Rhetorical Strategies

Most of your ability to write comes from READING and actually writing in contexts. At least that is what I believe. Your writing experience this semester is intended to give you an opportunity to explore issues and respond to them in a variety of ways. You need to consider what context you are writing in and what purpose whatever you write is to serve. I can't give you any set of rules which will make you able to simply write well. Writing well means achieving your purposes, meeting expectations, persuading your audience, etc. Your purpose may be to save the world; I can't possibly give you the "rules" for writing to this end (if I could, I would have done it already!).

However, there are some "strategies" and considerations which have proven helpful to other writers. You can see these strategies at work in most of the things you read (or hear, or "see"). Therefore, I am providing strategies throughout the semester which will help you to more critically understand what you read AND what you write.

Please do not consider these strategies as hard and fast rules. Think of them as places to start. Sometimes, throwing these strategies to the four winds is the most effective strategy. But, generally, understanding these "rhetorical" aspects of communicating help you to approach writing and reading more effectively and make decisions about what "rules" you want to flout.

Summary

Definition Argument suggestions

Audience? What do you mean by audience?

Persuasion. I'm right and your wrong?

Proposal Arguments

Service Learning, What is it?

Synthesis of Sources

Sources information

Group Collaboration

Research Papers

last updated March 25, 1997