Reviews for Style in Composition & Rhetoric

The average rating for Style in Composition & Rhetoric based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-04-02 00:00:00 Isaac Peterson Chapter 2 - Getting Started: Consider Topic, Audience, Purpose p.24 - Style identifies the manner in which you present information to your readers. If you are sending a text message to your friend, your writing style will be informal; your sentence structure might be fragmented; you may use slang; you will not be overly concerned about spelling. The readers of your academic essay, on the other hand, are well-educated women and men working with you in an academic setting. They will expect you to present your information in a mature and relatively formal writing style. You should not be flippant or sarcastic in an academic essay, nor, at the other extreme, should you be pedantic. Try to strike a balance with a style that is smooth and natural but appropriate for a well-educated reader. p.35 - Collaborative Activity: In a small group, select an interesting topic and design a web with this topic at the centre. Make sure your topic is specific and focused, not vague or too broad. p.21 - Webbing: generate ideas through free association. In the middle of a piece of paper, write and circle the topic of the concept of the essay. Jot down ideas as they occur to you and arrange them randomly around your topic or central concept. Circle each idea and draw lines between and among them and the central concept to illustrate their various relationships to each other. This linking process id especially valuable because it can reveal relationships between ideas that might not otherwise have occurred to you, relationships that might help you see an effective structure for your essay. (Also known as a concept map.) Chapter 3 - Research Your Topic p.47 - Plagiarism is the failure on the part of a writer to recognize the work of others. If you do not acknowledge all of the sources from which you borrowed information - whether you quoted directly from these sources or paraphrased information - you are likely guilty of the serious academic offence of plagiarism. Specific behaviours which constitute plagiarism: • Submitting another's material as your own • Prepared work for another student to submit • Worked with another student on material to be submitted when the instructor had not authorized working together • Copied sentences, phrases, paragraphs, tables, figures, or data directly or in slight modified form from a book, article, or other academic source without using quotation marks or giving proper acknowledgement to the original author or source • Copied information from internet websites and submitted as your own work • Bought papers for the purpose of submitting as your own work Chapter 4 - Make a Plan p.57 - Planning an Argument: An argumentative academic essay is a written text that makes a claim or asserts a thesis on an issue about which there is disagreement, provides clear evidence in support of the claim or thesis, and summarizes and refutes evidence in opposition to the claim or thesis. p.58 - Arguing convincingly and persuasively is an art and requires careful planning and a good knowledge of various argumentative strategies. An argument is more complex than an exposition. Both arguments and expositions assert a thesis and present details, facts, anecdotes, statistics, causes, effects, comparisons, contrasts, and examples in a series of paragraphs in support of that thesis. While the expository academic essay informs and teaches, the argument attempts to convince readers of the validity of one side of an issue and - equally important - the invalidity of the other side; in its persuasive incarnation, it may urge readers to change their minds, even commit themselves to a course of action. To present a convincing case, an argumentative academic essay takes shape in a way an exposition does not. Aristotle: Logos, Ethos, Pathos p.59 - Aristotle believed that an effective arguer uses logic and reason to support and advance the case, conveys an impression of trustworthiness and sincerity to win the audience's respect and attention, and appeal to the audience's feelings and emotions to draw them in on a personal level to support the position. p.60 - Logos: To Aristotle, an effective argument is a logical argument. A logical argument presents evidence, refutes opposing viewpoints, and avoids logical fallacies. A logical argument incorporates statistics, facts, and quotes from experts to convince readers of the veracity of the writer's thesis. It also anticipates and avoids errors in logic, which undermine the evidence the writer is presenting. Logical fallacies are errors in logic that usually present overly simple arguments in support of complex problems or insufficient evidence in support of a point. Hasty generalizations draw conclusions, make a general statement, based on insufficient evidence. You cannot generalize on a sample size of two. False analogy is an inaccurate comparison (for example, equating surgery to a written exam). Either/or Fallacy suggests that there are only two solutions to a problem and that it is better to choose the lesser of the two evils. p.62 - Ethos: Aristotle also believed that an effective argument is an ethical argument. An ethical argument is calm, firm, but rational, and conveys a sense of respect for the readers' intelligence and for the opposing point of view; and unethical argument is loud and obnoxious, angry, shrill, flippant, even abusive, and it usually alienates more than it impresses readers. Pathos: Finally, an effective argument evokes some emotion from its readers. A modern rhetorician, Stephen Toulmin asserts that a sound argument consists of three parts: the claim, the support, and the warrant. The claim is synonymous with the thesis; it is the argument's controlling idea, its main point. […] The support consists of the facts, details, statistics, comparisons, contrasts, causes, effects, emotional appeals, and refutations of opposing arguments that the writer marshals and presents in support of the claim. […] The warrant is an assumption underlying the claim. p.69 - Exercise: In a magazine you enjoy reading, find an example of an informative essay that you think is well written. Compose a plan from which the author might have worked. Identify the thesis, the point the author makes to support or develop the thesis, and the points the author uses to develop each main idea. Chapter 5 - Write a Draft p.71 - Drafts include: • A clear and specific opening  Does it engage the readers' interest?  Does it establish the topic?  Does it present the thesis? • Complete body paragraphs  Does each paragraph include a topic sentence at the beginning and a transition sentence at the end? • Explicit conclusions p.75 - Your introduction will be followed by any number of body paragraphs (depending on the nature of the assignment and the number of words) that will elucidate your thesis. Each body paragraph in your essay should include a topic sentence, which presents the subject of the paragraph. The topic sentence is to the paragraph what the thesis is to the essay as a whole: just as the other paragraphs within an essay support the thesis, the other sentences within a paragraph support and illuminate the topic sentence. p.77 - Body paragraphs must have unity, which means that all of the sentences within the paragraph must develop, explain, add detail to, or otherwise relate to and elucidate the topic sentence. A body paragraph is typically about one subject specified within the topic sentence. All of the other sentences within a body paragraph must relate to the topic sentence. As you revise, check that all of the sentences in your body paragraphs relate to the topic sentence. p.81 - A concluding paragraph might summarize the content of the essay's body and will often reaffirm the thesis. But above all, the conclusion must give readers the sense that the writer has fulfilled her obligations: she has said what she had promised she would say. p.89 - Exercise: Write an opening paragraph for an essay about the characteristics of effective opening paragraphs for an academic essay. Chapter 6 - Revise Your Essay p.91 - When revising a draft of an academic writing assignment, review it for: • Structure • Content • Cohesive ties • Style p.92 - Structure: Readers want and expect a clear and logical progression of arguments and ideas. They expect the writer to lead them along completely without getting them lost. A sound structure, based upon clear points in support of a thesis and upon ideas and details that clearly elucidate those points in support of the thesis, helps readers understand a writer's work. Remember that you likely will not establish that structure in its entirety before you draft your essay but will discover an effective structure as you write and revise. Content: Revise your essay for content. Make sure you have provided enough information in the form of details, examples, comparisons, contrasts, causes, effects, definitions, and anecdotes to fulfil the expectations of your readers. p.93 - Cohesive Ties: a cohesive tie is a word or a phrase that connects a sentence or a paragraph to the sentence or the paragraph that precedes or follows it. Cohesive ties help readers follow the writer's train of thought. They signal the nature of the relationship between and among sentences and paragraphs, and, in so doing, help make writing clear. Cohesive ties include transitional words and phrases, key words that are repeated throughout a paragraph, synonyms that are substitutes for key words, and pronouns that refer to key words. In other words, you can establish cohesion in your writing through transition, repetition, and substitution. Transition: A transitional word or phrase defines the nature of the relationship between and among sentences and paragraphs. Transitional words and phrases such as furthermore, in addition, and also suggest that the sentence containing this word or phrase will add something to a previous sentence, something that will provide further related information. Similarly, transitional words or phrases such as another, a second, and a third suggest that a new point will be made. Transitional expressions such as consequently or therefore suggest a cause/effect relationship between two sentences or paragraphs. Transitional words such as but and however signal a contradiction or a contrast between a sentence and the one that follows. p.95 - Style: Academic writing should be clear and straightforward, but there is no reason why it should be dull. An interesting subject makes an interesting essay, but that interest is diminished if the information is conveyed in a dull writing style. A dull writing style is characterized mainly by a series of short, choppy sentences joined together, if at all, by conjunctions such as and. A short, simple sentence does not make a dull style. Indeed, a short simple sentence can be used effectively, especially to emphasize a particular point. The key to avoiding a passage of dull sentences is to read your essay out loud while you are revising it. If you have written a passage consisting of too many short, dull sentences, you will be able to hear the problem (as will your readers). p.100 - Academic voice: Note that the tone - the voice - is calm and measured, even though the writer is making a controversial suggestion. It is written so that the grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation are correct. The diction and vocabulary are neither too casual not too grandiose or pompous. There is no slang, which is completely out of place in academic writing. The writer comes across as a thoughtful and intelligent person, and her readers will be inclined to trust the accuracy of the information she gives them and to consider her argument seriously. p.101 - Academic voice does not require the use of ostentatious language, that is, words and phrases that are used not because they are most appropriate but because they are the most complex and obscure. Chapter 7 - Edit Your Essay p.111 - Editing is the process of correcting and improving the sentence and words within a written text. It is a multifaceted aspect of the composing process that includes checking for good grammar, effective sentence structure, proper punctuation, and clear diction. It is an ongoing process, a task a writer works on while she writes and revises her essay. p.112 - Editing checklist: • Grammar  Do your verbs agree with their subjects?  Do your pronouns clearly refer to the correct nouns?  Is the case of your pronouns correct?  Is your verb tense correct? • Sentence structure • Punctuation • Diction p.124 - Sentence structure: A sentence is a unit of communication that describes at least one act (in the verb) and one agent (the subject) undertaking that action. Sentence Fragment: A Sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence masquerading as a complete one. A sentence must contain a subject and a verb. It is a fragment if one if these elements is missing. p.131 - Wordiness: The structure of some sentences appears shaky because the writer has used more words than necessary to express the ideas the sentence contains. "This essay will explore several different theories that have been developed by paleontologists for attempting to explain why dinosaurs reached the point of becoming extinct."  This essay will explore several theories paleontologists have developed to explain why dinosaurs became extinct. p.144 - Avoid: • Jargon • Vague / abstract language • Euphemism • Ostentatious language Reading Actively and Critically p.340 - An effective way of reading critically is to read slowly and deliberately, pausing at appropriate places to consider and take notes on these questions: • What is the thesis, and does the thesis address a relevant and important issue? • Does the author offer ample support for the thesis, and is the support on topic - does it elucidate the thesis? • Are the thesis and the support the author offers logical? • Does the author cite sources, and are these sources valid and reliable? • Is the voice, the tone, of the essay strong and confident? Critical thinking: Critical thinking is the ability to process, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information with an open, reflective, curious, and inquisitive mind. It presupposes a willingness to refine and even alter belief and behaviour in the wake of the critical thinking process. It is suspicious of zealotry. You can cultivate your critical thinking skills by keeping in mind these questions, as you read or listen: • Is the source of this information biased? • Do logical fallacies embedded in the information call its accuracy into question? • Is the information fairly presented and adequately supported?

Review # 2 was written on 2014-07-09 00:00:00 Magnus Ullen Great reference book for academic writing in different disciplines. It touches each step of the writing process and it provides numerous examples.