Forming 'A More Perfect Union'

In W. Ross Winterowd’s article, “Dispositio: The Concept of Form in Discourse”, we learn that form goes beyond sentence structure, grammar and paragraphing. “There are other ‘semantic’ elements that contribute to the sense of form verses formlessness…” In Barack Obama’s speech, “A More Perfect Union,” Obama is able to use form to generate an appropriate and well constructed argument. In this speech Obama is addressing the accusations against his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and he is able to defend his position with his former pastor, using mostly repetition-an expressed transition that creates form. “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.” Obama repeats disown 3 times to transition from the focus on Rev. Wright, to that of his grandmother. He then uses repetition by repeating woman to put emphasis on his grandmother being white, and raising him as a child. He is able to make a connection between people in his life, and what they have done for him, and his multicultural background. Throughout the speech, Obama is able to use implied transitions with the pauses in his voice that are marked with hyphens in the text. “This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America”. Here Obama is able to use the implied and expressed transitions with the pauses in sentences and the repetition of more. He also has an example of the question transition, which is also expressed. “The question transformation is classed as an expressed transition because questions can be recognized on the basis of their form. And, simply, a question normally calls for an answer.” “Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.” Obama uses these questions to create honest answers that America is looking for. Because of his use of form and transitions in his speech, he is able to argue his case, proving that he is a good candidate for President regardless of the actions that happen with the people around him, and now we are able to see that America agreed.

I have been wondering a lot lately about the effects of Black students attending HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). I wanted to stay away from comparing the benefits of an HBCU verses a predominately white university, and what the cons could be. Instead I want to focus on how HBCU’s prepare black students for the real world, what is done differently, and if student’s that attend these schools feel as if they have been placed in an unrealistic society(because when they are on these campuses they are the majority). To be honest I have not thought a lot about what type of real forms I could create. Most of my decisions will be based on the results of my research. I could possibly make a pamphlet that educates future black collegiate students on what an HBCU really is. I also thought about making ads that could be published in magazines promoting the awareness of these institutions, their benefits and goals. I do not want my real forms to function as ways to convince students to attend HBCU because that is not my goal. I rather have students really understand their purpose, how it is different from attending another university, to make sure that it is right for them. Many of my friends have attended HBCU’s, but have transferred back to an Indiana state school. I am interested in seeing why this happens, and what made them make their original choice of an HBCU in the beginning.

Beneficence

In Winterowds Beneficence article, he talks about “rhetorical force in rhetoric.” He explains that the way we use force in our sentences can extend into the arguments we make. He first talks about intention. He describes how we as writers and readers cannot completely understand a sentence until we are given an explanation as to what the sentence’s intention is. Winterowd also talks about performatives, which are used to show intention. In Laurence Musgrove’s article The Real Reasons Students Can’t Write, Musgrove makes the final statement “Here’s your badge.” The fact that Musgrove does not use a performative to suggest his intent, such as “I appoint you with your badge,” might suggest that Musgrove’s intent is not to give educators the task of helping students write himself, but instead is suggesting that the task of motivating students has existed all along.

 

For my historical-causal analysis I am thinking about an idea that deals with a rise in youth violence, and analyze the trend in school shootings such as Columbine and Virginia Tech to see how safe our schools are and what these events could mean for the future of Americas schools. For my real form I think a brochure to send to parents regarding signs of violence in their children, or a ad campaign might be best. The genre form will need to reach both students and parents as well as teachers. The ad campaign and brochure will need to be sensitive to the issue but direct enough to impact the audience.

Symbol-Using Awareness

I thought that the basic aim of Enoch's "Becoming Symbol-Wise" was to talk about another writers idea of teaching students how to be better consumers of discourse. What I mean is that it is teach students to become very aware of the type of language used in discourse, especially news media, and to be able to break that down, and get a real understanding of it. She says, "...an aim that asks students to adopt an attitude of patient reflection and to identify with one another as language users who are both symbol-wise and symbol-foolish." I thought that statement really helped me to sum up the article on a whole. I was thinking about my paper that we just handed in and I analyzed the letter to Hu Jintao. This is the article in which Lung, a Taiwanese writer, writes a letter to the leader of China reprimanding his leadership, and the strict control of the media. A part of Enoch's article is that she tells us how Burke uses a process of indexing and picking out key language terms to show how an argument is constructed in a way that is good or bad, or socially inferior or superior. Lung does this with her use of language, such as "Internet police" and "cutting the throat of China". This is in part to a reaction to the abrupt closure of the publication "Freezing Point" in China. Enoch's essay would encourage students to be patient and look carefully and closely at the type of language used. If students were looking at a general word like leadership there could be good connotations and bad ones associated with that, if you look at the point of view of Lang or Hu Jintao. The point was to make the students more "symbol wise".

I am thinking about an idea that has to do with the fact that there are too many children who do not have any understanding about homosexuality, and that this breeds ignorance, and that if we introduce this sexual orientation earlier on with the help of children's literature children would be less apt to be ignorant and hateful. I think the best "real" form would be either a informative TV commercial, or a magazine ad campaign. The genre form will need to mostly entice parents or educators. I believe that children should be present in the ads but obviously young children will not be the ones we have to persuade into action. The audience would be adults who have the same desire to educate our children, and to stop ignorance. I think that I do not create a genre that alienates anyone though. This is a slightly radical ideal for some, and it needs to be tasteful, understated, and direct. It must portray the reason or need for this, and the effects.

-AJ

"Real" Forms and Resources

Hi, everyone.

We'll spend the next five weeks imagining, drafting, analyzing, revising, and rethinking your Public Awareness Projects in two forms: the research form (or, the historical-causal analysis) and the "real" form (in a suitable genre of your choice).

I have been browsing different genre forms and thought I would post some here for your perusal. What follows are links to various white papers, technical reports, advocacy documents, informational web pages, and brochures that might help get some of the creative juices flowing for your own projects. Some of these represent print genres that have been linked online, as opposed to genres that were created specifically as online projects:

--An informational website built around a Sustainability Report recently distributed at Indiana University.

--Any section of the Sustainability report can be considered a "public awareness" project on its own.

--A related chain of documents for the National Resource Defense Council's "Call Off the Guns" campaign, surrounding a controversial bill allowing open hunting of protected gray wolves. It includes a webpage and message to members of the NRDC, a television advertisement that the NRDC created and aired on cable television in October 2007, an article, and an ENS news release on the outcome of the television advertisement.

Here are some other "real forms" on different topics:
--resource site and database on changing the culture of college drinking
--quality of life report (public document) on the Greenwood Village, Colorado with accompanying website
--informational brochure about "Discovery Academy," a program at Highline High School

Here are some resources I have discovered (including download sites for free, public-domain images):
--multimedia tools in the Information Commons
--digital equipment lending
--free public domain images
--Morguefile.com (another source of free public domain images)

Finally, our course resources page also has links to a number of "live" publications that in themselves provide examples of arguments in real form.

-Dr. Graban

Daily Persuasion/Propaganda Discourse Analysis

Hi, everyone.

For Tuesday's in-class analysis, here are your concepts and questions. Work through the set that is relevant to your group; we'll break for discussion either before or after the synthesis questions. One group member will probably want to use the assignment sheet and available Internet resources to find out more about the context of your chosen text.

Lung Group: “Letter to Hu Jintao”
1. examples of illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, or extending (Harris ch.2)
2. the rhetorical “move” in each paragraph (i.e., its communicative function or the role it plays in her larger argument)
3. cogent reasoning (Lazere ch. 2) and/or Rogerian “believing and doubting”

Preparation for Synthesis: Cite the passage(s) that you think holds your writer’s main argument. Very briefly, list the main points your writer uses to develop that argument. There should be an implied logical progression in that list, so you might have to dig through the examples and illustrations to get at them.

Synthesis Question: What role could cultural context play in how Lung wrote her open letter, given that it was originally written in Chinese for a Taiwanese audience, before being translated into and circulated in English?

Neeleman Group: JetBlue triad of documents
1. cogent reasoning (Lazere ch. 2) and/or Rogerian “believing and doubting”
2. use or avoidance of disembodied voice (Matalene)
3. how the 3 different documents work together to create or remove certainty

Preparation for Synthesis: Cite the passage(s) that you think holds your writer’s main argument. Very briefly, list the main points your writer uses to develop that argument. There should be an implied logical progression in that list, so you might have to dig through the examples and illustrations to get at them.

Synthesis Question: How does Neeleman construct audience in these documents in terms of Ong's audience construction?

Sheils and Musgrove Group: “Why Johnny Can’t Write” debate
1. cogent reasoning (Lazere ch. 2) and/or logical fallacies (Lazere ch. 2)
2. ESBYODS principles (Lazere ch. 5)
3. conflict levels or clashing value pairs (Kaufer)
4. examples of illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, or extending (Harris ch.2)

Preparation for Synthesis: Cite the passage(s) that you think holds your writer’s main argument. Very briefly, list the main points your writer uses to develop that argument. There should be an implied logical progression in that list, so you might have to dig through the examples and illustrations to get at them.

Synthesis Question: What kind of audience does each writer write for, and how do you think that affected their decisions about how to argue (note specific differences where you can)?

Pausch Group: “Childhood Dreams—The Last Lecture”
1. the rhetorical “move” in each paragraph (i.e., its communicative function or the role it plays in his larger argument)
2. use of experience as evidence (Matalene)
3. use of irony

Preparation for Synthesis: Cite the passage(s) that you think holds your writer’s main argument. Very briefly, list the main points your writer uses to develop that argument. There should be an implied logical progression in that list, so you might have to dig through the examples and illustrations to get at them.

Synthesis Question: How does Randy Pausch use his own experiences as a way for the audience to reflect on current values, beliefs, and trends of the American middle-class?

-Dr. Graban

Tres Questions

1. As the president of my high school’s gay straight alliance I received a lot of criticism from my peers. I did my best to remain calm, and to not give people the reactions that they were looking for when they teased and tormented my group of “faggots”. There was one instance when one man just took things too far, personally attacking me for working with these students. We stood yelling at each other in the hallway outside my Spanish room, both of us reaching unimaginable levels of frustration. We were having a conflict on level four, conflicting local values. He believed that the students, with whom I confidentially worked, were sinners on the deepest level, while I believe that they are decent human beings that deserve the same rights as anyone else. We were unable to resolve our argument because there was no way for me to convince him that his religious beliefs are wrong.
2. Savio draws on analogies of other instances in which human rights are denied. In Brave New World people are denied even the most basic rights, such as love and passion. Comparing this to the conditions at your university would make quite the statement. As a University official I would want to take into consideration the argument being presented, and work to resolve the issue at hand.
3. Obama’s emphasis on the stases of cause helps readers identify with his reasoning. If readers can understand why he feels such a deep loyalty to Jeremiah Wright, they can relate and forgive him. Understanding the history of racial tension pushes Savio, and Wells-Barnett’s arguments, by helping the reader come to terms with the terrible elements of the past. Describing the emotional elements creates audience construction, by unifying everyone behind one dreadful happenings of our nation’s history.

1. My job requires making calzones. The drivers criticize how quickly I make calzones. They argue that the customers will be happier if they receive their calzones quickly. I argue that a better product offers a more satisfied customer. This is a level three argument in that the drivers and I give weight to different evidence. The drivers receive better tips when the calzones are made quickly. However, the customer has not seen the product at this time. I argue that making the calzones correctly will result in a more satisfied customer. It only adds one minute of extra work to make the calzones correctly. I believe this out ways making the calzones sloppily and getting them out a few minutes faster.

2.Savio's analogy that "Sproul Hall is to students rights as Mississipi is to civil rights" is relatable to his allusion that states the university is "in the world but not of the world," in that the the comparison of Sproul Hall to Mississipi points out the essential rights and due process that are missing in both places. This is to the allusion of the university in that there is a certain censorship in the school that takes away from these essential rights of expression and culture. Some of the students are barred from expressing themselves in that their views are seen as controversial and therefore, not good for the schools identity. If I were the Administrator, I would be responsive to what Savio defines as depersonalization. However I would not let the school run rampant. There would need to be civil and logical debating.

3.Obama makes the case that while he associates with individuals who have made mistakes in the past, it does not affect his ideals. Moreover, everyone's identity is different and made up of complex components of family, belief, and environment. It is important to weigh our view of him on these ideals he holds prevalent. Putting people in boxes based on race and identity gets us no where, besides attaining a mass of unopened boxes. Obama argues on the stasis of cause in order to very basically point out the misconception in order to identify how different we all are and how we cannot base one man's actions on another's. What Wells-Barnett and Savio could take from this is that ethos must be presented in a way that can be accepted by a more diverse populace.