Art (

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Art (Techne) of Teaching Writing Introduction
to Rhetoric

• Jim Dubinsky
• Virginia Tech

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Overview

• Rhetoricwhat is it and why does it matter?
• Classroom Strategies Composition
• Workshops making them work
• Peer Conferencing/Review
• Commenting on Student Paper
• Creating Grading Rubrics
• Teaching Style
• Classroom Strategies beyond Composition
• Teaching online

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Introductory Writing Assignment

• What is rhetoric?
• What is role of teacher in writing classroom?
• What makes a good writing classroom?

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Rhetoric / Techne

• The aim of a skillful performance is achieved by
  a set of rules which are not known as such to the
  person following them. . . . Rules of art can be
  useful, but they do not determine the practice of
  art they are maxims, which can serve as a guide
  to an art only if they can be integrated into the
  practical application of the art.
  Michael Polanyi

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Rhetoric

• The faculty of observing in any given case the
  available means of persuasion (Bizzell
  Herzberg)
• The function of adjusting ideas to people and of
  people to ideas (D. Stewart)
• The art of written spoken discourse (T.
  Crusius)
• Language can be separated from immediate
  experience and examined as an artifact
• Language forms and strategies can be described,
  codified, and used to develop expertise

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Canons of Rhetoric

• Invention (Inventio)
• Arrangement (Dispositio)
• Style (Elocutio)
• Memory (Memoria)
• Delivery (Pronuntiatio / Actio)

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Invention

• Topics (topos or locusplace or region)
• Special topics (forensic, ceremonial, public
  forum)
• Common topics (more or less possible
  impossible past fact and future fact greatness
  or smallness)
• Artistic non-artistic proofs
• Artistic
• Appeals (logos, ethos, pathos)
• Non-artistic laws, witnesses, contracts, oaths

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Organization

• Beginning, middle, and end
• Introduction (exordium)
• Statement or exposition of case (narratio)
• Outline of points or steps (divisio)
• Proof of case (confirmatio)
• Refutation (confutatio)
• Conclusion (peroratio)

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Style

• Classification (low, middle, high)
• Plain for instructing
• Middle for moving
• High for charming
• Choice of words, arrangement of words, figures,
  etc.

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Memory and Delivery

• Memory
• Practice and mnemonic devices
• Delivery
• Comes from practice
• Actio (management of voice/gestures)
• In written texts, we talk about document design

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Rhetorical Triangle
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Liveliness is got by using the proportional type
of metaphor and by being graphic (e.g. making
your hearers see things). Aristotle, Rhetoric
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Overview

• Discuss Rhetorical Situation
• Use two texts to illustrate
• familiar text (Letter from Birmingham Jail)
• unfamiliar text (NASA memoSpace Shuttle
  Challenger Disaster)
• Highlight importance of both textual strategies
  and design strategies to help readers see things

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Thinking Rhetorically

• Balances purpose, audience, and context
• Focuses attention on--
• what the text should say
• how the meaning should be presented (arrangement,
  delivery style)
• when the message should be delivered (kairos)
• why that message and presentation strategy are
  appropriate

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Writing is a Social Act

• Every utterance is oriented on intercourse, on
  the hearer, on the reader, in a word, on another
  person, on social intercourse of any kind
  whatever.
• Bakhtin Medvedev (1985)

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Beyond Plans Goals (Authorial Intent)

• Writing as interactive phenomenon
• Relationship of writers to discourse community
• Problem of genre
• Understand context (personal, social, political,
  cultural)
• Relationship of writing to reading

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Understanding rhetorical situation

• Ask a few important questions
• Why is writer writing (purpose)?
• Who are the readers of the text?
• How will those readers read?
• What situational constraints, if any, exist?
• How will these constraints affect the role or
  identity the writer establishes?
• What presentational strategies should the writer
  consider?

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How will those readers read?

• How familiar are they with the subject?
• What does writer know about them that she
  can/should take into account?
• What questions will they ask while reading?
• How will they search for the answers?
• How will they use the information?
• What are their expectations? Beliefs?

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Rhetorical Situation

• MLKs Letter From the Birmingham Jail
• Describe rhetorical situation (what do you need
  to know?)
• Why is he writing?
• To whom?
• How does text reflect Kings attitude toward
  intended audience?
• What role or identity does King establish?
• Constraints?
• Analyze it for persuasive appeals Ethos, pathos,
  logos