I wrote this final darft.
You need to read this digital natives and final darft, then do the rhetorical situation form.
RWS 280
Spring 2020
Due: Upload to Blackboard on Sunday February 23rd by 11:59 p.m.
Rhetorical Situation: “Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web” by Alia Wong
Author:
· Who is she? What kind of writing does she do? What organizations does she belong to? What is her reputation?
Audience:
· Who seems to be the intended audience?
· Who might be secondary audiences?
· How is the text shaped to target those people?
Purpose:
· What is the author trying to achieve?
· What does the author want us to do, believe, or understand?
Context:
· When and where was the text written and where is it intended to be read/seen/heard?
· How does the current context influence our reading of the text?
Genre:
· What do you know about this particular genre?
· How does that influence the message being conveyed?
Claims:
· Remember: A claim is an assertion of truth; statement writers want an audience to accept.
· Claims are contestable, and deal with matters on which there is disagreement and uncertainty.
Evidence:
· The component of the argument used as support for the claims made.
· Evidence is the support, reasons, data/information used to help persuade/prove an argument.
Claim #1:
Type: Unqualified Claim of Fact/Existence
“But something is missing from this education.”
Evidence:
Type: Quotes from Experts or Experienced Individuals
“Boyd, who works as a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, argues that ‘the rhetoric of ‘digital natives’’ is dangerous because it distorts the realities of kids’ virtual lives, the result being that they don’t learn what they need to know about online living” (Wong 2).
Claim #2:
Evidence:
Claim #3:
Evidence:
Claim #4:
Evidence:
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 1/9
EDUCATION
Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP
When Reuben Loewy took up his �rst teaching gig in 2012, he had a major
revelation: e digital revolution has dramatically transformed the way that kids
perceive reality.
Perhaps that makes the 55-year-old teacher sound like a dinosaur. What he
discovered is, after all, one of the most obvious realities shaping education policy
and parenting guides today. But, as Loewy will clarify, his revelation wasn’t simply
that technology is overhauling America’s classrooms and rede�ning childhood and
adolescence. Rather, he was hit with the epiphany that efforts in schools to embrace
these shifts are, by and large, focusing on the wrong objectives: equipping kids with
fancy gadgets and then making sure the students use those gadgets appropriately
Today’s schools are focusing on boosting kids’ technological pro�ciency and
warning them about the perils of the web. But something critical is missing from
this education.
ALIA WONG APRIL 21, 2015
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/alia-wong/
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 2/9
and effectively. Loewy half-jokingly compares the state of digital learning in
America’s schools to that of sex ed, which, as one NYU education professor
describes it, entails “a smattering of information about their reproductive organs
and a set of stern warnings about putting them to use.”
Indeed, although many of today’s teens are immersed in social media, that doesn’t
mean “that they inherently have the knowledge or skills to make the most of their
online experiences,” writes Danah Boyd in her 2014 book It’s Complicated: e
Secret Lives of Networked Teens. Boyd, who works as a principal researcher at
Microsoft Research, argues that “the rhetoric of ‘digital natives'” is dangerous
because it distorts the realities of kids’ virtual lives, the result being that they don’t
learn what they need to know about online living. In other words, it falsely assumes
that today’s students intrinsically understand the nuanced ways in which
technologies shape the human experience—how they in�uence an individual’s
identity, for example, or how they advance and stymie social progress—as well as
the means by which information spreads thanks to phenomena such as algorithms
and advertising. Loewy decided that this void could be eliminated with an honest,
interdisciplinary high-school curriculum for the digital age—a program that would
fundamentally shift how schools address kids’ virtual experiences.
Educational institutions across the board are certainly embracing (or at least
acknowledging) the digital revolution, adopting cutting-edge classroom technology
and raising awareness about the perils and possibilities of the Internet. On the one
end are the movement’s champions—the schools where every child has an iPad or
the education departments with bureaucrats who go by fancy titles like “Director of
Innovative Learning.” In some school districts, virtual courses are a prerequisite for
graduation, and it’s become almost cliché for teachers to incorporate Minecraft into
their instruction. Meanwhile, schools are phasing out physical textbooks,
sometimes replacing them with arti�cially intelligent software. It’s hardly surprising
that one-third of the country’s students in grades six through 12 use school-
provided mobile devices to support coursework, according to a 2014 report by the
nonpro�t Project Tomorrow.
On the other end are the skeptics, among them the adults who fear that kids are
being thrusted into a world of cyberbullies and pedophiles. A 2012 Pew Research
survey of roughly 800 U.S. parents and their teenage children found that eight in
10 parents are concerned about their kids’ Internet privacy, while seven in 10 said
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/what-schools-should-teach-kids-about-sex/387061/
http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/one-to-one-program-rollout-jac-de-haan
http://www.ccsd59.org/innovative-learning-and-communications/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/virtual-education-genuine-benefits-or-real-time-demerits/385674/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/the-case-against-minecraft/385678/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/teaching-in-the-age-of-minecraft/385231/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-death-of-textbooks/387055/
http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/SU13DigitalLearningPlaybook_StudentReport.html
http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/20/parents-teens-and-online-privacy/
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 3/9
they worried about their kids interacting with strangers online. As Hanna Rosin
explained in a cover story for e Atlantic last November about teenage sexting,
adults often respond to such scandals with fearmongering and massive information
campaigns. e National Association of School Psychologists has helped to develop
a curriculum devoted exclusively to raising cyberbullying awareness, while myriad
apps have been developed that allow parents to track their children’s digital
footprints. According to the Pew report, half of the parents surveyed said they had
used parental controls or other means of blocking, �ltering, or monitoring their
teens’ online activities.
And then there are the educators who worry—arguably for good reason—that the
digitalization of classrooms is severely undermining their pedagogy. At the higher-
ed level, some professors have even published manifestos on why they’re banning
laptops from their lecture courses, while many K-12 campuses to this day maintain
no-device policies (though it appears such policies are becoming obsolete).
According to Loewy, this dichotomy amounts to a major missed opportunity. Kids
not only need to be pro�cient in how to use digital technology, becoming savvy
coders and proli�c ebook readers, he explains—they also need to deeply,
holistically, and realistically understand how the digital world works behind the
scenes. And that doesn’t only mean realizing that sexting is a victimizing and
punishable offense with long-term repercussions. Or that social media can be
addictive and full of predators. While it’s undoubtedly important to keep kids safe
when they’re online, these focuses give kids “a distorted view of the digital world,”
Loewy writes. “It is a view that re�ects the fears of adults rather than the aspirations
of youth.”
* * *
Loewy was teaching a summer journalism class for middle-schoolers in Princeton,
New Jersey, when he had his epiphany. “is generation has grown up with a
completely different type of relationship to the media,” he said. “ey have not
seen a newspaper other than their parents reading one. ey don’t even watch
television—everything is Internet-based.” And while such a statement might
conjure images of a curmudgeonly cynic convinced that technology is an assault on
human intellect, Loewy sees that transformation as positive—or, at least, inevitable.
It’s just that today’s kids need much more guidance on how to live within this
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/why-kids-sext/380798/?single_page=true
http://www.nasponline.org/resources/cyberbullying/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-deconstruction-of-the-k-12-teacher/388631/
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-case-for-banning-laptops-in-the-classroom
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/11/why-the-end-of-the-school-cellphone-ban-is-a-win-for-poor-students/382601/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/why-kids-sext/380798/?single_page=true
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 4/9
world, he argues. “ey are consuming and seeing so many things online that they
don’t know how to put it into context or how to evaluate it,” he said.
At the same time, “even schools that have called themselves very technologically
advanced haven’t even begun to explore how they actually teach [about that
technology],” he said. ey may hand out iPads or laptops to students, but such
education often stops at the hardware. “Curriculum is the microcosm of what’s
going on in society; I think that curriculum needs to catch up with the reality.”
Boyd, it’s worth noting, draws similar conclusions:
Teens will not become critical contributors to this [Internet] ecosystem simply
because they were born in an age when these technologies were pervasive.
Neither teens nor adults are monolithic, and there is no magical relation
between skills and age. Whether in school or in informal settings, youth need
opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge to engage with temporary
technology effectively and meaningfully. Becoming literate in a networked age
requires hard work, regardless of age.
After his revelation, Loewy, who spent most of his career as a foreign correspondent
writing for major British and Canadian newspapers, started developing what he’s
now calling “an interdisciplinary curriculum for the digital age,” a.k.a. “Living
Online.” e curriculum, which is designed primarily for high-school students
(though he says it can be adapted for younger kids, too), includes a dozen teaching
modules that would be integrated into various classes—from “Privacy” and “A is for
Algorithm” to “Digital Activism” and “Cyberpsychology.” Other units under
development include “Remix Culture,” “Gaming in Education,” and “Reality—
Virtual/Actual.” In some ways, it could be described as the liberal arts of virtual
living.
e curriculum’s �rst unit—”Identity”—aims to give students insight “into how
their identities may be unconsciously shaped by digital media and online
socialization.” e module highlights opposing perspectives on the topic, from that
entertained by people like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who insists users
should only have one authentic identity, to the view that individuals are
multifaceted and prismatic. “We will examine how individuals craft and express
their identities across multiple online and offline contexts,” the summary says, “and
http://www.livingonlinelab.org/portfolio/
http://www.livingonlinelab.org/
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 5/9
discuss the implications of having different identities, avatars, and facets of
ourselves across different networks.” e idea is to get past the emphasis that adults
often make on the perils of Internet identity, to show kids that they’re in a process
of discovery and can play with and explore different personas—even if that means
an adolescent boy posing online as a 35-year-old woman. And this, to Loewy, is a
good thing: “It’s a part of experimenting, exploring who you are, and getting the
opportunity to interact with people you normally wouldn’t interact with.”
Meanwhile, in the unit titled “Economy of the Internet,” kids would learn about
the role of advertising in the World Wide Web: how websites generate money by
attracting visitors and then sell those visitors’ personal data. e unit called
“Diversity of ought: Breaking Out of the Bubble” aims to have teens analyze
debates about whether digital technology makes users more open-minded or more
enclosed in their world views, while that on “Digital Disruption” would use case
studies such as Net�ix and Uber to explore how these forces destruct and create.
* * *
e idea behind Living Online is by no means new. e University of Pennsylvania
English professor Kenneth Goldsmith launched a course this school year called
“Wasting Time on the Internet,” which requires students to watch YouTube videos,
tweet, and even plagiarize. Explaining the course’s objective to e Atlantic last
December, Goldsmith said, “it’s [about] understanding that digital existence … You
know, we’ve become so good at using tools, but we’ve rarely stepped back to
consider how and why we’re using those tools.”
Two years ago, one well-known Florida teacher reasoned in a blog post that the
country needs “a coherent plan to teach digital citizenship in schools”—not as an
add-on but as a complement to what’s already being taught in the classroom. Such
citizenship, she said, “is not about the technology itself but rather the effects that
arise from its usage.” And just a few days ago, the Harvard Internet-law professor
Jonathan Zittrain posted a video message on YouTube that coincidentally sounded
a lot like Loewy’s elevator pitch for the unit titled “Wikipedia and Open-Source
Knowledge.” Highlighting the success of the site and lamenting the ineffectiveness
of American public education, Zittrain—who authored the 2008 book e Future
of the Internet and How to Stop It—suggested that schools integrate Wikipedia into
https://www.english.upenn.edu/courses/undergraduate/2015/spring/engl111.301
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/12/wasting-time-on-the-internet-101/383966/
http://blog.edtechteam.com/2014/11/why-schools-need-to-teach-technology.html
http://yupnet.org/zittrain/
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 6/9
their curricula, asking kids to edit articles and make the case for their edits. He
continued:
To me, if I think of an advanced civics class, it’s great to learn that there are
three branches of government and X vote overrides a veto. But having the civics
of a collective hallucination like Wikipedia also a part of the curriculum, I
think, would be valuable.
But for various reasons, schools have yet to catch on. Data on how much, if at all,
schools in the U.S. are teaching these things doesn’t exist, but it’s worth noting that
even the much more obvious subject—computer science—is still largely considered
a peripheral course. A 2013 survey of 1,250 educators nationwide found that more
than a fourth of them worked on campuses that didn’t even offer computer science.
Meanwhile, national initiatives to modernize schools—through projects such as e
Center for Digital Education’s “Curriculum of the Future”—rarely touch on the
liberal arts of virtual living, focusing strictly on topics like new technologies and
workforce preparation. According to a 2012 report from Common Sense Media
based on survey of nearly 700 K-12 U.S. teachers, more than half of them ranked
their students’ digital-citizenship skills as fair or poor; only a fourth of them said
those skills were taught at their schools.
Adults’ resistance to new trends, too, is surely part of the reason why schools
haven’t addressed these needs. For one, Loewy suggests that many educators don’t
feel digitally literate. A shrinking but still relatively signi�cant percentage of
educators—especially those who are 55 and older—don’t feel con�dent with these
new technologies, according to a 2013 Pew Research survey among roughly 2,500
A.P. and writing teachers. Meanwhile, many teachers simply feel overburdened by
the new technology: ree-fourths of the educators surveyed for the same Pew
report say the Internet and other digital tools “have added major demands to their
lives,” largely by “increasing the range of content and skills about which they must
be knowledgeable.”
Indeed, experienced and accomplished teachers continue to raise questions about
schools’ embrace of digital technology, which could mean that Loewy’s effort is
moot. Nancie Atwell, a veteran language-arts teacher who last month won the
inaugural Global Teacher Prize, is one of many educators across the country who
are deeply concerned about the growing role digital devices are playing in
http://csta.acm.org/Research/sub/Projects/ResearchFiles/CSTASurvey13Results
http://www.centerdigitaled.com/paper/Curriculum-of-the-Future-How-Digital-Content-is-Changing-Education.html
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum
http://www.globalteacherprize.org/winner
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 7/9
classrooms, primarily because of their arguably negative impact on cognition and
learning. “Although the world may be digital, it also remains human,” she said.
“e emphasis on any device as a panacea—give one to every kid and see what
happens—completely ignores everything we know about what motivates people to
learn.”
“ese are devices—they’re a means to an end,” she continued. “I’m appalled that
we talk about technology as if it’s a discipline or a school subject or a content area.
It’s a way of developing or displaying knowledge. It’s a little bit like worshipping a
pencil.”
Perceptions like these, according to Loewy, are a large reason why rolling out the
curriculum is so tricky. It’s a chicken-or-the-egg problem: Living Online—and the
teacher training that would come with it—could help bring everyone, from the
skeptics to the overzealous techies, on the same page and alleviate some of the
concerns and misconceptions about the technology. But it’s hard to get people on
board if they have preconceived notions, many of which are well-founded, about
those devices and apps to begin with.
And for now, Living Online is little more than an idea—and one, critics might
argue, that’s neither feasible nor credible. After all, Loewy is a Baby Boomer with
very limited experience as a classroom teacher.
But that hasn’t fazed the former journalist, who admitted that he’s been developing
the program using his own money. (Loewy doesn’t want public schools to pay for
the curriculum out of their operating budgets—he hopes private foundations will
foot the bill—but has yet to secure a grant.) Loewy says he’s devoted the bulk of his
time over the last few years to creating this program, which he’s been putting
together with the help of feedback from teachers and professional curriculum
developers via education conferences and the range of support and sharing sites
available online. He’s currently in the process of registering Living Online, which
was launched in 2013, as a nonpro�t, and as of now the organization only has three
board members—none of whom are teachers (and all of whom are men). ey
include Martin Schneiderman, an IT advisor who works with philanthropic
organizations; Peter Lammer, who co-founded the IT-security company Sophos;
and David Loevner, the manager and founder of a global investment �rm. Loewy
http://www.iaa.com/companyinfo.html
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/company/management/peter-lammer.aspx
http://www.hardingloevner.com/about-us.html
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 8/9
says he hopes to bring on a group of advisors, including teachers, with diverse
backgrounds.
e curriculum faces a range of other logistical obstacles, too, including the
number of existing requirements that schools are already grappling to juggle. Loewy
sees the curriculum as being incorporated into other classes, not as a standalone
supplement but as an ingredient built into larger coursework. Still, public-school
teachers today say they are already overburdened by a slew of expectations—from
the Common Core math and reading standards to additional state and local
stipulations. Educators across the country have long complained about their
inability to teach subjects as essential as social studies. In that sense, it’s hard to
imagine this program becoming a reality outside of the private-school sector; in
fact, Loewy’s only been able to pilot the modules with private-school students.
And even if teachers could �nd a way to incorporate the curriculum into their
classes, they’d have to �nd a way to keep up with material and technologies that are
constantly changing. “e … problem is that it’s evolving every single day—it’s not
like teaching ancient Rome, it’s not static,” Loewy acknowledged. “is is what I
think holds back the progress: Every single day there is a new app, and teachers
[can] become sort of blinded by” its merits and limitations. But without
understanding the intricacies and dynamics of the Internet, he continued, “you’re
not taking advantage of everything digital technology offers. Without the
knowledge, you’re not able to take advantage of the web and navigate it properly.
You can’t be an informed, responsible, and critical member of society if you don’t
have the education.”
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write
to letters@theatlantic.com.
Make your inbox more interesting.
Each weekday evening, get an overview of the day’s biggest news, along with fascinating
ideas, images, and people. See more newsletters
Enter your email Sign Up
http://neatoday.org/2014/09/02/the-testing-obsession-and-the-disappearing-curriculum-2/
https://www.theatlantic.com/contact/letters/
https://www.theatlantic.com/follow-the-atlantic/
Liu 2
Hang Liu
Rws-280
2020/02/18
Digital Natives
Adoption of technology in learning is something inevitable. Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web is a web article written by alia Wong 21 April, 2015. The author writes the article as an explanation of the debates surrounding the use of technology in learning. Academic institutions are busy implementing the use of technology in there learning and on the other hand singing the negative impact of technology on learning. This ends up creating a confusion in the education word and hence children, or rather students who are heavy users of technology but lacks in-depth understanding of how technology and the internet really works. The author writes this article targeting the public with high reading levels and interest. Stakeholders in the education industry could also be a potential target or even other writers. In this paper, I will evaluate the legitimacy of some of the significant arguments of the author in relation to the impact of technology.
The author is tries to disprove the idea of raising awareness on the effects of technology while implementing the same. He states that “Educational institutions across the board are certainly embracing the digital revolution, adopting cutting-edge classroom technology and raising awareness about the perils and possibilities of the Internet” (Wong, pg. 3). I think certainly this is the way to go because as much as technology is such a good thin, there are perils on the other side. Therefore, raising awareness on the perils of technology is just but a way of preparing children and students to be aware of possible challenges posed by the use of technology hence prepare in advance. The fact that technology is useful does not mean that we should overlook its potential negative impacts.
Wong argues that old folks are the main reason for lack of effective implementation of technology in academic institutions. To some extent it might be true but at the same time the real reason is lack of proper training of these teachers. A teacher, regardless of the age, if given the right training before implementation of a technological program in schools. I don’t think blaming old teachers is a credible reason as to why most institutions are lagging behind in technology. Moreover, I don’t think that an institution can have such a high number of technology illiterate teachers to affect leanings through technology.
One thing that I seem to agree with the author is that increased use of technology has created a generation of “teens who immersed in social media but does not have the required skills to make the most out of online experiences” (Wong, pg. 2). This fights the notion that digital natives have more knowledge on how technology affects or rather shapes humans’ experiences and character. Only a few of them understands the things such as algorithms are used to in advertising through bringing up of suggestions. True to the suggestion of the author, programs and campaigns need to be established to help the young generation develop an intrinsic view on how the functionality of the internet and technology in general.
The argument that guardians and parents exaggerate the negative impact of technology is somehow contemptable. I think every parent will always want the best for his/her kid. Parents must have experienced the negative effects of technology personally or observed it in their kids before concluding on the effects that technology has on children. Perhaps their intention is to not to discredit technology but raise awareness and make sure that their children are protected against any potential harm. Cyberbullying against children is not something new. In response to this, parents have had to formulate precautionary measures themselves to make sure their children are secured from cyber-criminals and other unnecessary online content. So, I totally dispute the claims that, “Adults respond to such incidents with fear mongering and information campaigns” (Wong, pg. 5).
Thought-out the article, the author seems to criticize the academic institutions of implementing technology without guiding the students on the possible effects and potential harm posed by this technology. I don’t really think that such an initiative ought to be considered as a main agenda of an academic institution. Technology is just an asset for improving the education experience. Perhaps such initiatives ought to be carried out as separate campaigns or in co-curriculum activities but not in the main education curriculum. Apart from parental control, regular seminars, among other initiatives can be arranged to educate young adults on the influence of too much consumption of technology and perhaps how they can utilize it and profit from it.
I agree with the author that technology has a way bigger impact other than helping people become “savvy coders and prolific e-book readers”. Through technology, the internet to be precise, children are exposed to a lot of things which they are likely to emulate. Moreover, they can be exposed to sexualized content which at the end of the day has an impact on there morals. I would agree with the writer that such incidences bring about “a distorted view of the digital world,” (Wong, pg. 4).
In conclusion, there are propositions made by the author that I find valid and others that I don’t agree with. Things that I agree with is that increased use of technology has created a young generation that only knows to use social media but does not understand the wider scope of technology associated with it. they have unknowingly become addicts of technology with no knowledge of the underlying facts about it. Perhaps this is because of lack of guidance. On the other hand, I disagree with the author on claims that the old teachers are the reason as to why technology cannot be effectively implemented in institutions. Regardless of the age, if given proper training, they will adopt and get used to it. perhaps, we are moving toward a generation that is characterized by intense use of technology and we cannot stop it but rather take the necessary precautions.
Work Cited
Wong, Alia. “Digital natives, yet strangers to the web.” The Atlantic.
RWS 280
KEY IDEAS
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
-ND
http://dstudio.ubc.ca/toolkit/temporary-techniques/new-6-toolkit-techniques-3-empathy-interview/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
WHAT IS RHETORIC?
◼ Aristotle noticed that some speakers in Athens were more effective in
persuading the public than others. In On Rhetoric, a collection of those
observations, he offered this definition:
◼ “Let rhetoric be defined as the faculty of observing in any case all of
the available means of persuasion.” (this is where my interest lies
in terms of multimodal means of persuasion. Meaning, how
different modes of communication—textual, audio, visual,
spatial—influence audiences to respond in particular ways)
◼ Rhetoric refers to the study and use of written, spoken, and
visual language.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
https://philosophy.thereitis.org/epicurus-letter/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
What Rhetoric is Concerned With:
WHY HOW
RHETORICAL SITUATION—5 MAIN CATEGORIES
◼1. Author
◼ Who is the author?
◼ When reading a text you should always take
a few minutes to research who the author
is.
◼ Who is she, what kind of writing does she
do, what organizations does she belong to,
what is her reputation?
2. AUDIENCE
◼ Who seems to be the intended audience?
◼ Who might be secondary audiences?
◼ How is the text shaped to target those people? Figuring
out where the text was published, when it was published,
what kind of text it is (speech, op-ed, article, song, etc.)
and how it addresses readers can help provide clues to
audience.
◼ We can also ask who is likely to find the text important,
relevant, or useful.
◼ Consider style, tone, diction, and vocabulary. What does
this tell you about the potential audience for the text?
◼ Examine the other authors and works referred to in the
text (if there are footnotes or a works cited page, look
at what is listed there. Just as you can learn a lot about a
person by the people around him, you can learn a lot
about a text from all the other texts it references).
◼ What does the author assume her readers know? This
can help identify the author’s intended audience.
◼ What does the author assume about readers’ age,
education, gender, location, or cultural values?
3. PURPOSE
◼ What is the author trying to achieve?
◼ What does the author want us to do, believe, or understand?
◼ All writing has a purpose. We write to being awareness to a problem,
make sense of an experience, call people to action, contribute to an
area of knowledge, criticize/defend a position, redefine a concept,
complain, clarify, challenge, document, create a beautiful story, and
entertain (to name just a few purposes for writing).
4. CONTEXT
◼ Context refers to situational influences that are specific to time, place,
and occasion.
◼ When and where was the text written and where is it intended to be
read/seen/heard?
◼ We can also consider the context of the author’s life and work, texts
referred to by the author (or that refer to the author) and the
“conversation” the text is part of.
◼ How does the current context influence our reading of the text.
5. GENRE
◼ Genres are types of communication that have become routine and
“conventionalized.”
◼ A poem, meme, lab report, op-ed, and magazine article are all examples
of genres.
◼ Identifying the text’s genre can tell us a lot about audience, purpose, and
context.
◼ Genres give us clues about how we should read a text, what we can do
with the text, and who the audience is.
RHETORICAL
SITUATION
ARGUMENT
◼ In the broadest sense, an argument is any piece of written, spoken, or
visual language designed to persuade an audience or bring about a
change in ideas/attitudes.
◼ This is the overall position or conclusion advanced by an author.
◼ We abstract this from the entirety of the text to arrive at the position
or conclusion the author wants us to accept.
◼ Arguments are concerned with contested issues where some degree
of uncertainty exists (we don’t argue about what is self-evident or
agreed upon). For example?
EXAMPLE ARGUMENTS:
1. Social media is having a negative impact on students’ writing and reading skills.
2. The opioid crisis in America is partly the result of over-prescription, but is primarily caused by the rise of
inequality, economic dislocation, and community breakdown.
3. To combat “fake news” social media companies need to make serious efforts to limit its spread, and schools and
universities must start teaching students how to identify and avoid fake news.
4. Children should not be allowed to play tackle football until they reach high school, as their brains are particularly
vulnerable to damage from high impact sports.
5. While it is common to assume that our sense of morality comes from the culture we live in, there is growing
evidence to suggest we are all born with a “moral instinct” that has evolutionary roots.
EXAMPLES OF (NON) ARGUMENTS
◼ “Vanilla ice cream is the best.”
◼ “Guns are good.”
◼ Can be changed in order to be an actual argument. But how?
◼ “The sky is not blue—in fact, it’s green.”
◼ We want to make sure that arguments—at least in an academic setting—move beyond one’s opinions or beliefs.
There needs to be substantive, viable, legitimate reasonings and evidence in order to perpetuate an argument.
CLAIMS
◼ Claims are the “engine” of an argument.
◼ They are the main assertions or lines of reasoning
advanced by an author.
◼ Claims assert that something is the case, and
(usually) provide some justification for this.
◼ Claims are contestable, and deal with matters on
which there is disagreement and uncertainty.
◼ THINK: Topic Sentences
EXAMPLE CLAIMS
◼ Overall argument: We do not need to have stricter gun laws put in place.
◼ Claim #1: We do not need to have more gun laws because there are already enough measures put in place to ensure guns
are obtained ethically.
◼ Claim #2: Having stricter gun laws may cause more “black market” gun purchases.
Not claims:
◼ I do not believe gun laws will help with mass shootings on school campuses.
◼ Why isn’t this an effective claim?
EVIDENCE
◼ The component of the argument used as support for the claims made.
◼ Evidence is the support, reasons, data/information used to help
persuade/prove an argument.
◼ To find evidence in a text, ask what the author has to go on.
◼ What is there to support this claim?
◼ Is the evidence credible?
◼ Some types of evidence: facts, historical examples/comparisons,
examples, analogies, illustrations, interviews, statistics (source & date
are important), expert testimony, authorities, anecdotes, witnesses,
personal experiences, reasoning, etc.
LET’S PRACTICE RHETORICAL SITUATION
Sandy Hook Promise “Evan”
RHETORICAL SITUATION: DISCUSS, PROVIDE EVIDENCE.
◼ In small groups, discuss the rhetorical
situation and how you came to your
decisions.
◼ Author
◼ Audience
◼ Purpose
◼ Context
◼ Genre