academic writing

ACADEMIC WRITING Using Academic Language In what ways have you fulfilled the assignment requirements as they relate to audience, appropriate persona/tone, and rhetorical stance? Why is this word choice/diction inappropriate (conversational) for your audience? What might be more appropriate? For students and teachers alike, most writing occurs in non-academic settings—notes, e-mails, Facebook posts, blogs, shopping lists, etc In these writing settings, it is perfectly fine to “write as you speak,” using a conversational tone and slang terms However, when you enter the classroom (and the professional workspace), writing expectations change These changes in expectation and acceptability occur because the topic or subject of academic writing is more complex than what we write about in our day-to-day writing settings—not because scholars and professionals say so or because they want to sound “snobby” or superior Also, there is a shift in audience and level of audience interaction Basically, college-level and professional writing require clarity both in grammar and word choice so that complex ideas can be easily understood by the reader Grammatical differences in writing and speaking Using conversational language and informal tone—or, “writing as we speak” —in academic writing can be problematic because it can lead to unclear communication between writer and reader In conversations, we often speak in sentence fragments because we are reacting to the other person’s dialogue For example, when someone asks “How was your day?” we might answer, “Good.” However, “good” is not a complete sentence, because it has neither a noun (subject) nor a verb What we really mean to say is, “My day was good,” but because the question implies the subject (my day) and verb (was), our answer can still make sense without repeating these words back to the speaker However, in writing, the reader cannot necessarily infer the missing subjects and verbs insinuated by the writer In order for a writer’s ideas to be understood, he or she must include a subject and verb in each sentence and not assume that a reader will infer the correct meaning without these words We also tend to use run-ons frequently in our conversations, but they usually go unnoticed For example, a friend was explaining to me a trip she took to Disney World in which she used several run-ons: We took the kids to see “The Country Bear" show and on the “It’s a Small World" ride, which Cole absolutely loved and couldn’t stop singing the song the rest of the day, and then we took them on “The Haunted House” ride which was a huge mistake because Noah started screaming and yelling and Cole started crying while we were strapped in the moving seats so we couldn’t get off and now the past few nights he’s been having nightmares about the ghost who follows you home Run-ons are problematic because they create confusion We can, to some degree, follow the story about my friend’s trip to Disney World in this really long run-on sentence, but some of the details are muddled: Which song was Cole singing? Who is having nightmares—Noah or Cole? What is “the ghost who follows you home"? When we have conversations, we don’t notice run-ons, and if a detail isn’t clearly communicated, the listener has the opportunity to ask for clarification However, someone who is reading a text message cannot simply ask for clarification from the author Many of us have visited Disney World, so we may be able to piece together what my friend meant, but it would be very difficult to understand a story about a foreign country we had never visited if it had been recounted in the that way Communicating clearly using academic language and word choice Clarity is especially important in academic and professional writing because in these settings we usually are asked to write about more complex subjects that may be unfamiliar to the reader When my students adopt the method of “write as you speak,” their papers usually become confusing and their explanations are difficult to follow because of both grammatical errors and word choice Correcting grammatical errors that occur in speech is a bit easier than identifying problematic language The rules of grammar are much more concrete than rules about word choice, which are virtually non-existent So, if there is no official guide to choosing acceptable words, how we know when and what colloquial terms—and when colloquial terms— are unacceptable? One way to decide what word to use is to think about words in terms of audience The issue with colloquial diction is that it is not inclusive of all audiences Certain terms and words are only familiar to specific generations or groups For example, my roommate used to play an online game called "World of Warcraft." One day we were playing tennis together, and after hitting the game-winning shot, she exclaimed, “I totally pwned you!” I later found out that pwn is a verb used by people in the gaming community that means “to dominate, conquer, or gain ownership of.” Because I had never played World of Warcraft, the meaning of my friend’s celebratory exclamation was lost to me A barrier in communication also occurs between generations, especially now that technology has influenced us to use abbreviations and create terms such as LOL in order to save time I can assure you that if my grandmother were to read some of my friends’ Facebook posts, she would think that they were speaking a foreign language My grandmother, then, is not considered a member of the intended audience of my friends’ Facebook posts Obviously, we can eliminate Web and text language from our academic writing However, there are several other colloquial terms that are more well-known but are still questionable So how we know what terms are unacceptable and why? Keeping in mind that in academic writing we want to be as clear and direct as possible, we can decide against using several of these terms by analyzing if their meaning would be clearly understood by audiences of all groups and generations For example, several of my students used the phrase “name dropping” in their papers when analyzing one of President Obama’s speeches While most people have heard the phrase or can infer its intended meaning, it is still rather ambiguous and problematic When I hear the phrase “name dropping,” I don’t simply think of people mentioning authoritative figures; I think about people who like to talk about their relationships or interactions with famous or important individuals for no purpose other than to brag President Obama, however, doesn’t mention names simply to feel important Instead, he establishes his credibility to his audience by referencing people who are knowledgeable about an issue Students know why President Obama mentions certain people’s names and professions, but their use of the term “name dropping” may confuse readers who have different associations with the word In order to avoid these misconceptions, it is best to replace all colloquial terms— which are often ambiguous—with direct and clear language Colloquial diction as part of the writing process and final product The assignments you complete in English composition courses will prompt you to carefully identify your chosen audience and write clearly with that particular audienceem in mind The choices and changes you make in your writing indicate that you are becoming a more aware writer This means that you understand who you are writing for, that you know what is appropriate for your this audience, and that you have made a deliberate effort to adjust your writing accordingly When evaluating your papers and projects, instructors read carefully, looking at your sentence structure, voice, tone, and word choice to determine whether or not you have been a rhetorically aware writer Yet knowing how to make these rhetorical choices does not occur naturally for most of us Instead, the writing process can help all writers continually think about their audience by providing them with opportunities to make changes during each stage of the drafting process During phases of revision is also the best time to identify and replace colloquial diction in order to better clarify writing Academic writing often should appeal to a broad audience and always should be as clear and direct as possible As discussed above, it is best to eliminate any and all uses of colloquial diction in order to achieve clarity in your writing However, many of students find it difficult to write using academic language when they are simultaneously trying to organize their thoughts and to think critically about the assigned topic Since we don’t speak or even think in academic language, shifting from conversational language to more formal language can be extremely difficult This task may seem less daunting if we approach it as a process of change, including several steps rather than a single giant leap In the initial draft of a paper, using colloquial language is acceptable because it may be easier to understand and organize your thoughts During successive drafts, you can then revise sentences in order to eliminate colloquialisms, thereby reaching a broader audience Eventually, with practice, writing clearly and directly will come more naturally to you Describing Enable readers to visualize your message by appealing to the five senses and using specific details Description is an important feature of all writing genres Writers use description to support arguments and illustrate concepts and theories They try to invoke mental pictures of a place so readers can imagine it in their minds Occasionally writers organize an entire document according to a topic's physical characteristics Frequently, however, description plays a part in an essay that has a broader purpose.For example, an engineer conducting an analysis of a bridge might organize a section of his report by describing what the bridge looks like, identifying its type, daily load, or year built A doctor might describe a patient's physical characteristics, perhaps noting her weight, height, and family history A teacher describing a class might mention the class title, course content, number of students, and semester Three Tips for Creating Descriptive Writing Writers create and organize vivid, descriptive documents by: o Appealing to the five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing) Providing specific details Comparing the topic to other topics using similes and metaphors A simile is a comparison of topics using like or as: "She used her intelligence like a sword, cutting through dense concepts like a knife cuts through butter" o A metaphor is a comparison of two different things by likening them to each other, but without using the words like or as A metaphor can be an entire story or a part of speech or phrase: "Education is a lifetime journey." Example Metaphoric Story (Author Unknown) The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar Of course, the sand filled up everything else 'Now,' said the professor, 'I want you to recognize that this is your life The rocks are the important things your family, your partner, your health, your children things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car The sand is everything else The small stuff If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks The same goes for your life If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that really matter Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness Play with your children Take time to get medical checkups Take your partner out dancing There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal Take care of the rocks first the things that really matter Set your priorities The rest is just sand.'" One very common complaint of writing teachers is that their students' essays are vague and underdeveloped As a result, teachers frequently ask students to write descriptive passages Narrating Organize according to time Reveal the logical or chronological steps one conducts to complete something or the cause-and-effect relationship between events Writers frequently use chronological order or reverse chronological order to organize a document Narratives, resumes, family histories, historical narratives, process reports these common genres typically employ a narrative order In college and your career, you will write two kinds of narratives: Chronological narratives Process narratives Chronological Narratives Chronological narratives follow chronological time For example, fiction writers often tell stories about people and events using dates, years, seasons, or even hours to define the progress of events Historians tell stories about key people Sociologists describe communities Some examples are found at the links listed: AlternaTime (online links to a variety of timelines, which are organized by the following categories: History and Cultures, Science and Technology, Arts and Literature, Popular Culture and Current Events) American Slave Narratives North American Slave Narratives First-person Narratives of the American South Process Narratives Process narratives explain how to something or explain how something works Process narratives are extremely common in many professional careers, including most engineering and scientific fields Number each step and substep in the process Substeps might be lettered alphabetically In some engineering and legal documents, each paragraph is numbered using the automatic numbering feature of most word processing tools For example: o Identify a common software application that you know well o Consider a feature of Microsoft Word.Make sure your teacher approves your topic o Work through the process once, taking notes of what important steps are involved, what substeps exist within each major steps Provide visual pictures of major steps in the process Be sure you follow the correct chronological order by actually conducting the process based on your instructions Be sure you define key terms and concepts Provide the background information your readers will need to understand the instructions Classifying Organize information into logical groups As with describing, narrating, defining, and comparing, classifying is a component of all writing genres Just as writers pause to describe ideas and events or define new concepts in most documents, they routinely classify information-that is, show or tell readers how information can be grouped into categories Occasionally, an entire document focuses on explaining a taxonomy that is, a scheme of classification Why Classify Information? To make knowledge, we routinely categorize information A biologist might refer to the periodic table A musician might speak about country music, new age music, jazz, or techno A movie critic might talk about suspense, thriller, drama, or comedic movies A religious studies professor might discuss Christian religions, Muslim sects, and Buddhist practices As a college student, you might talk about specific colleges' sports teams according to the divisions their teams play in Universities often subdivide areas of specialty according to the following categories: Natural sciences • Agriculture • Geology • Biology • Zoology Social sciences • Psychology • Political Science • Sociology • Anthropology • Social work Applied science • Biomedicine • Mathematics • Chemistry • Engineering • Physics Humanities • English literature • American studies • History • Interdisciplinary studies • Modern languages • Architecture • Art history Fine arts • Painting • Sculpture • Ceramics • Theater Comparing and Contrasting Define content by comparing and contrasting categories or classes of objects Comparing and contrasting issues can be a powerful way to organize and understand knowledge Typically, comparing and contrasting require you to define a class or category of objects and then define their similarities and differences Comparing and contrasting are very natural processes, a strategy we employ in our everyday lives to understand ideas and events We learn new ideas by comparing the new ideas with what we've learned in the past We understand differences between people and events by comparing new events and people to past people and events Comparisons are often conducted to prove that one concept or object is superior to another People selling a grant idea or business proposal or people marketing a product may compare and contrast one idea or product to another, advocating their position As consumers, we routinely compare and contrast For example, you could compare MP3 players by going to an online site and noting different brands, products, descriptions, prices, shipping costs, dealer rankings, and the states of the dealers You could compare used cars by noting their make/model, cost,Consumer Reports ranking, and availability Students are frequently asked to compare and contrast topics for essay examinations In fact, comparing and contrasting are extremely common academic exercises How to Effectively Compare and Contrast Information When comparing and contrasting, you can either chunk or sequence your analysis When you chunk you analysis, you first talk about Choice A, explicating whatever points you wish, and then discuss Choice B, elaborating as necessary For example, if you were comparing the Miami Hurricanes football team to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, you could have a paragraph or so about the Hurricanes and then move on to the Cornhuskers Alternatively, when sequencing, you flipflop your analysis, discussing one component of Choice A and Choice B, then another component of Choice A and Choice B, and so on For example, if you were arguing who would make a better president, George W Bush or Al Gore, you could discuss Bush and Gore's views on the environment, then their views on health care reform, taxation, and so on People seem to find texts that sequence information easier to follow than texts that chunk information, perhaps because each unit of analysis is compared tit for tat In other words, you don't need to hold in your memory what the writer said about Subject A, Topic while reading Subject B, Topics and Chunking Sequencing Choice A I Subject A A Topic Subject A B Topic Subject A C Topic II Subject B A Topic Subject B A Topic Subject B Choice B I Topic A B II Topic A B III Topic A B A Topic Employing Narrative in an Essay "Employing Narrative in an Essay" was written by Allison Wise Mark Twain once wrote, “Don’t say the old lady screamed—bring her on and let her scream.” What he was trying to convey is the power of storytelling, or narration, in a piece of writing Many times it is more effective to tell a story, to let the old lady scream, than to just state facts or state an argument—that is, to say the old lady screamed Narrative essays are essays that enable you to tell a story (or stories) to make a point A well-chosen and well-told story will capture and hold your readers’ attention, arousing their curiosity or sympathy, and making your ideas more thought-provoking and memorable A narrative essay is usually focused around a single event or person, and is often personal in nature A narrative essay is a writing occasion in which you will likely use “I.” But, a narrative does not necessarily have to be biographical; it could be a story about someone you know, or even an event from popular culture or history The important thing is that the story is compelling (if it’s not going to interest your reader, why would you tell it?) and that it makes some kind of point Remember, even though it is a narrative essay, it is still an essay Although a narrative essay is not a traditional argumentative essay, in which you have a thesis and several supporting points, it still has a purpose and tries to get the reader to think a certain way about something; it just seeks to achieve this purpose through a story rather than facts and quotations, etc Here are some things to keep in mind when brainstorming and writing a narrative essay: • Choose your story thoughtfully Don’t just write about the first thing that comes to mind If you are writing a personal essay, brainstorm about people and events in your life that have been particularly challenging, inspiring, or that changed you in some way Chances are, if it is a gripping story to you, it will be to your readers But you don’t have to write about great, dramatic things to be interesting Everyday things can often be the most profound • Think about the significance of your story Why does it matter to you, why are you wanting to tell it? What you want to convey to your readers? • Consider the most effective way to relate your narrative Should you start at the beginning of the story, in the middle of things, or at the end, looking back? Which parts of the action should be emphasized? What is your point of view in the story? Would a snatch of dialogue or a direct quotation from people in the story be useful or should you paraphrase/summarize what they say? • Employ clear, concrete, meaningful details You want your story to be evocative, to describe people and places and experiences, but you don’t want to overload your reader with unnecessary information • Use vivid action verbs Flee from blandness • Don’t just show—tell: the story should show the event’s significance, but you will also need to explain the significance, at least a little bit, likely in your introduction or conclusion You can also use narrative in essays that are not specifically narrative essays An anecdote is a type of narrative often deployed in regular argumentative essays An anecdote is simply a brief, especially interesting story, usually something that could be related in a few sentences Good essay writers often give an anecdote in their introduction as a hook or sometimes in their conclusion to drive their point home more powerfully These narratives not tend to be personal, but are generally stories from history, literature, or contemporary culture In a short essay on how the essence of love is waiting, Roland Barthes concludes his text with this anecdote: A mandarin fell in love with a courtesan “I shall be yours,” she told him, “when you have spend a hundred nights waiting for me, sitting on a stool, in my garden, beneath my windows.” But on the ninety-ninth night, the mandarin stood up, put his stool under his arm, and went away (40) [1] By using a brief story rather than just reiterating his point, Barthes makes his conclusion much more forceful and his entire essay more memorable So even when you are not writing narrative essays, always be thinking about how you can apply the rhetorical richness of narrative to all your essays, and make note of particularly compelling stories you hear, so you can always be prepared to breathe life into a lifeless essay with a little narrative In the Moment Assignment Description and Example Assignment Response This assignment asks you to craft a story based on personal experience This is different from literary analysis or research paper assignments which ask you to open with a thesis to continually reference and support Stories are constructed differently Successful stories describe events in such a way that readers get to experience the story as if they were directly observing events Consider the following when drafting, writing, and revising: Place your readers into a significant moment you’ve experienced Narrow your focus from the start Select a story out of one, tiny, narrow corner of your life and avoid expanding on all the details around the story Do not give us an introduction that explains everything before it happens Let the story speak for itself and trust your readers work at discovering what your story is about Try to drop your readers into the action of your story to create immediacy A large disk of snow lifted in the wind from the top of the semi-truck in front of me I took hold of the steering wheel with both hands as the sheet of snow fell and burst onto my windshield I had successfully resisted the instinctive pull to turn the wheel sharply to the right or left and now, with the snow melting on the windshield, I turned on my wipers to clear my line of sight behind the truck “Slow and easy,” I tell myself, and concentrate on keeping the car balanced between tracks of snow in the road Context should be embedded into your story throughout, not provided as a separate section of your story Not until I had pulled into the parking lot of the indoor soccer arena, found a parking spot, and turned off the car did I let my arms relax their grip on the steering wheel I reached back and pulled my soccer bag from the backseat before opening the door and leaning into the wind, jogging cautiously to the front door of the arena Once inside, the sights, sounds, and smells were all familiar I had been playing indoor co-ed soccer for years with the same group of friends We met in front of court three where we were scheduled to be playing tonight Pay particular attention to character development by asking yourself what actions best represent the people you plan to include into your story The first person to greet me was Rob “So you made it through the blizzard—too bad,” Rob said with a wide grin He was always sarcastic in his humor Rob was born in England and had moved to the U.S for college He was our captain on what he called “the pitch,” always shouting for us to get back on defense “Stupid Americans,” he would say after a loss, “always wanting to score instead of play good defense.” He pronounced it de-FENSE as opposed to the American pronunciation of DE-fense We always laughed at him berating Americans before bringing up our successful revolution and the fact that here he was living in America by choice Try experimenting with dialogue as dialogue always brings your story into active, present tense which is enlivening for your readers On a related note, successful dialogue on the page is not merely an accurate representation of what people say in real life, it is oftentimes pared down to the most important, well-stated things that people say I can’t remember if the game was an important one or not, whether we were playing one of our heated rivalry games against the team from Bell’s Brewery that usually ended in a shoving match or if our shot at the championship was swinging in the balance What I remember is joking with Rob at halftime He said he was done telling me to get back on defense since I never listened anyway “The best defense is offense,” I told him “I’m really starting to dislike you,” he said Again with that smile to tell me he was joking along with me He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and said, “You’ve got a lot to learn from me.” Relate your story in a way that reveals its significance to you If the story is revealing itself to you as you write then your readers will experience it as a revelation also In other words, don’t simply write about the event; show us how you experienced it as opposed to what it means to you or what you learned from the experience This is very tricky to pull off successfully On the one hand, you don’t want to over-tell the story in such a way that gives your readers nothing to make sense of on their own On the other hand, you don’t want to alienate your readers by confusing them with not enough information to comprehend your moment At the start of the second half I was on the field when something happened Something I still don’t quite understand It came upon all of us, a type of twilight wherein time seemed sticky and disjointed We collectively knew something was wrong Rob had collapsed onto the turf and we all stood there, staring The ball silently rolled into a corner and stopped with no one in pursuit Use concrete and specific detail to represent your point of view and your situation Avoid direct explanation in favor of concrete details that show the reader what you mean, rather than tell the reader Attach your ideas to visible things In general, you want to dramatize your situation so that your readers experience it as though it were happening before their eyes, so that the readers are in the position of an observer at the scene This is different than a narrative in then introduce extensive research from prominent journals and reports that all violent criminals were spanked as children, your readers might be more willing to listen to your reasoning Style:When grappling with difficult issues and concepts, your prose can understandably become unclear, dull, or cluttered Eventually, though, as you continue to revise your drafts and further refine your message, you need to cut away the superfluous words, redundancies, and needless abstractions You can make your language more interesting and more understandable by eliminating needless jargon; passive voice; lengthy, redundant sentences; or pompous and archaic language Provide Descriptive, Sensory Language: You can help your readers imagine your subject better by appealing to their senses Whenever possible, describe how an object looks, sounds, tastes, feels, or smells For example, in this excerpt from Carl Sagan's powerful essay on the effects of a nuclear war, "The Nuclear Winter," notice how Sagan appeals to our visual sense in his description of the effect of a single nuclear bomb on a city: In a megaton explosion over a fairly large city, buildings would be vaporized, people reduced to atoms and shadows, outlying structures blown down like matchsticks and raging fires ignited And if the bomb exploded on the ground, an enormous crater, like those that can be seen through a telescope on the surface of the Moon, would be all that remained where midtown once had been The lifeblood of effective writing is concrete and sensory language A word, properly placed, can create a tone that angers or inspires a reader Knowing the power of language to promote change, effective writers are selective in their use of concrete words—words that represent actual physical things like "chair" and "house"—and sensory words— words that appeal to our five senses Selecting the right word or group of words is a crucial step in drawing your readers into your work so that they can fully understand your vision and ideas Note the masterful use of concrete and sensory words in this passage from a Newsweek essay, "Don't Go in the Water": "Black mayonnaise": The problem for most landlubbers, of course, is that most of the effects of coastal pollution are hard to see Bays and estuaries that are now in jeopardy—Boston Harbor, for example, or even San Francisco Bay— are still delightful to look at from shore What is happening underwater is quite another matter, and it is not for the squeamish Scuba divers talk of swimming through clouds of toilet paper and half-dissolved feces, of bay bottoms covered by a foul and toxic combination of sediment, sewage and petrochemical waste appropriately known as "black mayonnaise." Fishermen haul in lobsters and crab [sic] covered with mysterious "burn holes" and fish whose fins are rotting off Offshore, marine biologists track massive tides of algae blooms fed by nitrate and phosphate pollution— colonies of floating microorganisms that, once dead, strangle fish by stripping the water of its life giving oxygen In addition to selecting an abundance of distinctive concrete words (such as sediment, sewage, and nitrate) and sensory words (foul, burn holes, feces), the authors have used powerful images and metaphors Note, for example, the clouds of toilet paper Even more potent is the image of "black mayonnaise." Can you imagine biting into a sandwich spread with such poison? When Speculating, Use Qualifying Language: When addressing complex issues and processes, you adopt an appropriate speculative voice by using words like "may cause" or "could also."Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetuer Useful Qualifying Words and Phrases: may, might, usually typically, perhaps, can, I believe it seems likely As an example of carefully chosen qualifying words, consider the following passage from the US EPA's Web site on global warming impacts: • o Rising global temperatures are expected to raise sea level, and change precipitation and other local climate conditions Changing regional climate could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies It could also affect human health, animals, and many types of ecosystems Deserts may expand into existing rangelands, and features of some of our National Parks may be permanently altered o Most of the United States is expected to warm, although sulfates may limit warming in some areas Scientists currently are unable to determine which parts of the United States will become wetter or drier, but there is likely to be an overall trend toward increased precipitation and evaporation, more intense rainstorms, and drier soils o Unfortunately, many of the potentially most important impacts depend upon whether rainfall increases or decreases, which can not be reliably projected for specific areas Reviews and Recommendations Learn to write convincing evaluations and improve your critical thinking abilities Evaluate a performance (such as a movie, speech, or play), a visual (such as an ad or artwork), or a text (such as a Web site) Read exemplary evaluative texts, define appropriate assessment criteria, and write a convincing and well-researched evaluation Reviews present an author's opinion or interpretation Writing an evaluative text involves defining criteria and then applying these criteria to assess a subject Writers of effective evaluative texts go beyond making global proclamations statements such as "I think the movie is boring" or "The musician stinks." Instead, effective evaluative texts provide the background information and evidence that readers need to understand their assessment Why Write Reviews and Recommendations? In school, you will be asked to evaluate instructors, other students, textbooks, theories, and research studies As part of your everyday life, you will conduct evaluations and read others' evaluations of products to make informed consumer decisions Just about anything can be evaluated, including: 10 Consumer goods (e.g., consumer electronics, cars, boats) Places (e.g., homes, restaurants, ski resorts, vacation destinations) Performances (e.g., movies, CDs, music videos, plays, speeches) Web sites Events People (e.g., politicians, writers, co-workers) Ideas/theories Photographs, paintings, etchings Advertising Careers or academic degree Conducting evaluations is a fundamental way to better understand and improve our world When you write evaluative texts, you are asking critical questions, such as: Is this the right college or academic degree for me? Was the movie suspenseful, entertaining, worthwhile? Should I wear these clothes? Evaluation texts are typically acts of persuasion Beyond entertaining you with their wit and intelligence, critics of movies, restaurants, and music want you to accept their judgment As experts, these critics want to be arbiters of good taste and, often, they want to help you by sharing the results of their experience and research Even when authors attempt to present an objective, detached tone/voice, they often want readers to agree with their analyses At times, writers may even be deceptive about their biases Remarkably, some reviews are pure fictions, created by marketing executives For example, Sony Pictures was harshly rebuked for creating David Manning, a fictional critic, who (not surprisingly) energetically and positively reviewed their films [David Manning, Imaginary Film Critic by Robert Fulford] Occasionally, however, the topic isn't contentious The author may not be attempting to persuade readers one way or another, focusing, instead, on informing readers or analyzing a complex topic For example, the building inspector may not care whether the buyer purchases the home; his report applies preset criteria to judging the market value of the property (comparables, quality of construction, condition of roof, appliances, plumbing, etc.) In turn, the medical examiner wants to discern the cause of death and write an objective report Diverse Rhetorical Situations As illustrated in the chart below, people write and read evaluative texts for a variety of communication situations, and they employ a variety of media The driving purpose of most reviews is argument; even when writers adopt a detached, formal, and objective voice, they are asserting that their interpretation is accurate and reliable Occasionally writers assume other voices perhaps adopting a satirical or irreverent tone Usually, writers base their reviews on personal experience and informal "primary research" (questionnaires, interviews, or ethnographies), perhaps explaining their reaction to a movie, play, or exhibition They may or may not conduct formal secondary research i.e., actually research or see what others have said about the subject they are reviewing (library or Internet research) In general, though, they are well read on the topic they write about Sampling of Rhetorical Situations Purposes Audiences Persu ade Voices Consumer s Media Objecti ve Reviews of books, music, restaurants in newspapers, magazines, and Web sites Infor m Decision makers Scholars Analy ze Curious Thoug htful/ Reflective people "Sales" Formal reports submitted to decision makers Interactive Web sites Video Rhetorical Analysis of Online Readings Consider the context, audience, purpose, and media invoked by the following readings Also examine how ideas are developed in these texts Are assertions grounded in personal experience, interviews with authorities, questionnaires, Internet and library research, or empirical research? As demonstrated below, people write critical reviews for many different reasons, addressing a variety of audiences For years, professional columnists have written reviews of movies, music, film, and restaurants in newspapers and magazines Today, many reviews can easily be found online: • AllMusic.com provides thousands of reviews of musician's works: "Our experts use a to star system with being considered the best rating It is important to note that our album ratings are localized; we only compare a release to other releases by the same artist We won't compare a Britney Spears album to the latest release by Incubus." • AllGame.com provides thousands of reviews of games • AllMovie.com reviews movies More recently, Internet sites have empowered people to add their two cents In other words, users can complete surveys or write reviews Consider, for example, the following sites that provide a forum for people to review movies, Web sites, and music: • The National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television provides many film reviews and presents an easy online form by which users can submit their own reviews Reviews range from informal and incomplete to professional and thorough • Magdalena Ball created The Compulsive Reader, an interactive Web site, to encourage people to discuss books and movies • Targeting an academic audience, H-Net Reviews presents reviews on books, articles, games, and multimedia H-Net Reviews invites participation from readers; editors proof and copyedit submissions • Readerville.com provides free, subscription-based forums that enable users to discuss serious fiction and nonfiction • Amazon.com encourages reviews of books and CDs, yet it requires users to log in before submitting their reviews Companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations often bring in outside consultants to evaluate and improve work flow, written documents, or decision-making processes Occasionally, a whistle blower will write an internal document that forces insiders to reconsider their practices For example, in a classified 13-page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Coleen Rowley, an FBI veteran of 21 years, critiqued FBI headquarters, suggesting FBI's upper management ignored the advice of field agents regarding the possibility of terrorists using commercial airliners to destroy buildings Rowley's whistle blowing letter resulted in Senate hearings in Washington, D.C Internet users sometimes debate the value of particular Internet browsers (e.g., Internet Explorer vs Netscape Navigator), operating systems (Windows vs Macintosh), and search engines: • ShareWareJunkies.com provides hundreds of software reviews Readers are invited to apply to be reviewers The site contains advertisements but the reviews are free • Based on users' feedback and well-defined criteria, Danny Sullivan created the 2001 Search Engine Watch Award Architects frequently critique the design of buildings For example, in the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative Quarterly, the editor critiques Frank Gehry's controversial new building at Case Western Reserve The Internet Scout Report provides summaries and reviews of Web sites likely to interest "researchers, educators, and anyone else with an interest in high-quality online material." PickaProf.com enables students to share their evaluations of their professors Medical Matrix provides a free, subscription-based, peer-reviewed, ranked assessment of medical Web sites: "Medical Matrix is a free directory of selected medical sites on the Internet The Medical Matrix search engine is available by subscription Each site listing has been carefully evaluated by reviewers from our panel of physicians and medical librarians." Clearly, professionals in the medical field are the targeted audience for this Web site Medical Resource Database identifies its target audience as "Nurses, Physicians, Dentists, Students, Health consumers/Patients." It reviews Web sites that provide information in the following areas: "Anatomy, Physiology, Internal Medicine, Physical Therapy, Exercise Therapy, Pharmacology, Dermatology, Dentistry, Acupuncture, Nursing, Gastroenterology, Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Urology, Pulmonology, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Prevention, Naturopathy, Sports Medicine, Radiology, Lab, Psychology, Neurology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Primary Care, Endocrinology." Books Dealing With Children's Mental Health Topics Written for parents and child-development psychologists, this review site focuses on texts on a variety of issues and topics Evaluation texts address a range of audiences, purposes, and media and use a variety of methods to generate knowledge, including Internet and library research, and interview, questionnaire, and ethnographic research methods Accordingly, the following analysis of key features is presented as a series of considerations as opposed to a comprehensive blueprint Focus Writers bring focus to their evaluations by revealing the criteria they are using to judge the topic being evaluated They often present their argument up front, providing readers with a good roadmap of their argument and reasoning As demonstrated by Readings > Evaluative Texts, writers routinely define the criteria they will employ to evaluate a subject As an example, consider AllMusic.com's criteria, which they provide to engage users in an evaluation of musicians Music Expert Check If you know this artist well, your help in answering the following questions is much appreciated and will assist the AMG staff in improving the database Do you feel this artist is: Energizing, Exciting X Some of Both Soothing, Relaxing X N/A Dense, Thick Light, X Some of Both Free, Transparent X N/A Harsh, Aggressive X Some of Both Gentle, Peaceful X N/A Cold, Firm X Some of Both Warm, Soft X N/A Bright, Dynamic, Ornate X Some of Both Low Key, Calm, Melancholic X N/A Popular, Plain, Simple X Some of Both Elaborate, Sophisticated X N/A Dark, Pessimistic, Bitter X Some of Both Light, Cheerful, Sweet X N/A Emotional, Sensual, Playful X Some of Both Sober, Arranged, Proper Your name(optional): Some of Both X N/A N/A Development You can develop your evaluation report by conducting library/Internet or field research For example, to write a movie, music, or restaurant review, you could watch the movie, listen to the CD, or go to the restaurant You might read reviews of a movie, music CD, or restaurant By researching your topic, you will have a better understanding of appropriate criteria to use to judge it Reading sample evaluative texts can help you find and adopt an appropriate voice and persona By reading samples, you can learn how others have prioritized particular criteria Below are some additional suggestions for developing your evaluation report, including advice on how to create an appropriate voice, provide background material, establish the criteria for judging the topic, and use visuals to develop and convey your message Establish an Appropriate Voice First person is commonly used in arts reviews, while reviews of products tend to stifle the personal voice, adopting more of an objective tone If you appear overly biased or emotional, readers are likely to dismiss your reasoning Readers of reviews expect authors to be courteous and temperate If you've identified important problems with the movie, CD, book whatever you're critiquing you should be honest and thorough, yet you need to provide a compassionate tone, remembering that it's easier to critique than create If you critique a matter severely, some readers may hope to dismiss your interpretation as idiosyncratic Under such circumstances, in addition to providing the evidence needed to substantiate your opinion, you need to be careful about presenting your voice/persona You need to establish your credibility Consider, for example, Coleen Rowley's letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller In this letter, Rowley provides evidence that the FBI "did fully appreciate the terrorist risk/danger posed by Moussaoui [one of the 9/11 terrorist hijackers] and his possible co-conspirators even prior to September 11th." Throughout her letter, Rowley vigorously details what the FBI knew about Moussaoui, including his training at flight schools, his role as a terrorist, and affiliations with radical fundamentalist Islamic groups associated with Osama bin Laden Then, in the conclusion, perhaps looking over the shoulder of Director Mueller to members of the press and public, she asserts her lifelong commitment to the FBI, providing personal details that narrate her loyalty: I have been an FBI agent for over 21 years and, for what it's worth, have never received any form of disciplinary action throughout my career From the 5th grade, when I first wrote the FBI and received the "100 Facts about the FBI" pamphlet, this job has been my dream I feel that my career in the FBI has been somewhat exemplary, having entered on duty at a time when there was only a small percentage of female Special Agents I have also been lucky to have had four children during my time in the FBI and am the sole breadwinner of a family of six Due to the frankness with which I have expressed myself and my deep feelings on these issues, (which is only because I feel I have a somewhat unique, inside perspective of the Moussaoui matter, the gravity of the events of September 11th and the current seriousness of the FBI's and United States' ongoing efforts in the "war against terrorism"), I hope my continued employment with the FBI is not somehow placed in jeopardy I have never written to an FBI Director in my life before on any topic Although I would hope it is not necessary, I would therefore wish to take advantage of the federal "Whistleblower Protection" provisions by so characterizing my remarks [Coleen Rowley's Memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller] Provide Necessary Background Information Readers expect you to be knowledgeable about the topic They appreciate a summary where you describe the significance of the work and relate it to previous works by the author or other significant works If you're discussing a musician's work, for example, you should refer to other works produced by the musician and place the work within a music tradition If you're discussing a movie, you should be aware of the genre of the movie (suspense, drama, comedy, romance, etc.) as well as other works created by the director Establish Evaluative Criteria When evaluating consumer goods, writers explicitly define their evaluative criteria In more informal circumstances or when the topic is particularly emotionally charged, writers may choose to imply their criteria In general, clarity is enhanced by an explicit statement of evaluative criteria in your introduction Below are some examples of evaluative criteria presented by the authors to introduce their topics: • Why Open Source Software/Free Software by David A Wheeler: This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, using open source software / free software is a reasonable or even superior approach to using their proprietary competition according to various measures This paper examines market share, reliability, performance, scaleability, security, and total cost of ownership It also has sections on non-quantitative issues, unnecessary fears, usage reports, other sites providing related information, and ends with some conclusions • How We Evaluated the OWLs by Beth Balkus et al: Ease of Navigation, Feedback on a Submitted Paper, Handouts Use Visuals Wherever possible, provide visuals to help readers understand your reasoning: If you're critiquing a Web site, use screenshots and callout to clarify your interpretation (see, e.g., The Paladin Newspaper Redesign by Danae Shell or Critique of /placeholders/external_placeholder.html?http%3A%2F %2Fextremegen.org) Use photographs to illustrate your analysis If you're critiquing a restaurant or a place, take pictures For example, note the thumbnail pictures in Sarah R Stein's The '1984' Macintosh Ad or the pictures of the building critiqued in Frank Gehry as Urbanist? Use tables and figures to summarize evaluative criteria and the results of your interpretation Note, for example, how David Wheeler provides summary tables for each criteria he evaluates: Why Open Source Software/Free Software Below is an example of one of the figures used in Wheeler's reports, which supports his argument regarding the popularity of Open Source Software (see image below) Market Share for Active Web Servers, June 2000 - April 2002 Organization Evaluative texts aren't written like mystery novels: You don't bury your conclusions at the end of the story Instead, provide your argument up front, clearly define why the evaluation is important, what evaluative criteria were used, how the evaluation was performed, and what your conclusions are Consider numbering the evaluative points you are addressing If it's an online document, you may wish to create internal hyperlinks so readers can jump from point to point in your text At the very least, use headings and subheadings Style As always, you need to: 1 Use unambiguous, concrete language Appeal to the reader's senses Relate the subject or concept to information that the reader already understands, moving from given to new information Literary Criticism By reading and discussing literature, we expand our imagination, our sense of what is possible, and our ability to empathize with others Improve your ability to read critically and interpret texts while gaining appreciation for different literary genres and theories of interpretation Read samples of literary interpretation Write a critique of a literary work Texts that interpret literary works are usually persuasive texts Literary critics may conduct a close reading of a literary work, critique a literary work from the stance of a particular literary theory, or debate the soundness of other critics' interpretations The work of literary critics is similar to the work of authors writing evaluative texts For example, the skills required to critique films, interpret laws, or evaluate artistic trends are similar to those skills required by literary critics Why Write Literary Criticism? People have been telling stories and sharing responses to stories since the beginning of time By reading and discussing literature, we expand our imagination, our sense of what is possible, and our ability to empathize with others Reading and discussing literature can enhance our ability to write It can sharpen our critical faculties, enabling us to assess works and better understand why literature can have such a powerful effect on our lives "Literary texts" include works of fiction and poetry In school, English instructors ask students to critique literary texts, or works Literary criticism refers to a genre of writing whereby an author critiques a literary text, either a work of fiction, a play, or poetry Alternatively, some works of literary criticism address how a particular theory of interpretation informs a reading of a work or refutes some other critics' reading of a work Diverse Rhetorical Situations The genre of literary interpretation is more specialized than most of the other genres addressed in this section, as suggested by the table below People may discuss their reactions to literary works informally (at coffee houses, book clubs, or the gym) but the lion's share of literary criticism takes place more formally: in college classrooms, professional journals, academic magazines, and Web sites Students interpret literary works for English instructors or for students enrolled in English classes In their interpretations, students may argue for a particular interpretation or they may dispute other critics' interpretations Alternatively, students may read a text with a particular literary theory in mind, using the theory to explicate a particular point of view For example, writers could critique The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin from a feminist theoretical perspective Thanks to the Internet, some English classes are now publishing students' interpretations on Web sites In turn, some students and English faculty publish their work in academic literary criticism journals Over the years, literary critics have argued about the best ways to interpret literature Accordingly, many "schools" or "theories of criticism" have emerged As you can imagine given that they were developed by sophisticated specialists some of these theoretical approaches are quite sophisticated and abstract Below is a summary of some of the more popular literary theories Because it is a summary, the following tends to oversimplify the theories In any case, unless you are enrolled in a literary criticism course, you won't need to learn the particulars of all of these approaches Instead, your teacher may ask you to take an eclectic approach, pulling interpretative questions from multiple literary theories Note: If you are interested in learning more about these theories, review either Skylar Hamilton Burris' Literary Criticism: An Overview of Approaches or Dino F Felluga's Undergraduate Guide to Critical Theory • • Schools of Literary Criticism New Criticism: Focuses on "objectively" evaluating the text, identifying its underlying form May study, for example, a text's use of imagery, metaphor, or symbolism Isn't concerned with matters outside the text, such as biographical or contextual information Online Examples: A Formalist • Reading of Sandra Cisneros's "Woman Hollering Creek" , Sound in William Shakespeare's The Tempest by Skylar Hamilton Burris Reader-Respons: Criticism Focuses on each reader's personal reactions to a text, assuming meaning is created by a reader's or interpretive community's personal interaction with a text Assumes no single, correct, universal meaning exists because meaning resides in the minds of readers Online Examples: Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz": A Reader's Response (PDF) • Feminism: Criticism Focuses on understanding ways gender roles are reflected or contradicted by texts, how dominance and submission play out in texts, and how gender roles evolve in texts Online Example: "The Yellow Wall-Paper": A Twist on Conventional Symbols, Subverting the French Androcentric Influence by Jane Le Marquand • New Historicism Focuses on understanding texts by viewing texts in the context of other texts Seeks to understand economic, social, and political influences on texts Tend to broadly define the term "text," so, for example, the Catholic Church could be defined as a "text." May adopt the perspectives of other interpretive communities-particularly reader-response criticism, feminist criticism, and Marxist approaches to interpret texts Online Example • Monstrous Acts by Jonathan Lethem Media Criticism Focuses on writers' use of multimedia and hypertexts Online Examples The Electronic Labyrinth by Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin, and Robin Parmar • Psychoanalytical Criticism Focuses on psychological dimensions of the work Online Examples: A Freudian Approach to Erin McGraw's "A Thief" by Skylar Hamilton Burris • Marxist Criticism Focuses on ways texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge the effects of class, power relations, and social roles Online Example: A Reading of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" by Peter Kosenko • Archetypal Criticism Focuses on identifying the underlying myths in stories and archetypes, which reflect what the psychologist Carl Jung called the "collective unconsciousness." Online Example: A Catalogue of Symbols in The Awakening by Kate Chopin by Skylar Hamilton Burris • Postcolonial Criticism Focuses on how Western culture's (mis)representation of third-world countries and peoples in stories, myths, and stereotypical images encourages repression and domination Online Example: Other Voices • Structuralism/Semiotics Focuses on literature as a system of signs where meaning is constructed in a context, where words are inscribed with meaning by being compared to other words and structures Online Example: Applied • Semiotics [Online journal with many samples] Post-Structuralism/Deconstruction Focuses, along with Structuralism, on viewing literature as a system of signs, yet rejects the Structuralist view that a critic can identify the inherent meaning of a text, suggesting, instead that literature has no center, no single interpretation, that literary language is inherently ambiguous Powerful works of literature invoke multiple readings In other words, we can all read the same story or poem (or watch the same movie or listen to the same song) and come up with different, even conflicting, interpretations about what the work means Who we are reflects how we read texts Our experiences inspire us to relate to and sympathize with characters and difficult situations Have we read similar stories? Have we actually faced some of the same challenges the characters in the story face? In addition, literary theories have unique ways to develop and substantiate arguments Some theories draw extensively on the work of other critics, while others concentrate on the reader's thoughts and feelings Some theories analyze a work from an historical perspective, while others focus solely on a close reading of a text Accordingly, as with other genres, the following key features need to be read as points of departure as opposed to a comprehensive blueprint: Focus Examine a subject from a rhetorical perspective Identify the intended audience, purpose, context, media, voice, tone, and persona.Distinguish between summarizing the literary work and presenting your argument Many students fall into the trap of spending too much time summarizing the literature being analyzed as opposed to critiquing it As a result, it would be wise to check with your teacher regarding how much plot summary is expected As you approach this project, remember to keep your eye on the ball: What, exactly (in one sentence) is the gist of your interpretation? Development You can develop your ideas by researching the work of other literary critics How other critics evaluate an author's work? What literary theories literary critics use to interpret texts or particular moments in history? Reading sample proposals can help you find and adopt an appropriate voice and persona By reading samples, you can learn how others have prioritized particular criteria Below are some of the questions invoked by popular literary theories Consider these questions as you read a work, perhaps taking notes on your thoughts as you reread You may focus on using one theory to "read and interpret" text or, more commonly, you may compare the critical concerns of different theories New Criticism/Formalism • Character: How does the character evolve during the story? What is unique or interesting about a character? Is the character a stereotypical action hero, a patriarchal father figure, or Madonna? How does a character interact with other characters? • Setting: How does the setting enhance tension within the work? Do any elements in the setting foreshadow the conclusion of the piece? • Plot:What is the conflict? How scenes lead to a suspenseful resolution? What scenes make the plot unusual, unexpected, suspenseful? • Point of View: Who is telling the story? Is the narrator omniscient (all knowing) or does the narrator have limited understanding? Reader-Response Criticism How does the text make you feel? What memories or experiences come to mind when you read? If you were the central protagonist, would you have behaved differently? Why? What values or ethics you believe are suggested by the story? As your reading of a text progresses, what surprises you, inspires you? Feminist Criticism How does the story re-inscribe or contradict traditional gender roles? For example, are the male characters in "power positions" while the women are "dominated"? Are the men prone to action, decisiveness, and leadership while the female characters are passive, subordinate? Do gender roles create tension within the story? Do characters' gender roles evolve over the course of the narrative? New Historicism Cristicism How does the story reflect the aspirations and conditions of the lower classes or upper classes? Is tension created by juxtaposing privileged, powerful positions to subordinated, dominated positions? What information about the historical context of the story helps explain the character's motivations? Who benefits from the outcome of the story or from a given character's motivation? Media Criticism How does the medium alter readers' interactions with the text? Has the reader employed multimedia or hypertext? What traditions from print and page design have shaped the structure of the text? In what ways has the author deviated from traditional, deductively organized linear texts? Cite from the Work Literary criticism involves close reading of a literary work, regardless of whether you are arguing about a particular interpretation, comparing stories or poems, or using a theory to interpret literature.Do not summarize the story The purpose of the document is not to inform the readers, but to argue a particular interpretation You only need to cite parts of the work that support or relate to your argument and follow the citation format required by your instructor (see Using and Citing Sources) Below is an example from Sample Essays for English 103: Introduction to Fiction, Professor Matthew Hurt Note how the writer uses block quotes to highlight key elements and paraphrase and summarizes the original works, using quotation marks where necessary .Twain offers a long descriptive passage of Huck and Jim's life on the raft that seems, at first glance, to celebrate the idyllic freedom symbolized by the river and nature A close reading of this passage, however, shows that the river is not a privileged natural space outside of and uncontaminated by society, but is inextricably linked to the social world on the shore, which itself has positive value for Huck Instead of seeking to escape society, Huck wants to escape the dull routines of life The passage abounds with lyrical descriptions of the river's natural beauty For example, Huck's long description of the sunrise over the river captures the peaceful stillness and the visual beauty of the scene: The first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line that was the woods on t'other side you couldn't make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness, spreading around; then the river softened up, away off, and warn't black any more, but gray; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or jumbled up voices, it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by-and-by you could see a streak on the water which you know by the look of the streak that there's a snag there in the swift current which breaks on it and makes the streak look that way; and you see the mist curl up off of the water, and the east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a log cabin in the edge of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of the river, then the nice breeze springs up, and comes fanning you from over there, so cool and fresh, and sweet to smell, on account of the woods and the flowers; and next you've got the full day, and everything smiling in the sun, and the song-birds just going at it! (129-130) Here Huck celebrates the beauty of the natural world coming to life at the beginning of a new day The "paleness" gradually spreading across the sky makes new objects visible which he describes in loving detail for the reader The "nice breeze" is "cool and fresh" and "sweet to smell," and the world seems to be "smiling in the sun" as the songbirds welcome the new day However, Huck includes a number of details within this passage that would seem to work against the language of natural beauty After describing the gradually brightening sky, Huck notes that "you could see little dark spots drifting along, ever so far away trading scows, and such things; and long black streaks rafts." The sun rise reveals not only natural objects (the brightening sky, the "snag," the "mist"), but also brings into view man-made objects ("trading scows" and "rafts") that signify human society's presence in this natural environment Similarly, Huck speculates that the picturesque "log cabin" on the distant shore is a "woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so you can throw a dog through it anywheres." Here the marker of human society takes on a sinister tone of corruption as Huck describes how unscrupulous wood sellers stack wood loosely to cheat their customers Finally, although the breeze is "sweet to smell," Huck assures the reader that this isn't always the case: "but sometimes not that way, because they've left dead fish laying around, gars, and such, and they get pretty rank." These signs of society's presence on the river are largely negative The woodyard is "piled by cheats" and the stacked fish pollute the "sweet" smell of the breeze At this point, the opposition between "good nature" and "bad society" remains intact The signs of human presence suggest a corruption of nature's beauty In the paragraphs that follow, however, this opposition is subtly reversed After Huck's account of the sunrise over the river, he describes how he and Jim watch the steamboats "coughing along up stream." But when there are no steamboats or rafts to watch, he describes the scene as "solid lonesomeness" (130) No songbirds, no sweet breezes Without human activities to watch, the scene suddenly becomes empty and "lonesome," and nothing captures Huck's attention until more rafts and boats pass by and he can watch them chopping wood or listen to them beating pans in the fog Cite Other Critics' Interpretations of the Work Criticism written by advanced English majors, graduate students, and literary critics may be more about what other critics have said than about the actual text Indeed, many critics spend more time reading criticism and arguing about critical approaches than actually reading original works However, unless you are enrolled in a literary theory course, your instructor probably wants you to focus more on interpreting the work than discussing other critical interpretations This does not mean, however, that you should write about a literary work "blindly." Instead, you are wise to find out what other students and critics have said about the work Below is a sample passage that illustrates how other critics' works can inspire an author and guide him or her in constructing a counter argument, support an author's interpretation, and provide helpful biographical information In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948 issue of the New Yorker it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received": hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by "bewilderment, speculation, and oldfashioned abuse."1 It is not hard to account for this response: Jackson's story portrays an "average" New England village with "average" citizens engaged in a deadly rite, the annual selection of a sacrificial victim by means of a public lottery, and does so quite deviously: not until well along in the story we suspect that the "winner" will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers Organization The format for literary critiques is fairly standard: • State your claim(s) • Forecast your organization • Marshal evidence for your claim • Reiterate argument and elaborate on its significance In English classes, you may be able to assume that your readers are familiar with the work you are critiquing Perhaps, for example, the entire class is responding to one particular work after some class discussions about it However, if your instructor asks you to address a broader audience, you may need to provide bibliographical information for the work In other words, you may need to cite the title, publisher, date, and pages of the work (see Citing Sources ) Literary critiques are arguments As such, your instructors expect you to state a claim in your introduction and then provide quotes and paraphrased statements from the text to serve as evidence for your claim Ideally, your critique will be insightful and interesting You'll want to come up with an interpretation that isn't immediately obvious Below are some examples of "thesis statements" or "claims" from literary critiques: • In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist is oppressed and represents the effect of the oppression of women in society This effect is created by the use of complex symbols such as the house, the window, and the wall-paper which facilitate her oppression as well as her self expression ["'The Yellow WallPaper': A Twist on Conventional Symbols" by Liselle Sant] • "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman is a sad story of the repression that women face in the days of the late 1800's as well as being representative of the turmoil that women face today [Critique of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Brandi Mahon] • "The Yellow Wallpaper," written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story of a woman, her psychological difficulties and her husband's so called therapeutic treatment of her aliments during the late 1800s Gilman does well throughout the story to show with descriptive phrases just how easily and effectively the man "seemingly" wields his "maleness" to control the woman But, with further interpretation and insight I believe Gilman succeeds in nothing more than showing the weakness of women, of the day, as active persons in their own as well as society's decision making processes instead of the strength of men as women dominating machines "The View from the Inside" by Timothy J Decker • In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain creates a strong opposition between the freedom of Huck and Jim's life on the raft drifting down the Mississippi River, which represents "nature," and the confining and restrictive life on the shore, which represents "society." [ "'All I wanted was a change': Positive Images of Nature and Society in Chapter 19 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from Professor Matthew Hurt's "Sample Essays for English 103: Introduction to Fiction"] • In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," an unexpected visitor comes down from the sky, and seems to test the faith of a community The villagers have a difficult time figuring out just how the very old man with enormous wings fits into their lives Because this character does not agree with their conception of what an angel should look like, they try to determine if the aged man could actually be an angel In trying to prove the origin of their visitor, the villagers lose faith in the possibility of him being an angel because he does not adhere to their ordered world Marquez keeps the identity of the very old man with enormous wings ambiguous to critique the villagers and, more generally, organized religion for having a lack of faith to believe in miracles that not comply with their master narrative ["Prove It: A Critique of the Villagers' Faith in 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings'" from Sample Essays for English 103: Introduction to Fiction, Professor Matthew Hurt] Style Literary criticism is a fairly specialized kind of writing Instead of writing to a general lay audience, you are writing to members of a literary community who have read a work and who developed opinions about the work as well as a vocabulary of interpretation Following are some common words used by literary critics More specialized terms can be learned by reading criticism or by referring to a good encyclopedia for criticism or writing, including the Writer's Encyclopedia: • Protagonist: The protagonist is the major character of the story; typically the character must overcome significant challenges • Antagonist: The protagonist's chief nemesis; in other words, the character whom the protagonist must overcome • Symbols: Metaphoric language; see A Catalogue of Symbols in The Awakening by Kate Chopin • Viewpoint: Stories are told either in the first person or third person point of view The first person is limited to a single character, although dialog can let you guess at other characters' intentions The third person allows readers inside the character's mind so you know what the character feels and thinks.Viewpoint can be "limited," where the character knows less than the reader, or "omniscient," where the reader can hear the thoughts and feelings of all characters Occasionally writers will use multiple character viewpoint, which takes you from one character's perspective to another • Plot: Plots are a series of scenes, typically moving from a conflict situation to a resolution To surprise readers, authors will foreshadow "false plants," which lead readers to anticipate other resolutions The term "denouement" refers to the unraveling of the plot in the conclusion [...]... within fields Diverse Rhetorical Situations Writers of texts that analyze and explain subjects and concepts are practicing what specialists call "expository writing" or "explanatory writing. " Process Writing is another example of expository writing Whereas authors of process reports ask "How is this done? How can I do this?" authors of reports that explain subjects and concepts ask, "What is this?... training is learning core concepts and definitions For example, your literature professor may ask you to define a term like "irony" or "plot," while your writing teacher may focus on rhetorical situation, writing as a process, revision, or plagiarism Academic integrity, ecoterrorism, survival of the fittest, entropy, law of supply and demand, feminism, postcolonialism these are examples of concepts that... eye can see, and so on Instructions: Use the sections below, as directed by your instructor, to learn about writing processes Read sample process reports and write your own process-driven project Writers of process texts are practicing what specialists call "expository writing" or "explanatory writing. " These texts focus on answering one of the following questions: "How is this done? How can I do this?"... the field I wondered if anyone had walked over to retrieve it before turning out the lights and locking the doors Subjects and Concepts Understand why analytical and explanatory writing is one of the most important genres of writing in school and professional careers Read a variety of analytical and explanatory reports, noting the diversity of audiences, purposes, contexts, media, voices, tone, and... and the interaction of the many variables involved Humanize Abstract Issues No matter how technical your subject is, you should keep in mind that you are writing to other people When you sense that the human story is being lost in abstract figures or academic jargon, consider adding an anecdote of how the problem you are discussing affects particular people For example, Melissa Henderson, a student writer,... politicians, writers, co-workers) Ideas/theories Photographs, paintings, etchings Advertising Careers or academic degree Conducting evaluations is a fundamental way to better understand and improve our world When you write evaluative texts, you are asking critical questions, such as: Is this the right college or academic degree for me? Was the movie suspenseful, entertaining, worthwhile? Should I wear these... of terms across disciplines 3 Educators argue about how to define "ebonics" and how "ebonics" should be addressed in public schools Some define "ebonics" to support arguments about integrating students Writings on the "Ebonics" issue 4 Following September 11th, some teachers became concerned about biological weapons and their threat to America They created a database that enables other teachers and readers... the growth of the Internet and information technologies, tutorials and user manuals are exceedingly commonplace on the Internet Below are links to several worthwhile sites • ToolsforWriters: Authored by writing students at the University of South Florida, this e-zine includes many tutorials on using software tools, including Microsoft Word, FrontPage, and Excel Most of these tutorials have screen shots... Don't Ask Me Where I'm Going I'm Busy Driving Steve Kaye writes this six-step guide to asserting control over your life for readers of Fluid Power Journal, a journal for engineers 4 Instruction Processes: Academic Processes Choosing majors, getting good grades, securing internships, researching topics these topics are commonly addressed on university Web sites You can go to your college's home page and... variety of causes for your poor performance, and once you recognize the causal relationship, you can set about realistically to improve your grade Cause-and-effect assignments are among the most interesting writing projects that you will tackle in school and in professional life In school, teachers frequently assign process assignments For example, humanities professors may ask for an analysis of what causes ... concepts are practicing what specialists call "expository writing" or "explanatory writing. " Process Writing is another example of expository writing Whereas authors of process reports ask "How is... also the best time to identify and replace colloquial diction in order to better clarify writing Academic writing often should appeal to a broad audience and always should be as clear and direct... define a term like "irony" or "plot," while your writing teacher may focus on rhetorical situation, writing as a process, revision, or plagiarism Academic integrity, ecoterrorism, survival of the