dan click's List: Writing Textbook AB

Summary: This website goes in depth about the definition of the rhetorical situation. The site is a teaching tool helping instructors educate people on the rhetorical situation. After it defined rhetorical situation it went on to define the parts that make up a rhetorical situation. Describing the author, audience, text and context; explaining what each component means in a rhetorical situation. The website also described the history of rhetoric and how it originated.
How is it useful?: After reading the article I'm now more educated on the rhetoric and have a better understanding on how it works. It explained it more in depth and gave examples on where and how it is used.
Why is it useful? The article clearly defined a rhetorical situation as a set of circumstances that involves at least one person using some sort of communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person. Along with this defintion there were also examples making this very easy to understand.
How is it credible? The website is a teachers tool defining terms and explaining them to help teachers convey the message to students. The site was created by Purdue University, thus making all of its content legitimate.
Why is it credible? The website contains a very wide variety of information, explaining many different topics. A website that contains that much information wouldn't waste it's time delivering flase information.
Citation: Kunka, J. (n.d). The Rhetorical Situation. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/01/

Summary: The author of this article described rhetorical situation and it's components. In the the article, technology was discussed and how it has changed the audience of the rhetorical situation. With technology, a discussion can be posted on the web, making is accesible to anyone who cares to look for it. When something is posted on the web, that must be kept in mind. This article also defined rhetorical situation and gave examples of where it is used. The author wrote that politics is where you find alot of rhetorical situation.
Why is it useful?- The author clearly defined the component I had to write about, which is goal. In the beginning of the article the author said, "All this comes about because the writer wants the target to do something."(Scolville, 2007, para. 3)
How is it useful?- The meaning of rhetorical situation is clearly stated many times in this article. Also, the components of the rhetorical situation are defined. Along with the definition are examples to help understand how rhetorical situation works.
Why is it credible?- I found the article on a Vanity Press website. The article is a blog that is over two years old, I think if there was incorrect information it would of been reported by now.
How is it credible?-To know this much about rhetorical situation the author must be a professor of some kind. There are also zero negative responses, showing that the information is valid.
Citation: Scoville,C. (2007). The Vanity Press: In The Rhetorical Situation and the Blogger. Retrieved October 29, from, http://thevanitypress.blogspot.com/2007/03/rhetorical-situation-and-blogger.html

rhetorical situation

Summary: This article briefly describes the purpose of author in the rhetorical situation. The article defines author as any person or group that produced a specific text. The definition of author is then reinforced with simple examples and questions. This page also helps the writer figure out how to find author in a rhetorical situation. The article then goes onto define the other parts of the rhetorical situation and rhetorical situation itself.
How is it useful? The article defines author by telling you things to consider when interpreting who the author is. It says to consider background, experience, education, affiliations, and value of the author to better determine the author's part in the situation.
Why is it useful? The article's simplicity helps make it useful. There is no hunting for definitions or searching through paragraphs of information, the definition is clearly stated.
How is it credible? It is credible because the information was taken from a book called Perspectives on Argument by Nancy Wood. It seems like a very credible definition based on where it was generated from.
Why is it credible? The article was taken from a book and then posted on the web for students use. The definitions are correct and there seems to be no suspicious things about the site. The site also uses a .edu address.
Citation: Wood, N. (2001). Perspectives on Argument. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/trace.html

Summary: This site is a teaching tool helping to define the complex rhetorical situation. The site included actual text from Lloyd Bitzer's book The Rhetorical Situation. It used this text to help describe the term exigency. It said that exigency is a hard thing to define in some rhetorical situations. It gave an example of stem cell research. The positives are that we could possibly find a cure for some diseases, but an innocent human life must be sacrificed in order to do this. Exigency is not always a clearly defined component of the rhetorical situation.
How is it useful? The text defined exigency in a rhetorical situation. The author of the site defined exigency as, "exigency is something that happens which gives rise to a need for communication." This proves that exigency is the motivation for the beginning of a rhetorical situation.
Why is it useful? This site was useful because it defined the term exigency and gave examples on how you can find it in everyday situations. The author of this site also used text from Lloyd Bitzer's book The Rhetorical Situation to help further define exigency in the rhetorical situation.
How is it credible? On the webpage the author citied the work he took from Lloyd Bitzer's book. If this was a fake site, the author probably wouldn't have gone through the trouble of citing his work. The website also had a very professional appearance.
Why is it credible? The author seems like a very educated man. He backs up all of his definitions with text from Lloyd Bitzer's book. He also provided links in his site to find more information on the rhetorical situation. Obviously the author put a lot of time and effort into the site making it a very useful tool.
Citation: Buchanan, C. (2004). The Rhetorical Situation: Beginning Well. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from http://people.emich.edu/cbuchanan/rhetoric/beginningwell.html \n

Summary: The site I found is a power point that lists all of the components of the rhetorical situation and defines them. Audience was clearly defined and the author gave examples on how to write to a specific audience. The author said that an audience is needed when writing on the rhetorical situation, without an audience the writing would lack purpose.
How is it useful? The site was very useful and helped me gain a better understanding on the audience's role in the rhetorical situation. The author asked questions that the writer should consider when writing to an audience. The author would ask a question like "To whom am I writing?" (Cooper, 2004, slide.8) then answer it with a description on the different kinds of audiences you can have. The author also informed that you need to research your audience; you need to know specific information so that you can write something that will interest them.
Why is it useful? The site was a very easy to read document. It made finding answers quick and easy. Everything is organized and the information is well explained and backed up with examples. If I were writing a paper on rhetorical situation I would use this site. I found what I was looking for in a matter of seconds and found a lot of information on the subject in question.
How is it credible? The information in the site was written by Alisa Cooper from South Mountain Community College. The site was probably used as a study guide for her students. It would not be a very good study guide if the information was false. The website is also a .edu meaning it's for education purposes.
Why is it credible? The information in the site was taken from a book called Reasoning and Writing Well 3rd Edition. If the teacher drew her information from this book the information must be accurate. Every page of the document has her name on it, the schools name and the date it was published.
Citation: Cooper, A. (2004). Rhetorical Situation: Reasoning and Writing Well 3rd Edition. Retrieved November 2, 2009, from zircon.mcli.dist.m

diigo

Summary: The site I found describes the context of a rhetorical situation. Context is the surroundings that will influence the rhetorical situation. The site also defined rhetorical situation itself and the other components of the rhetorical situation. The site was also in a very easy to use format. It was a very organized site helping me find information quickly and easily.
How is it useful? It defined context through examples. One example was you have to give a speech and the speech was set to happen right after lunch. After lunch the people are bound to be a little sleepy. The context of this situation is that the speech was held after lunch, thus affecting your speech.
Why was it useful? Using examples to define a term is a very effective strategy. The use of examples helped cement my understanding of context. The organization of this site was also a useful tool. The site is very well laid out and each subject has a clear bold heading. There are also many examples used in the site. It doesn't just use one; it uses many examples each containing a different form of context.
How is it credible? The information on the site is an excerpt from a book. It contains information on how to cite it and it contains a page that outlines the usage rights. I researched the book and I could not find an author. I think the book is a co-written project that involves many different people. The book could also still be under construction. At the end of each page there are citations containing many different names. I think these citations are where information was pulled from to create the information above.
Why is it credible? The site is a very detailed and professional site. With how many pages of information it contains, it would be a huge waste of time to create a false document. There is just too much information present for it to be a false document.
Citation: Mclean Oral (n.d). Retrieved November 1, 2009, from http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/review-book-mclean-oral/38916#book-38917

Summary: This site is a glossary defining terms used in literature. Not only does it define the term, but then it explains the term using examples from different types of writing. This site doesn't define genre in a rhetorical situation, but it gives such a clear definition that it is easy to make the connection. The author said that understanding genre is useful because you can see how an author adopts the standard practices that other authors have already developed.
How is it useful? This site was useful because it gave me a clearer understanding of genre. It also taught how genre is useful in understanding writing and deciding the audience for the writing. If you're into horror books, you will probably find your favorites in the Gothic genre.
Why is it useful? The use of examples made this site extremely useful. The examples help in understanding the term completely. After reading the examples there are no loose ends or questions, just perfect understanding of the term genre.
How is it credible? The site is an online glossary that receives input from college professors and college students. The site is run by University of North Carolina at Pembroke; every input is either from a professor or student from that school.
Why is it credible? The site has an .edu address, meaning it's for educational purposes. Since the site was made for education, every entry must be checked to ensure accuracy.
Citation: Canada, M. (n.d). All American: Glossary of Literary Terms. Retrieved November 6, 2009, http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm#g

Summary: What I found is a Wikipedia article. The page explained that any human sense is a modality. Hearing, seeing, smell, touch are all modalities. The article also described different kinds of modalities. In rhetorical situation, we described modality as the physical layout of the text. The physical layout will change how you consume it, whether it's visual, sound, touch, etc. This site made the connection describing that modality is anything that has to do with the human senses.
How is it useful? Even though the site explains the modality for human to computer interaction, it stills defines modality. It made understanding modality easy and gave good examples on where it is used.
Why is it useful? The site was useful because it explained and defined modality. The site defined modality as anything that deals with the human senses. Communication can take place through the five human senses, and when it does it deals modality. The site explained this and made it very easy to understand.
How is it credible? The article started in April of 2005, and since then it has been edited a number of times. The amount of revisions shows how people were adjusting the information to try and make it more accurate. The last person who made a revision had a Wikipedia user name, showing he at least took the time to start an account and look after resources like this one.
Why is it credible? The last time the article was revised was in August of 2009. This shows that someone is looking after the article making sure it hasn't been sabotaged.
Citation: Modality (Human-Computer Interaction). (2009). Retrieved on November 7, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modality_(human-computer_interaction).\n

Summary: This site lists the strategies for listening. It is a clear, easy to read list. The page gave tips like maintaining eye contact, focus on key words and phrases and tune out other sounds and noises. The sites homepage also had links for more information on different strategies.
How is it useful? This site provided a good source when looking for this type of information. The site was easy to read and I obtained the information quickly. If I were looking for other strategies this would be the site I would use.
Why is it useful? The amount of information provided by the site was also useful. The site showed all of the different strategies for listening. The other links would also make this a useful site for teachers and students alike.
How is it credible? The site has contact information to contact the author of the site. If the site was a fake, the author would not provide contact information.
Why is it credible? The site provides so much information that it would be a waste of time if it contained false information. The site is a tool to help teachers and students, teaching them about different strategies and how to obtain information in different ways. The people who make these kinds of sites make them to help educate people.
Citation: Welcome To Listening Strategies. (1997). Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.midtel.net/~natebg/listenin.htm \n

Summary: This web page was created in order to educate college students on better ways to read. The site also discussed ways to obtain and remember the information better. The site gives advice like taking notes while you read and talking back to the text. The author also advises to sit up when you read, and read in area with good lighting. The list for the reading strategies is long; these are just a few examples from the text.
How is it useful? The site gave a ton of strategies for reading. There was a lot of information on this site. The author explained the purpose for reading strategies. People learn in different ways, a list of strategies will help people find a strategy that works for them.
Why is it useful? The site explained reading strategies very thoroughly. Everything on the site was well laid out and the information was well organized. This made finding the information quick and easy.
How is it credible? At the top of the page the author noted that some of the information was from a lecture by Dr. Lee Haugen, a former reading specialist at the ISU Academic Skills Center. If the site was false, the author wouldn't have cited were they got information from.
Why is it credible? The author of the site put a lot of time and effort into making this site. There is a lot of information present, I don't think someone would go through that much trouble and give false information.
Citation: Dr. King, K. (n.d). Reading Strategies. Retrieved November 7, 2009 from http://foremostpress.com/authors/articles/pov.html.\n

Summary: This site is a tool for teachers, teaching them that students need to learn pre-writing in order to develop good writing habits. The author says that the pre-writing stage is when the student should think and develop their ideas about a topic. The pre-writing stage has no right or wrong answer. The author of the site explained pre-writing strategies in detail. Stating that it is one of the more important writing steps, that it needs to be cemented before students can go on learning how to write. Pre-writing is the time for students to explore topics by brainstorming, talking, drawing and reading.
How is it useful? The site explained pre-writing and gave examples on how to teach it. I now have a clear understanding of pre-writing and know it is useful. The author wrote that pre-writing is a fundamental basic of the writing process, that all other writing skills build off of this one.
Why is it useful? The author of this article gave examples on how to teach pre-writing to students. The author said to ask the students an open ended question like; what is your favorite thing about snow? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but there are many answers. The use of this example helped me understand pre-writing and how it is used.
How is it credible? The site contains many articles for use in the classroom. A site like this could not maintain a reputation with teachers if it contained false information.
Why is it credible? The article is on a site made for teachers. Teachers make the article and then share it with other teachers.
Citation: Despirt, D. (2007). Teach The Prewriting Stage. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://teachers-subject-guides.suite101.com/article.cfm/prewriting_stage. \n

Summary: This site defines research strategy as a plan of action that gives direction to your efforts, enabling you to conduct research systematically rather than haphazardly. After the author defined research strategy, she went on to describe the steps involved with research strategy. A couple of the steps were to choose and define your topic and get background information. After each step she would explain it and give advice on the best way to do the step. The description of research strategy was extremely thorough, giving examples of each step and making the information clear and easy to read.
How is it useful? This site gave a very good explanation of research strategy. Everything on the site was easy to find and clearly explained. The site touched every topic concerning research strategy and gave me an understanding on how to use it.
Why is it useful? The organization of the site made it useful. I found the information I needed fast and now have a good understanding of research strategies. The amount of information this site contains also made it useful. Every topic concerning research strategy was explained in depth.
How is it credible? The website has an .edu address meaning it's for education. A site intended for education must contain valid information.
Why is it credible? The site was made by The University of North Carolina Asheville meaning it was written by a highly educated individual and intended for education.
Citation: Ferguson, J. (2005). Developing a Library Research Strategy. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.lib.unca.edu/library/lr/resstrat.html. \n

Summary: This site defines drafting as a late stage in the writing process. It also says that when you're ready to start drafting you should have finished gathering information and have completed an exercise in prewriting. This site also describes things you will need in your draft and things you will not need. It then goes on to describe what each paragraph should look like, describing opening paragraph and a closing paragraph. Then it goes on to give tips about paragraph length and verbs that should not be used like "to be"; the author said to keep your voice active, not passive.
How is it useful? The site described every step of drafting, being this thorough made it a useful tool. Every point about drafting was discussed and explained in depth.
Why is it useful? The large amount of information made this article useful. Also, the information is very well organized and has a nice layout. It took seconds to find what I was looking for, and there was a lot of information to find.
How is it credible? This information is from a site that specializes in strategies and study guides. At the end of the page the author left his name and the date that the article was published.
Why is it credible? This site had a lot of information about other topics as well. The seven stages of the writing process was described, each one going into extreme detail. This shows that people have put a lot of time and energy into making this site as accurate as possible.
Citation: Landsberger, J. (2000). Seven Stages of Writing Assignments. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.studygs.net/writing/roughdrafts.htm.

Summary: This page describes peer review as students commenting on students writing. The author said that this is one of the most beneficial activities you can do in the writing process. The rest of page described different peer review activities you can use in the classroom. Each one is a link taking you to page that describes the activity and gives examples of things to do and not to do in a peer review.
How is it useful? The site defined peer review and then described how to use it in many different ways. In each example there was an extensive amount of information to describe the activity. There was also a large amount of activities, giving many different outlooks on peer review.
Why is it useful? The amount of examples the site gave made it useful for describing peer review. Each activity also performed a different action in peer review. One activity could be reading aloud and sharing information, while another could be challenging your peer's views. This gave me a clear understanding of the concept peer review.
How is it credible? The author of this site provided his name and contact information at the top of page.
Why is it credible? The page provides a link to e-mail the creator of the site. The site is an online teaching tool for home school teachers. There is zero chance that an online teaching tool would have false information in it.
Citation: Carbone, N. (n.d). Strategies for Teaching with Online Tools: Peer Review. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/technotes/workshops/peerview.htm

Summary: This site described revision as "fine tuning" a piece of writing. This site described common problems associated with revision and it also explained common errors in writing. After the site described revision, it went to define the four steps of revision. Each step asked questions pertaining to your essay and helped develop the ideas in the essay.
How is it useful? The site not only described revision, but also described common problems in writing. The author said that most errors in an essay generate from not having a clear understanding of ideas and development. The grammar and spelling errors usually follow after the confusion. When writing, we should focus on getting our ideas on paper then sort through them in the revising process.
Why is it useful? The site described revision in depth. The four steps gave examples and asked good questions to help shape the essay. The site used examples to show why revision is necessary. The author said not to think about revision until the paper is finished, if you're always worrying about grammar and punctuation you could leave out ideas that would have helped your essay.
How is it credible? The site is run by Hobart and William Smith College, meaning the article was written for educational and teaching purposes.
Why is it credible? The site has an .edu address, meaning it's for educational purposes. A site intended for education would not be allowed to contain false information.
Citation:Hobart and William Smith Colleges: Revision Strategies. (2007). Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/writes_revision.aspx. \n

Summary: The site I found was written by a college student. He showed the steps he takes when editing a paper and thought it might be useful to share the information. Editing is one of the most tedious jobs in the writing process. The author explained that the first step of the editing process is to take a break. He said to give it at least a day, to let your mind fully cool down from writing the paper. He then said that editing should be done sentence by sentence, saying each one aloud to make sure it sounds right. The site was in paragraph form making the information a little more time consuming to find.
How is it useful? The student described the steps in a way that made it to easy to understand and remember. Editing is a long process that should be done by more than one person, and should be done in a quiet static free area. The site helped me gain a better understanding on how to do editing and get the most out of it.
Why is it useful? The information is extremely easy to read and digest what the author is saying. One of the points he gave was to keep a thesaurus handy. If you're reading a paragraph and it sounds like you keep repeating the same word over and over again, you could use a thesaurus and make it sound fresh. This was a very useful tip in the editing process.
How is it credible? The site has a lot of information for educational purposes. Each article has a space for feedback and the article I used had no negative feedback. This was just a college student trying to help other students.
Why is it credible? If the article contained false information it would have been removed from the site by now, the posting is over three years old. It has also had over three hundred thousand views, if there was false information someone would have said something by now.
Citation: Rein, D. (2006). Tips and Strategies for Editing a Research Paper. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/95133/tips_and_strategies_for_editing_a_research.html. \n

Summary: This site described proofreading as the final step in the writing process. Proofreading was then broken down into five steps. Each step was a link that brought you to another page, and that page contained an in depth description of the step. The author gave a good hint to finding errors. She said that reading from right to left is a good way to find spelling errors. It allows your mind to read each word individually, and think about one word at a time.
How is it useful? The site was in an easy to use format. All the links were clearly labeled and the information was easy to find. The accessibility of the information helped me find what I was looking for. Each link contained definitions and explanations helping to describe proofreading.
Why is it useful? The site broke down proofreading and made it a simpler concept to understand. Learning something piece by piece is easier than all at once. After using the site I now have a clearer understanding on the proper way to use proofreading.
How is it credible? The site is run by the Colorado State University, meaning it's for educational purposes. A website for educational purposes cannot contain false information.
Why is it credible? The site has an .edu address meaning it is used for education. If the sight is intended for education the information must be accurate and up to date.
Citation: Kiefer, K. (2009). Writing Guides: Proofreading Strategies. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://writi.ng.colostate.edu/guides/processes/editing/pop2b.cfm