Purpose:
- To help students understand the difference between an article’s content, it’s context, and the rhetorical choices made by the author
- To guide students in conducting rhetorical analysis
- To help students learn to make decisions that consider the rhetorical decision when they write
Materials:
- Two articles on the same subject written in very different voices or in response to very different rhetorical situations
- White or chalk board & chalk
- Crayons, markers, or colored pencils for students
Procedure:
- Ask students to read both articles.
- Ask students to imagine that the authors of both articles are giving a speech rather than writing an article.
- Tell students to draw the author of each article giving his/her speech. Students should draw what the author looks like, the setting, the audience, etc.
- While the students are drawing, draw three Venn Diagrams on the board. Label the first, “What the Article is About.” Label the second, “How the Article is Written.” Label the second, “The Situation Surrounding the Writing.”
- Explain the diagrams to the students by giving examples. Ask each students to come to the board to fill in the circles.
- Lead a discussion comparing and contrasting the articles based on each of the diagrams.
- Ask students to explain their drawings. When they describe a feature of the drawing, see if they can locate it in one of the diagrams. Use the drawings to show how each of the three--content, rhetorical decisions, and context--are important when we read and write a piece of text.
- Explain to the students that they’ve just conducted a rhetorical analysis. Erase or cross out the labels for each diagram and write:
- “Content or Subject Matter”
- “Rhetorical Decisions or choices”
- “Rhetorical Situation”
- Explain these terms to the students by reminding them that they just defined them using the diagrams.
- Begin a discussion about how students can make their own rhetorical choices based on a paper’s rhetorical situation and content.
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