After reading Jack Selzer’s “Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers”, I have identified the following sorts of questions I believe one would ask when doing rhetorical analysis. Initially, rhetoricians have to ask themselves either “who is the author/ speaker”, “how does he or she establish ethos (credibility) in their text”, and “who makes up their intended audience”? These questions allow one to be able to identify the exact discourse community they are trying to reach. A final question that one may ask is, “does the message or text succeed in fulfilling the author’s or speaker’s intentions”? The purpose of utilizing rhetoric in text or speech is to persuade the audience to believe what you are saying; thus, one has to reflect and identify if their goal has been achieved. The above questions are some of the most important questions one has to ask when doing rhetorical analysis. If one is unable to not only identify the type of audience they are communicating to, but also unable to persuade their audience, they will never succeed in fulfilling their intentions as a speaker/ author.
A text assigned to myself outside of this course is the syllabus to my Finance 326 Derivatives class. To begin, after reading Selzer’s text, I realized that when rhetoricians are trying to reach a specific audience, they also use specialized vocabulary familiar with that audience in order to effectively connect with them. A syllabus outlines specific course objectives and specific rules of the professor prior to the first class. The way a professor communicates with their colleagues is different than the way they communicate with their students, and this is seen in how they write their syllabus. To write an effective syllabus, the professor has to understand not only who their audience is, but what their intentions are when reaching out to this audience. For example, my derivatives professor’s syllabus has the intention to inform what work is required throughout the semester. Thus, he bullet-pointed and bolded the most important information (such as office hours, contact information, and grading rubric), that he believed is the most important information pertinent to the students. As young adults, college kids tend to be easily distracted; therefore, bulleting and highlighting important information in a syllabus is a technique that ensures our type of discourse community receives necessary information. Ultimately, the text in question suggest that scientific discourse in my major is that the writing styles of business professionals are similar to that of scientists and other professionals in similar fields. They both uphold their claims with proof from credible sources to defend their own ethos. Additionally, scientific discourse is related to discourse in my major because both parties communicate as conversation to effectively relay information or ideas to specific discourse communities. They use similar analytical methods that can give people a better sense of how the particular pieces of rhetorical performance emerges from, are owning to, and speak to specific contexts.
3 Comments
Nick G
1/31/2018 02:26:27 pm
I like how you discussed three potential questions one may have when rhetorically analyzing a text, then proceeded to explain them in terms of what they mean to you. Following that, you transition smoothly into your comparison between scientific rhetoric and your Finance syllabus. One final point that stood out to me that I intend on including in a future blog is how you went on to describe what composes an effective syllabus. For example, you mentioned how your professor bullet-pointed and bolded information that was vital to students and how it tied it back into discourse community of Derivatives 326. Overall, great blog
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Nick G
1/31/2018 02:28:36 pm
**and then you tied it back into your discourse community of Derivatives 326.
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August Colburn
2/1/2018 10:22:21 am
To start, I like how you give a nice background on what exactly is important when it comes to rhetoric in writing. It outlines the information in your writing very clearly and highlights what the reader should take away. Also, I think your idea to rhetorically analyze a general text like a syllabus. I agree entirely that knowing one's audience and how to convey the message to them is key to have influential/interesting writing. Highlighting the use of bullet points and bold words to emphasize key ideas was a great example to support your earlier claim. Afterwards, wrapping up the information by applying it back to how business relates to scientific discourse was a good way of tying things together was great. Great job, looks like you covered all of the points in a succinct yet informative manner.
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April 2018
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