Rhetorical Situation
Summary
I found this website that helps me understand the analysis of the rhetorical situation a lot better. I chose it because it seems to best fit the situations that we come across when doing homework. This website is basically answering a question with more questions but what I understood from it is what follows. This website describes the rhetorical situation as an event that gives way to a need or opportunity to persuade. In order to write or understand about said event a rhetorical analysis needs to be devised. The rhetorical situation analysis is composed of a few elements, for example author, purpose, audience, and genre. This website helps you by creating a solid analysis of some of the questions that should be asked when analyzing a rhetorical situation.
How/why useful
This website is very useful because of the checklist format it is in, this also shows that the intended audience is someone like a student. The order in which the questions are set up, gives it the format of a checklist. You can use this website as a reference or a self checklist when analyzing a rhetorical situation. It is also very easy to find what you are looking for because all the topics are in bold print and there is not a lot of text to read.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a ".edu" website. There is also some sort of license that pertains to that persons work; it is a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. A license usually means that it is a trusted source. All the information provided is intended to help someone understand the topic because it is setup as a checklist.
Citation
Silva Rhetoricae. (page update: Feb. 26, 2007). Silva Rhetoricae. In Basic Questions for Rhetorical Analysis. Retrieved November 9, 2009, from http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Rhetorical%20Analysis%20heuristic.htm.
"Goal"
Summary
I understand that this website does not define “goal” in our list of rhetorical terms but I believe that “goal” is the combination of these two other terms, thesis and purpose. This website describes a thesis statement as being a sense of direction for the paper. This means that you are informing the reader what direction you are going with the paper and sums up the conclusions you have come up with. It also describes the purpose statement as being very similar to thesis statement with the exception that a purpose statement does not specifically give the idea of the conclusions the author has. I believe that both of these terms accurately define “goal” in our list of rhetorical terms.
How/why useful
This website is very useful because it defines both terms in simple language easy enough for me to understand. I found the examples that were given very useful and definitely helped understand the meanings of the two terms. The reason is that the website gives both good and bad examples, which make it easier to relate to my own experiences. It is easy to see that this website’s targeted audiences are students.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a “.edu” website. This is also a university website which makes this a useful tool for students. Another thing that makes this site more credible is that is well organized and it has links that redirect you to other helpful sources.
Citation
UW-Madison Writing Center. (Last updated: Friday, October 23, 2009). UW-Madison Writing Center. In Thesis and Purpose Statements. Retrieved November 10, 2009, from http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Thesis_or_Purpose.html.
Author
Summary
This website is about the rhetorical situation and it provides a description of the term, Author. According to the website, the author is directly affected by all the other elements of the rhetorical situation. An author is a person or a group of people that are responsible for something that is in the form of text. That author is never unbiased and must have a reason or purpose for the text. Other topics discussed in the website are purpose, context, topic and audience.
How/why useful
This website is very useful because it provides detailed examples for each of the elements that make up the rhetorical situation. It is very easy to navigate the website because it provides links that direct you to a description of the selected topic. Other links on this website lead you to tips or questions about the topic, analysis and definition. The examples provided also vary because you can choose from a work related example, school related, or home related.
How/why credible
This website is credible because my teacher was the creator. Also because it is a “.edu” website. Other things that contribute to the credibility of the website are, the simplicity of switching from topic to topic, the various different examples given, and it has no flashing pictures of bears.
Citation
Rodrigo, S., (n.d.). In The Rhetorical Situation, Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~rrodrigo/lessons/rhet.sit/rhetorical_situation.swf.
Exigency
Summary
This website is mainly talking about the rhetorical situation in general but it gives a brief definition of the term “Exigency”. Exigency is defined as, "an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be." This is a quote describing exigency from the book, “Rhetorical Situation”, by Lloyd Bitzer. Exigence is one of the three components that make up the “rhetorical situation”. In other words exigency is and event that causes the need for action.
How/why useful
This website is helpful because it also talks about the rhetorical situation, audience, and constraints. This website was created for the purpose of helping students in that specific class understand the definition and components of the rhetorical situation. It does this by defining and giving examples of each of the terms. The author also compares definitions of two people, Lloyd Bitzer and Richard Vatz. Overall, this website is useful because it is presented in an organized manner and has a sense of order.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a university website“.edu” website. It also has quotes that refer to a book called, “Rhetorical Situation” by Lloyd Bitzer and to the work of Richard Vatz in, “The Myth of The Rhetorical Situation”.
Citation
Heenan, K., (Copyright Fall 2005). English 472: Rhetorical Studies, Fall 2005.’ In The Rhetorical Situation. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from’ http://www.public.asu.edu/~kheenan/courses/472/f05/bitzervatz.htm
Audience
Summary
This website talks about Audience in writing. When writing a paper it is important to remember who your targeted reader is because that is your audience. There are important things to keep in mind about your audience, like whether or not they have knowledge about what you are writing. Another thing is the choice of vocabulary. According to this website writers should express themselves with clear and simple language. The use of fancy wording or over thought sentences usually does not impress the targeted audience, with the exception of educated scholars, and sometimes has the opposite effect.
How/why useful
This website is useful because the explanations are clear and understandable. This article is short but it does answer most of the questions that might arise about what the audience is. This websites targeted audience is most likely students and less experienced writers. The examples that are given are easy to relate to and understand.
How/why credible
This website is credible because the definitions that are given are backed up by understandable examples. It is in an essay format but still has paragraphs that separate key points about the description of audience. It gives two different forms of examples that broaden the audience of the article, an example of impressing a teacher or peer and an example of impressing an employer. One thing that decreased the credibility of the website is the advertising that cuts between the actual essay.
Citation
Ellis-Christensen, T., (copyright © 2003 - 2009). Wisegeek. In In Writing, What is an’ Audience?. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.wisegeek.com/in-writing-what-is-an-audience.htm.
Context
Summary
This website is about providing context in writing. It states that not a lot of writers realize or understand that context in reality is not just meant to quickly grab the attention of the reader, or as the author of the article describes it, “a lead-in to the meat of the text.” (Sumerset, 2009). It means answering all the questions the reader may have. Context informs the reader whether the text is in their best interest to read. Some of the questions the reader may have are, “is this something that fits my aptitude?” (Sumerset, 2009) and “What was the exigency for this piece?” (Sumerset, 2009). According to the article, good context is achieved after you have completed a first draft.
How/why useful
I found this website and article to be very useful because it provided a definition in the form of a question. I found it easier to understand by putting myself in the position of the student reader because the questions that are mentioned are the typical questions a student reader would ask. Another thing that I found useful about this website is that at the bottom of the page it provides completed citations for you to use. These include MLA style, APA style and Chicago style.
How/why credible
This website is credible because the purpose of this website is to provide articles that can be revised and rated depending on the level of usefulness. It is in essay format and does not provide links about examples of context. The website does allow you to become a member in order to become a contributor. It also provides links to other related articles and has a search function for other articles.
Citation
Sumerset, J., (2009, October 15). In How to Provide Context When Writing. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://ezinearticles.com/?How-¬to-¬Provide-¬Context-¬When-¬Writing&id=3096277
Genre
Summary
This website talks about genre in movies, but some of the explanations he gives are helpful for understanding genre. It also makes it easier to understand genre when you compare it in something easy and visual like movies. The definition of genre is a way of putting text into categories that share similar characteristics, or the simple definition, type or kind. It describes what makes up a genre. These elements are known as generic signifiers and include situations, locations, story, plots, characters, themes and values.
How/why useful
This website is useful because its purpose is to help you understand genre. It has activites you can do to help you identify it easier. It has examples of the different types of genres there are and it matches them to famous movies. Overall, it makes it simple to understand genre by the use of movies.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it allows you to become a member of the site so that you can learn more. It properly lists titles by italicizing the titles and it breaks down the elements of genre in an orderly fashion. It provides links for all the different topics and has a navigation bar to help move around the site more efficiently.
Citation
Orlebar, J., (Thursday September 24, 2009). MediaEdu-resources-understanding, genre. In Understanding Genre. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from, http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/understanding-genre/.
Modality
Summary
This is about as close as I can come to finding a website that describes modality. I chose to use this online dictionary because all of the other websites I tried completely confused me and led me down a path of frustration. Modality is defined by this online dictionary as, “The quality or state of being modal” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009, main entry), which translates to me as something concrete being used for a purpose.
How/why useful
This website is useful because it is a dictionary. Any word you don’t understand you can look it up. It is also useful because it separates the definitions by category and gives examples that help understand the definition.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a dictionary and most of the time you resort to a dictionary for a credible reference. This online dictionary provides two different citations you can use, APA style and MLA style. It is also a well known dictionary making this a very credible website to use for this assignment.
Citation
Modality. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved November 10, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Modality
Reading strategies
Summary of Reading Strategies
This website provides five strategies to improve the reading experience. These strategies can help read more effectively and gain confidence in reading. The strategies described are previewing, predicting, skimming, guessing from context and paraphrasing. This website also provides tips on how instructors can help teach when and how to use these important strategies. This website overall is full of tips to have better writing skills.
How/why useful
This is a useful website because it fully explains the strategies used in listening and writing. It uses letters in bold to point out an important topic and italicizes important terms. It is easy to interpret the information provided and best of all it provides a citation in APA style which you can easily copy and paste.
How/why credible
This seems to be a professional website. It was made with the college or university teacher in mind. It provides many links to other teaching topics and provides a link bar to facilitate maneuvering throughout the website.
Citation
National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC). (n.d.). The essentials of language teaching. Retrieved April 23, 2007 from http://nclrc.org/essentials.
Listening strategies
Summary of Listening Strategies
This website provides a lot of information about listening strategies. It defines listening strategies as techniques or activities that help a reader understand what they are hearing. It separates these strategies into two separate categories, Top-down strategies, listener based approaches, and Bottom-up strategies, text based approaches.
How/why useful
This is a useful website because it fully explains the strategies used in listening and writing. It uses letters in bold to point out an important topic and italicizes important terms. It is easy to interpret the information provided and best of all it provides a citation in APA style which you can easily copy and paste.
How/why credible
This seems to be a professional website. It was made with the college or university teacher in mind. It provides many links to other teaching topics and provides a link bar to facilitate maneuvering throughout the website.
Citation
National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC). (n.d.). The essentials of language teaching. Retrieved April 23, 2007 from http://nclrc.org/essentials.
Pre-Writing Strategies
Summary
This website has all the elements necessary to understand the prewriting process. It provides many useful links that define all the steps that make up the prewriting process. The strategies that are provided in the website are unconscious strategies and conscious strategies. Some examples of unconscious strategies include brainstorming, free writing, and nutshelling. Examples of conscious strategies include Journalists’ questions, Aristotle’s topics, Tagmemics, and Synectics.
How/why useful
This website is very useful because everything is organized. It provides links for all the steps mentioned which then describe in much detail the topic that was selected. It doesn't just have a list of links; it gives a brief description of the topic to give you an idea about what the link will be explaining.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a website for York University. It has many useful links and provides lots of graphic aids. It also provides a side bar that covers all of the information related to the prewriting process.
Citation
York University. (March 10, 2009). http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/prewriting/. In Pre-Writing Strategies. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/prewriting/.
Research Strategies
Summary
This website is very helpful because it is teeming with research strategies. Research is about finding ideas and adding your own input, not just finding another person’s work for you to use. It is about finding information that helps you with your topic. It is important to get into focus and understand that there are strategies you can use for research. Some of strategies that are discussed are for people writing a research paper with no prior knowledge of the subject, and other strategies involve previous knowledge of the subject.
How/why helpful
This website is very helpful because it describes how to effectively research to complete a term paper. It has everything organized and it is easy to navigate the site. Something I found very useful were the charts.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a “.edu” website. It has a lot of information and it provides charts to better understand the material. It is also credible because it advises against copying and pasting, otherwise known as plagiarizing .
Citation
Greene, A., Sinclair, B., (published fall 1998, updated 22 April 2002). Library Research Strategy. In, Developing a Library Research Strategy. Retrieved November 5, 2009, from, http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/lr/lr101/greene/res_strat.html.
Drafting Strategies
Summary
This website is about strategies that help you when you are in the process of drafting. I chose this website because it is short and just feels like it covers most of my questions. I like that this website gives you good strategies to follow and it also tells you other strategies that you might think are useful but they really are not.. This is helpful because sometimes you don't know when you are doing those things. It is easy to see that the author’s intended audience are students.
How/why helpful
This website is helpful because it points out the simple, but important things. It is a reference for people who are in need of a quick refresher or just happen to be running out of time to turn in an assignment. The information is brief but it is still effective.
How/why credible
It is credible because it is a “.edu” website. This website is part of an instructors course syllabus, this means that a student would normally refer to this website for help, making this a credible source.
Citation
Boyko, M. Senior Instructor., (n.d.). Drafting: Best Strategies. In Drafting Strategies. Retrieved November 5, 2009, from http://www.colorado.edu/intphys/iphy1950/draft1950.html.
Peer Review Strategies
Summary
This website talks about how to effectively edit a persons essay or work. It talks about how important it is peer edit. Peer editing is important because it teaches you to criticize, which helps when correcting your own paper. This website defines peer editing as the act of revising a peer’s draft and looking for things that might be out of place. Some examples are punctuation, spelling, and complete sentences. It also provides a checklist that you can use to aid in the process of editing a paper.
How/why useful
This is a useful website because it takes the time to explain what peer editing is. The targeted audience for this website is mainly students, the author specifically states that “You really *Can* write your PAPER!” (Svan, 2009). It also helps as a reference for those who know what peer reviewing is. It is also helpful because it provides a list of things to look for so that you can correctly peer review a paper.
How/why credible
I believe this website is credible because it also provides help for many other things such as admission essays, term papers, research papers and book reports. The website fully describes what peer editing means and how to go about doing it.
Citation
Svan, S., (n.d.). For Students: Peer Essay Editing. In How To Edit For Peers?. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://www.customwritten.com/Writing/peer-editing.html.
Revising Strategies
Summary
This website’s targeted audience is teachers. This website can help teachers with ways on teaching some revising strategies. Revising strategies can aid a student when criticizing and improving another peer’s work. Some of these strategies are, I wrote it; I fix it, I wrote it; you guys fix it, We wrote it; you guys fix it, You wrote it; you fix it. Some of these strategies can help form a checklist from which the reviser can check off. Overall the website is meant to give tips and guides on teaching these strategies to the students.
How/why helpful
This website is very helpful because it provides questions as headlines, which just makes it easy to find what you are looking for. It also gives a description of everything covered and most importantly it provides links to forms you can print. It has a list of the topics on top of the page which are links, this helps when you are only looking for one thing.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a “.edu” website. This website is meant for teachers, because it specifies it and it gives tips on teaching. It also lets you create a profile so that you can access more information.
Citation
server contact: cwis-adm@ku.edu . (copyright 1999-2005). special connections. In Revising Strategies. Retrieved November 5, 2009, from http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=instruction§ion=main&subsection=writing/revise.
Editing Strategies
Summary
This website is about editing strategies. It says that a good way to edit a paper is by taking steps. It seems like a long process but it is also a very good way to do it and definitely seems worthwhile. The steps basically mean that you should start big and work yourself down to every detail. Some of the steps involved with editing are, Think about the targeted audience, Starting with sentences, Consider words, check grammatical detail, punctuation and spelling.
How/why useful
This website is very useful because it clearly states the process of editing. It also provides links that deviate to a specific step and define that step. It is very easy to navigate the website because of the links and it also has a sample paragraph that you can try the steps on so that you get a better understanding of the process. This website is truly meant to help the student understand the editing process.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a “.edu” website. It also provides clear definitions and has links available for more defined explanations. A big clue that makes this website credible is that this website is a college website.
Citation
Keifer, K., Barnes, L., Palmquist, M., (Copyright © 1993-2009 ). Writing guides:' editing. In Editing Strategies. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from' http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/editing/pop2a.cfm.
Proofreading Strategies
Summary
This website provides helpful proofreading strategies. Everyone has their own way of proofreading but according to this website; there are some general guidelines or strategies to proofreading with more effectiveness. Some of these strategies are, Taking a break, giving yourself enough time, Reading aloud, Role playing and getting others involved. On top of these strategies there are more individual strategies you can practice that would help. Some of these strategies are, Finding out your common errors, Learning how to fix those errors, and choosing specific strategies like the ones stated earlier.
How/why useful
This website is useful because it is easy to understand. It also provides links that strengthen the topic of the website. The information is well organized and uses lists. These websites audiences are mainly writing students, but it can help anyone who has completed a paper of some sort.
How/why credible
This website is credible because it is a “.edu” website. It provides links that are related to the topic and has a navigation toolbar to other topics related to writing. It is also credible because it is a well known website for its helpful content.
Citation
Purdue OWL. (Last edited by Allen Brizee on May 5th 2009). The OWL at Purdue. In' Proofreading Your Writing. Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/01.
17 items | 50 visits
This assignment is titled, "Writing Textbook AB". The purpose for this assignment is to help us, as students, when we need to refer to a credible source, like most other students do with a textbook. This assignment will be the class reference, and conatins bookmarked websites that help understand...
Updated on Nov 17, 09
Created on Oct 27, 09
Category: Schools & Education
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