Thursday Oct 6


 

Agenda:

-(re)introduce critical reading and rhetorical analysis skills using a worksheet (posted below and distributed in class)

-analyze 27 minutes of Rip!

-individually prepare an outline and draft a thesis for an analysis


 

Worksheet for rhetorically ANALYSING RiP!: A Remix Manifesto

 

PRE-VIEWING NOTES: 

Figure out the rhetorical situation of the documentary?

Definition:  The context of a rhetorical act, made up (at a minimum) of a rhetor/author, an issue (or exigence), and an audience.  Put another way, a rhetorical situation occurs when a rhetor, an audience, a medium (such as a text or speech), and a context converge to create a rhetorical act, such as writing or speaking.

 

 

 

 

VIEWING/READING NOTES:

 

1) Tracking and Mapping Claims...   Here is one enthymeme done for you:

 

Below, take notes on different (and basic) 'claims' that the documentary is making in the argument.  You can always combine the claims you identify later to make more sophisticated claims.  Or you can use this to map out primary claims and supporting claims.  Or you can sometimes find competing or contradictory claims in an argument.  By keeping track you can identify relationships between claims.

 

 

Questions to ask taking notes: should any of these simpler claims be combined into more complex claims?  Should some stand on their own as key claims the author is making? What are the relationships between claims?

 

2) Tracking and Mapping Rhetorical Techniques/tools being used...

 

Ways the author is creating an ETHOS...

 

Ways that pathos is created/leveraged...

 

Forms of logos at work...

 

Stasis used (related to claims above):

 

3) Other tools: there are dozens of other tools you might find in an argument (linked here is a nice list) like:

 

POST-VIEWING Shaping of an analysis using our (power) tools:

 

On a separate page:

1) Draft a skeletal structure thesis

2) Create an outline for a (hypothetical) 4 page analysis of Rip! A Remix Manifesto:  Come up with four to five paragraph ideas and arrange them.

3) Before you leave, share your outline and thesis with two classmates and with me.

 

Paragraphing ideas: 

 

To reiterate: Your outline should suggest that you will begin to DRAFT paragraphs around techniques as the core of your analysis, but also (if you want) around one or two claims.  For now pick one claim that you think you'd like to analyze as particularly persuasive and well supported, or one claim that you'd like to attack as particularly unpersuasive, and poorly supported (and therefore disputable)

 

 

 


 

Special Note: How Not to Mess up Project Two!

 

REMEMBER, this is NOT A BOOK REVIEW or a SUMMARY. IT IS A FOCUSED ANALYSIS ON THE RHETORICAL MOVES MADE IN YOUR BOOK. 

You might summarize as you go...or provide a short (less than a page) summary to start...but focus on HOW the book is put together. 

 

So, in this light, here are the principal ways we could *%#$ up project two! 

I. By not having a thesis following the skeletal structure we've been discussing

 

II. By not having a solid arrangement of support, with topic sentences that show purposeful paragraphs and refer back to the thesis

 

III. By treating the analysis like a review (a pro/con evaluation) rather than an analysis

 

IV. By not having adequate proof or drawing specifically on the text through quotations, paraphrases, etc.

 

V. By not taking into account the context and exigence of the piece (why is it being written? In response to what issue or concern? Is it for or against other ideas, writers?)

 

VI. By not taking audience into consideration (who is the target audience? how will they respond?, etc.)

Good luck!