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8 18 CLASS NOTES AND ASSIGNMENTS
I. What Makes Good School Writing?
What is FODREP? Steps of the writing process:
FINDING ideas and information
ORGANIZING ideas and information
DRAFTING sentences and paragraphs
REVISING sentences and paragraphs
EDITING to fix mistakes
PUBLISHING to get your writing to its intended audience
What is FAES? Different levels of thinking, and of knowledge.
Writing about FACTS: description, narrative, reporting.
ANALYZING facts: explanation, comparison, looking for causes and effects, understanding how things function.
EVALUATING analytical knowledge: applying values to facts and analysis.
SYNTHESIZING knowledge about facts, functions, and values into a plan of action.
The Bible offers us knowledge and wisdom at all of these levels; it tells us what is, how it got that way, where a sense of righteousness points us, and how we can become righteous.
Good writing is a matter of:
1) Quantity. In most cases, the more you write, the more you learn, and the better your grade will be.
BUT just putting a lot of words on paper isn’t enough.
2) QUALITY is more important than quantity. High quality writing has:
A) Variety of ideas—shows thoughtfulness, exploration and research
B) Organization of ideas, including
i) Main idea and development of that idea (tree trunk and branches)
ii) Levels and layers of complexity—a hierarchical system of thinking
iii) Parts fit together to make a whole
iv) Good vocabulary (effective word choice) and sentence flow
v) Mechanics—correct grammar, punctuation and formatting.
II. Rhetoric Notes, August 17, 2011 THE ARISTOTELIAN MODEL OF RHETORIC
We will in this course consider two basic views of rhetoric, each with its roots in ancient Greek philosophy—the Aristotelian and the Socratic.
Aristotle saw the art of rhetoric as a necessary tool of civilized citizenship. His approach to rhetoric is the one most commonly applied in modern rhetorical practice. In Aristotle’s view, in order to defend oneself in the courts, to prevail in political disputes, or to teach, a person needs to be skilled in the uses of rhetoric. Aristotle recognized three basic kinds of rhetorical appeal, to which he applied the terms ethos, logos, and pathos.
The substance of the appeal to ethos is to convince the audience that you are virtuous, knowledgeable, sincere, or otherwise worthy of a hearing, and that your arguments are grounded in values shared by your audience. Ethos is, at root, about establishing a favorable identity in the minds of your listeners.
Appeals to ethos are made through posture and body language, clothing and appearance, references to one’s family, statements about one’s education, military and public service, etc. An example of the appeal to ethos is trying to look serious by wearing a dark suit with a red tie. Another is casting slurs on your opponent’s character.
The pathos-based appeal tries to sway the audience by stirring their passions—the Greek word pathos is related to the Latin passio, from which we derive our word passion. An example of the appeal to is showing happy, good-looking people enjoying the product you want to sell.
The appeal to logos uses reasoning—or the appearance of reasoning—to persuade the audience.
Appeals to logos are, in appearance at least, based on evidence and logic. An example of an appeal to reason would be the attempt to argue that the federal government actually made a profit from the bailouts of GM and Chrysler in 2009—that a million jobs were saved at no ultimate cost to the taxpayer—and that hostility to the bailouts is therefore unwarranted.
Remember that Aristotle’s categories are not absolute, but are a useful analytical tool or ‘schema’. Not all rhetorical appeals can be neatly assigned to one of the three categories. For instance, wearing a U.S. flag lapel pin is an appeal to ethos, saying ‘I love my country, you can trust me.’ But it’s also an appeal to emotion.
Another example of this sort of ‘mixed appeal’ can occur when an apparent appeal to reason actually contains emotionally loaded terms or misleading statements, and is actually calculated to stir emotions as well as (or instead of) persuading through rational argument. We could call this an ‘emotionally loaded’ argument.
Aristotle (who wrote a text on logic, and formulated many of the ideas about syllogisms, logical fallacies, etc., that are still taught today) believed that the appeal to reason should be the primary one. He also recognized, however, that there are situations where reasoning alone will not persuade an audience. He said that, in these situations, a rhetor (the person making the appeal) would need to use arguments that appeared logical but in fact were not. He called this kind of argument an enthymeme.
Aristotle also devoted a substantial portion of his text on the practice of rhetoric (titled, appropriately, Rhetoric) to discussions of various emotions and how a speaker could arouse them and use them to sway his audience, and on how to appear virtuous and sincere. Thus, though Aristotle claimed that rhetoric was a virtuous skill, he actually taught students of his methods of rhetoric how to manipulate people through their emotions and through the appearance of virtue.
HOMEWORK 8.18.11
10th grade
1. Brainstorm (in writing) about ‘the American dream’ and/or ‘the American way of life’—what does that mean to you, your family, different people?
2. Draft a paragraph based on your brainstorming.
11/12
1. If needed, expand your brainstorming about a ‘fallen world/social injustice’ topic.
2. Experiment with organizing some of your ideas about the topic into an idea web, idea tree, or outline format. Start thinking in terms of subtopics, hierarchy of ideas, etc.
8th grade
1. Define ‘pet peeve’ in your own words.
2. Write a paragraph about pet peeves.
9th grade
Brainstorm (in writing): What are some of the characteristics of a Christ-centered world view?
What do Christians believe?
What makes us different from others?
How do Christ-centered people act?
Rhetoric
Read the handout. Identify important terms and main ideas. Be prepared for a modest reading quiz tomorrow.
JOKES
A midget fortune-teller escaped from jail. The next day the headline read ‘Little Medium at Large’.
What did the dyslexic agnostic insomniac do?
Stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog.
