Rhetorical Reading Strategies And The Construction Of Meaning Summary

Christina Haas and Linda Flower both make contributions to writing in their studies about the writing process. They have collaborated on one work, Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning, to comment on a growing notion in the writing field about the reading process. They discuss findings on how rhetorical reading strategies work and why teachers should begin to influence their students with them. The main audience are other teachers. Haas and Flower’s primarily argue that the process of shaping students into literal and receptive readers should switch to shaping students into rhetorical readers, using strategies like trying to account four author’s purpose and context, for more in depth construction of meaning. Haas and

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features

In Christina Haas and Linda Flower’s article “Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning”, they point out, and break down, the three reading strategies that are used by students when reading a passage, or paper. An experiment was constructed to show what each of these strategies are like while being used and what the reader may ask, or get out of, a certain excerpt.

Since they started pouring the concrete for the dam Lake Powell has been a center of controversy. From nature preservationists to ancient ruins advocates the subject has been heated and intense. On the other hand, those who support Lake Powell are just as avid and active in their defense of the reservoir. One of the former, Edward Abbey, sets forth his plea, hoping it does not fall upon deaf ears.

S.L.O.: Determine and use effective approaches and rhetorical strategies for given reading and writing situations.

In "Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning," Christina Haas and Linda Flowers suggest that readers have issues using rhetorical reading strategies and must be instructed to find rhetoric in text in order to do so. Haas and Flowers reference a study where several students ranging from freshmen to undergrads were asked to read an article and describe the authors intentions at several points throughout the article. Haas and Flowers noted that younger, less experienced students had a harder time connecting points and surmised the text; where older and more experienced students connected each point of the article, and gave their interpretations of the text.

Before reading Haas and Flower’s article, I never read rhetorically. Honestly, I didn’t know rhetorical reading even existed. But after reading the article, I feel as though I could have been doing this all along. In high school it seemed that we weren’t taught this (at least not at my school). In high school, I thought I was a “good reader”. I was efficient at multiply choice question based on information on the text, but struggled on getting the claim and explaining it. In the text Haas and Flower stated “More experienced readers had inferred the claim much earlier” (Haas & Flower 424). More experienced readers have grasped the concept of reading rhetorically. In paragraph twenty-one “Kara, a freshman… and reads on to confirm his hypothesis.”

In the paper Sharon M. Malley and Lynne B Silverstein wrote entitled Examining the Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education. The pair asked the question of how do we bridge the gap between the arts education and special education fields to insure that students with disabilities get the most effective education available to them? First the researchers gathered the other research on the subject too see what had already been collected by their peers. They found a lack in the type of research that showed just how much the adition of Arts education in the special education classroom could benefit the ESE student. Despite a great deal of pathos supporting their case these papers used to support their cause their meaning fell short.

Two major governmental systems that Larry Diamond asserts to be anti-democratic are “oil states” and “predatory societies.” According to Diamond, both of these have the potential to lead to overbearing leaders who take away basic human and civil rights. When evaluating these types of states he specifically turns his attention to Nigeria, Venezuela, and the Philippines. In order to prove his point that not all poor countries are inherently bound to have governments that hinder the development and spread of democracy, he looks at India, a nation that is relatively poor but has still managed to maintain a fairly high level of democracy.

There exists an immeasurable amount of techniques that allow writing to be eloquent. Rhetoric, however, consistently remains one of the most popular techniques due to the influential nature and effectiveness of its steps. Composition can best be analyzed and constructed using rhetoric. It’s essential in rhetoric to follow critical instructions to generate the best writing possible. Rhetoric consists of the need to develop and establish a clear purpose, identify with an audience, build a clear context, and develop a strategy to lay out ideas. With these situations in hand, a composer can efficiently use rhetorical analysis to better understand readings and improve writing.

It is a presentation I did last semester for my composition I class, which was summarizing and describing my thought about the book called “Divergent.” Before I did the presentation, I read the book and watched the movie; I wrote essay from what I understood of the book and movie. Then, I presented by using some pictures, video and background songs in order to grab my audiences’ attention. It helped me to illustrate my ideas to the class; it illuminated what I wanted to say and it was understandable. I let my audience to involve in my presentation by asking questions and addressed similar situations, which had happened to them and how did they solve it. I endeavored to compare and contrast the characters who

Smoking continues to be an increasing problem in both the United States and around the world. Advertisements of many types continue to aid in lowering the use of cigarettes by teenagers. In this advertisement, published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), many rhetorical devices are used to help appeal to the audience’s senses, understanding, and perception on smoking cigarettes. Using a young woman in the advertisement shifts the focus towards teenagers that smoke cigarettes, have thought about smoking, or have been around others that do smoke. With the incorporation of the FDA’s “The Real Cost” campaign logo, facts about the outcome of smoking, and the photograph of the young girl's face, this advertisement serves the purpose of grabbing the attention of teenagers that use cigarettes and warns them of the negative outcomes of smoking by using certain appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos.

When people read they often just skim through, “Although there are virtues to skimming, the vast majority of writing tasks you will encounter in college and in the workplace require your conversancy with material you have read.” (David Rosenwasser, of Home from Nowhere:Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century, as Rosenwasser defines, become conversant 107).

Rhetoric is debatably the foundation of every society, relationship, and piece of writing, but the branches which extend off of rhetoric are usually not analyzed with the same depth. One figure of speech in particular intertwines a level of complexity that allows for a drastic amount of interpretation: metaphors. A metaphor is nearly always within one’s speech, intentional or unintentional; a metaphor allows a reader to dive deeper into a text and allows more creativity to be shown. The protege of Plato, Greek philosopher, scientist and debatably one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Western thought, Aristotle, produced the books Rhetoric I, II, and III, where he plays with the concept and necessity of metaphors. Continuously Aristotle refutes himself, but throughout the rigorous interpretation and analyzation one may see he leans towards the usage of metaphors and the beneficial properties it bestows. Aristotle describes a metaphor within book III, Poetics as, “…the application of an alien name by transference either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or by analogy, that is, proportion.” The usage of metaphors is a critical way for a reader to grasp deep understanding of a topic that without there would not be a correct explanation for, while allowing the author to steer them into the correct interpretation of the text.

It is used to make all your ideas make sense at this point in a paper. Revision is also a major factor in making the essay look and sound good. Tomlinson informs us with several different methods to revise a paper, one not better than another because everyone has a different technique for revising papers. Lakoff and Johnson help us to understand that how we conceive of the world around us makes an impact on our lives and that these metaphors they speak of, are all around us. We can all use a metaphor to describe our actions throughout life and in some cases, these metaphors make it easier for people around us to understand.