9-10-15

•Understand the rhetorical situation

•Identify rhetorical elements in a text

•Explain how those elements work

Goals:

“Read and analyze…”

Subject

Text

Writer

CONTEXT

Reader

Writer

Relationship to the subject:Relationship to the subject:

EXPERTISEEXPERTISE

Relationship to the Relationship to the audience:audience:

TRUSTWORTHINESSTRUSTWORTHINESS

The writer might already have a relationship with the audience, but can also create a relationship in the text.

The writer creates a persona in the text with …

•Diction (word choice)•Syntax (word order)•Sentence structure•Sentence length•Grammar•Spelling•Content•and more

Whether it’s intentional or

accidental, you create a persona with the

words you put on the page.

What persona does each line create in your mind?

In today’s world or in ancient Rome, a successful and powerful country needs to have a system that has the ability to move goods and people quickly, to communicate to its citizens rapidly, and for commerce to flourish.

As long as man has existed, in order to function in a group there has always been some kind of government.

Students have been facing obstacles for many years concerning the matter of receiving a good education.

Racial profiling by law enforcement has been a very controversial issue in recent years, but not much is known about racial profiling and the public’s views on the issue.

Ancient Rome and America share the same interests and the same path of decline.

Imagine yourself in the Greek colonization era with the people of Sparta in the 6 th century.

Reader

Could have a variety of purposes for reading:

*get information about the subject

*get information about the writer (or context…)

*learn conventions about genre or format

Creates an image of the writer based on the text

Reader uses text to find out how much the writer knows about the

subject.

Reader uses text to learn about subject.

Reader uses text to find out what writer know about conventions of the genre.

Reader uses text to learn about conventions of the genre.

SubjectMay have greater or lesser degree of stability

What was the score of the ball game? What really happened at the embassy? What will happen if we increase taxes?

May be known (or knowable) or not to writer & reader

May be of greater or lesser interest to writer & reader

Text

The text itself says something about the writer, the reader, the subject, & the

context.How neat (or messy) is it? How visually pleasing is it?

To what extent does it conform to conventions?

Does it use graphics? (If so, do they help, or are they merely distractions?)

Can you tell at a glance whether it is scholarly, popular, or maybe personal? Does it look professional?What does

the forum of publication tell you?

Does it attract (or even entice) readers, or does it perhaps scare them away?

CONTEXT

Why is the writer writing?

What is the writer trying to do?

Why is the reader reading?

Under what conditions or constraints dothe writing and reading occur?

Basically, what’s going on here?

9/10 HW: read & analyze “Why Colleges Shower Their Student’s with A’s”  9/15 HW: read & analyze “The Sanctuary of School”

9/17 HW: read & analyze “What’s Eating America”  9/22 HW: revise analysis of “What’s Eating America”

9/24 Paper 2 (analysis) due.

Use the remaining class time to begin reading and annotating “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s.” Describe the writer, the reader (i.e., the target audience), the subject, the text, and the context (including, for instance, the publication date). You will use this information to write the analysis that is due on 9/15.