chapter, the context is broken down into the
following areas of consideration: purpose, audience, and genre. If you want to write
a compelling piece, there is no getting around the rhetorical demands of this trilogy.
The bottom line is that in all writing, there is a purpose, an audience, and a genre, and
because your rhetorical situation influences what you say about your topic, why you
say it, and how you say it, all writers should not only be cognitively aware of the circumstances under which they write, but also prepared to make purposive audiencebased decisions that impact the structure, style, and tone of their writing, as well as
what content to include and what to leave out.
So while you’re thinking about your topic, you also want to be productively assessing
your rhetorical situation by asking yourself three searching questions: (1) What do I
hope to accomplish in my writing? (2) Who will I write to and keep in mind as I form
my argument? (3) What form or genre should I choose in order to be most effective?
Nearly every decision a writer makes is driven by the rhetorical elements: purpose,
audience, and genre; each element depends on the others, none of the elements can
be left out of a writer’s consideration, and all of the elements work together in determining the effectiveness of a piece of writing.
Purpose
All communication has some purpose in mind; this intent is why we choose to communicate in the first place; why we choose to express ideas, to inform someone, to
explain something, to explore a topic, and/or to persuade particular people. With
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this in mind, purpose refers to the concrete function of your document and what you
hope to accomplish. For example, when the purpose of a writing project is to inform
someone(s) about a particular topic, your audience is not prompted to act upon the
information. In other words, what readers opt to do with the information you provide
is not a primary concern of the document’s purpose. Rather, the goal is to assure that
your audience knows and understands the specifics that you share with them. There
is practicality to this kind of writing. Your readers receive some new knowledge associated with the explanation of a topic, and their knowledge base increases because
you’ve provided them with factual data and objective information. The expository essay is an example of a document whose purpose is to inform.
Some documents instruct their audience on the ways in which to perform a particular
task, to use a device, to apply a concept, or to complete a process analysis. Specifically, the purpose of instruction in this context is to help others learn, and typically, the
decisive design of this kind of writing includes sequential steps and visual elements
(i.e., flow charts, diagrams, images) to illustrate and enhance the clarity of the tasks. A
procedure or technical manual is an example of documents that instruct.
The intent of other documents is to persuade an audience that an argument has merit, to convince someone to change her mind, or to call persons to take some particular
action. These documents present credible arguments and counterarguments which
are reinforced by evidence and supporting details. The persuasive essay and call-toaction letter are examples of documents that convince.
Although the rhetorical aims of your document will likely focus on one main purpose,
your document can serve more than one purpose. You might, for example, plan to
inform and persuade your audience.
Key Questions to Ask When Thinking about Purpose:
1. What are you trying to accomplish in your writing? What do you want your
audience to know? What do you want to persuade your readers to do? What do
you want to explain to your target population?
2. As part of your purpose, what do you want your readers to get out of your
document?
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3. What does the purpose of your document ask from you as a writer? For
example, how might you demonstrate your credibility as someone who is
qualified to address the topic and fulfill the document’s purpose?
4. What kinds of explanations or arguments will you make?
5. What genre best helps you to achieve your purpose?
6. How will your choice of medium and document design help you achieve your
purpose?
Audience
It is troublesome, but understandable when student writers think of their instructor
as their primary audience. Even when an audience is hypothetical, it is critical for student writers to identify a “real” audience outside of the college classroom so that they
can have a focused audience in mind as they write. Consider that while your teacher
may be a secondary audience, she will approach your document from a reader response perspective, making concerted efforts as she reads, to appreciate the primary
audience that you intend for your work.
Even when your audience is hypothetical, it’s difficult not to consider your audience
when you focus on the purpose of your writing. In part, this is because you need to
understand how the audience to whom you are appealing affects your document’s
purpose, what impels your audience to read your document in the first place, what
expectations and outcomes they have that you can satisfy, and what your audience
will do with the information you give them.
Moreover, critical areas to consider when you think about audience are content,
language, and tone. When you know your audience, you have a better understanding of what to include in your writing and what to leave out, what to emphasize and
what to understate. Being aware of your audience positions you to assess what areas need to be extended; what kinds of arguments, counterarguments, explanations,
and evidence to use; and what terms need to be defined, or in some case, re-defined
for your audience. Knowing your audience can only help you with decisions regard-
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ing your document’s syntax (the sentence structure of your language), diction (word
choices), key target language, and tone.
For example, if you want to encourage readers to feel good about a particular solution or model, you would employ positive language and an optimistic tone. On the
other hand, if you want your readers to be concerned about something or to be enraged about an issue, you would use language that shifts the tone of your writing accordingly. It’s important to anticipate how your readers will respond to the language
and tone of your writing. Keep in mind that if you intentionally alarm readers about
an issue, it’s always important to counterbalance that concern with some legitimate
resolve. Similarly, if you’re asking your readers to take some particular action and
you’re providing justification for that action, choose language that respects your readers’ multiple intelligences. Otherwise, your writing will take on a negative ranting or
preachy tone, and no one wants to be harangued unnecessarily. Furthermore, be cognizant of key words that have negative connotations – you don’t want to upset or agitate your audience and risk being unheard because your audience has turned away
from your conversation.
Finally, while your message and purpose to inform or persuade may be the same for
two different audiences (i.e., college students and senior citizens or drivers who text
and parents who transport toddlers in car seats), the other variables discussed above
(the content, language, and tone) will likely be significantly different as you analyze
how each audience would respond to your writing.
Key Questions to Ask When Thinking about Audience:
1. Who is your audience?
2. What is your relationship to this audience?
3. What does your audience want/need from your document? What do you want
your audience to want/need from your document? How might you anticipate how
your audience’s goals may align or misalign with your own goals?
4. What does your audience know about your topic? What do they believe? What
are their preconceived notions?
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5. What has previously been said about your topic? What content will you include
and what should be left out? What content should be emphasized and what
should be understated?
6. What types of appeals (logos, ethos, pathos, kairos) will be most effective with
your audience? Why?
7. How will your audience react to what you say in your document and how
you say it? How do you want your readers to react? What syntax, diction,
language, and tone will influence your readers? How will your readers respond to
figurative language? Will you adopt an informal, academic, humorous, satirical,
or conversational style? How will your style decisions impact your audience’s
response?
8. Beyond your primary audience, what additional readers or unintended
audience might engage with your conversation? Who are these possible
stakeholders and what factors should you keep in mind regarding these readers?
Genre
A genre specifies the type of communication that you will use to convey your message to your audience. Sometimes the genre type is determined by the communication situation (i.e., your boss asks you to specifically complete a project proposal for
the possible expansion of services within a particular demographic area), or the genre
is preselected for you (i.e., you’ve been assigned to write an academic essay). In academia and in the real world, the genre choice is often discipline specific (i.e., Genres
associated with literary fields include poems, stories, novels. Standard genres within
professional writing include memos, proposals, progress reports, letters, reports,
presentations. Genres in the realm of engineering include lab reports, posters and
presentations, scientific journal articles, and so on). Writers of these documents must
meet standards and expectations of the field/audience, and the documents must adhere to specific format and content rules.
In other cases, the communication situation offers some leeway as to how you might
convey your message. For example, you may be asked to persuade your audience to
take some action, but you have some choice as to how you will convey that informa-
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tion (i.e. essay, letter, video, brochure, website, infographic, etc.). Regardless of the
communication situation, your genre choice is defined by the nature of your audience
and the purpose of your message, so it is important to understand the characteristics
of the audience and the kinds of documents your audience would have access to and
generally prefer, as well as the genre expectations of the document you plan to deliver.
While the college persuasive essay is not a rigidly-defined genre, there are some standard conventions associated with the form. The essay opening introduces the topic
and narrows the focus of the essay to include a clear, specific, contestable and insightful thesis/claim. Body paragraphs begin with strong topic sentences and include
relevant/credible evidence and supporting points that propel the thesis forward. The
conclusion highlights the argument’s main points and offers the reader something to
think about or a way to respond to the argument going forward.
Key Questions to Ask When Thinking about Genre
1. What types of documents would your audience likely have access to or prefer?
For example, college students would likely prefer a digital document over, say, a
Power Point or brochure.
2. Where would your audience most likely locate the information you present? In
a journal, a bulletin, a website, a blog/vlog, a YouTube video, a newspaper, snail
mail?
3. Does the communication situation define the document type or does the
communication situation provide some leeway as to how you will convey your
information?
4. How does your genre choice support the message you want to convey?
5. What are the expectations of the document you plan to deliver?
As you become more and more integrated into your field of study, you will find your
real world full of communication situations that call for particular responses. Assessing your rhetorical situation by thinking about your purpose, by identifying your audience and appealing to their expectations and needs, and by considering what genre
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will be best for your message—will position you as a strategic, credible, and effective
writer who has a solid plan for what she hopes to accomplish, how she will reach her
audience, and the ways in which her genre choices will support her ideas.
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Classical Argument Structure
By Jacob Lauritzen
As a college student, it is important to develop a healthy level of skepticism for what
you read and what you are taught. Unlike high school, where students are usually
expected to believe whatever their teacher tells them, university-level work often asks
students to question ideas more thoroughly. This process of analysis will help you
to form opinions that you can support with evidence. You may also be asked to apply this healthy distrust to what you read and to the topics that you research as you
write. This article will discuss a process of analysis and argumentation attributed to
Aristotle called Aristotelian logic or classical argumentation. I will review in some detail the core ideas of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, focusing on a number of key points, namely,
how to structure an argument and use rhetoric to appeal to your audience’s senses of
ethics, emotion, and logic. As you study and learn to use argumentation, you will find
yourself seeing those around you differently, like I did. You will learn to recognize how
others use rhetoric when they speak and write, and you will also learn how to use this
information to make your own informed decisions in your academic and professional
life.
Aristotle’s Rhetoric
In Rhetoric, Aristotle’s treatise on the art of persuasion, the philosopher identifies
three types of appeals to consider when reading or writing an argument. These appeals are ethos, pathos, and logos. He writes, “The first kind [ethos] depends on the
personal character of the speaker; the second [pathos] on putting the audience into a
certain frame of mind; the third [logos] on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by
the words of the speech itself” (bk. 1, ch. 2). When you reason through an argument,
it is important to recognize how each of these categories affects your reasoning. For
instance, a speaker may present a very compelling case logically (logos), but if I know
that he has lied in the past, I may have a hard time believing him. This is because his
credibility (ethos) has been harmed by his unethical actions. Then again, a speaker
may present flawed logic, but we may be predisposed to believe him or her because
we have an emotional connection (pathos) to something the speaker has said.
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Aristotle continues by outlining a structured approach to presenting an argument.
This structure is commonly known as classical argumentation. Using rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos) in conjunction with classical argumentation to tailor
how you present your argument by considering what credibility, logic, and emotion
will best appeal to whom you are writing or speaking is an effective means for persuading a reader or an audience. In fact, it is likely that you have learned to utilize
many of these appeals and perhaps even a similar structure when you have tried to
persuade others in the past. This article will attempt to help you to recognize what
you already know about persuasion and to improve upon it by using classical argumentation.
In terms of college composition, classical argumentation can be a guide for formulating one’s arguments, typically to persuade a reader or audience. As a college student,
it is important that you learn to understand and use classical argumentation in your
classes to evaluate arguments that you read, to argue for or against them, and to
make your own persuasive arguments. What many students do not recognize is that
they already use argumentation everyday. Argumentation is at the root of how we
make and defend our decisions. We use argumentation when we go out to eat, watch
TV, or even get ready in the morning. Classical argumentation uses a more defined
structure though, a structure that when followed can help one to reason through issues logically, and to argue our cases persuasively to others. Aristotle outlines four
steps a speaker should follow when structuring an argument: introduction, statement, argument, and conclusion.
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An argument does not need to necessarily follow this order, but it must include each
step. This structure may seem familiar. Throughout high school you may have been
taught the five-paragraph essay structure. You likely learned that your first paragraph
should include an introduction (step one) to the topic and should include a thesis
statement (step two) outlining your main points. The next three paragraphs make up
the body of your essay and should provide additional details and examples to support your argument (step three). Your final paragraph, or your conclusion (step four),
should restate your thesis statement and summarize how you proved your point. The
five-paragraph essay uses the four core steps of classical argumentation. Aristotle’s
structure, though, often goes into more depth. As part of arguing one’s main point,
one should also respond to any opposing viewpoints. We’ll discuss this in more detail
as we discuss argument.
Introduction
When making an argument, begin by first introducing your topic to your audience.
Aristotle writes, “You may use any means you choose to make your hearer receptive;
among others, giving him a good impression of your character, which always helps
to secure his attention” (bk. 3, ch. 14). Before you begin to make your argument, you
must establish your ethos on the subject. You can make a “good impression of your
character” by using an appropriate tone for your subject matter, using correct subjectspecific vocabulary, and by demonstrating your credibility to speak on the subject. For
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example, as an English teacher, I have ethos to speak about reading and writing. At
the beginning of this essay, I discosed that I had attended graduate school. This suggests that I have studied this subject at length, but notice that I didn’t spend too much
time establishing my credentials. If I continued to outline my resume, it would distract
from the purpose of this essay. Aristotle explains further that the purpose of the introduction is “to show what the aim of the speech is” (bk. 3, ch. 14). Therefore, your
introduction should frame the argument to establish your credibility and to prepare
to reader to believe you.
In your introduction, you may also use pathos to appeal to your reader’s emotions.
Aristotle writes, “The appeal to the hearer aims at securing his goodwill, or at arousing his resentment, or sometimes at gaining his serious attention to the case” (bk.
3, ch. 14). As you introduce the topic, consider who will be your audience. What can
you say to gain their goodwill? Politicians provide the classic example of this tactic.
When President Barack Obama was reelected in 2012, pundits credited his win to his
campaign’s “micro targeting” of voters. Instead of blanketing swing states with just
one message, the Obama campaign created many different advertisements and then
targeted which TV, radio, and Internet markets would receive which messages based
on their research of the voters in those areas. For example, voters Orlando or Tampa
may not see the same ads as voters in Miami. In essence, the campaign staff gambled
on the idea that they could focus Obama’s message specifically to the concerns of
their audience. Their gamble worked. Consider what you can do to micro target your
audience. What do you know about them that you can reference to earn their goodwill? The better you can develop and maintain your ethos and pathos throughout
your argument, the more likely you are to achieve your ultimate goal of persuading
your reader to your viewpoint.
Statement
Once you have introduced your topic, you should clearly state what your viewpoint on
the topic is. Your teachers may also call this statement a thesis statement or claim. A
clear thesis statement will typically begin with a statement of the topic and continue
with your comment on the topic. Be careful as you write your thesis. Think of it as
your promise to your reader. This is what you aim to prove throughout the course of
your paper. Be careful to not promise more than you can prove.
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For example, if I am writing a paper on a hot topic issue such as gun control, I would
want to be careful in how I word my thesis. If I were arguing in favor of additional gun
control, my sample thesis might read something like this: “Additional restrictions on
gun ownerships will prevent the terrible school shootings we have seen in the past
several years.” It is okay to set a lofty goal, but there is no way that this particular result could be proven in the course of a typical college paper. Instead, I may want to
limit the scope of my promise by qualifying my statement. For instance, I may instead
write, “Additional restrictions on gun ownership will help law enforcement to prevent
mentally unstable persons from owning weapons.” This statement does not promise
that “mentally unstable” persons will not be able to get a hold of weapons, but rather
that it will help law enforcement to prevent this. Being specific helps the reader to
know exactly what you aim to prove and what you will or will not be addressing.
As you craft your thesis, you should also take care to make it debatable. A debatable
thesis will be a statement that can be disputed by at least one opposing viewpoint.
This is important because it helps you to answer your reader’s inevitable question, “So
what?” For a reader to care about your topic, he or she needs to have a reason. If your
thesis is too obvious or seems of little importance, your reader may ask herself, “So
what?” You should prepare for this by answering her question in advance. Whether
the reader agrees with your viewpoint or not, by making your thesis debatable, you
help to answer why your viewpoint is significant, and as such, you give her a reason to
continue reading.
In classical argumentation, you should reference your thesis frequently to remind
your reader what you argument is and to relate all examples back to your thesis. Aristotle explains, “Even if you travel far from your subject, it is fitting, rather than that
there should be sameness in the entire speech” (bk. 3, ch. 14). By maintaining this
sameness throughout your paper, you help your reader to follow how each example
you provide relates back to your original claim. It also helps to maintain your reader’s
attention and the overall flow of your paper. For example, if I were writing about gun
control, I may begin my paper by explicitly stating what my thesis is. As my paper
continues, it may be necessary to discuss specific problems with gun control in great
detail. This may seem like I am “travel[ing] far from [my] subject,” but if I restate all or
part of my thesis statement as I make more specific claims I am still helping my reader to how each detail connects back to and ultimately proves my thesis statement.
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Argument
The body of your paper should be focused on proving your argument. As Aristotle
writes, “A speech has two parts. You must state your case, and you must prove it” (bk.
3, ch. 13). You may accomplish this through any number of examples (stories, facts,
testimonials, etc.) that lead your reader through a logical progression of reasoning
that, in turn, convinces them of your claim. In this part of your paper, you will need to
use logic. This is the most complicated of Aristotle’s appeals. Learning how to reason
through an idea to discover “truth” is not a simple process. It takes time and practice.
Above all, it needs to make sense.
There are many ways that you can organize your ideas logically. Aristotle writes, “A
statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so. In either case it is
persuasive because there is somebody whom it persuades” (bk. 1, ch. 2). In other
words, a statement is persuasive because its logic is “self-evident” or because your
examples identify and support the logic in the statement. For this reason, you will
want to use the best examples possible. At the same time, you should also be careful not to misrepresent your examples. Many novice students fall victim to this. They
may promise more than their evidence supports, or they may misrepresent an opposing viewpoint’s claim. These mistakes in logic are called logical fallacies. If your reader
is observant, he or she may recognize these mistakes and view them as attempts to
trick them, in turn hurting your ethos as a writer.
Think of the story of the boy who cried wolf. It was his responsibility to watch the
sheep for his village. This was an important responsibility, but there was some danger to it. If a wolf were to attack the sheep, it would threaten both the livelihood and
food supply for the community. As such, they had a simple warning system in place to
protect the sheep. If a wolf were to attack the sheep, the boy was to cry out “Wolf!” to
warn the village. One day, the boy decided it would be fun to play a trick on the village. He cried “Wolf!” and fearing for the sheep and the boy, the villagers came. They
were upset that the boy had tricked them, but when he cried wolf again, they still
came. By “crying wolf” a second time, he lost his credibility within his community. Naturally, a day arrived when a wolf actually came, and despite the boy’s cries, the villagers did not come. The boy was killed.
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This is an extreme example, but it explains the point clearly. As a writer, you need
to always maintain the highest level of credibility possible. The logic of what you say
has no merit if you cannot be trusted. The same goes for the sources you use. If you
quote a source, the author’s credibility will become yoked with yours. If your source is
not credible, your reader may begin to question you as well.
It is important as a writer that you address opposing viewpoints logically. There are
many effective ways to do this. Aristotle explains, “An argument may be refuted either
by a counter-syllogism or by bringing in an objection” (bk. 2, ch. 25). In other words,
you can respond to an opposing viewpoint by presenting an example that either disproves it or by pointing out an error in its logic.
Here it is important to note that what one writes and actually believes are not always
the same. There is a measure of performance in anything that we do, especially when
trying to persuade a reader. This is also true when refuting opposing viewpoints. Aristotle explains, “The refutation is not always genuine: it may be spurious: for it consists
in showing not that your opponent’s premise is not probable, but only in showing that
it is not inevitably true” (bk. 2, ch. 25). For example, a refutation of an argument may
not focus on everything that an opposing viewpoint argues. Instead, it may focus on
one specific aspect of it, perhaps, one that is easy to disprove. Think of this as creating reasonable doubt in the logic of an opposing viewpoint. A refutation is not only
your opportunity to prove your point in response to other viewpoints, but also an
opportunity to create doubt in the probability of the opposing viewpoint. Politicians
are especially prone to do this when discussing the beliefs of an opponent. Again, as
effective as this may be rhetorically, you should be careful to not misrepresent your
opponent’s viewpoint.
It is important to note that classical argumentation uses logic and reasoning to prove
a point. Once an author or speaker lies or misrepresents information to prove a point,
he or she is no longer using reason. You may present a viewpoint that you don’t actually believe, but this is not the same as lying. So long as you rely on logic and reasoning in your own arguments, you will never have to distort known truths to persuade
your reader. If you find though the course of your own reasoning that your viewpoint
is incorrect, you may need to consider changing your viewpoint.
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Conclusion
When you feel that you have effectively proven your thesis statement and therefore
kept your promise to your reader, then you are ready to conclude your argument.
Aristotle calls this the epilogue. He identifies four parts to an epilogue:
You must (1) make the audience well-disposed towards yourself and ill-disposed towards
your opponent, (2) magnify or minimize the leading facts, (3) excite the required state of
emotion in your hearers, and (4) refresh their memories. (bk. 3, ch. 19)
A conclusion is not simply a summary of what you have already said. It is also an opportunity to outline your argument in such a way that you explain to your reader
how you proved your point. By approaching it this way you will again utilize your own
ethos, logos, and pathos to “make the audience well-disposed towards yourself.” As
you restate your thesis, you can focus on points that are especially important. This
will “magnify or minimize the leading facts” that Aristotle refers to, but also “refresh
their memories” of these important details. As you continue to utilize ethos and pathos you will also “excite the required state of emotion in your hearers.”
Taking Your Case to Court
Though classical argumentation can be complicated, it follows a simple structure.
Begin by introducing a topic and making a clear statement about your viewpoint on
the topic. Follow your statement with a logical argument and end it with an effective
conclusion. This same structure appears in any trial you may see on a TV crime show.
The trial will begin with opening statements. These are the introductions. In their introductions, each side will explain what they wish to prove throughout the trial. This is
equivalent to your thesis statement. They may even introduce some of the evidence
that they will use. As the trial progresses, each side will call witnesses to the stand. It
is the job of these witnesses to use their expertise to give information to help each
side make their case. Both sides will be allowed to ask questions. This is the point in
your argument where you use examples, quotes, and other information to prove your
point. You will also need to respond to any evidence that may seem to contradict your
point. At the end of a trial, each side then gives their closing arguments. This is the
point where you, in your conclusion, will summarize your main point, your evidences,
and explain how each of these supports your main point. It is then up to the reader,
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who acts, in a way, like a jury of sorts, to decide whether she will agree with you or
not.
As you practice using classical argumentation, you will find that you will be able to use
reasoning to form articulate and persuasive arguments. You will recognize how authors and speakers use rhetorical appeals to persuade you, and as such, you will be
better prepared to support or refute their arguments in return.
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Works Cited
Aristotle. The Rhetoric. Trans. W. Rhys Roberts. Ed. Lee Honeycutt. Eserver.org. Iowa
State U, 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
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Tracing a Logical Progression
By Brianna Jerman
Recently, Apple, Inc. released its AppleMaps application as the new default GPS for
mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. Users were eager to try the software out
because the company’s products have a reputation for efficiency and ease, but unfortunately, they were left disappointed. Following the directions of the GPS, users were
led past a turn that came up too quickly, sent in the wrong direction on a one-way
road, taken on unnecessary detours, left to backtrack to roads they had already been
down, or guided to the wrong location. With these and other issues, users quickly
abandoned the App and went back to the more efficient and effective GoogleMaps.
Many people claimed that GoogleMaps was better because it had the most recent
information about street closures, traffic patterns, and route times, but ultimately,
users said that the directions were clearer and easier to follow. Drivers always got
to their destinations in a timely manner and without taking unnecessary detours or
missing a turn.
Just like any good GPS system, writers are responsible for leading readers through
our argument and providing a path that is easy to follow. When constructing an argument, we need to think from the perspective of the reader and make sure that we
give clear directions so readers wind up “in the right place”. Keeping this in mind in
the planning, drafting, and revising stages of the writing process, authors can work
on constructing an effective essay that is organized according to a logical progression
and contains clear connections from one point to the next. In order to write an effective essay that the reader can clearly and easily navigate, writers use a few key tactics
to help an essay flow better:
Tell readers where they are headed
A well-constructed thesis statement acts as a “map overview” of sorts. It tells readers
where they are headed and briefly explains how they will get there by summarizing
the main argument of the paper. With the final destination in mind, readers can more
easily follow the discussion of the essay. One way writers can help readers along the
way is to remind them of their final destination. This means that authors should clear-
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ly relate the points made in each paragraph back to the thesis. In the prewriting or
planning stage, think carefully about the information readers need to know and why
this information is necessary to the main argument of the paper. When writing the
essay, writers should state this connection as clearly and directly as possible. Doing so
will help the audience understand why each paragraph is important and keep them
headed in the right direction.
Follow the most efficient path through the argument
Trustworthy GPS devices usually provide users with two or more routes to choose
from, but they always default to the most efficient path to the destination. This route
avoids detours and roundabout directions, and it brings drivers to their destinations
in the shortest or quickest way possible. Writers should seek to do the same when
writing an essay. They can do so by identifying the most logical path through the argument and avoiding unnecessary conversations. Directly stating the connection between a supporting point and the thesis (as suggested above) also ensures that an
author is not taking the reader off course, and it guarantees that all points are necessary to the overall discussion.
A lot of factors can cause an author to unintentionally lead their readers astray.
Sometimes the research process can lead down a rabbit hole of information and the
author herself is led away from the central argument. Or, a point may seem like it is
pertinent to the subject because it is somehow related to the broad topic of the paper, when really it’s not necessary. When we include ideas or claims in a paper that
are not immediately or directly related to the thesis, readers might lose focus on the
main argument or end up lost. A skilled author thinks clearly about which ideas are
necessary and why they should be included in the paper.
Make sure points are logically ordered
When giving directions to a destination, as GPS devices are supposed to do, it’s vital
that every turn be relayed to the driver in the correct order. If a driver misses a turn,
he or she will most likely end up lost or having to turn around to get back on course.
In a paper, the author needs to make sure that supporting points are logically ordered. This means the author needs to think about what the audience needs to know
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first, especially if one point or argument is reliant upon another point. For example, if
a paper is arguing for a multifaceted approach to reversing the rise in teenage pregnancy rates, the writer will need to inform readers of the number of teen pregnancies that result from improper use of contraceptives before they argue that education
courses on safe sex practices are necessary to solving the problem. This way, readers
understand the reason for this part of the solution and are thus more likely to agree
with this point right away than if they are told later on in the essay that improper use
of contraceptives contributes greatly to the number of teen pregnancies.
Laying out a logical path through an argument is easiest to do in the planning stages
of writing through outlining. Writers can use this space to determine a logical order
for their paper and decide what “turns” or “stops” are necessary. This means that writers need to think carefully about the relationships between supporting points and
need to be able to articulate such relationships as they guide the reader from one
point to the next.
Use road signs
When driving, road signs indicate to drivers what is ahead. Sometimes these signs say
that an exit ramp is approaching or that a road detour will help drivers get from one
road to the next. These signs help drivers move easily and quickly forward through
their journey. In a similar way, writers can help move readers forward through an argument and make connections from one point to the next by using segues and transitions. Segues indicate a shift in the discussion while simultaneously pointing out how
one idea or paragraph is related to another. Transition words can be used within a
paragraph to show how two thoughts or sentences are connected.
Tracing a logical progression through a paper and developing the flow of an essay can
be achieved by keeping in mind the above advice at various stages of the writing process. During the planning stage, writers should outline major points in an essay and
consider why each point is necessary to the overall argument. In the writing stage,
authors should start by constructing a clearly worded thesis statement and should
directly state the connection between the thesis and supporting points throughout
the essay. Finally, in the writing and revision stages, writers can include transitions
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and segues to help lead readers from one point to the next. Following these steps,
authors can direct readers through even the most complex arguments.
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Constructing Paragraphs
By Ella Bieze
You Can Stand Under My Umbrella
The umbrella is an amazing tool.
I know what you’re thinking. If this is an essay about constructing paragraphs, why
are we talking about umbrellas? Well, when imagining the construction of an essay,
it sometimes helps me to think of an image rather than a bunch of words strung together. When I think of the relationship between my thesis statement and the paragraphs that support it, I imagine an umbrella.
Depending on who you talk to, different people have different names for the various parts of an umbrella. I usually describe the parts of an umbrella by their functions: “that thing that pops it open,” “that knob at the top,” “the nylon web part that
keeps you dry,” or “the metal prongs that hold it open.” However, I recently learned
that these things have much more official names than the ones I’ve given them.
“That thing that pops it open” is called a “spring.” “The knob at the top” is called the
“ferrule.” “The nylon web part that keeps you dry” is called “the rib,” and “the metal
prongs that hold it open” are called “stretchers.”
The reason I mention all these different parts is because I think of the different parts
of my essay as these different parts of an umbrella. The thesis statement could be
described as the tube in the middle of the umbrella, ending at the top of the umbrella
with the ferrule. It’s the center of the umbrella, the thing that all the other parts attach
to. But a thesis statement alone doesn’t make an essay, just like a tube with a ferrule
at the top doesn’t make an umbrella. A tube with a ferrule at the top won’t protect me
from the tropical storm outside my window right now.
The parts of an umbrella that keep us dry, the parts that make an umbrella an umbrella, are the ribs and the stretchers. If we were to imagine your essay as an umbrella, your paragraphs are the ribs and the stretchers. Without the paragraphs, your
essay is just a tube in the air, and that won’t do anybody much good. But with ribs
and stretchers, you’ve got length, depth, coverage, and you’re nice and dry.
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Much like an essay, a paragraph should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
These are the bare bones of a paragraph; these are its ribs.
Your paragraph should start with a topic sentence. Like a thesis statement, your topic
sentence tells the reader what to expect. If you had to sum up your essay’s content in
a single sentence, that sentence would be your thesis statement. If you had to sum up
a paragraph’s content in a single sentence, that sentence would be the paragraph’s
topic sentence. Your paragraph, and therefore your topic sentence, might be informative, it might be argumentative, or it might explain a counter argument. Whatever the
case may be, a reader should be able to read your topic sentence and know what the
whole paragraph will be about. If, after you’ve written your paragraph, you go back
and read your topic sentence and you find that your topic sentence doesn’t accurately
sum up your paragraph, you have two choices: (1) revise your topic sentence so that it
more accurately captures the content of your paragraph, or (2) revise your paragraph
so it more accurately reflects your topic sentence. Either choice is fine. It’s up to you
as an author to decide which choice is the right one for your essay. Now that we’ve
discussed how to begin your paragraph (with a topic sentence), let’s move on to the
middle.
The middle of your paragraph
contains the evidence you provide to support your topic sentence. You can read more about
evidence in “Defining Evidence,”
but for the our purposes, let’s
just say that evidence is what
authors use to give credibility,
or ethos, to their claims. When
making a claim, it always helps
to be able to point to somebody
else and say, “Look! She’s an expert in her field and she agrees
with me.” This kind of evidence
lends credibility (ethos) to your
claim, it adds depth to your
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paragraph, and it strengthens your overall umbrella. I mean, essay. So your paragraph now has a beginning and a middle, but it still needs an end.
I like to use the end of a paragraph to transition my reader smoothly into the next
paragraph. Typically I do two things when I end my paragraphs: (1) I look backwards
and (2) I look forwards. By that I mean, I remind my reader what I’ve been discussing
in this paragraph and why it’s important, or it how connects to my thesis statement.
That’s me “looking backward” at the paragraph I’ve just finished. Then I “look forward,”
and hint to my reader what’s coming next. This kind of transition helps ease your
reader through your essay as you shift from one idea to another. It helps them keep
up with your train of thought.
Let’s take a look at the paragraph above on topic sentences and review the bare
bones necessary to make an effective paragraph. First, we need a topic sentence that
tells us what the paragraph is going to be about. In this particular paragraph, the
topic sentence is, “Your paragraph should start with a topic sentence.” Can a reader
read this sentence and get a sense for what the whole paragraph will be about? Yes.
This topic sentence indicates to me that the subsequent paragraph will be discussing the importance of topic sentences and their relationship to the paragraphs they
precede. Second, the middle of the paragraph should provide evidence to support the
topic sentence. Does the paragraph above do this? Yes. In this particular case, there is
a discussion of the reasons that topic sentences are important, and some suggestions
for writers who find that their topic sentences don’t accurately reflect the content of
their paragraphs. The middle of the paragraph above develops the notion that paragraphs should begin with topic sentences; rather than just stating that it is important, this section of the paragraph discusses why it is important to begin paragraphs
with topic sentences. And third, does the end of the paragraph transition the reader
smoothly into the next paragraph? Yes. First it “looks back” and reviews what has just
been covered (“Now that we’ve discussed how to begin your paragraph”) and then it
hints at what will be addressed in the next paragraph (“let’s move on to the middle”).
When constructing your own paragraphs, remember that like any good essay, a paragraph should also have a beginning, a middle, and an end. But as we’ve discussed
above, these are just the bare bones of an essay. Just like effective umbrellas are not
made solely of ribs, effective paragraphs are not made solely of these bare bones.
Something is still missing.
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Let’s return to my umbrella metaphor briefly. If the beginning, middle, and end of a
paragraph are its ribs, what are the stretchers? Remember, the stretchers are the nylon covers that actually keep us dry. Stretchers are the things that give our umbrellas
fun colors or patterns like neon green, or black and white polka dots, or, as I have on
my umbrella, purple zebra stripes. The stretcher is the flair, the style, the thing that
makes an umbrella an umbrella and, not only that, but also makes it your umbrella.
In your paragraph, the stretcher is your voice, your style, your tone, and your word
choice. It’s made up of the little things you do to make your essay your own, to keep
your reader interested, to make your writing yours. This part is just as important in
constructing a successful paragraph as having an accurate topic sentence, effective
evidence, or a smooth transition at the end.
There is a tropical storm raging outside my window right now. The wind is blowing,
the rain is coming down hard, the lightning is bright and the thunder is loud. If I were
to go outside, I wouldn’t do it without my trusty purple zebra striped umbrella. And if
a single part of that umbrella was weak, I could probably still stay partially dry, but I
might have water dripping on my shoulder, or part of my umbrella might be flapping
in the wind. I’d much rather have all the pieces there and doing their jobs just like
they’re supposed to. The same goes for your essay. A thesis statement will help get
you started, but it’s not a full essay. You need paragraphs to support those ideas, to
help your reader move through your essay successfully. It’s easy to do, too; just make
sure you have all the pieces there, and then add some purple zebra stripes. I mean,
style.
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Constructing Paragraphs: The Nuts and Bolts
These articles originally appeared at WritingCommons.org, a peer-reviewed open education resource for writers.
Understand how to organize information in paragraphs so readers can
scan your work and better follow your reasoning.
Unlike punctuation, which can be subjected to specific rules, no ironclad guidelines
exist for shaping paragraphs. If you presented a text without paragraphs to a dozen writing instructors and asked them to break the document into logical sections,
chances are that you would receive different opinions about the best places to break
the paragraph. In part, where paragraphs should be placed is a stylistic choice. Some
writers prefer longer paragraphs that compare and contrast several related ideas,
whereas others opt for a more linear structure, delineating each subject on a onepoint-per-paragraph basis. Newspaper articles or documents published on the Internet tend to have short paragraphs, even one-sentence paragraphs.
If your readers have suggested that you take a hard look at how you organize your
ideas, or if you are unsure about when you should begin a paragraph or how you
should organize final drafts, then you can benefit by reviewing paragraph structure.
The following guidelines can give you some insights about alternative ways to shape
paragraphs.
Note: When you are drafting, you need to trust your intuition about where to place paragraphs; you don’t want to interrupt the flow of your thoughts as you write to check on
whether you are placing them in logical order. Such self-criticism could interfere with creativity or the generation of ideas. Before you submit a document for a grade, however, you
should examine the structure of your paragraphs.
Paragraphs often follow a deductive organization.
Your goals for the opening sentences of your paragraphs are similar to your goals for
writing an introduction to a document. In the beginning of a paragraph, clarify the
purpose. Most paragraphs in academic and technical discourse move deductively-that is, the first or second sentence presents the topic or theme of the paragraph
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and the subsequent sentences illustrate and explicate this theme. Notice, in particular, how Chris Goodrich cues readers to the purpose of his paragraph (and article) in
the first sentence of his essay “Crossover Dreams”:
Norman Cantor, New York University history professor and author, most recently, of Inventing the Middle Ages, created a stir this spring when he wrote a letter to the newsletter of
the American Historical Association declaring that “no historian who can write English prose
should publish more than two books with a university press--one for tenure, and one for
full professor. After that (or preferably long before) work only in the trade market.” Cantor
urged his fellow scholars to seek literary agents to represent any work with crossover potential. And he didn’t stop there: As if to be sure of offending the entire academic community,
Cantor added, “If you are already a full professor, your agent should be much more important to you than the department chair or the dean.”
Paragraphs use inductive structure for dramatic conclusions or varied
style.
While you generally want to move from the known to the new, from the thesis to its illustration or restriction, you sometimes want to violate this pattern. Educated readers
in particular can be bored by texts that always present information in the same way.
For example, notice how Valerie Steele’s anecdotal tone and dialogue in the opening
sentences of her essay on fashion in academia prepare the reader for her thesis:
Once, when I was a graduate student at Yale, a history professor asked me about my dissertation. “I’m writing about fashion,” I said.
That’s interesting. Italian or German?”
It took me a couple of minutes, as thoughts of Armani flashed through my mind, but finally I
realized what he meant. “Not fascism,” I said. “Fashion. As in Paris.”
“Oh.” There was a long silence, and then, without another word, he turned and walked away.
Fashion still has the power to reduce many academics to embarrassed or indignant silence.
Some of those to whom I spoke while preparing this article requested anonymity or even
refused to address the subject. (“The F-Word.” Lingua Franca April 1991: 17–18.)
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Paragraphs are unified by a single purpose or theme.
Regardless of whether a paragraph is deductively or inductively structured, readers
can generally follow the logic of a discussion better when a paragraph is unified by a
single purpose. Paragraphs that lack a central idea and that wander from subject to
subject are apt to confuse readers, making them wonder what they should pay attention to and why.
To ensure that each paragraph is unified by a single idea, Francis Christensen, in
Notes Toward a New Rhetoric (NY: Harper & Row, 1967), has suggested that we number
sentences according to their level of generality. According to Christensen, we would
assign a 1 to the most general sentence and then a 2 to the second most general sentence, and so on. Christensen considers the following paragraph, which he excerpted
from Jacob Bronowski’s The Common Sense of Science, to be an example of a subordinate pattern because the sentences become increasingly more specific as the reader
progresses through the paragraph:
1. The process of learning is essential to our lives.
2. All higher animals seek it deliberately.
3. They are inquisitive and they experiment.
4. An experiment is a sort of harmless trial run of some action which we shall
have to make in the real world; and this, whether it is made in the laboratory by
scientists or by fox-cubs outside their earth.
5. The scientist experiments and the cub plays; both are learning to correct their
errors of judgment in a setting in which errors are not fatal.
6. Perhaps this is what gives them both their air of happiness and freedom in
these activities.
Christensen is quick to point out that not all paragraphs have a subordinate structure.
The following one, which he took from Bergen Evans’s Comfortable Words, is an example of what Christensen considers a coordinate sequence:
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1. He [the native speaker] may, of course, speak a form of English that marks him
as coming from a rural or an unread group.
2. But if he doesn’t mind being so marked, there’s no reason why he should
change.
3. Samuel Johnson kept a Staffordshire burr in his speech all his life.
4. In Burns’ mouth the despised lowland Scots dialect served just as well as the
“correct” English spoken by ten million of his southern contemporaries.
5. Lincoln’s vocabulary and his way of pronouncing certain words were sneered at
by many better educated people at the time, but he seemed to be able to use the
English language as effectively as his critics.
Paragraphs must logically relate to the previous paragraphs.
Readers also expect paragraphs to relate to each other as well as to the overall purpose of a text. Establishing transitional sentences for paragraphs can be one of the
most difficult challenges you face as a writer because you need to guide the reader
with a light hand. When you are too blatant about your transitions, your readers may
feel patronized.
To highlight the connections between your ideas, you can provide transitional sentences at the end of each paragraph that look forward to the substance of the next
paragraph. Or, you can place the transition at the beginning of a paragraph looking
backward, as Valerie Steele does in the following example:
Can a style of dress hurt one’s professional career? True to form, most academics deny that
it makes any difference whatsoever. But a few stories may indicate otherwise: When a gay
male professor was denied tenure at an Ivy League university, some people felt that he was
punished, in part, for his dress. It was “not that he wore multiple earrings” or anything like
that, but he did wear “beautiful, expensive, colorful clothes that stood out” on campus. At
the design department on one of the campuses of the University of California system, a job
applicant appeared for her interview wearing a navy blue suit. The style was perfect for most
departments, of course, but in this case she was told--to her face--that she “didn’t fit in, she
didn’t look arty enough.”
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Another bit of evidence that suggests dress is of career significance for academics is the fact
that some universities (such as Harvard) now offer graduate students counseling on how
to outfit themselves for job interviews. The tone apparently is patronizing (“You will need to
think about an interview suit and a white blouse”), but the advice is perceived as necessary.
The phrase “another bit of evidence” beginning the second paragraph refers back to
the topic sentence that began the first paragraph, “Can a style of dress hurt one’s professional career?”
When evaluating your transitions from paragraph to paragraph, question whether the
transitions appear too obtrusive, thereby undercutting your credibility. At best, when
transitions are unnecessary, readers perceive explicit transitional sentences to be
wordy; at worst, they perceive such sentences as insulting. (After all, they imply that
the readers are too inept to follow the discussion.)
Vary the length of paragraphs to reflect the complexity and importance of the ideas
expressed in them. Different ideas, arguments, and chronologies warrant their own
paragraph lengths, so the form of your text should emerge in response to your
thoughts. To emphasize a transition in your argument or to highlight an important
point, you may want to place critical information in a one- or two-sentence paragraph.
Paragraphs are influenced by the media of writing.
As much as any of the above guidelines, you should consider the media and genre
where your text will appear. For as much as paragraphs are shaped by the ideas being expressed, they are also influenced by the genre of the discourse.
For instance, newspapers and magazines produced for high-school educated readers tend to require much shorter paragraphs than those published in academic journals. When evaluating how you have structured your ideas, however, pay attention to
whether you have varied the length of your paragraphs. Long chunks of text without
paragraph breaks tend to make ideas seem complicated, perhaps even inaccessible
to less educated audiences. In turn, short paragraphs can create a list-like style, which
intrudes on clarity and persuasive appeal. Because long paragraphs tend to make a
document more complicated than short paragraphs, you should question how patient and educated your readers are.
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Paragraphs flow when information is logical.
Paragraphs provide a visual representation of your ideas. When revising your work,
evaluate the logic behind how you have organized the paragraphs.
Question whether your presentation would appear more logical and persuasive if
you rearranged the sequence of the paragraphs. Next, question the structure of each
paragraph to see if sentences need to be reordered. Determine whether you are organizing information deductively or according to chronology or according to some
sense of what is most and least important. Ask yourself these five questions:
1. How is each paragraph organized? Do I place my general statement or topic
sentence near the beginning or the end of each paragraph? Do I need any
transitional paragraphs or transitional sentences?
2. As I move from one idea to another, will my reader understand how
subsequent paragraphs relate to my main idea as well as to previous paragraphs?
Should any paragraphs be shifted in their order in the text? Should a later
paragraph be combined with the introductory paragraph?
3. Should the existing paragraphs be cut into smaller segments or merged into
longer ones? If I have a concluding paragraph, do I really need it?
4. Will readers understand the logical connections between paragraphs? Do any
sentences need to be added to clarify the logical relationship between ideas? Have
I provided the necessary forecasting and summarizing sentences that readers will
need to understand how the different ideas relate to each other?
5. Have I been too blatant about transitions? Are all of the transitional sentences
and paragraphs really necessary or can the reader follow my thoughts without
them?
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How to Write an Engaging Introduction
By Jennifer Yirinec
In what ways does your opening engage your reader?
Writers who produce engaging openings keep their audience in mind from the very
first sentence. They consider the tone, pace, delivery of information, and strategies
for getting the reader’s attention. Many teachers generally recommend that students
write their introductions last, because oftentimes introductions are the hardest paragraphs to write. They’re difficult to write first because you have to consider what the
reader needs to know about your topic before getting to the thesis. So, I, like other
instructors, suggest writing them last—even after the conclusion—though it’s always a
good idea to write with a working thesis in mind. Here are some general principles to
consider when writing an introduction.
Avoid opening with cosmic statements.
Think about the term “cosmic.” What does it mean? “Far out.” Do you want your introductions to be “far out” (in a bad way)? Then avoid beginning your papers with a
cosmic statement—a generalization, an overly broad idea. Publishers say that the first
one or two sentences make or break a submission: if the first two sentences are poorly written or are uninteresting, they won’t keep reading. Consider what your target audience would think if the first two lines were so broad that they really meant nothing
at all. Here is a list of a few phrases that signify cosmic statements and that are often
seen in the emerging level of student writing:
• From the beginning of time . . .
• Ever since the dawn of time . . .
• Since man first walked the earth . . .
• There are two sides to every issue.
• There are many controversial issues over which people disagree.
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That’s just a short list; there are many more cosmic phrases. But you can see from
these examples that they preface statements that are so broad that they will either
lead into an incorrect or bland statement or will disconnect the reader from the real
point that you want to make. Let’s take the first cosmic phrase from this list and finish
it:
From the beginning of time, people have been tattooing each other.
Though the writer might think this is a good broad statement to introduce a paper on
tattooing practices, it’s too broad—not to mention historically incorrect. How might
we revise this cosmic statement so that it’s more engaging?
Tattooing practices have widely varied over the past few centuries.
Though still pretty broad, this statement is at least accurate. Consider, though, how
we might draw the reader in even more:
Imagine you’re in a tattoo parlor, and you’re about to get a tattoo for the first time. You look
over and see the tattoo artist coming at you with a piece of glass. How would you feel? Well,
tattooing practices have only become standardized in the last two centuries.
By incorporating narrative into the introduction, the writer can engage the reader and
entice him or her to continue reading. Note that narrative doesn’t suit all genres of
writing, though. (See “Employing Narrative in an Essay” for more information.) More
formal assignments may ask you to construct an introduction without figurative language or narrative. Think about the requirements of your assignment and your rhetorical situation when crafting your introduction.
Avoid opening with a dictionary definition.
Just like it’s important to avoid using cosmic statements in your introductions, it’s also
important to avoid starting your papers with a dictionary definition. If your paper topic is abortion, for instance, your reader doesn’t need to know what Merriam Webster
considers abortion to be; he or she needs to know what broader idea will lead him or
her to your thesis. So don’t look to dictionary.com for a snazzy opener; you won’t find
one there.
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Wade your reader in to your paper.
Before writing the first line of your introduction, it’s a good idea to write out the thesis. You will need to build up to that thesis statement: the purpose of the introduction
paragraph is to give the reader the information he or she needs to understand the
thesis statement.
Why is it important to gradually move your reader through your introduction toward
your thesis? Let’s say that you’re showing your friend this great new lake you’ve discovered. When you reach the edge, do you push your friend in or do you wade into
the lake with him? Perhaps you’d push your friend in, but you don’t want to shove
your reader into your paper. You want to wade him or her into your paper, gradually
taking him or her to the thesis statement.
If you write your introduction paragraph last, you will be familiar with your argument
and its direction. You can then use this knowledge to structure your introduction
paragraph, asking yourself questions like, “What details do I include in my body paragraphs (so that I avoid bringing my reader in to the paper too soon)?” and “What background information, either about the greater conversation surrounding this topic or
about the topic’s historical context, might my reader need to appreciate my thesis?”
Let’s take a look at an example of an introduction paragraph that shoves the reader
into the paper:
Tattooing practices have varied widely over the past few centuries. Indeed, tattooing has
become much safer. Whereas in the nineteenth century tattooing was performed with sharp
instruments like glass in countries such as Africa, in the twenty-first century tattooing is performed with sanitary needles.
This introduction can’t really stand on its own as a paragraph, anyway; it’s far too
short. How might we add material to this paragraph (revise it) so that it gradually
brings the reader to the thesis?
Imagine you’re in a tattoo parlor, and you’re about to get a tattoo for the first time. You look
over and see the tattoo artist coming at you with a piece of glass. How would you feel? Well,
tattooing practices have only become standardized in the last two centuries. In fact, in the
nineteenth century, some tattoo artists used sharp instruments like shards of glass to mark
the skin. Yet with the public focus in the modern world on health and healthful practices, tat-
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tooing practices have evolved accordingly. Whereas in the nineteenth century tattooing was
performed in unsanitary, dangerous ways, in the twenty-first century tattooing is performed
with sanitary needles, demonstrating a shift in ideas regarding health in public opinion.
Whereas the first introduction galloped into the thesis statement, this paragraph
wades the reader into the paper. Guiding the reader toward your thesis statement
will also help him or her better understand the context for your particular topic,
thereby giving him or her a greater stake in your writing.
Ultimately, then, I suggest you practice writing your introduction last. If it doesn’t work
for you, then switch back to writing it first. But writing it last may help you avoid writing two introduction paragraphs or foregrounding your argument too much. Overall,
consider the progression of ideas in your introduction: you should move from global
to local, from the general (but not over-generalized) to the specific (your thesis statement).
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How to Write a Compelling Conclusion
By Jennifer Yirinec
In what manner have you reiterated your ideas?
What have you left your reader to think about at the end of your paper?
How does your paper answer the “So what?” question?
As the last part of the paper, conclusions often get the short shrift. We instructors
know (not that we condone it)—many students devote a lot less attention to the writing of the conclusion. Some students might even finish their conclusion thirty minutes
before they have to turn in their papers. But even if you’re practicing desperation
writing, don’t neglect your conclusion; it’s a very integral part of your paper. Think
about it: Why would you spend so much time writing your introductory material and
your body paragraphs and then kill the paper by leaving your reader with a dud for
a conclusion? Rather than simply trailing off at the end, it’s important to learn to construct a compelling conclusion—one that both reiterates your ideas and leaves your
reader with something to think about.
The Reiteration
In the first part of the conclusion, you should spend a brief amount of time summarizing what you’ve covered in your paper. This reiteration should not merely be a restatement of your thesis or a collection of your topic sentences but should be a condensed version of your argument, topic, and/or purpose.
Let’s take a look at an example reiteration from a paper about offshore drilling:
Ideally, a ban on all offshore drilling is the answer to the devastating and culminating environmental concerns that result when oil spills occur. Given the catastrophic history of three
major oil spills, the environmental and economic consequences of offshore drilling should
now be obvious.
Now, let’s return to the thesis statement in this paper so we can see if it differs from
the conclusion:
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As a nation, we should reevaluate all forms of offshore drilling, but deep water offshore oil
drilling, specifically, should be banned until the technology to stop and clean up oil spills
catches up with our drilling technology. Though some may argue that offshore drilling provides economic advantages and would lessen our dependence on foreign oil, the environmental and economic consequences of an oil spill are so drastic that they far outweigh the
advantages.
Since the author has already discussed the environmental and economic concerns associated with oil drilling, there’s no need to be passive about the assertion; the author
thus moves from presenting oil spills as a problem to making a statement that a ban
on offshore drilling is the answer to this problem. Moreover, the author provides an
overview of the paper in the second sentence of the conclusion, recapping the main
points and reminding the reader that he or she should now be willing to acknowledge
his or her position as viable. Though you may not always want to take this aggressive
of an approach (i.e., saying something should be obvious to the reader), the key is to
summarize your main ideas without “plagiarizing” yourself (repeating yourself word
for word). Indeed, you may take the approach of rather saying, “The reader can now,
given the catastrophic history of three major oil spills, see the environmental and
economic consequences of oil drilling.” For more information about summary, please
refer to the textbook piece on incorporating sourced material into your essays.
As you can thus see, reiteration is not restatement. Summarize your paper in one to
two sentences (or even three or four, depending on the length of the paper), and then
move on to answering the “So what?” question.
Leaving Your Reader with Something to Think About: Answering the “So
what?” Question
The bulk of your conclusion should answer the “So what?” question. Have you ever
had an instructor write “So what?” at the end of your paper? You might have been offended, but the instructor was not saying that he or she did not care about your paper; rather, he or she was pointing to the fact that your paper leaves the reader with
nothing new to think about. You cannot possibly spend an entire paragraph summarizing your paper topic, nor does your reader want to see an entire paragraph of summary, so you should craft something juicy—some new tidbit that serves as an extension of your original ideas.
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There are a variety of ways that you can answer the “So what?” question. The following are just a few of the available conclusion strategies:
The Call to Action
The call to action can be used at the end of a variety of papers, but it works best for
persuasive papers, such as social action papers and Rogerian argument essays (essays that begin with a problem and move toward a solution, which serves as the author’s thesis). Any time your purpose in writing an essay is to change your reader’s
mind or you want to get your reader to do something, the call to action is the way to
go. Basically, the call to action asks your reader, after having progressed through a
brilliant and coherent argument, to do something or believe a certain way. Following
the reiteration at which we previously looked, here comes a call to action:
We have advanced technology that allows deepwater offshore drilling, but we lack the advanced technology that would manage these spills effectively, As such, until cleanup and
prevention technology are available we should, as gatekeepers of our coastal shores and defenders of marine wildlife, ban offshore drilling—or, at the very least, demand a moratorium
on all offshore oil drilling.
This call to action requests that the reader—remember, you need to identify your audience/reader before you begin writing—consider a ban on offshore drilling. Whether
the author wants the reader to actually enact the ban or just to come to his or her
side of the fence, he or she is asking the reader to do or believe something new based
upon the information he or she just received.
The Contextualization
The contextualization places the author’s local argument, topic, or purpose in a
more global context so that the reader can see the larger purpose for the piece—or
where the piece fits into the larger conversation. Whereas writers do research for papers so that they enter into specific conversations, they provide their readers with a
contextualization in their conclusions so that they acknowledge the broader dialogue
that contains that local conversation. For instance, if we were to return to the paper
on offshore drilling, rather than proposing a ban on offshore drilling (a call to action),
we might provide the reader with a contextualization:
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We have advanced technology that allows deepwater offshore drilling, but we lack the advanced technology that would manage these spills effectively. Thus, one can see the need to
place environmental concerns at the forefront of the political arena. Many politicians have
already done so, including So-and-so and So-and-so.
Rather than asking the reader to do or believe something, this conclusion answers the
“So what?” question by showing the reader why this specific conversation about offshore drilling matters in the larger conversation about politics and environmentalism.
The Twist
The twist leaves the reader with a contrasting idea to consider. For instance, if I were
to write a paper that argued that the media was responsible for the poor body image
of adolescent females, I might, in the last few lines of the conclusion, give the reader a
twist:
While the media is certainly responsible for the majority of American girls’ body image issues, parents sometimes affect the way girls perceive themselves more than the media
does.
While this contrasting idea does not negate the writer’s original argument (why would
you want to do that?), it does present an alternative contrasting idea to weigh against
the original argument. The twist is kind of like a cliffhanger, as it’s sure to leave the
reader saying, “Hmm . . .”
The Suggestion of Possibilities for Future Research
This approach to answering the “So what?” question is best for projects that you want
to turn into a larger, ongoing project—or, if you want to suggest possibilities for future research for someone else (your reader) who might be interested in that topic.
This approach involves pinpointing various directions which your research may take
if someone were to extend the ideas included in your paper. Remember, research is
a conversation, so it’s important to consider how your piece fits into this conversation
and how others might use it in their own conversations. For example, if we were to
suggest possibilities for future research based on this recurring example of the paper
on offshore drilling, the conclusion might end with something like this:
I have just explored the economic and environmental repercussions of offshore drilling
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based on the examples we have of three major oil spills over the past thirty years. Future
research might uncover more economic and environmental consequences of offshore drilling, as such consequences will become clearer as the effects of the BP oil spill become more
pronounced.
Suggesting opportunities for future research involve the reader in the paper, just like
the call to action does. Who knows, the reader may be inspired by your brilliant ideas
and may want to use your piece as a jumping-off point!
Whether you use a call to action, a twist, a contextualization, or whether you suggest
future possibilities for research, it’s important to answer the “So what?” question so that
your reader stays interested in your topic until the very end of the paper. And, perhaps more importantly, leaving your reader with something juicy to consider makes it
more likely that the reader will remember your piece of writing. Why write just to end
your paper with a dud? Give your conclusion some love: reiterate and then answer
the “So what?” question.
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Citing Your Sources
By Stephanie Phillips
Before you begin learning how to properly integrate sources into an essay, it would
be helpful to consider a sample topic to work with. Let’s imagine that you are writing
an essay on how overfishing has been depleting and altering the ocean’s ecosystems.
The first step in writing this paper would be to research and accumulate evidence
about this topic. Since you are probably not an expert on marine life or how marine
ecosystems work, consulting peer-reviewed sources will help to support your claim
about overfishing. For the sake of your overfishing essay it would be helpful to be
able to talk about what kinds of fish are becoming extinct due to overfishing or what
statistics show about which oceans are suffering the most. From this type of evidence
you would then be able to make your initial claim about overfishing more detailed
because you will be able to support that claim with facts from expert sources.
While you may be able to find interesting evidence that proves your initial claim that
overfishing is both depleting and altering marine ecosystems, you want to make sure
that your own voice and ideas are not lost within the paper. It is possible in research
based essays to rely too heavily on outside sources. This can be avoided by varying
the ways in which you cite your sources: for example, you can summarize or paraphrase information from the evidence and use fewer direct quotations. Furthermore,
when you do quote a source directly, you should follow up the quote with analysis
that helps to show how that evidence further supports your argument.
Direct Quotations
The first and most recognizable way to integrate research into an essay is through a
direct quotation from your research. Let’s imagine that while researching the topic of
overfishing you come across an article that says, “a population won’t remain robust if
most of its members are caught before they get a chance to reproduce.” This quote
would help to further your argument because it shows that the human population
is catching too many fish too quickly and these populations are not being given a
chance to repopulate. The first thing we will want to do with a quote (as you can see
above) is to put it in quotations marks. The quote will also need to be integrated into
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the sentence. This means that we need to place an attributive tag (or an introduction)
before the quotation. For example:
Janet Raloff, author of the article “Empty Nets,” claims, “a population won’t remain robust if
most of its members are caught before they get a chance to reproduce” (361).
This quote is now on its way to being properly integrated into your essay. The introduction of the author and the article that the quote came from (shown in italics) is
called an attributive tag. By using an attributive tag you have introduced the quote
and not just blindly inserted it into your paper. Also, note that the quote is within quotation marks and followed by a proper MLA citation. A citation should consist, in most
cases, of the author’s last name and the page number that the quote came from –
(Raloff 11). In the case of the Raloff quote, however, the author was introduced within
the attributive tag and so I did not need to repeat the author’s name within the end
citation. Notice that the period at the end of the sentence comes after the citation
and not between the quote and the citation.
Now that you have introduced Janet Raloff’s article into your essay you no longer have
to refer to her by her full name or continue to name the article, “Empty Nets,” that you
are citing from. It is now acceptable to simply say, for example, “Raloff also indicates,”
or, “Raloff states.” Your readers will know that you are still using the same Raloff article, unless told otherwise, and you have already introduced Raloff by her full name
so you do not need to reintroduce her each time you cite from her article. It would
not be acceptable, however, to refer to Raloff by her first name within your paper. Authors should be referred to only by their full names or their last names.
It is also possible to change information within the quotation if, for instance, you need
to change the tense being used in the quotation to make it agree with your sentence
or you need to make the subject plural. While it is acceptable to change the author’s
original wording, any changes you make must be indicated with brackets – [ ]. For example:
If fishing industries continue to overfish, the multiple marine life “population[s] won’t remain
robust if most of its members are caught before they get a chance to reproduce” (Raloff
361).
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To make the Raloff quote fit within my sentence, I needed to make “population” plural. While Raloff originally said “population,” I was able to make the quote plural by
adding the “s” in brackets. The brackets show which part of the quote I changed so
that readers will be able to distinguish between our changes and the original quote.
Keep in mind, however, that altering too many aspects of a quote can indicate that
you may need to rephrase your introductory sentence or that the quotation needs to
be paraphrased. If you begin altering the entirety of the quotation, the quotation will
no longer be seen as the original author’s direct words. Direct quotations are good for
quoting material that you think the direct source stated in such a precise way that a
summary would not do that quote justice.
It is also important to follow a quotation with analysis. After the Raloff quote, for example, you might want to continue talking about how Raloff’s claim contributes to
your argument about overfishing. Inserting a quotation that is not followed by analysis is referred to as a dropped quotation. A dropped quotation can oftentimes be
seen as simply “filler” in your essay. This means that your quotation was inserted only
to add length to the paper that replaces your own voice. Adding an interpretation and
analysis of the quotation you have inserted indicates to your reader that you have
chosen the quotation with a clear purpose and that you understand the quotation.
This is your essay so it is beneficial to ensure that the reader can clearly distinguish
your voice. You should not rely solely on the voice of the authors you are quoting to
make your argument for you.
Blocked Quotes
Blocked quotations refer to the insertion of long direct quotes into your paper. Different writing styles use different systems for determining when a blocked quotation
should occur. MLA format, for example, asks that when you are using a quote within
your paper that is five lines long, or more, you need to format that quote as a blocked
quote. This method of quote integration is best used for lengthier papers where you
will have more room to develop your ideas while still using large quotes. In small
papers, however, a blocked quote can take up too much room, crowding out your
own voice. Blocked quotes should not be used to add length to your paper and, like
dropped quotations, are oftentimes seen as adding “filler” to your paper.
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A blocked quotation in MLA style may look something like this:
Be sure to indicate a blocked quotation with the use of a colon. You will then indent the
blocked quote to the right of your paper and single space the entire quote. Notice that a
blocked quote does not need quotation marks around it and that when you give the MLA
citation you will put a period before the citation but not after. When you finish the blocked
quote you can return to your own text to analyze the quotation and its role within your essay. (Phillips 2)
Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Avoiding Plagiarism
While direct quotations rely on the exact wording used by an outside source, paraphrasing and summarizing are other methods of integrating borrowed ideas into
your paper. Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) in your own words and is
typically shorter than the original text you are borrowing from. In many cases, a summary involves a brief overview of the entirety of an overall work. For example, you can
provide a brief summary of a book or article, leaving out specific details, and focusing
only on the broad, main ideas and concepts necessary for your argument. Similarly,
paraphrasing a quotation allows you to highlight main ideas from a quote without inserting the entire quotation into your paper. Paraphrasing and summarizing are great
techniques that allow you to borrow ideas or information from a source in your own
words while still citing that source.
For example, a direct quotation from the Janet Raloff’s article, “Empty Nets,” states:
“Species that have unusually long maturation periods have suffered disproportionately.
Bluefin tuna, for example, take from 5 to 8 years before they reproduce, and various rockfish take from 13 to 28 years. Many sharks take decades to reach sexual maturity. And although sharks are captured for both their meat and fins these animals have the dubious
distinction of being so troublesome to fishing operations that fleets harvesting other species
also kill them. Clearly, a population won’t remain robust if most of its members are caught
before they get a chance to reproduce.” (Raloff 361)
The above quotation is very long and would take up a large amount of space in your
essay. For this reason, it would be better to paraphrase the information. For example,
you might write:
Janet Raloff claims that marine species cannot remain intact if they are being caught before
they have a chance to reproduce. Many species, such as Bluefin Tune and Sharks, take a
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long time to reach sexual maturity and are suffering because they are caught before they
can repopulate (Raloff 361).
When I paraphrased the information from the Raloff quote, I focused on the main
idea that I wanted my reader to take away from the Raloff section and I put the information in my own words. My paraphrased section highlights the main idea I want my
reader to focus on while eliminating some of the unnecessary details from the direct
quotation. Further, by stating that Janet Raloff claims, I am indicating that, though I am
not quoting, the information is being borrowed from another source. If I neglect to
give credit to Raloff here, I would be plagiarizing.
Plagiarism is a serious offense that occurs most often in papers when credit is not
properly given to an outside source. Plagiarism can occur when:
• A citation is not given for a quotation,
• Credit is taken for an idea that came from another source, or
• Summarized information is not properly cited.
For these reasons, it is always important to make sure that you are citing both quoted
and paraphrased materials properly.
While you may not be an expert on overfishing, you are able to write a convincing and
thorough essay in support of diminishing the harmful effects of overfishing because
you have access to great essays and books by experts. Marine biologists and fishing
industries have published information about the perceived effects of overfishing on
marine ecosystems and would both provide great source material (statistics, data,
explanations, first-hand accounts, etc.) that would be helpful in writing an essay about
overfishing. Being able to cite to sources within your paper shows that you have done
your research on what other people are saying about your topic and you are now
ready to enter into the discussion about the topic yourself.
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Works Cited
Raloff, Janet. “Empty Nets: Fisheries May Be Crippling Themselves by Targeting the Big
Ones.” Science News: Magazine of the Society For Science and the Public 167 (2005):
360-362. Web.
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Document Design
By Laura Ewing
Why We Must Format
Margins and headers and quotation marks—oh my!
The list of issues to consider when formatting an academic essay can be daunting:
“How wide should the margins be? Which header goes on which page? What should
I underline, italicize, or center?” It often seems easier to just ignore formatting rules,
worry about content, and hope for the best—but there are reasons that essays need
to be formatted. For this course, you will follow the guidelines established by the
Modern Language Association (MLA). The discipline of English, in general, requires the
use of MLA style for formatting essays and documenting sources. But before we consider MLA style, let’s discuss how properly formatting an essay improves your credibility as a writer and makes it easier for your reader to follow your ideas.
Imagine that a job candidate walks into an interview at a bank wearing dirty jeans and
an old tee shirt. He hasn’t brushed his hair or teeth, and he hasn’t showered in days.
He’s probably not so great to look at, and people likely won’t take him very seriously,
right? Now, imagine that you walk into an interview for that same job in a pressed
suit—with neatly combed hair and fresh breath. You’re much more likely to be taken
seriously and considered for the job.
Formatting your essay is a lot like polishing your appearance for a job interview. The
formatting of an essay, like the appearance of a job candidate in an interview, is likely
the first thing your readers will notice—and first impressions count. In a properly formatted paper, page numbers and citations, for example, are easy to find. Also, use of
proper spacing and a readable font like Times New Roman allows readers to concentrate on the content that you worked so hard to develop.
If your essay is printed in the standard 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch
margins, double-spaced lines, and indented paragraphs, your readers will have an
easier time focusing on your argument. Providing your name, your instructor’s name,
your class and section information, and the due date (in this order) in a header on the
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first page of your essay helps the instructor identify necessary assignment specifics.
Including your last name and the page number in the upper right-hand corner of each
page allows readers to easily recognize where they are in terms of your argument.
Why We Must Cite
When formatting your essay, you must consider not only how you physically set up
your paper but also how you acknowledge the sources you use through citations.
MLA citations provide readers with the information necessary to immediately identify
the sources you quote, paraphrase, or summarize in your essay and to seek out those
sources on their own (which would demonstrate your audience is truly interested in
your paper topic—and this is your goal).
Acknowledging source material through MLA citations—both in the text of your essay
and in your works-cited page—helps to ensure you’re not plagiarizing another writer.
Proper citations do not simply serve to identify the source of outside knowledge or
information—they also demonstrate to readers that you’re comfortable with them
checking that you’ve accurately and fairly represented source material. Additionally,
citations enable your readers to find additional information on your topic, beginning
with the sources you uncovered through research. Furthermore, they create a strong
sense of credibility for you as a writer and demonstrate support for your ideas.
To create a works-cited page using MLA style, you need a few key pieces of information from your source. First, look for the title of the work—whether it be an article,
book, poem, song, or television show. Then, check if there is an author listed. In some
cases, the author of the work might not be immediately apparent; you may have to
dig through the material to find his or her name. In some cases, the work might not
have an attributed author at all. Remember though, including sources in your paper
helps to build your own ethos as a writer, and sources with attributed authors are
typically more reliable and credible than sources without attributed authors. So, it is
best to locate and use material with a specific author. In addition to locating the title
and author of the work you wish to cite, you also need to determine what person or
organization published the work: Is your source a newspaper article from the New
York Times or a song produced by Virgin Records? Is your source a Web site published
by a university or a corporation? Additionally, when was your source published? You
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may be reading an article in 2012, but it could have been written in 1999. On a Web
site, the publisher and date of publication are often found when you scroll down to
the bottom of any given page. This information will help readers locate the source if
the need (or desire) arises. Depending on the medium of your source, you may also
need to gather other information in order to craft a proper citation. So, be sure to
review the MLA documentation tab of your handbook and/or consult a reliable online
source such as the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Web site for specific guidelines.
Practice writing at least one citation—do you have all the information you need? Be
sure to format your citation like those in the example. Formatting your essay and citing sources may seem like superficial stages of the writing process, but both are very
important—they help to make your essay credible and easy to read. Just proceed one
step at a time, and the result will be a well-formatted, well-documented, and professional essay. Taking the time to make sure your essay is properly formatted and your
evidence documented will help your readers and will show that you really care about
the quality of your work.
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7: Peer Review
Stop Searching for Errors: How to Read Holistically
210
Writing Helpful Peer Reviews
213
Making the Most of Peer Feedback
218
Making the Most of Instructor Feedback
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Stop Searching for Errors: How to Read Holistically
By Jennifer Yirinec
The majority of students who enter my classroom are obsessed with finding grammatical errors in the works of their peers. How do I know? When doing their peer
reviews, they focus almost exclusively on grammatical and typographical errors (typos)—or “local” issues. The major problem with this approach is that most students
are not grammar experts. In fact, many of the grammatical suggestions I’ve seen
given during peer reviews are incorrect. This is not to say that mentioning a recurring
grammatical error is unhelpful when doing a peer review, but this is to say that your
focus, as a student reviewer, should not be on the grammatical and typographical
errors, as your peers should be able to spot these kinds of errors after a second readthrough. Rather than looking for grammar mishaps, you should pay attention to more
global issues: focus, organization, evidence, and even style (notwithstanding grammar). After all, these are the sections that really count on the rubric, right?
Part of the reason why students spend so much time searching for these surface errors is that grammar issues seem easier to note than more holistic problems in a writer’s essay. Realistically, it’s possible that many readers have not been taught to identify such issues or have not practiced a lot of peer review from this perspective, and so
it takes a bit of training and a concerted effort to learn how to focus on the whole of
a paper. Perhaps, though, many students would like to address global issues in their
peers’ writing but are unsure of how to do so. Here are some tips that may help you,
as a peer reviewer, read a classmate’s work holistically
• Read the draft through once before marking anything. Even if you spot a blatant grammar no-no, keep reading. Resist the urge to circle it!
• While reading through the draft a second time, underline or highlight your
peer’s thesis statement. Then, write one- or two-word annotations next to
the body paragraphs that capture the main point of each. Highlighting the
thesis statement and jotting down these notes will help you to see the progression of the writer’s points (organizationally and focus-wise).
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• When using a peer review worksheet like the ones provided in this textbook, never just give a “yes” or “no” answer. Even if you think that such an answer would be sufficient, it won’t really help your reader. Rather than saying “yes”
to the question, “Do all paragraphs have topic sentences?” praise your peer for
specific topic sentences that you found particularly rhetorically effective. If you say
“no” to this question, point your peer to specific paragraphs that lack topic sentences. You may even choose to suggest potential topic sentences (e.g., “I think
your main point in this paragraph is such-and-such. If this is the case, how about
this for a topic sentence . . . ?”).
• Before commenting on the paper in its entirety (like noting paper organization), address paragraph organization. Taking the paper apart, examining
and providing feedback on each paragraph by itself, will later help you—and your
peer—to consider paper organization.
• When considering stylistic issues, underline and then annotate the paper.
Merely answering the questions on a peer review worksheet will not really help
your peer if he or she does not know the specific lines or sentences you’re referencing.
• Underline instances of passive voice. If a recurring issue, make a note on the
peer review worksheet about your peer’s use of passive voice.
• Underline or highlight, in a different color, sentences that bog you down as a
reader (ones that are wordy, choppy, or unclear). Then refer your peer to this
color on your peer review worksheet.
• When considering evidence-related issues, highlight the author’s claim;
then, underline the entire bit of evidence (including the introduction and
analysis of material, if that material is from an outside source). Then, place
the introduction of the evidence in parentheses, bracket the source material
(e.g., the quote or paraphrase), and circle the analysis of the source material. That way, you will be able to tell whether or not each claim has support and
whether or not that support is effectively integrated into the paper.
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Ultimately, it’s important to be willing to read through your peer’s draft more than
once: once without marking anything, once while only annotating, and each subsequent time for a specific purpose (e.g., to identify paragraph organization, paper organization, use of evidence, use of active voice). Peer reviews are time-consuming—yes!
Instructors may even allot full class periods to them or will cancel a class meeting so
that students can use the online peer review tool. We, as instructors, do this for a
reason: We want you to be able to provide constructive feedback to your peers. And
you care about what your classmates think, right? Give the kind of helpful response
that you would prefer to receive. Trust me, your peers want feedback from you, even
if (and generally, especially if) that feedback takes the form of constructive criticism.
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Writing Helpful Peer Reviews
By L. E. Cagle
Writing helpful peer reviews can be a challenge, especially when you’re still working
to understand and complete an assignment yourself. Nonetheless, simply by virtue of
being a peer writer, you are completely qualified to write a helpful peer review.
You are familiar with the writing assignment, and you have been reading for years.
Having written your own draft of the assignment, you understand some challenges
your peer might have faced while writing. You know what your instructor has said
about the assignment, and you may even have access to the grading rubric your instructor will use. You have lots of experience reacting as a reader and understanding
this specific writing situation, both of which you can use to write a helpful peer review.
Making Peer Reviews Helpful for You and the Writer
There are many reasons to participate in peer review. Broadly speaking, peer reviews
can be helpful for the reviewer completing the review as well as for the writer whose
work is being reviewed. The act of reading someone else’s work, thinking deeply
about it, and commenting on it accomplishes two important goals:
1. it gives the writer useful reader feedback
2. it gives you, the reviewer, the opportunity to think about your own writing in
relation to your peers’ writing
The obvious way in which peer reviews are helpful is that they give writers immediate
reader feedback. The sections below explain how to make that feedback most helpful
for the writer and enable her to improve the paper.
However, it’s also important to think about the second way peer reviews can be helpful. I’ve heard students note with surprise that conducting peer reviews helped them
write their own papers. I’ve even had this experience myself. When I have the chance
to read a peer’s writing and comment on it, I often end up with new ideas for what to
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write about and how to improve my own papers. Any time we read, we have a chance
to learn about writing. This is especially true if we’re reading texts that are similar to
something we ourselves are or will be writing. That’s why it can be so helpful to have
sample papers to read when we’re figuring out how to respond to a new assignment
in a class. Similarly, in the workplace, people often use templates or models to draft
texts that are rhetorically appropriate and effective.
How to Write a Helpful Peer Review
Your instructor has probably given you specific directions for completing your peer
review. Be sure to follow the instructions you received. In addition to these instructions, you can use the following concrete strategies to write helpful peer reviews.
Review the Assignment
Before you begin reviewing a peer’s paper, re-read the assignment describing the
paper’s requirements. Note specific verbs that describe the paper’s purpose, such as
summarize, interpret, assert, and argue. For example, an assignment may instruct you
to “assert an arguable thesis.” When peer reviewing that assignment, you should pay
special attention to the thesis to make sure it’s arguable. If it’s just making a statement of fact, tell your peer that the thesis doesn’t meet the assignment requirements
and explain why not. Note also requirements such as the use of outside sources and
minimum length. For example, if the assignment description says the thesis should
be “supported by research,” your peers should include references to their research. If
your peers don’t, remind them of the assignment requirement in the peer review.
TIP: Using the assignment description, write down an informal checklist of assignment requirements. While completing your peer review, make sure your peer’s paper
meets all the requirements on your checklist.
Think Big
When we’re reading, it’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of individual claims, sentences, and even words. Have you ever finished reading a page and suddenly wondered
what exactly it was that you just read? And how it related to the page before, and
the page before that? Don’t worry; it’s common. But when you’re peer reviewing, you
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should combat this tendency in order to give your peer big picture feedback about his
or her paper.
Here are a few suggestions to help you focus on the big picture:
• Read the entire paper before making comments. This gives you a chance to
consider how effective it is as a whole before attending to specific concerns. For
example, after you read the entire paper, you may realize that the introduction
doesn’t accurately represent what it’s about.
• Write an outline of the paper after reading it. Write a single phrase or sentence summarizing each paragraph’s content and purpose. This gives you a
chance to consider whether the paper has extraneous content or is missing necessary content, and whether the order of the paragraphs is effective. For example,
making an outline may help you realize that several paragraphs unnecessarily
repeat the same information.
• Highlight the thesis and consider how well each paragraph relates to it.
This gives you a chance to consider whether the thesis is appropriate for the paper’s content and whether the paper effectively supports the thesis’s claims. For
example, you may notice that the writer does not explain in one paragraph how
the cited research relates to the thesis.
TIP: Don’t start your peer review by marking up sentence-level issues, like spelling or
a proofreading error, in your peer’s paper. Instead, before you write any comments
to your peer, read their entire paper without commenting and consider how well its
thesis and organization work as a whole.
Give Specific Suggestions
A peer review that simply states what’s effective or not effective in a paper only helps
the writer evaluate their work. To write a truly helpful peer review, you should also
help the writer develop ideas for revision. To do this, be sure to provide specific suggestions for how the writer might fix problem areas or might reuse an effective technique from one spot in the paper somewhere else in the paper. For example, you
may note that the thesis “9/11 was a tragic day for many Americans” isn’t argumen-
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tative (most reasonable readers would agree that this is a statement of fact), but according to the assignment description, it should be. You can add to your comments a
specific suggestion for how to make this thesis argumentative; for example, you might
write,
“The thesis could be more argumentative if you add a because statement to the end of the
thesis, like ‘because the government began using the terrorist attacks to strip us of our civil
liberties.’”
TIP: For every peer review comment you make, try to include specific suggestion for
how your peer might revise the paper in response to that comment.
Respect the Writer
Writing can be a difficult task. Writing assignments can take a lot of time, thought, and
effort, even for experienced writers. Keep this in mind as you complete your peer review. Your peers have likely worked hard on their drafts in order to make them interesting and coherent for you, the reader. In completing a peer review, you can respect
this effort in many ways. To demonstrate your respect, be sure to:
• Use a respectful tone in your comments. Ask yourself what kinds of statements might offend you or make you lose self-confidence if you read them in a review of your work. For example, statements like “This is the kind of writing I did in
high school. We’re in college now.” belittle the writer and show disrespect. Instead,
ensure that all your comments, including criticisms, support the writer’s efforts by
using a respectful tone and providing specific, helpful advice.
• Take your time while completing your reviews. Willingly spending time reading and thinking about your peers’ writing demonstrates respect for the time they
put in. Hastily completed peer reviews end up being obviously brief and shallow.
They suggest that you do not respect your peers’ efforts enough to spend time
with their writing. Be respectful by budgeting the time you need for peer reviews
to make them well thought-out and specific.
TIP: Take the time to complete thoughtful peer reviews and be sure that your critiques are helpful, not hurtful.
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If Your Instructor Provides a Rubric: Use Rubric Language
In addition to using the rubric to consider how the instructor might critique the paper, you can use the language from the rubric in your own critiques. For example,
you may notice that you’re having trouble following your peer’s paper because it’s
not clear why the writer moves from one paragraph to the next. Rather than just saying that the paragraphs seem jumbled, you can borrow language from the rubric and
note specifically that the paragraphs have “absent, inconsistent, or non-relevant topic
sentences” and that there are “few transitions.” This specificity helps your peer know
how to fix the organizational problem and highlights how poor organization can lead
to a poor evaluation of the paper.
TIP: Include language directly from the rubric in your peer review comments to provide more specific critiques and to help your peers develop revision strategies.
Questions for Creating a Helpful Peer Review
These questions are an additional resource to help you ensure that your peer review
is helpful both to the writer and to yourself. You can also use these questions to conduct informal peer reviews, for example at work or if friends ask for your feedback on
their assignments for other classes.
1. Have you ensured that the paper meets the assignment requirements?
2. Have you identified and evaluated the thesis? Is the thesis (or lack thereof)
appropriate for the writing assignment?
3. Have you considered whether and how the organization is effective?
4. Have you provided several concrete and specific suggestions for changes the
writer could make to improve the text?
5. Have you identified areas in which the writing is especially effective, and
explained why it is effective?
6. Have you incorporated rubric language into your critiques?
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Making the Most of Peer Feedback
By Dr. Abigail G. Scheg
Sometimes in your writing class, your instructor will ask you to bring a copy of a paper
draft to class in order to participate in a peer review, which means to have a group of
your peers (your writing classmates) review, edit, proofread, comment, and provide
feedback on your paper. This can also be done online using discussion boards, blog
posts, or other media. But, for the purposes of this article, we will discuss peer review
as it can occur in the face-to-face writing classroom.
Some students are immediately apprehensive about sharing their writing with other
people. Sometimes, we are asked to write papers about concepts and experiences
that are personal and we don’t really want to share our stories with others. If this is
the case, think about discussing this with your instructor ahead of time. She may be
able to suggest strategies for writing that may help you to avoid issues, or point you
in a direction that you hadn’t originally thought of. At the very least, she can serve as a
sounding board, allowing you to express your concerns.
However, if you just feel uncomfortable because you don’t want to receive negative
feedback from a classmate, you should know... so does everybody else! No one likes
to receive suggestions for improvement or have a reader point out errors in their
writing, but receiving feedback is the way that we learn about our mistakes, about
our writing, and how to improve our writing overall. Even well-known authors who
write books for a living have an editor that they submit their rough draft to; the editor
writes all over it, crosses sections out, asks questions, and gives it back to the author.
The purpose is not to make the writer feel bad; the purpose is to improve the writing.
Really, it is better to fail the peer review than fail the actual paper! If you bring a paper
in for peer review and get it back with marks, edits, and revisions all over the document, it is better to get that feedback from your classmate before you submit the assignment for a grade then to receive all of those marks form your instructor and the
grade that goes with those marks!
Another element of concern for peer review is that oftentimes students do not feel
comfortable with other students reading and commenting on their work. Students
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may think, “I don’t want one of my classmates to read my paper. What do they know
about writing?” Even though the peer review participants may not be experts on the
writing process, or MLA/APA/Chicago formatting standards, or writing thesis statements, each individual still has a significant amount of experience and expertise to
bring to the table: you are all readers! Throughout your life you have read books,
journals, magazines, textbooks, websites, Facebook statuses, text messages, blogs,
movie reviews, Tweets, and a countless assortment of other things. You have years
and years of experience reading various genres to bring to the table. If nothing else,
a peer review can start by saying, “I did like,” or, “I didn’t like,” and name an aspect of
a paper. Understanding what someone liked or didn’t like about your paper may not
be the most insightful method of providing peer review, but it is a wonderful place to
start and can generate dialogue with the author and reviewer easily.
For instance, if a reviewer begins by saying, “I didn’t really like your thesis statement, but I’m not sure why,” then the author has an opportunity to respond. Perhaps they will respond with, “You know, I didn’t like it either, but I couldn’t come up
with the right word to use here, do you have any suggestions?” Maybe, then, with
their prompting, both participants could come up with an idea. This is the power of
peer review! Now that you understand that they had a problem with word choice,
you could have a new word suggestion for them to use. Once you substitute the new
word for the original one, the flow of the paper makes much more sense! That is an
example of starting with the unfamiliar and possibly vague feedback and making a
significant difference in someone else’s writing.
There may also be resources available to you during the peer review. Some instructors allow students to consult their textbooks or online resources that they may need
during the process. Therefore, if students identify a problem with someone’s writing,
they can consult their textbook or the online source for extra assistance. Your instructor can also serve as a resource during the peer review process. If you have questions
about changes or specific writing feedback, you can always ask your instructor to take
a look at the document with you and go over the area of concern. This not only benefits the paper you are reviewing, but it can also help to improve your own writing and
self-editing.
So, once you receive your paper back from your classmate, what do you do with this
document? First, you should take a few minutes to review all of their feedback and en219
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sure that you understand all of their comments. Do their marks make sense? If they
changed the order of a sentence, look at their suggestions, does the sentence still
make sense in the way that you had intended? If there are any comments that you
are unsure about or comments that do not make sense to you, you should take time
to ask the peer reviewer about their feedback. Again, your instructor may have specific guidelines, instructions, or questions to go over with one another.
Perhaps your peer reviewer misunderstood or misread a sentence or paragraph of
your paper. Therefore, their edits may not be appropriate for the context of your paper. So again, if you have questions or are unsure as to why a change was suggested
for your paper, you should certainly ask your peer reviewer. It is important to remember that the author and the reviewer came to this text from very different perspectives and therefore, may read the document differently. Therefore, it is imperative for
the author and reviewer to discuss any questions, comments, or concerns to clarify
that the text makes sense and that the feedback is utilized correctly.
If you disagree with the feedback of your peer reviewer, such as, they made comma
changes that you do not think aligns with the comma rules, you can ask your instructor for additional help with this. Or, you can both look at the comma rules together
to see if you find a rule that aligns with their perspective or yours. There is always the
option of asking the instructor to read a portion of the paper or having another peer
reviewer get involved if a common ground cannot be reached. Writing can and should
be a collaborative process!
Just because you receive feedback from a peer does not necessarily mean that they
are right or that you have to make those changes. Some of the suggestions that your
peer reviewer may make will be stylistic suggestions such as word choice, sentence
structure, or a request for more details. If their suggestions do not align with your
overall vision and goal of the paper, then you always have the option to ignore or
modify their suggestions. Regardless of the feedback that you receive, you should
think deeply about each comment, mark, and suggestion that was made to see if you
agree or disagree with the comments. Do not just make changes or edits to your paper blindly or just because someone suggested that you do so. Remember that you
remain in creative control of your paper, so if you feel strongly about the tone or description of your piece, regardless of whether another reader disagrees with it, that
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does not mean that either of you are wrong on this. It just means that every person
has different perspectives.
Peer reviews are an extremely beneficial part of the writing process from which you
can garner a lot of experience and insight. If you have the opportunity to peer review
papers in class, take advantage of this chance to have someone read and comment
on your paper. Your writing will improve in the long-term through these in-class conversations.
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Making the Most of Instructor Feedback
By Dr. Abigail G. Scheg
Receiving feedback on your writing is a tremendous resource! When we are in the
writing process, we sometimes have a tendency to overlook a lot of small writing errors, so it is always a great idea to have an outside reader review your papers. Some
of the people that might review your paper are: your writing instructor, an online tutoring service such as SMARTHINKING, your campus Writing Center, an English teacher that you had for a previous course, a friend who you believe has strong reading
and writing skills, another student that you know that is an English major, or a family
member or friend who could provide honest, strong feedback. For the purposes of
this article, we are going to examine instructor feedback!
Instructors provide feedback to their students in a number of ways. Feedback can
take the form of holistic comments, line-by-line edits, and one-on-one discussion or
conferencing.
Holistic Comments (End Comments)
Holistic comments are generated when your instructor reads through your entire
piece of writing and then focuses on composing some general comments that address any areas/categories of concern in your paper. For instance, your instructor
may write:
Well done with this draft! Overall, you have strong ideas and good character description.
Please work on strengthening your descriptions of place. Also, review comma rules before
editing and proofreading your paper again.
These comments are specific to the students’ text, but do not go through individual
sentences or paragraphs. Rather, holistic comments provide a place to start for a
student to evaluate and re-examine her writing. The above example includes the
critique: “review comma rules before editing and proofreading your paper again,”
which indicates that this students’ paper has errors in comma rules. Since no particular comma rule is mentioned here (such as: Review the comma rule for introductory
phrases and clauses), this indicates that the student made more than just one type of
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comma error. Perhaps there are run-on sentences, introductory phrases lacking commas, and lists without proper separation.
At this point, the student should read through the holistic feedback and determine
whether or not these comments make sense to them. If the instructor’s feedback
states, “You have strong ideas and good character description,” does the student understand the character description that is referred to? Does the student feel confident
in the ideas and character description included in the paper? Essentially, does the
student understand and agree with the holistic comments?
Next, perhaps the instructor states, “work on strengthening your descriptions of
place.” Does the student understand what is meant by this comment? Did the author
describe a specific location in this text? How was it described? Was there an appeal to
all of the senses or could more information be given to provide the reader with details?
If at any point in the feedback the student has questions or disagrees with the instructor, the student should discuss these questions, comments, and concerns with their
instructor. Perhaps you spent a great deal of time reviewing your comma rules before
you submitted this paper, so you don’t understand the comma mistakes indicated
here. Ask your instructor to look through your paper with you and provide an example. Maybe even though the instructor said that your character description is strong,
you still have some questions about writing and developing character. Ask your instructor for more specific insight into your characterization.
Line-by-Line Edits (In-Text Comments)
Line-by-line edits are another type of feedback that some students really prefer and
some students shy away from. Line editing can be done in a number of ways, but the
purpose of line-by-line edits are when an instructor goes through the paper, makes
recommended changes in text and provides comments on a line-by-line basis. The
types of comments that an instructor may make are potentially unlimited; they may
recommend changes in spelling, punctuation, grammar, word choice, sentence structure, paragraph structure, general page formatting, and much more. Some instructors use official proofreading and editing marks, but if so, instructors often make their
students aware of these marks ahead of time. If not, lists of proofreading and editing
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marks appear in most writing textbooks and are widely available online, such as the
weblink above.
Some students prefer line-by-line edits because instructors point to specific areas of
the paper that need attention or changes. Unlike holistic comments, with line-by-line
edits students know exactly where their commas were used incorrectly or where the
instructor may have had extra comments or questions. Depending on your instructor, line-by-line edits may be done on various computer programs, such as Microsoft
Word Track Changes. In Track Changes, the student has the opportunity to right click
and accept or reject certain changes and can receive specific edits from the instructor
without printing a copy of the paper.
Conferencing (One-on-One Discussion)
Another type of instructor feedback that may be used in conjunction with holistic
feedback or line-by-line edits or on its own is known as one-on-one discussion or
conferencing. Some instructors prefer to conference with their students regarding
editing, proofreading, revising, and general reviewing of a rough draft of a research
paper. By the time a conference begins, instructors have typically already read the paper and provided holistic feedback or line-by-line editing. During the conference, the
instructor spends time reviewing these changes with the students and determining if
the students have any questions about the feedback. Sometimes, instructors use the
conference time just to provide feedback to the students, which may or may not be
written down on the document. In that case, students need to take detailed notes so
that they can return to the paper later and make any suggested comments.
Whether or not the instructor has made comments on the draft, students should take
this opportunity with their instructor to ask detailed questions about their writing. If
the instructor makes the suggestion in a conference that the student review comma
rules, the student can ask the instructor to elaborate on that suggestion, to ensure
that they truly understand the instructors’ feedback in context.
A one-on-one instructor conference is a tremendous opportunity for a student to ask
questions about her writing and to garner some significant suggestions for improvement. It may seem uncomfortable at first to ask your instructor about making chang-
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es to your writing, but the more readers and insight you can get on your writing, the
more you will see a significant improvement in your papers.
Another important note in terms of instructor feedback is the following: you can ignore any and all feedback if you do not agree with it. If an instructor provides you
feedback regarding comma rules, spelling, or grammar, it is typically recommended
that you heed their advice and make any of the recommended changes. However,
sometimes the feedback that instructors will give will be stylistic changes. Stylistic
changes may be changes to word choices or recommending that a writer focus on a
different element of the story. Below is an example of this:
Perhaps an assignment would be to write a personal narrative in which you tell a story. The story that you choose to focus on is a time when your entire family went out
to eat and a member of your party proposed marriage to another member of your
party. When I, the instructor, read your essay, I may suggest that since the assignment
was a personal narrative essay, that you focus on more specific details of your experience: what did you eat? What did you drink? How did you feel about the company
during the meal? What was your perspective of the proposal? However, you, as the
author, feel that the story of the food is best paralleled to the romanticism of the proposal; you do not think that emphasis should be on the food description, but rather,
description will come later in the piece once the story of the proposal has transpired.
This is an example of a stylistic difference.
If a student disagrees with a stylistic suggestion of her instructor, she should discuss
any questions and concerns with the instructor. Perhaps the student misunderstood
the suggestion; perhaps the student misunderstood the assignment description and
the instructor is trying to redeem the grade; perhaps the student and instructor can
meet in the middle with a compromise between additional food description and additional storytelling. Likewise, if another individual positioned in writing authority (such
as Writing Center tutor or another English instructor) makes suggestions to a students’ paper that the student author disagree with or are unsure about, she should
always discuss these questions and concerns with her instructor for the course. The
instructor will be able to provide a student with additional information or explanation
about the assignment that they may not know. Perhaps the follow-up assignment requires reflection on the significant food description; therefore, it is more important to
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have food description than plot definition. If a student does not take the time to ask
your instructor these questions, she may never know.
Let’s recap!
• A writing instructor provides a student with feedback in a number of ways,
sometimes even in a combination of ways.
• The student will review the comments, take notes if they are conferencing, and
ask questions about any and all of the comments that are made on the paper.
• The student will then decide which comments she believes are necessary to pursue and change in the document and make those changes.
• If the student has questions along the way, she should always double check with
the instructor to follow up or clarify.
• Depending on the instructor, they may want to or be willing to review another
draft for the student. If that is the case, the student should provide them with a
copy of the modified draft to review again with any changes.
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8: Revision Techniques
Revising is Not Editing
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Revising is Not Editing
By Jacob Lauritzen
Let me tell you a story. When I first completed graduate school, I was writing a cover
letter to a prospective employer. I had just earned a degree in English and I was excited to become a teacher. I had also just become a father and I was in desperate
need of a better job. Needless to say, I was feeling the pressure to impress the principal of the school I was applying to. Sadly, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to
editing my work. When I accidentally misspelled a word, I automatically selected the
word that the program’s spellchecker suggested and I continued to write. Fortunately,
my wife was reading my work over my shoulder and noticed the mistake. She asked,
“Can I make fun of you for a bit?” She then explained to me that I had used the wrong
word. Instead of writing “Preparatory,” which was one of the words in the school’s
title, I had chosen “Predatory.” Now think for a moment. If you were hiring a teacher
to work with impressionable youth, what would you think if he had mistakenly written “Predatory” in his cover letter? Freudian slip? This mistake was minor, but it could
have given the wrong impression. Fortunately, my wife noticed the mistake and I got
the job.
This mistake did not affect the overall content of my letter, but it was important that
I correct it. This type of mistake, a spelling error, is a lower-order concern. It’s called
a lower-order concern because it is one of the last things you need to worry about
when writing a paper. Higher-order concerns, on the other hand, are issues concerning the organization and content of your writing. These should be the first concerns
that you address as you begin to revise your work.
Revising and Editing as a Process
Revising your work is not the same as editing it. Students and even teachers may use
these terms interchangeably, but they are not the same. Revision is the process of
fixing higher-order concerns such as the focus and clarity of your thesis and supporting details or the organization of your paper. Editing is when you address lower-order
concerns such as mistakes with grammar, punctuation, or spelling. When I was writing my cover letter, I was only focused on the higher-order concerns. They were the
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things, I thought, that would determine whether I got the job or not. I needed to address all concerns by revising and editing.
So why is it important to distinguish the difference between these two terms? Because they are two different processes and they may not merit an equal amount of
attention. Consider it this way. When you have completed a draft of a paper, if you
are like me, you want to turn it in as soon as possible. So you do a quick scan on your
computer and when it says you’ve fixed all the mistakes, you’re done, right? Wrong.
Once you’ve finished a complete draft of your work, it is important that you revise
AND edit your work.
There are many different processes you can use when revising and editing your work.
This short essay can’t begin to address them all. Let me offer a few examples though.
Walt Whitman, for instance, is famous primarily for writing one book of poetry, Leaves
of Grass. He published the first edition of the book in 1855. He then revised and edited it the following year He went through the process again in 1860, 1867, and three
more times over the next twenty years. The story goes that as Leaves of Grass was
being printed, Whitman was still making changes. This made it so that copies printed
during the same edition were different. This is an extreme example, but it stands to
prove that even after years of revision and editing, your work can still be improved.
Not all authors are the same though. In his memoir, On Writing, Stephen King explains
that he typically will write two complete drafts of his work, before doing a thorough
edit. He then turns his manuscript into his publisher and starts on the next book.
Finding a process that works for you is just that—a process. It takes time to figure
out how to write your best. I wrote and directed my first play when I was seventeen.
Years later, I wish that I could rewrite it. Unfortunately, when you are writing a paper
for a class, you don’t have the luxury of time. You have requirements and deadlines to
meet. That doesn’t mean you can’t take the time to correct your work.
Revising Higher-Order Concerns
So what should you look for when you revise? Look for opportunities to improve the
clarity of your thesis, the organization of your arguments, and the strength of your
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evidence. Remember that every aspect of your paper should ensure that your paper
is accomplishing its purpose.
Here are a few questions you may consider as you revise:
• Does your paper meet all the requirements given you by your professor?
• Is your thesis clear?
• Is your thesis specific enough?
• Is your paper long enough?
• Does your paper satisfy your professor’s requirements for sources and/or citation style?
• Does your paper transition well from one idea to the next?
• Is there anything missing?
• Is your paper clear enough?
• Can you make the same points in fewer words?
• Do your paragraphs effectively
• Is your tone too casual?
• Are you using subject specific terminology?
If possible, ask a friend or a writing tutor to look over your work. Sometimes another
pair of eyes will be able to notice a mistake that you wouldn’t have. My wife noticed
how my work could be improved; you may have someone you trust to help you as
well.
If you come to the point that you feel you have addressed all of your higher-order
concerns, you may be done revising. Now, you can begin to address lower-order concerns. If you haven’t already fixed spelling errors, do so. Make sure that you aren’t
writing in the passive voice too often and that all verbs agree with their subjects. Re230
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move comma splices and look for sentence fragments. Again, if you have access to a
writing lab, use it. Many universities and colleges provide these resources, but so few
students take advantage of them.
Editing Lower-Order Concerns
Though they are called lower-order concerns, don’t be fooled into thinking that they
aren’t important. As stated previously, it is important that you revise and edit your
work. Grammatical errors are a distraction, they cause confusion, and they make it
more difficult to accomplish the purpose of your writing. The error I made in my cover
letter was simple as substituting the wrong word, but it impeded my ability to accomplish the purpose of my letter—to get a job. You may have a well-executed essay, but
if your paper is full of grammatical errors, you may still receive a failing grade. In fact,
as a teacher, I tell my students that if they have too many mistakes I can’t pass them.
Your teacher may have a similar policy.
Above all, your responsibility as a student writer is to accomplish the purpose of your
assignment. Revision and editing are both processes to help you accomplish those
purposes. Revise higher order concerns to improve the clarity and content of your
writing, and edit lower-order concerns to correct any mistakes that may detract from
you getting your point across to your reader. It may take one draft. It may take seven,
but do whatever it takes to do it right.
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First, Second, and Third Drafts
By Kristen Gay
In some ways, one might compare writing a polished paper to the process of getting
dressed in the morning. For example, you might wake up, decide that you want to
go to the beach, invite friends to go along and have a picnic, and change into beach
clothes—just before you notice that it is cold outside. Because of this new piece of
information, you may change into a jacket and pants. However, you quickly realize
that your outfit now looks bland. You add an accessory—like a hat or a necklace—to
complete your look before heading the door. But then your roommate tells you that
your brown sandals do not match your black jacket, so you go back to your closet and
change in order to streamline your look based on style conventions. You have revised
your appearance multiple times before leaving the house, just as a writer revises his
or her ideas before sending them out into the world.
For a writer, the revision process commonly involves three stages, which are sometimes referred to as first, second, and third drafts. These drafts allow writers to refine
ideas, strengthen claims, develop perspectives, revise grammatical and formatting
errors, reorganize points, and seek feedback from others, such as teachers and peers.
Thinking of writing as an ongoing process can also alleviate some stress that may
occur if a paper must be written quickly and all at once. There are various ways of
conceptualizing the three drafts, but in general, you can think of the first draft as the
brainstorming draft, the second draft as the trial run, and the final draft as the polishing stage.
The revision process usually begins with the first draft, which may take the form of a
brainstorming draft. At this point in the process, your goal might be generating ideas,
narrowing down a concrete topic, and taking a broad view of the topic being researched. At the beginning of the article, we compared the writing process to getting
dressed in the morning. In this example, the first step involved getting out of bed and
making a decision: to wear warm weather clothes and go to the beach. You began to
make plans by calling friends, coming up with an agenda for the day, and dressing
accordingly. For writers, this step in the process involves taking the first step towards
planning the paper. Outlines, idea maps, and lists can be great ways to generate ideas
for both the content and organization of a paper. It is important to not be overly
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critical of ideas at this stage in the process—try to take an open approach to several
strong ideas, generate a plan for writing, and locate and analyze some sources to inform your understanding of a given topic.
Whereas writers focus on generating ideas in the brainstorming draft, in the second
draft, writers generally create a full draft of a paper, adjusting their initial ideas as
they write. This draft can be considered the trial run because it involves a sort of test
of the ideas that were generated in the first draft. This means that while the first draft
should shape the work that is done in the second draft, the writer’s ideas may change
dramatically in the process of writing the full paper. For example, in the example
about getting dressed in the morning, you realized that it was cold outside, so you
had to change the outfit entirely, and probably had to change plans with your friends.
You also realized that your new outfit was bland, so you then added an accessory. In
the same way, writers may realize that they cannot defend their original thesis, that
there is not enough evidence to support their claim, or that they actually identify with
an opposing perspective. At this stage in the process, writers will want to ensure that
they are addressing global concerns, which may include having a strong, arguable
thesis, using credible evidence to support their claims, logically organizing points, and
ensuring that the introduction and conclusion are compelling. This process can be
daunting, but remember that no one writes alone. In terms of revisions, writers may
want to solicit feedback from teachers, peers, and/or Writing Center consultants at
this stage of the writing process to gain further insight into how their ideas and points
are translating to their audience.
In the final stage of the revision process, writers tend to polish their work in preparation for submitting the final draft. In the example of getting dressed, your roommate
provided advice about your outfit, and you changed in order to meet style conventions. Similarly, in this stage of the writing process, the writer will implement feedback
from a teacher or peer, read the paper out loud to check for grammatical or punctuation errors, and edit out wordy or redundant sections. Now that the writer’s ideas
are on paper, and they appear generally effective at conveying her message, the final
stage in the process usually involves refining and clarifying the writing itself. It may
be useful to double check that the thesis statement is fully supported in each paragraph, for example, or to compose a “backwards outline” that lists the main point for
each paragraph in the margins to ensure that each paragraph remains focused on
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one main point. Writers might also double check formatting guidelines and ensure
that the draft distinguishes between their own ideas and the source’s ideas. Finally,
writers might look for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors while they attempt
to make their sentences as clear and concise as possible. Thus, the goals for the third
draft are: ensuring that ideas are cohesive and clear, considering and implementing
suggested changes from the instructor and peers, and checking grammatical, stylistic,
and local errors (i.e. sentence structure, spelling and formatting errors, and punctuation).
Although these three steps are commonly used, not everyone follows the same process when making revisions. It is important to find a strategy for revision that works
for you—perhaps you spend a lot of time brainstorming and find that it works best
for you to edit as you write, or perhaps you brainstorm briefly, write very quickly,
and then need to make significant revisions before submitting a paper. There are
no “wrong” ways to approach the revision process, only more or less effective ones.
While these stages of revisions are not prescriptive, they do suggest that revisions
should be approached with a strategy in mind.
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Author Bios
• Ella Browning is a second-year PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition at the
University of South Florida. She is interested in first-year writing, feminist rhetoric,
and writing program administration.
• Brittany Cagle is currently a MFA candidate focusing in creative nonfiction at
the University of South Florida. Her poetry and prose has most recently appeared
in Spry Literary Journal, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Welter, Mad Swirl, This Zine Will
Change Your Life, and is forthcoming in The Stray Branch. Her work was recently
nominated for the 2014 AWP Intro Journals Award. She works as a creative writing
instructor at the University of South Florida and as the Nonfiction and Art Editor
for Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art.
• L. E. Cagle is a third-year PhD student in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of South Florida. She received the University Fellowship for graduate study
at USF, where she has taught first-year composition, new media for technical communication, and communicating about sustainability. Cagle’s research interests
are grounded in the rhetoric of science and technology, and her current research
focuses on climate change communication and on local communication practices
related to sustainability.
• Dr. Melissa Vosen Callens is an assistant professor of practice in instructional
design at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. She teaches first-year composition courses and advanced composition courses in business and professional
writing and visual communication. Her research interests include distance education, collaborative writing, and a wide variety of pop culture topics.
• Jason Carabelli is a graduate student at the University of South Florida (USF)
working towards a Master of Arts in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and
Composition. He currently teaches first-year composition and has collaborated on
various curriculum revision committees for the First-Year Writing Program at USF.
Jason’s teaching and research interests include composition pedagogy and the
rhetoric of science.
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• Dr. Dianne Donnelly is the author of Establishing Creative Writing Studies as
an Academic Discipline (2011), the editor of Does the Writing Workshop Still Work?
(2010), and the co-editor of Key Issues in Creative Writing (2012). She is a regular
contributor to the theory and pedagogy of creative writing and a frequent presenter at CCCC and AWP on creative writing pedagogy. She is the Associate Director of Composition and teaches writing at the University of South Florida.
• Laura Ewing is a doctoral candidate studying rhetoric and composition theory
at the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on global rhetoric, international/intercultural technical communication, and technology’s impact on writing.
• Heather Fox earned her MA in teaching from Mary Baldwin and her MA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently a doctoral student
at the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on the intersections between culture, cognition, and narrative in American literature.
• Kristen Gay earned her BA at the University of South Florida (USF) as a professional and technical writing major and is currently pursuing her MA in Rhetoric
and Composition at USF. Kristen teaches Composition I and II in the FYC program
at USF. Her research interests include feminine writing, personal writing, feminist
rhetorics, and the embodied experience of writing.
• Julie Gerdes earned an MA from the University of South Florida’s rhetoric and
composition program, where she taught Composition I and II as well as Technical Writing for the Health Sciences. She is presently pursuing a doctoral degree
in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University, where her
research focuses on global health communication.
• Brianna Jerman is a doctoral student in English with a focus in literature at the
University of South Florida. Her research interests include modern and post-modern literature, women’s studies, and psychoanalytic theory.
• Karen Langbehn is a doctoral student in English, with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition. She’s most interested in the rhetoric of science, science poli-
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cy, and technology, as well as the public understanding of science and technology
and new media composing.
• Megan McIntyre is a PhD student at the University of South Florida where she
currently works as Mentoring Coordinator for USF’s First Year Composition Program. Her research interests include writing pedagogy, political rhetoric, and writing center practice and theory.
• Jessica McKee is a PhD candidate at the University of South Florida. Her research interests include American literature, gender studies, and pedagogy. She is
currently completing her dissertation on the novels of Toni Morrison.
• Dr. Kate Pantelides is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Writing and the
Associate Director of the First-Year Writing Program at Eastern Michigan University. Her research addresses WPA work, graduate writing, and genre studies.
• Stephanie Phillips is a PhD student at the University of South Florida where
she currently teaches in the composition program. Her research focuses on early
American literature and gender studies.
• Dr. Abigail G. Scheg currently teaches at Elizabeth City State University. She
holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing (California University of Pennsylvania),
Master of Arts in Literature (Slippery Rock University) and a PhD in Composition
(Indiana University of Pennsylvania). Her research interests include Online Teacher Training, Computers and Composition, and most recently, Online Assessment.
• Andrea Scott is Assistant Professor for Academic Writing at Pitzer College,
where she also directs the Writing Center. She holds a Master of Arts and PhD
from the University of Chicago. Her research and teaching interests include Writing Center Theory, Writing Across the Curriculum/Writing In the Discipline, and the
International Turn in Writing Studies.
• Dr. Kyle D. Stedman is assistant professor of English at Rockford College (effective August 2012), where he teaches courses in writing and rhetoric. His work explores sonic rhetorics, intellectual property, and fan studies. His publications have
appeared in Computers and Composition, Currents in Electronic Literacy, and the
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Writing Spaces series of textbooks, and his coauthored book for NCTE, Agency in the
Age of Peer Production, will be released in Summer 2012.
• Brogan Sullivan is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of
South Florida, where he teaches fiction writing and English composition.
• Quincey Upshaw is an adjunct professor and Mentor Coordinator for the First
Year Composition program and has taught English and writing at the secondary
and postsecondary level since 2003. A true USF Bull, she received a BA in Literature and a BA in Fine Art (photography) from USF in 2001 and later earned an MA
in Literature in 2009. Her research interests include the Early Modern era, and her
thesis focused on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary philosophy and The Lord of the Ring trilogy.
• Dr. Vernetta K. Williams is founder of Chrysalis Consulting, LLC, an academic
and commercial writing services company. Through Chrysalis, Dr. Williams services the writing needs of graduate students, aspiring authors, professional athletes and speakers, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations with the mission
of helping others transform their ideas into words through practical services that
allow clients to achieve their goals. Dr. Williams has a B.A. in Journalism and Mass
Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in
English from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and a
Ph.D. in English with a specialization in the personal narrative from the University
of South Florida.
• Jennifer Yirinec received her Master of Arts degree in English literature from
the University of South Florida and is entering the PhD program in English literature at the University of Iowa. Her research interests include Victorian literature,
pre-film technologies, adaptation theory, and composition studies.
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