Brian Tobin, "Blueprint" taken on March 21st, 2010 via Flickr Attribution 2.0 Generic
While reading pages 122-125 in "Writing Public Lives" I found that the most helpful piece of information was the part regarding thesis statements in a rhetorical analysis. It is very different considering that it is a thesis statement inside of a rhetorical analysis. I was confused as to how to do this since as a writer I will be writing about how the article is put together from a rhetorical argument standpoint. As the book stated, the general idea of a thesis in a rhetorical analysis would be "What do we observe or understand about the ways it tries to persuade it's audience?" The book says to use this question to form the thesis. It is very helpful because it helps me understand the idea of a rhetorical analysis better and I realize i'm searching for how it is done versus what is being done.
Introduction: In the introduction I will be seeking to set up a background for the readers who do not know as much about computer science. Since I will be analyzing rhetorical strategies through the rest of the paper I thought the introduction is a good place to give context. I will be writing about how computer science is taught in schools. What the pros of having computer science taught it and likewise what the problems are with teaching computer science. This would be a good place for statistics and visuals.
Thesis: In the article, "Should we teach computer science in elementary school?", Pat Yongpradit and Beth Schwartze share their opposing views on whether or not computer science should be taught in elementary schools. Both authors use emotional appeals to the audience to try and draw them in their favor. Since this topic is very personal to many people since it is involving children, both authors discuss points such as the education, future, and benefits/hardships of the children when it comes to teaching them computer science in elementary school.
Body: My paper is going to be interesting because I will be analyzing two different arguments since this article poses the two sides of the debate against each other.I will then analyze how the authors approached their argument and will dive into their rhetoric strategies, I will focus on appeal to audience and emotional appeal as well as credibility and logic when analyzing their arguments. I definitely was more shorter paragraphs just because that is more visually appealing and it is easier to read. I will either switch back and forth between the two arguments or just do all of the first one then the second one.
Analytical Claim: Teaching computer science in elementary schools would be beneficial for the students in regards to their future, education, and job opportunities yet it is up for debate due to the problems related to teaching computer science in school.
Conclusion: Put together all the ideas, do one last quick compare of the two arguments. Maybe try to conclude on one if I have enough evidence. Explore how effective each of the authors were. Conclude on which author had a more sound, persuasive argument without being bias.
Reflection: I read the outlines of Austin and Olivia. They both did a great job on their outlines, structuring their attack for project 2. Austin did a great job figuring out which rhetorical strategies he was going to analyze. He might want to add some contect of the situation at hand. Olivia did an excellent job and I had a hard time finding any flaws. What I learned about my outline was that I should have been more specific with the rhetorical strategies I was going to analyze. Overall I feel as if my outline was a strong outline.
I think that one of the best parts of our outline is that it seems to be very detailed. I imagine this was really helpful when you wrote out your rough draft. It seems like it'd be more difficult to take on what you're doing, analyzing two different arguments within one article, and making a rhetorical analysis. It may be easier to handle if you discuss one of the rhetorical strategies, and then to compare how each of the authors handled to issue. This will help build a base for discussing which author handled the rhetorical analysis better. However, this may make your paragraphs longer, which will stray away from your want for shorter paragraphs.
ReplyDelete