Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing Book

Foreword xii

Preface xiv

1 Everyday Use: Rhetoric in Our Lives 1

Rescuing Rhetoric from Its Bad Reputation: Definitions

and Examples 3

What Does “Being Skilled at Rhetoric”Mean? 5

Developing Skill with Rhetoric: The Rhetorical Triangle 6

Key #1: Understanding Persona 8

Key #2: Understanding Appeals to the Audience 11

Key #3: Understanding Subject Matter and Its Treatment 13

Modifying the Basic Rhetorical Triangle:

Rhetoric Occurs in a Context 15

Key #4: Understanding Context 16

Key #5: Understanding Intention 18

Key #6: Understanding Genre 19

Rhetoric in Everyday Life: Your Life, Your Community 21

Rhetoric and Citizenship 22

Rhetoric and Community 24

Rhetoric and Conscientious Consumption 26

Interchapter 1 29

2 Understanding the Traditional Canons of Rhetoric:

Invention and Memory 33

Rhetoric at Work: Context and the Three Appeals 35

Invention 36

Systematic Invention Strategy I: The Journalist’s Questions 36

Systematic Invention Strategy II: Kenneth Burke’s

Pentad 39

Systematic Invention Strategy III: The Enthymeme 42

Systematic Invention Strategy IV: The Topics 46

The Basic Topics 46

The Common Topics 48

Intuitive Invention Strategies: A Preview 51

Memory 52

Interchapter 2 55

3 Using the Traditional Canons of Rhetoric:

Arrangement, Style, and Delivery 57

Arrangement 58

Genres 58

Functional Parts 60

Questions About the Parts 61

Style 63

Style and Situation 64

Style and Jargon 65

Are You and I Okay? 65

Style and Contractions 66

Style and the Passive Voice 66

Dimensions of the Study of Style: Sentences,

Words, and Figures 67

Sentences 67

Parallel Structure 70

Words 73

General Versus Specific Words 74

Formal Versus Informal Words 74

Latinate Versus Anglo-Saxon Words 76

Common Terms Versus Slang or Jargon 78

Denotation Versus Connotation 79

Figures of Rhetoric: Schemes and Tropes 79

Schemes Involving Balance 80

Schemes Involving Interruption 81

Schemes Involving Omission 82

Schemes Involving Repetition 82

Tropes Involving Comparisons 83

Tropes Involving Word Play 84

Tropes Involving Overstatement or Understatement 85

Tropes Involving the Management of Meaning 85

Delivery 86

Interchapter 3 91

4 Rhetoric and the Writer 93

Writing as Process: Making the Right Moves for

Context 94

Writing as a Rhetorical Process 95

Inventing 95

Investigating 96

Planning 96

Drafting 97

Consulting 98

Revising 99

Editing 99

Real Writers at Work: Cases for Studying Writing

and Rhetoric 100

Erica: Slow Starter 100

Erica’s Intention and Invention 103

Apply Erica’s Solution 104

Chan: Confused About Context 106

Chan, Context, and Notes 109

Apply Chan’s Solution 111

Tasha, Lewis, and Susan: A Group at Work on

Writing 112

Nell: The Rhetorical Reviser 114

You Pull It All Together 116

Using What You Read 118

Revising Your First Effort 118

Revising for Persona 119

Revising for Audience 120

Revising Subject 120

Revising Evidence 121

Interchapter 4 123

5 Rhetoric and the Reader 124

Predicting What’s Next 126

Understanding How Readers Predict 129

Rosenblatt and Interaction: Two Kinds of Reading 130

Rosenblatt, Reading, and Rhetoric 133

Rhetorical Analysis of Chaos 134

Matching Experience and Intention 135

Rhetorical Analysis: You Try It 139

Building the Reader’s Repertoire 143

Reading Your Own Writing 146

Interchapter 5 151

6 Readers as Writers, Writers as Readers:

Making Connections 153

Reading and Writing: Different? Similar? 154

The Literacy Memory 156

The Process of Making Meaning: Readers as

Writers 157

More About Prediction and Revision in Reading 157

Prediction and Revision in Writing: Writers as Readers 163

More About Prediction and Revision in Writing 164

Voice and Rhetoric 165

What We Hear When We Read and Write 166

The Logical Appeal: Logos 166

The Ethical Appeal: Ethos 169

The Emotional Appeal: Pathos 171

The Appeals Combined 173

Reading,Writing, and Synthesis: The Researched

Argument 176

Tackling the Rhetorical Argument 177

Assessing a Researched Argument 178

Interchapter 6 189

7 Rhetoric in Narrative 191

Character 194

Rhetorical Choices for Character 195

Flat and Round, Static and Dynamic 196

Character and the Pentad 198

Setting 200

Summary and Scenic Narration 202

Conflict and Plot 204

Tragedy Versus Comedy 205

Conflict in Decision Making 206

Conflict in Relationships 206

Conflict with the Elements 206

Conflict and the Pentad 207

Protagonist, Antagonist 209

Narrator: Point of View 209

First-Person Narration 210

Third-Person Narration 211

Second-Person Narration 212

Reliable and Unreliable Narrators 213

Narrators in Poems 214

Theme 215

Theme and the Pentad 215

Symbols 216

Images 216

Diction 217

Syntax 217

A Final Word About Narrative–and About

Rhetoric 218

Interchapter 7 219

READINGS 221

Henry David Thoreau, “On the Duty of Civil

Disobedience” 222

Eavan Boland, “It’s a Woman’s World” 238

Alice Walker, “Everyday Use” 240

ADDITIONAL READINGS 247

Civil Rights and Responsibilities 247

Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are a-Changin’” 248

Rock the Vote Web Pages 249

Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” 251

John Donne, “Meditation 17” 257

Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture 259

Dominic Behan, “Patriot Game” 265

Jane Addams, “The Settlement as a Factor in the Labor

Movement” 266

Mohandas K. Gandhi, “Seven Social Sins” 274

Sitting for Justice: Woolworth’s Lunch Counter 275

Feminism and Women’s Issues 277

Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” 277

Emily Dickinson, “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” 280

Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 280

Susan Glaspell, “Trifles” 283

Mike Baldwin, “Our Standards . . .” 295

John Everett Millais, Ophelia 296

Virginia Woolf, “Shakespeare’s Sister” 297

Katha Pollitt, “Girls Against Boys”? 299

Catherine Haun, “A Woman’s Trip Across the Plains

in 1849” 301

Ethnicity and Culture 316

William Shakespeare, “Shylock’s Defense” 317

James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village” 318

Gabriel García Márquez, “A Very Old Man with

Enormous Wings” 327

Louise Erdrich, “Indian Boarding School:

The Runaways” 332

Amy Wu for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,

“Border Apprehensions: 2005” 333

Jacob Riis, Lodgers in a Crowded Bayard Street Tenement: Five

Cents a Spot 336

Art Spiegelman, from Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale (And Here

My Troubles Began) 337

Leonard Pitts Jr., “The Game of Justice Is Rigged” 339

Glossary of Rhetorical Terms 341

Credits 353

Index 367

Additional Notes for Teachers 369