eng215 week 2 discussion

The Brief MH Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life Course Roen, 2nd Edition Select Chapters Course Number Strayer University http://create.mcgraw-hill.com Copyright by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

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ISBN-10: ISBN-13: 1. Reading Critically for College and for Life 1 2. Writing to Convince 20Contents 1. Reading Critically for College and for Life: Chapter 2 from The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing forLife, Second Edition by Roen, Glau, Maid, 2011 1 2. Writing to Convince: Chapter 8 from The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, Second Edition byRoen, Glau, Maid, 2011 20Credits Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 2 Chapter 15 Reading Critically for College and for Life In Chapter 1, we considered how writing skills will serve you in the academic, professional, civic, and personal areas of your life. This chapter focuses on an activity that reinforces and helps you improve your writing skills: reading. When we read, we make meaning out of words on a page or computer screen. We also “read” photo - graphs and other visual images.

Actually, then, read- ing is the active process of constructing meaning.

In this chapter, we ask you to consider how you now read different kinds of material and give you some helpful read-ing strategies. Specifi cally, the chapter presents prereading strategies, strategies for read- ing actively, and postreading strategies. All of these strate- gies will help you better un- derstand what you read and use that information to make your own writing more effective.

In your col- lege classes, you will be asked to read (and write) about all kinds of print and digital texts for all kinds of purposes. More often than not, you will use some of what you read in the papers that you write for your college classes. The connection be- tween what you read and how you use that material in your writing requires you to read critically.

What does it mean to read critically? One thing reading critically does not mean is to be “nit-picky” or negative.

Rather, when you read a text critically, you question what you read, make connections to other things you have read and to your own experiences, and think about how the informa- tion in the text might help you as you develop your own writ- ing. To read critically means to read thoughtfully, to keep in mind what you already know, and to actively interact with the text. Critical readers underline, make notes, and ask questions as they read. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 153/30/10 7:17:24 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 16 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life Why Read Critically? Integrating Sources into Your Own Writing Why do you suppose that your teacher asks you to read critically and thought- f ully? In addition to reading to understand the information, a key reason to read critically and thoughtfully is so that you will be able to put the information and concepts you read about into your own writing, to support your own ideas.

There is an added bonus to reading critically: It helps you understand the ways the writing you read “works”—what makes that writing effective (or not), how that writing connects to and impacts (or not) readers, and so on. As you read and learn to understand how the writing your teachers ask you to read functions, you will be able to construct more effective texts.

In your college classes, you will be asked to read a lot. Understanding what you read and relating what you read to what you already know is what college is about. As you read for your college classes, con- sider how you might use that information in your own class papers or examinations. For example, if you know your philosophy instr uctor will ask you to construct a paper in which you outline and ex- plain “philosophy of the mind,” you should look for both of those terms and anything that con- nects them as you read. Ask yourself:

What is the main point, the thesis? How does it • relate to what I already know? To what I’m read- ing for this class?

How are the main terms deﬁ ned? How do the • author’s deﬁ nitions compare to what I think the terms mean? What terms or concepts are not ex- plained (and so I’ll need to look them up)?

How effective is the supporting evidence the au- • thor supplies?

What did the author leave out? How does that • affect his or her argument?

What information in this text will help me con- • struct my own paper?

Yo u use what you learned from your reading by in- tegrating those ideas into your own writing, by cit- ing and paraphrasing the concepts you glean from your reading. You can read about using quotations in your own writing on pages 118 –119. Pages 164 – 165 discuss how to paraphrase and attribute those ideas correctly. Writing Activity How Do You Read?

T ake a few minutes to answer the following questions:

What kinds of books or • magazines do you like to read?

Newspapers? Web sites? Blogs?

How does the way you read a text • online differ from the way you read an article from a print mag- azine or newspaper?

How do you read your college text- • books? How do the strategies you use to read a text for one course differ from those you use to read texts for another course?

What strategies do you use to read • long, complex nonﬁ ction texts?

What strategies do you use to • help you understand and remem- ber what you have read?

Share your answers with several classmates. How do your responses com- pare with theirs? What strategies do they use that might be helpful to you? roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 163/30/10 7:17:30 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 17 Using Prereading Strategies ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started Using Prereading Strategies When you write something, you have a purpose in mind. As we noted in Chapter 1, the reason for writing is your rhetorical purpose—what you are hoping to accomplish. Likewise, before you read, think about your rhetorical purpose: What are you trying to accomplish by reading? Are you reading to be entertained, to learn new information, to understand a complex subject in more detail, or for some other reason? If you consciously think about why you are reading, as well as how you plan to read a particular piece of writing, you will have a strategy you can follow as you begin reading.

Before you start to read any written work, take a few minutes to preview its content and design. Look for the following elements:

The title of the work, or of the particular section you are about to read • Headings that serve as an outline of the text • Boxes that highlight certain kinds of information • Charts, maps, photographs, or drawings • Numbered or bulleted lists (such as this one) that set off • certain information Think about what you bring to your reading task: In what ways does the text seem similar to or different from others of this type or on this topic that you have already read? What can you bring to the new reading that you have learned from your past experiences? If you are actively involved in the reading process and if you think of reading rhetorically—that is, if you think about what you want to get from the reading—then you will start with a useful map for any text you read.

Next, skim the text by reading the ﬁ rst and last sections or paragraphs, as well as any elements that are highlighted in some way, such as boxes, section titles, headings, or terms or phrases in bold or italic type. Sometimes a box or highlighted section at the beginning of an article— often called an abstract— will give you a quick summary of what is ahead.

As a ﬁ nal step before you start to read, consider again what you are hoping to accomplish by reading this particular text. Ask yourself:

What information have I noticed that might help me with my • writing task?

How have I reacted so far to what I have seen in the text? • What questions do I have? • What in this text seems to relate to other texts that I have read? • roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 173/30/10 7:17:31 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 18 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life Reading Actively Now that previewing has given you a sense of what the text is about, you are ready to read actively. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you read:

What is the writer’s thesis or main point? What evidence does the writer • provide to support that point? Does the writer offer statistics, facts, ex- pert opinion, or anecdotes (stories)?

How reliable is the information in this text? How conscientiously does • the writer indicate the sources of his or her data, facts, or examples? How reliable do these sources seem?

What else do you know about this topic? How can you relate your previ- • ous knowledge to what this writer is saying? In what ways do you agree or disagree with the point the writer is making?

Has the writer included examples that clarify the text? Are there pho- • tographs, drawings, or diagrams that help you understand the writer’s main points? Graphs or charts that illustrate data or other statistical in- formation? In what way(s) do the examples and visuals help you better understand the text? What information do they give you that the writ- ten text does not provide? What is the emotional impact of the photo- graphs or other visuals?

What information or evidence is not in this text? (Your past experience • and reading will help you here.) Why do you think that the author might have left it out?

If what you are reading is an argument, how ef- • fectively does the writer acknowledge or outline other points of view on the issue at hand?

By asking questions like these, you can use strat- egies such as annotating, performing a rhetorical analysis, reading visuals, and reading Web pages to read actively. Annotating Effectively When you annotate, you interact actively with the text as you read. To annotate a reading, make the following kinds of notes (Figure 2.1):

Underline the main point or thesis of the read- • ing, or otherwise mark it as the key point.

Underline key supporting points, and indicate • in the margins next to the corresponding para- graphs why you think each point is important.

List any questions you have. • Respond to the text with your own remarks. • For more on strategies for argument, including dealing with opposing views, see Chapter 14. Writing Activity Annotating “The Ethics of ‘Stealing’ a WiFi Connection” “ T he E t h ic s of ‘ Ste a l i n g ’ a W i Fi Connection” discusses a growing issue: Who “owns” the right to Inter- net access that comes from a person’s or business’s network? Annotate the rest of Eric Bangeman’s comments (see Figure 2.1). As you work, keep in mind your own responses to his comments.

Your instructor may want you to share your annotations with several of your classmates, noting places where your responses are similar and where they may differ. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 183/30/10 7:17:31 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 19 Reading Actively ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started I didn’t know there was such a thing— have to do some research on what this means. So he is saying that this is a victimless crime? Neat to be able to use your phone to surf the Web.Not sure this analogy works here. But is it really silly to use something someone else is paying for and didn’t give you permission to use?Cool story! I can imagine doing that.My friend Nick has this kind of network —wonder if he is helping people “steal” the Internet? Is some- one who has an open network complicit in other people using that network? Wow—more than half “steal” Internet access.

Well, I know some people who do, too.Wonder what this is—guess it’s just a network designation and not something I really need to understand.The ethics of “stealing” a WiFi connection A recently released study by a security firm says that using an open WiFi network without permission is stealing.

Ars looks at the ethics of open WiFi By Eric Bangeman | Last updated January 3, 2008 9:12 PM CT Network security firm Sophos recently published a study on what it terms WiFi “piggybacking,” or logging on to someone’s open 802.11b/g/n network without their knowledge or permission. According to the company’s study, which was carried out on behalf of The Times , 54 percent of the respondents have gone WiFi freeloading, or as Sophos put it, “admitted breaking the law [in the UK].” Amazingly, accessing an unsecured, wide-open WiFi network without permission is illegal in some places, and not just in the UK.

An Illinois man was arrested and fined $250 in 2006 for using an open network without permission, while a Michigan man who parked his car in front of a café and snarfed its free WiFi was charged this past May with “Fraudulent access to computers, computer systems, and computer networks.” On top of that, it’s common to read stories about WiFi “stealing” in the mainstream media.

It’s time to put an end to this silliness. Using an open WiFi network is no more “stealing” than is listening to the radio or watching TV using the old rabbit ears. If the WiFi waves come to you and can be accessed without hacking, there should be no question that such access is legal and morally OK. If your neighbor runs his sprinkler and accidentally waters your yard, do you owe him money?

Have you done something wrong? Have you ripped off the water company? Of course not. So why is it that when it comes to WiFi, people start talking about theft?

The issue is going to come to a head soon because more and more consumer electronics devices are WiFi-enabled, and many of them, including Apple’s iPhone and most Skype phones we’ve used, come ready out of the box to auto-connect to open WiFi networks. Furthermore, as laptop sales continue to grow even beyond desktops, the use of open WiFi is only going to grow along with it.

Steal this WiFi connection!

When you steal something, there’s typically a victim. With WiFi, Sophos thinks the ISPs are the victims. “Stealing WiFi Internet access may feel like a victimless crime, but it deprives ISPs of revenue,” according to Sophos’ senior technology consultant Graham Cluley. Furthermore, “if you’ve hopped onto your next door neighbors’ wireless broadband connection to illegally download movies and music from the ‘Net, chances are that you are also slowing down their Internet access and impacting on their download limit.” In Sophos’ view, then, both ISPs and everyday subscribers can be victims.

In one fell swoop, “stealing WiFi” gets mentioned in the same breath as “illegally” downloading movies and music. The fact is, people join open WiFis for all manner of reasons: to check e-mail, surf the web, look up directions to some place, etc. Those don’t sound like nefarious activities, however, and certainly not activities which are likely to get someone in trouble. Of course if you run an open WAP (wireless access point) and it is heavily used for just e-mail, you could still hit your bandwidth cap (if you even have one), but that has to happen only once for that user to figure out what’s up, and fix the problem. And let’s be honest: it is their problem. No one forced that user to install a WAP or to leave it wide open. We’ll get back to this in a minute.

The argument that using open WiFi networks deprives ISPs of significant revenue is also a red herring. Take the case of public WiFi hotspots: official hotspots aren’t that difficult to find in major cities—every public library in Chicago has open WiFi, for instance. Are the public libraries and the countless other free hotspot providers helping defraud ISPs? No, they’re not. There’s no law that using the Internet requires payment of a fee to an ISP, and the myriad public hotspots prove this.

Really, there’s only one time when you could argue that an ISP is being gypped, and that’s when someone is repeatedly using his neighbor’s open WiFi in lieu of paying for his own service. Is this really wrong? Let’s consider some parallel examples. If the man in question were given a key and told that he could enter his neighbor’s house whenever he wanted to use a PC to access the Internet, would this be wrong? Of course not. They key here (pun intended) is the “permission” given by the owner of the home.

Our leeching friend would clearly be in the wrong if he were breaking into the house, of course, because he would be sidestepping something clearly set up to keep him out. If he has permission, I suppose one could argue that it’s still not right, but you won’t find a court that will punish such a person, nor will you find too many people thrilled at the idea that someone else can tell them who they can and can’t allow into their homes for what purposes.

Some people leave their wireless access points wide open deliberately. A friend of mine and recent seminary graduate lived in a campus-owned apartment building. In addition to being a man of the cloth, Peter is a longtime Linux user and open-source advocate.

While living here in Chicago, he got his DSL from Speakeasy and shared the connection with others in his building…and anyone else who needed a quick Internet fix (Speakeasy even encouraged this). He even positioned his router so that anyone in the church across the street could pick up a signal. Obviously, not everyone is like Peter. But despite easy-to-read instructions and a plethora of warnings about the need to secure your WAP, some people just can’t be bothered to enable the most basic security settings.

To the person with a laptop and a sudden need to check e-mail or surf the web, it’s not possible to tell who is leaving their access points open deliberately and who just plain doesn’t care. The access point is there and the virtual doors are unlocked, so why not take advantage of it if you’re in need?

A couple of caveats: be familiar with the law of the land. As the examples at the beginning of this story show, it’s illegal to access a WAP without permission—even if it’s wide open—in some places. Also, you should never use an open point for anything illegal or even unneighborly. Don’t log onto the first “linksys” WAP you see and fire up a torrent for your favorite, just-released Linux distro.

And as always, don’t leave your own 802.11b/g/n router wide open unless you’re comfortable with random surfers using your ‘Net access for their own purposes.

Open WiFi is clearly here to stay. FIGURE 2.1 Example of Annotations on a Page roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 193/30/10 7:17:31 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 20 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life Jot down key terms and their deﬁ nitions. • Mark sections that summarize material as “sum- • mary” (see the example in Figure 2.1). Constructing a Rhetorical Analysis When you analyze something, you mentally “take it apart” to determine how the various parts or as- pects function and relate to the whole. If you were to analyze, say, the winning team in last year’s Super Bowl or World Series, you would examine the various aspects that make that team the very best (perhaps the coaching, the players, and/or the game plan) to determine how the various parts of that team work together to make it the best team.

(For more on analysis, see pages 180 –221.) A rhetorical analysis is a way of looking at some- thing, often a text, from a rhetorical standpoint. The purpose of examining a text from a rhetorical per- spective and then constructing a rhetorical analysis of that text is to help you understand how the text functions: how each aspect of that text works to fulﬁ ll its purpose. So, if a text is trying to persuade you of something, you should examine how the various parts of that text work to persuade. I f a te x t is i ntended to b e i n for mat iona l (a newspaper a r t ic le, for e xa m- ple), then you should read through the text looking for how that text informs.

A rhetorical analysis includes a search for and identiﬁ cation of what are called rhetorical appeals: the aspects of a piece of writing that inﬂ uence the reader because of the credibility of the author (ethos), an appeal to logic (logos), and/or an appeal to the emotions of the audience (pathos). The relationships among ethos, logos, and pathos can be represented as a triangle in which the author is related to an appeal to ethos, the audience or reader to the appeal of pathos, and the purpose of the text to the appeal of logos: Logos (Logic) Pathos (Emotion)Ethos (Credibility) Rhetorical Appeals Purpose AudienceAuthor Rhetorical Triangle (For more on the rhetorical triangle, see page 460.) Using the Internet to Find Defi nitions Are you faced with one of those jargon-fi lled college reading assignments? When the glos- sary at the back of the book just isn’t enough, try searching the Web for defi nitions. A num- ber of good dictionaries and glossaries are available online. One strategy is to use a Web search engine to fi nd defi nitions of complex terms. For example, if you’re looking for a working defi nition of existentialism, type “d e fi ne: existentialism” (without quotation marks) into a search engine’s search box.

Often your top results will include dictionary sites, academic Web sites, and technical sites that have developed working glossaries for students, experts, and professionals. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 203/30/10 7:17:31 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 21 Reading Actively ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started GENRES Up Close Writing a Rhetorical Analysis The purpose of a rhetorical analysis is to examine an item—most often a text—to deter- mine how the parts or aspects of the text function together to accomplish the author’s purpose. Rhetorical analysis, then, is really a critical reading.

One way to understand how to use a rhetorical approach is to consider an adver- tisement. How does a speciﬁ c advertisement work to convince the audience? Most of- ten, an advertisement is intended to convince a reader to buy a product. Consider the advertisement for Levi’s Copper Jeans shown in Figure 2.2. Do you notice the shiny FIGURE 2.2 Advertisement for Levi’s Copper Jeans GENRES UP CLOSE Refl ection (p. 11) Rhetorical Analysis (p. 21) Audience Profi le (p. 36) Literacy Narrative (p. 65) Profi le (p. 110) Annotated Bibliography/ Review of Literature (p. 152) Visual Analysis (p. 198) Editorial (p. 239) Review (p. 281) Poster (p. 329) Proposal (p. 378) Book Review (p. 419) roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 213/30/10 7:17:32 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 22 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life white areas in the ad? And the words “original” and “reconstructed”? And the copper- colored background, which reinforces the name of the product?

Could the ad be suggesting that the copper rivets used in the manufacturing of Levi’s Copper Jeans are strong, like the metal used to surgically reconstruct (there is that word again) a broken arm? If so, what kind of rhetorical appeal is the ad making?

How do you interpret the use of the word “original” in this advertisement? Is the ad suggesting that only “original” people wear Levi jeans? That these jeans make you, somehow, original? If so, what kind of rhetorical appeal is the ad making?

Could the skeletal ﬁ gure have been used to suggest that real “original” people wear these jeans, especially those engaged in dangerous activities (like extreme sports, which might account for her broken arm). If so, what kind of rhetorical appeal is the ad making? In a rhetorical analysis, you generally will:

Contextualize a piece of writing (author, audience, and purpose). • Identify the structure of the piece (chronological, cause/effect, problem/ • solution, topical, and so on).

Identify the rhetorical appeals of the piece ( • ethos, logos, pathos).

Ethos appeals to one’s beliefs, ethics, and credibility, and to the trustworthi- ness of the speaker/author. When you read a text to identify the writer’s ethos, look for the following characteristics:

Language appropriate to the audience and subject • A sincere, fair presentation of the argument • Grammatical sentences • A level of vocabulary appropriate for the purpose and formality • When you read a text to identif y the rhetorical appeal of logos, look for the following characteristics:

Denotative meanings or reasons (literal, dictionary deﬁ nitions • rather than metaphorical or connotative meanings) Factual data and statistics • Quotations • Citations from authorities and experts • When you read a text to identify the rhetorical appeal of pathos, look for the following characteristics:

Vivid, concrete language • Emotionally loaded language • Connotative meanings (beyond the basic meaning) • Emotional examples • roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 223/30/10 7:17:34 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 23 Reading Actively ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started Narratives of emotional events • Figurative language • (For more on rhetorical appeals, see pages 458 – 460.) Here are some questions you might consider when you read a text, ques- tions that will help you pinpoint the rhetorical appeals:

Who is the intended audience? How do you identify the audience? • What do you see as the writer’s purpose? To explain? Inform? Anger? • Persuade? Amuse? Motivate? Sadden? Ridicule? Is there more than one purpose? Does the purpose shift at all throughout the text?

Can you identify the rhetorical appeals of this piece of writing ( • ethos, logos, pathos)? What would you add or omit to make the rhetorical ap- peals more effective?

How does the writer develop his or her ideas? Narration? Description? • Deﬁ nition? Comparison? Cause and effect? Examples?

What is the tone of the text? Do you react at an emotional level to the • text? Does this reaction change at all through- out the text?

How does the writer arrange his or her ideas? • What are the patterns of arrangement?

Does the writer use dialogue? Quotations? To • what effect?

How does the writer use diction? Is it formal? • Informal? Technical? Jargon? Slang? Is the language connotative? Denotative? Is the lan- guage emotionally evocative? Does the lan- guage change throughout the piece? How does the language contribute to the writer’s aim? Reading Visuals As a college student, you will most often be asked to read words on paper, but you can usually apply the same strategies you use to read sentences and para- graphs critically to other types of texts as well. You might think that visuals are easier to read than written text, but this assumption is not accurate. In fact, you often have to pay more attention to visual images, not only because they are sometimes subtler than written text but also because you are not accus- tomed to reading them critically.

While the process of understanding photographs, bar and line graphs, dia- grams, and other visuals may seem different from that of reading and under- standing textual information, you are essentially doing the same kind of work.

When you read a text, you translate letters, words, and sentences into concepts Writing Activity Writing a Rhetorical Analysis A pply the ﬁ rst three ques- tions to the advertisement for Levi’s Copper Jeans. Share your re- sponses with several of your classmates.

How are those responses similar? How different? roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 233/30/10 7:17:34 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 24 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life and ideas; when you read a visual image, you do the same kind of translation.

Just as you read a local newspaper or other printed text for information, you also read the photographs in the newspaper or the images on your television or computer screen to be informed. Writing Activity Reading Text and Visuals in an Advertisement S elect a full-page advertisement from a newspaper or magazine, and read both the written text and the visual elements care- fully, keeping in mind that nothing in an advertisement is left to chance. Each element, from the kind and size of the typeface, to the col- ors, to the illustrations or photographs, has been discussed and modiﬁ ed many times as the advertisement was developed and tested. On a sepa- rate piece of paper, jot down answers to the following questions:

What is this advertiser trying to sell? • What kinds of evidence does the advertisement use to convince • you to buy the product or service?

Does the advertiser use the rhetorical appeal of • ethos (see page 22), and if so, how?

Does the advertiser use the rhetorical appeal of • logos (see page 22), and if so, in what way?

In what ways does the advertisement appeal to your emotions (the • rhetorical appeal of pathos—see page 22)?

What strategies does the advertiser employ to convince you of the • credibility of the ad’s message?

How effective is this advertisement? Why? • How might the various elements of the advertisement— colors, • photos or other visuals, background, text—be changed to make the ad more, or less, effective?

How much does the advertisement help potential buyers make in- • formed decisions about this product?

If your instructor asks you to do so, share your advertisements and notes with several of your classmates. What similarities did you ﬁ nd in the advertisements that you selected? In what ways did the advertise- ments make use of visuals? What were the most effective elements of the advertisements? roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 243/30/10 7:17:34 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 25 Reading Actively ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started As you read visuals, here are some questions to consider:

How can you use words to tell what the visual shows? • If the visual is combined with written text, what does the visual add to • the verbal text? What would be lost if the visual were not there?

Why do you think that the writer chose this particular format—photo, • line drawing, chart, graph—for the visual?

If you were choosing or designing a visual to illustrate this point, what • would it look like?

How accurately does the visual illustrate the point? • What emotions does the visual evoke? • Reading Web Sites Today many of us read Web sites, which can include not only text, with type in different colors and various sizes, but also photographs or other visual ele- ments, videos that we can click on to view, and music. To read Web sites ac- tively and critically, you need to examine the information on your screen just as carefully as you would a page of printed text or a visual in a magazine or newspaper. Because there are more aspects of the text to examine and consider, however, and also because it is often more difﬁ cult to establish where a text on the Web comes from, active reading becomes even more important. Consider the following additional questions when you are reading a Web page:

The uniform resource locator (URL) of a site, its address, can give you • clues about its origin and purpose. For any page you visit, consider what the URL tells you about the page, especially the last three letters—edu (e duc at iona l), gov (U.S. government), org (nonproﬁ t organization), or com (commercial). What difference does it make who sponsors the site?

How reputable is the person or agency that is providing the information • on this page? You can check the person’s or agency’s reputation by doing a Web search (in Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, for instance).

What clues do you see as to the motives of the person or agency that is • providing this information? Is there a link to an explanation of the pur- pose of the site? Usually, such explanations are labeled something like “About [name of organization or person].” How current is the information on this page? Can you ﬁ nd a date that • indicates when the page was last updated?

Can you identify any of the rhetorical appeals ( • ethos, logos, pathos)?

How does the structure of the Web site impact its message? • If there are links on the page, how helpful is the description of each link? • Are the links working, or do they lead to dead ends? For further details about evaluating information on the Web, see Chapter 19, “Finding and Evaluating Sources.” roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 253/30/10 7:17:35 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 26 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life Writing Activity Reading Web Pages: What You Can See U sing the questions on page 25, read the following Web page. Respond in writing to as many of the questions as you can. Compare your responses with those of your classmates. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 263/30/10 7:17:35 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 27 Using Postreading Strategies ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started Using Postreading Strategies After you have read an essay or other text actively and annotated it, spend a bit of time thinking about what you have learned from it and even writing in response to it. Review your annotations and answer the following questions:

What is the main point or idea you learned from working through this • text?

What did you learn that surprises or interests you? • How does the information in this text agree with or contradict infor- • mation on this topic you have already read or learned from your own experience?

What questions do you still have about this text? • Where can you ﬁ nd answers to those questions? • What in this reading might be useful in your own writing? • One useful method for storing and keeping track of what you have learned from your reading is to keep a writer’s journal. A journal is a handy and acces- sible place to write down the information and ideas you gather, as well as your reactions to and insights about the texts you read. Other effective postread- ing strategies include writing summaries, synthesizing information, and using your reading in your writing.

Starting Your Writer’s/Research Journal A writer’s journal is a place where you keep track of the notes, annotations, and summaries that you make from your reading. Because any writing project lon- ger than a page or two demands more information than you can usually store in your memory, it is vital to keep a written record of information that you dis- cover. You can use the entries in your journal as the basis for group discussions as well as for writing tasks.

The information that you include in your journal can vary based on the needs of the project you are working on. The format and design will also vary to suit your purpose. In other words, your rhetorical situation will have an impact not only on the material you collect, the notes that you take, and the summaries and syntheses that you write (see pages 28 –31), but also on the physical makeup of your journal. If you are working on a project that requires a large number of illustrations, for example, you will need to include space in your journal to store them.

It is usually a good idea to keep a journal of some sort for each writing proj- ect you are working on. Consider the following questions for each journal:

What kinds of information (data, charts, anecdotes, photos, illustrations, • and so on) should you collect for this project? roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 273/30/10 7:17:37 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 28 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life What information will help you get your message across to your intended • audience?

What information might you jot down that may lead to more complex • ideas? Why would more complexity be desirable?

What questions do you have and how might you go about ﬁ nding an- • swers to those questions?

What kinds of illustrations might help you • show what you mean?

As you write in your journal, you should note where ideas or quotations come f rom in t he or ig ina l texts, so t hat you w ill be able to properly c ite t hem in your own writing. Get in the habit of noting the information you will need to cite your source, including the page number an idea or quotation comes from. Writing Effective Summaries After they have read and annotated a text, many readers ﬁ nd that summariz- ing it also helps them to understand it better. A summary is a concise restate- ment of the most important information in a text—its main point and major supporting points. For more on taking notes from and properly citing sources, see Chapter 20. Writing Activity Reading a Text Critically A ssume that for your business ethics class, you have been asked to read the following column “Downloading Music: Harmful to the Artist, the Recording Company, or Neither?” by Carlton Vogt, who wrote the piece for InfoWorld. Based on what you have learned in this chapter, consider how you should go about reading this text. Use the critical reading skills you have learned to do the following:

Explain what you already knew about this topic just from the title. • In a brief paragraph, explain what you did before you read this text. Did you skim it? • Annotate the ﬁ rst paragraph. • Jot down your answers to the following postreading questions, using no more than • two sentences for each response.

What was your initial reaction and response to this text? • What is the main idea you learned from working through this text? • Did you learn anything that surprises or interests you? • In what ways does the information in this text reinforce or contradict other texts • you have read or what you know from your own experience?

What questions do you still have about this text? • (cont inued) mhconnectcomposition.com Summarizing QL2001 roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 283/30/10 7:17:37 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 29 Using Postreading Strategies ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started Writing Activity Reading a Text Critically (continued) Ethics Matters by Carlton Vogt Downloading music: harmful to the artist, the recording company, or neither?

I may be the best person to talk about Napster—or the worst. You can see where this is going already. I don’t buy a lot of CDs.

In fact, I can’t remember the last time I bought one. I don’t download music from the Internet. And I don’t write or perform music. So I’m either completely neutral or totally out of the loop.

That’s the nice way of putting it. Some readers, responding to recent columns, put it less charitably. Their verdict: I haven’t thought about it enough, I’m totally clueless, or I’m an idiot. All of these were comments about my position on Napster, which is puzzling, because I haven’t taken one. However, these readers pointed out to me that the situation is perfectly clear:

1. Downloading music is not stealing.

2. Downloading music is definitely stealing.

3. Downloading music is wrong, but not stealing.

4. Downloading music is neither wrong nor stealing.

How could I be so dense? There were several variations on these themes. Some thought you could rip music off a purchased CD to use on other devices. Others thought you could share certain tracks—but not the whole CD—with intimate friends (although they didn’t say what level of intimacy you need to have achieved first). A few argued that the music industry was so evil that anything you can do to use music for free is totally justified.

And, in typical fashion, many were convinced that their opinions were not only correct, but also self-evident. So I’m glad we’ve cleared that up.

A few argued the fine points of copyright law, but the connection between law and ethics is, at best, tenuous—and the subject of a future column—so I usually hesitate to look to the law for the proper ethical answer.

But let’s take my CD-buying experience as an entry point. What sometimes happens is that I go to the store, look at a CD that strikes my fancy, find four out of 12 tracks that I find appealing, and put the CD back. Is the recording company better off or worse off that I’ve not bought the album? I suppose you could say it’s worse off, although I could argue that it’s neither, because its position hasn’t changed from before I looked at the album. However, it has lost a potential customer. Have I done anything wrong? No. I have no obligation to make the company better off by buying the album.

How about the artist? Again worse off—and on two counts. Not only has the artist not gotten whatever royalty would come from the sale of the CD, but also I haven’t heard the music. And isn’t the whole point of performing so that people will hear what you do?

I’m a writer, and I get paid for it. InfoWorld puts my column on its Web site. On one level I’m satisfied; I’ve got my money.

However, if the Web site traffic maven were to come and tell me that my column got only two page hits, I would be devastated.

I would be more devastated if InfoWorld didn’t come through with the paycheck, but not having anyone read the column hurts a lot too.

Getting back to music, suppose I download the four CD tracks I like from the Internet? Is the record company better or worse off?

It’s not worse off, because I wasn’t going to buy the CD anyway. It may be better off, because I just may buy the next CD the artist puts out if I like this one. Or I may tell someone about it, who might then go out and buy the CD.

How about the artist? The artist is definitely not worse off, because I wasn’t going to buy the CD anyway. So he or she isn’t losing anything. But, in the sense of having someone appreciate the performance, the artist is definitely better off. There may be some artists who don’t care at all about audience appreciation, but if all a performer is interested in is the money, I suspect I wouldn’t even be downloading the music.

So putting aside legal considerations, the ethical question at hand is, “Have I harmed anyone?” That is, have I set back any of their important interests without justification? Because I have no obligation to buy a CD, if I don’t want one, it’s hard to say that I have harmed either the artist or the recording company by not buying the CD. And in downloading the music, I may have advanced at least one of the artist’s interests because I am listening to the music.

On the other hand, if I am downloading or sharing the music to avoid otherwise buying the CD, then you could say that I was harming both the artist and the recording company because I was depriving them of income they otherwise would have had— my money. And that makes all the difference.

The fly in the ointment lies in who determines whether or not I would have bought the CD. You certainly don’t know and neither does the recording company. I may think I know, but we have a remarkable ability to deceive ourselves, especially when self interest is involved.

Carlton Vogt is a former InfoWorld editor. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 293/30/10 7:17:37 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 30 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life Writing a Summary: To write an effective summary, start by listing the main points of the text, in effect outlining what you are reading. Re- member, however, that a summary is more than just a list; a summary provides a brief narrative structure that connects these main ideas. STEPS FOR WRITING A SUMMARY 1. Read the text relatively quickly to get a general sense of what it is saying.

2. Read the text again. Mark or highlight a sentence that expresses the main point of each paragraph, and paraphrase that point—put it entirely into your own words—in the margin.

3. For a longer text, label the major sections. If the writer has provided subheadings, use them as they are or paraphrase them. If not, write subheadings.

4. After considering what you have done in the ﬁ rst three steps, write a statement that captures the writer’s main point or thesis.

5. Working backward from step 4, craft a paragraph—in your own words— that captures the gist of what the writer is saying. Synthesizing Information in Readings Synthesis calls for the thoughtful combination or integration of ideas and information with your point of view.

Suppose that you would like to see a particular movie this Saturday. You hope to convince a group of your friends to accompany you. You have read several reviews of the ﬁ lm, you know other work by the director, and you have even read the novel on which this movie is based. At the same time, simply sending your friends all the information you have about the ﬁ lm might over- whelm them. Unless you effectively structure what you have to say, one piece of information may contradict some other point that you want to make.

To organize your information, you could focus on what you see as the most compelling reasons your friends should see the ﬁ lm: the novel the ﬁ lm is based on, along with the director of the movie. You would then provide information on the following:

How interesting the novel is, with speciﬁ c examples to show what • you mean How effectively the novel has been translated to ﬁ lm, using reviews or • other information about the ﬁ lm as evidence Other ﬁ lms by the same director that you know your friends like • Writing Activity Summarizing “Downloading Music:

Harmful to the Artist, the Recording Company, or Neither?” I n no more than one page, summarize “Downloading Music: Harmful to the Artist, the Recording Company, or Nei- ther?” (page 29). If your instructor asks you to, share your summary with sev- eral of your classmates. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 303/30/10 7:17:38 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 31 Using Postreading Strategies ■ PA R T 1 | Getting Started When you synthesize effectively, you take the jumble of facts, data, in- formation, and other knowledge you have on hand and put it into an under- standable format that f ulﬁ lls the purpose you want to accomplish. And, of course, when you cite reviewers’ opinions (in the hope of convincing your friends which movie to see), you will need to indicate where the comments came from—to properly attribute what the reviewers had to say and to lend their authority to your argument. Failure to properly attribute ideas to original sources constitutes plagiarism.

As we have noted, to fully understand information and then be able to synthesize it effectively, you must read critically, questioning, challenging, and engaging the text as you work through it. One strategy that will help you improve your critical thinking and reading is to work with others. When you work with your classmates, you hear their perspectives and ideas and have the opportunity to consider various points of view. Working with others also helps you learn to construct the most effective questions to ask, to help you become an active reader. Using Your Reading in Your Writing Information that you ﬁ nd in your reading can be used in many ways in your writing. If you have annotated the texts that your instructor asked you to read for a writing project in this course or another course, you can often use those annotations in your own writing. Likewise, if you have summarized sources for a research project, you can refer to and use those summaries to spot the im- portant points of each text you have read, and then use relevant information as evidence to support your main idea. If you have found statistical informa- tion in graphical form, or photographs, drawings, maps, or other illustrations, these too can become part of your text. Of course, it is always important to For more on avoiding plagiarism, see Chapter 20. Writing Activity Synthesizing Information U s i n g w h at yo u h a v e l e a r n e d f r o m t h i s c h a p t e r o n c r it i c a l r e a d i n g a nd sy nt hesi z i ng i n for mat ion, reread “T he Et h ics of ‘Stea l i ng ’ a WiFi Connection” (page 19) and “Downloading Music: Harmful to the Artist, the Recording Company, or Neither?” (page 29). Both readings involve ethical issues: Synthesize the issues outlined in these readings in no more than two pages. Remember that a synthesis is a thoughtful in- tegration of your readings with your own point of view. Where do you stand on these ethical dilemmas? What else have you read in your college classes that relates to these ethical situations? roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 313/30/10 7:17:39 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eI. Getting Started 2. Reading Critically for College and for Life © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 32 PA R T 1 | Getting Started ■ 2 | Reading Critically for College and for Life indicate where you found information, whose ideas you use in your text, and where statistical information came from in order to establish your credibility and avoid plagiarizing—representing the words or ideas of others as your own ideas or words.

In the chapters in Parts 2 and 3 of this book, you will read various selec- tions. As you read these texts or conduct library and/or Web research to ﬁ nd support for your writing, you will ﬁ nd it helpful to use the reading strategies described in this chapter. roe8397x_Ch02pp015-032.indd 323/30/10 7:17:39 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 Chapter Writing to Convince Think of the last time you wrote something. Whether it was a formal academic paper, a letter, or an informal note such as a text message to a friend, your writ- ing was most likely designed to convince someone about some- thing—to persuade your reader that he or she should accept your particular point of view. In fact, most purposes for writing—to inform, to explain, to analyze — to some degree almost always involve persuasion.

You encounter persuasive writing—writing designed to convince readers to agree with the writer’s position—many times a day. Notice, for example, the persuasive appeals in the advertisement here. The top line noting that Monte Alban is “The oldest city of the Americas” is an ethical appeal because it shows that the ad writers are knowledgeable about the area’s history. The same holds true for the details that appear below the photograph. At the same time, these historical details How do I set my goals?

Setting Your Goals (p. 224) How do I achieve my goals?

Rhetorical Knowledge (p. 226) Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing (p. 229) Writing Processes (p. 243) Knowledge of Conventions (p. 258) How do I assess my goals?

Self-Assessment: Refl ecting on Your Goals (p. 264) p 8 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2223/30/10 7:21:33 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 223 can be considered logical ap- peals because they are pieces of information. “Live the mystery” is, of course, an emotional appeal, as is the color photograph that showcases the breathtaking beauty of Monte Alban.

How effectively does this advertisement convince you to visit this place?

Advertisements, of course, are clearly intended to convince the reader to buy something—a product or service or trip to Mexico. For most of the persuasive writing you will do, you will have a more limited au- dience than the audience for an advertisement or a newspaper editorial, but the strategies that you will use to assert your point of view and persuade readers are the same. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2233/30/10 7:21:37 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 Setting Your Goals: Rhetorical Knowledge Audience: • When you write to convince your readers, your success will depend on how accurately you have analyzed your audience: their knowledge of and attitudes toward your topic.

Purpose: • A convincing text is meant to persuade readers to accept your point of view, but it can also include an element of action—what you want readers to do once you’ve convinced them.

Rhetorical situation: • Think about all of the factors that affect where you stand in relation to your subject—you (the writer), your readers (the audience), the topic (the issue you are writing about), your purpose (what you wish to ac- complish), and the exigency (what is compelling you to write your persuasive essay).

Voice and tone: • When you write to persuade, you are tr ying to convince read- ers to think or act in a certain way. The tone you use will infl uence how they react to your writing: Consider how you want to sound to your readers. If your tone is subdued and natural, will that convince your readers? If you come across as loud and shrill, will that convince your readers?

Context, medium, and genre: • Decide on the most effective medium and genre to present your persuasive essay to the audience you want to reach. Often, you can use photographs, tables, charts, and graphs as well as words to provide evidence that supports your position. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing Learning/inquiry: • Writing to persuade helps you learn the important argu- ments on all sides of an issue, so such writing deepens your understanding.

Responsibility: • As you prepare to write persuasively, you will naturally begin to think critically about your position on the subject you are writing about, forcing you to examine your initial ideas, based on what you learn through your research. Persuasive writing, then, is a way of learning and growing, not just of presenting information.

Reading and research: • You will usually need to conduct inter views and online and librar y research to gather evidence to support the claims you are making in your persuasive writing. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2243/30/10 7:21:41 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 88 Writing Processes Invention: • Use various invention activities, such as brainstorming, listing, and clustering, to help you consider the arguments that you might use to support your persuasive essay or the opposing arguments you need to accommodate or refute.

Organizing your ideas and details: • Most often, you will state the main point— your thesis—clearly at the start of your persuasive essay and then present the evidence supporting that point. Other methods of organization are useful, however, depending on your audience and context.

Revising: • Read your work with a critical eye to make certain that it fulfi lls the assignment and displays the qualities of effective persuasive writing.

Working with peers: • Listen to your classmates as they tell you how much you have persuaded them, and why. They will give you useful advice on how to make your essay more persuasive and, therefore, more effective. Knowledge of Conventions Editing: • Citing sources correctly adds authority to your persuasive writing.

The round-robin activity on page 259 will help you edit your work to correct problems with your in-text citations and your works-cited or references list.

Genres for persuasive writing: • Possible genres include academic essays, editorials, position papers, letters to the editor, newspaper and magazine es- says— even e-mails or letters you might send to friends or family members to persuade them about a problem or issue.

Documentation: • You will probably need to rely on sources outside of your ex- perience, and if you are writing an academic essay, you will be required to cite them using the appropriate documentation style. Writing to Convince roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2253/30/10 7:21:42 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 226 Rhetorical Knowledge When you write to persuade, you need to have a speciﬁ c purpose in mind, a strong sense of your audience, and an idea of what might be an effective way to persuade that audience. You need to make a point and provide evidence to support that point, with the goal of persuading your readers to agree with your position. Writing to Convince in Your College Classes Many—if not most— of the papers you will be asked to write for your college classes will be persuasive. Although your college assignments will often speciﬁ - cally require that you inform or analyze, they will frequently include an ele- ment of persuasion. Here are some examples:

In a literature course, your instructor might ask you to argue that the • concept of the Oedipal complex is appropriate for analyzing Hamlet’s behavior.

Your sociology professor might ask you to develop and support a thesis • about deviant behavior in prisons.

Your mechanical engineering professor might ask you to argue for or • against using a particular material in a speciﬁ c situation. Writing to Convince for Life Although persuasive writing is common in college and university courses, it plays an even larger role in professional, civic, and personal settings. Consider these examples of professional writing:

A product development team needs to convince company executives to • manufacture a product it has designed and tested.

A paralegal needs to ask fellow members of the local legal community to • work pro bono (for free) for a speciﬁ c group.

A division manager needs to convince the human resources manager to • hire a particular applicant.

Persuasive writing is also present in civic settings. Civic leaders and other participants in the political process—mayors, city council members, school board members, town supervisors, volunteers, and ordinary citizens—are all involved in persuasion. In fact, it is difﬁ cult to imagine a political process without persuasion as its major component. For instance, concerned citizens might write to their city council to argue that a stop light needs to be installed at an intersection where many accidents have occurred. mhconnectcomposition.com Writing to Convince Tu t o r i al Q L 8 0 01 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2263/30/10 7:21:44 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 227 Writing to Convince for Life ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments In personal settings, you constantly negotiate with those around you as you make life decisions, often working to convince others that your views and ideas are most effective. For example, you might write to persuade a family member to send you money for tuition. Or you might write to a friend or fam- ily member to encourage him or her to have a medical test if that person is having trouble making a decision.

The “Ways of Writing” feature presents different genres that can be used when writing to convince in life. Ways of Writing to Convince Genres for Your College Classes Sample SituationAdvantages of this GenreLimitations of the Genre History essay Your world history professor asks you to construct a paper in which you argue that specifi c events caused the Iraq war of 2003.Your research will provide documented details of what led up to the war. It will help your readers understand the causal relationships. Your essay may not give a broad enough overview to give readers an idea of how the war might have been prevented. Letter to your campus newspaper Your political science professor asks you to send a letter to your college newspaper, encouraging your classmates to change the form of student government. Any thing published in a college newspaper will have a wide audience of people who have an interest in campus affairs.You will have to make your argument in a limited amount of space. It might not be published. Editorial for your local newspaper For your writing class, you are asked to construct an editorial re- sponding to public criticism about your campus: Students driving fast through neighborhoods, loud parties at student-occupied apart- ment buildings, and so on.Editorials are read by a local audience and are therefore use- ful for convincing local readers about an issue that is important to them.You will have to make your argument in a limited amount of space and with- out visuals. It might not be published. Oral presentation Your environmental science pro- fessor asks you to prepare a ten- minute speech that convinces your classmates to attend a rally for a community clean-up.Talking to your audience gives you the opportunity to en- gage them and gauge their involvement.Some listeners will “tune out” so you have to work to keep their attention. Genres for Life Sample SituationAdvantages of the GenreLimitations of the Genre Brochure With several of your neighbors, you want to construct a brochure that presents the benefi ts of rais- ing taxes for your local schools.A brochure can provide a quick overview of the arguments in favor of a tax increase.Your argument must be pre- sented in a limited amount of space. Business letter Your business is moving to a neigh- boring state, and you want as many employees as possible to make the move with your company.A letter is a personalized way to explain the benefi ts of the new location.Asking employees to make such a move is a diffi cult task; a letter might be too brief to be convincing. Poster To encourage people to attend an upcoming school event, you construct a poster that you will copy and place in various locations on campus.A poster is a visual way to get readers interested. Posters can be placed in many places, ensur- ing exposure to your message. A limited number of people will see and read the posters. Web site You want to create a Web site that will convince your community to vote for a mayoral candidate. Your Web site can provide use- ful information for a particular demographic that is otherwise diffi cult to reach.Some readers will only skim a Web site and not all have access. Job application cover letter You need to construct a cover let- ter in response to a job ad. A cover letter lets you discuss and explain your background and experiences in a positive way, specifi c to the particular job. Your background might not be a good match for the job forcing you to “stretch” in your letter. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2273/30/10 7:21:44 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 228 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince ` ` ` Scenarios for Writing | Assignment Options Your instructor may ask you to complete one or both of the following assign- ments that call for persuasive writing. Each of these assignments is in the form of a scenario, which gives you a sense of who your audience is and what you need to accomplish with your persuasive writing.

Starting on page 243, you will ﬁ nd guidelines for completing whatever scenario you decide— or are asked—to complete.

` Writing for College SCENARIO 1 Academic Argument about a Controversial Issue What controversial issues have you learned about in other college classes?

Here are some possibilities:

Political science: In what ways did the ethical issues some senators and • members of the House of Representatives faced immediately before the 2006 election affect the results of that election?

Business ethics: How effective is the threat of criminal punishment in • preventing insider trading of stocks?

Psychology: How should the courts use the concept of insanity to deter- • mine culpability in criminal cases?

Writing Assignment: Select a controversial issue or problem from one of your classes, and compose a paper convincing readers in that class that your position on the issue is valid. ` Writing for Life SCENARIO 2 Civic Writing: An Editorial about a Campus– Community Problem Every college campus has problems, ranging from scarce parking to over- crowded computer labs, to too much vehicle traffi c, to too little community involvement. Many of these problems, such as too much traffi c, extend into the neighborhoods near the campus.

Writing Assignment: Using the list of features of an editorial on page 239, write an editorial for your school newspaper in which you identify a campus problem that also affects the surrounding community and then persuade your readers that the problem exists and that it needs to be taken seriously.

Although you need to do more than simply provide information about the problem (that is an informative paper, covered in Chapter 6), you do not need to suggest detailed solutions to the problem (that is a proposal, covered in mhconnectcomposition.com Writer’s Workshop:

Applying Learning Goals to Persuasive Writing QL8002 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2283/30/10 7:21:44 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 229 Writing to Convince for Life ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Chapter 11). Your goal is to convince your readers that your campus has a problem and that this problem has a negative impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.

Rhetorical Considerations in Persuasive Writing Audience: • Although your instructor and classmates are your initial audience for this assignment, you might also consider other audiences for your per- suasive writing. What would you like them to believe or do? How might they respond to your argument? How might you best convince them?

Purpose: • Your main purpose is to make your au- dience aware of the issue and to convince them that it is signifi cant and that your position is the most reasonable one. How can you do this? You might also want to convince them to do some- thing about it. What are different ways to accom- plish this?

Voice, tone, and point of view: • Why are you in- terested in the issue? What are your attitudes to- ward the issue and the audience? How will you convey those attitudes to your audience?

Context, medium, and genre: • Although you are writing this persuasive paper to fulfi ll a college assignment, most issues worth writing about are important beyond the classroom. How might your views make a dif- ference to your community? Keeping the context of the assignment in mind, decide on the most appropriate medium and genre for your writ- ing. If you are writing for an audience beyond the classroom, consider what will b e the mo s t ef fe c tive way to pre s ent your argument to this au - dience. You might write an e-mail message to a friend, prepare a memo for colleagues at work, or write a brochure or op-ed piece for members of your community.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing As we have seen, effective persuasive writing focuses on an issue and provides sufﬁ cient and compelling evidence to convince readers that the writer’s posi- tion on that issue is correct, or at least worthy of respect. Before you begin to write your own persuasive paper, read one or more persuasive essays to get a feel for this kind of writing. Also consider how visuals could make your writing more convincing, as well as the kinds of sources you will need to consult. For more on choosing a medium and genre, see Chapter 17. Insuffi cient parking is an issue at many college campuses, especially those located within cities. mhconnectcomposition.com Additional Scenarios QL8003 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2293/30/10 7:21:44 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 230 When you write to convince, you will often need to draw on material from other sources by conducting research. To research effectively, you must read the material critically and evaluate it carefully, to make certain that the evi- dence you are offering as proof adequately supports your claims. Of course, thinking critically also means that you need to consider other points of view about your issue and decide whether those views are compatible or in conﬂ ict with your own position.

Learning the Qualities of Effective Persuasive Writing Much of the writing that you do is intended to convince someone to agree with you about something, typically about an issue. An issue is a subject or problem area that people care about and about which they hold differing views. Issues of current concern in the United States include tax cuts, campaign ﬁ nance reform, and school vouchers. Subjects about which people tend to agree—for example, the importance of education in general—are not usually worth writ- ing arguments about.

Persuasive writing that achieves the goal of convincing readers has the fol- lowing qualities: Presentation of the issue. • Present your issue in a way that will grab your readers’ attention and help them understand that the issue exists and that they should be concerned about it. For example, if you are at- tempting to convince buyers to purchase cell phones with antivirus protection, you ﬁ rst need to demonstrate the prevalence of cell phone viruses. Another way to present the issue is to share an anecdote about it or to offer some statistics that clearly demonstrate the existence and danger of viruses.

A clearly stated, arguable claim. • A claim is the assertion you are mak- ing about the issue. Your claim should be clear, of course; a confusing claim will not convince readers. Any claim worth writing about also For more on gathering and evaluating information from sources, see Chapter 19. One way to see argumentation and per- suasion in action is to look at political- discussion posts on news Web sites.

Choose a topic thread or news article, and, as you skim or read the posts, ask yourself three questions about each post: (1) How much credibility does the writer seem to have as a person (ethos)?

(2) How does the writer use reason and logic to make his or her points (logos)?

(3) What is your emotional reaction to the writer’s remarks (pathos)? You can determine the weight a writer’s com- ments probably carry with others by assessing that writer’s credibility, rea- soning, and emotional integrity. Be sure to assess the language writers use in re- sponse to each other as well. Political- Discussion Posts roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2303/30/10 7:21:46 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 231 The Qualities of Effective Persuasive Writing ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments needs to be arguable: a statement about which reasonable people may disagree. For example, “All cell phone users should purchase antivirus software” is an arguable claim; a reader could disagree by saying, “Cell phone viruses are not a major threat.” However, no one would disagree with the statement “Computer viruses can be annoying and disruptive.” Therefore, it is not arguable and so is not an effective claim for a piece of persuasive writing.

An awareness of audience. • Because your task as a writer is to convince other people, it is crucial to be aware of the needs, situations, and per- spectives of your audience. In any audience, you can expect some mem- bers to be more open to your claim than others:

• If someone already agrees with you, persuasion is unnecessary.

• If someone mildly disagrees with you or is undecided, persuasion has a good chance of working.

• If someone strongly disagrees with you, there is little chance that per- suasion will work.

Convincing reasons. • Writers of convincing arguments offer support for what they are asking their reader to believe or to do. Think of the rea- sons you use to support your point as the other part of a because state- ment, with the claim being the ﬁ rst part. Here’s an example: “Animal fur should not be used in clothing because synthetic fur is available and looks like real fur.” Sufﬁ cient evidence for each reason. • After considering the degree to which the audience agrees or disagrees with your claim, provide enough evidence, and the right kind(s) of evidence to convince your readers and, if applicable, persuade them to act accordingly. Evidence includes statis- tics, expert opinion, examples, and anecdotes (stories).

Appeals based on the writer’s logic, emotion, and character. • Effective persuasive writers carefully decide when to use three kinds of appeals— logos (app e a l s b a s e d on log ic), pathos (appeals to the audience’s emotions), and ethos (appeals based on the writer’s character or credibility). Appeals based on logic are generally the most effective. Emotional appeals can be effective with audience members who are predisposed to accept your claims. Appealing to an audience’s emotions is risky, however, because critical thinkers will reject this type of appeal unless it is accompanied by logical and ethical appeals. Appeals based on the writer’s authority and credibility—ethical appeals—can be powerful, especially when cou- pled with logical appeals.

An honest discussion of other views. • For any arguable claim or thesis, there will be at least one other point of view besides yours. To be effective, the writer of a persuasive text needs to acknowledge and deal with possible objections from the other side. You already make this kind of counterargu- ment naturally. For example, when you are told that you “cannot register roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2313/30/10 7:21:46 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 232 for this course because you have not completed the prerequisite,” you prob- ably already have an answer to that objection such as, “You’re right, but I re- ceived approval from the dean because of my prior professional experience.” If you think that another perspective has merit, you should certainly acknowledge it and even concede that it is valid. Another possibility is a Rogerian approach (see Chapter 14), in which both sides negotiate a com- promise position. Perhaps you can offer a compromise by incorporating aspects of the other perspective into your thesis. Of course, if other per- spectives on your issue are without merit, you will need to ref ute them by indicating how they are inappropriate, inadequate, or ineffective.

A desired result. • The goal of persuasive writing is to convince readers to change their minds about an issue or at least to give your view seri- ous consideration. Often the goal is to get your reader to act in some way—vote for a candidate, write a letter to the school board, or buy some product.

Reading, Inquiry, and Research:

Learning from Texts That Persuade T h e r e a d i n g s t h a t f o l l o w a r e e x a m p l e s o f p e r s u a s i v e w r i t i n g . A s y o u r e a d t h e p e r- suasive selections your instructor assigns, consider the following questions:

What makes this selection convincing? • To what extent am I convinced by the writer’s reasons and evidence? • Why?

What parts of the selection could be improved? In what ways? • How can I use the techniques of persuasive writing exempliﬁ ed here in • my writing? For more on strategies for argument, including dealing with opposing views, see Chapter 14. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2323/30/10 7:21:46 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 233 Learning from Texts That Persuade ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments MAUREEN DOWD Our Own Warrior Princess J ennifer showed me her scar Friday. It’s the most beautiful scar I’ve ever seen. A huge stapled gash on her stomach, shaped like the Mercedes logo. A red badge of courage. Jennifer is my niece, a 33-year- old lawyer. On Wednesday, she had half her liver taken out at Georgetown University Hospital to save the life of her uncle (my brother Michael), who had gotten hepatitis years ago from a tainted blood transfusion.

The complicated and risky operation for the two, side by side, went from 7:30 am. until after 10 pm. Then, when a Medivac helicopter arrived with a matching liver for another patient, the same team of doctors had to start on another emergency six-hour liver transplant.

The night nurse told Jennifer she was an oddity.

“We don’t see many live donors,” she said. “Not many people are that generous.” Or brave. Jennifer’s morphine drip wasn’t at- tached properly the fi rst night after the operation, and no one knew it. She felt pain, but didn’t want to be a wimp by complaining too loudly. Instead, she was Reaganesque, cracking jokes and wondering where the cute doctors were.

She sur vived the fi rst night after this excruciat- ing operation au naturel, like Xena the Warrior Prin- cess. If all goes well, her liver will grow whole again in several weeks, as will Michael’s half.

Unlike her father, who charged people a nickel to see his appendix scar when he was 10, she let me look for free. As we sat in her room, watching Ma- r iah Carey singing with a bare midr iff on the “Today” show, I worr ied a little how she would take the disfi gurement.

She’s a fi tness fanatic, who works as a personal trainer in her spare time. She’s single, out in the cruel dating world. And we live in an airbrush culture, where women erase lines with Botox, wrinkles with lasers, and fat with liposuction. I told Jen scars are sexy; consider that great love scene in “Lethal Weapon 3” when Mel Gibson and Rene Russo, as police offi cers, compare scars. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 EDITORIAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 Maureen Dowd won the Pulit- zer Prize for Commentary in 1999. In 1992, she received the Breakthrough Award from Women, Men and Media at Columbia University. She won the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications in 1994. In 1996, she was named one of Glamour’s Women of the Year. In 1992, she was also a Pulitzer Prize fi nalist for national reporting.

In the following column, which fi rst appeared in the New York Times on June 1, 2003, Dowd writes in a personal way about organ donation—telling the story of what her niece, Jennifer, did to help her brother, Michael.

Although persuasive writing most often uses facts, statistics, and hard evidence to make its case, as you read Dowd’s column, consider how effective she is in using emo- tional appeals to persuade you. Is Dowd’s column persuasive enough for you to sign up to be an organ donor? Why? d bia roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2333/30/10 7:21:46 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 234 Jennifer has ever y quality of heart, spirit, mind and body a woman could want. She’s smart, funny, generous, loyal, pr incipled, great looking and, obv iously, adventurous.

“Write a column about me,” she smiled, tubes coming out of ever y part of her body, as I left her room.

I knew what she meant. She didn’t want me to write about her guts, but to encourage others to have the guts to donate organs. When she came to, she asked for the green r ibbon pin that encourages organ donation. Her exquisite doll-like transplant surgeon, Dr. Amy Lu, in white coat and black high-heeled mules, still on the job after 21 hours in the operating room, removed her pin and gave it to Jennifer.

As Neal Conan said on NPR Thursday: “More than 80,000 Americans are on waiting lists for organ donations, and most will never get them.

Thousands on those lists die ever y year. One big reason for the shortage is that families are reluctant to give up their relatives’ organs. Even when people fi lled out a donor card or checked the organ donor box on their driver’s license, family members often refuse. The need is so acute and so frustrating that more and more doctors are wondering whether fi nancial incentives might persuade some families to change their minds and save lives.” (Iran has wiped out its kidney transplant wait by offering rewards.) As the New York Organ Donor Network Web site notes: “One donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and improve dozens of lives through corneal, bone, skin and other tissue transplants. Across the U.S., 17 men, women and children of all races and ethnic backgrounds die ever y day for lack of a donated organ.” I’m one of the scaredy-cats who never checked the organ donation box or fi lled out the organ and tissue donor card.

Some people don’t do it because t hey have i r rat ional fear s t hat doctor s will be so eager to har vest their organs, they’ll receive subpar care after an accident.

I had nutty fears, too, straight out of a Robin Cook medical thriller, that they might come and pluck out my eyes or grab my kidney before I was through with them.

On Fr iday, Michael’s birthday, I got the card online, fi lled it out and stuck it in my wallet. If Jennifer is brave enough to do it alive, how can I be scared of doing it dead? From The New York Times, June 1, 2003 © 2003 The New York Times. All r ights reser ved.

Used by per mission and protected by the Copyr ight Laws of the United States. The pr int- ing, copying, redistr ibution, or retransmission of the Mater ial without express wr itten permission is prohibited. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2343/30/10 7:21:47 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 235 Learning from Texts That Persuade ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments BRIAN J. G. PEREIRA, M.D.

Letter Responding to Dowd T o the Editor:

Re “Our Own Warr ior Pr incess” (column, June 1):

Maureen Dowd’s inspiring stor y of her niece’s live liver donation points to an emerging trend in transplantation.

The year 2001 was the fi rst in which there were more liv ing donors than nonliv ing donors in the United States. Because of new techniques for kidney removal and the medical success of live liver trans- plantation, more people are considering saving lives through organ donation while they are alive.

A recent survey by the National Kidney Founda- tion found that one in four Amer icans would con- sider donating a kidney or a piece of their liver or lung to a complete stranger.

This is not just talk. The real numbers are en- couraging. In 2002, 353 people became living liver donors, and 6,234 were live kidney donors.

While the need for organ donors continues to grow, people like Ms. Dowd’s niece represent hope for a future when the transplant waiting list will cease to exist.

BRIAN J. G. PEREIR A, M.D.

Pres., National Kidney Foundation Boston, June 2, 2003 New York Times 1 2 3 4 5 LETTER TO THE EDITOR 1 2 3 4 5 Brian Pereira is a professor of medicine at the Tufts Uni- versity School of Medicine.

Dr. Pereira is a nationally rec- ognized expert on kidney disease and nephrology. He is the president of the National Kidney Foundation and chairman of the International Nephrology Network, and he has served on the editorial board of many scientifi c journals. Dr. Pereira also serves as a director of Kidney Care Part- ners, Wellbound Inc., and Satellite Health Care Inc.

This letter, in response to Dowd’s essay, appeared in the New York Times a few days after Dowd’s column was published.

After reading Dowd’s column and Pereira’s response, would you ever consider being a living organ donor? Why? e He roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2353/30/10 7:21:48 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 236 QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION Rhetorical Knowledge: The Writer’s Situation and Rhetoric 1. Audience: How effective is Dowd in reach- ing the audience for whom this information is intended—someone reading the New York Times and perhaps interested in organ dona- tion? What can you point to in Dowd’s col- umn to demonstrate what you mean?

2. Purpose: In what area of life (academic, pro- fessional, civic, personal) does “Our Own Warrior Princess” best ﬁ t? What is Dowd try- ing to convince the reader to believe or do?

What can you point to in the column to sup- port your opinion?

3. Voice and tone: What is Dowd’s attitude toward people who don’t offer to donate or- gans? How does she attempt to reach them?

4. Responsibility: Dowd’s primary evidence con- sists of the story of her niece’s sacriﬁ ce, which is an emotional appeal to her readers. How justiﬁ ed is Dowd’s use of pathos—an appeal to readers’ emotions? How effective is it? Why?

5. Context, format, and genre: Newspaper col- umns such as Dowd’s have speciﬁ c length lim- its (as compared to, say, an essay that might appear in a journal). How might such a form constrain Dowd? How might it beneﬁ t her? In a letter to the editor, the writer often focuses on how much he or she agrees or disagrees with an editorial. How does Dr. Pereira do that? Critical Thinking: The Writer’s Ideas and Your Personal Response 6. How has Dowd’s column affected your views about becoming an organ donor?

7. Consider other persuasive writing that you have read. In what way(s) are they similar to or different from Dowd’s column?

Composing Processes and Knowledge of Conventions: The Writer’s Strategies 8. How does Dowd establish her ethos in this ar- ticle? How does Pereira establish his ethos in his letter?

9. Dowd uses a personal story to make her point.

How effective is this writing strategy? Why?

Inquiry and Research: Ideas for Further Exploration 10. What questions do you still have about or- gan donation? Where can you go to get an- swers to those questions? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2363/30/10 7:21:48 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 237 Learning from Texts That Persuade ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Organ Donation ADVERTISEMENT Or gag n Donation Although Allsup, Inc. is a corporation that assists people seeking Social Security benefi ts, it sometimes runs pub- lic-service campaigns, such as the one below for organ donation. Most readers would assume the mother in this photograph was donating an organ for her child. But what if it was the other way around? Would you support a child donating an organ to a parent? Why? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2373/30/10 7:21:48 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 238 QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION: LEARNING OUTCOMES Rhetorical Knowledge: The Writer’s Situation and Rhetoric 1. Audience: Who is the audience for this ad- vertisement? What makes you think that?

2. Purpose: What language in the poster most clearly indicates the purpose of the adver- tisement?

3. Voice and tone: What attitude does Allsup have toward the audience?

4. Responsibility: To whom does Allsup seem to feel responsible?

5. Context, format, and genre: Why is it ﬁ tting that this advertisement include a chalkboard?

Advertisements that appear on posters or in other venues frequently include visual ele- ments such as photos. What does the photo add to this advertisement?

Critical Thinking: The Writer’s Ideas and Your Personal Response 6. How persuasive do you ﬁ nd this advertise- ment? Why?7. How do the persuasive features of this adver- tisement compare to those in Dowd’s essay earlier in this chapter? Composing Processes and Knowledge of Conventions: The Writer’s Strategies 8. Why does the advertisement include the nu- merical information that appears at the bottom?

9. Why does the advertisement use the rela- tively informal contraction “You’re” instead of the more formal “You are”?

Inquiry and Research: Ideas for Further Exploration 10. Conduct a Web search to ﬁ nd other adver- tisements for organ donation. How do their appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) compare to the appeals in this advertisement? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2383/30/10 7:21:53 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 239 Learning from Texts That Persuade ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments GENRES Up Close Writing an Editorial Writers use a range of genres to convince in professional, civic, and personal situations that include editorials/opinion pieces, position papers, job reference letters, and busi- ness letters. For example, editorials are appropriate when you want to convince readers that you have a valid position on a controversial or debatable topic. An op-ed piece is one that appears on the page opposite the editorial page in a newspaper or magazine; thus “op-ed” is short for “opposite editorial.” However, it can also mean “opinions and editorials.” Features of effective op-eds or editorial letters include the following:

They usually respond to a previously published article in a newspaper. • They are usually short (250 – 800 words). • They include an opinion or stance. • They make a point in the ﬁ rst few sentences. • They indicate why the issue is important. • They show respect for other points of view. • They suggest or imply an action that readers can take. • As you read the following example of an editorial, consider in what ways Emrich’s text matches the description above of an op-ed piece. GENRES UP CLOSE Refl ection (p. 11) Rhetorical Analysis (p. 21) Audience Profi le (p. 36) Literacy Narrative (p. 65) Profi le (p. 110) Annotated Bibliography/ Review of Literature (p. 152) Visual Analysis (p. 198) Editorial (p. 239) Review (p. 281) Poster (p. 329) Proposal (p. 378) Book Review (p. 419) roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2393/30/10 7:21:53 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 240 LIZ EMRICH Slut-O-Ween A recent discussion by Rob St. Amant about unfortunate Halloween costumes reminded me of one of my personal pet peeves about Hal- loween—the fact that it has now become the ex- cuse that girls (and women) use to don outfi ts that in their normal lives would be considered way, way, WAY too risque.

Personally, I’ve never understood it. I’m per- fectly happy to fl aunt what I’ve got—to a point.

The fact is that desire is always about what one doesn’t have, which means that desire will always obsess more over what is sug gested but can not be seen than what is displayed openly. The obvious bid for sexual attention embodied by a tiny skirt and a plunging neckline and four inch stilettos to me seems overkill.

Grown women, of course, may do what they please. Frankly I think it’s rather funny the way many of the women I know who would not be caught dead showing up in anything that even breathed a hint of cleavage during the rest of the year will gladly don an up-to-there skirt and fi sh- net stockings in order to walk the streets with their four year old, or to attend a party in the neighborhood. Sexual repres- sion is very much alive and well here in suburbia. No one wants to be the “slutty mom” whose tops are cut too low, whose skirts are too tight, and who all the dads raise an eye- brow at and wonder if she’s re- ally as easy as her clothes are supposedly suggesting. Hallo- ween seems to be the release valve for all those moms who 1 2 3 Liz Emrich lives in Virginia, where she writes a blog for Salon .Com. She has also worked as a law yer. We chose this read- ing because it focuses on a pro- vocative problem—one that many female students might personally relate to and have strong opinions about.Liz Vi s b .

a a ch ing focus voc ati ve p EDITORIAL Responds to a pre- viously published article.

Makes the main point in the fi rst few sentences. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2403/30/10 7:21:53 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 241 Learning from Texts That Persuade ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments checked their sexuality at the door when they gave birth—their one oppor- tunity to remind themselves of how hot they used to think they were.

Kids, however, are another stor y. Walk the aisles at Target, and even the costumes for little girls have a sexual element to them that I either blocked out or don’t remember from my youth. Dressing up as a cat or a witch or a cowgirl isn’t enough anymore. It must be a tarted-up version of the costume in question. Cat costumes must consist of cling y leotards.

Cowgirls must have really short skirts. In fact, any costume involving a skirt must be horrifi cally, inappropriately short.

Of course, the current trend in Halloween costumes for girls is not the fi rst or even the grossest incidence of inappropr iate sexualization of small girls and young women. Girls at younger and younger ages are seek- ing to wear clothing that makes them look way too grown up. And in some respects, this is not new. Mothers have been tr ying to protect daughters from being “vulgar” in how they dress for generations. Parents have wor- ried about daughters “growing up too fast” since the days when showing your ankles was considered akin to announcing yourself as a prostitute.

And for almost as long, daughters have tried to wheedle their way out of these social constraints.

Indeed, owning your sexuality as a woman is an important part of gender equality. Certainly for generations women were told they were sup- posed to stay virginal until marr iage, and couldn’t even walk alone with a man without risking their reputation. And those are not days that should be looked on fondly. That some women still live that way in some parts of the world makes me shudder. And part of owning your sexuality is the ability to choose how you represent that sexuality to the world in how you dress—to play it up or down consistent with what the circumstances your preferences dictate.

But little girls are a whole other matter. Owning your sexuality is a responsibility, sort of like owning your own home, or owning your own car.

If you don’t know what you’re doing with it, you run the r isk of damaging something important, including yourself. This is not about prudishness.

Ever y woman deser ves a sex life that is healthy, vibrant, active and happy, that is as individual as the woman herself.

An immature girl doesn’t know what she’s doing when she wears a sexy Halloween costume, a suggestive outfi t of any sort. She has only the most shallow understanding of the role she is assuming, of the cor- responding role she is tacitly suggesting. And even if you want to chalk it up to experimentation which is often the beginning of learning, there’s a line, and crossing it should not be an unconscious act. And while one could dispute what is the appropriate age to start experimenting with this line, I think it’s a pretty universal notion that the “tween” ages—9 to 12—is not 4 5 6 7 8 Indicates why the issue is important Includes an opinion or stance. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2413/30/10 7:21:55 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 242 the appropr iate age. And yet, this is precisely the age that you start seeing the “slut-o-ween” costumes emerge.

On one level, all of this makes me thankful that I have a son, and not a daughter. I do not env y my friends with daughters who are already clamor ing for clothes that look way too grown up. For better or worse, boys do not use clothes to telegraph sexuality in the same way as women. But I do worr y about teaching my son how to treat women. I don’t want him to be the kind of man who sees women as objects. I don’t want him to see a short skirt as an unconditional invitation. I want him to be as curious about what is under a girl’s hat as what is under her skirt. I am still work- ing out how to do this.

Slut-O-Ween does not help. 9 10 Usually short—this piece is just over 800 words.

Does not show re- spect for other points of view.

No real suggested action presented. QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION: LEARNING OUTCOMES Rhetorical Knowledge: The Writer’s Situation and Rhetoric 1. Audience: What audience does Emrich have in mind for this essay?

2. Purpose: What is Emrich’s purpose in writ- ing this essay?

3. Voice and tone: What is Emrich’s attitude toward her audience and the topic?

4. Responsibility: How does Emrich demon- strate that she takes seriously her responsibili- ties as a writer?

5. Context, format, and genre: This essay ap- peared on the Salon.Com Web site on Oc- tober 19, twelve days before Halloween. If it were your choice, what date would you pick for such an essay? Why? What features indi- cate that “Slut-O-Ween” is an editorial?

Critical Thinking: The Writer’s Ideas and Your Personal Response 6. To what extent do you agree with Emrich’s position on this topic? Why?7. W hat seem to be t he pr i nc iples u nder pi n n i ng Emrich’s argument? Composing Processes and Knowledge of Conventions: The Writer’s Strategies 8. Emrich has invented a new term, “Slut-O- Ween.” What is the effect of using this in- vented term rather than some existing word or phrase?

9. How has Emrich established her ethos as a credible person in this editorial piece?

Inquiry and Research: Ideas for Further Exploration 10. Conduct a Web search to see what language vendors use to describe the kinds of Hal- loween costumes that Emrich depicts. Does that language support Emrich’s claims? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2423/30/10 7:21:56 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 243 Invention: Getting Started ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Writing Processes As you work on the assignment that you have chosen, remember the qualities of an effective and convincing persuasive paper, listed on pages 230 –232. Also remember that writing is recursive—you might start with an invention activ- ity or two and then conduct some research, which leads to more invention work and then a ﬁ rst draft; but then you might need to do more invention work to come up with additional reasons and conduct more research to add more suppor t or to ref ute a n opposi ng a rg u ment; a nd t hen you w i l l rev ise you r draft and possibly ﬁ nd another gap or two. So, while the activities listed below imply that writers proceed step-by-step, the actual process of writing is usually messier: You will keep coming back to your earlier work, adding to it, modify- ing the information to be more accurate as you conduct additional research and become more familiar with your issue.

If you are considering several issues for your persuasive text, put your notes into a separate computer document for each one. Once you determine the fo- cus of your paper, it will be easy to access and use the notes on that issue. Invention: Getting Started The invention activities below are strategies that you can use to help you get some sense of what you already know about the issue you have chosen. What- ever invention method(s) you use (or that your teacher asks you to use), try to answer questions such as these:

What do I already know about this issue? • What is my point of view on this issue? • Where might I learn more about this issue? What veriﬁ able information • is available?

What might my audience already know? What might their point of • view be?

What do I know about my audience? What don’t I know that I should • know?

What questions do I have about the issue? • What are some other views on this issue? • Doing your invention work in electronic form, rather than on paper, lets you easily use your invention work as you construct a draft. For more on strategies for discovery and learning, see Chapter 3.

mhconnectcomposition.com Writing to Convince Animated Walkthrough QL8004 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2433/30/10 7:21:56 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 244 Student writer Santi DeRosa read an article in his college paper about how female students help recruit male athletes for his school. DeRosa had concerns about the ethics of this practice, so he decided to respond by writing an essay on the issue for his writing class. Santi DeRosa’s Answers to the Reporter’s Questions Santi DeRosa might ask—and answer—the reporter’s questions as follows:

Who is involved? Whom do they affect, and how are they affected? Who • has control over recruiting practices? Who might change the situation?

Female students volunteer, and I wonder how people perceive this. How do the women feel about doing this? Who decides who gets to “volun- teer”? What does the president of the university think about this?

What do they do? • They act as guides and escor ts. Nothing sexual— or is there? I wonder how their boyfriends feel about their par ticipation.

Where does the recruiting occur? • Taking someone to a local fast-food restaurant seems pretty harmless, while visiting other places may not.

When does the recruiting happen? What sequence of events is involved? • I think that recruiting is in the fall, but I’m not cer tain. How do the people get matched up? Do they work (escor t) in groups, and if not, is there a chaperone?

Why does this happen? Why are these particular students involved? • How well does this form of “recruiting” really work? Some young men might be inﬂ uenced if attractive young women showed them around the Writing Activity Questioning and Freewriting S pend a few minutes jotting down answers to the reporter’s ques- tions about your issue: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

You may ﬁ nd that your answers to these questions lead to more questions, which will help you focus on further aspects of your subject to research.

Then, using the answers you noted above, freewrite about one side of your issue for ten minutes. Then freewrite about the opposing side of your issue, again for ten minutes. This activity will help you better under- stand and appreciate the arguments on both sides of your issue. EXAMPLES OF INVENTION Brainstorming (pp. 158, 332) Freewriting (pp. 114, 245, 383) Criteria (p. 290) Listing (p. 72) Answers to Reporter’s Questions (p. 24 4) Organization (pp. 75, 16 4) Clustering (pp. 114, 289) Concept Mapping (p. 335) Inter viewing (p. 203) Research (pp. 115, 160, 205, 246, 292, 384) Refl ection (p. 12) roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2443/30/10 7:21:57 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 245 Exploring Your Ideas with Research ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments campus and the city. Why do the young women volunteer? They must get some satisfaction—a sense of civic responsibility and pride in the school, which is a good thing.

How do the female students act when they are with the athletes? React? • I need to ﬁ nd out more about the logistics of these recruiting visits. Do NCA A rules and regulations apply? How are the female students trained for this work? Santi DeRosa’s Freewriting DeRosa also used freewriting to explore his ideas. A portion of his freewriting appears here:

Interesting that women are used to recruit male athletes here, and that they volunteer. Is this a good idea? Are the women being used and objecti- ﬁ ed? What if they want to do it? What if the whole process is pretty inno- cent? The newspaper sensationalized it, which bothers me. I can’t think of what to write, I can’t think—hey, do they use males to recruit female ath- letes? I need to ﬁ nd out about that. . . . Exploring Your Ideas with Research Research is critical to any persuasive text, for if you cannot provide evidence to support your position, you probably will not convince your reading audience.

Although you may be able to use information from your own experience as evidence, you will usually need to offer veriﬁ able information from sources, such as facts, statistics, expert testimony, and examples.

To ﬁ nd evidence outside of your own experience that you need to support your claim, look for answers to the following questions:

What facts or other veriﬁ able information can I ﬁ nd that will provide • solid evidence to convince my readers to agree with my position?

What expert testimony can I provide to support my claim? What au- • thorities on my issue might I interview?

What statistical data support my position? • What are other people doing in response to this issue or problem? • The subject you focus on and the kind of essay you are constructing help to determine the research you conduct. For example, for the scenarios above, you could conduct several kinds of research:

For Scenario 1 (page 228), which asks you to focus on a controversial is- • sue, assume that you have decided to write about whether the threat of criminal punishment helps to prevent insider trading of stocks. What kinds of research might you conduct? At your library, a search of business For help with locating sources of information, see Chapter 19; for help with documenting your sources, see Chapter 20.

EXAMPLES OF INVENTION Brainstorming (pp. 158, 332) Freewriting (pp. 114, 245, 383) Criteria (p. 290) Listing (p. 72) Answers to Reporter’s Questions (p. 24 4) Organization (pp. 75, 16 4) Clustering (pp. 114, 289) Concept Mapping (p. 335) Inter viewing (p. 203) Research (pp. 115, 160, 205, 246, 292, 384) Refl ection (p. 12) roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2453/30/10 7:21:57 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 246 publications such as the Wa l l S t r e e t J o u r n a l , B u s i n e s sWe e k , and Forbes would be a good place to start. But you could also interview some lo- cal business executives to get their perspectives for your paper. And you could interview local law enforcement ofﬁ cials and attorneys to get their take on whether the threat of punishment helps stop insider trading.

For Scenario 2 (page 228), where you focus on a problem in your cam- • pus community, that same kind of local research—interviewing your classmates, for example—will provide useful information for your paper.

Consider the comments you could get, for instance, if you were writing about an issue involving your classrooms, such as the condition of the building or the time classes are scheduled, or a campus issue, such as campus safety, student fees, or athletics. Speaking with campus ofﬁ cials and administrators will also give you useful information for your paper.

In addition, a search of the campus newspaper archives in your college’s library may provide good background information on your issue.

One way to learn about other perspectives on your subject is to read • online blogs or join e-mail lists that focus on your topic. These ongo- ing electronic conversations often can provide multiple perspectives and ideas on the issue you are writing about—which then can help you with your own thinking and research. Student Example: An Excerpt from Santi DeRosa’s Research For my paper, I can use some of the details from the school newspaper’s ar ticles. Those ar ticles offer a clear narrative account of recruiting activities.

They also help to demonstrate that there is an issue.

I also found some information about the same kind of thing at Colorado State University (Lamber t ar ticle).

Writing Activity Conducting Research U sing the list of qualities of effective persuasive writing, go through your invention activity notes to ﬁ nd the questions you still have and want to ask. Now is the time to determine the best way/s to answer those questions. Would it be useful to:

Conduct more library research in books? • Interview people about your subject? • Conduct more library research in journals? • Make a research plan. Where will you conduct your research, and when will you do so? EXAMPLES OF INVENTION Brainstorming (pp. 158, 332) Freewriting (pp. 114, 245, 383) Criteria (p. 290) Listing (p. 72) Answers to Reporter’s Questions (p. 24 4) Organization (pp. 75, 16 4) Clustering (pp. 114, 289) Concept Mapping (p. 335) Inter viewing (p. 203) Research (pp. 115, 160, 205, 246, 292, 384) Refl ection (p. 12) roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2463/30/10 7:21:57 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 247 Exploring Your Ideas with Research ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments I will need to research how to deﬁ ne the concept of “objectiﬁ cation,” a term I’ve read about. I need to be clearer on this concept. I did check the American Heritage Dictionary through Dictionar y.com and they had this great quotation under the word’s deﬁ nition that I could include in my paper:

To present or regard as an object: “Because we have objectiﬁ ed ani- mals, we are able to treat them impersonally” (Barr y Lopez).

I like how that really connects to the point I’m tr ying to make in my paper. Reviewing Your Invention and Research After you have conducted your research, review your invention work and notes and the information you collected from outside sources. Once you have a gen- eral idea of the conclusion your research is leading you to, you can develop a “working” thesis statement: If you had to make a point now, based on what you have learned, what would it be? It is called a working thesis because your main point or thesis will inevitably change as you continue to conduct research and learn more. And, as you know, through the process of writing itself, you will learn about your topic, so give yourself permission to modify and develop this initial thesis statement as you draft and revise your text. Once you have writ- ten several drafts, received feedback on them, and revised them, you will be better able to determine what your ﬁ nal thesis statement should be. For more on deciding on a thesis, see Chapter 13. Writing Activity Considering Your Research and Focusing Your Ideas U sing your research notes as a starting point, again use the re- porter’s questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how to get onto paper what you know about your issue. For example, if you were focusing on a campus-community problem, some of your re- search notes might look like these:

Who: Students and neighbors alike who are affected when lots of stu- dent cars are going through the neighborhood, often too fast, both when they come to campus and when they leave.

What: The biggest issues seem to be too many cars on neighborhood streets, too many of them speeding, and too many of them parking where they should not. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2473/30/10 7:21:57 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 248 Organizing Your Information Because the purpose of writing a persuasive text is to convince your readers to accept your point of view, you will need to organize your reasons and evidence strategically. The questions that you need to ask yourself when deciding on your organization are all rhetorical:

W ho is you r aud ie nce? W hat is you r reade r s’ p osit ion on you r issue l i ke ly • to be? If they are undecided, you might try a classical or an inductive ap- proach, both of which are discussed below. If they are likely to hold an opposing view, then a refutation approach, also discussed below, may be the better choice.

Why might they be interested in your persuasive writing, or how can • you make them interested in it?

What is your purpose for writing—that is, why do you want to convince • readers of this position?

When you construct a persuasive paper, determine the most effective orga- nizational approach for your purpose and audience. One method of organizing Dealing Fairly with Opposing Views An ethical writer must deal with opposing views fairly and honestly. If you ignore or distort opposing views, readers will think you are either unaware, or dishonest, which will quickly weaken or destroy your ethos—your credibility. Ignoring the other side of an issue, the objec tions that others might have to your point of view, actually weakens your position, as your readers may be aware of the objections and wonder why you did not deal with these other perspectives.

And if you are going to be honest with your readers, you have an ethical obliga- tion to note that there are arguments against your position. You don’t necessarily have to write, “Here is another position that you may think is stronger than mine,” but you do need to acknowledge that “other sides to this issue include X X X,” and then explain why your position is still the stronger one.

Avoiding Logical Fallacies Using faulty logic intentionally will weaken your credibility and annoy your au- dience. Using faulty logic unintentionally will indicate that you are not a critical thinker. If you include logical fallacies, which are fl aws in reasoning, or red her- rings, in which you use misleading evidence that serves only to distract your read- ers, you are not presenting an ethical text. That is, instead of writing to persuade, you are writing to mislead. See Chapter 14, pages 475 – 478 for more on avoiding logical fallacies.

A WRITER’S Responsibility |Establishing and Maintaining Credibility roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2483/30/10 7:21:58 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 249 Organizing Your Information ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments an argument, called the classical scheme, was ﬁ rst outlined by Aristotle nearly 2,400 years ago. If you are using the classical scheme, this is the sequence you will follow:

introduction ➞ main claim ➞ evidence supporting claim ➞ discussion of other perspectives (acknowledging, conceding, and/or refuting them) ➞ conclusion Aristotle’s approach is also called the deductive method because you state your claim and then help the reader understand, or deduce, how the evidence supports your claim. The advantage of this method is that you state your posi- tion and make your case early, before your reader starts thinking about other perspectives.

Another organizational approach is commonly known as the inductive method. When using this approach, you ﬁ rst present and explain all of your reasons and evidence, then draw your conclusion—your main claim. The ad- vantage is that your reader may come to the same conclusion before you ex- plicitly state your position and will therefore be more inclined to agree with your point of view.

Because persuasive writing must usually acknowledge and incorporate or refute opposing viewpoints, a third organizational method starts by present- ing the views of the other side. In this method, you ﬁ rst deal with objections to your claim and then state your position and provide reasons and evidence to support it. This is an especially effective strategy if the opposing view or views are widely held.

Here are three organizational structures that you might consider for your persuasive paper. See more on Aristotelian organization on page 461 in Chapter 14. Organizing a Persuasive Paper The Classical (Deductive) Approach The Inductive Approach The Refutation Approach Introduce the issue and state your thesis.

Explain the importance of the issue.

Present your reasons and evidence—why readers should agree with you.

Answer objections— either incorporating or refuting other points of view.

Conclude — often with a call to action.Introduce the issue.

Offer reasons and evidence for your claim.

Draw your conclusion—your main claim.

Deal with other viewpoints either before or after present- ing your claim.

Conclude — often with a call to action.Introduce the issue.

List opposing views.

Deal with each objection in turn.

Introduce your position and explain why it makes sense, of- fering reasons and evidence.

Conclude — often with a call to action.

Options FOR Organization roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2493/30/10 7:21:58 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 250 Constructing a Complete Draft Once you have chosen the best organizational approach for your audience and purpose, you are ready to construct your draft. After you have reviewed your invention writing and research notes, developed a working thesis, and care- fully considered all of the reasons and evidence you generated, construct a complete ﬁ rst draft.

As you work, keep the following in mind:

You may discover that you need to do more invention work and/or more • research as you write.

As you try out tentative claims and reasons, ask your classmates and • other readers about the kinds of supporting evidence they consider convincing.

Consider whether photographs or other visuals might help support your • thesis.

If you become tired and the quality of your thinking or your productiv- • ity is affected, take a break.

Synthesizing and Integrating Sources:

Incorporating Partial Quotes in Your Sentences Conducting research provides you with lots of quotations, which means you have to determine how to incorporate those quotations into your text. One way to use quotations, whether they come from someone you interviewed or from someone you read, is to incorporate what they said into your sentences.

Sometimes when writers use a quotation, the sequence is (1) who I spoke with and (2) what she or he told me:

I inter viewed Joy Watson and she said, “The recycling program is working.” Now, there is nothing wrong with that approach to using a quotation, but sometimes you want to integrate a quotation, or a part of quotation, into your sentences. The key to doing so is to select the most important part of the quo- tation and use that inside your sentence, which means you surround it with your own words. If you want to include an entire quotation in one of your sen- tences, be sure not only to introduce the quotation but also to follow up with your own words, after the quotation.

For instance, student writer Santi DeRosa quotes Joe Watson from an ar- ticle in the campus newspaper and then follows that quotation with a part of Watson’s comments within his own sentence, a piece of Watson’s quotation that DeRosa wanted to emphasize: For more on choosing visuals, see Chapter 18.

INTEGRATING SOURCES Including Others’ Perspectives in Narratives (p. 76) Quoting Sources (p. 118) Paraphrasing Sources (p. 164) Incorporating Numerical Data (p. 208) Incorporating Par tial Quotes (p. 250) Creating Charts or Graphs to Show Your Data (p. 295) Summarizing Information from Sources (p. 338) Including Research Information (p. 387) mhconnectcomposition.com Drafting and Revising QL8005 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2503/30/10 7:21:58 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 251 Constructing a Complete Draft ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments The people inter viewed for the ar ticle who suppor t the “hostess” program defend it by saying that “the recruiters per form respectable duties dur- ing high school recruits’ campus visits” (Watson 2). Does the responsibility of “per forming respectable duties” end when they leave the campus for a party? (paragraph 5) Here, student writer DeRosa ﬁ rst introduces a quotation in the traditional manner:

The people inter viewed for the ar ticle who suppor t the “hostess” program defend it by saying that “the recruiters per form respectable duties during high school recruits’ campus visits” (Watson 2).

He then goes on to use just a part of that quotation, a phrase he wants to em- phasize for readers, inside his next sentence:

Does the responsibility of “per forming respectable duties” end when they leave the campus for a par ty? (paragraph 5) Using only part of the quotation allows DeRosa to focus on a phrase that he thinks is important and that he wants the reader to pay special attention to.

For your own citing of quotations, remember the following:

1. Always introduce the quotation (never just put it into your text without some words of introduction).

2. Accurately report and document where the quotation came from.

If you want to use only part of a quotation, select the portion that is most im- portant to the point you are trying to make, and surround that text with your own words. Parts of a Complete Draft Introduction: Regardless of your organizational approach, you need to have a strong introduction to capture your readers’ attention and introduce the issue.

To accomplish these two goals in an introduction, you might do one or more of the following:

Share an anecdote that clearly exempliﬁ es the issue. • Maureen Dowd begins her column on organ donation (page 233) with the story of her niece’s bravery in choosing to donate part of her liver to her uncle.

Provide a brief history of the issue. • Provide a fact or statistic about the issue that will surprise—and • possibly concern—readers. We probably all would agree that young mhconnectcomposition.com Introductory paragraph overview QL8006 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2513/30/10 7:21:58 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 252 girls between ages 9 and 12 should not wear inappropriate costumes, so we might be shocked to read that Emrich’s research shows that . . .” this is precisely the age that you start seeing the ‘slut-o-ween’ costumes emerge.” Explain (brieﬂ y) why your persuasive text is important. • Ask an intriguing question about your subject. • Student writer Santi DeRosa opens his paper (page 259) by asking a key question:

Are women at the university being treated as objects by the ver y university that has a responsibility to treat them with equality and dignity and not as second-class citizens?

Body: You can use various writing strategies, including deﬁ ning all terms your reader might not understand within the body of your text, to effectively persuade your reader. This is the area of your paper where you will provide supporting examples or evidence for each reason you offer, use visual aids (photographs, charts, tables) to support your position, and use rhetorical ap- peals—ethos, logos, pathos (page 20)—to help convince your readers.

Conclusion: In your conclusion, you need to restate or allude to your thesis and let your readers know what you would like them to do with the informa- tion they learned from your essay. Conclusions in persuasive writing often do the following:

Explain your main thesis or point—what you want to persuade your • reader about.

Summarize how each supporting point adds evidence to support • your main point. In a long, involved argument, a summary can help readers recall the main points that you are making.

Reach out to the audience. • Include a “call to action.” • Maureen Dowd ends “Our Own Warrior Princess” with a description of herself ﬁ lling out an organ donor card and the strong implication that readers should do so as well.

Title: As you compose your persuasive writing, a title should emerge at some point—perhaps late in the process. The title should reﬂ ect the point you are trying to make, and it should catch your readers’ attention and make them want to read your essay. It may be risky to state your major claim in the title:

If you state a controversial claim in your title, you run the risk that some read- ers will choose not to read your argument. However, there are times when stat- ing a bold claim in the title is appropriate— especially if readers may not have even considered the topic. For more on rhetorical appeals and argument strategies, see Chapter 14.

mhconnectcomposition.com Concluding paragraph overview QL8007 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2523/30/10 7:21:58 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 253 Constructing a Complete Draft ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments If you were writing in response to Scenario 1, which asks you to focus on a con- troversial issue, you might choose to write about global warming. You could use charts and graphs to convince your reader, as they can provide useful information.

This chart shows the global variation in temperatures from 1860 to 2000:

If you were to combine this chart with the following information from the same source, you would be providing your reader with a useful chart along with some specifi c data to explain it. The temperature values in the data set are provided as differences from a mean of 15 degrees C. These data have been analyzed by scientists to show a 0.5 degree C increase in global temperatures. However, this fi nding is under dispute because some claim that the amount of error in the data is too large to justify the conclu- sion. This data set has been created using the following steps:

Data were collected from land based stations, from ocean buoys, and from • ships.

For each year, data have been averaged to come up with a yearly average. • Data are smoothed to accommodate historical changes that skew the data • (e.g., weather stations near cities record artifi cially high temperatures be- cause [cities] create what is called an “urban heat island effect”).

The purpose of using visuals in your essays is to help support the point you are trying to make in your text in a way that will help readers not only understand but also be convinced by your argument. VISUALIZING Va r i a t i o n s |Using Charts and Other Visuals to Support Your Claim 2000 1980 1960 1940 1920 1900 1880 1860 1840 Years – 0.6 – 0.4 – 0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Temperature difference ( °C ) roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2533/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 254 Santi DeRosa’s First Draft In this brief draft, note how Santi DeRosa incorporates information and exam- ples from his life, as well as from outside sources. As he wrote, DeRosa did not worry about grammar, punctuation, and mechanics; instead, he concentrated on getting his main ideas on paper.

The Objectiﬁ cation of Woman. Who’s Fault Is it?

Santi DeRosa Are women being objectiﬁ ed by a university that has a responsibility to treat women with equality and not as second class citizens?

I say yes. All you need to do is look at the athletics depar tment to see the way women are treated. What I don’t understand is that in the year 2003, women are still allowing themselves to be used in such a way In the past week I have read a couple of news ar ticles from the campus newspaper that got me a little perplexed. Maybe it’s the fact that I have a son the age of the female students in the ar ticles. Or, maybe it’s the fact that I have a wife, a sister, a mother and nieces that I respect as people and as women. The ar ticles upset my sense of right and wrong.

Joe Watson wrote the ﬁ rst ar ticle, “Risky behavior not policed in univer- sity recruiting” and explains how high school football players that visit the university for the purpose of being recruited are met by coeds, of which, thirty-ﬁ ve of the thir ty-seven are females. Is this just a coincidence? No, I don’t think so. It is no coincidence when schools from all over the countr y use the same practices to recruit high school players. The repor ter took an informal sur vey of 117 Division 1-A football programs nationwide and found many with the same recruiter make-up. Louisiana State has 55 females; Ala- bama leads the way with 100 females. The university adver tises ever y spring for new recruiters. Most come from sororities. The football coaches say they prefer using females because that’s the way the other schools do it and the players coming to campus to be recruited would be uncomfor table if they were greeted by males, because they are used to female recruiters. I think that this is just an excuse to turn a blind eye to a potential problem. Most Writing Activity Constructing a Complete Draft U sing the writing you did when selecting an organizational ap- proach for your persuasive paper, write a complete ﬁ rst draft of you r pap er. Rememb er t hat you r a rg u ment w i l l evolve a s you w r ite, so your ideas will most likely change as you draft. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2543/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 255 Revising ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments of the players who come to be recruited are 17 and l8 years old. There have been many repor ts of under-age drinking at local clubs and par ties and sometimes sex according to some senior recruiters. The people inter viewed for the ar ticle who are in suppor t of the “hostess” program defend it by saying that “the recruiters per form respectable duties during high school recruits’ campus visits.” Does the responsibility of “per forming respectable duties” end when they leave the campus for a par ty? I believe that Becky Stoltz, a four th year recruiter said it best when inter viewed, “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.” The second news ar ticle I read was by Megan Rudebeck. The stor y titled “’Hot’ recruiters draw prospects” seems to be defending the program. Ms.

Rudebeck not only talked to the coaches that run the program; she spoke with recruiters and players as well. She almost had me convinced that I might have been over reacting. I star ted to think that here is a woman writing a stor y that seems to be in defense of the way the recruiting program works.

Maybe I am reacting wrongly. That is until the last line of the stor y when she quotes Zach Krula, a freshman offensive lineman. Zach says, “We’ve got a lot of hot girls, we might as well utilize them.” After a few minutes I star ted to think to myself, why isn’t Ms. Rudebeck insulted by that comment? Is she, as well as the women that are par t of the program, so brain-washed with the need to get quality players into the football program that they are willing to overlook the fact that they are being “utilized.” As ideas for further development, Santi made these notes at the end of his ini- tial draft:

Shor t histor y of women’s struggle for equality.

Use family stories to tell histor y of strong women?

Deﬁ ne the objectiﬁ cation of women.

Conclusion.

Revising Once you have a full draft of your persuasive text, you still have much to do.

First, however, you should set the draft aside so that you can gain some critical distance. You can then read it with fresh eyes. When you approach your work this way, you will ﬁ nd it easier to notice reasons that are irrelevant, evidence that is not fully developed, or places where a compelling visual might add to the impact of your argument.

As you work to revise your early drafts, do not be concerned about doing a great deal of heavy editing. When you revise, you will probably change the con- tent and structure of your paper, so time spent ﬁ xing problems with sentence style or grammar, punctuation, or mechanics at this stage is often wasted. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2553/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 256 When you reread the ﬁ rst draft of your persuasive writing, here are some questions to ask yourself:

How clearly and persuasively am I making my point? Am I sure my read- • ers can understand it? How easily will they be able to restate the thesis?

How effectively does all of my evidence support that main point? (Some- • times it is easy to include evidence that seems persuasive but that does not support the point you are arguing for.) Are there other photographs, charts, or graphs that might help make my • point?

Are there parts of my paper that might confuse a reader? If so, how might • I clarify them?

Do I restate or allude to my main point at the end of my paper and also • explain to the reader what I would like him or her to do (to vote, to write a letter to the editor, to do what I have been arguing for)?

Technology can help you revise and edit your writing more easily. Use your word processor’s track-changes tool to try out revisions and editing changes.

After you have had time to think about the possible changes, you can “accept” or “reject” them. Also, you can use your word processor’s comment tool to write reminders to yourself when you get stuck with a revision or some editing task.

Because it is so difﬁ cult even for experienced writers to see their emerging writing with a fresh eye, it is almost always useful to ask classmates, friends, or family members to read and comment on drafts of your persuasive writing.

Working with one or two classmates, read each paper, and offer comments and questions that will help each of you see your papers’ strengths and weak- nesses. Consider the following questions as you do:

What is your fi rst impression of this • draft? How effective is the title at drawing you in? Why? What are your overall suggestions for im- provement? What part(s) of the text are especially persuasive?

What reasons could use more sup- port? Indicate what you like about the draft, and provide positive and encouraging feedback to the writer.

How tight is the writer’s focus? • Does the paper wander a bit? If so, where?

How effective is the introduction? • What suggestions can you make to improve it?

What is the author’s thesis or main • claim? How could it be expressed or supported more effectively?

Are there parts that are confus- • ing? Where would you like more details or examples to help clarify the writer’s meaning?

WRITER’S Wo rk sh o p |Responding to Full Drafts roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2563/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 257 Revising ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Notes on Santi DeRosa’s First Draft, from a Conference with His Instructor After writing his ﬁ rst draft, DeRosa met with his instructor, who thought his topic was promising but indicated that he needed more support on recruit- ing practices at his school and at other campuses. Together they brainstormed more ideas to develop his paper in more depth. The practice of using female students to help recruit male athletes led to these objections, which are more completely developed in DeRosa’s ﬁ nal draft (see pages 259–263):

1. Using women for their bodies 2. Manipulation 3. A program that reinforces age-old notions of exploitation 4. Limits and deﬁ nes women’s roles 5. Under the guise of school spirit 6. Better add some more extensive research info Responding to Readers’ Comments Once they have received feedback on their writing from peers, instructors, friends, and others, all writers have to ﬁ gure out what to do with that feedback.

(continued) How accurate and appropriate is • the supporting evidence? How clearly does the author indicate the sources of statistics and other supporting evidence?

Might visuals such as charts, tables, • photographs, or cartoons make the text more convincing?

How clearly and effectively does • the writer present any opposing points of view? How effectively does the writer answer opposing viewpoints? How might the writer acknowledge, concede, and/or re- fute them more effectively?How well has the writer demon- • strated an awareness of readers’ knowledge, needs, and/or expec- tations? How might the writer demonstrate greater awareness?

How carefully has the writer • avoided logical fallacies?

What could be added or changed • to the conclusion to make it more effective? How well does it tie everything together? If action is called for, to what extent does it make you want to take action? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2573/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 258 The ﬁ rst thing to do with any feedback is to consider carefully what your readers have said about your text. In his case, DeRosa arranged a conference with his writing teacher, who helped him brainstorm some speciﬁ c objections to the recruiting program at his school to give his argument more depth.

As with all feedback, it is important to really listen to it and consider what your reader has to say. Then it is up to you, as the author, to decide how to come to terms with these suggestions. You may decide to reject some com- ments, of course; other comments, though, deserve your attention, as they are the words of real readers speaking to you about how to improve your text. It is especially important to deal with comments from readers indicating that they are unconvinced by your argument. You sometimes may ﬁ nd that comments from more than one reader contradict each other. In that case, you need to use your own judgment to decide which reader’s comments are on the right track.

In the ﬁ nal version of his paper, you can see how Santi DeRosa responded to his instructor’s comments, as well as to his own review of his ﬁ rst draft. Knowledge of Conventions When effective writers edit their work, they attend to the conventions that will help readers process their work. These include genre conventions, documenta- tion, format, usage, grammar, and mechanics. By attending to these conventions in your writing, you make reading a more pleasant experience for readers. Editing The last task in any writing project is editing—the ﬁ nal polishing of your doc- ument. When you edit and polish your writing, you make changes to your sentence structures and word choices to improve your style and to make your writing clearer and more concise. You also check your work to make sure it ad- heres to conventions of grammar, usage, punctuation, mechanics, and spelling.

Use the spell-check function of your word-processing program, but be sure to double-check your spelling personally. If you have used sources in your paper, make sure you are following the documentation style your instructor requires.

As with overall revision of your work, this ﬁ nal editing and polishing is most effective if you can put your text aside for a few days and come back to it with fresh eyes. Because checking conventions is easier said than done, though, we strongly recommend that you ask classmates, friends, and tutors to read your work as well.

To assist you with editing, we offer here a round-robin editing activity fo- cused on citing sources correctly. See Chapter 20 for more on documenting sources using MLA or APA style.

mhconnectcomposition.com Revising and Editing over view (also Drafting) QL8008 mhconnectcomposition.com Using commas with nonrestrictive words or word groups QL8010 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2583/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 259 Genres, Documentation, and Format ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Genres, Documentation, and Format If you are writing an academic paper in response to Scenario 1, you will need to follow the conventions for the discipline in which you are writing and the requirements of your instructor. If you are writing an editorial for your college newspaper (Scenario 2), you should check the newspaper’s editorial page or its Web site to see what the requirements are for length and format and what in- formation you need to include when you submit the editorial. A Writer Shares His Persuasive Writing:

Santi DeRosa’s Final Draft Santi DeRosa continued to revise and edit his paper, and constructed a ﬁ nished draft, which follows. As you read the essay, think about what makes it effec- tive. Following the essay, you’ll ﬁ nd some speciﬁ c questions to consider.

Working in small groups, look over both the in-text citations and the works-cited or references lists in your papers. For example, you might notice a problem with an in -tex t cit ation that is supposed to be in MLA style, such as this one: In the last line of the story, however, Rudebeck quotes Zach Krula, a fresh- man offensive lineman. Zach says, “We’ve got a lot of hot girls, we might as well utilize them” (Rudebeck 1). In MLA style, it is not necessary to include the source’s name in parentheses if the name has been given within the text.

A s you work with your p e er s , con sult Chapter 20 of this text, which provides guidelines for using MLA or APA style when citing sources. WRITER’S Wo rk sh o p |Round-Robin Editing with a Focus on Citing Sources SANTI DEROSA The Objectifi cation of Women: Whose Fault Is It?

A re women being treated as objects by the ver y university that has a responsibility to treat them with equality and dignity and not as second-class citizens? All anyone needs to do is look at the athletics de- partment to see the way women are treated here. What I don’t understand is why in the year 2003 women are still allowing themselves to be used in such a way. 1 ROUND-ROBIN EDITING WITH A FOCUS ON Punctuating Dialogue (p. 82) Fragments (p. 126) Modifi ers (p. 172) Wordiness (p. 216) Citing Sources (p. 259) Careful Word Choice (p. 303) Subordinate Clauses (p. 347) Inclusive Language (p. 395) PERSUASIVE ESSAY mhconnectcomposition.com ML A Style: QL20006, QL20007 APA Style: QL20008, QL20009 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2593/30/10 7:21:59 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 260 In the past week I have read two news articles in the campus news- paper about recruiting practices that made me a little perplexed. Maybe it’s because I have a son the age of the female students in the articles, or maybe it’s because I have a wife, a sister, a mother, and nieces whom I re- spect as people and as women, but these articles upset my sense of right and wrong. Objectifi cat ion of women, sexual or ot her w ise, should never be allowed or condoned.

In the fi rst article I read, “Risky Behavior Not Policed in Recruiting,” reporter Joe Watson explains how high school football players who visit campus for the purpose of being recruited are met by coeds. Thirty-fi ve of thirty-seven student recruiters are females. Is this just a coincidence? I don’t think so. Schools from all over the countr y use the same practices to recruit high school players. Watson conducted an informal survey of 117 Division 1-A football programs nationwide and found many with similar proportions of female to male recruiters. Louisiana State has 55 females; Alabama leads the way with 100 females (1).

As Watson reports, the university advertises ever y spring for new re- cruiters. Most come from soror ities. The football coaches say they prefer using women because that’s the way the other schools do it. They maintain that the players coming to campus to be recruited would be uncomfortable if they were greeted by men because they are used to female recruiters.

This just ifi cation is just an excuse to ignore a potential problem. Most of the players who come to campus to be recruited are 17 and 18 years old.

There have been many reports of under-age drinking at local clubs and parties and sometimes sex, according to some senior recruiters. The people inter viewed for the article who support the “ hostess” program defend it by saying that “the recruiters perform respectable duties during high school recruits’ campus visits” (Watson 2). Does the responsibility of “performing respectable duties” end when they leave the campus for a party? I believe that Becky Stoltz, a fourth-year recruiter who was inter viewed for the ar- ticle said it best: “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.” Big problems have in fact already happened at the University of Colorado, where a recruiting aide was indicted for improper conduct after a three-month grand-jur y investigation of illegal recruiting practices, including allegations of sexual assault (Lambert).

Over the last hundred years, women have traveled a rocky road to greater equality. At the turn of the twentieth centur y women didn’t have many of the r ights we take for granted today, such as the r ight to own property and the right to vote. By staying strong, working together, and maintaining their dignity, women eventually gained these r ights for them- selves and their daughters and granddaughters.

In my own family, my grandmother and great-grandmother took care of their family in Italy while my grandfather came to America to set up a 2 3 4 5 6 7 DeRosa and his in- structor brainstormed a number of objec- tions to the recruiting practices for him to develop in his revised draft, including this one:

I need to develop the idea that these practices use women for their bodies.

Note how DeRosa de- velops this objection.

Here DeRosa para- phrases a newspaper article.

DeRosa and his instructor also came up with the following objection for him to develop:

The program reinforces age- old notions of prostitution.

Note how he adds details and specifi c examples to support this part of his per- suasive text. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2603/30/10 7:22:00 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 261 Genres, Documentation, and Format ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments decent life for them. My grandmother held things together for six years until her husband was able to go back and get her. Although she did not have the same rights as a man of that time, she never gave up hope and never lost her pride. In this countr y she worked as a seamstress, as so many Italian women did, in order to help the family make it through bad times and to provide a better life for her children. My mother also worked a full-time job as a seamstress in a factor y while taking care of her home and family, as women did in the 1950s and 1960s. However, women of that time were being taken for granted, and their roles had to change. Women wanted more, and through their strength of conviction, they got it—more equitable pay for their work. However, over the last forty years, the great strides women have made have been somewhat squandered. Women have made impressive gains in their professional lives, but they have also come to be seen, more and more, as objects.

The objectifi cation of women in popular culture and sports is not new.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the advertising industr y started to portray women in roles outside the kitchen, but it also created a perspective on women that objectifi ed them. To consider women in terms of the way they look is object ifi cation. Examples of this are common: (1) Female newscast- ers chosen for their appearance, (2) the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders—and cheerleading squads for other teams, and (3) beautiful women appear ing in advertisements for beer and automobiles.

Amanda Bonzo, in an opinion piece in the online journal The Digital Collegian, wr ites the following about this process of objectifi cation:

In our society, a woman’s body is objectifi ed daily on television, music videos, advertisements. What do we do with objects? We buy, sell, trade them. . . . We tame them through rape and do- mestic abuse. Finally, we destroy them.

And Casey Jacketta, writing for the University of New Mexico’s Daily Lobo, notes the following:

I was pleased that my favor ite show, “Law and Order,” was on.

Then, as I kept watching, I realized that the assistant district at- torney, played by Angie Harmon—a woman— didn’t say a word in court. This troubled me, so I changed the channel to MT V.

This upset me even more! All I saw was a bunch of barely clothed women shaking their bodies for the male singer’s pleasure. (1) We see what these writers are talking about daily in advertising and in other media such as television, movies, and music. It is unfortunate that the sexual objectifi cation of women sells products, and unless women un- derstand that advertisers, fi lmmakers, college athletic departments, and others are taking advantage of them, this exploitation will never change. 8 9 10 11 DeRosa effectively uses quotations to help make his point. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2613/30/10 7:22:00 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 262 Barbara Fredr ickson and her colleagues explain that this process causes women to start to view themselves the way others view them; as a con- sequence, “[a] woman views her own body as an object (or each piece as a separate object)” (274).

Objectifi cation is often disguised as free speech and free expression, which are both noble principles, although they are often misused. What I don’t understand is how any woman would allow herself to be used in this way. In the case of recruiters, objectifi cation is disguised as school spirit.

In the second news article I read, “’Hot’ Recruiters Draw Prospects,” Megan Rudebeck seems to be defending the program. Ms. Rudebeck not only talked to the coaches that run the program; she spoke with recruiters and players as well. She almost had me convinced that I might be over- reacting. After all, here is a woman who is defending the way the recruit- ing program works. In the last line of the stor y, however, Rudebeck quotes Zach Krula, a freshman offensive lineman. Zach says, “We’ve got a lot of hot girls, we might as well utilize them” (1). That quotation made me won- der why Ms. Rudebeck wasn’t insulted by that comment. Is she, as well as the women who are part of the program, so brainwashed by the need to get quality players onto the football team that they are willing to overlook the fact that they are being “utilize[d]”?

The use of women as sexual objects in mass media advertising, televi- sion, and music has made the practice so commonplace that we fail to see that it degrades our society. It amazes me that the women of the recruiting staff have not made the connection. It amazes me that Ms. Rudebeck and the coaching staff say they don’t see what’s going on, and that students, fac- ulty, the alumni, and the administration buy into this degrading and poten- tially dangerous practice. I hope that a copy of Joe Watson’s article makes it into the hands of each of the recruiter’s parents and the Board of Regents.

This practice is an insult to the women of the university, as well as to ev- er y woman in the last centur y who has sacrifi ced in order to achieve social equality. Works Cited Bonzo, Amanda. Letter. The Digital Collegian. 20 Nov. 2000. Web. 4 Feb. 2003 .

Fredrickson, Barbara L., Tomi-Ann Roberts, Stephanie M. Noll, Diane M.

Quinn, and Jean M. Twenge. “That Swimsuit Becomes You: Sex Dif- ferences in Self-Objectifi cation, Restrained Eating, and Math Perfor- mance.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75 (1998): 269 –84.

Print. 12 13 14 DeRosa also needed to develop this objec- tion to the recruiting program:

It operates under the guise of school spirit.

He added information from another article (by Megan Rudebeck) that puts a positive spin on the practice DeRosa is criticizing and provides a de- fense of the program; he then refutes Rude- beck’s argument.

This paper follows ML A guidelines for in-text citations and works cited. roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2623/30/10 7:22:01 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 263 Genres, Documentation, and Format ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Jacketta, Casey. “Women’s Lib Has Not Ended Objectifi cation.” Daily Lobo.

25 Nov. 2002. Web. 3 Feb. 2003 .

Lambert, Liz. “Maxcey Indicted in CU Grand Jur y Probe.” Web. 6 Sept. 2004 .

Rudebeck, Megan. “‘Hot’ Recruiters Draw Prospects.” The State Press Web.

18 Oct. 2002: 1–2. 3 Feb. 2003

cfm?include=detail&stor yid= 300645> Watson, Joe. “Risky Behavior Not Policed in Football Recruiting.” The State Press. 9 Dec. 2002: 1–2. Web. 3 Feb. 2003

com/main.cfm?include=detail&stor yid= 339775>.

QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION Rhetorical Knowledge: The Writer’s Situation and Rhetoric 1. Audience: What audience does DeRosa have in mind for this essay? How can you tell?

2. Purpose: What purpose(s) does DeRosa have for writing this essay? How well does he achieve his purpose(s)?

3. Voice and tone: How does DeRosa’s voice and tone help to establish his ethos? Is his tone appropriate? Why or why not?

4. Responsibility: How effectively does DeRosa represent opposing views on the issue of using female students as recruiters? In what ways, if any, could he represent their views more fairly?

5. Context, format, and genre: DeRosa is writ- ing as a student but also as a husband and fa- ther. How does this context affect his use of language, appeals, and evidence? DeRosa has written an academic essay that argues for a speciﬁ c change. The markers of this genre are that the writer must convince the readers that a problem exists and then must convince them that the proposed solution is a good one.

Does DeRosa convince you that a problem ex- ists? Do you think his solution is a good one? Critical Thinking: The Writer’s Ideas and Your Personal Response 6. To what extent does DeRosa’s text appeal to your emotions? In what way(s)?

7. What is DeRosa’s main point, or claim? To what extent do you agree with it? Why?

Composing Processes and Knowledge of Conventions: The Writer’s Strategies 8. How convincing is the evidence DeRosa sup- plies? What other evidence might he have used?

9. What organizational method does DeRosa use? How effective is it? What other method(s) might he have used?

Inquiry and Research: Ideas for Further Exploration 10. Conduct a search (at your school library or on the Web), focusing on the events that DeRosa describes in his family history (paragraph 7).

What similarities can you ﬁ nd to the family story that DeRosa relates in his text? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2633/30/10 7:22:02 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments ■ 8 | Writing to Convince 264 Self-Assessment: Refl ecting on Your Goals Now that you have constructed a piece of writing designed to convince your readers, review your learning goals, which you and your classmates may have c on side r e d at t he b eg i n n i n g of t h i s c h ap te r ( p age s 2 2 4 – 2 2 5). T he n r e ﬂ ect on all the thinking and writing that you have done in constructing your persuasive paper. To help reﬂ ect on the learning goals that you have achieved, respond in writing to the following questions: Rhetorical Knowledge Audience: • What have you learned about addressing an audience in per- suasive writing?

Purpose: • What have you learned about the purposes for constructing an effective persuasive text?

Rhetorical situation: • How did the writing context affect your persuasive text?

Voice and tone: • How would you describe your voice in this essay? Your tone? How do they contribute to the effectiveness of your persuasive essay?

Context, medium, and genre: • How did your context determine the medium and genre you chose, and how did those decisions affect your writing?

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing Learning/inquiry: • How did you decide what to focus on for your persua- sive text? Describe the process you went through to focus on a main idea, or thesis.

Responsibilit y: • How did you fulﬁ ll your responsibilities to your readers?

Reading and research: • What did you learn about persuasive writing from the reading selections in this chapter? What research did you conduct?

How sufﬁ cient was the research you did?

Skills: • As a result of writing this paper, how have you become a more critical thinker, reader, and writer? What skills do you hope to develop further? roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2643/30/10 7:22:02 AM Roen Glau Maid: The McGraw Hill Guide:

Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/eIII. Using What You’ve Learned to Write Arguments8. Writing to Convince © The McGraw Hill Companies, 2011 265 Self-Assessment: Refl ecting on Your Goals ■ PA R T 3 | Using What You Have Learned to Write Arguments Writing Processes Invention: • What invention strategies were most useful to you?

Organizing your ideas and details: • What organizational approach did you use? How successful was it?

Revising: • What one revision did you make that you are most satisﬁ ed with? If you could go back and make an additional revision, what would it be?

Working with peers: • How did your instructor and peer readers help you by making comments and suggestions about your writing? List some examples of how you revised your text based on comments from your instructor and your peer readers. How could you have made better use of the comments and suggestions you received? How could your peer read- ers help you more on your next assignment? How might you help them more, in the future, with the comments and suggestions you make on their texts?

Visuals: • Did you use photographs, charts, graphs, or other visuals to help you convince your readers? If so, what did you learn about incorporating these elements?

Writing habits: • What “writerly habits” have you developed, modiﬁ ed, or improved on as you constructed the writing assignment for this chapter?

How will you change your future writing activities based on what you have learned about yourself?

Knowledge of Conventions Editing: • What sentence problem did you ﬁ nd most frequently in your writing? How will you avoid that problem in future assignments?

Genre: • What conventions of the genre you were using, if any, gave you problems?

Documentation: • Did you use sources for your paper? If so, what documen- tation style did you use? What problems, if any, did you have with it?

If you are constructing a course portfolio, ﬁ le your written reﬂ ections so that you can return to them when you next work on your portfolio. Refer to Chapter 1 (pages 11–12) for a sample reﬂ ection by a student. mhconnectcomposition.com Santi DeRosa Refl ects on His Writing QL8009 roe8397x_Ch08pp222-265.indd 2653/30/10 7:22:02 AM