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Class Thirty

25Aug08

Today’s Agenda:

  • 1) Let’s begin today by getting out our writing.
  • a. Underline or circle what you think the most important points are
  • 2) Group work:
  • a. In your groups I want you to read each other’s papers. Note differences in your arguments.
  • b. When you are done, I want you to create a journal entry in which you explain to me how these arguments are different from one another.
  • 3) Today we are going to take up the concept of Rhetorical Analysis
  • a. What is rhetoric?

b. Rhetoric involves being aware of the SPEAKER, The MESSAGE, and the INTENDED AUDIENCE.

  • c. What is Rhetorical Analysis?

Rhetorical Analysis is analyzing the relationships between these three SUBJECTS:

Who is the speaker? What does he or she want?

What is their message?

How is the message crafted for a specific audience?

Let’s come up with some communication scenarios.

What would we need to know in order to perform Rhetorical Analysis?

1)

2)

3)

Our first opportunity to perform Rhetorical Analysis this semester begins with our reading of a document created by President Regan two years after the Challenger accident.  “Executive Order 12546-Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident.”

In your journal, let’s put down what we know from the get-go:

Let’s keep our notes with a split-page format where we write what we KNOW on the left, and what we COME TO KNOW on the right. I’ll show you an example:

Speaker:                              President Roland Regan

Message:                            Executive Order 12546

Indented Audience:             Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident.

With this document, Regan is setting a tone for the scope and purpose of the commission. How would you describe this tone? What is your evidence?

What does this document tell us about the SPEAKER? What does it tell us about the AUDIENCE?

As you are all probably aware from your classes, what you write is influenced by the expectations and needs of your readers – in this class, the reader is “me.”  Thus, you recognize that when you are writing you are attempting to meet certain expectations.

AS we look at this document, do you think President Regan was trying to meet the expectations of his audience, or do you think that he was trying to SET those expectations? Let’s read the document again and journal an answer for the next ten minutes or so.

Now that we have written in our journals for a few moments, let’s discuss our answers in our groups.

Okay, now let’s start thinking about the audience. The audience is a more complex consideration in professional communication than is typically appreciated in other forms of academic discourse. In professional communication, a profile of the audience needs to be developed. This requires the writer to consider the reader’s expectations, level of knowledge, the number of recipients (i.e. whether there will be multiple audience needing to use the information), and cultural background.

Let’s look at the document again and see if we can begin to figure out who the intended audience may be.

The next document that we are going to consider today is a SRM CLEVIS JOINT LEAKAGE STUDY.

  • 1. This document was written by engineers at Morton Thiokol, those who designed the O-ring, explaining issues with leakage through the booster rocket joint the O-ring was designed to fill.
  • 2. Read the document, and taken notes in the margins (essentially, annotate it)

a. What is the purpose of this document?

  • b. Who is the audience?
  • c. What is the key finding and the conclusion one might draw from that finding?
  • d. What genre is used? (Genre can be loosely defined here as the writing style or strategy)
  • e. What are the expectations of that genre?
  • f. What is effective or ineffective about this document?

Let’s create another split-page:

Impressions of the document Notes on class discussion

Let’s discuss the particular rhetorical issues gleaned from this document. Is the writing style appropriate or inappropriate here, given what is being discussed?

The key finding is buried in this haphazardly organized list of results, and because the document is not constructed to be read, to be understood, it leaves far too much open for interpretation.

How might this document be interpreted?

Your homework for next time is to “redesign and revise” the document to more clearly communicate the engineers’ main concern about “clevis joint” leakage. The document will contain an introduction that foregrounds the key finding or findings and indicates any recommended actions that should be taken.

BRING LAPTOPS TO NEXT CLASS. YOU WILL BE DESIGNING A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION


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