Critical thinking is a challenging term. Sometimes it is presented in relationship to formal logic, which is too rigid to use as a strategy for writing instruction. Sometimes critical thinking is made synonymous with analysis, although they can be clearly differentiated as separate cognitive activities. Sometimes critical thinking is reduced to writing prompts on selected readings, or exemplar asides. Reason to Write introduces the critical question, a pre-writing strategy that both stipulates a working definition for critical thinking, and, in doing so, reorients the approach to academic writing as fundamentally inquiry-based.
In three major sections, students are guided through steps that build upon foundational critical thinking skills, and that reinforce academic writing as a practice designed to answer a question, solve a problem, or resolve an issue.
Gina L. Vallis received her Ph.D. in Literature with an emphasis in critical theory, and teaches Writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She writes and presents on topics concerning rhetoric, communication, critical and literary theory, and film and visual studies. She is certified in graphic design, has published poetry, and vendors an intervention program for children with ASD, in relationship to which she contributed a chapter for a book on autism intervention. She is currently completing a pending publication of a collaborative web-text for the praxis category of Kairos, as well as preparing a manuscript concerning writing about film, titled Screening Arguments.
REASON TO WRITE
REASON TO WRITE
Critical thinking provides specific strategies designed to help student writers to work through the relationship between thinking and writing. When given the opportunity to develop a line of inquiry based upon a question, students acquire not only critical thinking skills, but also the means to be self-corrective in their writing, and to transfer those skills into new contexts.
GINA L. VALLIS
This handbook is a practical guide designed to offer students the means to apply critical thinking to academic writing.
GINA L. VALLIS
REASON TO WRITE: Applying critical thinking to academic writing
FM.indd i
11/4/10 4:43 PM
FM.indd ii
11/4/10 4:43 PM
REASON TO WRITE: Applying critical thinking to academic writing
T
his handbook is a practical guide designed to offer students the means to apply critical thinking to academic writing.
Critical thinking is a challenging term. Sometimes it is presented in relationship to formal logic, which is too rigid to use as a strategy for writing instruction. Sometimes critical thinking is made synonymous with analysis, although they can be clearly differentiated as separate cognitive activities. Sometimes critical thinking is reduced to writing prompts on selected readings, or exemplar asides. Reason to Write introduces the critical question, a pre-writing strategy that both stipulates a working definition for critical thinking, and, in doing so, reorients the approach to academic writing as fundamentally inquiry-based. Critical thinking provides specific strategies designed to help student writers to work through the relationship between thinking and writing. When given the opportunity to develop a line of inquiry based upon a question, students acquire not only critical thinking skills, but also the means to be self-corrective in their writing, and to transfer those skills into new contexts. In three major sections, students are guided through steps that build upon foundational critical thinking skills, and that reinforce academic writing as a practice designed to answer a question, solve a problem, or resolve an issue.
Gina L. Vallis received her Ph.D. in Literature with an emphasis in critical theory, and teaches Writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She writes and presents on topics concerning rhetoric, communication, critical and literary theory, and film and visual studies. She is certified in graphic design, has published poetry, and vendors an intervention program for children with ASD, in relationship to which she contributed a chapter for a book on autism intervention. She is currently completing a pending publication of a collaborative web-text for the praxis category of Kairos, as well as preparing a manuscript concerning writing about film, titled Screening Arguments.
FM.indd iii
11/4/10 4:43 PM
Kona Publishing and Media Group Higher Education Division Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2010 by Kona Publishing and Media Group
All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, or any informational storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. All names of teachers, teacher learners, students and places are pseudonyms or are used with permission. Teacher and student work samples are used with permission. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders for permission to reprint borrowed material. We regret any oversights that may have occurred and will rectify them in future printings of this work. ISBN: 978-1-935987-09-3
FM.indd iv
11/4/10 4:43 PM
REASON TO WRITE: Applying critical thinking to academic writing
Gina L. Vallis
KONA
p u b l i s h i n g & m e d i a g ro u p
FM.indd v
11/4/10 4:43 PM
FM.indd vi
11/4/10 4:43 PM
contents
Acknowledgements xi Preface xiii SECTION I CRITICAL QUESTION, CONTEXT, DEFINITION
1
a reason to write
1
3
Blinking Cursor Syndrome 4 Questions and Answers 5 The Case Against the Five-Paragraph Form 8 Process vs. Product 11 Review 14 2
critical thinking
19
What’s Different about Critical Thinking? 20 Critical Thinking and Logic 20 Critical Thinking and Academic Writing 23 Why is Critical Thinking Important? 25 The Role of Curiosity 27 The (Provisional) Case Against the Prompt 28 Writing is Risky Business 30 Review 34 The Critical Question
36
STEP 1 CRITICAL QUESTION GUIDE
36
Sample Critical Questions 37 3
questions in context
39
Revising Five Writing Rules 40 Review 49
FM.indd vii
11/4/10 4:43 PM
The Question Map 52 Three Parts to the Question Map 53 Example Question Map 54 STEP 2 THE QUESTION MAP GUIDE
4
57
saying what we mean-meaning what we say
59
Writing has Words in it 60 Language and Associates 61 Metaphor: Words are Slithy Toves
67
Guard Rails for the Tricky Bits 69 Review 76 Ways to Define 77 Types of Definitions/Examples 78 STEP 3 WAYS TO DEFINE GUIDE
80
Example Completed Ways to Define Guide 82 The Shortcut 87 SECTION II ANALYSIS, ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE, ARRANGEMENT
5
performing analysis
91
93
Two Principles of Analysis 94 Opinions, Facts, and Analysis 99 Types of Analysis: General Analysis 101 Analysis and Roller Skating 106 Formalist Analysis 109 Rhetorical Analysis 112 Review 114 Performing Analysis 116 STEP 4 ANALYSIS GUIDE, OR HOW TO ROLLER SKATE 117
Example Analysis Guide 119 viii
FM.indd viii
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:43 PM
6
finding common ground
123
The Organizing Principle 124 First Things First: The Title 130 Exordium: “Yo” or “Lo” 131 Types of Openings 133 Review 136 Organizing/Opening the Essay 138 STEP 5 THE OPENING/ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE GUIDE 139
7
arrangement
141
Beyond Exordium 142 Fancy Names and Functions 143 Formatting is Fun! -Not 151 Primary and Secondary Sources: Raw or Cooked 155 Review 157 The Draft 160 STEP 6 THE DRAFT GUIDE
162
SECTION III RHETORIC, REVISION, PUBLICATION
8
165
communication and rhetoric
167
“That’s Just Rhetoric” 168 Appeals 172 Fallacies and Other Fallacies 175 Getting Our Darned Ice Cream Cone 177 Review 181 9
feedback and revision
185
Everyone’s a Critic 186 On Beyond Spellcheck: Editing vs. Revision 188 Mirroring Documents 189
Contents
FM.indd ix
ix
11/4/10 4:43 PM
The Secret of the Hard-Copy Edit 190 Revision 190 STEP 7 SELFDIAGNOSTIC GUIDE
10
joining the conversation
191
193
Kinds of Writing 194 Writing in Professional Contexts 195 Conference Presentation/Publication for Undergraduates 196 Joining the Conversation 199 STEP 8 CONFERENCE/JOURNAL PUBLICATION GUIDE 200
Sample Undergraduate Conference CFP 201 Sample Undergraduate Journal CFP 202 recommended Readings WORKS CITED
x
FM.indd x
203
207
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:43 PM
acknowledgements
F
irstly, I would like to say how grateful I am to Roy, both for building the fort, and also for holding it down.
Secondly, I would like to thank my students for their generosity in allowing me to use their writing in this text. All samples of student writing included in this text were drawn from undergraduate, lower-division writing, primarily in entry-level courses. Finally, my thanks for the support of my colleagues.
xi
FM.indd xi
11/4/10 4:43 PM
FM.indd xii
11/4/10 4:43 PM
preface
O
ne of the challenges facing writing instructors is that while students will tend to recognize quality academic writing, they often do not appear to translate that recognition into practice in relationship to their own prose. Nor can an instructor assume that students will automatically adopt a habit of inquiry merely by being exposed to the questions of others. In addition, this form of instruction reinforces the idea that it is the student’s function to provide answers, but it does not allow them to rehearse generating their own questions.
For as long as students are given tools for recognizing the elements that facilitate or inhibit academic inquiry, they can engage in critical thinking through the composing of a question-based essay, from an initial point of curiosity. Reason to Write makes a clear distinction between critical thinking, rhetoric, informal and formal logic, and analysis, for the purpose of demonstrating various connections between ways of thinking, and stages of writing. Writing exercises are broken down into steps that engage with those relationships, from pre-writing to final draft, as well as conference presentations and publication guidelines. This handbook would be appropriate for use by any instructor engaged in entrylevel post-secondary education courses for the purpose of an introduction to critical thinking and academic writing. It can also be used as a supplement to course material, across disciplines, for the purpose of writing instruction, provided that the course structure allows the student to generate independent questions, upon which to write, based upon the course topic. How to use this text
Reason to Write is a practical guide, and is designed as a map to guide students through steps to writing. Each chapter offers a clear explanation of a given way of thinking, and matches it to a stage in the writing process, culminating in a writing step that allows the student to put that relationship into practice. Through these sequential stages, each step serves to advance the student toward the final paper that will be produced, using the strategies covered in that section. As such, while perfectly suitable for use in conjunction with other instructional material, all sections should be included, and taken in order. xiii
FM.indd xiii
11/4/10 4:43 PM
SECTION I CRITICAL QUESTION, CONTEXT, DEFINITION
A REASON TO WRITE
This section serves as an introduction to a basic reorientation of academic writing as inquiry-based, and opens by drawing attention to common difficulties students face with the thesis statement. The demand to produce a thesis in the first stage of writing often generates confusion between the process of academic writing, which is inquiry-based, and the final presentation of the written product. This final presentation is often reorganized in a rewrite in order to forefront conclusions. By putting the steps into their proper order, students come to understand that thinking and writing are related acts, the components of which can be subsequently redistributed in the final draft stage, based upon the conventions within a given discipline. CRITICAL THINKING
After learning about the role of inquiry within academic writing, students are introduced to a clear definition for critical thinking, its relationship to academic writing, and common sources of cognitive bias that impede effective reasoning. This section culminates in Step 1, the Critical Question Guide, in which the student formulates a critical question based upon a set of guidelines that explain how to formulate an area of inquiry upon which to write, providing the tools for students to begin the pre-writing stage of independent inquiry into a specific issue. QUESTIONS IN CONTEXT
Because students have often been given contradictory or ambiguous directives in relationship to academic writing, this chapter explores the reasoning behind common writing rules. In doing so, it translates those rules into practical guides for understanding the role of academic writing. Once a student has a critical question upon which to begin to write, the student then engages in Step 2, the Argument Map Guide, designed to refine the question to an appropriate level of specificity for the length of the writing, and to connect the question to a context from which to draw elements for analysis. xiv
FM.indd xiv
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:43 PM
SAYING WHAT WE MEANMEANING WHAT WE SAY
Until students have the opportunity to gain a basic understanding of how language functions in written argumentation, they may not understand the need for precision in the transmission of ideas, linked, as it is, to the metaphorical quality of language. In addition to providing a new way for students to evaluate the prose that they produce, this chapter offers the opportunity for students to explore the notion of stipulating the definition of a term, a practice that is common in writing drawn from critical thinking. This chapter provides Step 3 in the series, the Ways to Define Guide, in which the student advances the critical question upon which he or she is working. The student is given the opportunity to explore and engage in a controlled definition of the terms of that question. Finally, the end of Section 1 offers “The Shortcut,” a condensed model for prewriting designed to initiate critical thinking in relationship to writing an essay. This model can be quickly implemented for future writing in which the student will engage, after the student has a working understanding of the tools necessary to generate ideas, how to avoid common traps that impede critical thinking, and has gained a sense of precision and control over academic prose. SECTION II ANALYSIS, ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE, ARRANGEMENT
PERFORMING ANALYSIS
In defining critical thinking as a strategy of informal logic designed to aid a writer in remaining conscious of those elements that facilitate or inhibit clear reasoning, analysis can be defined, for the student, in contradistinction. As the primary act in which the student will engage in order to move from question to answer within academic writing, analysis is treated as an act involving the breaking down of an element into its constituent parts, for the purpose of producing knowledge. This chapter offers Step 4, the Steps to Analysis Guide, in which the student completes four steps of analysis on the question that the student has posed, Preface
FM.indd xv
xv
11/4/10 4:43 PM
in the process drawing conclusions that will eventually serve in the recursive strategy of writing the body of the essay. FINDING COMMON GROUND
In performing analysis, students will encounter categories through which to produce an organizing principle for the essay. Bypassing common writing formulas, the organizing principle develops from the unique quality of the answers at which the student arrives, allowing a paper organization that follows from that reasoning. Thus, the essay may follow a pattern of hierarchical, comparative, categorical, chronological, etc., organization, based upon the specific nature of the relationship between the questions and answers that the student produces within analysis. Once the student has established an organizing principle, strategies for exordium—the paper’s opening—are reviewed, and the student begins the paper by writing the opening paragraph, which includes elements the student has acquired through previous exercises: the question at hand, context, and definition. The student then provides a plan for the organization of the paper. The execution of this plan comprises Step 5, the Opening/Organizing Principle Guide. ARRANGEMENT
Once the student has all of the requisite elements, and has introduced the paper, the student is ready to produce a draft of the essay. In this chapter, students initiate the first step of their organizing principle, and proceed through that organization, returning each conclusion to the question at hand. Students are also given information regarding typical elements found within the critical essay, which the student comes to understand not as formulaic in nature, but as specific functions that each serve a purpose within the communication of ideas within academic writing. In previous exercises, students will already have worked on rhetorical elements such as exordium, definitio, narratio, partitio, and amplificatio, and come to understand those terms through the work they have already completed, in a way that does not result in the alienation often produced by those terms. Students are then exposed, in a straightforward manner, to refutatio, stasis, and epilogus
xvi
FM.indd xvi
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:43 PM
as additional functions of the academic essay, which students can then plan in the execution of their draft. Because students will be engaged in the drafting stage of the paper, at this point in the writing process, this chapter gives a brief explanation of established rules that govern the citation of source material. The resulting Step 6, the Essay Draft Guide, closes this section with the production of a provisional essay of requisite length upon which students could potentially receive feedback, and begin the process of revision and preparation for publication.
SECTION III RHETORIC, REVISION, PUBLICATION
COMMUNICATION AND RHETORIC
In many instructional situations, the student will be waiting to receive feedback on a draft. In other situations, the student will be best served by combining Chapter 7 (Arrangement) and Chapter 9 (Feedback/Revision), as well as Steps 6 and 7, before submission of a final paper. This chapter covers further issues of rhetoric and its relationship to critical thinking, by exploring those elements of rhetoric that provide information regarding common sources of cognitive bias, and elements of communication, including communication designed to produce suasion. Students learn about the five elements of communication, rhetoric as a discipline, fallacies, and appeals. Although not directly applicable to the advancement of the production of the final essay, students are offered practice exercises that deepen their understanding of these rhetorical concepts. These exercises allow the student to engage with the notion of rhetoric as a discipline, provide more sophisticated general tools for analysis of real-world issues, and reinforce strategies for attending to the elements of communication situations. FEEDBACK AND/OR REVISION
Either following the return of the first draft, or as rewrite strategy for the completion of a final essay, this chapter covers strategies for making use of feedback,
Preface xvii
FM.indd xvii
11/4/10 4:43 PM
rewriting, editing, proofreading, and global revision for the purpose of crafting a fully developed final essay based upon critical thinking. A careful distinction is made between those elements that pertain to all academic writing, across all disciplinary fields, and those elements that concern the final presentation of the paper according to standardized conventions within a discipline, and that may dictate rules concerning such things as format, tone of voice, positioning of elements, etc. In addition to the information provided regarding rewriting, this chapter provides Step 7, the Self-Diagnostic Guide. This guide presents a comprehensive checklist of all information covered in this text, against which the student compares the final writing that he or she has produced. It serves as a review of important concepts of critical thinking, and a check for ways in which the student may have engaged in areas of cognitive bias that impede the full exploration of his or her question to produce a valid and true conclusion, or thesis. JOINING THE CONVERSATION
In the final chapter of Reason to Write, students are offered a breakdown of different kinds of writing that occur in a variety of contexts, in order to emphasize the role of academic writing in facilitating a conversation related to the production of knowledge. This is reinforced through discussion concerning conference presentation and academic publication. This serves to redirect the notion of academic writing as a classroom activity, instead of a scholarly dialogue in which students can, and do, participate. It offers information regarding submitting a paper for submission for conference presentation or publication. Reason to Write concludes with Step 8, the Submission Guidelines Page. While this step does not require students to actually follow through in submitting papers for presentation or publication, it does include preliminary work that would be required to do so, including the acquisition of guidelines pertaining to submissions to the specific conference or journal.
xviii
FM.indd xviii
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:43 PM
SECTION I CRITICAL QUESTION CONTEXT DEFINITION
Contents
Chapter_01.indd 1
1
10/28/10 5:04 PM
Chapter_01.indd 2
10/28/10 5:04 PM
Chapter 1 A Reason to Write
1
BLINKING CURSOR SYNDROME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3
THE CASE AGAINST THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH FORM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4
PROCESS VS. PRODUCT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3
Chapter_01.indd 3
10/28/10 5:04 PM
1 blinking cursor syndrome
“Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” —Gene Fowler
I
f this book were to begin with one suggestion regarding how to begin writing an essay, it would be this: Find common ground with your reader. In other words, it is often helpful to open with a series of simple statements that a typical reader would find reasonable and fair.
Of course, many students have been taught to summarize—and therefore compress—all of an essay’s argument into the opening paragraph. This is why one of the more common complaints about the whole business of starting to write an essay is something that one could call Blinking Cursor Syndrome. You sit down to write an essay. You call up a new document in a word processing program. Within the frame, the page is empty except for a single cursor that blinks with mechanical indifference. It blinks for as long as it takes you to muster something to say. There you sit. There it blinks. Writers can experience this moment as a kind of pre-defeat. In part, this is because the first thing that many students have often been taught is that they should begin writing an essay with a strong, original idea, often called a “thesis statement.” The second thing that students have often been taught is that it is their task, upon the spontaneous arrival of this strong, original statement, to spend the rest of the essay arguing for that statement until it has been proved to a reasonable reader’s satisfaction. EVER WONDERED? A hyphen is used when two or more words are brought together to describe another word, as in “star-crossed lovers” or “plantcovered yard.” The hyphen is NOT necessary if the descriptive word is an adverb, as in “lovely night” or “slippery walk.” There is a difference between a hyphen and a dash.
4
Chapter_01.indd 4
Yet our hypothetical writer may be a bit confused: From what tree of inspiration, exactly, is one supposed to pluck this strong, original statement? Is one supposed to have an arsenal of such statements at hand? A writer may even begin to suspect, having checked his or her internal thesis-statement stockpile, and found it to be rattling about with a few fairly interesting, but half-formed speculations, that a clever person would have had a few good ones stashed away, for just such an occasion.
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
In this case, Blinking Cursor Syndrome can sometimes turn into a source of self-judgment, like: “I don’t really have anything important to say,” or “I’m just not good at this kind of writing.” This often leads to the student to conclude: “If I must perform this task, it is probably best to find a thesis statement that is easily defensible. I will, therefore, pick one that is not too boring or difficult.” One of the things covered in this text is that while academic writing may be hard work, it is actually quite a logical process. If something about writing an essay doesn’t make sense, there’s probably a reason. Critical thinking is designed to help writers to recognize the way in which writing follows from thinking, not by memorizing a formula, but by understanding that relationship. Critical thinking is a series of strategies designed to help you to pay attention to the way you think through a given idea. Most people, when faced with a problem to be solved, will employ what is called a heuristic. People have commonsensical ways in which to go about puzzling through a problem. This is because people are thinking, rational beings. Critical thinking takes this a step further. Critical thinking offers specific and sophisticated tools for paying attention to the way we think through a question. To illustrate, one could pose the question: Why do so many students find it difficult, in beginning to write, to spontaneously produce a thesis statement?
DEFINITION A heuristic is a word for the informal ways in which most people go about thinking when they solve problems or answer questions. Some are more effective than others. An example would be trial-anderror. As an aside, one treats an “h” as a vowel (hence a heuristic) if the “h” sound is not aspirated (if you do not hear the “h” sound in the word). Thus, it would be an hour, and a hat.
2 questions and answers
“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” —Graham Wallace
T
he thesis, although not always a single “statement,” is an essential part of an academic essay. One helpful general critical thinking tool is to carefully define what one means by a given word or phrase. In this case, the question becomes: What is a thesis statement? SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 5
5
10/28/10 5:04 PM
Although students are taught to use a thesis, it is often not clearly defined. Without looking it up, write a short, precise definition of a thesis statement: A thesis statement is
Many students will use the phrase “thesis statement” synonymously with “topic” or “argument,” or “opinion.” DEFINITION A Negative Definition is a way of defining a word or a phrase by comparing it to what it is not. Example: “An apple is not an orange, a peach, or a banana.”
Starting from what you might have written, here, it is helpful to understand that there are many ways to define a word or phrase. One could go to a dictionary. One could use examples. One could offer synonyms. Each way of defining a word can serve a specific purpose. One of ways to define a word is called a Negative Definition.
A Negative Definition can help to clear up confusion when a word has an ambiguous meaning, or is routinely misunderstood. Following is an example of negative definition, and how it can be useful. • A Thesis is not the topic of an essay A thesis is not the topic of an essay, because a topic refers to the paper’s area of inquiry, or what the essay “is about.” One could say: “The topic of the essay is global warming.” One would not say: “The thesis of the essay is global warming.” DEFINITION Logic is a systematic method for establishing what is valid and true based upon inference from premises.
6
Chapter_01.indd 6
• A Thesis is not an argument A thesis is only one part of an argument. The idea of “argumentation” goes back to formal logic, and formal logic offers several parts to an argument, each of which serves a purpose.
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
The most formal system of logical argumentation uses something called the Logical Syllogism. It may be surprising to learn that formal logic is not very helpful in composing academic writing. Formal logic is useful for evaluating existing arguments, but is too rigid to use as a writing strategy. Logic is very precise; mathematics, for example, is a subset of logic. The following example of a logical syllogism should be familiar to you. All logical syllogisms must be “True” (the premises are true) and “Valid” (the conclusion follows the premises). Major Premise:
All Men (A) are Mortal (B)
A=B
Minor Premise:
Socrates (C) is a Man (A)
C=A
Conclusion:
Socrates (C) is Mortal (B)*
C=B
✓ True (The Premises are True) ✓ Valid (The Conclusion follows from the Premises) * Sadly, in fact, it is true: Socrates is dead. In logic, a true conclusion follows from true premises. The conclusion is not, by itself, the argument. It is the logical result of the inferences drawn from those premises. The combination of all of these elements is, in total, an argument. The conclusion of a syllogism is designed to answer a question. In this example, the obvious (although unstated) question is: “Is Socrates Mortal?” The conclusion, or answer, to this question, is supported by the premises, and could be written in the following way: “Socrates is mortal because he is a man, and all men are mortal.” This is classical formal argumentation. Real-life questions are not always so straightforward. However, it is true that, because academic writing is logical in nature, there are certain similarities. The essay serves the same purpose as a syllogism: it answers a question that has been posed, based upon valid conclusions that are derived from true premises, and results in an answer. That answer serves as the thesis of the essay. By coming to reasoned conclusions, academic writing answers questions, solves problems, and resolves issues. A Thesis, then, is an answer to a question that the
SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 7
7
10/28/10 5:04 PM
writer poses. In syllogistic form, the question “What is a thesis?” would be answered in the following way: Major Premise:
An Answer is the Result of a Question
A=B
Minor Premise:
A Thesis is an Answer
C=A
Conclusion:
A Thesis is the Result of a Question
C=B
What all this means is that, in academic writing, or in any system of inquiry that seeks to further knowledge, answers usually follow from questions, and not the other way around. While this statement seems obvious, many students have been taught to begin to write the academic essay with an answer. In other words, one cannot produce a thesis without first having a question, EVER WONDERED? and then working through that question in a reaOnly italics are used for emphasis soned manner. This is because it is commonly within an essay. Bold or underline understood that all academic writing is specifically are never used to emphasize a designed to answer a question, solve a problem, or word or sentence in an essay. resolve an issue.
3 the case against the five-paragraph form
“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector.” —Ernest Hemmingway HERE IS A FORMULA WITH WHICH MANY OF YOU WILL BE FAMILIAR
Paragraph 1
Opening Thesis Statement
Introduce the thesis statement A single, original statement to be proved in the paper
Paragraph 2
Point 1
The “strongest” point that supports the thesis statement A single example of Point 1
example 1 Paragraph 3
Point 2 example 2
8
Chapter_01.indd 8
The next point that supports the thesis statement A single example of Point 2
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
Paragraph 4
Point 3 example 3
Paragraph 5
Conclusion
The next point that supports the thesis statement A single example of Point 3 Restate the thesis statement with the three main points included
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE ESSAY WRITTEN ACCORDING TO THAT FORMULA
Dogs Should Be Leashed Opening
Every year, thousands of people are bitten, pets are lost, and people are exposed to health risks because Thesis pet owners do not leash their dogs. All dogs should be on a leash. Point 1 Dogs that are unleashed are a danger to people. example 1 Last year my neighbor’s dog bit my cousin. He had to get stitches, and my aunt had to pay $300 for the hospital bill. Point 2 Without a leash to restrain them, dogs will run away, causing heartbroken owners who want them back. example 2 You can hardly pass a street without seeing a “lost dog” sign. Point 3 Dogs that are allowed to wander can be a health hazard to people. Wandering dogs can eliminate in public parks. Dogs can carry some diseases, like rabies. example 3 A child coming into contact with animal waste can become very ill. Conclusion In conclusion, all dogs should be on a leash. If not, they are a danger to people, they can get lost, and they can be a health hazard. Unfortunately, such writing formulai do little to advance students as critical thinkers and writers. In fact, because it privileges the structure of the essay over any kind of content, as Rosenwasser and Stephen note, it actually disables critical thinking: The five-paragraph form has the advantage of providing a mechanical format that will give virtually any subject the appearance of order [but] lops off a writer’s ideas before they have a chance to form…This simplistic scheme blocks writers’ abilities to think deeply or logically, restricting rather than encouraging the development of complex ideas. (111)
SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 9
9
10/28/10 5:04 PM
EVER WONDERED? A longer quotation from a source is set off from your text by the indenting the whole quotation five spaces. There are no quotation marks needed. The period goes after the quotation, and before any citation. How long a quotation should be before it must be put in this form depends on the type of formatting that you are using in your essay. For example, in MLA style, it must be over 4 lines before requiring indentation.
Academic writing is a lot like thinking, on paper. When one writes, one employs logic. One groups, categorizes, finds similarities and differences, and makes sure to account for all sides of a given issue. If an instructor were to assign the example-essay titled: “Dogs Should Be Leashed” as a reading for classroom discussion, students, being reasoning people, would probably immediately challenge the conclusion that is drawn. Students might ask: Is a leash the only way to control a dog? What about keeping the dog in a fenced yard, or in a house? What about a well-trained dog? Don’t wandering dogs also increase the population of unwanted animals? Does a dog need to be leashed on a farm? In other words, even though this example essay provides the requisite structure for a five-paragraph essay, including thesis statement, main points, and examples, it still fails, logically. If a thesis is always an answer to a question that has been posed, it is easier to understand why such an essay fails to support its thesis statement if one knows the question that it answers. Any statement can be turned into a question, and any question can be turned into a statement. The statement “The ball is round” could be changed to the question: “Is the ball round?” The question “Is the box square?” could be changed to the statement “The box is square.” Between a question and a statement is the real issue at hand— their “true” relationship to one another. DEFINITION If something is implicit, it is not stated outright, but offered indirectly. If something is explicit, it is stated directly. All academic writing is based upon a question, whether that question is implicit, or explicit.
10
Chapter_01.indd 10
The statement in the example essay is: “All dogs should be leashed.” It is the thesis of this essay, and therefore it is an answer to a question. The implicit question this thesis answers is: “Should all dogs be leashed-yes or no?” Let’s do a reality check. Most people, if asked, and given a moment or two to consider the question, would probably respond by saying that a far more
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
accurate and fair answer to that question would be: “Many dogs should be leashed, under certain circumstances, but not all dogs.” That’s why this essay fails to prove its thesis—not because it does not have a structure, but because it provides an inadequate answer to the question that it poses. Yet far more important than the essay’s failure to prove its thesis is the fact that the real answer to this question is obvious: one might as well produce a thesis from a question querying the existence of rocks, or whether a human is a piece of fruit, or if two-plus-two usually turns out to equal four. In other words, the real flaw of this essay is: What’s the point? Who cares? This is what happens when writers are required to provide an answer before being given the opportunity to formulate a thoughtful question.
4 process vs. product
“We don’t write what we know. We write what we wonder about.” —Richard Peck
A
thesis is an essential part of an academic essay. The thesis is present even if it is implicit. It is present even if it is explicit, no matter where it is placed in the final draft—in the beginning, shortly after the beginning, or at the end of the paper. So, too, a question always plays an essential part in academic writing. That question is present even if it is implicit. It is present even if is explicit, and wherever it is placed in the body of the paper, although it usually shows up pretty early in the writing, because the reader needs to know what’s in question. Following are excerpts from three essays taken from a textbook entitled: Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. The authors of this anthology included these essays because the
EVER WONDERED? Double quotation marks (“) are used to indicate that you are quoting someone else’s words within your prose. Single quotation marks (‘) are used only to indicate that the person whom you are quoting is quoting someone else, as in “Jane said ‘I like you.’” In general, all punctuation goes inside of single or double quotation marks, like this. The only exception is if there is an interruption between the end of the words in a sentence, and the end of the sentence, as when “one is quoting from a source” (Author 11).
SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 11
11
10/28/10 5:04 PM
textbook is designed to provide examples, to students, of effective academic writing, across disciplines. In the excerpt of each essay, pay attention to how the writer treats the issue at hand: • Sven Birkerts: “The Owl Has Flown” Reading and thinking are kindred operations, if only because both are invisible. …How do people experience the written word, and how have those experiences, each necessarily unique, changed in larger collective ways down the centuries? (70) • Julie Charlip “A Real Class Act”
I once asked a sociology professor what he thought about the…middle class. His definition was: If you earn thirty thousand dollars a year working in an assembly plant, come home from work, open a beer and watch the game, you are working class; if you earn twenty thousand dollars a year as a school teacher, come home from work to a glass of white wine and PBS, you are middle class. How do we define class? Is it a matter of values, lifestyles, taste? Is it the kind of work you do, you relationship to the means of production? Is it a matter of how much money you earn? Are we allowed to choose? (79) • Richard Florida “The Transformation of Everyday Life” Here’s a thought experiment. Take a typical man on the street from the year 1900 and drop him into the 1950’s. Then, take someone form the 1950’s and EVER WONDERED? Some writing instructors discourage the use of “I” (first-person voice) although it is used routinely in published academic essays. George Orwell used first-person voice in his famous 1946 essay “Politics in the English Language.” Some instructors also discourage the use of passive voice, which is one of the best ways a writer can avoid first-person voice. Passive voice is also frequently used in essays, because it produces a certain effect: “The experiment was conducted” sounds more objective and credible than “I conducted the experiment.” Both are a stylistic and genre choice, and both are sometimes effective. How else could politicians say things like: “Mistakes were made”? That said, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1) Always follow your instructor’s guidelines; 2) “I” voice is no reason to make an essay a personal narrative; 3) Passive voice gets boring, very quickly, for the reader.
12
Chapter_01.indd 12
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
move him Austin Powers-style into the present day. Who would experience the greater change? (194) Obviously, there are no thesis statements in these opening paragraphs. Rather, the writer poses an interesting question. In posing this question, the writer strikes an attitude of curiosity and promises to try to answer this question in a thoughtful, reasonable manner. Some academic writing does, in the opening, offer an answer to the question that the writing poses. However, that answer, or thesis, is not placed at the beginning because the writer thought of the thesis when she he or she started to write. Scholarship is the ability to ask smart questions, and to answer them well. It is more than becoming a walking encyclopedia of factual information; it is to have a certain ability to put the knowledge that one has acquired to good use. People do not place answers in front of questions. Rather, the answer is moved, in a rewrite, because disciplines have developed conventions in the writing that occurs in certain academic disciplines.
DEFINITION A convention is an established rule or set of rules that have built up over time. Sometimes these conventions make sense, and sometimes they’re just the result of habit. Wearing a tie, for example, used to be for the purpose of wiping one’s mouth after dinner. Now it is merely a convention.
Rather, the thesis is placed in the opening in the final draft, or revision. This is especially true in the case of papers written within the sciences, including the social sciences. Often, this answer comes in the form of an Abstract. The abstract covers: 1. What the writer was trying to accomplish 2. The results (answer, or thesis) 3. How those results could be applied In the writing product, the abstract is presented first. In the writing process, the abstract is almost always written last, because the writer wouldn’t know the answer until after the question has been posed. Writing that has an abstract usually occurs in APA style, and APA style is usually used within the social and hard sciences, especially those that concentrate on quantitative data. Writing in these disciplines routinely requires that the writer first submit what is called a Proposal, before even beginning the research, much less a draft of the SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 13
13
10/28/10 5:04 PM
writing, itself. The proposal always covers the initial area of inquiry—or, in other words, a question. The proposal covers: 1. The question to be posed, problem to be solved, or issue to be resolved 2. The method that will be used to answer that question or resolve that issue 3. Why answering that question or resolving that issue is important Let’s say that a scientist is going to write an article, based upon an experiment in a laboratory. No scientist steps into the laboratory, glances at the experiment, and immediately turns to the computer to write an article on his or her findings. The experiment is conducted around something in question, and the scientist must work with that question before coming to a conclusion. In writing up his or her findings, the scientist may produce a final article that places those conclusions on the first page, but the process begins by identifying the question at hand.
5 review
“I don’t wait to be struck by lightning, and don’t need certain slants of light in order to write.” —Toni Morrison CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to take from this chapter is that academic writing is for the purpose of answering questions, solving problems, or resolving issues. No matter where the thesis is presented in the final draft of the writing that you produce, the following will always apply: EVER WONDERED? When listing, use bullets (or equivalent) if the order of the items on the list doesn’t matter, and numbers if the order of the items on the list does matter.
• An answer is the logical end of the academic writing process • A question is the logical beginning of the academic writing process
That is because all academic thinking and writing begins with the idea that something is in question. If there were not something in question, well…there wouldn’t be a reason to write. 14
Chapter_01.indd 14
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
GRAMMAR REVIEW The Hyphen and Dash
The hyphen (-) is used to indicate that two or more words have been brought together to provide a description. Thus, one can be a “no-nonsense person.” The hyphen is also always used in numbers, which, unless they are very large, are always spelled out (e.g.: “twenty-one”). The hyphen is not needed if there is one adjective that is being used to describe the word. Thus, one can have a “strict person.” A hyphen is also not needed if the descriptive word is already an adverb, often indicated by ending in -ly. Thus, one can have a “slovenly person.” A Dash (–) is slightly longer than the hyphen. A dash should be used sparingly. Basically, it indicates an interruption of thought—a kind of sideline—within the writing. It can replace the colon, semi-colon, or the parenthesis, but be careful—it’s difficult to use correctly, and can become tiresome for the reader. Use it only if you understand the rules that govern what it replaces. A dash is also used as a replacement for the word “to,” as in: “January to March” becoming January—March Emphasis
The preferred way to emphasize a word is to use italics. Just be consistent. Bold and Underline are not used to emphasize words in academic writing. Quotation Marks (’ or ”)
Double quotation marks serve the main purpose of telling the reader that you have taken someone else’s writing, and inserted it into your own. It means that these are not your words, but someone else’s, and you have copied them directly. This is not the same as paraphrasing, which is an indirect quotation, and does not need quotation marks. Warning! Do not paraphrase someone else’s words unless you understand the rules that allow your reader to separate your words and ideas from other people’s words and ideas. Single quotation marks tell the reader that there is a quotation inside of a quotation. In other words, you copied the words of someone who copied the words SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 15
15
10/28/10 5:04 PM
of someone else. In either case, all punctuation goes inside of single or double quotation marks. Lengthy Quotations
Quotations that go on for more than a certain number of lines are set off from the rest of the text. The number of lines depends on the formatting style you are using. Even though these words are someone else’s, there is no need for quotation marks. The left margin of the quotation is moved in five spaces to indicate that it is a quotation. Check a style guide for exact rules. First-Person and Passive Voice
There is a great deal of grumpy fighting about this one, so make sure you know what your instructor expects in your writing. If you are instructed to use neither firstperson, nor passive voice, it’s going to be difficult, because one is used to avoid the other. An example would be: “I attended the conference on grammar.”
(first-person)
“The conference on grammar was attended.”
(passive voice)
So, you might have to get somewhat creative, as in: “At the conference on grammar, speakers covered the use of first-person and passive voice.” Bullets or Numbers
This is not a typical stylistic choice in academic writing, but it’s not bad to know that when thinking about the visual presentation of a document, one should use bullets for a list when the order doesn’t matter, and numbers when the order of the items does matter. A human requires: • food • water • shelter When boiling water, one should: 1. fill the pan with water 2. put the pan on the stove 3. light the fire under the pan 16
Chapter_01.indd 16
REASON TO WRITE
10/28/10 5:04 PM
VOCABULARY REVIEW
heuristic The informal ways in which most people go about solving problems or answering questions, including such things as trial-and-error, speculation, drawing a picture, etc. negative definition A way of defining a word by naming things to which it is similar, but that it is not. For example, a “pencil” is defined by the fact that it is not a pen or a marker implicit Something that is not stated, but that is implied, or suggested, or commonly understood to be so. The opposite is “explicit,” where something is stated without ambiguity or equivocation convention In this sense of the term, a practice that has become a tradition or custom, sometimes just from extensive usage, and sometimes for a reason. Conventions can be very formal (one signs a contract for a legal agreement) or informal (the person who foolishly goes to investigate the noise in the cemetery in the scary movie is always the first to die)
SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write
Chapter_01.indd 17
17
10/28/10 5:04 PM
Chapter_01.indd 18
10/28/10 5:04 PM
Chapter 2 Critical thinking
1
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT CRITICAL THINKING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2
CRITICAL THINKING AND LOGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3
CRITICAL THINKING AND ACADEMIC WRITING
4
WHY IS CRITICAL THINKING IMPORTANT?
5
THE ROLE OF CURIOSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6
THE (provisional) CASE AGAINST THE PROMPT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7
WRITING IS RISKY BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
9
THE CRITICAL QUESTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
.............................
23
......................................
25
STEP 1 CRITICAL QUESTION GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Sample Critical Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
19
Chapter_02.indd 19
04/11/10 1:21 AM
1 what’s different about critical thinking?
“Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.” —William Zinsser EVER WONDERED? When you introduce the name of the person from whom you are quoting, within your own prose, it is called a “signal phrase.”
A
cademic writing, in essence, is a clear record of a writer’s reasoning from a question to an answer. As Hans Guth explains:
The writer appeals to the reader’s willingness to think a matter through on the merits of that logic. This systematic writing is the mode of most academic writing, from an economist’s analysis of the causes of inflation, to a philosopher’s examination of logical proofs for the existence of God. (18)
Academic writing uses a style that tends to offer a question, in an implicit or explicit manner, and then to move, step-by-step, to a conclusion, through reasoned argumentation. So, what role does critical thinking play in academic writing? People often have a hard time figuring out what exactly is meant by the term “critical thinking.” Sometimes it seems like analysis, sometimes like logic, and sometimes like just basic common sense.
2 critical thinking and logic
“And as you come to practice this habit of thought more and more you will get better and better at it. To penetrate into the heart of the thing—even a little thing, a blade of grass, as Walt Whitman said—is to experience a kind of exhilaration that, it may be, only human beings of all the beings on this planet can feel. We are an intelligent species and the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. When we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.” —Carl Sagan
20
Chapter_02.indd 20
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
C
ritical thinking appears to be somehow both logical, but also to require a kind of creative leap on the part of the thinker, as when we speak of someone thinking “outside the box.” Sometimes, critical thinking is referred to as “critical-creative thinking.” Creativity and logic often strike people as a strange combination—aren’t people artists or accountants? Of course, we know such binaries are reductive. People are both creative and logical. Critical thinking does involve a kind of speculative capacity, much like other forms of informal logic. The way that we think through things that we encounter may require an intuitive or experimental willingness to imagine other possibilities. Such thinking often yields unconventional answers to which people would not necessarily have arrived by more formal means. For example, riddles are just such an exercise in intuitive leaps, because they appear, on the surface, to be logically unsolvable. Here’s a simple one that many schoolchildren know: What can run, but never walks, has a mouth, but never talks, has a head, but never weeps, has a bed, but never sleeps? At first, it doesn’t seem like it is possible to offer a logical answer to this riddle— which is, if you will notice, like many riddles, in the form of a question. If one tries to tackle the question logically, all that seems to happen is a series of dead ends. Things that run are probably able to walk, so that doesn’t make sense. There are lots of animals with mouths that don’t talk, but we know that’s not the answer. While a shark may be an animal that rests more than it actually sleeps, that doesn’t fulfill the other criteria. More than that, it’s not funny—or, at least, it doesn’t fulfill our expectations of the answer to a riddle. For as long as we stay within the “box,” we can’t answer the riddle. To answer the riddle, we need to understand that it is the box itself that is keeping us from imagining other possible answers. We don’t need to think outside the box; we need to examine the box and see if it is really what we assume that it is. Many interesting ideas and discoveries have been made by informal logic. We are not computers: a part of the way we think often involves imagining other possibilities, as Carl Sagan notes: But the scientific cast of mind examines the world critically as if many alternative worlds might exist, as if other things might be here which
SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 21
21
04/11/10 1:21 AM
are not. Then we are forced to ask why what we see is present and not something else. Why are the Sun and the Moon and the planets spheres? Why not pyramids, or cubes, or dodecahedra? Why not irregular, jumbly shapes? Why so symmetrical, worlds? (17) Once we allow the possibility that it is the “box” itself that is preventing an answer to the riddle, by constraining the possible answers we can come up with, the answer becomes obvious. What can run, but never walks, has a mouth, but never talks, has a head, but never weeps, has a bed, but never sleeps? The answer is: a river. DEFINITION Cognitive bias is a term from cognitive science that refers to the ways in which our thinking can be routinely distorted, and lead us to erroneous conclusions and decisions.
However, it is very important to note that informal logic can also be very ineffective, because it leaves the thinker vulnerable to cognitive bias. More formal forms of logic offer a very stable position from which to evaluate the world, as well as beautifully clear and final answers. Informal logic, while generative, is both messier and more subject to error.
One example of a cognitive bias would be something called anchoring. It is our tendency to focus on one attribute when making a decision, to the exclusion of others that may be just as important. An example would be if you were so intent on choosing a desk for your room based upon the number of drawers it contained, you did not find out whether the desk would fit through the doorway. Or, another cognitive bias would be if one were to assume that wearing the color black is universal to persons who are in mourning. This is called cultural bias; in some cultures, the color to wear, while in mourning, would be white. Critical thinking is related to informal logic. The element that distinguishes critical thinking is that it is a mode of thinking that serves the purpose of helping the thinker to self-regulate against cognitive bias. Although there are many ways that people define the phrase, for the purpose of this book, the following definition will apply: • Critical Thinking: Remaining conscious of the limitations and potentialities of one’s own thinking. Or, as Richard Paul and Linda Elder define critical thinking, it is: “that mode of thinking—about any subject, content, or problem—in which the thinker...takes charge of the structures inherent in thinking, and imposes intellectual standards upon them” (4). 22
Chapter_02.indd 22
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
It is very important to understand the specific function of critical thinking. If critical thinking is confused with logic, or with analysis, one can miss the role that critical thinking plays in academic writing. When people talk about “thinking outside the box,” what they seem to mean is that one should try to imagine possibilities outside of the structure of the way that a given issue is typically understood. This requires an intellectual capacity that seems to be missing from formal logic, yet is also much less reliable. It helps to understand critical thinking as a way to remain alert to the nature of those things that inhibit clear thinking in informal logic, while retaining the possibilities it provides. If “the Box” represents the limitations and possibilities inherent to the way in which we commonly think through problems, then: Critical Thinking is not about thinking “Outside of the Box”
? Critical Thinking is about thinking about “the Box,” itself.
?
3 critical thinking and academic writing
“I write to discover what I think” —Joan Didion
I
f you think of the “academy” not as a single university, but as all the universities and places of learning, across the world, put together, you would start off with a collection of things and people: scholars; students; buildings; classrooms; etc. SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 23
23
04/11/10 1:21 AM
However, the “academy” is also something else: it’s an ongoing conversation concerning all of the knowledge, in any discipline, that we have accumulated up to this point, in our history. That conversation happens in classrooms, in offices, in conferences, and in publication. However, the place it happens the most is in writing. A physicist writes. An economist writes. A psychologist writes. A biologist writes. An astromer writes. This writing continues, and the conversation continues. With few exceptions, the primary activity, within the academy, is writing. Sometimes this knowledge produces things: cures for diseases, new computer programs, more sophisticated technologies—but before those things are produced, they are written and shared with others in the field. Whether the thing is made, or not, it is the idea that is treated as property. That’s why, at universities, people refer to “intellectual property”—and that property is claimed, and held, through academic publication. DEFINITION Ideology is a shared worldview that gives order or structure or meaning based upon assumptions that individuals get from participation in particular social groups, and that are usually held in common by persons within that group. An example of ideology, in the United States, would be certain common ideas about individuality that shape much of how people perceive themselves, others, society, and politics. Epistemology is a branch of knowledge that studies the nature, origin, and limitations of human knowledge, itself, and the various ways in which we come to that knowledge.
Critical thinking serves a lot of purposes, but its main purpose is not directly involved with making arguments. It operates in the background of arguments, encouraging the thinker to pay attention to the social, ideological, epistemological, and historical forces that operate, often invisibly, all around us. These forces shape how we understand such things as other people, objects, issues, the world, institutions, language, and ourselves. In other words, they are the things that help to form the box that tends to structure our thinking. In relationship to this conversation, critical thinking and writing operate in a specific kind of relationship. While it may sound strange, critical thinking functions not to answer a question, but to answer to the way you are asking a question.
Critical thinking is about the very act of inquiry. It’s about being curious about everyday things, forming questions to which we do not yet have answers, and staying honest in trying to answer those questions. It is about taking nothing for granted. It’s about regulating our own thought processes, so that we proceed in a way that is sound and ethical. Critical thinking is, in essence, about cultivating a kind of active and careful curiosity. 24
Chapter_02.indd 24
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
4 why is critical thinking important?
“I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.” —Arthur C. Clarke
W
hy is critical thinking important? It is important because how we ask a question plays a very important role in the answers at which we arrive.
Think of it this way: Imagine a plant on a hillside. There is a lot of knowledge that could be produced by studying this plant, and by asking different questions. We could examine its cellular structure. We could determine its place in the taxonomy of other plants. We could discover its potential medicinal value. We could track the history of its migration. We could determine its life cycle. We could look up its Latin name. We could conduct research to see if it plays a role in any ancient myths. We could determine its role within the local ecology, etc. For each way in which we ask a different question of that plant, we would get a different answer. Even if we put all of those questions and answers together, we still wouldn’t know everything about that plant. That is because the plant is what is called existent. In the end, it does not matter how many ways we measure it, or how many other kinds of things to which it is compared: the plant simply is what it is. It might be a difficult notion to wrap one’s head around, but being and knowledge are simply not the same things.
DEFINITION Existent refers to the simple state of being of a thing, beyond the knowledge that we produce about that thing, or our experience of it.
That does not mean that truth is relative, or that we can’t say something important, useful, and accurate about the plant. We can produce knowledge about it; we can be right, or wrong, in the knowledge that we produce. Rather, it is that we have different structures for determining what is true. Producing knowledge is often systematic. We compare things according to criteria that are already established. We process an object that we find, in the world (e.g.: Milkweed), through a system that is designed to produce answers (e.g.: Botany-the study of SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 25
25
04/11/10 1:21 AM
plants), and get a variation of the same answer that we receive when we run a different object (e.g.: Chrysanthemum) through that system. In doing so, we generate categories and taxonomies, and we understand things better. We can ask the same question of different objects, or we can ask different questions of the same object. In other words, the questions that we ask, and how we ask them, and why we ask them, play an important part in determining the answers we receive. We like to organize the world, and that requires repeating the same questions, in the same way, of similar objects. Critical thinking is about paying attention to the way that we think when we ask these questions and get our answers, including what we’re taking for granted—such as the notion that Latin and plants are related, or how we would define a myth. Most of all, it is a way to understand how our discursive practices affect our view of the significance of that knowledge. All skilled academic thinkers and writers pay close attention to critical thinking. People are not quality thinkers just because they find answers; they are quality thinkers because they remain mindful of the way in which they are asking questions. DEFINITION There is a great deal of disagreement regarding the meaning of the phrase discursive practice, but in this context it means: “The various rules that determine the possibilities of the production of knowledge about objects, people, or ideas.”
That’s why the history of ideas is not just a history of the steadily growing accumulation of answers to which we have arrived. It is also a history of the ever-changing ways that our questions have limited, or expanded, the range of the answers that it is possible for us to receive. The tricky thing about critical thinking is accepting that it is not about answers, but rather the way that we get to them. Critical thinking is an ongoing, self-corrective habit-of-mind that helps academic writers to understand how thinking is structured, the elements that influence the way that we think, how those influences can bias our thinking, how to guard against those biases, and the strengths and limitations of the language we use to express those thoughts. In relationship to writing, critical thinkers raise vital questions, formulate them in language that is precise and clear, identify any assumptions made in asking the question, adjust when encountering valid points that contradict expectations, and remain rigorously honest. Writers who engage in critical writing do that, on paper, for a reader. That’s what academic writing is supposed to do. 26
Chapter_02.indd 26
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
5 the role of curiosity
Curiosity has its own reason for existence. The important thing is not to stop questioning. —Albert Einstein
F
or a moment, imagine that academic writing is like a popular Hollywood film. In the beginning, the film establishes a situation that is basically stable. Life is just kind of going along, as it tends to do. Then, something changes. Conflict is introduced—someone has a fight, an airplane has mechanical difficulties, or a villain plots the end of civilization-as-we-know-it. This conflict leads to a feeling of unease or tension in the audience, which triggers the desire for resolution of the conflict. Desire for resolution compels the main character/s to action that will lead to the resolution of the conflict. That’s why you can often think of characters within films less as people than as functions: an element that serves a specific purpose. For example, the function of a villain is the same as the function of a natural disaster: DEFINITION to compel the hero to action. That’s the basic arc of In Narrative Theory, when conflict popular Hollywood film. This desire to resolve the is introduced in a story, the resulting desire, on the part of the conflict and reach resolution, whether it occurs in audience, to see resolution of that a film, or in a novel, (or anything with a narrative), conflict, is called Narrative Drive. is called Narrative Drive.
So, too, in academic writing, all knowledge begins in a settled state—in textbooks, and in lecture halls, and in practice, people teach about, and act upon, what we know. Then, something changes: a question arises, or something doesn’t seem right, or doesn’t make sense, or perplexes us. We can only begin to write when conflict is introduced. This conflict leads to tension on the part of the writer, which leads to the desire for resolution of the conflict. We have a name for the drive to resolve the conflict that questions produce. It’s called “curiosity.” People who write academically tend to value curiosity—not just in the intellectual sense, but also as a part of the emotional satisfaction of finding the means to answer a question. In other words, people often find thinking—not just memorization, but actually thinking through something—pleasurable. SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 27
27
04/11/10 1:21 AM
This means that, in order to begin, an academic writer does not need a thesis to defend. Without conflict, or a question, there’s no answer to defend—everything has been questioned and answered, already. Rather, an academic writer needs a question about which to get curious. Until a writer has a question, a writer cannot really begin effective analysis. Until a writer performs effective analysis, the writer cannot really offer valid conclusions based upon that analysis. Until the writer can offer valid conclusions, the writer cannot produce a thesis, or answer, to the initial question.
6 the (provisional) case against the prompt
I would rather have a writing instrument [that was] bent and dull, and know I had to put it on the grindstone, and hammer it into shape, and know I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say. —Ernest Hemingway
S
ometimes, instruction that is offered in textbooks, or classrooms, or even test situations, will attempt to stimulate curiosity in students by providing what are called “writing prompts.” Writing prompts are almost always in the form of a question, usually related to a source of some kind, such as a reading.
Asking questions is an important part of learning, and examples of good questions do serve an important purpose. In learning specialized knowledge, it can be essential. However, learning to ask good questions is also an important part of learning, and is vital to critical thinking. Writing prompts often tend to limit that learning, in the following ways: • Answering a prompt usually triggers learned behavior in the student that results in a relationship to writing that is more like: “What answer does this instructor want?” than “What can be said, in truth, about this question?” • Composing a critical question is itself a process that teaches critical thinking. • An independent critical question is far more likely to activate curiosity, for a writer. Therefore, an independent question is more likely to help the writer to perceive the resulting answer as something for which he or she is responsible. 28
Chapter_02.indd 28
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
• Control over the way a question is posed helps to determine the possible answers. New questions produce new answers. In this case, students participate in the conversation, instead of simply “listening in” to the record of a conversation that has already taken place. It is also understandable that instructors would tend to want to retain control over the questions upon which students will write. Instructors usually want to be helpful, and it is often helpful to provide models of questions that are worth asking. At the same time, education is, in part, learning to pay attention to thinking, and a part of that is learning the nature of how to question effectively. Learning to question effectively means getting a solid foundation in recognizing those elements that tend to create bias in our thinking. Cognitive bias simply means that our thinking has, in some way, been hindered by those elements of thought that distort reasoning. Such distortions can affect not only the conclusions that people produce, but also the way that people form questions. Questions formed with cognitive bias will typically result in conclusions that reproduce that cognitive bias. For example, the type of questions that would probably result in cognitive bias would include, but not be limited to, those that exhibit: A. Binary Thinking B. Speaking for others C. Generalizations D. Opinion E. Projecting into the future F. Lack of specificity G. Reporting on existing knowledge As an exercise, circle the kinds of bias that you judge the following questions produce, from the list above. There may be more than one answer; choose the best one. There is an answer key at the end of this section. 1. Why do we get angry?
ABCDEFG
2. When should people get married?
ABCDEFG
3. Who invented the light bulb?
ABCDEFG SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 29
29
04/11/10 1:21 AM
4. What will society look like in fifty years?
ABCDEFG
5. Why do men like sports?
ABCDEFG
6. What is the meaning of life?
ABCDEFG
7. Is poverty based on circumstances or behavior?
ABCDEFG
Learning about these issues not only clarifies academic inquiry, but also offers the opportunity to understand what causes bias, and to recognize it in future writing and thinking. Answer Key: 1-B; 2-D; 3-G; 4-E; 5-C; 6-F; 7-A
7 writing is risky business
“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
T
he first step to academic writing is finding a reason to write, which means finding a question about which to get curious. Since critical thinking is designed to help thinkers to be aware of the way that they think things through, a critical question would be designed to guide the student away from questions that would produce cognitive bias. In this way, a critical question is not a set of rules but a learning tool— a guide to help a writer to avoid bias, but also to understand what constitutes a question that will yield further thinking. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. A lot of writing involves risk. First of all, in no other area, except perhaps in speaking, do we reveal more of ourselves, to others, than when we commit words to paper. People judge us based upon our writing—not just in classrooms, but in other places in which we produce it. We invest in our writing, because when we write, we invite others into our worldview. Academic writing is especially risky, not only because we are actually evaluated on our efforts, but also because quality academic writing begins in a state of curiosity, and curiosity means you don’t know something. Curiosity is a kind of alert uncertainty that remains open to possibilities. This state of uncertainty can be uncomfortable, 30
Chapter_02.indd 30
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
as one student reflected in a response to the assignment of coming up with a critical question: Imagine sitting nervously in your first ever college writing class, fresh out of high school, and foreign to university-level teaching. Your professor begins to talk about your first ever homework assignment, one that will be due at the beginning of the next class. As she first presents the assignment it seems as though it will be a simple task that should take no longer than ten or fifteen minutes, but as she goes into greater detail, suddenly a challenge arises. The task is to come up with a critical question, which is defined by a certain criteria. Suddenly the ten or fifteen minutes that you planned on spending to come up with this question seems like an endless search for the perfect question, one that will yield intellectual thought, and a good grade, as well. This was the exact situation that I found myself in, just a few weeks ago. The assignment flustered me so much that I came to the next class with no question written down, and not even the slightest clue of what my potential question would be. I began to think about this process of coming up with a question, and I asked myself: “Just what is it that makes this assignment so difficult?” The question in itself fit the criteria of a critical question.1 This student’s response is understandable. It bad enough not to “know the answer,” but it is even more unsettling not to “know the question.” In much of our understanding of what it is to be in a classroom, students who display this level of ignorance are usually students who are doing poorly. However, if a writer already knows the answer before writing, unless the writer does a great deal of pre-writing, it’s very likely that everyone else knows the answer, too. In academic writing, this initial state of uncertainty is necessary. Writing is a unique activity that requires investment, and investment involves putting something on the line, in order to get something back. Richard E. Miller calls this initial state of uncertainty one of discontinuity: Typically, a position—a thesis or argument—will remain fairly vague until we have done a great deal of preliminary writing. …Discontinuities lead us to search for a shared horizon, and from this shared horizon our own questions come. Then, provided we are willing to push far enough, a coherent position begins to emerge, not all at once in a grand vision 1
Matthew Townsend, Writing 1 Fall 2007. UCSB. SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 31
31
04/11/10 1:21 AM
but cumulatively, with one insight building on the next. At some point, all these insights begin to cohere, we recognize the directions of our thoughts, a direction that writing itself has revealed. We write and then we see where our writing has taken us. Only then are we in a position to convey our discoveries to others in a well-crafted presentation. (xvii) In other words, there’s no way to offer students a pre-mixed “formula” for thinking, and writing is linked to thinking. An instructor can only endeavor to provide the best map, the best tools, and the best guard-rail for the tricky bits. The critical question is the first step. When asked to come up with a critical question, students often feel daunted, because they know that there is specialized knowledge out there that people have been studying for years. For example, a writer would need specialized knowledge within a given field to ask the question: If the Second Law of Thermodynamics introduces the concept of friction, to what degree would reducing the relative mass of an object decrease entropic forces? …or… How does the pictographic quality of sign language usage impact upon Ferdinand de Saussure’s rejection of the onomatopoeic quality of words in his postulation of the arbitrariness of the sign? No doubt about it—academics get interested in strange topics. However, the thing that divides “students” from “scholars” is not class standing (freshmen vs. senior, or undergraduate vs. graduate student), or even whether a writer has, or doesn’t have, an advanced degree. Rather, it is that students tend to assume that all the answers are already out there. In other words, they assume that the conversation is over, and they’re just showing up to “listen in” to the record. Scholars tend to know that the conversation is still open, and any good question can lead to a new way of looking at something, and therefore can produce new knowledge in any given field. Specialized knowledge gives a writer an edge, because the writer knows the terminology, and can move confidently through the writing that has been done in that field, by other thinkers. However, nobody can write critically merely based upon the accumulation of specialized knowledge, because he or she would merely be repeating known information. A person with specialized knowledge, but without curiosity, 32
Chapter_02.indd 32
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
or the ability to make critical leaps between kinds of information, cannot create new knowledge. He or she is merely a walking encyclopedia. We have computers and libraries for that kind of storage. A person who is curious, but who may not yet have a huge amount of specialized knowledge, has all the makings of a critical writer. A writer does not have to have a Mathematics Ph.D. to wonder about the paradox of the concept of zero. A writer does not have to have a Sociolinguistics Ph.D. to wonder how and why the word “ghetto” has moved from a noun to an adjective. A writer does not have to have a Ph.D. in Political Science or Geography to wonder about how topography affects politics in the Middle East. A writer does not have to have a Ph.D. in Media Studies to wonder how and why television animation has moved from children’s entertainment to adult social satire. A writer does not have to have a Ph.D. in Anthropology to wonder how the Internet has changed how we think about our identities within groups. In responding to the difficulty in producing a critical question, this student illustrated one of the benefits of the critical question. He became genuinely curious about why coming up with a critical question was so difficult, and concluded his response, at the end of the course, with a level of honesty in his writing that was missing from what he initially perceived as a “copout” for the work: When the time came for me to present my critical question, I received laughs for questioning the actual assignment in itself. I, myself, did not see the question as being a very good one until I began writing the actual paper. However, I was able to understand for myself a question that at first did not make sense to me. Through analyzing the idea of critical thinking and critical questions, I was able to attain this skill for myself, and gain a better understanding of why it can be difficult for people to do. By no means is thinking critically easy to do, and it is, from my own experience, one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It involves a long thought process that not only challenges an individual to see the other side of an argument, but to question assumptions and beliefs. Critical thinking is not just an approach to finding answers to difficult questions, but also a method of retaining one’s individuality. The last statement in this response not only demonstrates the way in which this student answered the question, but the manner in which his exploration of the issue extended his own understanding of his role as a student in the university, as a participant. SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 33
33
04/11/10 1:21 AM
The purpose of this book is, in part, to help you to rehearse how you would work from a question, through an analysis, to an answer, on paper, for a reader. This process provides generalized skills that are applicable in both the public and private sector, in all academic fields of specialization, as well as in professional life. The more you look at the world critically, the more you will notice; the more you notice, the more you will question what you see; the more you question what you see, the better you will become at producing answers about the world, and join in the conversation that furthers our knowledge of it. In other words, if you can do it here, you can do it there.
8 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to take from this chapter is that there are different ways of creating knowledge. The questions that we ask help, in part, to determine the answers that we receive. Critical thinking is not about generating answers. Rather, it’s about paying attention to the way in which one questions in order to get to an answer. Doing so requires intellectual self-regulation, which can become a habit-of-mind that one develops, and that can be applied to other contexts. GRAMMAR REVIEW Signal Phrase
A “signal phrase” is a way for you to indicate the person/s from whom you are quoting, instead of just putting that person’s name in a citation or footnote. It’s often required, and even if it was not, it’s the polite thing to do. Your reader will appreciate it, because she or he may recognize the name of the other writer, and better understand your use of the quotation. VOCABULARY REVIEW
cognitive bias From cognitive science, refers to the many ways in which our chain of thinking can become flawed, and lead to erroneous conclusions, actions, and decisions 34
Chapter_02.indd 34
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
ideology This is a difficult term that is used in a variety of ways in different disciplines and by different theorists. For our purposes, it indicates the shared worldview that gives order or structure or meaning to the communication in which we engage, because we share a common social group or a common language. This ideology is often a source of cognitive bias epistemology Closely related to critical thinking, refers to a branch of knowledge that studies knowledge itself: the history of knowledge, how we produce it, what pressures to which it is subject, who has control over that production, and how it affects people’s perceptions over time existent From philosophy, this simply means that producing knowledge is a human activity— the “real world” doesn’t particularly care, nor is it affected, except to the degree that we apply that knowledge (e.g.: the production of fossil fuels). In other words, we are the ones who wonder, and experience, and speculate, and question. In doing so, we engage in an activity alongside the world, not with it. We record our means of understanding and experiencing the world. We do not record the world, itself narrative drive One of the strange things about people is our ability to get excited about things that not only don’t exist, but that we know don’t exist—like fictional characters. People love them, or hate them, or cheer for them, or mourn for them Our ability to do so has to do with empathy and imagination. Empathy is the ability to imagine oneself in the position of another, and feel emotionally invested. It’s an important part of being human. If one couldn’t empathize, one not only wouldn’t care if Romeo jumped off a cliff in the middle of the play, one probably wouldn’t care if a real person jumped off of a cliff A good portion of the human brain is devoted to empathy—that’s why people are social. That’s also why people without empathy are called sociopaths Narrative drive is the emotion we experience when our empathy is engaged through a process of plot production, which involves putting someone or something (a person, a character, a country, an animal, a tree—we’re pretty versatile) into conflict, and then briefly withholding the resolution of that conflict That’s what gets us to the theater, to the sports arena, and to the newscast SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 35
35
04/11/10 1:21 AM
9 The critical Question
STEP 1: CRITICAL QUESTION GUIDE
For the first step, write a Critical Question: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Make sure that this question follows the eight critical question guidelines listed below. Check each one. If the question does not fit a guideline, find a way to revise it, or choose a new question. Guideline
True ˝
1. The question is not a question that can be answered by “yes” or “no”
____
2. The question does not have the word “should,” nor is it phrased as a “should” question
____
3. The question may be one around which you have some ideas, but it is not a question to which you already have the answer
____
4. The question is not a question that someone else has already answered in the same way, or that requires extensive secondary sources, or an advanced degree, to answer
____
5. The question does not require you to generalize groups of people, as in “Men like sports” ____ 6. The question does not require you to “speak for others.” A good way to check this is to ask yourself if the only reasonable answer is: “It depends upon whom you ask” ____ 7. The question should be as specific as you can make it, because general questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” would probably not be something you could answer comprehensively within the length of an essay ____ 8. The question should not require you to imagine future events 36
Chapter_02.indd 36
____
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
SAMPLE CRITICAL QUESTIONS
• How is fashion a medium of communication? • How have two political parties in the United States generated “packaged” values? • What is the tension between truth, falsehood, and art, in photography? • How do public spaces structure human experience? • What determines the details that are “left out” of a given historical narrative? • What kind of identity stakes are involved in online gaming? • What are the consequences of the new positioning of the university as a transition between high school and work? • How has the web changed the possibilities for accessing, owning, and exchanging information? • What are the similarities and differences between health, fitness, and beauty? • How did the “culture wars” change the face of democracy and debate in U.S. discourse? • In what ways has the image of the vampire in popular culture become romantic, moving into the teen-pic flick genre? • How much of human perceptual experience is attention-based, and how much is spent in a state of distraction? • What is the history of persuasive strategies used within the “anti-drug” campaign in the United States? • How do theme parks structure experience, and what message does that experience provide? • When a celebrity’s life is given the status of “real news,” what does this say about a kind of national “gossip”? • What is the current popular image of Christianity in the U.S.? • In what way is there a double standard for male and female promiscuity?
SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking
Chapter_02.indd 37
37
04/11/10 1:21 AM
• How does the image of American individuality conflict with action directed toward the common good? • How are new forms of political expression used for profit, and then exhausted? • What is the nature of the fan’s “fanatical” investment in sports in the U.S.? • How do styles of music generate social groupings and self-identity? • What is behind various representations of the “end-of-the-world,” from Y2K to 2012? • What appeals do recruitment posters, for different branches of the military, make in the United States? • To what degree is our identity shaped by the roles that we play? • What is the role of metaphor, illustration, and/or photography in scientific or legal or historical discourse? • What is the shift, in sports, between direct engagement in the activity, and spectatorship? • What is the nature of the division between logic and faith, and what role might faith play in logic, and logic in faith? • In what ways is “multiculturalism” a description of American culture, and in what ways is it a description of an individual’s experience within that culture? • Why do our love stories in popular film often end at the altar? • Why are toys often gendered, and what does this say about the training of people in regard to gender roles? • What factors go into determining the gender/age of a given voiceover for a product in a TV commercial?
38
Chapter_02.indd 38
REASON TO WRITE
04/11/10 1:21 AM
Chapter 3 Questions in context
1
REVISING FIVE WRITING RULES
2
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3
THE QUESTION MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
............................................................
40
THREE PARTS TO THE QUESTION MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 EXAMPLE QUESTION MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
STEP 2 THE QUESTION MAP GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
39
Chapter_03.indd 39
27/10/10 5:28 PM
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” —Lewis Carroll Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There
1 revising five writing rules
“Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge” —Kahlil Gibran
G
eneral writing rules are often designed to accompany a formula for writing the essay. In this section, you will have the opportunity to examine five typical writing rules, how they are designed to help, and how they might be reoriented toward developing skills toward critical thinking and writing. Students are often told that academic writing: • Is for the purpose of winning an argument • Is where one should express one’s opinion • Involves agreeing or disagreeing on a topic • Involves the writer choosing a topic of interest • Tells the reader what we “should” do
40
Chapter_03.indd 40
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
In relationship to academic writing, these directions are like having assembly instructions that are almost helpful, yet somehow fit neither the parts provided, nor the nature of the final product. Each rule forces the writer to think a certain way, and therefore to write a certain way. It is helpful to examine the way in which these rules constrain the possibility of the way that writers think through a given issue, and to examine how to revise the rule so that writers can work through a question in the process of academic inquiry. THE PURPOSE OF ACADEMIC WRITING IS TO WIN AN ARGUMENT
The idea that, in a paper, one is to argue that one is “right,” at all costs, is based upon a model of adversarial debate. While academic writers often respond to other writers, an academic article is not an editorial or a speech, and rarely adopts an adversarial tone. As such, there are several ways in which this rule gets in the way of quality academic prose: • Writers become more concerned with defense of a statement than curiosity about what is so • Writers tend to ignore any information that does not support winning the argument, which impedes honesty • Writers will tend to polarize a complex issue in order to take a “side” When you write in academics, you have an obligation to your reader to be honest, and to fully explore an idea. There is a difference between winning or losing an argument, and persuading an audience through honest inquiry. Most readers can sense very quickly if a writer is more invested in being “right” than in telling the truth. Readers are persuaded by writers: • Who are invested, but reasonable • Who are careful and honest • Who are fair, and look at all sides to an issue • Who take other points of view into account • Who endeavor to be of service to their readers In other words, readers are best served by writers who can be trusted not to sacrifice intellectual and personal integrity for the sake of “winning” a one-sided argument on paper, just to prove that he or she can do so. SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 41
41
27/10/10 5:28 PM
One of the most important features of academic writing is an attitude of genuine curiosity that demands that you take your own writing seriously. This means taking responsibility for the ethical dimension of writing: the responsibility, to yourself, and to your reader, to tell the truth, and to get to the heart of the matter at hand, without bias or agenda. Unfortunately, the word “argument” often gives the wrong impression. The word “argument” is not a poor description for what one does in academic writing, if one defines it. However, in modern day language, an “argument” sounds like a “fight.” It sounds like competition. One fights, and one fights to win. However, the word “argument,” in this case, refers to a logical progression of ideas that invests in the truth of a matter as opposed to “winning.” One does not persuade by battering the opposition. One persuades by demonstrating that one is a reasonable person. Persuasion is usually not the result of “winning,” but the result of the reader, in encountering the writer’s prose, coming to trust in this attitude of honesty on the part of the writer. Old Rule:
The purpose of academic writing is to win an argument
New Rule:
The purpose of academic writing is to be honest, and to determine the truth the best that you can.
ACADEMIC WRITING IS THE PLACE TO EXPRESS YOUR OPINION
Encouraging students to write about their opinions is, quite frankly, careless, and probably stems from the underestimation of young people’s ability to think effectively, or to have something of value to say. Critical thinking, or critical writing, is never the place for opinion. Yet it is also entirely understandable to ask how one can tell the difference between when something is an “opinion” and when it’s a valid point. After all, most of us think that our opinions are pretty reasonable. To answer, one can employ a Dictionary Definition, which should be familiar. A dictionary definition is useful for pointing out the general meaning of a term, when that meaning is often misunderstood or confused. The Oxford English Dictionary offers the following definition for opinion: opinion: 1) a belief or assessment based on grounds failing to reach or amount to reasonable proof. 42
Chapter_03.indd 42
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
In other words, an opinion is distinguished from other kinds of statements precisely because: • The statement can be argued, but is never held to any standard that would establish its truth or accuracy • The statement may be commonly believed, but it is not a statement that is based upon fact, reasoning, logic, or established knowledge If a statement fits the above, it is an opinion. One can argue it, but in doing so, one must remember that one is arguing something that, to qualify as an opinion: • has no proof or sound reasoning to back it up • contradicts existing proof or sound reasoning • is based upon personal preference, or taste Again, this is where a misunderstanding of the term “argument” makes things confusing. Just because it is possible to argue for one’s opinion, this does not make it appropriate material for academic writing. Opinion and belief have no place in academic writing. It’s not that every opinion is wrong; it is that, to qualify as an opinion, the statement cannot allow us to reliably determine whether it is true or valid by using formal or informal logic. We argue our opinions all the time. People can hold long debates over whether a hard or a soft mattress is more comfortable. People have conspiracy theories. People hold views on politics, religion, morality, and whether one sports team is better than another sports team. The attempt to write academically based on an opinion almost always gets an academic writer into trouble—not only because what he or she writes is not logically defensible, but because it can very quickly cross genres and become an editorial. Reasoning from opinion usually results in faulty reasoning. In rhetoric, faulty reasoning is called a fallacy. For example: 1. One could hold the opinion that wearing a lucky bracelet will cause one to do well on a test.
DEFINITION A fallacy is an unsound or unfair way to present one’s thinking, and usually represents either an error in reasoning (a cognitive bias), or a deliberate attempt to obscure one’s meaning in order to persuade through unfair means.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 43
43
27/10/10 5:28 PM
One could even argue: “I wore my lucky bracelet, and then I did well on the test.” This is a fallacy called False Cause. False Cause makes it look like there is a relationship between a cause and an effect, even when there is not a logical relationship. In other words, just because there is an effect (doing well on the test) does not mean that you have established the cause (wearing the bracelet). Maybe you got lucky. Maybe you studied. Maybe the test was easy. Another famous example of “false cause” would be: “The rooster crows at sunrise. Therefore, the rooster causes the sun to rise.” 2. One could hold the opinion that aliens have taken over the government. One could even argue: “Anybody who thinks aliens haven’t taken over the government is naïve.” This fallacy is called an ad hominim attack. In an ad hominim attack, one ignores the issue at hand, and, instead, launches a personal attack against any person holding an alternative view. Another example of ad hominim attack would be: “You may have a point, but woah—is that tie ugly!” 3. One can hold the opinion that Titanic (1997) was a great film. One could even argue: “Women love the film Titanic” This fallacy is called Hasty Generalization. In Hasty Generalization, almost any opinion can appear to be supported if a person makes a general statement meant to speak for everyone, (or a group of people). Thus, we could say that, even though Titanic is the type of film that, in American culture, is supposed to appeal to women, the plain fact is that not every woman loved (or, indeed, even viewed) the film, and one could probably find a female who saw the film, and couldn’t wait for the ship to go down. Another example of Hasty Generalization would be: “Men want their sons to grow up to be baseball players.” This is false. Some men don’t care for sports. Some men would rather their sons grew up to be doctors or lawyers. Some men are not very concerned with their son’s eventual employment. Some men are not fathers. Some men would rather their 44
Chapter_03.indd 44
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
sons grew up to be football players. Some men live in countries where the sport is not even played. Trying to offer legitimate support for an opinion is inevitably frustrating, because opinions, by definition, don’t require proof—that’s why they’re opinions. Opinions are almost never reasoned responses. Some have to do with personal taste (“I like blue”). Some have to do with our personal beliefs or values. Some are the product of conventional wisdom—hidden cultural assumptions that one acquires by sharing a common culture or language with others, even if one is not aware of those hidden assumptions. At times, one can make a conscious assumption, such as a proposition (e.g.: let x=2), but it is the unconscious ones that are at issue, here. Assumptions can hide in a lot of places. In fact, they’re impossible to avoid. Behind all of our statements, and questions, are a series of assumptions. Often these assumptions are totally true, quite simple, and very obvious: Request:
“Tomorrow, when you go to the store, would you pick up some milk?”
Assumptions: There will be a tomorrow; you will be alive; the store will be open; the store will have milk; you know that when I say “pick up some milk” I do not mean that you should look for some on the ground, or that you should steal it, but that you should purchase it with money; the store will be willing to sell you the milk for money; you will have money to buy the milk; you will bring the milk back, and not drink it along the way; etc. These assumptions are simple common sense; we can’t go around questioning basic reality every time we ask a question or make a statement. We’ve simply got to have some kind of mutual agreements, that are unspoken, and that we all “get.” The problem is that sometimes we “get” unspoken assumptions that have less to do with reality-as-we-know-it (tomorrow will come), and more to do with ideology. Sometimes we don’t question the information that we absorb through social, cultural, familial, educational, and popular culture sources. There is a riddle that illustrates hidden cultural assumptions quite effectively. If you’ve already heard it, then you’ll get the reference. If you don’t know the answer, notice how much time it takes for you to come up with the answer, before looking: A man witnesses his son in a terrible bicycle accident. He scoops up his boy, puts him in the back of his car, and races to the emergency room. SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 45
45
27/10/10 5:28 PM
As the boy is rolled into surgery, the surgeon cries out in shock: “I can’t operate on this boy! He’s my son!” How is this possible?1 Argument from opinion can be tempting, because it absolves one from the responsibility of examining one’s assumptions. That’s why it’s very important for one to get into the habit of avoiding statements that begin with: “I believe…” or “In my view…” or “In my opinion. …” If the statement is sound, one can just state it. Listen to the difference between the following statements: Statement 1
“In my opinion, a free press is essential to a functioning democracy.” Statement 2
“A free press is essential to a functioning democracy.” The difference between the two statements is that Statement 1 does not require any reasoning to back it up—we all have the “right to our opinion,” don’t we? On the other hand, Statement 2 requires reasonable justification, such as: “A functioning democracy relies upon citizens being able to access reliable information upon which to make informed decisions in order to actively participate in the political process.” The moment one reads a piece of writing that contains the phrase, “In my opinion…” or “I believe…” one can assume that the writer is either feeling uncertain about whether or not the statement is true or valid, and is trying to hide that fact, or the writer would like to assert a biased point of view, without being obligated to logically justify it. Old Rule:
Academic writing is the place to express your opinion.
New Rule:
Academic writing is the place for reasoned exploration of an idea.
ACADEMIC WRITING INVOLVES AGREEING OR DISAGREEING ON AN ISSUE
There are a series of important topics that represent controversial issues within public discourse in the United States. They include: abortion; gun control; health care; prayer in schools; the legalization of marijuana; assisted suicide; etc. They are 1
Answer to the riddle: The doctor is the boy’s mother.
46
Chapter_03.indd 46
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
often issues about which people feel very strongly, and unless you have been living under a rock, you know the list. Writing can get very personal, especially when a writer feels compelled to write about something that the writer has experienced personally, or in regard to which the writer feels a certain call to action. This is often the case with binary issues. There is no reason not to feel strongly in regard to such issues. It is rather that academic writing demands a specific response in regard to those issues that is different from opinion writing. Within public discourse, these kind of issues have been reduced to what is called a “binary,” or an “either/or” argument. One is for-or-against, or one is pro-or-con. Thus, one is pro-life or pro-choice. One is for, or against, gun control. No matter how strongly you feel about a given side of an issue, the act of simply repeating, on paper, the same arguments that are usually offered, for that side, does not in any way constitute critical thinking, or writing. Your reader has already heard those arguments. Your reader either doesn’t agree, or you are “preaching to the converted.” While it is true that it is difficult to write on polarized issues, this does not mean that they are not vital issues. Rather, it means that writing upon them requires a formidable degree of critical sophistication. There is a reason for this. Academic writing is logical; if an issue hasn’t yet been reasonably resolved within public discourse, several things may be going on.
EVER WONDERED? When referring to “a general person,” a writer can use the phrase “he or she” or “him or her.” Because it is one or the other, such a pronoun is always treated as singular, as in: “When a person blushes, he or she is embarrassed.” The writer can also use the pronoun “one,” which is formal, but always refers to “every-single-person.” It is always treated as singular: “When one blushes, one is embarrassed.”
• We are missing important information or have not yet asked the right questions • A value system or moral judgment may be the test of truth, as opposed to logic • The issue is complicated, and cannot be resolved by only one of two answers The impulse to agree or disagree is sometimes a very difficult habit for student writers to shake, because they have been routinely prompted to take a side on an issue. The reason students are often encouraged to do so is in order to rehearse rhetorical strategies—which, while it may provide instruction in certain stylistic approaches to persuasion, denies the student the ability to recognize the complexity and real-life context of important issues that impact upon real people. SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 47
47
27/10/10 5:28 PM
It is possible to write critically on a pro/con issue. However, to do so, one would have to let go of one’s own investment in the issue, and disrupt the opposition itself. This is the most difficult form of critical thinking. To break a binary, one would have to do the following steps, in order, within a critical paper: 1. Re-represent the “pro” side of the argument in a way in which someone who strongly held that view would find both reasonable and fair. 2. Re-represent the “con” side of the argument in a way in which someone who strongly held that view would find reasonable and fair. 3. Ask a pertinent critical question of the issue in a way that breaks the binary— in other words, that asks a question in a way that neither side has before, or discover the single point of contention that prevents this issue from being logically resolved, and then resolve it. In most cases, real-life questions are simply not adequately addressed through only two options. For example, the answer to the question: “Does popular culture create public opinion, or reflect public opinion?” is, of course: “Yes.” Old Rule:
Academic writing involves agreeing or disagreeing on a Topic.
New Rule:
Academic writing involves recognizing the complexity of an issue.
ACADEMIC WRITING INVOLVES THE WRITER CHOOSING A TOPIC OF INTEREST
Writing about what interests you seems so reasonable. Yet it is often a real trap. There’s a difference between being curious about something, and having an interest in something. Imagine having an “interest” in a business—it means you’ve got something at stake. If you feel strongly about women’s issues, and you end up writing an emotional rant about the unfairness of it all, you’re caught in this trap. If you lean strongly toward the left or the right side of the political spectrum, and you end up sputtering indignantly through an essay, you’ve fallen into this trap. Grace Paley once said: “You write from what you know, but you write in what you don’t know.” If you’re “interested” in something, it’s probably not only because you know something about it, but also because you hold an strong position on the matter, often with a whole lot of emotional baggage attached. 48
Chapter_03.indd 48
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
If you’re personally invested, it’s more difficult to step back. The bottom line is: If you’ve got some sort of agenda before you begin to write, your ability to examine the issue in a fair way is already compromised. It is a perfectly understandable for us to be reluctant to question what we think we already know, or to take an objective stance on an issue about which we feel strongly. Old Rule:
Academic writing involves the writer choosing a topic of interest.
New Rule:
Academic writing involves becoming curious about a question.
THE PURPOSE OF ACADEMIC WRITING IS TO TELL THE READER WHAT WE “SHOULD” DO
When we write academically, it is true that we intend to persuade our reader. However, successful persuasion is actually the result of telling the truth about what we have found, from a point of curiosity. Telling a reader that something is so, or telling the reader what to do or think, without telling the reader why, is just not very persuasive. As a reader, you probably recognize the fact that you would resent such a maneuver, and that you would be much more likely to become engaged if, upon reading what someone has written, you said to yourself: “That seems reasonable” and “I never thought about it that way, before.” At that point, the job of the academic writer is done. As for compelling someone to action—telling the reader what he or she (or all of us) should think or do, or should not think or do—that is not our job. In writing, we trust readers to think or act according to their own judgment. Old Rule:
The purpose of academic writing is to tell the reader what we “should” do.
New Rule:
The purpose of academic writing is to tell the reader what we have come to understand.
2 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The important information to take from this chapter is: The purpose of academic writing is not to win an argument, but to persuade by being honest, and determining the truth the best that you can. SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 49
49
27/10/10 5:28 PM
Academic writing is not the place to express opinion, but a place for reasoned exploration of an idea. Academic writing does not involve agreeing or disagreeing on a topic, but rather involves recognizing the complexity of an issue. Academic writing does not involve choosing to write about what “interests” you, but about becoming curious about a question. The purpose of academic writing is not to tell the reader what we (everyone) should do, but, rather, what the writer has come to understand.
GRAMMAR REVIEW Pronoun Usage: Replacing Specific Nouns
A pronoun replaces a noun, such as a person or a thing. If, instead of saying: “Clara hits the ball,” one says: “She hits it,” then “Clara” and “ball” have been replaced by the pronouns “She” and “it.” Singular pronouns replace one unique thing in the world, in a specific context, as in “Clara” (she) or “that particular ball” (it). Plural pronouns often replace unique groups of things in the world in a specific context, as in “The Johnson family has three cars” as “They have them.” Pronoun Usage: Replacing Non-Specific Noun
The tricky thing is if a pronoun refers to a kind of non-specific “every-single-person” (singular) or “all-people” (plural). Singular “Every-Single-Person” The writer can use the phrase “he or she” or “him or her.” Whether one or the other, the pronoun is always treated as singular, as in: “When a person blushes, he or she is embarrassed.” The writer can also use the pronoun “one,” which is formal, but always refers to “every-single-person.” It is always treated as singular: “When one blushes, one is embarrassed.” Plural “All-People” Provided one is not referring to a specific group of people, but just “people, in general,” a writer can use the plural. In doing so, the writer should remember 50
Chapter_03.indd 50
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
that he or she is, in that moment, speaking for all persons, and make sure that the statement justifies that level of generality, as in: “It’s true of all people. When we are embarrassed, we often blush.” THREE COMMON ERRORS
1. Singular to Plural: If what you are replacing is singular or plural, keep it singular or plural: “When one goes to the store, one shops.” NOT: “When one goes to the store, they shop.” 2. Pronoun Switching: If you use a pronoun, keep using that same pronoun for what it replaces, as in: “If one goes online, one can buy almost anything, especially if one has the money to do so in one’s bank account because one was born wealthy. NOT: “If one goes online, he or she can buy almost anything.” 3. “He” for “every-single-person.” “He” can never substitute, by itself, for “every-single-person.” One can alternate between the genders as long as it is not confusing to the reader, as in: “A student studies a great deal. He may stay up all night to read. She may get up early to write a paper.” One can use the phrase “he or she” (or “she or he”), as in: “A student studies a great deal. He or she may stay up all night and read. She or he may get up early to write a paper. NOT: A student studies a great deal. He may stay up all night and read. He may get up early to write a paper. If you are wondering why this last rule applies, ponder the following statement: “A human is a mammal. He breastfeeds his young.”
SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 51
51
27/10/10 5:28 PM
3 the question map
O
nce you have a critical question, the next step is to prepare for analysis. Analysis involves breaking the question down into manageable parts that will allow you to answer the original question, or simply allow you to refine your original question to one that is more specific. One can refine a critical question by determining general and specific elements of that question, outlined in the Question Map Guide that follows. It should both clarify the complexity of your question, and also offer a specific context in which your question operates. Once you have a specific context, you will have the material you need in order to perform effective analysis. The Question Map is broken into three steps. 1. Three Parts to the Question Map 2. Example Question Map 3. Step 2: The Question Map Guide
52
Chapter_03.indd 52
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
THREE PARTS TO THE QUESTION MAP
STEP 1 In Step 1, gather details by asking: Who? What? Where? How? When? Why? Each of these could be answered in either a general way, or a specific way. You will need to use your judgment in formulating them, in sentence form. Each will provide details that will be separated into General or Specific information. General details should be given only when the list is too large to give you important patterns. Example: “What needs air to breath?” Obviously, it would be too much to try to offer a detailed list of living creatures that need air to breath (e.g.: monkeys, antelope, koala bears, dogs, eagles…). Therefore, your answer would be general in nature. Answer: “In general, living creatures with respiratory systems need air to breath.” Specific examples should be given whenever possible. Your list should be specific if there are a variety of possibilities, but it is reasonable to provide a list of them, even if that list is somewhat incomplete. Example: “What kinds of transportation do people use?” This would be a manageable list of details, and therefore your answer would be specific in nature. A response that says: “In general, people use vehicles for transportation” would not be useful. Answer: Specifically, people use trains, bicycles, airplanes or helicopters, walking, cars or trucks, rocket ships, boats, wheelchairs, sleds, horses, and buses, as transportation. STEP 2 From all questions that you responded to with the words “In general…” construct a single sentence that describes what you know, in general, about your question. STEP 3 From all questions that you responded to with the words “Specifically…” begin to combine those details into new patterns to refine your question. SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 53
53
27/10/10 5:28 PM
EXAMPLE QUESTION MAP
Original Critical Question: “How has modern technology changed human interaction?” STEP 1 Gather details in whole sentences. Establish whether they are general or specific WHO…uses modern technology?
General
In general: humans in all social contexts, public and private. Corporations, institutions, public figures, and private citizens, use it, or are subject to having it used, upon them. WHAT…technology is used?
Specific
Specifically: computers, cell phones, radar detectors, ATM machines, video games, televisions, weapons tech, medical tech., satellites, MP3 players, scanners, X-rays, voting machines, assembly lines, motion sensors, cameras, telescopes, filming equipment, vehicle technology such as GPS. WHERE…is the technologically used?
General
In general: In all social contexts, including the home, workplace, places of business, schools, hospitals, prisons, places of transit. HOW…is the technology used?
Specific
Specifically: databases (identification, taxation, immigration, voter registration, vehicle records, legal records, social security, crime records, medical records, census, school records, statistical data, market research, property records, credit records), timecards, scientific and humanities research, entertainment, production of goods, performance of services, forensic investigation, advertising, voting, testing, medical assessment and procedures, transportation, accounting, stock trade, news, art, navigation, polling. WHEN…is the technology used?
General
In general, in all contexts, when affordable, except as legislation for reasons of: privacy or ethics.
54
Chapter_03.indd 54
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
WHY…is this technology used?
General
In general, to make efficient the management of systems handling the flow of people, time, labor, goods, services, information. STEP 2 In Step 2, use General details to create a single sentence that establishes what you know, in general, about your question. Example: In general, technology: 1) is used by, or used upon, corporations, institutions, public figures, and private citizens, 2) in all social contexts, including the home, workplace, places of business, schools, hospitals, prisons, and places of transit; 3) when affordable, except as legislated for reason of privacy or ethics, 4) for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of the flow of people, time, labor, goods, services, and/or information. STEP 3 In Step 3, use Specific details, matching different details into patterns in order to form new questions. Examples: In what ways have personal computers affected privacy in the United States? What role does surveillance play in the life of the average United States citizen? How does popular culture technology encourage the notion of the average United States citizen as celebrity, through things such as reality TV or YouTube? How does the technology in institutions (schools, prisons, hospitals) aid the flow of people through systems, and what does it say about the individual? In what ways does the instantaneous quality of communication (e.g.: texting) result in a shift in the way that time is treated in cultural discourse? How has the Internet shifted language usage in regard to the perception of space? If the acquisition of information is no longer a question of access, what other factors now affect its transmission?
SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 55
55
27/10/10 5:28 PM
How does access to technology affect social mobility? How do “virtual selves” complicate the division between appearance and “personality”? How does the means of communication affect the message that is conveyed? How has the cellphone changed adolescent/parent relationships in the United States? What significance does the “keyword” play in accessing information?
56
Chapter_03.indd 56
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
STEP 2: THE QUESTION MAP GUIDE
STEP 1 In relationship to your question, answer the following, in as much detail as possible. Indicate whether it is a general or a specific answer: Who?
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What? _________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Where?
_______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ How?
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ When?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________
SECTION I • CHAPTER 3 Questions in Context
Chapter_03.indd 57
57
27/10/10 5:28 PM
Why?
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ STEP 2 From the list in Step 1, being as inclusive as possible, answer the question: “What can I say, IN GENERAL, about this question?” In general,__________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ STEP 3 From the list in Step 1, being as inclusive as possible, match specific details to other specific details to create a new list of related questions: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 58
Chapter_03.indd 58
REASON TO WRITE
27/10/10 5:28 PM
Chapter 4 Saying what we mean-meaning what we say
1
WRITING HAS WORDS IN IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2
LANGUAGE AND ASSOCIATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3
METAPHOR: WORDS ARE SLITHY TOVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4
GUARD RAILS FOR THE TRICKY BITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6
WAYS TO DEFINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Types of Definitions/Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 STEP 3 WAYS TO DEFINE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Example Completed Ways to Define Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 7
THE SHORTCUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
59
Chapter_04.indd 59
11/4/10 1:54 PM
1 writing has words in it
Does it trouble you that… They call what doctors do “practice”? People who invest your money are called “brokers”? You board an airplane from something called a “terminal”? The time when traffic is slowest is called “rush hour”? To write well is not just about organizing ideas; writing is a product of the use of language. Exploring the nature of words—what they mean, how they mean, why they mean, and any difference between those elements and what we intend to say, when we use them—seems like important information to have, when writing. The fact is, no matter how erudite, nobody knows all the words in a given language. Nor are all the words in a given language in the dictionary. Language is in use, all around us, every day. The whole of a language is actually held collectively by all persons who speak it. We choose which words to speak or write at any given moment. However, our power over language is limited. Let’s say that I were suddenly to decide that I was tired of using the word “door” for describing that swinging thing that lets us in and out of buildings. Let’s say that I dislike the word “door,” and believe that the word “snart” would be entirely more pleasant. That does not mean that when I went to work in the morning, someone would say: “Here, let me get that snart for you.” DEFINITION vernacular: More than just “language,” this term indicates what is spoken in a given country or region, as it is used, whether “proper” or not. This is also different from dialect, which can indicate a variety of distinct forms of that language spoken within a given country or region.
Family members and friends, and even secret societies, may have private words they trade with one another, but it is rare for those words to travel into the general vernacular. When a word does become a part of general usage, its origin is often obscured. Who was the first person to use the word “cool” to mean “really good in a particularly new way”? It is almost impossible (unless one is a large corporation with a talented advertising team) to introduce a new word into general usage, on purpose.
This means three things. First, language is always changing, but it is also, at any given moment, complete. Second, people use the words that are available to them—if they want others to understand their meaning. Third, our choices—the particular words
60
Chapter_04.indd 60
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
we use when we speak or write—profoundly affect meaning in ways that have nothing to do with the dictionary definition of the words that we use.
2 language and associates
L
anguage is powerful. People are persuaded by language. Religious texts, political speeches, philosophical treatise, laws, contracts, and constitutions have compelled people to all sorts of actions and beliefs. Despite our protestations that only sticks and stones have the ability to do so, such things as profanity or racial slurs can offend or hurt people.
In turn, even how one uses language can reflect one’s origin, one’s class, and one’s level of education. People judge others based upon the way that that they speak. Even a person’s name, which usually won’t be found in a typical dictionary, can provide huge amounts of information to others about a person. Yet, as so many people have pointed out, these are just words. One of the things that gets in the way of understanding why these are not “just” words is our reliance upon the dictionary to define what language is, for us. A dictionary gives people the impression that language is merely a bunch of unrelated words organized in an alphabetical list. In our use of language, however, it is quite the opposite. All language is what could be described as associational: each word is linked to words to which it is alike, to words in which it is in opposition, and to words to which it is in some other kind of relationship. Those associations are often not so much logical as much as categorical, or even based simply on how the word sounds. Each word shares a variety of things in common with other words, and those relationships impact upon the way that we perceive the world, which is determined, to a large degree, by language. This is why one could pick practically any word and begin to create an associational “web” of related words, even if the relationship has nothing to do with the definition of the words, themselves. Let’s take a simple example: the word boat. From a dictionary, “boat” would probably be listed following a word such as “boastful,” to which it has little relationship besides sharing the first few letters. The word boat, in general, would probably be defined as a noun and a verb. It would probably be described as a man-made means of transportation that travels on the water, that
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 61
61
11/4/10 1:54 PM
is propelled by sails, or an engine, or oars, and that is somewhat synonymous to such words as “ship.” If one accepts the way that the dictionary structures language, then one can imagine that boat refers to those objects in the world that fit that definition, and leave it at that. However, its true associational relationships are much more complex than that: Chips 5
1
Water
Clown
7
3 Boat
8
Sad
Fish
2
Blue
6
4 Air
Yellow 9 Sun 10
Fig. 1: Associational Map
Son
Obviously, this map could get a lot more complex. Even with the simple diagram, here, if each number represents a certain kind of associational relationship, we could catalogue them as follows: 1. boat/water: purpose association A boat travels on water, and not air or land 2. water/blue: cultural association Water is often represented as blue, and can look blue or green in certain light, although, unadulterated, it is a clear liquid. 3. water/fish: purpose association Fish live in water, and not on land or air 4. water/air: categorical association The four elements: fire, air, water, land
62
Chapter_04.indd 62
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
5. fish/chips: cultural association “Fish and Chips” is a common food pairing 6. blue/yellow: categorical association Blue and Yellow are Colors 7. blue/sad: metaphorical association Blue is Sad 8. sad/clown: cultural association Clown faces are often painted in a Sad expression 9. yellow/sun: cultural association The Sun is often represented as Yellow, although light provided by the sun is actually a spectrum. 10. sun/son: homonym or homophone association Sun and Son sound the same, although they have different spellings and different meanings. Shakespeare made good use of the last associative link in his famous line from the play “Richard III”: “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York” (1.1.712). In these lines in the play, “sun” has a double meaning, because it also refers to the newly crowned eldest “son” of the Duke of York. Puns also rely upon these kinds of associations, which is one of the reasons they can be so painful, as in: “A man sent ten different puns to friends, thinking at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.” In the associative map that is drawn, here, it is easy to see why “Boat” is associated with “Water” (a boat floats on the water), and “Water” associated with “Blue” (water is often perceived, and represented, as blue), and “Blue” is associated with “Sad” (to be blue) and “Blue” is associated with “Yellow” (they are both colors), but it’s harder to see the associational relationship between “Boat” and “Clown.” That’s because the associational relationship depends upon proximity: the further away on the web two words get, the weaker the association. In the dictionary, words are alphabetized, with neat definitions. However, that’s not the way that words are organized in our heads. When we respond to language, we respond to its syntagmatic and paradigmatic quality.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 63
63
11/4/10 1:54 PM
The
dog
caught
the
ball
A
cat
missed
that
bat
His
mouse
longed for
a
belfry
Paradigmatic Axis
Syntagmatic Axis
Fig 2.
The horizontal, left-to-right sequence is called the syntagmatic axis. You can think of this as syntax: the order of words as they appear in a sentence, and that indicates the word’s potential function (eg.: a verb). The English language tends to follow an S/V/O pattern, as in: “John (Subject) walked (Verb) the dog (Object).” Because we tend to pattern our sentences in this way, we are often able to ascertain the function of words simply by the order in which they are placed, in the sentence, even if we don’t know their meaning. For example, Lewis Carroll’s famous poem “The Jabberwocky” begins with the line: “`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/Did gyre and gimble in the wabe” (1.1.22). None of this should make any sense; most of these words don’t exist in the English language. Yet we know that “brillig” and “slithy” are probably adjectives, and “toves” and “wabe” are probably nouns, and “gire” and “gimble” are probably verbs. Why? Because of the syntagmatic axis: the position of the words in the sentence. The up-and-down lines make up the paradigmatic axis; this is where the earlier map comes into play, because each association would create the potential for a new association. The paradigmatic axis in language is the relational quality of words—the way we categorize meaning. It offers the connotative quality of words. On the one hand, there is what a word denotes.
(dictionary definition)
On the other hand, there is what a word connotes.
(association)
Denotation:
Rose: A type of flowering bush.
Connotation:
Rose: Romantic love, poetry, beauty, etc.
So what does all of this have to do with writing? Everything. Although we can’t anticipate what personal association a reader may have with a word (maybe your reader 64
Chapter_04.indd 64
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
was attacked by a rose bush), we are responsible, as writers, for accounting for our shared associations of a word, especially when writing to those with whom we share a common language. Connotation is simply the associations of a word that give a word a certain “slant” that we all recognize, but don’t always notice, while we’re writing. That connotation can change the meaning of what we really intend to say in using a given word. Let’s take the word individual. This term has connotations of rugged independence, the rebel, innovation and invention, entrepreneurship, and refusal to relinquish one’s moral fortitude. These connotations are what we transmit when we use the term, not the standard dictionary definition of “related to a single person or thing.” To define the term in a conscious manner is take control of connotation. If one were, for example, to read Erving Goffman, one would find that society always offers its members a prefabricated role to play within the group context. That role can be positive or negative (a jock, a prison guard, a police officer, a student, a drug dealer, a celebrity, etc.). These roles have scripted lines (“Step out of the car, please, ma’am”), a uniform or costume (one goes to the prom in a dress or suit), and expected behaviors (a preppie is supposed to drive a certain car, have certain friends and love interests, etc.) These roles exist before a particular individual steps into them, and continue to exist after a particular individual is gone. An individual playing a certain role may stretch the boundaries of that role (come to class in pajamas), but only so far. Cross a certain line that has any societal stakes (a male jock fights when challenged) and one may quickly find one’s ability to play the role in jeopardy. In addition, these roles include ways in which we form our identities at a given time in our lives: if one is a white male firefighter in the middle class who is the father of two children, the underlined words give specific guidelines concerning what to do in given situations, and how to act, but also make up a large portion of how others think of us, as well as how we think of ourselves. On the other end of the extreme, one can find persons who refuse to conform to established social roles. Such people are outcasts, living on the edges of society—the extremists, the hermits, the criminals, or the insane. In this sense, occupying established social roles has nothing to do with being individualistic, but with conforming to what is expected.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 65
65
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Therefore, an individual could be defined, in this sense, as a person who does not conform: one who forms his or her primary identity outside of the predetermined roles provided by the social context. It would also not necessarily represent a desirable or comfortable role. Here are three sets of words. Their denotation is the same (they are synonyms, in the dictionary), but the words carry different connotations. The best evidence that we communicate in language primarily at an associational level is the fact that if there were no real differences between these words, we wouldn’t have come up with several versions of them. Language is economical—no two words are exactly the same. We use different words because we need them to convey slightly different connotations, even if their denotations are too similar to notice a real difference. Positive public servant detainee believer
Negative bureaucrat convict zealout
Neutral government employee prisoner religious person
Really Negative pencil-pusher criminal fanatic
Now let’s see how this works in language usage. The following sentences say the same thing, but the associations produce a different connotation: 1. Former prisoners are spied upon even after they return home. 2. Ex-cons are closely monitored after release from prison. 3. Former inmates are observed after release from penal institutions. 4. Criminals, when released into the civilian population, are placed under close surveillance. In writing, there is no innocent use of language: all words are guilty by association. Words and their combination are the stuff of writing, and a portion of the meaningful communication we do with one another. The most powerful tool that you have in crafting prose is to make the relationship between your intended meaning, and the associative quality of the word or phrase you use to express that meaning, as close as possible. This is what instructors mean when they talk about creating precision in your writing.
66
Chapter_04.indd 66
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
3 metaphor: words are slithy toves
“Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize until you have tried to make it precise.” —Bertrand Russell EVER WONDERED? The Latin “e.g.” and “i.e.” are often used to list thing/s that refers to the statement that is made. The difference between the two is that “e.g.” means, basically, “for example.” Use it to list one or more items when there is a range of examples you could have given, as in: “There were toys in the room (e.g.: blocks, crayons, and picture books).” In contrast, “i.e.” is used when you mean “this or these, specifically,” as in “The toys were for young children (i.e.: two—five years old).”
M
ost language is associational because it is fundamentally metaphorical. A metaphor is a situation in language wherein one thing is described in terms of another. Often we use a concrete term (e.g.: “rose”) to describe an abstract concept (e.g.: “love”). In doing so, we make a comparison. Metaphor:
A=B
Metaphor:
Love (A) is a Rose (B)
If you’ll notice, this statement is profoundly illogical. Love is not a rose. Love is an emotion. A rose is a plant.
However, we all understand that what we are really saying is that love, like a rose, is beautiful, transient, can hurt, etc. One could blame this on that darned literature stuff—poetry, and the like—which tends to mix up logic. However, it’s not that simple. Think about the following statement: Whenever I make it home, my brother can’t stop going on about how I really got my act together this last year, but my sister never stops talking about ancient history. Seems pretty straightforward. Yet every word that is underlined is metaphorical. How does one “make it” home, beyond actually constructing a building, and what’s the difference between “home” and “it”? How can someone “go on” regarding a topic—ice skates? Is the speaker in a play, so that he or she has to “act,” and what is he or she bringing “together” in doing so? If the speaker’s sister “never stops talking,” how does she sleep? And what does the Neolithic Period have to do with anything?
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 67
67
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Although metaphor is so common in language that it is nearly impossible to avoid its use, metaphor is a blunt tool—it always leaves things out. Love may be beautiful, like a rose, but we do not usually mean that love is long-stemmed or may have aphids. Metaphor offers the gist of meaning through comparison. To use an “extended metaphor,” if you want to be clear in writing, you’ve got to “sharpen” the meaning of a term to a more “precise point.” Most metaphor in language is already in usage. We know the meanings because the metaphors are idiomatic. When a statement is idiomatic, it means that we are relying on something other than the dictionary definitions of the words to understand their meaning. Instead, we’re relying on context and on associational links, including things such as shared cultural understanding. When we say what we don’t actually mean, we rely upon a shared understanding or context, to prevent misunderstanding. If someone were to ask you: “Were you born in a barn?” you would not respond with the answer “No, I was born in a hospital,” unless you were profoundly oblivious to the idiomatic quality of the question—which is not actually a question. Rather, it is a request with emotive kick, often meaning something like: “Close the door.” In writing, we lack our full arsenal of contextual clues to allow our audience to “get” statements that are not to be taken literally—we don’t have gestures, or a particular timeframe, or even a physical context, to help us avoid such mishaps. To compensate for the possibility of misunderstanding—and to say what we really mean—we must define any ambiguous terms for a reader. Let’s take the word “love,” as we understand it. In the context of the English language, at this time in history, in places such as the United States, this word will refer to, (depending on when and how and where we use it, and who we are), the feelings we have, among others, for a parent, a friend, a child, a sexual partner or spouse, a hometown, a country, objects, a pet, states of mind, and, potentially, chocolate. So how do we know what someone means when they use that word? Sometimes we rely upon context. Terry Eagleton gives the following example: Imagine that far into the future, all that is left are the ruins of our current civilization. Even the simplest of signs might be confusing. How would someone from that time, for example, interpret a sign that said: “Dogs Must be Carried on Elevators.” Does this mean that, if one has a dog, the dog must be carried while on the elevator? Or, does it mean that, in order to get on the elevator, one must be carrying a dog? (6) 68
Chapter_04.indd 68
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Without the context, things get ambiguous, quickly. The other way to make our meaning clear is to choose our words carefully, and to use definitions in our prose. There’s no way of getting away from this slippery quality in language, but it is good to know that it is slippery. This means paying attention to what you are really saying, and not just what you think you mean. Get the picture? Good–as Scott McCLoud says, “I’d like a copy.”
4 guard rails for the tricky bits
B
eing careful with language is more than just avoiding being careless. If you do not define your terms, language will happily take over and speak for you, either obscuring your meaning, or hurting your credibility as someone capable of objective analysis. Some typical examples include: Emotional Language Adjectivitis Wine-Bottle-Label Language Glidge Generalities
Emotional Language
You probably could figure out that calling a religious person a “zealot” is not going to result in writing that sounds objective. An essay is not an editorial, and emotional language has no place in academic writing. For example, neither of these statements sounds particularly objective: “Those no-good garbage-sorting atheistic latté-guzzling intellectual tree-hugging environmentalists are ruining the country” “Those no-good intolerant anti-civil-rights pro-business religious zealots are ruining the country.” Any word that is “loaded”—that is, value-laden or biased—will immediately signal to a reader that a writer’s ability to be fair and honest may be in question. While there is SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 69
69
11/4/10 1:54 PM
no need to be stiff, academic writing, across all disciplines, is a discourse that strikes a tone of logical objectivity. Adjectivitis
Most writers get into trouble in this area when they employ abstract adjectives— descriptive words that are left undefined. An abstract term refers to something that is not concrete, and therefore cannot be experienced in the world. If one were to walk into a room and describe it, the difference would be the following: Abstract:
A beautiful, cozy room with a delightful and welcoming ambience designed to make people feel comfortable and relaxed.
Do you know what the room looks like? Probably not. Could a lot of rooms fit such a description? Probably. Concrete:
A small room with low lighting and dark blue walls with three oversized velvet armchairs placed in front of a warm fireplace.
This description is much more specific. It’s not that a writer can’t use abstract terms— writers must use abstract terms, in fact—but rather that abstract terms don’t convey much meaning until they are defined for the reader. Glidge, or Wine-Bottle Labels
Some descriptive phrases are so overused that you can create the impression of being an untrustworthy writer, even if the rest of your reasoning is entirely valid, and you intended to be fair. They are common phrases that we hear people use around us, and that sometimes enter our keyboards, through our fingers, without being filtered through our thought processes. This can be called “Wine-Bottle-Label-Language” because it sounds great, but means nothing, as in: “A generous bouquet, yielding its darker hints to the soothing tones of a sweet afterglow.” Some examples of these phrases would include:
70
Chapter_04.indd 70
Law and order
Military-industrial complex
Crime in the streets
White power structure
Law-abiding citizen
Hardened criminal
True Self
Corporate greed
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
The reason that the people who read our writing tend to see us as biased when we use words with these kinds of connotations is because, frankly, we usually tend to use those words because we do have a certain bias. Such phrases can even be used to deliberately obscure what is actually being described. There is a term for the deliberate use of these kinds of phrases to persuade an audience, and it’s the same in the academic world as in the real world. It’s called lying—deliberately obscuring the truth of a thing by making it sound different than what it is. George Orwell points out a few of the following examples in his essay “Politics and the English Language”: elimination of unreliable elements Shooting people who oppose your political viewpoint collateral damage Bombing the school when you were aiming for the airbase final solution Genocide transfer of populations Removing a group of people from an area, against their will These are obvious examples. However, some connotations are harder for us to spot, and can even indicate a bias we may not know that we have. Glidge
Most abstract terms are tricky—they include such words such as freedom, natural, human, love, smart, evil, or personality. If a writer does not define these kinds of terms, the associative quality of words will simply act on their own to control the meaning conveyed. Why? For the same reason people climb mountains—because they can. If one were to write: “It is natural for people to fear snakes,” what one could mean is that: “It is understandable for people to fear snakes,” or “It is common for people to fear snakes.” That is because “natural” and “understandable” and “common” are associated terms. Yet despite what one might have meant, that is not what one has said. What one has said is that people are biologically predisposed to fear snakes. That is not a true statement. It is not “natural” to fear snakes—there are plenty of people who find snakes quite delightful creatures, and who study them, and even have them as pets.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 71
71
11/4/10 1:54 PM
To elaborate, here is the word “natural” used in a series of statements: 1. It is natural for poor people to commit crime. 2. Men and women can’t be friends. It’s not natural. 3. Religious people are more naturally moral than atheists. There are a lot of things that a writer could mean by the word “natural” in these statements. The writer could mean: 1. Poor people might have more incentive to steal than wealthy people. 2. Cultural norms in the United States tend to treat close friendships between men and women as insincere, and secretly indicative of sexual desire. 3. People who have religious beliefs usually have a moral code that is clearly communicated to them from a pre-existing value system within that religion, and that is therefore more carefully defined than those who do not follow a religious system of belief. However, until the writer clearly indicates that this was his or her meaning, what the writer has said is: 1. People who do not have money were born with the biological impulse to commit crime. 2. Men and women are born biologically incapable of forming friendships with one another. 3. People become religious because they are born with a biological predisposition toward a sense of morality that is missing in those who do not become religious. Whatever your response to the second set of statements, the third set is much more difficult to defend, logically. Use of the word “natural” in order to cover a bias on the part of a writer or speaker is very common—but it is not “natural,” and, therefore, it is very much so avoidable. Defining an abstract term forces the writer to figure out what, exactly, he or she is saying. Sometimes the writer does not even know what he or she means until he or she is forced to define a term. A lot of terms are “covers” for unrefined thinking, meaning simply, in general, positive, or negative. Freedom sounds good; Oppression sounds bad. Democracy sounds good; Fascism sounds bad. However, unless one defines the terms, one might as well use “good” or “bad,” instead. 72
Chapter_04.indd 72
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Generalities
Defining terms addresses the tendency to generalize. We all do it. Generalization is a habit; it helps us to group things in our minds in comfortable ways. It helps to imagine generalities as a kind of “default.” For example, if you grew up in the United States, and you were asked to quickly visualize a “police officer,” you would be more likely to visualize a person who is male, white, and in uniform. It’s not that we are sexist or racist, or that there are not female officers, or officers of color. It’s simply that we draw the “default” from the repetition of certain qualities within the images to which we are repeatedly exposed within social systems. There’s no getting away from the default; the problem is when we mistake it for something that refers to real people. A default is a kind of generalization. Unconscious generalization inhibits critical thinking; it is a cognitive bias. It’s not just that it leads to the kind of thinking that creates unfair stereotypes (“Asians are smart”), but also that it creates a lack of precision in our thinking. In each case, the test is always: “What can I say that is true?” 1. Is the statement “Americans love football” true? No. Some Americans hate football, some love it, and some are indifferent. 2. Is the statement: “In the United States, football is a popular sport” true? Yes. A sizeable portion of the citizenry shows an interest in playing, watching, discussing, betting upon, and/or emotionally investing in the game. One of the ways that we generalize is the tendency to take our own way of understanding the world, and letting it cover everyone’s experiences. However, critical writing functions beyond the limitations of what a given writer has experienced, and is offered within the context of a larger world. Consider the following: 3. Is the statement: “Almost everyone uses the Internet” true? To answer, here is a breakdown that illustrates a small picture of that larger world: If The Whole World Were a Village with 100 People
60 would be “Asians”
[Presumably, those people residing on the Eastern side of the Caucasus—a mountain range—on the continent of Eurasia]
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 73
73
11/4/10 1:54 PM
12 would be “Europeans”
[Presumably, those people residing on the Western side of the Caucuses—a mountain range—on the continent of Eurasia, including islands, often referred to as “Caucasians”]
15 would be from America
[Presumably, those residing on the land masses that compose the Americas]
Of those 15: 9 would be from Latin America and Caribbean 5 would be from North America, including the U.S./Canada 1 would be from Islands surrounding the Americas 13 would be from Africa 51 would be men 48 would be women 18 would be “white”
[Whatever that means]
EVER WONDERED? Brackets, [which open and close like this], are different than parentheses, (which open and close like this). Brackets indicate the interruption, into a quotation from an external source, of the writer’s voice. In other words, it is not a part of the original quotation, but something the writer has inserted into the original quotation. In the above example, the brackets indicate this writer’s misgivings concerning the way in which the terms of this list are being defined.
82 would be “non-white”
[Whatever that means]
33 would be Christian
[Presumably, this would include all Christian denominations]
67 would be “non-Christian”
[Presumably, this would include Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Pyrrhomists, Hindus, as well as Atheists and Agnostics, etc.]
90 would be malnourished 1 would be dying of starvation 1 would be dying of HIV 80 would live in substandard housing
74
Chapter_04.indd 74
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
67 would be unable to read ***7 would have access to the Internet*** 89 would be heterosexual 11 would be “gay” 1 would have a college education.1 So, if only an average of 7 out of 100 people has access to the Internet, is the statement: “Almost everyone has access to the internet,” true? No. What the writer probably means is that “Almost everyone I know has access to the Internet.” In academic writing, statements must be explicit (the truth is out in the open) as opposed to being implicit (the meaning is indirect). In another kind of writing, you can get away with such generalities. In academic writing, you have an obligation to clarify the meanings of the terms you are using by making their definitions clear. The failure to define terms generates mushy thinking, because they paint people and situations in broad, sloppy strokes. You may have noticed, in this chapter, that “word” and “term” have been used interchangeably. To define the difference, a term is a word for which the definition is in question. You will not find this distinction in the dictionary; it is a distinction that the writer of this text has chosen, in order to make a point. In doing so, the writer stipulates the meaning.
DEFINITION stipulate: to control the conditions of something, or to have authority over the rules that govern it.
1
I have read numerous versions of this breakdown that offer a variety of statistics, but they all fall into basically the same range. I have averaged them across sources, including the original “State of the Village Report” from the Donella Meadows Archive (http://www.sustainer.org/ dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn33villageed), copyright Sustainability Institute, Vermont; http://www.100people.org/statistics_detailed_statistics.php; as well as various online and print sources that contest and revise the numbers. Statistically, the original study is based upon an unrepresentative sampling of 1,000 people. However, the interest that it generated and the subsequent duplication and reduplication of the study in various forums means that it likely represent a the general state of things. The problem becomes the matter of reduction: Who is being left out? Doesn’t anybody live in Australia? SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 75
75
11/4/10 1:54 PM
5 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to take from this chapter is that writing involves language, and language functions in a complex manner involving more than the denotative quality of words as they are found in a dictionary. This requires awareness, as a writer, of the quality of language that can distort meaning when terms remained undefined. Since this distortion of meaning creates cognitive bias, critical thinking involves remaining conscious, while writing, of elements of language that can generate this distortion of meaning. These elements include emotional language, unintended connotation, undefined abstract terms and phrases, and generalities. GRAMMAR REVIEW e.g. and i.e.
Used to list an example that refers to the statement that is made. The difference between the two is that “e.g.” means, basically, “for example.” Use it to list one or more items when there is a range of examples you could have given, as in: “There were toys in the room (e.g.: blocks, crayons, and picture books).” In contrast, “i.e.” is used when you mean “this example, specifically,” as in “The toys were for young children (i.e.: two—five years old).” Brackets
Brackets indicate the interruption, into a quotation from an external source, of the writer’s voice. In other words, it is not a part of the original quotation, but something the writer has inserted into the original quotation. There may be a variety of reasons to do this. If a writer were to quote from a source in which there was a grammatical error, and the writer wanted to indicate that it was not his or her goof-up, but in the original source, the writer would use brackets, as in “He was bigger then [sic] her.” Since “then” should be “than,” the term “sic,” in brackets, indicates that the writer is aware that the word is being used incorrectly.
76
Chapter_04.indd 76
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
VOCABULARY REVIEW
vernacular Language spoken in a given country or region, as it is used, whether “proper” or not dialect A variety of distinct forms of a language spoken within a given country or region. For example, what is commonly called “Standard English,” or sometimes “GA,” is the dialect of newscasters, and commonly used in formal education. It comes from a regional Midland dialect. The Midland dialect is one of three to eight major dialects spoken in the United States, (there is some disagreement on this), which are in turn broken into various sub-dialects stipulate To control the conditions of something, or have authority over the rules that govern it. As long as it is a plausible definition, one is free to stipulate the meaning of a word for the purpose of clarifying one’s meaning within one’s own writing. In academic writing, one can even create a new word (such as adjectivitis, which you will not find in the dictionary), on the condition that: one is willing to explain one’s definition; that the creation of the word is needful (it does not yet exist in another form); that its creation serves a purpose. Such a term is called a neologism: that which results from the creation of a new word or expression
6 ways to define
On the following pages, you will find: 1. Types of Definitions and Examples. 2. Step 3 Ways to Define Guide for use in defining the terms of your critical question in a manner that stipulates a clear definition of what you mean by that word, in the context of your own writing. 3. Example completed Definition Guide.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 77
77
11/4/10 1:54 PM
TYPES OF DEFINITIONS/EXAMPLES
WAY TO DEFINE DICTIONARY Defining a term by all possible meanings of a term, in general
EXEMPLAR Defining a term by example
EXAMPLE The Oxford English Dictionary defines tramp as 1) v. walk heavily or noisily, or for a long distance; 2) n. a person who travels in search of work, a vagrant; 3) n. the sound of footsteps; 4) n. a long way, on foot; 5) adj. a cargo boat that travels on an unfixed route (tramp steamer); 6) n. a promiscuous woman; 7) n. a metal plate protecting the sole of a boot.
SAMPLE WORD JUSTICE justice: 1) fairness or reasonableness, especially in the ways people are treated or decisions made; 2) the legal system, or the act of applying or or upholding the law; 3) validity in law; 4) sound or good reason; 5) a judge, especially in a high court.
bird: a canary, hawk, or pidgeon
justice: conviction of a guilty person
ANALOGICAL Defining a term by comparison to something else
child: a blank page
justice: a balancing of the scales
SYNONYMOUS Defining a term by other words
wisdom: clever, smart
justice: fairness
78
Chapter_04.indd 78
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
WAY TO DEFINE NEGATIVE Defining a term by what it not ETYMOLOGICAL Defining a word by its roots
STIPULATIVE Defining a term by stipulating its meaning in a way that is clear within the context of your writing.
EXAMPLE
SAMPLE WORD
apple: an apple is not an orange, a peach, or a banana
justice is not revenge, because revenge is personal
deadline: a line at a prison past which, if an inmate were to step, the inmate would be shot
justice: purity; righteousness
“For the purpose of this essay, dream means the way in which an individual imagines, and may take action toward, a desirable future.”
“For the purpose this essay, justice means to establish the motive behind an illegal act, and to determine a consequence based upon that motive.”
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 79
79
11/4/10 1:54 PM
STEP 3: WAYS TO DEFINE GUIDE
STEP 1 Write your question, as it is now. STEP 2 Delimitation of Question. Can I, or do I want to, answer for all time? Rephrase
Yes/No
____________________________
Can I, or do I want to, answer for all places? Rephrase
Yes/No
____________________________
Can I, or do I want to, answer for all people? Rephrase
Yes/No
____________________________
Can I, or do I want to, answer for all instances? Rephrase
Yes/No
____________________________ STEP 3
Rewrite your question with the rephrased delimitation. STEP 4 List any terms whose definition are in question, especially those that are abstract. Treat all phrases as terms (e.g.: “fashion sense” would be treated as a whole term, instead of defining “fashion” and “sense,” separately). STEP 5 Define each term as each type of definition, except for Dictionary. Exemplar:
Define all terms by giving an example of that term.
Analogical
Define all terms by analogy: by comparison to something else
Synonymous
Define all terms through words that are similar in meaning.
Negative
Define all terms by what they are not.
80
Chapter_04.indd 80
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Etymological
Define all term by an origin.
Stipulative
Stipulate your terms by defining what you mean by them, as clearly as possible, within the context of your question. STEP 6
Rewrite your critical question, in which you stipulate each of your terms/phrases. The result will be lengthy, but will situate your question both within a context, and to help you, as writer, to have a solid sense of what, exactly, you are asking.
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 81
81
11/4/10 1:54 PM
EXAMPLE COMPLETED WAYS TO DEFINE GUIDE
STEP 1 Write your question, as it is now. Why is the main plot of Disney films about a romance between young adults, when children are its main audience?
STEP 2 Delimitation of Question Can I, or do I want to, answer for all time?
No
I want to keep my samples to a reasonable amount of films, for analysis.
Rephrase
“Animated full-length Disney feature films from 1930–2000”
Can I, or do I want to, answer in all places Rephrase
“In the United States”
Can I, or do I want to, answer for all people? Rephrase
No
No
“In the United States”
Can I, or do I want to, answer in all instances?
No.
Some Disney films are not about romance, but most are.
Rephrase
“Most, but not all, Disney films”
STEP 3 Rewrite your question with the rephrased delimitation. Why is the main plot of most, but not all, full-length Disney animated films, made between 1930 and 2000, in the United States, about romance between young adults, when the main audience is children?
STEP 4 List any term whose definition is up for question, especially those that are abstract. Always keep your question in mind. Treat all phrases as terms. For example, “fashion sense” would be treated as a whole term, instead of defining “fashion” and “sense” separately. 82
Chapter_04.indd 82
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
• Romance • Plot • Children • Main Audience • Young Adults
STEP 5 Define each term as a type of definition, except for Dictionary. Exemplar: Define by example Term: Romance:
“Romeo and Juliet” is a romance
Term: Main audience:
Young males age 18-24 are the main anticipated audience of a horror film.
Term: Plot:
In “Cinderella” stories, a young and beautiful young woman in negative circumstances escapes those circumstances by meeting and marrying a prince.
Term: Young Adults:
College students are often young adults.
Term: Children:
Children are students in elementary school.
NOTE
See how exemplar definition tends to put the term into a particular context, because you must find examples of the thing you are defining, in the world? This makes this kind of definition very useful to you, as a writer. For example, the definition for “main audience” provides valuable information, because it clarifies that there is always an intention behind making stories. That intention is to have an effect—not on all people, but on a certain kind of audience. That’s important to remember in answering your question. However, exemplar definition should not be the only way you define a term, because it’s often only one particular example. Your analysis may require a range of examples, or examples of a specific type. For example, “Romeo and Juliet” is not the only romantic story out there, and doesn’t fit Disney plots, because Romeo and Juliet always die in the end—every time. No Disney film has ever had one of the lovers die—only parents and villains. SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 83
83
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Analogical: Define in relationship to something else Term: Romance:
Romance is the yearning heart united with its desire
Term: Main Audience:
The main audience is the dupe of the story
Term: Plot:
A plot is the satisfaction of uncertainty
Term: Young Adults:
Young adults are old enough to step on the tracks, and young enough not to see the train coming.
Term: Children:
A child is an empty page
NOTE
See how analogical definition tends to encourage muddy thinking? That’s because analogy is related to metaphor, and metaphor is an associational (illogical) comparison of things that are unlike one another. For example, in the definition for “romance,” one gets wine-bottle language. Remember that in academic discourse, a “heart” would be a biological organ—it does not yearn. It pumps blood. The third definition for “plot” gives a writer some insight into what plots do: they resolve uncertainty. That’s good to know. However, for the most part, analogical definitions tend to be traps that encourage imprecision in definition, instead of clarification. Use this kind of definition with extreme caution. Synonymous: Define a term by related words Term: Romance:
Romance is love
Term: Main Audience:
A main audience is the viewers
Term: Plot:
A plot is a story
Term: Young Adults:
Young adults are older teens.
Term: Children:
A child is a baby
NOTE
See how synonymous definition actually moves the writer away from precision? No word is equal to another, or we would just have kept the original. Romance is not just love: it’s a specific kind of idealized love between two persons who are of an age appropriate to establish such a bond, and who are not related to one another.
84
Chapter_04.indd 84
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
In other words, synonyms just mean more words to define. Synonyms are so rarely useful that it’s better to abandon them altogether when defining terms. Negative: Define a term by what it is not Term: Romance:
Romance is not friendship
Term: Main Audience:
A main audience is the not the unintended audience
Term: Plot:
A plot is not a true history
Term: Young Adults:
Young adults are not children
Term: Children:
A child is not an adult
NOTE
See how negative definition can give you valuable information? For example, keeping your question in mind, if children are the main audience of these Disney films, wouldn’t it makes sense that they might value friendship over romantic love? Or that children might want to watch a story that tells of the adventures of characters their own age? Or that children might value adventure stories more than romantic stories? It’s also good to know that not all people who view a film are the ones for whom it is intended. Parents may not go out on a date and choose to watch a Disney film, but they’re certainly around when their kids watch Disney films. That makes parents an audience that the speaker (Disney) did not necessarily intend, which is called a secondary audience. Etymological: Define a term by its origin Term: Romance:
Original definition: “verse narrative.”
Term: Main Audience:
Audience: A hearing, related to a Judicial hearing
Term: Plot:
Plot: Story structure, related to: a secret plan, scheme, outline, conspiracy
Term: Young Adults:
Adult: Grown up, related to adult-: debauch, corrupt, falsify, debase (e.g.: adultery, adulterate)
Term: Children:
Child: a young human, related to womb, pregnant, and chield (servant)
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 85
85
11/4/10 1:54 PM
NOTE
Obviously, a foray into etymological definition can often be limited in its immediate uses. However, it is sometimes a source of important information. For example, the reason that the original meaning of “romance” was “verse narrative” is because marriage was not thought of as an exclusive heterosexual union based upon a primary emotional/sexual bonding before early Medieval times (11th Century France), where it begins as a topic of poetry for the upper class. These tales of courtly love were still not what we would think of as “romance,” however, and referred to stories having to do more with honor than mutual attraction, for its own sake. Chivalry love did establish a hetero-normative emotional connection, although no word meaning “homosexuality” existed until the 1860’s. The concept of an exclusive and unique emotional bond does not even begin to form until the 17th century, and coincides roughly with the rise of the novel as a form of literature. Romanticism introduces both: 1) the idea of a man or woman, by himself or herself, as incomplete, without a romantic partner of the opposite gender, and; 2) the idea of men and women, in relationship, as inherently antagonistic to one another. It would certainly be important to note that the modern notion of heterosexual “romantic love,” as we understand it—that is, as an emotional bond central to an individual’s life experience—is believed to have originated in the late 19th/early 20th century. Stipulative: Define a term in a way that stipulates a clear definition within the context of your writing, and in relationship to your question. Term: Romance:
The idealization and expressions of the emotions that attend a specific pairing between unrelated adults, and that is often depicted as resulting in marriage.
Term: Main Audience:
The specific type of person to whom a message is targeted.
Term: Plot:
The introduction and resolution of the main conflict in the story.
Term: Young Adults:
A human roughly between the age of 16 and 21.
Term: Children:
A human roughly between the age of newborn and 12 years of age.
86
Chapter_04.indd 86
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
NOTE
The opportunity to have control over what one means by a given word in a stipulative definition can be a relief once you realize how many different ways there are to define a word. The nice thing about stipulating your definition is that, as long as it is a reasonable definition, it allows you to tailor the definition both to what you mean, and to what your question needs, in order to answer it. STEP 6 Rewrite your critical question, in which you stipulate each of your terms/phrases. The result will be lengthy, but will help you to situate your question both within a context, and to help you, as writer, to have a solid sense of what, exactly, you are asking. Condense, when you can, without losing the specifics. Original: Why is the main plot of Disney films about a romance between young adults, when children are its main audience?
Delimitation of Question: Why is the main plot of most, but not all, full-length Disney animated films, made between 1930 and 2000, in the United States, about romance between young adults, when the main audience is children?
With Stipulative Definition: Why is the main issue to be resolved, in most, but not all, full-length Disney animated films, made between 1930 and 2000, in the United States, about the emotions that attend an exclusive pairing between unrelated young adults between the ages of 16–21, often depicted as resulting in marriage, when the specific type of person to whom the message is targeted is between the age of newborn to 12 years old?
7 the shortcut
O
nce one understands the general ideas behind these exercises, one can skip a portion of the long process of going through every step each time one writes a paper. Here is a basic outline of how to learn to think about a question, using the skills in those exercises. Original question: “How has technology changed human social interaction?”
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 87
87
11/4/10 1:54 PM
DELIMITATION
Since I can’t answer that question for all time, I’ll make it: “modern” technology. Since I can’t answer that question for all people/places, I’ll make it “in the United States.” STIPULATE TERMS
modern I will define my timeframe as beginning with the routine use of the personal computer. technology I will define it as both: 1. an object designed or re-purposed in order to allow the performance of a specific action 2. the use of such an object to aid the flow of people, goods, and information changed I will define this as altered from a previous state—neither good nor bad, just different human social interaction I will define this as purposeful verbal and non-verbal communication between two or more speakers, even if the speaker is not present at the time of transmission 3. REFINE QUESTION
The following illustrates what happens when one begins to ask: Who? What? Where? How? When? Why? I would begin to map specifics within the question that lead to more refined areas of inquiry. I may not follow every link—just one’s that I find of interest.
88
Chapter_04.indd 88
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 1:54 PM
With this map, I haven’t even scratched the surface of my original question. However, I don’t have dig that deep before more specific questions start to arise, across various disciplines and areas of inquiry: Public Policy
What factors impact upon the possibility of public transportation as viable transportation for the majority of workers in the United States?
Science
How has paternity testing changed the definition of parenthood?
Sociology
What is the purpose of technology in relationship to making the life of individuals easier, and to what degree does it achieve that goal?
Psychology
What tensions are caused in virtual reality between private and public selves?
Business
What strategies are used to control consumer experience within retail space?
Education
In what ways does standardized testing serve as both a definition of, and also a measure of, learning?
Visual Studies
How does advertising sell mass-produced objects based upon an image of individuality?
SECTION I • CHAPTER 4 Saying What We Mean-Meaning What We Say
Chapter_04.indd 89
89
11/4/10 1:54 PM
Chapter_04.indd 90
11/4/10 1:54 PM
SECTION II ANALYSIS ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE ARRANGEMENT
91
Chapter_05.indd 91
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Chapter_05.indd 92
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Chapter 5 Performing analysis
1
TWO PRINCIPLES OF ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2
OPINIONS, FACTS, AND ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3
TYPES OF ANALYSIS: GENERAL ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4
ANALYSIS AND ROLLER SKATING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5
FORMALIST ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7
REVIEW
8
PERFORMING ANALYSIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
.........................................................................................
114
STEP 4 ANALYSIS GUIDE, OR HOW TO ROLLER SKATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Example Analysis Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
93
Chapter_05.indd 93
11/4/10 2:11 PM
1 two principles to analysis
O
nce a writer has established and refined a critical question, the next step is to begin to answer that question. In many cases, however, when a person is confronted with a question, there is a certain tendency to answer that question right away—even if the person who answers is not sure that the answer being offered is actually true, or is simply a guess. In other words, when it comes to answers, people tend to be in a hurry. Being in a hurry makes a short paper and a shallow answer. Snap judgments sum up an issue and make an instant decision: right/wrong, good/bad, loved it/hated it. It will cause the writer to draw conclusions before the writer has really found out what is going on. A question worth asking has to be answered carefully, and that means the writer has got to suspend judgment long enough to perform a thoughtful analysis. This analysis will eventually serve as the body of the essay; it provides the step-by-step chain of reasoning by which a writer outlines his or her conclusions, to a reader. A part of critical thinking is recognizing that analysis takes time. If it didn’t, everyone would have all the answers, right away. The first answer that pops into one’s mind is probably not the best answer, because we draw knee-jerk conclusions from that part of our evaluative cognitive processes that stores prejudgments and cultural ideology. The impulse to answer a question right away is exactly what a writer must resist, in this case. In the relationship between critical thinking and analysis, there are two fundamental principles to follow, and they are counterintuitive: • All Analysis Begins with the Obvious This is probably the single most important principle to follow when performing analysis on a question. Analysis is painstaking and exhaustive, and the answer to a given question lies not in searching for broad truths, but in discovery of patterns that arise from breaking down the object of analysis into its constituent parts. One should begin with the most obvious elements. This means that: 1) One must pretend that there is no such thing as the obvious; 2) One must proceed as if nothing is without significance. Analysis of detail is what make critical thinking look like a magic trick. For any single detail that we take for granted, or dismiss as a given, or ignore, we
94
Chapter_05.indd 94
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
lose an opportunity for insight. The most critically cogent analyses occur not because the writer found some obscure fact that others missed. Rather, it is because most people routinely miss the obvious. • The Best Analysis is done by Extra-Terrestrials A vital part of critical thinking as it applies to analysis is integrating the notion of the need to work around what you think you already know. To really perform analysis, one must readjust one’s pattern of thinking and approach a question with an attitude of deliberate ignorance, as if one has never encountered it before. One must pretend one doesn’t understand a darned thing about it. This is a critical thinking tool that generates what is called a defamiliarization effect. Answers to questions often only come after we bypass the filters we have in place that offer easily accessible answers. In other words, good critical writers look at a question as if they just stepped off of the Mothership.
DEFINITION defamiliarization effect: from art and literary theory, a moment of sudden insight created by the denaturalization of a common experience or typical way of understanding something.
Of course, offering such general principles are fine, in theory, but without an example, they to end up filed in our brains somewhere under: “I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.” The previous statement could stand in as an example of an effect of defamiliarization, because it combines two idiomatic sayings. The first is “to burn one’s bridges,” meaning: to act in a way that produces consequences one cannot undo. The second is “to cross that bridge when one comes to it,” meaning: to delay working through an issue or idea until it becomes a matter of urgency. The combination of the two could mean, then: “To delay understanding until that delay cannot be undone.” Therefore, in the interest of arguing for delay in coming to an answer when performing analysis, and in the interest of arguing against delay in understanding why, a better example would be one in which something familiar would be presented as if one did not already understand it.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 95
95
11/4/10 2:11 PM
The following example is drawn from philosopher Jacques Derrida, concerning what he has to say about something as simple and straightforward as a gift. So, what are the three most obvious things that can be said, in general, about a gift? They could be: • A gift is an object or service transferred from one person to another… • …with no expectation of anything in return, such as payment or compensation… • …often meant to convey affection In other words, most people, if asked the question: “What is a gift?” would immediately offer the answer: “Usually, it’s something you give to someone else, for free, most of the time because you are fond of that person.” If one were to perform analysis on this familiar way of understanding what a gift is, one might come to a different series of conclusions regarding what we think we know about a gift. To begin to create a defamiliarization effect in relationship to what we think we know about a gift, imagine the following situation: You give a gift to your friend. Without explanation, your friend takes it and immediately turns around and walks away. What kind of reaction is this most likely to produce in the one who gives the gift? One would anticipate that most people would feel, at the very least, hurt, if not angry. That is because we all know, if we slow down and think about it, that we actually do expect something in return for a gift, even if it is an expression of gratitude. This implies that gifts are not, in fact, something that one gives away for free, but rather something for which one expects something, in return. Of course, saying “thank you” hardly seems like equal compensation for goods or services. However, that is because we have not yet dealt with the issue of receiving a gift, and, in doing so, incurring debt. Here is another situation: You approach your neighbor to ask if she can watch your dog while you spend a few days out of town. She cheerfully agrees to do so. You spend the time away, and return to find your dog well-fed, exercised, groomed, and in good spirits. You thank her. A month later, your neighbor calls to say that her regular dog sitter is ill, and she has plans to go out of town for over the weekend. She could cancel, but asks if you would mind taking care of her dog while she is away. You tell her you have plans to go to a new restaurant in town, and regretfully and politely refuse. 96
Chapter_05.indd 96
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Again, the question becomes: what would be the anticipated reaction in such a scenario? If gifts are given without expectation of return, then you would not feel guilty in refusing, and your neighbor would not feel resentment at your refusal. Yet the more likely reaction would be one of guilt, on the one hand, and resentment, on the other. Nobody is going to kneecap anyone, but these are both signs of a debt that has not been honored. What this means, then, is not only that we expect others to say “thank you” when we give them something, but also that the act of saying “thank you” usually translates roughly into: “I owe you, and you can collect at your leisure.” Here is another situation: It is graduation day, and two students who have spent some time together outside of class meet at the ceremony. Student 1 gives student 2 a concert t-shirt from a band they both like. Student 2 gives Student 1 a new sportscar. Even if Student 2 were wealthy enough to give new cars away, at random, the gift creates a radically unequal debt, one that Student 1 would probably find difficult to repay. People foolish enough to gift cars to casual acquaintances would probably find that, in a shallow relationship, the recipient may be perfectly willing to drive away in her or his new car, and never look back. However, the gift would still be perceived as radically inappropriate. It would probably signal either an emotional attachment that is inappropriately excessive and probably unreturned, or a sign of mental imbalance. If a relationship is not a deep relationship (as between spouses, or family members), people can be suspicious of extravagant gifts, and even outright refuse them, for fear of incurring gift-debt they cannot repay. They may be apprehensive that they would be asked to repay in a way that they would otherwise not willingly choose. Even in a deep relationship, such as a close friendship, routine unequal gift-giving can create an interpersonal crisis, especially if one person in the relationship is capable of giving gifts of greater monetary value than the other, and actually does so. Whether deep or shallow, casual or obligatory, gift-giving usually must be precisely balanced, as in the following situation: Anna has very recently become casual friends with someone who she knows will also be celebrating Christmas, which is in a week or two. She is in a dilemma: If she gives her new friend a gift, and the new friend does not give her a gift, she could be embarrassed, having overstated the SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 97
97
11/4/10 2:11 PM
depth of the new friendship. If she does not give a gift, and her friend offers one, she could be embarrassed, and embarrass her new friend, having understated the potential depth of the friendship. So, like many people, she will be just anxious enough to purchase a small gift, and put it away, to present at the appropriate time, or not…just in case. According to our original understanding of a gift, none of this makes sense. Are we not free to give whatever we want, of whatever value, without people finding us strange, or resenting us, if they are unable to give something of the same value in exchange? Are we not free to take a gift, and not “owe” its value, in return? Evidently, this is not the case. When words such as debt and exchange enter into the valuation of a gift, one is forced to face the idea of the gift as one that participates in an economy. This, in turn, raises the immediate question: If there is actually an economy to a gift, what’s the difference between a gift, and approaching a stranger standing behind a counter at the store to exchange your $1.50 for a candy bar? In answer, one could say that a gift is involved in an economy of altruistic reciprocity. These are the terms one finds anthropologists using to describe the finely balanced social practices that involve the “free” transfer of goods or services that are actually carefully balanced exchanges dictated by unspoken social rules. In anthropological textbooks, description of such reciprocal exchanges tend to sound as if those who engage in such practices are fully consciously of doing so, and even in a way that is coldly calculating. In this way, one can recognize that the description of such an economy, from the outside, differs radically from what it feels like to participate in such an economy, from the inside. One could thus point out that this economy differs from market exchange because, while objects or services are exchanged, those objects or services really stand in for something else. They signal a quantity of emotional attachment. One gifts because one cares, and one is given gifts because one is cared for. In the exchange, one is reassured concerning the mutuality of the amount of caring by the equal exchange of the goods or services, which are actually secondary to the message of reciprocal emotional attachment. In this way, through analysis, our understanding of a gift has altered from the one with which most of us were familiar. In becoming unfamiliar, we learn things about ourselves, and about gifts, about how the value of an object can indicate the depth of a feeling, and that description of cultures differs from the unconscious and emotionally charged participation in cultural practices by the persons within that culture. 98
Chapter_05.indd 98
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Even with this new understanding, this analysis still leaves important questions unanswered, such as: • Is there such a thing as a “gift” as we originally conceived it-one that is really “free”? • Can we escape this economy of a gift? • What if we give anonymously, or for charity? Does the satisfaction we receive, from doing so, compensate us? • Would we escape this economy if we could forget that we had given a gift, and/ or if we could ensure the recipient would forget? Would there be a point to giving, at all, if we were able to do so? • Why do we all pretend there is no economy? Isn’t that what happens when someone thanks us for a gift, and we respond with something like: “It’s nothing,” or: “Forget about it”?
2 opinions, facts, and analysis
T
o get to the hands-on “how to” of analysis that yields insights, one must also get through a second obstacle: the common misunderstanding that there are only two ways to produce conclusion: to offer opinions, or to cite facts found in secondary source material. As should be clear, by now, an opinion, by definition, is based upon a subjective point of view, and relies upon such things as unsubstantiated taste or preference. The answer that someone will provide to a question, if opinion is being solicited, will depend entirely upon whom one asks. The statement “Blue is the prettiest color” is a statement of opinion, offered in response to the question: “What is the prettiest color?” This question can be answered in many ways, because the truth is based upon subjective experience. This is why there is no place for opinion in the academic essay, which does not recognize such truth as valid in the context of knowledge acquisition. A fact appears, at first, to be the only other option, because it serves as the opposite of opinion. A secondary-source fact is a statement that has already been established as verified by the rules that determine truth and validity within a given academic discourse. SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 99
99
11/4/10 2:11 PM
A fact may be a statement such as: “The perception of color is caused by the refraction of light,” offered in response to the question: “What causes the perception of color?” The library is full of established facts. EVER WONDERED? Common vs. Specialized Knowledge: This is a difficult rule to understand, because it depends upon both who is writing, and also to whom one is writing. In an undergraduate paper, written for an undergraduate journal, any specialized term in any given disciplinary field falls under specialized knowledge, and must be defined, and the source identified, even if the student, and/or students in general, would probably recognize the term.
A fact can also be common knowledge (e.g.: planets are spherical). If it is not common knowledge, an established fact is the product of someone else’s published thinking and exploration on a question. Established facts make up secondary source material for a writer: the way in which others have looked at the same question that the writer is addressing. This does lead some students to believe that, given that opinion is not an option for academic writing, their task is to answer a question by: 1. Assembling together, through secondary source research, as many established facts as possible that answer their question
2. Reassembling those facts into an essay form that reflects other people’s answers to the student’s question. This is not an academic essay, or an academic research paper. It is a book report. A book report is designed to reflect what the student has learned about a given subject, from other writers. An academic essay is designed to reflect what the student has to teach other people about what the student has come to understand. The idea that academic writing is based on either opinion, or facts creates a binary. Academic writing does not draw primarily on common knowledge or published secondary source material, and it is never drawn from opinion. DEFINITION analysis: the act of breaking an object/idea/question/issue down, into constituent parts, for the purpose of gaining knowledge about it.
The most fundamental way that people reason through a question, and establish the truth of the matter, and then write about it, is analysis. Analysis is a form of reasoning, and not a statement of opinion. Academic writing always relies primarily on the writer’s own analysis to move a question, through a logical progression, to an answer.
Academic writers may use secondary sources for a variety of purposes—to define terms, to show another writer to be in error, to reorient a question, to support a 100
Chapter_05.indd 100
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
smaller point, or just to situate the context of the question—but never, ever, for the purpose of answering the primary question. That wheel has already been invented. One cannot claim the ideas of others as one’s own; it is one of the subtlest forms of plagiarism.
3 types of analysis: general analysis
I
n this chapter, we will cover the steps of general analysis, as well as two specific types of general analysis: Formalist Analysis, and Rhetorical Analysis.
People usually already know that, in general, analysis has nothing to do with facts memorized, and everything to do with acquiring a specific proficiency. While the following would be simplified, let’s say that a scholar has a question. That question is: What force causes many objects to fall downward when dropped from a height? Since Newton, and others, have already been so kind as to look into this question for us, we know that the answer to this question is, in part: “gravity.” Let’s imagine, however, that we don’t yet know the answer to the question: What force causes many objects to fall downward? Here’s how we would use analysis to begin to answer that question. Analysis begins with two steps, often called a demonstration. Step 1: Ask a question based upon an observation Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples or examples Thus, our scientist may begin with the following: Step 1:
Many objects fall downward when dropped. What force causes these objects to fall downward?
Step 2: Rocks, eggs, cannon balls, and vases will fall downward when dropped from a height. While these are important first steps to analysis, the analysis is, at this point, incomplete. The question as to what forces causes this downward motion has been posed, but has not yet been answered. This is a part of the problem with the five-paragraph form, which is drawn from demonstration: a statement of observation (objects fall downward) followed by examples that are treated as “proofs” (rocks, eggs, cannon SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 101
101
11/4/10 2:11 PM
balls, and vases fall downward), followed by a repetition of the initial observation (objects fall downward). In other words, anyone can observe that objects tend to fall downward from a height, and list some examples of objects doing so. It still doesn’t answer the question of what force causes them to do so—and it never will. This formula is incomplete without an answer to the question posed, which is why these objects fall downward. Because the question is ignored, even though examples are given, it is not a complete analysis. What our scientists needs, at this point, are the next steps to analysis: DEFINITION pattern: a discernable combination of qualities that form a kind of relationship between two or more elements, including physical, temporal, or spatial relationships.
Step 3:
Gather details, or data
Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns Our scientist, then, might go through the following steps:
Step 3: Beginning with the most obvious, the scientist will gather a lot of details—or data—regarding objects dropped from a height (whether they fall downward, or not). Step 4: Once the scientist has acquired enough detail, beginning with the most obvious, he or she will examine that detail and begin to look for patterns within that detail. Step 5: Each pattern that the scientist finds will suggest a certain conclusion. As each pattern leads to a conclusion, the scientist: 1) gathers true information about this force; 2) recognizes additional patterns that lead to further conclusions. Thus, in gathering detail, certain patterns will suggest themselves, and those patterns will lead to other questions, such as: • Why don’t birds fall out of the sky? • Why do boats float miles above the ground when in water, but would fall downward if at such a height, on land? • Do all objects drop at the same speed? 102
Chapter_05.indd 102
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
• At what point does an object that is thrown upward begin to fall downward? • When I pick an object up, and it is heavy, is that related to this force? • If the Earth is round, are objects moving downward, really, or toward a center? Why is this different? • Is rain being pulled downward by this force? Why isn’t wind pulled downward? • Is this force something intrinsic to the object, or is it a result of a relationship between one object, and another object? While anyone with the most basic knowledge of physics would know the answer to these questions, what the list illustrates is that questions often lead to questions. Some people complain that, at the center of a critical question, there often seem to be simply a whole lot more questions. There is a reason for this. Analysis is a process whereby one answers a question by breaking it up into manageable parts. Analysis produces a lot of questions, simply because analysis requires a lot of answers in order to get to the truth. The element of critical thinking, as it applies to analysis, is to take care to do the steps slowly, exhaustively, and in order. Example: One writing student1 asked the question: What are some elements that highly rated Reality TV shows have in common that might explain the appeal of the genre? She became interested in the genre because, in making it unfamiliar, she noted that reality TV seemed to be a hybrid of three different genres: the documentary, the game show, and the drama. To initiate her analysis, this student began to gather information, beginning with the most obvious. 1. In the first part of her analysis, she went through a process of delimitation. There were many Reality TV shows, and she couldn’t look at all of them. She didn’t want to pick at random. So, she chose to limited her analysis to the twenty-five most popular Reality TV shows.
1
Writing 50 (Writing and Research). Winter 2010. UCSB.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 103
103
11/4/10 2:11 PM
2. Once she had established her samples in these top twenty-five shows, she looked for the five most obvious pieces of information she needed to establish, in relationship to her question: • The name of the show • The television network • The date the show first aired • The show’s current ratings • How many seasons the show had run 3. Her second set of details, of which the following is an abbreviated list, allowed her to begin to establish patterns among details, and included details gathered from such questions as: • What advertising was typically aired during the course of a given show? • Did the show involve audience involvement, and, if so, to what degree, and in what form? • If it did do so, in what way did the show engage in a process of eliminating contestants? Who had control of how contestants were eliminated? • If an incentive was offered, what incentives were offered to the contestants, including cash prizes? • Did the show fall into a category involved fantastical situations (stranded on an island) or “everyday” situations (cameras placed in a room), or a mixture of both? • Did the show function by placing participants in competition with one another, or in a relationship of cooperation, or both, and in what way? • What specific kind of relationship, if any, did the show place into conflict, including: between strangers; between teams; among teammates; in romantic relationships; in friendship; in family relationships? • Was the show filmed on a stage set, or at a specific location? How important was that location, to the show? • Did participant involvement in the show rely primarily on skill, or on luck? If skill, what skill was called for? 104
Chapter_05.indd 104
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
From this process, this student gathered a great deal of insight regarding the appeal of top Reality TV shows. Another student became interested in the way in which the physical topography of a university could affect the potential interactions between three groups, those groups being: 1) students; 2) the university, including faculty; 3) the community, composed of people living in that community.2 This student limited her analysis to three campuses that were very similar in other ways (each from the University of California), but had radically different topographies that created a very different spatial configuration between these groups. The three campuses were: University of California Santa Barbara University of California Santa Cruz Fig. 2. Student Portfolio.
University of California Berkeley While she would eventually look at a limited range of secondary sources for other variables, such as undergraduate/ graduate student ratio, her initial strategy for accessing the physical topography of these relationships involved drawing herself a visual. She assigned a key in order to indicate the typical spatial relationships between students housing and communal areas (squares), campus and faculty areas (circles) and the community (triangles) in which the university was located. In the most general terms, then, analysis involves training in the ability to perform the following series of actions, until the question is answered:
Step 1: Ask a question based upon an observation Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples 2
Writing 50. Winter 2010. UCSB. SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 105
105
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Step 3:
Gather details, or data, from those specifics
Step 4:
Identify patterns within those details or data
Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns These five basic steps to analysis apply, across disciplines, and in real-world situations. They work whether one is trying to understand a natural law, or perform an analysis of a sample in a laboratory, or interpret a poem, or solve a case, or examine an archeological dig, or understand a work of art, or conduct a psychological experiment, etc.
4 analysis and roller skating
“Knowledge is not made for understanding. It is made for cutting.” —Michel Foucault
T
he difficult thing about analysis is that it’s like trying to explain how to use one’s muscles to roller skate—it’s a complex act that people who roller skate just kind of learn to do. Analysis may seem like some sophisticated academic skill, but, in fact, we walk around doing complex analysis all the time. We perform analyses daily because we are reasoning beings. Analysis is fundamental to reasoning. We perform analysis on a daily basis about people and situations, by establishing criteria through which we can break down information that we receive, compare it to previous experience and ways of understanding, identify patterns from detail that we observe, and draw conclusions, often without doing so consciously. Patterns are important. The most basic patterns that we observe in detail are those that allow comparison and categorization: likeness; difference; repetition; contrast. These patterns are so pervasive to human experience that they function even in the very language that we use. Let’s take something as basic as the word “tree.” We would probably agree that no two trees are exactly alike. We would also probably agree that an Oak, and a Spruce, and a Pine, and a Bonsai are not alike, either. Yet all of these things in the world are called, in English, “trees.” Yet how can things that are so different all be called the same thing? When we say or write the word “tree,” we often assume that we are referring to those leafy green tall 106
Chapter_05.indd 106
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
things out there in the world, even if they do differ from one another. Yet that is not quite accurate. When one uses the word “tree,” one is referring not to those green leafy things in the world, but rather to something called a concept. A concept is a category of things in the world. One is not referring to something in the world. Rather, one is referring to a concept of “tree-ness”:
“tree-ness”
Living, but not an animal, a kind of plant, often grows high off of ground, often has a long trunk and lateral branches…
Language is made up of concepts because we draw distinctions between things that are alike, and things that are not alike, according to specific, concrete details. A specific tree fits into our concept of “tree-ness” because it has a lot of important qualities that are alike, even if it has a few that are not alike. These qualities make up categories through which we order our perception of the world, and how we speak of it. “Trees,” for example, fit into the larger category of “things that are living.” It is true that “tree-ness” may be like a “rock-ness,” because they both may have hard surfaces upon which one could sit. That’s a pattern. However, because we care about much more than just potential seats, when trying to make sense of the world, the pattern is just not a very important one. We tend to pay attention to patterns that are important to us. Patterns form rules, and repetitions, and regularities, Without going too deep down the rabbit hole, one can also think about the following: • A tree is a plant, but a “plant” is just another concept that includes other things such as bushes, weeds, grasses, vegetables, fruits, etc. • This means that concepts are both associative—connected—and also placed within a taxonomy (types and subtypes). Thus, one can say: “All trees are plants,” but one cannot say: “All plants are trees.” • We can stretch the concept of “tree-ness” into the icon, wherein we draw a tree, and point to the drawing and say: “That’s a tree,” but it would be a drawing, and not a tree. SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 107
107
11/4/10 2:11 PM
• We can stretch the concept of “tree” into analogy, and speak of a “family tree,” which is definitely not a plant. Language is flexible because it is not made of the stuff of the world; it is formed in our heads as systems of patterns and categories that allow us to order what would otherwise be chaotic. This cluster of similarities and differences becomes a conceptual category to which things in the world either fit (“It’s a tree!”), or don’t fit (“Oh, it’s just a rock”). For as long as a given thing we encounter in the world fits our concept of “tree-ness,” then we can accept that the leafy thing (over there) is both completely unique (no tree is like any other tree), and also, at the same time, simply a “tree,” just like any other. To really get to this idea, one could say that any tree in the word is what one could call “lack-full.” It is lacking in that no single tree fully lives up to its concept—it would be very difficult to find The Tree. Yet even if no tree is The Tree, each tree in the world is also fully described by the concept, because it is not anything but a tree. Without these conceptual patterns, every tall leafy thing we encountered would have to be considered a different thing, and we’d have to come up with a different name for each and every single one. That would be confusing, not to mention time-consuming. However, we’re saved from such a fate because we are already reasoning, analytical beings. We already break things down into their constituent elements, and find patterns within and between those elements (things with bark, leaves, stems, etc.) to organize the world. In other words, analysis is not a skill that we have to learn in school; we acquire it very early. Thinking, which includes analysis, is an activity in which we engage, whether we are writing, or not. However, writing involves a self-conscious act of analysis. To write is to follow the steps of analysis, in order to recognize those patterns that allow us to draw conclusions about the world. Critical thinking is paying attention to how we do that process. There are different kinds of analysis, each yielding its own tools for performing the steps, but the general steps are always the same: Ask a question; Gather details; Establish patterns; Draw conclusions. We do this every day. The analytical skill we need, in order to think critically in employing analysis, and write effectively, is the ability to do these steps on purpose.
108
Chapter_05.indd 108
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
5 formalist analysis
A
formalist analysis can be applied to different questions, but is especially effective in the analysis of visual images, such as: 1) A work of art, or; 2) Visual images combined with text, such as an advertisement, or; 3) Sequential images, such as comics or film. Formalist analysis is a nice way to introduce analysis, because the detail is available in one place: the image at which one is directing one’s attention. This area is called the visual field.
Because a given visual field is limited, it serves as an easier example for beginning to understand the way that analysis functions.
DEFINITION visual field: from visual studies, indicates a two-dimensional area in which elements have been manipulated in order to create a visual effect (e.g.: a painting, a photograph, an advertisement). This should not be confused with field of vision, which indicates all that a single hypothetical viewer would be able to see, from a given position.
SAMPLE FORMALIST ANALYSIS
In “The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments,” J. Anthony Blair performs a formalist analysis in order to answer the question: “Do Images Argue?” We know that images can be persuasive; what Blair wants to know is if there can be a translation between visual persuasion and formal argumentation in language. In other words: Can the persuasive quality of an image be called an argument if it can be translated into written premises and a conclusion? As a part of that essay, Blair performs a formalist analysis of an advertisement for a United Colors of Benetton Clothing® advertisement, in light of the question: How does this image attempt to persuade its audience? In dealing with images, there are analytical tools that one can use. A very sophisticated formalist analysis might take into account visual elements such as balance, composition, contrast, depth of field, hue, color, etc. However, one does not have to go so deeply into such specialized knowledge to simply pay attention to the image at which one is looking. At one point, Blair concentrates his attention upon the visual field of a single advertisement from Benneton Clothing Company®, and begins his analysis of that image.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 109
109
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Vertical Axis
Horizontal Axis
Logo
Gather Detail
Fig. 3. G. Vallis. Illustration inspired by United Colors of Benetton® advertisement “Handcuffs.”
Blair begins by making a series of “obvious” observations in which he pays sharp attention to the details of the advertisement: • There are two figures within the advertisement that mirror one another. One could draw a vertical line down the center of this image, and each side would basically match
• By far, the most noticeable difference between these mirrored image is that the one hand in the advertisement is that of a black man, and the other of a white man • The horizontal element that links the two mirrored images by crossing the center of the visual field is one of handcuffs • Both men are casually well-dressed in similar clothing Recognize Patterns/Draws Conclusions:
From gathering detail, Blair notes patterns in relationship to that detail. Pattern:
The black-and-white image emphasizes that the mirrored images are the same in almost all ways, including clothing, stance, positioning of hands, lack of jewelry or other indicator of difference
Conclusion 1: The similarity of the mirrored images indicates that the relationship between the two figures is central to the message of the advertisement Conclusion 2: A central part of that message is the lack of difference between these two men Pattern:
The lack of difference emphasizes the one important difference: one of the men depicted is black, and the other is depicted as white
Conclusion 3: The message being conveyed regarding the relationship between these two figures is one that both indicates a lack of difference
110
Chapter_05.indd 110
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
between these two figures, and emphasizes a single difference, specifically in regard to race Pattern:
The element that links the two mirror images is one of handcuffs
Conclusion 4: Because it links the two mirror images, the handcuffs describe the relationship between these figures Conclusion 5: Handcuffs carry negative associations such as prison, inability to escape, and oppression. Those associations are meant to describe something about the relationship between these two figures Pattern:
Neither figure is depicted as taking more space within the visual field, or as having control over the handcuffs, or as significantly taller, or in any way dominant over the other
Conclusion 6: The associations that attend the handcuffs apply to both men, equally. This is not something one man is doing to the other, but a relationship in which both are trapped Conclusion 7: Because the handcuffs indicate both a relationship and powerlessness, the relationship is involuntary, on both sides This is how Blair not only draws his conclusions, but also supports those conclusions, for the reader, using concrete details from his analysis. In drawing those conclusions, he reassembles the details in order to show what he has found. He identifies the advertisement as one that delivers a series of messages: • “We are locked together, whites and blacks” • “There is no escaping our condition together in the country and the world; we are the prisoners of our own prejudices.” • “The identical clothing suggests equality”; “Freedom for either one entails freedom for the other” • “We are joined together”; “We are prisoners of our attitudes” • “Racism is unjustified and should be ended” (8) The conclusions that Blair draws from the detail of the advertisement seem reasonable because anyone looking at the advertisement will see them. They are drawn from paying attention to the details of the obvious.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 111
111
11/4/10 2:11 PM
If the image were a piece of art, and not an advertisement, Blair’s analysis might end there. However, this is an advertisement, and therefore Blair utilizes a different analytical strategy to continue: a rhetorical analysis.
6 rhetorical analysis
A
rhetorical analysis places a given communication within the context of the elements that govern its communication. In rhetoric, there are five basic elements that qualify something as a communication: A speaker
(one who sends a message)
An audience
(one who receives a message)
A message
(what is being transmitted)
An intention
(the purpose of that transmission)
A vehicle
(the form that message takes)
These elements do not have to be physically present. A speaker of an advertisement could be a corporation. An audience of a billboard on the freeway could be drivers on the road. A speaker is the name for the narrator of a book one is reading, and when one reads that book, one is the audience. A great deal of information can be gained from rhetorical analysis, because it exposes the underlying ideology of a given communication. SAMPLE RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Because Blair remains conscious of the rhetorical situation in which this image operates, in the world, he also performs a rhetorical analysis. If the image that Blair analyzes were a political poster designed to persuade people regarding the importance of ending racism, one would expect to see the following, in a rhetorical analysis:
112
Chapter_05.indd 112
Speaker:
Group of political activists
Audience:
The general public (i.e.: on a street)
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Message:
“Racial prejudice should be ended”
Intention:
To persuade people that racial prejudice should be ended
Vehicle:
A public context (e.g.: a billboard)
However, since the image that Blair analyses is, instead, an advertisement for Benetton Clothing®, one would expect to find the following: Speaker:
United Colors of Benetton Clothing Company®
Audience:
Middle-class consumers
Message:
“Benetton Clothing® is good/fashionable/valuable”
Intention:
To sell Benetton Clothing®
Vehicle:
Various
In his rhetorical analysis, however, Blair does not find either of these to be the case. Instead, he establishes the following: Speaker:
United Colors of Benetton Clothing Company®
Audience:
Upper middle-class, predominantly white, predominantly liberal, readership of the New Yorker, where the advertisement appeared
Message:
“Racial prejudice should be ended”
Intention:
To sell Benetton Clothing®
Vehicle:
Advertisement in a magazine
In performing this analysis, Blair notes important patterns that do not fit, and draws conclusions from those patterns. Thus, he notes the following discrepancies, as a result of that rhetorical analysis: • The audience is a primarily upper middle-class white liberal readership, which excludes one of the figures depicted within the advertisement • The intention of the sender (to sell Benetton Clothing®) is fundamentally unrelated to the message (“Racial prejudice should be ended”)
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 113
113
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Blair returns these analyses to his initial question, which was: How does this image attempt to persuade its audience? His answer is the following: They [Benetton the clothing company] supply no [direct] reasons for buying the product or patronizing the company. …What the ad does is identify Benetton with the self-image of the racial attitudes held by The New Yorker reader. …Benetton is conveying the message, “We share your color-blind ideals, your opposition to racism, and your recognition of the problems facing the ideal of blacks and whites living in harmony, and your desire to see them overcome” (23) In other words, the advertisement attempts to persuade its audience not by making an argument for some special quality about the clothing, itself, but precisely by avoiding making that argument. The advertisement appeals to its readership, instead, by creating an association between social values commonly held by that readership, and the product that is being sold, even though the two are not related. That there is no relationship is obvious, but not immediately apparent, unless one analyzes the image in a way that employs critical thinking. Blair’s essay addresses a larger question of the difference between persuasion and argumentation, within visual images. This single reading is a part of his answer to that question. In this way, observations drawn from individual analyses can be organized in such a way as to build a reasonable series of conclusions that lead to an answer to a larger question. Wherever there is detail, analysis can be performed—in any discipline, with any material. What is requires is recognizing that no detail is unimportant. 7 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to be taken from this chapter is that there are three important things to remember when performing analysis: slow down; begin with the obvious; do not take anything for granted. Analysis is the primary tool for moving a question to an answer, in academic writing, and not opinion, or misuse of secondary sources to reiterate established knowledge. 114
Chapter_05.indd 114
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Analysis is a process of breaking something down into its constituent parts, and is based upon five specific steps: Step 1: Ask a question based upon an observation Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples Step 3:
Gather details, or data, from those specifics
Step 4:
Identify patterns within those details or data
Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns We do analysis all the time; critical thinking offers specific tools regarding how to do analysis self-consciously, so that one can draw conclusions that are valid. Although analysis always generally follows these steps, there are specific types of analyses that are especially useful for the analysis of such things as a visual image (formalist analysis) or a communication situation (rhetorical analysis).
VOCABULARY REVIEW
analysis The act of breaking an object/idea/issue down, into constituent parts, for the purpose of gaining knowledge about that object/idea/issue defamiliarization effect From art and literary theory, a moment of sudden insight created by the denaturalization of a common experience or typical way of understanding something pattern A discernable combination of qualities that form a kind of relationship between two or more elements, including physical, temporal, or spatial elements or relationships
GRAMMAR REVIEW
Common Knowledge vs. Specialized Knowledge: This is a difficult rule to understand, because it depends upon both who is writing, and also to whom one is writing. SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 115
115
11/4/10 2:11 PM
A biologist writing an article for a journal of biology, for other biologists to read, would not have to explain the definition of and source for the term mitochondria. A sociologist, writing an article for a journal of sociology, would not have to explain the definition of intergenerational mobility. However, a sociologist would have to define mitochrondria to his her or audience of other sociologists, and a biologist would have to define intergenerational mobility to his or her audience of other biologists, should the terms happen to arise in the article being written. In an undergraduate paper, written for an undergraduate journal, any specialized term in any given disciplinary field—that is, any term that the common person on the street would not access easily—falls under specialized knowledge, and must be defined, even if the student, and/or students in general, would probably recognize the term.
8 performing analysis
On the following pages, you will find: Step 4: Analysis Guide Example Analysis Guide
116
Chapter_05.indd 116
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
STEP 4: ANALYSIS GUIDE, OR HOW TO ROLLER SKATE
Analysis can be messy, so it’s best to go ahead and start with paper and a pen, instead of trying to type out your findings, right away. Step 1: Locate the observation that led to your question
Whether you are aware of it, or not, your question is based upon an observation. In other words, initially you observed something, and wondered why that was so. Example:
Disney films are for children, but the main characters are young adults. Why?
Example:
The word “ghetto” was once used to be a noun, but now it is used as an adjective. Why?
1. State your observation, and the question that arose from that observation. Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples
In order to perform analysis, one must have material to work with. No question exists in a vacuum. All you need is to find something that can be broken down into its constituent parts, and that, in being broken down, will yield information. If there are a lot of examples, you will need to limit them in a way that makes sense to your question. Example:
10 Top Disney Feature Films 1940–2000
Example:
Use of the word “ghetto,” from its first usage, through to the present time, and the details of real-world instances, as well as definitions/associations that the word had, then, and that the word has, now. Specific situations of its usage.
2. Identify the specific instances or samples from which you will draw your analysis. Step 3: Gather details from those specifics
On a separate piece of paper, write (don’t type) every single detail that you find within those representative samples. Begin with the five most obvious details 3. Find at least 15–20 (the more, the better) details, and write them on your piece of paper. If you have too many details, return to step 2 and limit your
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 117
117
11/4/10 2:11 PM
samples in a logical way that relates to your question. If you cannot find enough examples, well…look harder. Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data
Patterns describe relationships. Think of this as a game. What is the same about these details? What is different? Which ones repeat? Which ones don’t? Look very, very closely, and say anything about details that represent any kind of pattern. The kinds of patterns you find could include, among others: • similarity
• difference
• disjunction
• repetition
• opposition
• causation
• contrast
• association
• correlation
• exception
• sequence
• group/s
4. Identify patterns within your details, using any means of creating a relationship. Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
Once you have established a series of patterns from detail, your next task is to note the way in which these patterns will begin to suggest categories—what patterns tend to be dominant within the details, what fits, what doesn’t fit, and why. These categories become conclusions: things that you can say, reasonably, about what you are analyzing, and become a part of the way that you can offer answers in relationship to your question. 5. Draw conclusions from the patterns you find, based upon the dominant categories they suggest. Note any anomalies—details that don’t fit any categories. These are often excellent places for insight into your question.
118
Chapter_05.indd 118
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
EXAMPLE ANALYSIS GUIDE Step 1: Locate the observation that led to your question
For his paper, a student3 made two important and linked observations: 1) movie posters are required to offer a lot of information to an audience, all at once; 2) the genre of the film—whether it is a romantic film, or a comedy, etc.—is the primary information offered in movie posters. Movie posters are primarily designed to give information about the genre of a film to an audience that views the poster. How do movie posters communicate genre to the audience?
Step 2: Identify specific instances or samples
I will draw my samples from movie posters found online from across four genres: romance; horror; adventure; and comedy. I will limit my samples to the top five films, within those genres, in the previous year. Step 3: Gather details from those specifics
This student found the following “obvious” details about movie posters: • Movie posters are released before the film is released • Movie posters usually consist of both visuals and text • Movie posters usually consist of more visuals than text • Movie posters are advertisements for the film • Movie posters are placed in public spaces, both real and virtual • Movie posters consistently transmit specific types of information • The type of information transmitted often depends on the genre • The information that movie posters transmit is sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit • Movie titles are poor transmitters regarding the genre of a film. For example, a film titled Brakeslam (year) could be a romance, a comedy, a horror film, etc. 3
Writing 2. Spring 2008. UCSB.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 119
119
11/4/10 2:11 PM
• The information that all movie posters provide is usually: – The genre of the film – The studio – The director – The date of release – The title of the film – The film rating (e.g.: “R” rating) • The information that movie posters sometimes provide is: The main actor/s A “catchphrase” or explanatory line The origin of the story (e.g.: a book or “true story”)
Step 4: Identify patterns within those details or data • Certain information is typically provided visually, including genre • Certain information is typically provided in text, including: Studio; Title of film; Date of release • Certain information is typically provided both visually and in text, including: main actors • The way that information is presented is often determined by genre
This student then went on to create a substantial list based upon detail gathered from posters within his samples, drawn from top films, in four genres, over the period of one year. Step 5: Draw conclusions from those patterns
The following is an incomplete list of what this student found, which he offered accompanied by visuals of film posters that he imbedded into the body of his paper: Since genre is typically provided visually, genres fall into specific patterns, leading to the following conclusions: Romance: • Two main characters tended to be visually dominant, with faces the largest, often cut off at shoulders or waist, although sometimes full body depictions. 120
Chapter_05.indd 120
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:11 PM
• Two main characters are often in physical contact, or in a position indicating the initial nature of their relationship (e.g.: antagonistic) • Male tends to be higher in visual field than female. • Third figure may be present, if it is a “love triangle” story. • Other visual elements tend to be minimal, with second most typical visual element being setting (office, beach, etc.). • Often includes catchphrase that highlights main dilemma. Horror: • Most likely to have no fully represented human figure present • Any depiction of visible full-body human is usually in shadow or masked • Least explicitly informative, most implicit • Very typical to offer a single body part either entering visual field (an arm, etc.), or filling substantial portion of visual field. • Body part (arm, leg, and often eye) is often mixed with other imagery implying violence to the body, such as wires, knives, etc. • Least likely to include informative text. • Often has catchphrase that offers a direct address to the viewer, sometimes in the form of a threatening invitation. • More likely to have a minimalist background. • Rarely includes supplementary visuals.
After establishing these details across all four genres, primarily visually, and often according to implicit cues that the audience has learned to expect, this student then examined posters that “didn’t fit” the dominant categories of his analysis. This part of his analysis included hybrid genres (e.g.: a romantic-comedy), as well as crossovers; films that seemed like they should be in one genre, but that contained visual cues that indicated that they were in another genre. In this way, this student was able to establish that while a film such as Twilight (2008) could be considered a part of the horror genre, since it depicts supernatural creatures traditionally a part of that genre (i.e.: vampires and werewolves), his analysis suggested that it is visually depicted, in film posters, as a part of the romance genre—which it is.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 5 Performing Analysis
Chapter_05.indd 121
121
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Chapter_05.indd 122
11/4/10 2:11 PM
Chapter 6 Finding common ground
1
THE OrGANIZING PRINCIPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
2
FIRST THINGS FIRST: THE TITLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
3
EXORDIUM: “YO!” OR “LO!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4
types of openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6
ORGANIZING/OPENING the essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
STEP 5 THE OPENING/ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
123
Chapter_06.indd 123
11/4/10 2:44 PM
1 the organizing principle
S
ometimes, the organization of a paper is obvious; one can simply start at the beginning, and work through one’s question to arrive at an answer. However, once one has performed a thorough analysis, one can also feel as if one is looking at a map in which the arrow that indicates that “You are Here” is missing. When this happens, one can have a lot of ideas and conclusions, all linked together in different ways. Each seems to lead in a different direction, connected in different ways. How does one choose which single path to follow? How does one turn that map back into a linear progression of words on a page, without wandering off, or getting lost?
One of the most useful products of analysis is that details suggest patterns, and patterns suggest conclusions. Yet these patterns also suggest something else: an organizing principle. The conclusions produced from analysis tend to combine in a particular way, because the question demands certain kinds of patterns in order to be answered. In other words, if one can identify major points on the map, and how they relate to other major points, one can find a way to organize the chaos. Let us say, for example, that one were the first person to become interested in canine behavior, and formed the question: How do dogs communicate through body language? One might draw a series of conclusions from one’s analysis, and those conclusions would also tend to break down in specific ways. For example, one might find oneself looking into this question in relationship to specific actions connected to a breakdown of different parts of the dog’s body: ear position; eye contact; tail movement; coat appearance; stance of legs; etc. At that point, the “parts” becomes a group. The thing that binds this group together is the ways in which the dog uses different parts of its body to communicate. In this way, by concentrating on how these details are broken down, and the pattern they produce, one can organize one’s paper in a sensible sequential order for each item within that group. As one deals with each conclusion within the group, one get more information in regard to the question. As one reaches each conclusion, one can then return that conclusion to the original question that was posed, adding a new layer to a growing 124
Chapter_06.indd 124
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
series of reasonable statements based upon one’s analysis. Eventually, these conclusions result, cumulatively, in an answer to the original question that was posed. This is called recursive writing. Or, one might find that one’s analysis has drawn upon a breakdown of dog and human communication, and the grouping may organize itself by analysis of a dog’s typical behavioral response to a variety of human behaviors (e.g.: a person’s approach; voice modulation; position of a person’s hands, etc.)
DEFINITION recursive writing: although this technique can be used in several ways, in this sense it means returning individual conclusions that one finds in an analysis to the initial question that one is answering. Each conclusion builds an overall series of reasonable statements that support the final answer.
Or, one might find that one’s analysis has drawn upon a breakdown involving the comparison of dogs to another species. In this case, the grouping may be organized by indicating similarities and differences between those two species (e.g.: in both dogs and cats, a fixed, direct stare is a challenge). Or, one might find that one’s analysis has drawn upon linking body language to social groupings found in packs, in which case each conclusion drawn would be classified under that connection (e.g.: a dog displays affection and indicates submission to a fellow pack member by licking, which is a grooming behavior). Anticipating an Organizing Principle
While one is performing analysis, one should be looking for the way one has broken things down, and what it says about how one’s conclusions might be organized. Someone asking a question regarding popular representations of disability might break down his or her analysis into four categories that account for all of the samples he or she has found up to that point: 1. Using disability as an inspirational story of overcoming adversity (e.g.: Helen Keller) 2. Using disability as a sign of hidden knowledge or abilities that would inspire awe (e.g.: the blind prophet) 3. Using visible disability to indicate a villain (e.g.: a wooden leg, eye patch, or scarring) 4. Using disability as a source of humor (mental disability) An essay is, in many ways, an organized record of someone’s thinking on a given question. Staying conscious of how you break down elements in analysis, and even SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 125
125
11/4/10 2:44 PM
telling a reader why you made a certain choices in regard to organization, is not unprofessional, and often helpful. For example, in the sociological study “The Cocktail Waitress,” James P. Spradley and Brenda J. Mann document their initial difficulty in finding a way to organize the data that they collected. These data were the result of extensive interviews in which they asked cocktail waitresses about the names given to types of customers that come into a typical bar in the United States. Their original list was as follows: girl jock person off street businessman drunk Bitch king and court
regular real regular waitress policeman redneck Pig
cougar1 animal bartender greaser bore Hands
party female loner zoo Johnny Creep
Annie obnoxo Hustler Slob Bastard Couple
The writers not only reported struggling with how to organize this list, but admitted further confusion when they “discovered that a regular could be an obnoxo or a bore, a party could be a zoo, a cougar was always a jock, but a jock could also be a regular or person off the street” (255–56). The important thing to understand is that if the content of your analysis does not determine the structure of your writing, an inconsistent structure will serve to determine your content for you. This will often result in simply listing, which is superficial analysis when one is looking for patterns. The writers of “The Cocktail Waitress” knew this, and pushed further until they found a solution regarding a reasonable way to break down their list. In further analysis, they came to understand that the labels on this list could be grouped in important ways. They were not the same. Some were fixed, and some varied. For example, certain labels, such as hands, pig, boor, or obnoxo, were based upon the behavior of the customer, and therefore could shift as behavior changed. Others, such as Annies or Cougars, were fixed, based upon social identities outside the bar, in this case related to the local college. 1
The term “cougar” does not have the same cultural connotation that it has now, this study having predated the current use of the term in which it indicates an older woman who is attractive to, or attracted to, younger men.
126
Chapter_06.indd 126
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
As criteria emerged from these groupings, an organizing principle developed. In this case, the organizing principle was one of taxonomy: types and subtypes. Common Organizational Principles
The following catalogues typical kinds of organizing principles that one finds in academic writing. They are not the only kinds of ways to organize a paper, but understanding how they function can be useful in determining what kind of organization is called for in translating the analysis that you perform into written form. Categories:
The most straightforward of the structures, an organizing principle that would identify the major points on the map and take them one by one, returning each conclusion to the question. Example: In Men, Women, and Chainsaws Carol Clover asks a question regarding the hero in relationship to the slasher film genre in the 1970’s. She analyzes approximately thirty slasher films according to the categories of: 1) killer; 2) locale; 3) weapons; 4) victims; 5) shock-effects.
Comparison:
An organizational structure that locates specific points of similarity or difference between two things, or among three or more things. This organizing principle would result in a paper that would compare elements in a specific area, draw a conclusion, return that conclusion to the original question, and move on to the next area of comparison. Example: In “Professing History: Distinguishing Between Memory and the Past,” Elliot J. Gorn asks a question regarding the challenges and importance of teaching history. He uses the juxtaposition between: • History as a record of past events • National mythos, such as the story of Betsy Ross making the American flag, which she did not do. SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 127
127
11/4/10 2:44 PM
Causality:
An organizational structure that outlines a chain of reasoning that is logical in nature and related to a conditional structure of protasis/apodosis. That is, movement in the DEFINITION writing is based upon a series of claims that if protasis/apodosis: the two parts x ( protosis) is so, then y (apodosis) would be so. of a conditional statement, where the second statement depends on the conditions of the first. Example: “If it rains, then I will bring an umbrella.” In this case, the act of bringing an umbrella (apodosis) is dependent upon whether or not it rains (protasis).
This organizing principle will result in a paper that would begin with the most obvious conclusion to draw from analysis, and then make the next conclusion a condition of the previous, etc. This could become monotonous, after awhile, and should be used with care.
Example: In Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. Carl Sagan asks a question as to whether humans can know all of the universe. He demonstrates that if we try to understand every bit of information about the universe in separate bits of information, then we would not have enough memory to know even the smallest part. However, if we can determine natural laws that are regular in the universe, then we can know a portion of the universe. Student example: If we cannot separate the differences between individualism and collectivism, then we do not understand forms of government. If we do not understand the idea of government, then we are not educated enough to choose who will lead our country.2 Taxonomy:
An organizational structure wherein one introduces a type of thing, and then identifies subtypes of that thing, and relationships between, and among, types and subtypes. This organizing principle would result in a paper that would identify criteria by which a type would be identified, and then specify criteria by which other things would belong to that type, or fail to belong, according to those criteria.
2
Writing 2. Spring 2009. UCSB.
128
Chapter_06.indd 128
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
Example: In “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles,” Emily Martin ask a question regarding how analogy based upon gender is used to describe scientific processes in textbooks. The author uses a subtype of scientific discourse (biology) in order to answer a question regarding how a type of discourse (science) treats this issue in textbooks. Focus:
An organizational structure wherein one uses something external to what is being analyzed as a kind of lens through which to organize conclusions. This organizational principle would result in a paper that would focus conclusions through a single issue, and that single issue would become an anchor through which one returns conclusions to the question. Example: In Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Friere asks a question regarding the type of education that relies primarily on the memorization of information outside of context. He uses the extended metaphor of banking, including the ideas of deposit and withdrawal of information, as a focus to describe the consequences of this form of education.
Chronology:
An organizational structure in which conclusions are presented as spanning established time periods, from most recent to earliest, or earliest to most recent. Example: In A Chorus of Stones Susan Griffin asks how historical events, instead of beginning and ending, actually remain connected with one another, over time. She uses the analogy of a train that begins in the present, and moves backward in time to 1945, and then returns to the present, to illustrate these connections.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 129
129
11/4/10 2:44 PM
When people talk of creating an “outline,” they are often engaged in the act of locating an organizing principle for their writing. While outlining can be very useful for this, and for other reasons, it is not included as a step for writing within this text. It is not included, in this way, because writers tend to divide up primarily into two groups: pre-writers or re-writers. While people who write a great deal spend a goodly amount of time doing both, they will usually favor one or the other. Some people prewrite to the point where the final paper is merely a matter of starting at the top of an outline and working one’s way down. Others like to get their ideas down, right away, and then shape the final product. In either case, recognizing the structure that one’s content suggests, once one has performed analysis, is necessary in order to guide a reader through one’s map. It does not mean that one has to meticulously chart every turn; it just means finding an entrance, or opening, from which to begin, and a general idea of where one will go from there.
2 First things first: the title
F
or the opening of an essay, it might be helpful to begin with the most obvious element: the title.
The role of the title for an essay in academic writing is often misunderstood. It has a specific function related to the reason that academics write: publication. When someone performs secondary-source research, on what other people have published, they do not stumble around the stacks hoping to chance upon the information they would like to have. They tend to use a keyword search. Since articles and chapters are catalogued according to titles, it is important that any title that you give to what you write have the proper keywords that would allow the article to be accessed in a search. The convention in academic writing, for a title of an essay or article, is for it to have two lines, separated by a colon. The first line is often snappy, in that it represents some kind of play on words. The second line is usually explanatory, and holds important keywords for a catalogue search. Following are some titles that include these elements: We Were Always Happy: The Distortion of Personal Histories in Personal Photograph Albums Missing the Butch: Representations of Lesbianism on Television 130
Chapter_06.indd 130
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
Whiteface/Blackface: Representation and Race in American Film Taking a Shot: The Role of Imbedded Journalism, from Vietnam to Iraq If the Jeans Fit: The Use of the Image of Individualism in Product Marketing The third example, above, for example, would ensure that any person seeking articles that concern issues of “race,” “American,” or “film” would be able to access that article if he or she entered those keywords into a library database, whether at a physical library, or a virtual one.
3 exordium: “Yo!” or “Lo!”
E
xordium means introduction, or beginning. In rhetoric, it serves the purpose of preparing an audience for the content that will follow. In some ways, the opening to an essay is just like meeting someone face-to-face, for the first time. The reader is going to make a lot of judgments, conscious and unconscious, about the writer, based upon that initial encounter. While there are several strategies for opening a paper that will be covered in this chapter, remember that the main point of your introduction is to establish common ground with the reader. This means resisting the urge to sum up your whole paper in one go. The easiest, and often the most successful, openings, offer straightforward statements that are very specific, directly related to the question at hand, and that a typical reader would find reasonable and fair. Three to five such statements, in relationship to your question, will build a foundation from which to begin to answer it, and create an initial impression of the writer as a patient, trustworthy thinker. In planning her opening, the student who was writing about Reality TV gathered together a series of key points. Each point was something with which a typical reader would probably agree, and each laid the groundwork for the way in which she would begin her analysis. She ended the opening with a question. Her statements were: 1. Reality TV is a genre that is a mixture of documentary, drama, and game show SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 131
131
11/4/10 2:44 PM
2. Reality TV generally has some kind of conflict that main participants must endeavor to overcome 3. Reality TV claims to be unscripted, but it is heavily edited. Question: In what ways does reality television create specific effects that explain its popularity as a genre? EVER WANTED TO KNOW? Break your prose into 2–3 paragraphs her page, assuming it is in typical 12-point, double-spaced type. One long paragraph is exhausting. Use common sense: don’t break a paragraph in the middle of an idea, and don’t start a new idea in the middle of a paragraph.
ALERT! ATTENTION! WARNING! DANGER! BEWARE! Beginning an essay with “Since the beginning of time…” or “From the moment humans first walked the Earth…” is like beginning a novel with: “It was a dark and stormy night.” Definitely to be avoided.
More often than not, the opening to an essay is more than a single paragraph. It goes on for as long as it takes to serve its purpose. In doing so, it performs its primary task: to find common ground with the reader and introduce a question. In whatever discipline one is writing, the opening always offers the question to be posed, problem to be solved, or issue to be resolved. Whether this is offered in an implicit, or explicit manner, the opening sets up the issue at hand-what is in question. Writers who are new to unlearning the five-paragraph form are usually best served by making the question explicit. Other functions of the Opening
While it is important to keep the main function of the opening in mind, in regard to establishing the question at hand, there are other purposes that the opening serves: • The essay opening introduces the voice of the writer. Readers will quickly form opinions about writers within the first paragraph or so, and it’s important that a writer takes extra care to immediately establish ethos with the reader. In other words, writers should strive to appear reasonable, unhurried, specific, and honest, right away. The primary way to do this is to make clear statements, and strike a tone of honest curiosity in asking your question. This is the opportunity to draw your 132
Chapter_06.indd 132
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
reader in, catch his or her interest, and demonstrate that the question being posed is one worth exploring. • At this point, the writer will also indicate the level of formality of the writing, which can vary, stylistically and according to disciplinary convention. Once established, this level of formality should remain consistent throughout the essay. As a general rule, “Yo” is over the top, but “This essay will begin...” is not very interesting, either. Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes usually works. • Although it is not necessary at this point, the opening may introduce the question within a specific context. It may offer an example, or a history of the issue, or a general way in which the question is usually understood, or the way that it is treated within current discourse, academic or otherwise. This is really a combination of opening and background, and certain questions yield themselves especially well to this kind of opening. Either way, one will eventually have to deal with the context of one’s question, in the world.
4 types of openings
A
lthough there are many essays that do not open in these ways, there are some typical types of openings that are good to know, and can be used if particularly appropriate to a question, or if a writer is stuck in knowing how to begin. The most effective opening for a writer who is learning the academic essay is still a series of three to five very specific statements, of direct pertinence to the question being posed, with which a typical reader would agree. However, if one is feeling more adventuresome, and would like to open with stylistic flair, there are several ways to do so.
Narrative Opening
A Narrative Opening, unlike one that begins with a series of statements, begins by telling a story for the reader. It is briefly informal, should be pertinent to the issue at hand, and should be immediately followed by a clear switch to an objective, and even clinical, tone. This opening can be very useful for emphasis of the real-world consequences of an issue, or simply as dramatic effect to draw the reader in. SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 133
133
11/4/10 2:44 PM
Note: It is very important to understand that a narrative, or story, is only effective in an opening. To make this opening work, one must relate it quickly, and then refrain from any storytelling for the rest of the essay. The only exception to this would be that some essays, although not all, will return briefly to the same story in the closing of the essay, providing a kind of stylistic “bookend” effect. From Phillip Zimbardo “A Pirandellian Prison,” commonly known as “The Stanford Prison Experiment”: The quiet of a summer morning in Palo Alto, California was shattered by a screeching squad car siren as police swept through the city picking up college students in a surprise mass arrest. Each suspect was charged with a felony, warned of his constitutional rights, spread-eagled against the car, searched, handcuffed and carted off in the back seat of the squad car to the police station for booking. (36) Student Sample: Following the scent of my Mom’s apple-cinnamon pie, I see myself staggering childlike to the table. I stretch out with my hand and tip up my toes. My memory ends there. It was my favorite memory, until recently, when I asked my mother about it. My mom hesitated, and then told me that she had never made apple pie when I was young. I was shocked. The memory was so vivid. However, upon reflection, I cannot recall any other time that my mother baked. What is it about memory, that we so often have a clear recollection of events that actually never happened?3 The Baited Opening
A baited opening basically provides a “hook” for the reader. One can do so by leaving the reader in anticipation of a particular fact, and then withholding it until the end of the opening, thus creating anticipation. Or, one can create tension by providing an opening that ends with a kind of twist. In the following opening, there is a mixture between narrative opening and baited opening: From Paul A. Cantor’s “The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family.” 3
Writing 1. Fall 2008. UCSB.
134
Chapter_06.indd 134
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
When Senator Charles Schumer...visited a high school in upstate New York...[he] praised the Brad Bill, which he helped sponsor, for its role in preventing crime. Rising to question the effectiveness of this effort at gun control, a student named Kevin Davis cited an example no doubt familiar to his classmates, but unknown to the senator from New York: “It reminds me of a Simpsons episode. Homer wanted to get a gun but he had been in jail twice and in a mental institution. They label him as ‘potentially dangerous.’ So Homer asks what that means and the gun dealer says: ‘It just means you need an extra week before you can get the gun.’” (734) The Oppositional Opening
An oppositional opening sets up an issue in a particular way that the reader would find familiar, and then abruptly reverses that position at the end of the opening, making sure that the reader can follow the reason for the reversal. This tends to show how one might look at an issue in a different way, creating justification for the question that is being posed. Student Sample: I once believed that “home” was where I was born, the place where I had always lived. “Home” was a sense of living under the same roof as family members, being familiar with surrounding, and following the same daily routines. Home, as I knew it, then, was my neighborhood, my city, and my country: China. Then I graduated from high school, and moved halfway around the world, to the United States. While the environment was foreign and the culture was completely different, I adapted. In doing so, the United States has become “home,” too. What do we mean by “home”? Is it a place? Is it a house, family, a country, a sense of permanence? Can there be more than one?4 Direct Address Opening
“My dear readers, or fellow scholars, or, as some might say, ‘My Fellow Americans,’ this type of address is often used in political speeches, as I am sure you will recognize.” A Direct Address Opening sets up a situation in which the writer speaks in a very obvious manner, to a hypothetical reader, as if the reader and the writer were together in the same room. 4
Writing 2. Spring 2009. UCSB. SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 135
135
11/4/10 2:44 PM
Note: Although this type of opening is included on this list, frankly, most of the time, it fails. It’s like trying to pull off irony in an essay—it is so tricky it’s almost not worth attempting. However, if one finds the idea irresistibly compelling, or if it’s just especially appropriate, remember that to avoid failing, three criteria have got to be met: 1. The direct address has got to serve a purpose, in the sense that it must relate directly to the question. 2. The direct address should never solicit either the opinion or the emotional reaction of a reader, which will strike the reader as suspect. 3. Immediately following direct address, you’ve got to switch very quickly to an objective point of view directly after its use, and refrain from using it for the rest of the essay. Example: Imagine yourself in a world where you could not read. That would be illiteracy. Now, answer the following questions: Where is Baghdad, on a map? What caused World War I? Who is the Prime Minister of Britain? What resolution did the U.N. Security Council just pass? What is Humanism? In the United States, many people are unable to answer these kinds of questions. This is also a form of illiteracy. What are the consequences of cultural illiteracy in the United States? You are under no obligation to use any of these opening strategies. There are many other ways to open an essay: provide a representative example; cite a quotation; define a context. One is also, again, free to simply begin with a few statement that people would find reasonable and fair, and that pertain directly to your question. Remember that the important thing is to find common ground with your reader, and to introduce that question.
5 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to take from this chapter is that you should use the content of your analysis to determine the organization of your paper. Trying to pick an organizing principle at random, and then making the content fit, will usually result in either a lack of organization, or listing. Some principles of organization include, 136
Chapter_06.indd 136
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
but are not limited to: categories, comparison, causality, taxonomy, focus, or chronology. Once initial analysis is performed on a refined critical question, one is ready to determine that organizing principle. In doing so, this creates the first step in writing the draft: the opening of the paper. The opening of a paper includes a title, which should contain keywords for a catalogue search of your essay. The opening serves two primary purposes: to find common ground with your reader, and to introduce your question. There is no need to try to fit your writing into any of the openings offered in this chapter; there are many ways to open an essay. Examples of openings in this chapter include: narrative, baited, oppositional, and direct address openings. GRAMMAR REVIEW Paragraphs
Break your prose into 2–3 paragraphs her page, assuming it is in typical 12-point, double-spaced type. While the rules that are often given concerning transitions, or the minimum/maximum number of sentences in a paragraph, are too rigid to actually serve any useful direction in the actual act of writing academic prose, it’s important to give your reader a break every once in awhile. One long paragraph is exhausting. Unlike other forms of textual communication, such as a pamphlet or advertisement, an essay has very few ways to visually organize information for a reader. Use common sense: don’t break a paragraph in the middle of an idea, and don’t start a new idea in the middle of a paragraph. VOCABULARY REVIEW
apodosis: in the conditional statement “If X, then Y,” apodosis would be the “Y” statement. For example, in the statement “If it rains, then I will bring an umbrella,” the second part of the sentence would be the apodosis Organizing Principles:
causality: outlines a chain of reasoning that is logical in nature, based upon conditional statements of protasis and apodosis categories: identifies the major points of an analysis and take them one by one, returning each conclusion to the question SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 137
137
11/4/10 2:44 PM
chronology: established time periods, from most recent to earliest, or earliest to most recent comparison: locates specific points of similarity or difference between two things, or among three or more things focus: using something external to the element of analysis as a of lens through which to organize conclusions taxonomy: identifying types and subtypes protasis: in the conditional statement “If X, then Y,” protasis would be the “X” statement. For example, in the statement “If it rains, then I will bring an umbrella,” the first part of the sentence would be the protasis recursive writing: although this technique can be used in several ways, in this sense it means returning individual conclusions that one finds to the initial question that one is answering. Each conclusion builds an overall series of reasonable statements that support the final answer Types of Openings:
baited: “hooks” the reader by providing a twist at the end of the opening, or making the reader wait until the end of an opening for a vital piece of information direct address: sets up a situation in which the writer directly addresses the reader narrative: telling a story to the reader oppositional: introduces an issue, and then immediately opposes that point of view
6 organizing/opening the essay
On the following pages, you will find: Step 5: The Opening/Organizing Principle Guide
138
Chapter_06.indd 138
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
STEP 5: THE OPENING/ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE GUIDE PART 1
Provide the opening to your essay, usually less than 1 page, but sometimes more, depending on the length of the paper involved. Format this opening according to the discipline in which one is writing, or guidelines given by an instructor. The guide you consult for formatting must be current, because rules change every year. • If the essay falls under writing in the Humanities, and the instructor will accept it, use the MLA style format offered in the example. Essays in the social sciences can also use this format. • If the essay writing is in the Humanities, but especially in the discipline of History, and the instructor will accept it, one has the choice of using Chicago format. Essays in the social sciences can also use this format. • If the essay writing falls under the social or hard sciences, and the instructor will accept it, use APA format. In this case, one would do the following, at this initial stage: • Omit the Abstract page, which is written last • Leave space for, but do not yet include, the statement of findings (conclusion) in the opening of papers within these disciplines, since they are also usually written last. Instead, outline the elements that always follow the statement of findings, which is the statement of the question at hand, as well the methodology that will be used. PART 2
Explain how you plan to organize the paper in light of your analysis. Remember that you should not yet come to any conclusions regarding your question. This should be an introduction, followed by a plan for organizing the body of your paper. The length of the explanation of your organizing principle will depend on whether you tend to be a pre-writer (someone who fills in the detail within that organization beforehand, resulting in what is commonly called an outline) or someone who is content with a more general plan of action.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground
Chapter_06.indd 139
139
11/4/10 2:44 PM
As a result, Part 2 can range anywhere over 1 page in length, and sometimes considerably longer. Either is fine, although the second will result in less work on the draft, because you will have already resolved smaller organizational issues. [in header] Lastname 1 FirstName LastName InstructorName Name of Class 00 Month 0000 First Line of Title: Second Line of Title The opening to an essay should provide certain elements to your reader. The most important purpose that is serves is to establish that you are reasonable and fair. The second is to create the opportunity to introduce the question at hand. For writers learning the essay form, the question should be explicit, and placed at the end of the opening. One of the simplest ways to create the desired effect is to make three to five statements concerning the question at hand, and with which your reader would tend to agree. This does not mean making sweeping, general statements, which would be called throat-clearing. An opening that offers three to five statements that you make, to be effective, must be pinpoint specific, directly related to the question at hand, and conclude with that question. _________________________________________________________ On a separate page, explain your organizing principle. It does not have to follow one of the kinds of openings listed in the chapter. You are creating a plan that outlines how the material from your analysis suggests a means of proceeding in the body of your paper. 140
Chapter_06.indd 140
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:44 PM
Chapter 7 Arrangement
1
BEYOND EXORDIUM
2
FANCY NAMES AND FUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
3
FORMATTING IS FUN! –NOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES: RAW OR COOKED . . . . . . . . . 155
5
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6
THE DRAFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
...............................................................................
142
STEP 6 THE DRAFT GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
141
Chapter_07.indd 141
11/4/10 2:51 PM
1 beyond exordium
O
nce you have an opening, you are ready to begin drafting your paper. As you do so, you will most likely find yourself revising some of your previous conclusions. Writing is a process, and no matter what kind of preparations you make, things will change as you come to understand the answer that you are offering in relationship to the question you have posed. Developing and refining a critical question, defining the terms of the question, analysis and organization, as well as drafting the opening of the essay, are all steps to writing. These steps can be put into order, which makes them easier to put into practice. Each step roughly corresponds to a function of argumentation, if we remember that argumentation is about discovering the truth of the matter. These functions have names that describe different elements one would likely find in an essay. Step 1: The Critical Question is an exercise that helps to reorient the role of inquiry in academic writing, and its relationship to the thesis: the answer that is offered, in writing, from the initial question that is posed, implicitly, or explicitly, by a writer. Step 2: The Question Map, is an exercise that can be called: • narratio: putting a question into a specific context in order to refine it and prepare for analysis. Step 3: Ways to Define, is an exercise that can be called: • definitio: the act in which the writer stipulates the definition of any term that, if undefined, would convey a connotation over which the writer does not have control. Step 4: Performing Analysis, is an exercise that can be called: • amplificatio: the analytical exploration of a question based upon the breakdown of an issue into manageable parts, and drawing conclusions. Although the step in this text involved performing a separate analysis, before one sits down to write, it will become, essentially, the “body” of the paper. Once an opening is established, one explains the first conclusion drawn from analysis, based upon the organizing principle. As one moves through the breakdown of the question, each conclusion is returned to that question, until one builds a reasoned response. 142
Chapter_07.indd 142
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
Step 5: The Organizing Principle, is an exercise that can be called: • partitio: the logical organization of the body of your paper based upon the analysis that you perform. Step 6: The Essay Opening can be called: • exordium: the point at which one prepares one’s audience (the reader), in the opening, for the writing that will follow. It is often easier if one is introduced to such terms after one has a basic understanding of the functions that they serve. This chapter will cover the final three elements that rhetoric defines as a of part reasoned argumentation: refutatio; stasis; and epilogus.
2 fancy names and functions
T
hese terms have nothing to do with a writing formula; they are functions. In other words, they serve a purpose, and are descriptions of strategies with which writers routinely engage in composing a quality piece of academic writing. There are three more strategies to cover, before one begins to draft the essay. REFUTATIO
Disagreement between people is often the result of one party feeling like his or her point of view is not being understood or acknowledged by the other party. This is relatively easy to fix within a conversation in which disagreement arises. If one finds oneself in such a situation, there is a way to increase the chances of coming to sort of agreement (or some sort of “agreement to disagree”), and doing so in an amicable manner. People want to feel heard. The best way to accomplish this is to tell the other person that you are going to reflect back what you hear, and then request that the other person tell you if, and in what way, you may have mistaken her or his meaning. This strategy will not only diffuse some of the emotional charge of “my” point of view versus “your” point of view, but will also: 1) Force your conversational partner to evaluate and potentially clarify what he or she really means; 2) Help each of you to find points of agreement, as well as disagreement; 3) Discover if there is confusion in the communication exchange; 4) Prompt each of you discover the specific points upon which you diverge, and why. SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 143
143
11/4/10 2:51 PM
In doing so, you may not resolve these specific points of contention, but at least you will both have a better idea of exactly what they are, and also why each of you holds that point of view. In writing, there is a similar strategy that you can use. However, in this case you are obviously not able to directly solicit your reader’s participation. Instead, you must play both roles. This means anticipating what a given reader might object to, or areas about which he or she might need clarification, while you are in the process of writing, and answering to that hypothetical reader. One of the most damaging element to the credibility of a given writer is for the writer to ignore specific points in his or writing that would most likely bring up potentially opposing points of view in a typical reader. It is not only dishonest on the part of the writer; it feels dishonest to the reader. If you are being honest in your writing, there is no need to ignore such moments. One should confront them immediately, and resolve them. In doing so, one goes through the same process as one does within a conversation: one restates the potential opposing point of view, and responds to it in a way that is reasonable and fair. If one cannot do so, one should revise one’s position, and work it out. This is refutatio. It can be called for at any point in which you anticipate an objection on the part of the reader. If one is correct in one’s reasoning, one can reiterate that objection, and counter, or refute, that opposing point of view, in a way that neither offends, nor ignores, the concerns of one’s reader. refutatio in action
In telling her reader that she is going to devote a whole book to analysis of the slasher film genre, Carol Clover immediately anticipates that a good portion of her readership will find such a topic of academic inquiry trivial, or inappropriate, or even offensive. The slasher film is, after all, a part of popular culture that is considered lower than lowbrow, and therefore probably unworthy of the attention of serious academic scholars. The most damning element of the slasher film cycle, which is often said to have started, roughly, with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), and to have ended in the mid-1980’s with a series of monotonous serial remakes, was that it involved unselfconscious, graphic, and unapologetic representations of gratuitous violence, directly primarily (although not exclusively) against young women. 144
Chapter_07.indd 144
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
If that was not enough, the slasher film adhered to a rigid plot formula of mind-numbing repetition and predictability. For these reasons, few academics considered it worthy of their attention. As such, at the time that Carol Clover wrote her study, the slasher film genre was viewed, in general, as a rather distasteful underside to American popular culture that was best left alone, in the hopes that it would eventually go away. Rather than ignore the likely reaction to her choice of subject matter, Carol Clover raises the issue right away, opening her text with a single sentence that neatly sums up the entire genre: At the bottom of the horror heap lies the ‘slasher’ (or spatter or shocker or stalker) film: the immensely generative story of a psycho killer who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he is subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived. (21) In the style of refutatio, Clover reiterates these objections. She neither avoids, nor minimizes, the underlying reason for those objections, nor does she make any attempt to deny that these objections are valid. Rather, Clover suggests that it is exactly those qualities that make the slasher film genre worthy of critical scrutiny: “The qualities that locate the slasher film outside of the usual aesthetic system…are the very qualities that make it such a transparent source for (sub)cultural attitudes towards sex, and gender in particular” (22). Without her anticipatory response to these objections, Clover’s study might not have been given the reception that it was within the academic field, where it made a considerable impact upon views of popular culture, gender, film, and narrative structure. STASIS
This is the most difficult rhetorical concept in critical thinking to explain, mostly because it has to do with the: “A-ha! That’s what this is all about!” moment that occurs when one is writing. There is no mistaking when one has found stasis; all the lights go on and every detail settles into place. It is related to the realization of the answer—in some ways, one could say it is what leads to the thesis of the essay. In performing analysis, if one goes deep enough, one will find the source of the primary conflict that first motivated the initial question. One will discover what is really at stake within that conflict. The easiest way to define stasis, without going into formal logic, is to say that it is, between a writer’s question, and a writer’s answer, that moment when one sees directly into the heart of the matter. SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 145
145
11/4/10 2:51 PM
stasis is action
Since stasis is easier to demonstrate than to describe, let’s say that one were to ask the following question: In regard to categories offered in the United States census, what would be the relationship among such concepts as race, ethnicity, nationality, and culture? Since definitio—defining the terms of one’s question—would be a large part of answering this question, one might imagine that exploration of the terms would yield the following stipulative definitions, for the purpose of analysis of the question: Race:
As it is understood within scientific discourse, race does not, in fact, exist. Race is not an innate quality of a given individual human being, but rather a means by which people identify, and are identified, within a context that is entirely socially constructed. Ethnicity :
Unlike race, ethnicity is the recognition of a particular politico-geographical point of origin for an individual, often involving a shared history and/or culture. The exact location of this point of origin appears to be relatively arbitrary. That is, it may be a point of origin initiated within the present lifetime of an individual, or it may represent a generational regression to a past politico-geographical point of ancestry. In anthropological terms, push it back far enough, and we’d all be Pangeans. Nationality :
Entirely political, nationality refers to the boundary in which one holds legal status (citizenship). Culture:
Overall, culture refers to the sum total of traditions practiced by any persons who are of a given nationality (legal status within a political boundary). In this way, culture refers to specific traditions that tend to accumulate around ethnic identity—a political-geographical point of origin—often linked to nationality. However, culture also refers to a political boundary within which ethnicities may be diverse, since it is the political boundary 146
Chapter_07.indd 146
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
that binds that diversity. In this way, all cultural experiences within the United States, for example, are “American” experiences, and all traditions practiced within its borders are a part of “American” culture. The enduring quality of those traditions is often, although not always, related to the degree of generational regression—cultural traditions that are passed down from one generation to another will tend to transfer ethnic identity, no matter from where they originate. These traditions can include such things as: food; music; religious practices; the way one marries; the way one mourns the dead; the commonly held ideals concerning what it means to be a father, or a mother, etc.; rites of passage; clothing; language; etc. Having established these definitions, one can return to the original question concerning the United States census: the categories that it provides in relationship to this question, and its relationship to these definitions, and begin to perform analysis. In doing so, one find patterns within detail, and draw conclusions from those patterns. Patterns (Set 1):
1. According to these definitions, at no point is it possible for the census to logically claim that the choices provided question anyone’s nationality, since “American” or “non-American” are not categories that one is offered. 2. According to these definitions, at no point can the census claim to be providing categories that refer to culture, since culture always refers, in general, to nationality. There is a wide range of cultural practices originating outside of the United States (especially considering its history), directly linked to ethnicity as a point of origin. However, culture, in this sense, always refers to “American culture,” which is composed of this range. 3. According to these definitions, and despite any wording on the form itself, race does not, in fact, qualify as a valid criterion for collection of census data, since there remains no reliable means of determining the validity of the category. SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 147
147
11/4/10 2:51 PM
Conclusions returned to question:
In returning conclusions to a question, one looks at the question again, in light of what one has determined, and draws a series of conclusions. In this case, they might be: 1. In order to function as an accurate system of data collection, the census can only refer to a single criterion among these four definitions. Logically, in any collection of statistical data, variables corrupt the data; one must measure the same thing. 2. The criteria for the census cannot be nationality (American/non-American), or culture (American). Nor can it be race, since race is not an accurate determinant of anything except for social attitudes. 3. To serve its function, the questions within the census can only refer to one type of criterion: ethnicity. Ethnicity indicates a political-geographical point of origin with which an individual identifies, and by which an individual is often identified, and that is sometimes attended by cultural practices that are transmitted through generations. 4. In order to function as an accurate system of data collection, an accurate list of choices indicating a given ethnicity must be available to any given individual to whom the census might be administered. 5. In order to function as an accurate system of data collection, the persons who answer to the census must be aware of the principle of this criterion. Pattern:
1. Even though ethnicity is the logical criterion for the question, such choices as the category “White,” on the census, do not indicate a political-geographical point of origin, and therefore do not refer to ethnicity. 2. The category “White” is not an indicator of ethnicity, such as traditions preserved from participation in a previous political boundary (nationality) as an identifying point-of-origin (e.g.: “French”). 3. The range of external physical characteristics that construct “White” as an identity is not based upon ethnicity, but is, instead, a racial category. 4. To indicate ethnicity, the external characteristics that are constructed as racially “white” would have to be reoriented to a political-geographical area, most likely originating from the Western side of the Caucuses, a mountain range dividing the continent of Eurasia (i.e.: Caucasian). 148
Chapter_07.indd 148
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
5. However, on the census, for those who check the racial category of “White,” the closest approximation of ethnicity available as a choice would be “Asian.” Conclusions returned to question:
1. The census refers to a range of criteria, and therefore does not measure the same thing. 2. Those criteria are broken into categories that measure ethnicity, race, nationality, and culture, depending entirely upon the choices offered within the census, the person to whom it is directed, and without making any overt distinctions among them. 3. Because the census contains more than one type of criteria in its question, a choice indicating ethnicity may be either unclear or unavailable to a given individual to whom the census might be administered. 4. The persons who answer to the census have no access to a reliable way to determine to which criteria he or she is answering. 5. Therefore, if one checks the category “Hispanic,” one is not able to determine if this category refers to: 1) How one is identified by one’s appearance (race); 2) A political-geographical origin, which may go back one or ten generations (ethnicity), 3) One’s traditional practices (subset of American culture), or 4) One’s nationality (citizenship). 6. Since the categories do not follow a single type, any given individual may find himself or herself in a situation in which he or she is: • Without a category into which he or she fits • Forced into a category with which he or she does not identify • Unable to determine which category is accurate • In a position where conflict is present among the categories, because the answer depends on to which of the criteria the person is answering In continuing your analysis, you may finally conclude that: The failure of the U.S. census to offer the same criteria, equally, to each of its citizens, in answering this question, undermines the validity of the statistical data that are collected. SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 149
149
11/4/10 2:51 PM
Stasis, however, might be something closer to the following: The census may not produce reliable data in the spirit in which it was created, but it does offer an important piece of information about American national identity. What the census does suggest is that to be of American nationality is to be someone who has difficulty knowing how to ask, or how to answer, this question. EPILOGUS
The end of the paper is not always the same as one’s thesis—the answer to the question that one has posed. The epilogus, or closing, can be either simultaneous to, or even be presented after, the presentation of one’s answer. The epilogus is the way that one exits one’s paper, just as the exordium is the way that one enters. Although it not necessary to do any of the following, certain forms of the epilogus serve to stylistically “wrap-up” a paper, and may do so in a variety of ways, past the point where one has answered the question at hand. The following includes a few of those ways: • One could return, stylistically, to one’s opening (e.g.: tell the second part of a narrative opening) • One could show why it is important to look at the question in this light • One could show the implication of this answer in light of other questions, or other contexts, or in relationship to real people or situations • One could show how a new question could be proposed, in light of this answer, that would call for further academic inquiry (by someone else) If the thesis, or answer, is placed somewhere else in the essay, in a rewrite (i.e.: in the exordium, or opening, where answer and question can, in some conventions, be given in quick succession), then the epilogus will always be different from the thesis. What one does not do is merely to repeat one’s thesis, if it has already been offered. Repetition in an essay is a sign of poor organization. epilogus in action
An epilogus that extends beyond the answer that one gives is not a requirement; some questions simply end with their answers, and that is sufficient. The following is an example, from a student paper, of such an epilogus. The original question that it answers is: What roles does the outcast play in society? 150
Chapter_07.indd 150
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
“Outcasts” play an important role in our society. First, they serve as an example that those who are inside of a social system can observe. The result can be positive or negative. Outcasts are visible, and tend to draw attention. One can look at a person and think, “I never want to be like that.” One can also look at a person and say to oneself, “This is a person who has taken risks, and whom I admire.” The figure of the outcast does the unusual, whether right or wrong. Some become leaders because they act outside of the boundaries of mainstream society, and some become examples of what happens when one steps outside of those boundaries. Being an outcast is what gives these people their ability to play this role, in the first place. To gain that viewpoint, an outcast has to be on the outside, looking in. An outcast must view the society as a whole, and in relationship to which he or she is slightly apart. An outcast is a person who has the ability to see what someone on the “inside” cannot. From this unique perspective, they sometimes develop a means for change. And in this light, an outcast can be both one of the most powerless people in society, and at the same time can also be one the most powerful agents of change in society: the Activist, the Artist, the Critic, or the Revolutionary.1
3 formatting is fun! –not
I
f it were possible to simply establish, once and for all, the rules for formatting the academic essay, this would be an easy section-one would simply follow a template and get on with one’s life. What prevents this is that the rules of formatting change. They are updated every year. As such, any attempt to provide the details of such rules would quickly become obsolete. That is the reason college handbooks exist, and why one must find the newest edition of that handbook, if one is to format correctly.
Nevertheless, there are certain important pieces of general information to understand about formatting. First of all, formatting is both a function of convention—like wearing a black suit to a funeral—and also serves a purpose. The practical function of formatting is to standardize a series of elements in the academic essay for the purpose of publication. Those elements include the appearance of the article (size of 1
Writing 1. Winter 2008. UCSB. SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 151
151
11/4/10 2:51 PM
margins, placement of title, formatting of date, whether or not it has a cover page, etc.), and ensures that anyone reading the article would have a reliable way to access any source material presented within the article. Many college handbooks are expensive. It is possible to find the information online, provided one is willing to take the time, and that one trusts the source (e.g.: a university website), and that one knows that the information represents the most current update. Otherwise, one must simply pay for the information. There are several advantages to formatting a paper correctly. The most practical refers to the nature of one’s readership. Many instructors require it, and it can be a part of your grade. Even if they don’t require it, formatting an essay demonstrates academic professionalism. In other words, instructors, like other people, are creatures of habit. It is soothing to see the date in a uniform format. Few instructors respond well to pink ink. The stakes get higher when one submits an essay to a conference panel, or to an editorial board for potential publication. Often, the first wave of submissions is weeded out on formatting alone. These go into the round file. The general feeling is that if you can’t be bothered to take the time and effort, well…right back at you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve written brilliantly, any more than it matters if you have a lot of marketable skills, but you show up at a corporate job interview in a wrinkled suit and badly mismatched socks. There is probably no more tiresome task than formatting an essay correctly. It is a boring task, and it is a necessary task, and your willingness to engage in it will affect such things as your G.P.A., as well as the reception of your writing within other academic contexts. Formatting determines a series of rules that govern the presentation of academic writing: • The physical layout of the document, including such things as page size, margins and spacing between elements, tabs, indentation, how pages are numbered, and in what area of the document information is given, etc. • The text on the page, including such things as font size, title, subtitles, underlining or bold, date, author name, etc. • The order of presentation of the information, including the presence or absence of a cover page, whether or not there is an abstract, where the document begins, how one orders the information, the sorting of appendices, etc. 152
Chapter_07.indd 152
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
• How one indicates sources, including in-text citations, or footnotes, or endnotes, or a notes page, whether citation goes at the end of the paper or on a separate page, what the citation page is titled, whether one indents lines on the source page, what information must be included, what numerals are used to indicate sources, what information must repeat within the text in regard to sources, etc. These rules are laid out very precisely, and all formatting indicates a specific difference between how one indicates a source within the body of one’s text, and how one indicates a source within a separate source page. In all forms of formatting, both are always present. Formatting conventions are partially tied to disciplinary divisions. The three major divisions are the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. In the strictest sense, the sciences are constrained to those disciplines that employ a limited range of quantitative methods: physics belongs to the sciences; archaeology is in the humanities. The arts, as the third division, refer to disciplines that engage in the practice of producing art. Any interpretation—such as Art History or Art Appreciation—would fall under the humanities. To clarify, the U.S. Congress defines the humanities as the following: The humanities include, but are not limited to: history; literature; philosophy and ethics; foreign languages and cultures; linguistics; jurisprudence or philosophy of law; archaeology; comparative religion; the history, theory, and criticism of the arts; and those aspects of the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science, government, and economics) that use historical and interpretive rather than quantitative methods. The humanities are distinguished, within this tripartite structure, by emphasis on logic, analysis, and the exchange of ideas. The current compartmentalization of the disciplines within the university is relatively new. After Aristotle, the Romans broke study down into: grammar; rhetoric; logic; geometry; arithmetic; music; astronomy. When Christianity swept through Europe, universities became primarily theological, and this continued well into the 17th century. In contrast, scholars in Iraq and Persia were already engaged in analysis, experimentation, and publication of findings as early as the 11th century. The 19th century brought a radical secularization of the university. There was still no word for “scientist” until 1833, and even then it still referred to Aristotelian concepts of logic. It was not until the 20th century that Karl Popper, who died in 1994, SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 153
153
11/4/10 2:51 PM
formalized scientific method, and science splintered from the humanities—although still retaining much of the methodology derived from formal logic. This is why mathematics is a subset of logic. This left the social sciences in an awkward position—on the one hand, it often engages in study involving quantitative data, but, on the other hand, it also engages in questions regarding humanity, and not just natural phenomena. As such, the social sciences remain in the humanities, but the formatting that is used to present scientific material was developed in the social sciences, from the field of psychology. There are three forms of formatting with which you should be familiar, broken down according to how a typical reader of that kind of document would be best served in terms of accessing the information contained within it. The three primary forms of formatting, for the purposes of an introduction to academic writing, are: MLA Formatting:
Appropriate to the Humanities MLA formatting is governed by the Modern Language Association, which also oversees official rules for the standardization of grammatical and syntactical rules within the English language. In general, MLA has no cover page or abstract, uses in-text citation and signal phrases, utilizes footnotes or endnotes for commenting, and includes a Works Cited page with citations that are formatted in a specific style. Chicago Style Formatting:
Appropriate to the Humanities, including Social Sciences, and especially for the purpose of writing and research. Chicago Style is especially common within the disciplines of anthropology and history. Chicago Style is governed by the University of Chicago, and also dictates official rules for the standardization of grammatical and syntactical rules within the English language, as well as presentation of research material. Chicago Style is the oldest of the formatting styles, and set foundational standards for citation of source material in research writing.
154
Chapter_07.indd 154
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
In general, Chicago style has a cover page, but no abstract, and does not use in-text citation, but, rather, gives that information in either footnotes or endnotes, indicated by raised numerals within the body of the text. Full citation material is given in what is called a Bibliography, with citations that are formatted in a specific style. APA:
Appropriate to the Social Sciences, especially to the degree in which the writing engages with primarily quantitative data, and the Sciences. It is also adopted in nonacademic writing, with some variation, including grant and business proposals. APA is governed by the American Psychological Association. APA format, in general, has a title page, an abstract page, and utilizes in-text citations and signal phrases. Full citation information is given in what is called a References page, with citations that are formatted in a specific style. Which formatting style you use will, therefore, depend on the discipline in which you are writing, the degree to which the writing engages in research, and instructor preference. This formatting style will, in general, also determine how you present elements: for example, APA style uses an abstract, and an abstract always offers, at the beginning of the final paper, the findings, or answer, to the question posed within the study.
4 primary and secondary sources: raw or cooked
T
his is also an excellent time to deal with the issue of the difference between primary and secondary sources. In the draft, the ideal initial situation is to try to avoid secondary source material. Unless there is a genuine need for a secondary source, such as an initial theory upon which to build, analysis in a draft should initially consist of primary sources. In academic writing, any research is original research, and original research is almost exclusively performed, at this academic level, in the realm of primary sources. Secondary resources are appropriate for a final draft, in learning academic writing.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 155
155
11/4/10 2:51 PM
Therefore, it’s important to know the difference. Primary Sources can be thought of as “raw.” For example, let’s say your question has to do with the preference, in the general population of the United States, for pumpkin pie. In your primary research, you locate the record of what kinds of pies are stocked, in a typical months, from 1,000 supermarkets and bakeries. You find that pumpkin pie is not as popular as chocolate cream pie, although it is the most popular pie during certain holiday seasons. Those are your raw data drawn from primary source material. Secondary Sources are “cooked.” For example, for your study, you could reference Joe Schmoe’s article entitled: “Study from a Survey Concerning Preference for Pumpkin Pie in the General Population.” Joe Schmoe has done his own primary research into this question; you may have a conversation with him about those findings, in your writing, but you cannot take his primary source research, and call it your own. The difference between a primary and secondary source often doesn’t have to do with the source, itself. The difference between a primary and a secondary source has to do with how you use the source. Let’s say your question is, instead: “Do more people prefer pies made from puddings, or made from fruit?” In that case, Joe Schmoe’s study on pumpkin pies is still a Secondary Source, even though he didn’t answer your question directly. His study provided you with “cooked” material to work with—an answer that was not common knowledge, and that the author did his own work to provide, and that speaks directly to your question, in however small a way. Then again, let’s say your question is, instead: “How can the way that questions are posed, in a survey, change the answers that people provide?” In that case, Dr. Joe Schmoe’s survey could become a Primary Source. In his study, he performed research on pies—not on how surveys are worded. Thus, his survey would provide you with “raw” material concerning his survey techniques, a topic about which he did not intend to provide information. Many primary sources cannot be “cited” in the typical way, although some can. For example, if you were researching migration patterns of moose by tracking them in the wilderness, you could hardly cite the moose, could you? However, if you were looking at representations of certain types of music in a series of films, you would have to cite both the artists of the music, and the films you used to conduct your analysis. 156
Chapter_07.indd 156
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
Primary Sources provide you with the information you need to conduct your own original research. You analyze such data to draw conclusions. Secondary Sources can be useful: they provide you with a comparison to your own ideas. You can use them: as backup; to argue against; to set an example of; to illustrate a technique for analysis you are going to use; etc. They also can be, and are, routinely misused: an essay composed of other people’s work is the subtlest form of plagiarism. Even if you find 500 sources that support the claim that pumpkin pie is popular, so that you can prove, in your essay, that pumpkin pie is popular, all you’ve assembled is a book report. A book report is an assignment designed to reflect what you have learned; in university, we write to instruct others.
5 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
In academic writing, there are certain functions that can be identified. Each serve a particular purpose in the process of creating reasoned conclusions. A particular function may appear in a specific place within the writing (e.g.: opening), or the writer may engage in an ongoing process that includes that function (e.g.: organization). These functions include the following, although not all elements will be in this order: • Opening the essay and introducing the question at hand • Putting the question at hand into a specific context in order to refine it and prepare for analysis • Defining any terms that are ambiguous • Performing analysis through breakdown of constituent elements. This includes engaging in a recursive return to the original question, based upon information drawn from the analysis • Determining a principle of organization for the writing • Anticipating and answering to legitimate points of contention • Establishing the heart of the matter • Offering an answer to the initial question • Closing the essay SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 157
157
11/4/10 2:51 PM
In rhetoric and logic, these functions break down, roughly, into: • Exordium • Narratio • Definitio • Amplificatio • Partitio • Refutatio • Stasis (Thesis/Antithesis/Synthesis) • Epilogus Primary and secondary sources are different: primary sources are the raw material of the world that you collect for analysis, in relationship to a question. Some can be cited; some cannot. Secondary sources are the result of someone else’s research in primary source material. You cannot use secondary sources to answer your question directly, because that would be merely stealing other people’s ideas and work. A book report offers knowledge of other people’s ideas. Research is original.
VOCABULARY REVIEW
APA formatting From the American Psychological Association, a formatting style appropriate to writing occurring within the sciences and social sciences, as well as non-academic contexts, such as informal and formal proposals arts One of three disciplinary divisions in the university engaged in direct instruction in the production of artistic works Chicago Style formatting From the University of Chicago, a formatting style appropriate to writing performed in disciplines within the Humanities, including social sciences, but especially history, anthropology and research-oriented writing
158
Chapter_07.indd 158
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
culture In part, specific traditions that tend to accumulate around ethnic identity, often linked to nationality definitio The act in which the writer stipulates the definition of any term epilogus The closing of the paper that can serve the function of answering the question or stylistically wrapping up the paper ethnicity In part, a particular politico-geographical point of origin for an individual, often involving a shared history or culture exordium The point at which one prepares one’s audience (the reader), in the opening, for the writing that will follow formatting Formal guidelines determining a wide range of rules for the physical presentation of academic writing humanities One of three disciplinary divisions, with a primary emphasis on logic, analysis, and the exchange of ideas MLA formatting A formatting style primarily appropriate to writing performed in disciplines within the Humanities narratio Putting a question into a specific context in order to refine it and prepare for analysis nationality In part, the boundary in which one holds legal status (citizenship) partitio The logical organization of the body of a paper based upon the analysis performed
SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 159
159
11/4/10 2:51 PM
primary source Material that provides you with the information you need to conduct your own original research. You analyze such data to draw conclusions refutatio Any point in which a writer anticipates an objection on the part of the reader and engages actively with that objection race In part, a means by which people identify, and are identified, within a context that is entirely socially constructed sciences One of three disciplinary divisions, with a primary emphasis on value-neutral quantitative inquiry based upon scientific method secondary source Material that represents the results of other people’s analysis of primary sources, and therefore used for the purpose of interacting with conclusions drawn from the analyses of others, but never as representing one’s own analysis stasis The source of the primary conflict that first motivated the initial question
6 the draft
D
ifferent writers have different approaches to drafting a paper. The important thing to realize is that no paper can be simply written, printed, and submitted. Re-writing, including editing, is as essential as any other portion of the process of composing a quality academic essay. However, first one must get something down on paper. The more organized your first attempt is, the less work there will be on the other side. One of the first things to do is to determine the formatting in which the essay will be written, and set up a new document for that formatting. At this point, you should already have a title, opening paragraph, and an organizing principle drawn from analysis. When composing writing, it is often helpful to imagine the essay as a house. Writing is a lot like an act of hospitality; one invites another 160
Chapter_07.indd 160
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
into one’s thoughts, and shows that person around, in an organized manner. This means that the house has an entry, which is your reader’s introduction to you. Make a good first impression. The shape of the house will depend on your organizing principle, but one thing will always be consistent: at the center of the house is a question. Each time you lead your guest into a particular room, and collect an item of value, you return your guest to this main room in order to show how all of it fits together. Your organizing principle should give you the first step after the opening. You have broken the issue down; pick the first door that you will open. If your organizing principle is chronological, the rooms will be taken in a particular order determined by that order: earliest to latest, or latest to earliest, etc. If your organizing principle has types and subtypes, you may show your guest to a room, and then several smaller rooms connected to it, before returning to the main room. Go slowly; take one room at a time, and be a gracious host. Do not rush through a particular room, and make sure to explain any items with which the reader might be unfamiliar. Explore all of its contents. If the room changes shape, let it—the nice thing about extended analogies is that, unlike a real house, one is free to reorganize it to accommodate that change without having to do any demolition. Keep track of any details regarding source material, as you find them, and make sure to note all essential information for that source, so you do not have to find them later, which is time-consuming.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 161
161
11/4/10 2:51 PM
STEP 6: THE DRAFT GUIDE
Taking into account all of the functions of the essay, as well as the elements you already have in preparation to write the draft, format your paper and begin after the opening. Deal with the first issue called for by your organizing principle. As you progress, it can sometimes help if you put in subheadings; you can always suck them out, later. Remember that your reader has not thought about this in the way that you have, and needs to be introduced to your ideas in a way that is steady and logical. Your tone should be objective, reasonable, and you should define any terms that are ambiguous. Do so in a casual way, and not: “X is defined as…” Take into account paragraph breaks (2-3 per page), and avoid emotional language. There are certain places in which students commonly get stuck when learning how to write the essay, and they correspond, interestingly enough, with the number of pages a student has written, and the length of the final paper. A five-page paper often gets blocked shortly after page three; a seven-page paper often gets blocked after page five, and so on. Inevitably, a part of learning to write is to learn how to get around this blockage while avoiding two traps: 1) going off on a tangent; 2) repeating oneself. These blocks usually have to do with two issues: 1. Field too broad If a question is too broad, because a writer is trying to cover his or her bases in terms of meeting a length requirement, it will actually have the opposite effect, and make a paper too short. Specific insight into details, not generalities, is what generates things to say. Start out too broad, and you can only skim the surface of an issue. 2. Depth of analysis. This issue relates to the first: without depth analysis into details, and the patterns that they offer, one quickly runs out of material. In other words, one can only say so much, if one only has only so much to say. This means one must return to the analysis, refine it, and go into more depth in regard to those specifics.
162
Chapter_07.indd 162
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:51 PM
If one is dealing with a critical question, and has refined it, defined one’s terms, and performed a competent analysis, length should not be an issue. If it is, it would probably be helpful to return to the previous guides—including the critical question guide—and make sure that one’s question has not caused one to fall into a writing trap that would limit meaningful content. Most of all, relax a bit, and treat the writing as exploratory; that’s what drafts are for.
SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement
Chapter_07.indd 163
163
11/4/10 2:51 PM
Chapter_07.indd 164
11/4/10 2:51 PM
SECTION III RHETORIC REVISION PUBLICATION
Contents 165
Chapter_08.indd 165
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Chapter_08.indd 166
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Chapter 8 Communication and rhetoric
1
“THAT’S JUST RHETORIC”
2
APPEALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
3
FALLACIES AND OTHER fallacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
4
GETTING OUR DARNED ICE CREAM CONE
5
REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
ETHOS
.....................................................................
PATHOS
.....................................
168
177
LOGOS
167
Chapter_08.indd 167
11/4/10 2:54 PM
1 “that’s just rhetoric”
“Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge’s chambers believes in an unprejudiced point of view.” —Lillian Hellman
W
riting occurs in all sorts of places, for all sorts of reasons. The writing that occurs in the academy is involved in the study of rhetoric. Rhetoric is a part of the way in which Western discourse has figured out how to analyze and describe the way in which people reason and communicate across all kinds of contexts, inside and outside of the academy. The word “rhetoric” has recently gotten a bad rap. It is often used to refer to empty jargon, or double-talk. This is ironic, if only because, if one has a background in rhetoric, one is actively trained to recognize exactly when, and by what means, one is being deceived through such things as language or images. It is those who are not trained in rhetoric who usually end up being persuaded by the manipulation that can occur within communication, because such people often simply don’t recognize that the manipulation is occurring. To address this routine misuse of the term rhetoric, William Safire draws from The Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant for a word that distinguishes between “rhetoric,” and the misuse of the word in popular discourse. He calls empty, evasive talk designed to obscure meaning bloviation. He says: “If [by rhetoric] you mean ‘bloviating,’ get off ‘rhetoric’s’ back: we need ‘rhetoric’ to do a job that no other word does well” (3). Rhetoric is both its own discipline, and also fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature. As an analytical and practical tool, rhetoric is applicable to the hard and soft sciences, and to the humanities. Yet it does not stop there. Rhetoric is just as at home in the “rhetoric of popular culture” as it is in the “rhetoric of business communication” as it is in “the rhetoric of science.” Rhetoric and logic are both the basis of, and also open up new ways to understand, information in all academic disciplines. At one time, the teaching of logic (now reduced to the teaching of forms of mathematics), and the teaching of rhetoric (now reduced to the teaching of debate, formulaic writing, and grammar) would have been as fundamental to education as learning to read, as Michael Holzmann comments: By good writing, then, we meant…rhetoric. In antiquity, rhetoric was education, the leading out of the child from the private world of the 168
Chapter_08.indd 168
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
family…to the social and political worlds. Learning to write well…was the necessary preparation for what was seen as the only truly human existence: that of a participant in the social life of the community and the political life of the state. Because rhetoric is, in part, the study of logic expressed within language, which is what we used to mean by “argumentation,” rhetoric is a part of the study of human communication. Communication occurs all of the time. Music can communicate emotion. Facial expressions can communicate states of mind. Striking someone can communicate anger. Speaking and writing can communicate ideas. In other words, writing is often communication, but not all communication is written down. It helps to get a sense of what qualifies as communication. Communication: In rhetoric, communication is defined as an act that must involve a speaker, audience, vehicle, message, and intention. If the communication is designed to persuade, it can also involve what are called appeals. speaker
The source of the message, whether that source is immediately present, or not. For example, the sender of an advertisement could be a corporation.
audience
The receiver of the message. For example, people in a car who read a bumper sticker, or the reader of a book, or someone who listens to a speech.
vehicle
The means by which the message is transmitted. For example: speech; writing; gesture; body language; singing; a visual image.
message
The content of that which is relayed from speaker to audience. For example: a child crying may contain a message of distress.
intention
The purpose of the speaker in conveying a message. For example, a person may sing a song of love-gone-wrong in the shower, and other people might hear that performance, but if the speaker does not intend to convey a message, it is not a communicative act.
appeal
The manner in which a speaker seeks to produce belief or action in an audience through suasion—dissuasion or SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 169
169
11/4/10 2:54 PM
persuasion. Not all communication is persuasive in nature. For example, communication may be intended to educate, to entertain, or to comment. Think about the last thing that you heard, or read, or viewed, that really blew you away: a speech, a lecture, a reading, or even the lyrics to a song. Most of us have, at one point or another in our lives, stumbled across language or images that have made us stop in our tracks and really think. EVER WONDERED? The words affect and effect are often confused. Affect is the verb, as in “He affected her.” Effect is the noun, as in: “The effect was that she blushed.”
If the effect is profound, there is a kind of intimacy that is generated between yourself and the message; you may feel as if it perfectly expresses an idea that you hold, or it moves you emotionally, or it helps you to form your value system.
One does not walk away from such an experience with the feeling of having engaged in a remote intellectual exercise. Rather, it affects you in other ways: it might reaffirm beliefs that you already held, create a sense of belonging, or make you look at something in a new light. DEFINITION suasion: a communicative act intended to compel belief or action in the audience, whether persuasion or dissuasion
When that happens, it’s pleasurable. Good critical writing is rhetorically effective. It makes you think. Great critical prose can alter the worldview of an audience that responds to it. That is what rhetoric intends by its use of the term suasion.
Rhetoric is, in part, the study of communication, and is especially adept at providing tools for analysis of communication that is specifically designed to compel another person or persons to act or believe in a certain way. All communication is rhetorical, and rhetoric is especially helpful for studying communication that attempts to compel belief or action. In this way, writing is often rhetorical, but not all rhetoric is written down. The contexts in which persuasion or dissuasion occur are pretty broad. It doesn’t just cover a lawyer in a courtroom who is arguing a case to a jury in order to persuade that jury to return a verdict of “guilty,” but also a child whining to a parent for an ice cream cone in order to persuade the parent to purchase it for him or her.
170
Chapter_08.indd 170
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
It includes an essay that tries to persuade a reader that a given question has a given answer, but it also includes a police officer waving a driver around an accident in order to dissuade the driver from blocking traffic. It includes a political speech designed to persuade people to vote for a certain candidate, but it also includes an advertisement in a popular magazine that is designed to persuade people to buy a certain product. It includes a scientific treatise published in a scientific journal that proposes experimentation in stem cell research, and it also includes a conversation at a dinner table between two friends about whether or not stem cell research is ethically sound. Strange as it may seem, you don’t need language to have rhetoric. It is not that every act of communication is persuasive, but rather that persuasive acts of communication can occur in a lot of different ways. One of the first steps to understanding rhetoric is being able to identify which messages are designed to persuade, and which serve another purpose. Let’s take some examples: Images • An image of a child on a fundraising pamphlet can be designed to persuade people to donate money. • A painting of a landscape may not be designed to persuade, but merely to give pleasure. Gestures • A gesture that involves someone pointing to a door may be designed to persuade a person to get out of the room. • A rude gesture on the freeway, to another driver, may not be designed to persuade anyone, but merely to comment. Road signs • A road sign can be designed to persuade drivers to obey a traffic law, such as stopping at a stop sign. • A sign on the road giving directions to a party may not be designed to persuade, but merely to give information.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 171
171
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Clothing • A man dressing in a suit to meet his future in-laws for the first time may be trying to persuade them that he will be a suitable spouse. • A person dresses in jeans to do housework may merely be practical.
2 appeals
W
e rarely persuade someone just by telling them to do something. We have to appeal to that person in some way. To take just a few examples, we may appeal to a person’s sense of loyalty, or we may threaten that person, or we may show the rightness of our message to a person through sound reasoning. Some are fair, and some are not. There is nothing inherently wrong with appeals in and of themselves. There is nothing wrong with attempting to persuade someone to act or believe a certain way. We do it all the time. We reason with our parents or friends, present our political views to our peers, dress to impress a potential love interest, talk about our professional experience at job interviews, etc. Nevertheless, the discipline of rhetoric is very clear about the difference between an ethical and sound use of persuasive appeal, even if it is particularly skillful, and an unethical appeal that is designed to deceive another, or to hide our true intentions. In other words, rhetoric studies strategies of persuasive trickery in order to recognize when they are being used. In rhetoric, these are called fallacies: unethical ways of getting your way. Examples of fallacies would be to lie, to distract an audience from the real issue, or simply to use outright force to compel action or belief. Rhetoric breaks down the ways we can persuade into three basic kinds of appeals: an appeal to logic (logos), an appeal to emotion (pathos), or an appeal that attempts to persuade an audience through the use of the speaker’s personal credibility or authority (ethos). In most cases, all three appeals will be combined to create
172
Chapter_08.indd 172
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
persuasion; it is rare to see only one kind of appeal used in a single persuasive message. While logic may seem like it would be the strongest of the appeals, it is more effective in certain contexts than in others. In advertising, for example, logos can be very dull. Imagine an advertisement for a cell phone that simply listed, in a series of lines, the uses for the device. In fact, advertising is best served by an ethos appeal, such as a testimonial endorsement of the product by a famous figure. Secondary in efficacy in advertising is a pathos appeal, which arouses desire for a product by evoking, or even simply staging, a pleasurable or fearful emotional situation. In academic writing, in contrast, the most effective appeal is logos, because the rhetorical situation involves an audience that tends to expect reasoning to be the primary way in which persuasion will occur. However, ethos also comes into play, because one must sound reasonable and because certain speakers will already have credibility within their field, in the form of previous publication, and their writing will tend to be given more credence in the general readership on the basis of that authority. While pathos is not absent within academic writing, any overt usage will tend to diminish the ethos of the writer as an authority who can be trusted to be scrupulously objective. Any appeal can be used in a way that is ethical, and any appeal can be used dishonestly, too. It depends on whether the intention is an honest effort to communicate, or if the intention is to deceive or make one’s point through unfair means. One can twist logic to suit one’s own ends, or make it appear as if something is sensible, when it is not. One can divert the attention of the audience from the true issue at hand by creating an emotional response that is disconnected from the issue, or presents it in an unfair light that evokes strong emotion. One can use one’s own power or authority to force another to believe or act a certain way. Whether used ethically or not, the three appeals are broken down in the following ways: logos: Appeal to Logic Logos produces suasion by appealing to the reasoning of a given message. This is where logic comes into play when persuading another: If one can show that one’s reasoning is sound, others may agree with what one has to say.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 173
173
11/4/10 2:54 PM
For example, if a political candidate was delivering a speech while running for public office, he or she might offer a message that demonstrates how, if he or she wins the election, he or she plans to reduce the budget deficit. He or she may persuade someone to vote for him or her, based upon the soundness of his or her plan. pathos: Appeal to Emotion Pathos produces suasion by appealing to the audience’s emotions. For example, if a candidate was delivering a speech while running for public office, he or she might: • Speak passionately about the importance of civic duty. • Talk about overcoming personal adversity. • Bring a spouse/children onto the stage. This appeal does not have to be unethical; it can be an expression of profoundly honest emotional intent. When Martin Luther King Jr. opened his famous speech with “I have a dream…” he was not referring to a sleep state. He used the line—and the repetition of that line—to evoke emotion in his audience. ethos: Appeal to Personal Credibility/Authority While at first glance one might think that ethos refers to appealing to the audience’s sense of ethics, it is not. Appealing to an audience’s sense of ethics is still an appeal to pathos. If a speaker were to evoke patriotism in order to talk about enlistment in the armed forces, the speaker is attempting to evoke a sense of duty in the audience, which is an emotional response. Ethos appeals to the audience by establishing the credibility of the speaker. If one can establish that one has authority to speak on a given matter, one can persuade one’s audience, in part, through that authority. For example, if a candidate was delivering a speech while running for public office, he or she might talk about experiences in the Senate, or as a policymaker, that make him or her especially qualified for public office.
174
Chapter_08.indd 174
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Ethos—credibility and authority—can be drawn from a lot of sources: • Police officers, judges, teachers, and priests draw their credibility from institutional authority that is granted to them. • Someone who has had a particular experience may gain credibility by virtue of that experience. For example, a person who has had a broken leg may be perceived as more qualified to speak on the topic of the pain of broken bones than someone who has not. • One may gain credibility with an audience if the audience is gradually persuaded through one’s communication that one as fair and reasonable, and that one is taking all sides of an issue into account. 3 fallacies and other fallacies
“The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept. And in these realms there are exquisitely sophisticated craftsmen who—with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological testing, and so forth—dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right.” —Harry G. Frankfurt
U
nderstanding persuasion—which is the function of an appeal within a communication—does not just make people effective thinkers and writers. If people are not taught about how persuasion functions within communication, and how such persuasion can be used in ways that are both honest and dishonest, people remain vulnerable to very powerful and carefully rendered appeals that ultimately may not be in their best interest. Public education may have forgotten rhetoric, but politicians and advertising representatives know it very well. On the following page is a short list of common fallacies that one sees in usage all of the time. Look them over; you should be able to think of a time when such a fallacy was demonstrated for you.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 175
175
11/4/10 2:54 PM
176
Chapter_08.indd 176
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
4 getting our darned ice cream cone
“What if there were no hypothetical questions?” —Anon
T
o quickly learn about rhetorical appeals, let’s take a very simple example: a child wants a parent to buy an ice cream cone. The speaker (a child) may produce a rather simple message (“buy me ice cream”) through a vehicle (verbalization) with the intention (to persuade) of getting the audience (a parent) to buy the ice cream. However, the appeals that the child uses may vary in complexity and strategy. • The child may appeal through logic (logos) • The child may appeal through emotion (pathos) • The child may appeal by invoking his or her authority (ethos). The child may, in making his or her appeal, also employ an unfair persuasive tactic, or fallacy. There are fallacies in each kind of appeal. For example, a fallacy that is used while appealing through logos is called a logical fallacy. Here are some examples of different appeals that the child might attempt. Each example will demonstrate the child using a certain appeal. That appeal may be fair and valid, or it may be unfair or invalid (a fallacy). Before reading the answer, see if you can identify what appeal is being used, and whether or not the appeal is a fallacy, drawing from the list on the previous page. If you believe that the appeal is a fallacy (or fallacious), state which fallacy you believe is being used. “Give me ice cream because I ate a healthy lunch” Appeal being used:
Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____
Is this a fallacy?
No
_____ Yes
_____ Fallacy ____________
ANSWER In this case, the child is using an appeal to logic, or logos. There is no fallacy involved.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 177
177
11/4/10 2:54 PM
In a nutshell, the child is saying: “I know that your reason for denying me the ice cream is probably not based on the fact that you do not have the money, or that you hate that particular ice cream vendor. Rather, I have inferred, from past experience, that you might deny it to me because ice cream is not nutritious, and you are concerned about my health. Yet, because I already consumed a nutritious lunch, this dramatically weakens your reason for denying me the ice cream cone, and strengthens my logic for receiving it.” Not bad for a kid, huh? “Give me ice cream, or I’ll whine” Appeal being used:
Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____
Is this a fallacy?
No
_____ Yes
_____
Fallacy ____________ ANSWER Sometimes a message is not outright stated. It is implied. If the question at hand is the purchase of a motorcycle, and occurs between a parent and a child of age to drive, and the parent says: “I still pay your rent, Mister,” the threat is implied (“If you buy a motorcycle, I will no longer support you”), but still has an effect. Thus, in this example, the child may not directly say he or she is going to whine until he or she gets the ice cream cone, but the parent “gets it” that this is the situation at hand, and the child “gets it” that this is the appeal he or she is offering. In this case, the child is using pathos, and also employing what is called a pathetic fallacy: an appeal that uses unfair means, through an appeal to emotion, in order to compel action or belief. In this case, the fallacy is called argumentum ad baculum. It translates, literally, into “argument with a club.” Its common name is: “Appeal to Force.” While argumentum ad baculum is an appeal that can be used in different ways by different people (“Do you like your job?”/“Give me your wallet, or I’ll shoot you”), its functions is to compel a person to action or belief through direct threat (to withdraw livelihood, to harm the body, or, in the case of the ice cream, a threat to parental sanity) instead of dealing with the issue on its own merits. 178
Chapter_08.indd 178
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
“Give me ice cream because it will make my time with you special” Appeal being used:
Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____
Is this a fallacy?
No
_____ Yes
_____
Fallacy ____________ ANSWER In this case, the child is again using pathos: appeal to emotion. The child is basically saying: “I know that you value my feelings toward you, and I am offering a way for you to ensure that I will view you in a favorable light. I’ll get the ice cream, you’ll get to know that I like you for it, and that will make both of us feel good.” It’s tempting to think of this one as a fallacy, because the child is being so outright manipulative in making his or her affection dependent upon receiving ice cream. However, this does not make this argument a fallacy. Poor persuasion is not the same as deceptive persuasion. In addition, most of us expect children to employ such obvious tactics, considering: • How little power a child has within this particular relationship • That the child is relatively new to the game of persuasion, and may not yet recognize the transparency of the appeal to its audience. In other words, if you think about it, such an appeal would be less likely to work between adults. “Give me ice cream, because I always get ice cream when we come here.” Appeal being used:
Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____
Is this a fallacy?
No
_____ Yes
_____
Fallacy ____________ ANSWER: In this case, the child is employing a logos argument, and using it in a way that is also a fallacy. This is a logical fallacy called Argumentum ad Antiquatem. Its common name is “Appeal to Tradition.” Basically, this fallacy argues that because something SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 179
179
11/4/10 2:54 PM
has been so, in the past, it is true and valid, now. The child is saying: “Whenever we pass this ice cream stand, I should receive an ice cream cone, because this has been the case, in the past.” Another example of the fallacy “appeal to tradition” would be one routinely used in public discourse to argue against gay marriage. The statement that “Marriage is between a man and a woman” says nothing except that “this has been so.” If we were to go back to a time when women couldn’t vote in the United States, it would be similar to a person justifying refusal to allow women to vote based on the statement: “Voters are men.” These are fallacies regardless of the topic that is under debate: one is arguing that “the way it has been” is fair and true for its own sake. “Give me ice cream because I want it.” Appeal being used:
Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____
Is this a fallacy?
No
_____ Yes
_____
Fallacy ____________ ANSWER: This is an appeal to personal credibility, or ethos. It is not a fallacy. It is an attempt to draw upon the personal authority of the speaker. Basically, the child is saying: “The fact that I want something, coupled with the fact that I perceive myself to be basically the center of the known universe, should be reason enough for you to give me ice cream.” In most cases, children quickly learn to avoid this particular appeal, because it usually doesn’t work very well. Children don’t have much personal authority, because children don’t usually have that much power in the parent/child relationship. It’s a lot different if a police officer orders someone to “step back”— now that’s an ethos appeal. A typical conversation between a parent and a child, in the example used, might involve an exchange based solely upon ethos, with no logos or pathos being used on either side. Because ethos has to do with power, the conclusion is rather predictable:
180
Chapter_08.indd 180
Child:
“Give me an ice cream.”
Parent:
“No.”
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Child:
“I want it.”
(Appeal to ethos: child’s personal authority) Parent:
“No.”
Child:
“Why?”
Parent:
“Because I said so.”
(Appeal to ethos: parent’s personal authority). In this conversation, the child attempts suasion by appealing to his or her personal authority, and the parent counters with superior authority. In other words, the parent quite simply pulls rank—no other explanation required. Depending on the parent, any of the appeals that a child may attempt may have varying degrees of success in persuading the parent to act (to buy the ice cream cone for the child). In any case, it does demonstrate that humans start rhetoric early.
5 review
CHAPTER REVIEW
The information to take from this chapter is that the history and the meaning of the term rhetoric are often misunderstood. Rhetoric is foundational to the development of logic in Western discourse, in all areas of knowledge. Rhetoric particularly concerns itself with communication, in whatever form that communication is offered. It defines communication by a series of five elements that must be present in order for communication to occur: speaker, audience, vehicle, message, and intention. In its study of argumentation, rhetoric elucidates specific issues regarding the use of communication and suasion, whether persuasion or dissuasion, partly through an analysis of appeals. Appeals are broken down into three areas: an appeal to logic (logos), an appeal to emotion (pathos), and an appeal to the authority or credibility of the speaker (ethos). Rhetoric also identifies areas of the misuse of any of these appeals, either through error or deliberate deception on the part of the speaker. The misuse of an appeal is called a fallacy. SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 181
181
11/4/10 2:54 PM
GRAMMAR REVIEW
The words affect and effect are often confused. Affect is the verb, as in “He affected her.” Effect is the noun, as in: “The effect was that she blushed.” VOCABULARY REVIEW
argumentation In formal logic/rhetoric, the elucidation of the process whereby one draws reasonable inferences from true premises, as in formal argumentation appeals In rhetoric, three basic ways in which a speaker may seek to produce belief or action in an audience through suasion, including dissuasion or persuasion audience In rhetoric, the receiver of a message, one of five elements necessary for communication to occur communication In rhetoric, defined as an act that, to qualify as communication, must involve a speaker, audience, vehicle, message, and intention. If the communication is designed to persuade, it can also involve what are called appeals ethos In rhetoric, one of three types of appeals. In this case, the appeal to personal credibility or authority of the speaker fallacy In rhetoric, the unsound or unethical use, either through error or deliberate deception, of an appeal intention In rhetoric, the element of communication that indicates the purpose of the speaker in conveying a message, one of five elements necessary for communication to occur logos In rhetoric, one of three types of appeals. In this case, the appeal to logic or sound reasoning
182
Chapter_08.indd 182
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 2:54 PM
message In rhetoric, the element of communication that indicates the content that is relayed from speaker to audience, and one of five elements necessary for communication to occur pathos In rhetoric, one of three types of appeals. In this case, the appeal to emotion rhetoric The study of logic and communication. From Aristotle, the study of such communication especially in regard to awareness of the most effective means of suasion in a given communication situation speaker In rhetoric, the element of communication that indicates the source of the message, whether that source is immediately present, or not, and one of five elements necessary for communication to occur suasion The attempted result, in a communicative act, of compelling belief or action in an audience, whether that result is one of persuasion or dissuasion vehicle In rhetoric, the element of communication that indicates the means by which the message is transmitted, whether that means is writing, speech, visual imagery, gesture, etc. and one of five elements necessary for communication to occur
SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric
Chapter_08.indd 183
183
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Chapter_08.indd 184
11/4/10 2:54 PM
Chapter 9 Feedback and revision
1
EVERYONE’S A CRITIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
2
ON BEYOND SPELLCHECK: EDITING VS. REVISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
3
MIRRORING DOCUMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
4
THE SECRET OF THE HARD-COPY EDIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
5
REVISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
STEP 7 SELFDIAGNOSTIC GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
185
Chapter_09.indd 185
11/4/10 4:33 PM
1 everyone’s a critic
T
he more that one writes, the more that one comes to appreciate the feedback of others. In fact, if one pursues advancement in academics, one gets to the point of soliciting criticism, because unless one can put a piece of writing away for a year, and then come back to it, there is no way to encounter one’s own writing in a fresh way; one is just too close to it. This proximity to your own writing will cause all sorts of mischief. It will allow you to fill in missing words that are not there, make leaps in logic that a typical reader cannot follow, and otherwise read the writing that is in your head, instead of the writing on the page. You understand what you mean. It’s very difficult to get past that, in order to imagine what it would be like to be someone else trying to figure out what you mean. The role of feedback in a writing draft is supposed to be helpful. However, its usefulness is dependent upon the way in which the feedback is presented, and also a degree of maturity on your part, in accepting and making use of that criticism. Criticism is quite simply a bit of a blow, no matter how well-phrased. It’s a lot easier to understand why you bubbled in the wrong answer on a test. In writing feedback, things get a bit more complicated. Feedback for an essay draft comes in levels: word level (spelling, word-choice), sentence level (syntax, grammar, word choice); organization level (the order of the presentation of the ideas); formalist level (formatting); content level (your analysis and conclusions). In a given course at university, one might just receive a grade, with no explanation. In a writing course, one would hope you would receive a more detailed response. There are several ways in which writing instructors tend to respond to drafts. These include marginal comments, end-comments, rubrics, and 1:1 conferences. A rubric is simply a sheet that lists common areas for improvements, and gives you an idea which area you should work on for the final draft. Skip over none of it; respond to anything your instructor offers—they notice. Instructors are, one assumes, invested in being helpful, but they are also justifying a grade. The idea would be that if one addresses all of the comments, (and understands them), the final product would receive a higher grade. The purpose of a writing course is to teach writing, and the final product is the measure the learning that has occurred. Remember that instructors must choose between the quality of the final product, in relationship to class standing, learning outcomes, and a student’s improvement, over the course of the quarter, in determining that grade. In university courses, especially 186
Chapter_09.indd 186
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:33 PM
if students are used to receiving high grades for their writing in high school, it can be quite surprising (and a bit unsettling) to receive a lower grade for the same work, in university. That is because one has moved to a new level of expectations. There is no getting around the fact that instructors vary in those expectations. Almost all instructors tend to agree upon the quality of a given piece of academic writing, when they encounter it. This book aims toward identifying, and breaking down, for students, the elements that tend to generate that consensus, based upon published works. Yet just because instructors agree that a given published article displays a high degree of writing competence, this does not guarantee that they agree as to how to provide instruction in duplicating that quality. It’s not particularly fair to have to shift your style of writing, or the rules that you are given, from course to course, but that is the reality of writing within the university. As such, your job, as a student, is twofold: first, your job is to learn. Take what you can from instruction, and use your own judgment if it conflicts with other instruction you receive. It has to make sense to you. Your other job is to pay attention to the expectations of the instructor you are currently working with, and to follow them, even if you don’t agree, or if it conflicts with other writing instruction you have received. Nor does it help to point out any discrepancy to your current instructor. Hopefully, you will get an instructor who is willing to explain his or her reasoning to you. It’s even better if what she or he tells you actually makes sense. Your best strategy for improving both your writing, and improving your grade, is to go to the instructor (or whoever issues the grade) and ask her or him, directly, and as politely as possible, what you can do to improve. Don’t be confrontational or emotional. Push, if you have to, to get specifics. This is the job of an instructor; it’s the reason office hours exist. The best time to do this is after your instructor has reviewed a sample of your writing, as in a draft. Most instructors will respond positively to this question, and will do their utmost to clarify their expectations. Most of all, don’t take criticism personally, and remember that, no matter what you have to do for a given course, this is your writing. It doesn’t matter what you produce; it matters what you learn. If you encounter a course in which you don’t feel you are learning, do what you have to do to provide a product that fulfills the criteria laid down by the instructor, and move on. Following instruction that doesn’t make sense can only be for the purposes of receiving a desired grade; learning occurs when understanding attends that instruction. At the same time, remain open to different views, because sometimes an approach to writing that you haven’t encountered before can actually make a lot of sense. At one SECTION III • CHAPTER 9 Feedback and Revision
Chapter_09.indd 187
187
11/4/10 4:33 PM
point or another, the whole business of academic writing should fall into place, and at that point what you write is your own business. To give an example of how writing instruction really works, the best single piece of writing instruction that I ever received was from a teaching assistant. It was a course in American Literature, and involved reading not only literary works from that period, but also critical essays that responded to that literature. In speaking to the teaching assistant in charge of grading, I learned something that radically changed how I perceived the writing that I would perform for the rest of my student career. In that conversation, after she confirmed that I had read the essays on the readings, she simply said: “Write like that.” Up to that point, it had never occurred to me that this was what was expected. Sometimes things just click. This one went straight to what I had been struggling to understand: the purpose of my writing efforts within the context of the university. Over the years, as an instructor, I have witnessed many such pivotal moments, in interacting with students. I have also known a few students who have walked away from my office with little more than a vague plan of how to approximate what I was asking of them, in their writing. Because thinking and writing are so closely linked, a student’s response to instruction is as individualized as an instructor’s approach to teaching. The best thing to do is to try to find a good fit between your learning style and an instructor’s teaching style.
2 on beyond spellcheck: editing vs. revision
E
diting a document, which involves identifying errors—checking for spelling mistakes, making sure formatting is correct, making sure words are not missing, etc.—is a student’s job, and should be completed within the draft stage, not in revision.
Instructors in university do not edit papers; they comment primarily on organization and content, for the purpose of global revision. In other words, nobody in university expects you to revise your draft by correcting spelling errors; the paper should not have been turned in this way, in the first place. An instructor may indicate editing problems in feedback, but a rewrite that involves merely editing your paper will probably not result in a higher grade. The only thing it might do is to prevent a failing grade.
188
Chapter_09.indd 188
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:33 PM
Before you turn in a draft, run both spell-check and grammar-check. Don’t rely on them—keep a dictionary and college handbook at hand, and, if you’re not sure about something that has been flagged, look it up. Software checks are useful tools, but they are not foolproof. Never rely on a software program for formatting. A rewrite is not about editing. Most of the time, it’s about a global revision, and often an extension, of your original draft. A draft is not a finished product, and a final paper should be considerably different from what you originally submitted.
3 mirroring documents
I
n practical terms, there are two strategies that will help you to produce the most effective rewrite for a given draft that you produce. The first is what could be called mirroring documents.
If you perform a revision within your original document, you will miss two things: first, you will lose the opportunity to encounter your writing fresh, because you will be re-reading what you have already written. Second, you will lose the opportunity for eloquence: the way in which a point you make not only makes sense, but it particularly well-said. Mirroring documents is a simple process. It involves calling up your original draft on your desktop, and moving it over to one side, while leaving it open. Then, call up a new blank document. Put them side-by-side. With your hard-copy feedback next to you, your original open in a document, and your blank document pre-formatted, the very best thing to do is to start from scratch. Anyone who has ever built a house will tell you that it is easier to start fresh construction than engage in a remodel, where you have to deal with existing material you are trying to replace, or change. For example, global revision may require a completely new opening. Mirroring documents allows you to construct that opening, while having your original readily available if you would like to refer to it. For parts of the original draft with which you are pleased, and that work, there is the wonderful tool of cut and paste. This is especially helpful if you are moving around elements for a new organization, where elements that were once combined, but should not have been, can be selectively extracted to fit a new organization. Remember that input of new text creates the need for a new edit for small errors.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 9 Feedback and Revision
Chapter_09.indd 189
189
11/4/10 4:33 PM
4 the secret of the hard-copy edit
T
his may seem like a simple strategy, but it is actually quite important. A student once came to me because he was extremely frustrated with the grades he was receiving for writing in his courses. He had just turned in a draft for my course, and it was easy to understand why he was receiving these grades. It was not his ideas, which were very sound, nor his ability to think critically. It was not the way in which he organized his writing. It was, quite simply, that his paper was full of egregious editing errors. In going over his draft, together, I asked him to read three sentences aloud. By the second sentence he expressed profound surprise: he had edited the paper. He had read it over several times. How could he have missed a sentence like: “It was for made the purpose of in constructing identity”? It was just so wrong—why hadn’t he caught it? The answer is quite simple: he had edited the document onscreen. There is no answer, of which I am aware, as to why editing this way doesn’t work. Students who receive the highest grades in writing courses always know this secret: no matter how many times you have gone over a document, onscreen, it is always absolutely necessary to perform a hard-copy edit. That means printing the document, sitting down with a pen in hand, and reading your prose off the page. If editing is an area in which you have had real difficulty, in the past, you can take it a step further: find somewhere private, and read it aloud. Mark places in your copy where you find errors (and you will), and return to the screen to make the changes. Then you can print out a final copy. This particular student’s final essay was not only a fine critical essay, but was entirely free of editing errors, and his grades improved in all of his courses.
5 revision
B
esides responding to instructor comments, performing adequate editing, mirroring documents, and doing a hard-copy edit, it can be helpful to review important issues covered within this text in order to self-diagnose any areas where one could improve, or to return to a given step and review it. On the following page, you will find a self-diagnostic. It is intended as a tool for self-evaluation, and not to force you to give yourself some kind of grade. The self-diagnostic helps a student to recognize that concentration on one or two areas, instead of “writing,” in general, can make a substantial difference in the quality of his or her writing.
190
Chapter_09.indd 190
REASON TO WRITE
11/4/10 4:33 PM
STEP 7: SELFDIAGNOSTIC GUIDE # Issue
Very Good
Need to Improve
Issue for Revision
Critical Question Based on a Critical Question
_____
_____
_____
Contextualization Finds General/Specifics of question
_____
_____
_____
Definition Defines terms
_____
_____
_____
Analysis Gathers details Finds patterns Draws conclusions
_____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____
Organization Strong organizational principle
_____
_____
_____
Sources Emphasis on primary sources Secondary sources when needed
_____ _____
_____ _____
_____ _____
Tone Tone works for publication Objective/Reasonable/Fair No emotional language No value judgments Complicates any binaries Is not opinion-based Deals with counterpoints
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
Language Usage No “Wine-Bottle” Language No Adjectives No Generalizations
_____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____
Structure Title Paragraphs
_____ _____
_____ _____
_____ _____
Mechanics 1. Formatting
_____
_____
_____
Editing 1. Editing (General) 2. Specific Issue/s
_____ _____ __________________ __________________ __________________
_____ __________ __________ __________
SECTION III • CHAPTER 9 Feedback and Revision
Chapter_09.indd 191
191
11/4/10 4:33 PM
Chapter_09.indd 192
11/4/10 4:33 PM
Chapter 10 Joining the conversation
1
KINDS OF WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
2
WRITING IN PROFESSIONAL CONTEXTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
3
CONFERENCE PRESENTATION/PUBLICATION FOR UNDERGRADUATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
4
JOINING THE CONVERSATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
STEP 8 CONFERENCE/JOURNAL PUBLICATION GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Sample Undergraduate Conference CFP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Sample Undergraduate Journal CFP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
193
Chapter_10.indd 193
28/10/10 4:55 PM
1 kinds of writing
“Writing is not a profession, occupation, or job; it is not a way of life. It is a comprehensive response to life.” —Gregory McDonald
P
eople write in all sorts of different ways, for all sorts of different purposes. For example, personal writing is quite simply writing that one does without the intention of sharing it in a professional or academic or career-related context, because that is not its purpose. Writing that would fall under this might include a personal journal, a shopping list, a letter to a friend, etc. You get it. Academic writing is merely one kind of writing. One of the things that distinguishes academic writing is that it uses a style that tends to offer a question, and then to move step by step, to a conclusion, through careful analysis and objective reasoning, in the process leading the reader through that thought process in an organized manner. As a specific kind of writing, the academic essay is not an editorial, a review, or an autobiography. It is not a business proposal or a cover letter. In contrast, non-academic writing serves a variety of purposes, in the world, but can also be broken down into types and sub-types. A part of learning about academic writing is the recognition of its unique quality, and it can help if one is able to differentiate it from other kinds of writing that function in the world . Professional Writing
Professional writing is writing performed by a person who will receive payment specifically for the writing product that he or she produces. For example, editing is a type of professional writing. Professional writing can also include, among others: technical writing: Writing that serves the function of breaking down a process, for a reader, for the practical purpose of having the reader perform that same process. This is done with the understanding that the result would, ideally, result in a duplication of that initial process. Technical writing is published, for example, in manuals. Its purpose is primarily to educate.
194
Chapter_10.indd 194
REASON TO WRITE
28/10/10 4:55 PM
journalism: In the form of, for example, reporting, journalism is composed of writing that organizes, and synthesizes, for the reader, in a coherent and objective manner, the results of skilled research. This research often includes both primary sources, which can include current events, historical research, as well as investigation into secondary sources. Ideally, such writing is free of interpretation on the part of the writer, and concentrates only upon the reliable transmission of accurate data concerning those events or issues. Journalism has many subgenres that would challenge this definition: it can also include opinion-based writing, in the form of the editorial. It can include reviews, or interviews, or satire. Journalism is published in magazines, newspapers, and non-academic journals. Its purpose is primarily to educate or to entertain. creative writing: The writing of fiction or creative non-fiction for the purpose of publication in a variety of forms: magazines, anthologies, books, etc. Its purpose is more than just to entertain, but is a part of the verbal arts, which function outside of the range of utility.
2 writing in professional contexts
O
f course, while professional writers are paid specifically for their writing, there are many professional contexts in which people engage in very specific kinds of writing tasks. Writing in professional contexts is often specific to certain career categories, whether in the public or private sector. There are many professions that require a person to write. An entrepreneur may write a business plan; a consultant may write a proposal; a teacher may write a lesson plan. These context-specific kinds of writing can be important for people to master within a given professional field. Such writing is done under rules that often involve a complex understanding of heavily coded conventions that have built up over time. For example, we expect that a business letter will have a closing line (“Sincerely”; “Regards,” etc.). We expect that a lawyer will state his or her case, in a written brief, in language that follows a predictable formula, and that might be difficult to understand unless one has been to law school.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 10 Joining the Conversation
Chapter_10.indd 195
195
28/10/10 4:55 PM
3 conference presentation/publication for undergraduates
S
ometimes students who enter into university have the idea that writing will not be required within their given field. This is not the case. There is no discipline in which writing does not occur, and copiously, within academics. There are publications in every field. Students also often see the “academic essay” as a school-based writing assignment, written to take entrance exams and to pass classes. Again, that is not, actually, its purpose. The “academic essay” is, in fact, writing in any of the disciplines—Biology, History, Sociology, Anthropology, English, Chemistry, etc.—that is written in order to be presented to a review board for two potential purposes: for consideration for presentation at a conference, or for the purpose of consideration for publication in an academic journal. The university is really a self-renewing writing situation. People in universities teach, do experiments, speak, and publish academic writing. Because undergraduates often see their role within the academy as a classroom-learner, few take advantage of the opportunities provided by participation in undergraduate conference presentation, undergraduate research assistantship, and undergraduate publication. Beyond the satisfaction that one can gain from such activities, they speak in a powerful way to potential committees or interviewers if one wishes to continue on to graduate school, or to put together a strong professional package for job application.
Academic Conferences for Undergraduates
Conferences are gatherings that are hosted by academic associations. They occur at universities, at hotels, and at conference centers, all over the world. Scholars attend these symposiums, or conferences, in order to learn what others present, and to get the opportunity to present what they have learned. There are conferences that are specifically aimed at undergraduates, and there are conferences at which persons at any level of scholarship can participate. Usually, one must be a member of an association to attend, which usually involves either simply officially indicating willingness to join, as well as a desire to attend a given conference, and sometimes involves a fee for both membership and registration to a conference. Some associations are linked to academic journals, and some put out newsletters that keep their members up-to-date on various goings-on pertaining to the association.
196
Chapter_10.indd 196
REASON TO WRITE
28/10/10 4:55 PM
These associations range widely: some are discipline-specific (e.g.: The Association of Academic Psychiatrists), some are theme-specific (e.g.: The Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking), and some are area-specific (e.g.: The Mid-Western College Art Association). Some are small. Some are very big. The Modern Language Association (which is the association that puts out the MLA guidelines for formatting) hosts a conference, each year, attended by thousands of participants. When a given association is planning to host a conference, it notifies its members, and it also sends out a general notification called a CFP: a Call For Papers. The call goes out to anyone who would like to present, who fulfills the qualifications. Response to this call may require an abstract, or a paper, depending on the specifics of the call. A review board then evaluates this material, and presenters are chosen based upon that review. Some associations will only accept submissions from specific presenters, but many will consider a strong abstract from anyone currently engaged in academic inquiry, and even those who are not. It is much easier to get accepted to an academic conference than to be accepted for academic publication. Presenting at a conference, or even attending one, gives students exposure to a given field, provides a chance to make contacts, and is a significant part of professional development reflected on a C.V. or résumé. The Academic Journal
An “academic journal” is not a magazine. A legitimate academic journal publishes articles that are: Scholarly:
The purpose of the articles contained within the journal is to distribute knowledge, not to make money.
Peer-reviewed: Articles are reviewed and selected by experts within a field, depending on the nature of the journal Specialized:
Articles are usually written by people within a given field, for an audience of readers within that same field.
When a journal is created, the editorial board gets together and makes a series of decisions. They will decide whether the journal will be disciplinary or interdisciplinary, on what the journal is going to concentrate, and what its general philosophy will be. Editorial boards get to decide which essays they publish, the journal’s intended audience, the look of the journal, and how it is distributed. Once a journal
SECTION III • CHAPTER 10 Joining the Conversation
Chapter_10.indd 197
197
28/10/10 4:55 PM
is established, the editorial board will also put out a CFP. This invites those within academics to submit abstracts, or essays, for consideration for publication in the journal. Some journals will publish essays from any source, as long as the essay meets their standards. Others are very specific about whom they will publish. Some will only publish articles or essays from established experts in a field. Others specify works from a specific university. Here is an example of the description of an interdisciplinary journal from the editorial board for “NeoAmericanist.” This journal routinely publishes work from professors, graduate students, and undergraduates: NeoAmericanist is an inter-disciplinary online journal for the study of America. We are focused on reaching out to universities and the general public to create an e-journal that pushes the boundaries of scholarship and theory, and blurs the lines between academic disciplines and popular culture. NeoAmericanist is a journal available for anyone who aspires to participate in the study of the United States of America. Like most academic journals, this journal indicates the forum for the journal, its focus, its intended readership, and the people from whom it will accept submissions for potential publication. There are literally hundreds of journals that publish work by undergraduates. There are interdisciplinary undergraduate academic journals, and journals that specialize in publishing undergraduate research. There are also many journals that are discipline-specific, including but not limited to: Art Communication Cognitive Science Law International Affairs Mathematics Biology Neuroscience Film Studies
198
Chapter_10.indd 198
Creative Writing Economics Rhetoric Computer Science Medicine Physics Engineering Chemistry Linguistics
Business English History Psychology Political Science Philosophy Anthropology Public Writing Sociology
REASON TO WRITE
28/10/10 4:55 PM
4 joining the conversation
I
t is an excellent exercise to at least find a conference or journal to which one could contribute. Academic submission is always free. All one has to do is follow the guidelines. At the worst, one could get rejected—but the benefits, should one get accepted, far outweigh a bit of ego-deflation, should one not be accepted.
Knowing how to respond to a CFP does not mean that one has to actually submit the essay—but one should know how to go about doing so.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 10 Joining the Conversation
Chapter_10.indd 199
199
28/10/10 4:55 PM
STEP 8: CONFERENCE/JOURNAL PUBLICATION GUIDE
STEP 1 Open your web browser and type in “undergraduate journal.” Other key words could include “undergraduate conference” or “CFP undergraduates.” You will find multiple websites, often themselves lists to other resource links. Find a Conference or Journal to which you could legitimately submit your essay for potential consideration. Go to that website. STEP 2 On that webpage, if you look around, there will be a link that says something to the effect of “Submission guidelines,” or “For Contributors.” Click on the link. STEP 3 This link will take you to a set of guidelines for how to prepare your essay for consideration for a conference presentation or journal publication. Print out the “submissions guidelines” page You don’t have to submit your essay—but, at this point, you could.
200
Chapter_10.indd 200
REASON TO WRITE
28/10/10 4:55 PM
SAMPLE UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE CFP
Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication Call for papers We invite theoretical, critical and/or empirical papers on a broad range of communication topics for presentation in traditional panel format. Undergraduate research projects suitable for poster session presentation in an interesting, engaging visual format are also encouraged. Papers must be authored by one or more undergraduate students attending one of the participating institutions. Maximum length is 15 pages (not including references and appendixes). Please submit your paper, using the citation method of the American Psychological Association and following the directions laid out in the Paper Format Guide, with 100-word abstract, electronically to
[email protected] for review. Poster session presentations should represent research projects and results in an interesting visual form. At least one author of the project must be present at the poster session to discuss the poster with attendees. Please submit your proposal, of no more than 500 words, electronically to
[email protected]. Deadline for all submissions Monday, February 15. Acceptance is by e-mail.
SECTION III • CHAPTER 10 Joining the Conversation
Chapter_10.indd 201
201
28/10/10 4:55 PM
SAMPLE UNDERGRADUATE JOURNAL CFP
HISTORY MATTERS AN UNDERGRADUATE JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Submissions Info HISTORY MATTERS welcomes submissions from all undergraduates. Please follow these guidelines when submitting papers: – The deadline for submissions is the last Friday of January. – Authors may submit papers via e-mail attachment, in Microsoft Word formats, to
[email protected]. – Please put your name, university, e-mail address, current mailing address, and phone number on a cover page. – We are especially seeking papers that utilize primary sources. – We strongly prefer papers between 10 and 20 pages in length. – Please do not include your name in the header or footer. – Please use 1” margins. – The body text of all papers should be double-spaced, but footnotes should be single-spaced. – All papers must include a bibliography of sources used. – We ask that you use footnotes and conform manuscripts to the Chicago Manual of Style (latest edition), especially for footnote form. – Only one submission per student will be reviewed. – We do not accept papers already published or previously submitted to this journal or other academic journals. Revisions and additional research may be requested after editorial review, but a request for revision does not guarantee publication.
202
Chapter_10.indd 202
REASON TO WRITE
28/10/10 4:55 PM
recommended readings Roland Barthes:
“The World of Wrestling.” Mythologies. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1972. Print.
Jean Baudrillard:
America. New York: Verso New Edition, 2010. Print.
Walter Benjamin:
“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. New York: Schoken, 1969. Print.
John Berger:
“Hiroshima” A Sense of Sight. New York: Vintage. 1993. Print.
John Berger:
“Ways of Seeing” Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.
Stephen Bernhardt: “Seeing the Text” College Composition and Communication 37.1 (1996): 66–78. Print. J. Anthony Blair:
“The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments” Argumentation and Advocacy 33.1 (1996): 23–39. Print.
Susan Bordo:
“Hunger as Ideology” Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. 2nd Ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Print.
Paul Cantor:
“The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family” Political Theory 27.6 (1999): 734–749. Print.
Carol Clover:
“Her Body, Himself ” Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993. Print.
Annie Dillard:
“The Wreck of Time” For the Time Being. New York: Vintage, 2000. Print.
Lars Eigner:
“On Dumpster Diving” Travels with Lizbeth. New York: Ballentine Books, 1994. Print.
Ralph Ellison:
“An Extravagance of Laughter” Going to the Territory. New York: Vintage, 1999. Print.
203
Reco_Readings.indd 203
28/10/10 5:12 PM
Stanley Fish:
“How to Recognize a Poem When You See One” Is There a Text in This Class?: The Authority of Interpretive Communities. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1982. Print.
Paulo Friere:
“The Banking Concept of Education” Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000 (1970). Print.
Erich Fromm:
“Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” On Disobedience and Other Essays. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2010. Print.
Clifford Geertz:
“Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight” The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1977.
Elliot Gorn:
“Professing History: Distinguishing Between Memory and the Past” The Chronicles of Higher Education 46.34 (2000): B4–B5. Web. 14 Sept. 2004.
Susan Griffith:
“Our Secret” A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War. New York: Anchor, 1993. Print.
Daniel Harris:
“Cuteness” and “Coolness” Cute, Quaint, Hungry, and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2001. Print.
Michael Holzmann: “Rhetoric/Composition//Academic Institutions/Cultural Studies.” Enculturation 5.1 (2003): n. pag. Web. 23 Jan. 2010. Rosina Lippi-Greene:
“Teaching Children How to Discriminate: What We Learn from the Big Bad Wolf.” English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Elizabeth Mangini: “Real Lies, True Fakes, and Supermodels” Invisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture 7.1 (2006): 8–17. Web. 17 Mar. 2007. The Hays Code:
204
David P. Hayes, ed. “The Motion Picture Code of 1930.” n. pag. 2000 (1934). Web. 15 Oct. 2009.
REASON TO WRITE
Reco_Readings.indd 204
28/10/10 5:12 PM
Scott McCloud:
Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer:
“The Vocabulary of Comics” Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Print.
“Preface” The New Humanities Reader. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. xvii. Print.
William Ian Miller: “Thick, Greasy Life” The Anatomy of Disgust. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1998. Print. George Orwell:
“Politics and the English Language” A Collection of Essays. New York: Mariner Books, 1970. Print.
Walker Percy:
“The Loss of the Creature” The Message in the Bottle New York: Macmillan, 2000. Print.
Christine Rosen:
Cohen, Eric, ed. “Our Cell Phones, Ourselves” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society 6 (2004): n. pag. Web. 18 Nov. 2007.
Carl Sagan:
“Can We Know the Universe?: Reflections on a Grain of Salt” Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1979. Print.
Theodore Sizer:
“What High School Is” Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. New York: Mariner Books, 2004. Print.
Mark Slouka:
“Dehumanized: When Math and Science Rule the School” Harper’s Magazine. 319.1912: 32–40. Article.
James P. Spradley/ Brenda Mann:
Brent Staples:
“The Cocktail Waitress: Women’s Work in a Man’s World.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2.10 (1976): 255–256. Article. “Black Men and Public Space” Harpers Magazine. 273.1639 (1986): 19–20. Article.
Recommended Readings 205
Reco_Readings.indd 205
28/10/10 5:12 PM
Reco_Readings.indd 206
28/10/10 5:12 PM
WORKS CITED CHAPTER 1
Birkerts, Sven. “The Owl Has Flown.” Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. 2nd ed. Ed. Bob Coleman. Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2004. 70–77. Print. Charlip, Julie. “A Real Class Act.” Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. 2nd ed. Ed. Bob Coleman. Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2004. 79–94. Print. Coleman, Bob, ed. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. 2nd ed. Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2004. Print. Florida, Richard. “The Transformation of Everday Life.” Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. 2nd ed. Ed. Bob Coleman. Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2004. 195–211. Print. Rossenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically. 5th Ed. Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing, 2009. Print. CHAPTER 2
Guth, Hans P. Words and Ideas: A Handbook for College Writing. Kentucky: Wadsworth Publishing, 1969. Print. Miller, Richard E. and Kurt Spellmeyer. “Preface.” The New Humanities Reader. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. xvii. Print. Paul, Richard and Linda Elder. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools. California: The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2001. Print. Sagan, Carl. Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1979. Print. CHAPTER 3 _____ CHAPTER 4
Carroll, Lewis. “The Jabberwocky.” Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. Boston: Adamant Media Corporation, 2001 (1871): 22–24. Print. 207
Works_Cited.indd 207
28/10/10 7:55 PM
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. University of Minnesota Press, 2008. Print. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor, 1959. Print. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Print. Orwell, George. A Collection of Essays. New York: Mariner Books, 1970. Print. Shakespeare, William. “Richard the III.” The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Print. CHAPTER 5
Blair, J. Anthony. “The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments.” Argumentation and Advocacy 33.1 (1996): 23–39. Print. Derrida, Jacques. Given Time: Counterfeit Money. Trans. Peggy Kamuf. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Print. Twilight. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. Perf. Kristin Stewart, Robert Pattison, and Taylor Lautner. Summit Entertainment, LLC, 2008. Film. CHAPTER 6
Cantor, Paul A. “The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family.” Political Theory 27.6 (1999): 734–749. Print. Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993. Print. Friere, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000 (1970). Print. Gorn, Elliot J. “Professing History: Distinguishing Between Memory and the Past.” The Chronicles of Higher Education 46.34 (2000): B4–B5. Web. 14 September 2004. Griffin, Susan. A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War. New York: Anchor, 1993. Print. Martin, Emily. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Signs 16.3 (1991): 485–501. Print.
208
Works_Cited.indd 208
REASON TO WRITE
28/10/10 7:55 PM
Sagan, Carl. Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1979. Print. Spradley, James P. and Brenda J. Mann. “The Cocktail Waitress: Women’s Work in a Man’s World.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2.10 (1976): 255–256. Zimbardo, Phillip, C. Haney, W.C. Banks, and D. Jaffe. “The Mind is a Formidable Jailer: A Pirandellian Prison.” New York Times Magazine [New York] 8 April 1973, sec. 6: 38–45. Web. 23 July 2008. CHAPTER 7
Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993. Print. Ohio Humanities Council. Ohio Humanities Council. Web. 12 April 2009. CHAPTER 8
Barrere, Albert and Charles Godfrey Leland, eds. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant v.2: L-Z. Montana: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010 (1890). Print. Holzmann, Michael. Holzman, Michael. “Rhetoric/Composition//Academic Institutions/Cultural Studies.” Enculturation 5.1 (2003): n. pag. Web. 23 Jan 2010. Safire, William. Safire’s New Political Dictionary. New York: Random House, 1993. Print. CHAPTER 9 _____ CHAPTER 10
Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication. Conference for Undergraduate Research in Communication. Department of Communication, R.I.T. 2010. Web. 23 April 2010. NeoAmericanist: The Interdisciplinary Online Journal for the Study of America. University of Western Ontario. 2010. Web. 23 April 2010. Shea, Alison, ed. History Matters: An Undergraduate Journal of Historical Research. Appalachian State University, 2010. Web. 23 April 2010.
Works Cited 209
Works_Cited.indd 209
28/10/10 7:55 PM
Works_Cited.indd 210
28/10/10 7:55 PM
Critical thinking is a challenging term. Sometimes it is presented in relationship to formal logic, which is too rigid to use as a strategy for writing instruction. Sometimes critical thinking is made synonymous with analysis, although they can be clearly differentiated as separate cognitive activities. Sometimes critical thinking is reduced to writing prompts on selected readings, or exemplar asides. Reason to Write introduces the critical question, a pre-writing strategy that both stipulates a working definition for critical thinking, and, in doing so, reorients the approach to academic writing as fundamentally inquiry-based.
In three major sections, students are guided through steps that build upon foundational critical thinking skills, and that reinforce academic writing as a practice designed to answer a question, solve a problem, or resolve an issue.
Gina L. Vallis received her Ph.D. in Literature with an emphasis in critical theory, and teaches Writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She writes and presents on topics concerning rhetoric, communication, critical and literary theory, and film and visual studies. She is certified in graphic design, has published poetry, and vendors an intervention program for children with ASD, in relationship to which she contributed a chapter for a book on autism intervention. She is currently completing a pending publication of a collaborative web-text for the praxis category of Kairos, as well as preparing a manuscript concerning writing about film, titled Screening Arguments.
REASON TO WRITE
REASON TO WRITE
Critical thinking provides specific strategies designed to help student writers to work through the relationship between thinking and writing. When given the opportunity to develop a line of inquiry based upon a question, students acquire not only critical thinking skills, but also the means to be self-corrective in their writing, and to transfer those skills into new contexts.
GINA L. VALLIS
This handbook is a practical guide designed to offer students the means to apply critical thinking to academic writing.
GINA L. VALLIS
