When Fiction is a Bad Idea
Sometimes, writers make things up out of thin air when writing introductions of essays intended to be nonfiction.
Sometimes, writers make things up out of thin air when writing introductions of essays intended to be nonfiction.
In class on Friday, we discussed the following items related to the goals of research:
What are some of the purposes of research?
Pitfalls of Using Secondary Sources
Secondary sources should be used sparingly to supplement your claims about a text – claims from secondary sources cannot be your primary argument about the text. When quoting a secondary sources, be sure to follow up the quote with your explanation or argument about why the information from the secondary source is relevant to your claims.
Linked below is an excerpt from a book-length work of nonfiction by Annie Dillard titled An American Childhood. I would like you to treat this piece as if it were a complete essay for the RA due on Friday February 19:
When reading, consider the rhetorical strategy of the essay, the essay’s primary argument, and pay particular attention to the identity of the speaker. This work also takes a major turn at one point in the essay that significantly changes the interpretive landscape of the piece.
In addition to reading “The America I Love” by Elie Wiesel in The Conscious Reader (835-37), please read and be prepared to discuss the following 1988 essay by Peggy McIntosh on Wednesday, February 17:
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Elie Wiesel claims in “The America I Love” that racism “has vanished from the American scene” (836). McIntosh takes a different approach. How do you account for the difference in these perspectives?
In class, we discussed ideas for defining criteria as required for Major Essay #2. We examined real-world examples of criteria used in various evaluation processes:
The criteria below could be quite useful when evaluating the rhetorical effectiveness of a literary or film text:
Optional: I wanted to provide another resource that should be helpful when preparing to write Major Essay #1 (and future essays). Consider listening to Lecture 16 by Daniel Coffeen from a course on rhetoric at another university.
Caution: The speaker in this podcast sometimes uses language that we do not affirm (profanity), which may be offensive. As such, listening to this podcast is not required. However, the content in the podcast may be quite helpful to most undergraduate writers. This podcast provides practical advice on the goals of writing about texts and the posture of a writer when writing about texts. If you choose to listen to the podcast in your free time or while exercising, you can download it to your iTunes library.
Note: This speaker discusses texts other than the ones we have read, but the advice in the podcast could be applied to an essay about any text. It’s just an optional resource that is available on the web from iTunes.
Regarding the essay “Somebody’s Baby,” please respond to the following items as a comment to this blog post:
Writers of stories spend time creating cultural universes, and they ask us to experience these universes as readers. These cultural universes are shaped by carefully selected details in the stories—particular language, particular images, and particular spaces. Every word, every detail in a text functions as an argument—an argument that attempts to alter the experience of readers.
On Friday, we’ll look at additional details in “Die Grosse Liebe” and what effects those details have in the story’s performance:
One of the most interesting questions to ask when writing about texts is simply, “How?”
Here’s a clip with selected images and audio from the movie described in the short story:
[youtube cwQLJqf7TNo]Be sure to read the Rhetorical Analysis Guidelines linked to the Pages sidebar of the blog.
An example rhetorical analysis is available on this link: Example Rhetorical Analysis.
NOTE: You should not do any research when writing a rhetorical analysis. For rhetorical analyses—and for your first two major essays—I want to read only what you find interesting from your own engagement with the text. Please do not refer to or quote any source outside of the text about which you are writing. Stay focused on the work you are reading.