Gina L. Vallis-Reason to Write_ Applying Critical Thinking to Academic Writing -Kona Publishing and Media Group (2011)

2. Reality TV generally has some kind of conflict that main participants must
endeavor to overcome

3. Reality TV claims to be unscripted, but it is heavily edited.

Question: In what ways does reality television create specific effects
that explain its popularity as a genre?

EVER WANTED TO KNOW?
Break your prose into 2–3 paragraphs her page, assuming it is in typical 12-point, double-spaced
type. One long paragraph is exhausting.
Use common sense: don’t break a paragraph in the middle of an idea, and don’t start a new idea
in the middle of a paragraph.

ALERT! ATTENTION! WARNING! DANGER! BEWARE!
Beginning an essay with “Since the beginning of time…” or “From the moment humans first
walked the Earth…” is like beginning a novel with: “It was a dark and stormy night.” Definitely to
be avoided.

More often than not, the opening to an essay is more than a single paragraph. It goes
on for as long as it takes to serve its purpose. In doing so, it performs its primary task:
to find common ground with the reader and introduce a question.

In whatever discipline one is writing, the opening always offers the question to be
posed, problem to be solved, or issue to be resolved. Whether this is offered in an
implicit, or explicit manner, the opening sets up the issue at hand-what is in question.
Writers who are new to unlearning the five-paragraph form are usually best served
by making the question explicit.

Other functions of the Opening

While it is important to keep the main function of the opening in mind, in regard to
establishing the question at hand, there are other purposes that the opening serves:

• The essay opening introduces the voice of the writer. Readers will quickly form
opinions about writers within the first paragraph or so, and it’s important that
a writer takes extra care to immediately establish ethos with the reader. In
other words, writers should strive to appear reasonable, unhurried, specific,
and honest, right away.

The primary way to do this is to make clear statements, and strike a tone of
honest curiosity in asking your question. This is the opportunity to draw your

132 REASON TO WRITE

reader in, catch his or her interest, and demonstrate that the question being
posed is one worth exploring.

• At this point, the writer will also indicate the level of formality of the writing,
which can vary, stylistically and according to disciplinary convention.

Once established, this level of formality should remain consistent throughout
the essay. As a general rule, “Yo” is over the top, but “This essay will begin...” is
not very interesting, either. Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes
usually works.

• Although it is not necessary at this point, the opening may introduce the ques-
tion within a specific context. It may offer an example, or a history of the issue,
or a general way in which the question is usually understood, or the way that it
is treated within current discourse, academic or otherwise.

This is really a combination of opening and background, and certain questions
yield themselves especially well to this kind of opening. Either way, one will
eventually have to deal with the context of one’s question, in the world.

4 types of openings

A lthough there are many essays that do not open in these ways, there are some
typical types of openings that are good to know, and can be used if particularly
appropriate to a question, or if a writer is stuck in knowing how to begin.

The most effective opening for a writer who is learning the academic essay is still a
series of three to five very specific statements, of direct pertinence to the question being
posed, with which a typical reader would agree. However, if one is feeling more adven-
turesome, and would like to open with stylistic flair, there are several ways to do so.

Narrative Opening

A Narrative Opening, unlike one that begins with a series of statements, begins by
telling a story for the reader. It is briefly informal, should be pertinent to the issue at
hand, and should be immediately followed by a clear switch to an objective, and even
clinical, tone.

This opening can be very useful for emphasis of the real-world consequences of an
issue, or simply as dramatic effect to draw the reader in.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 133

Note: It is very important to understand that a narrative, or story, is only effective in
an opening. To make this opening work, one must relate it quickly, and then refrain
from any storytelling for the rest of the essay. The only exception to this would be that
some essays, although not all, will return briefly to the same story in the closing of the
essay, providing a kind of stylistic “bookend” effect.

From Phillip Zimbardo “A Pirandellian Prison,” commonly known as
“The Stanford Prison Experiment”:

The quiet of a summer morning in Palo Alto, California was shattered
by a screeching squad car siren as police swept through the city picking
up college students in a surprise mass arrest. Each suspect was charged
with a felony, warned of his constitutional rights, spread-eagled against
the car, searched, handcuffed and carted off in the back seat of the squad
car to the police station for booking. (36)

Student Sample:
Following the scent of my Mom’s apple-cinnamon pie, I see myself
staggering childlike to the table. I stretch out with my hand and tip up
my toes. My memory ends there.

It was my favorite memory, until recently, when I asked my mother
about it. My mom hesitated, and then told me that she had never made
apple pie when I was young.

I was shocked. The memory was so vivid. However, upon reflection,
I cannot recall any other time that my mother baked. What is it about
memory, that we so often have a clear recollection of events that actually
never happened?3

The Baited Opening

A baited opening basically provides a “hook” for the reader. One can do so by leaving
the reader in anticipation of a particular fact, and then withholding it until the end of
the opening, thus creating anticipation.

Or, one can create tension by providing an opening that ends with a kind of twist. In the
following opening, there is a mixture between narrative opening and baited opening:

From Paul A. Cantor’s “The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the
Nuclear Family.”

3 Writing 1. Fall 2008. UCSB.

134 REASON TO WRITE

When Senator Charles Schumer...visited a high school in upstate
New  York...[he] praised the Brad Bill, which he helped sponsor, for its
role in preventing crime. Rising to question the effectiveness of this effort
at gun control, a student named Kevin Davis cited an example no doubt
familiar to his classmates, but unknown to the senator from New York: “It
reminds me of a Simpsons episode. Homer wanted to get a gun but he had
been in jail twice and in a mental institution. They label him as ‘poten-
tially dangerous.’ So Homer asks what that means and the gun dealer says:
‘It just means you need an extra week before you can get the gun.’” (734)

The Oppositional Opening

An oppositional opening sets up an issue in a particular way that the reader would find
familiar, and then abruptly reverses that position at the end of the opening, making
sure that the reader can follow the reason for the reversal. This tends to show how
one might look at an issue in a different way, creating justification for the question
that is being posed.

Student Sample:
I once believed that “home” was where I was born, the place where I
had always lived. “Home” was a sense of living under the same roof as
family members, being familiar with surrounding, and following the
same daily routines. Home, as I knew it, then, was my neighborhood,
my city, and my country: China.

Then I graduated from high school, and moved halfway around the
world, to the United States. While the environment was foreign and
the culture was completely different, I adapted. In doing so, the United
States has become “home,” too. What do we mean by “home”? Is it a
place? Is it a house, family, a country, a sense of permanence? Can there
be more than one?4

Direct Address Opening

“My dear readers, or fellow scholars, or, as some might say, ‘My Fellow Americans,’ this
type of address is often used in political speeches, as I am sure you will recognize.”

A Direct Address Opening sets up a situation in which the writer speaks in a very
obvious manner, to a hypothetical reader, as if the reader and the writer were together
in the same room.

4 Writing 2. Spring 2009. UCSB.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 135

Note: Although this type of opening is included on this list, frankly, most of the time,
it fails. It’s like trying to pull off irony in an essay—it is so tricky it’s almost not worth
attempting.

However, if one finds the idea irresistibly compelling, or if it’s just especially appro-
priate, remember that to avoid failing, three criteria have got to be met:

1. The direct address has got to serve a purpose, in the sense that it must relate
directly to the question.

2. The direct address should never solicit either the opinion or the emotional
reaction of a reader, which will strike the reader as suspect.

3. Immediately following direct address, you’ve got to switch very quickly to an
objective point of view directly after its use, and refrain from using it for the
rest of the essay.

Example:
Imagine yourself in a world where you could not read. That would be
illiteracy. Now, answer the following questions: Where is Baghdad,
on a map? What caused World War I? Who is the Prime Minister of
Britain? What resolution did the U.N. Security Council just pass? What
is Humanism? In the United States, many people are unable to answer
these kinds of questions. This is also a form of illiteracy. What are the
consequences of cultural illiteracy in the United States?

You are under no obligation to use any of these opening strategies. There are many
other ways to open an essay: provide a representative example; cite a quotation;
define a context. One is also, again, free to simply begin with a few statement that
people would find reasonable and fair, and that pertain directly to your question.
Remember that the important thing is to find common ground with your reader, and
to introduce that question.

5 review

CHAPTER REVIEW

The information to take from this chapter is that you should use the content of
your analysis to determine the organization of your paper. Trying to pick an orga-
nizing principle at random, and then making the content fit, will usually result in
either a lack of organization, or listing. Some principles of organization include,

136 REASON TO WRITE

but are not limited to: categories, comparison, causality, taxonomy, focus, or
chronology.

Once initial analysis is performed on a refined critical question, one is ready to
determine that organizing principle. In doing so, this creates the first step in writing
the draft: the opening of the paper.

The opening of a paper includes a title, which should contain keywords for a catalogue
search of your essay. The opening serves two primary purposes: to find common
ground with your reader, and to introduce your question.

There is no need to try to fit your writing into any of the openings offered in this
chapter; there are many ways to open an essay. Examples of openings in this chapter
include: narrative, baited, oppositional, and direct address openings.

GRAMMAR REVIEW

Paragraphs

Break your prose into 2–3 paragraphs her page, assuming it is in typical 12-point,
double-spaced type. While the rules that are often given concerning transitions, or
the minimum/maximum number of sentences in a paragraph, are too rigid to actually
serve any useful direction in the actual act of writing academic prose, it’s important
to give your reader a break every once in awhile. One long paragraph is exhausting.

Unlike other forms of textual communication, such as a pamphlet or advertisement,
an essay has very few ways to visually organize information for a reader. Use common
sense: don’t break a paragraph in the middle of an idea, and don’t start a new idea in
the middle of a paragraph.

VOCABULARY REVIEW

apodosis: in the conditional statement “If X, then Y,” apodosis would be the “Y”
statement. For example, in the statement “If it rains, then I will bring an umbrella,”
the second part of the sentence would be the apodosis

Organizing Principles:

causality: outlines a chain of reasoning that is logical in nature, based upon
conditional statements of protasis and apodosis

categories: identifies the major points of an analysis and take them one by one,
returning each conclusion to the question

SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 137

chronology: established time periods, from most recent to earliest, or earliest to
most recent
comparison: locates specific points of similarity or difference between two things,
or among three or more things
focus: using something external to the element of analysis as a of lens through
which to organize conclusions
taxonomy: identifying types and subtypes
protasis: in the conditional statement “If X, then Y,” protasis would be the “X”
statement. For example, in the statement “If it rains, then I will bring an umbrella,”
the first part of the sentence would be the protasis
recursive writing: although this technique can be used in several ways, in this
sense it means returning individual conclusions that one finds to the initial
question that one is answering. Each conclusion builds an overall series of
reasonable statements that support the final answer

Types of Openings:

baited: “hooks” the reader by providing a twist at the end of the opening,
or making the reader wait until the end of an opening for a vital piece of
information
direct address: sets up a situation in which the writer directly addresses the
reader
narrative: telling a story to the reader
oppositional: introduces an issue, and then immediately opposes that point
of view

6 organizing/opening the essay

On the following pages, you will find:
Step 5: The Opening/Organizing Principle Guide

138 REASON TO WRITE

STEP 5: THE OPENING/ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE GUIDE

PART 1

Provide the opening to your essay, usually less than 1 page, but sometimes more,
depending on the length of the paper involved.

Format this opening according to the discipline in which one is writing, or guidelines
given by an instructor. The guide you consult for formatting must be current, because
rules change every year.

• If the essay falls under writing in the Humanities, and the instructor will
accept it, use the MLA style format offered in the example. Essays in the social
sciences can also use this format.

• If the essay writing is in the Humanities, but especially in the discipline of
History, and the instructor will accept it, one has the choice of using Chicago
format. Essays in the social sciences can also use this format.

• If the essay writing falls under the social or hard sciences, and the instructor
will accept it, use APA format. In this case, one would do the following, at this
initial stage:

• Omit the Abstract page, which is written last

• Leave space for, but do not yet include, the statement of findings
(conclusion) in the opening of papers within these disciplines, since
they are also usually written last.

Instead, outline the elements that always follow the statement of find-
ings, which is the statement of the question at hand, as well the meth-
odology that will be used.

PART 2

Explain how you plan to organize the paper in light of your analysis.

Remember that you should not yet come to any conclusions regarding your question.
This should be an introduction, followed by a plan for organizing the body of your paper.

The length of the explanation of your organizing principle will depend on whether
you tend to be a pre-writer (someone who fills in the detail within that organization
beforehand, resulting in what is commonly called an outline) or someone who is
content with a more general plan of action.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 6 Finding Common Ground 139

As a result, Part 2 can range anywhere over 1 page in length, and sometimes
considerably longer. Either is fine, although the second will result in less work on the
draft, because you will have already resolved smaller organizational issues.

FirstName LastName [in header] Lastname 1
InstructorName
Name of Class First Line of Title:
00 Month 0000 Second Line of Title

The opening to an essay should provide certain elements to your reader. The
most important purpose that is serves is to establish that you are reasonable and
fair. The second is to create the opportunity to introduce the question at hand. For
writers learning the essay form, the question should be explicit, and placed at the
end of the opening.

One of the simplest ways to create the desired effect is to make three to five
statements concerning the question at hand, and with which your reader would
tend to agree. This does not mean making sweeping, general statements, which
would be called throat-clearing. An opening that offers three to five statements that
you make, to be effective, must be pinpoint specific, directly related to the question
at hand, and conclude with that question.
_________________________________________________________
On a separate page, explain your organizing principle. It does not have to follow one
of the kinds of openings listed in the chapter. You are creating a plan that outlines
how the material from your analysis suggests a means of proceeding in the body of
your paper.

140 REASON TO WRITE

Chapter 7

Arrangement

1 142BEYOND EXORDIUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 143FANCY NAMES AND FUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 151FORMATTING IS FUN! –NOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES: RAW OR COOKED . . . . . . . . . 155
5 157REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 160THE DRAFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

162STEP 6 THE DRAFT GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

141

1 beyond exordium

O nce you have an opening, you are ready to begin drafting your paper. As you
do so, you will most likely find yourself revising some of your previous conclu-
sions. Writing is a process, and no matter what kind of preparations you make, things
will change as you come to understand the answer that you are offering in relation-
ship to the question you have posed.

Developing and refining a critical question, defining the terms of the question,
analysis and organization, as well as drafting the opening of the essay, are all steps
to writing. These steps can be put into order, which makes them easier to put into
practice.

Each step roughly corresponds to a function of argumentation, if we remember that
argumentation is about discovering the truth of the matter. These functions have
names that describe different elements one would likely find in an essay.

Step 1: The Critical Question is an exercise that helps to reorient the role of inquiry
in academic writing, and its relationship to the thesis: the answer that is offered, in
writing, from the initial question that is posed, implicitly, or explicitly, by a writer.

Step 2: The Question Map, is an exercise that can be called:

• narratio: putting a question into a specific context in order to refine it and
prepare for analysis.

Step 3: Ways to Define, is an exercise that can be called:

• definitio: the act in which the writer stipulates the definition of any term that,
if undefined, would convey a connotation over which the writer does not have
control.

Step 4: Performing Analysis, is an exercise that can be called:

• amplificatio: the analytical exploration of a question based upon the break-
down of an issue into manageable parts, and drawing conclusions.

Although the step in this text involved performing a separate analysis, before
one sits down to write, it will become, essentially, the “body” of the paper.

Once an opening is established, one explains the first conclusion drawn from
analysis, based upon the organizing principle. As one moves through the
breakdown of the question, each conclusion is returned to that question, until
one builds a reasoned response.

142 REASON TO WRITE

Step 5: The Organizing Principle, is an exercise that can be called:

• partitio: the logical organization of the body of your paper based upon the
analysis that you perform.

Step 6: The Essay Opening can be called:

• exordium: the point at which one prepares one’s audience (the reader), in the
opening, for the writing that will follow.

It is often easier if one is introduced to such terms after one has a basic understanding
of the functions that they serve. This chapter will cover the final three elements that
rhetoric defines as a of part reasoned argumentation: refutatio; stasis; and epilogus.

2 fancy names and functions

T hese terms have nothing to do with a writing formula; they are functions. In
other words, they serve a purpose, and are descriptions of strategies with which
writers routinely engage in composing a quality piece of academic writing. There are
three more strategies to cover, before one begins to draft the essay.

REFUTATIO

Disagreement between people is often the result of one party feeling like his or her
point of view is not being understood or acknowledged by the other party.

This is relatively easy to fix within a conversation in which disagreement arises. If
one finds oneself in such a situation, there is a way to increase the chances of coming
to sort of agreement (or some sort of “agreement to disagree”), and doing so in an
amicable manner.

People want to feel heard. The best way to accomplish this is to tell the other person
that you are going to reflect back what you hear, and then request that the other per-
son tell you if, and in what way, you may have mistaken her or his meaning.

This strategy will not only diffuse some of the emotional charge of “my” point of
view versus “your” point of view, but will also: 1) Force your conversational partner
to evaluate and potentially clarify what he or she really means; 2) Help each of you
to find points of agreement, as well as disagreement; 3) Discover if there is confusion
in the communication exchange; 4) Prompt each of you discover the specific points
upon which you diverge, and why.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 143

In doing so, you may not resolve these specific points of contention, but at least you
will both have a better idea of exactly what they are, and also why each of you holds
that point of view.

In writing, there is a similar strategy that you can use. However, in this case you are
obviously not able to directly solicit your reader’s participation. Instead, you must
play both roles. This means anticipating what a given reader might object to, or
areas about which he or she might need clarification, while you are in the process of
writing, and answering to that hypothetical reader.

One of the most damaging element to the credibility of a given writer is for the writer
to ignore specific points in his or writing that would most likely bring up potentially
opposing points of view in a typical reader. It is not only dishonest on the part of the
writer; it feels dishonest to the reader.

If you are being honest in your writing, there is no need to ignore such moments.
One should confront them immediately, and resolve them. In doing so, one goes
through the same process as one does within a conversation: one restates the poten-
tial opposing point of view, and responds to it in a way that is reasonable and fair. If
one cannot do so, one should revise one’s position, and work it out.

This is refutatio. It can be called for at any point in which you anticipate an objection
on the part of the reader. If one is correct in one’s reasoning, one can reiterate that
objection, and counter, or refute, that opposing point of view, in a way that neither
offends, nor ignores, the concerns of one’s reader.

refutatio in action

In telling her reader that she is going to devote a whole book to analysis of the slasher
film genre, Carol Clover immediately anticipates that a good portion of her read-
ership will find such a topic of academic inquiry trivial, or inappropriate, or even
offensive.

The slasher film is, after all, a part of popular culture that is considered lower than
lowbrow, and therefore probably unworthy of the attention of serious academic
scholars.

The most damning element of the slasher film cycle, which is often said to have
started, roughly, with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), and to have ended in the
mid-1980’s with a series of monotonous serial remakes, was that it involved unself-
conscious, graphic, and unapologetic representations of gratuitous violence, directly
primarily (although not exclusively) against young women.

144 REASON TO WRITE

If that was not enough, the slasher film adhered to a rigid plot formula of mind-numbing
repetition and predictability. For these reasons, few academics considered it worthy
of their attention. As such, at the time that Carol Clover wrote her study, the slasher
film genre was viewed, in general, as a rather distasteful underside to American
popular culture that was best left alone, in the hopes that it would eventually go away.

Rather than ignore the likely reaction to her choice of subject matter, Carol Clover
raises the issue right away, opening her text with a single sentence that neatly sums
up the entire genre:

At the bottom of the horror heap lies the ‘slasher’ (or spatter or shocker
or stalker) film: the immensely generative story of a psycho killer who
slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he is
subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived. (21)

In the style of refutatio, Clover reiterates these objections. She neither avoids, nor
minimizes, the underlying reason for those objections, nor does she make any
attempt to deny that these objections are valid.

Rather, Clover suggests that it is exactly those qualities that make the slasher film
genre worthy of critical scrutiny: “The qualities that locate the slasher film outside
of the usual aesthetic system…are the very qualities that make it such a transparent
source for (sub)cultural attitudes towards sex, and gender in particular” (22).

Without her anticipatory response to these objections, Clover’s study might not
have been given the reception that it was within the academic field, where it made
a considerable impact upon views of popular culture, gender, film, and narrative
structure.

STASIS

This is the most difficult rhetorical concept in critical thinking to explain, mostly
because it has to do with the: “A-ha! That’s what this is all about!” moment that occurs
when one is writing. There is no mistaking when one has found stasis; all the lights go
on and every detail settles into place. It is related to the realization of the answer—in
some ways, one could say it is what leads to the thesis of the essay.

In performing analysis, if one goes deep enough, one will find the source of the
primary conflict that first motivated the initial question. One will discover what is
really at stake within that conflict. The easiest way to define stasis, without going into
formal logic, is to say that it is, between a writer’s question, and a writer’s answer, that
moment when one sees directly into the heart of the matter.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 145

stasis is action

Since stasis is easier to demonstrate than to describe, let’s say that one were to ask the
following question:

In regard to categories offered in the United States census, what would
be the relationship among such concepts as race, ethnicity, nationality,
and culture?

Since definitio—defining the terms of one’s question—would be a large part of
answering this question, one might imagine that exploration of the terms would yield
the following stipulative definitions, for the purpose of analysis of the question:

Race:

As it is understood within scientific discourse, race does not, in fact,
exist. Race is not an innate quality of a given individual human being,
but rather a means by which people identify, and are identified, within a
context that is entirely socially constructed.

Ethnicity:

Unlike race, ethnicity is the recognition of a particular politico-geo-
graphical point of origin for an individual, often involving a shared his-
tory and/or culture. The exact location of this point of origin appears to
be relatively arbitrary. That is, it may be a point of origin initiated within
the present lifetime of an individual, or it may represent a generational
regression to a past politico-geographical point of ancestry. In anthro-
pological terms, push it back far enough, and we’d all be Pangeans.

Nationality:

Entirely political, nationality refers to the boundary in which one holds
legal status (citizenship).

Culture:

Overall, culture refers to the sum total of traditions practiced by any per-
sons who are of a given nationality (legal status within a political boundary).

In this way, culture refers to specific traditions that tend to accumulate
around ethnic identity—a political-geographical point of origin—often
linked to nationality. However, culture also refers to a political boundary
within which ethnicities may be diverse, since it is the political boundary

146 REASON TO WRITE

that binds that diversity. In this way, all cultural experiences within the
United States, for example, are “American” experiences, and all tradi-
tions practiced within its borders are a part of “American” culture.

The enduring quality of those traditions is often, although not always,
related to the degree of generational regression—cultural traditions that
are passed down from one generation to another will tend to transfer ethnic
identity, no matter from where they originate.

These traditions can include such things as: food; music; religious prac-
tices; the way one marries; the way one mourns the dead; the commonly
held ideals concerning what it means to be a father, or a mother, etc.;
rites of passage; clothing; language; etc.

Having established these definitions, one can return to the original question con-
cerning the United States census: the categories that it provides in relationship
to this question, and its relationship to these definitions, and begin to perform
analysis.

In doing so, one find patterns within detail, and draw conclusions from those
patterns.

Patterns (Set 1):

1. According to these definitions, at no point is it possible for the census to
logically claim that the choices provided question anyone’s nationality, since
“American” or “non-American” are not categories that one is offered.

2. According to these definitions, at no point can the census claim to be
providing categories that refer to culture, since culture always refers, in
general, to nationality.

There is a wide range of cultural practices originating outside of the
United States (especially considering its history), directly linked to ethnicity
as a point of origin.

However, culture, in this sense, always refers to “American culture,” which is
composed of this range.

3. According to these definitions, and despite any wording on the form itself,
race does not, in fact, qualify as a valid criterion for collection of census
data, since there remains no reliable means of determining the validity of the
category.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 147

Conclusions returned to question:

In returning conclusions to a question, one looks at the question again, in light of what
one has determined, and draws a series of conclusions. In this case, they might be:

1. In order to function as an accurate system of data collection, the census can only
refer to a single criterion among these four definitions. Logically, in any collection
of statistical data, variables corrupt the data; one must measure the same thing.

2. The criteria for the census cannot be nationality (American/non-American),
or culture (American). Nor can it be race, since race is not an accurate
determinant of anything except for social attitudes.

3. To serve its function, the questions within the census can only refer to one
type of criterion: ethnicity. Ethnicity indicates a political-geographical point
of origin with which an individual identifies, and by which an individual is
often identified, and that is sometimes attended by cultural practices that are
transmitted through generations.

4. In order to function as an accurate system of data collection, an accurate
list of choices indicating a given ethnicity must be available to any given
individual to whom the census might be administered.

5. In order to function as an accurate system of data collection, the persons who
answer to the census must be aware of the principle of this criterion.

Pattern:

1. Even though ethnicity is the logical criterion for the question, such choices as
the category “White,” on the census, do not indicate a political-geographical
point of origin, and therefore do not refer to ethnicity.

2. The category “White” is not an indicator of ethnicity, such as traditions
preserved from participation in a previous political boundary (nationality) as
an identifying point-of-origin (e.g.: “French”).

3. The range of external physical characteristics that construct “White” as an
identity is not based upon ethnicity, but is, instead, a racial category.

4. To indicate ethnicity, the external characteristics that are constructed as
racially “white” would have to be reoriented to a political-geographical area,
most likely originating from the Western side of the Caucuses, a mountain
range dividing the continent of Eurasia (i.e.: Caucasian).

148 REASON TO WRITE

5. However, on the census, for those who check the racial category of
“White,” the closest approximation of ethnicity available as a choice would
be “Asian.”

Conclusions returned to question:

1. The census refers to a range of criteria, and therefore does not measure the
same thing.

2. Those criteria are broken into categories that measure ethnicity, race,
nationality, and culture, depending entirely upon the choices offered within
the census, the person to whom it is directed, and without making any overt
distinctions among them.

3. Because the census contains more than one type of criteria in its question,
a choice indicating ethnicity may be either unclear or unavailable to a given
individual to whom the census might be administered.

4. The persons who answer to the census have no access to a reliable way to
determine to which criteria he or she is answering.

5. Therefore, if one checks the category “Hispanic,” one is not able to determine
if this category refers to: 1) How one is identified by one’s appearance (race);
2) A political-geographical origin, which may go back one or ten generations
(ethnicity), 3) One’s traditional practices (subset of American culture), or
4) One’s nationality (citizenship).

6. Since the categories do not follow a single type, any given individual may find
himself or herself in a situation in which he or she is:

• Without a category into which he or she fits

• Forced into a category with which he or she does not identify

• Unable to determine which category is accurate

• In a position where conflict is present among the categories, because the
answer depends on to which of the criteria the person is answering

In continuing your analysis, you may finally conclude that:

The failure of the U.S. census to offer the same criteria, equally, to each
of its citizens, in answering this question, undermines the validity of the
statistical data that are collected.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 149

Stasis, however, might be something closer to the following:

The census may not produce reliable data in the spirit in which it was
created, but it does offer an important piece of information about
American national identity. What the census does suggest is that to be
of American nationality is to be someone who has difficulty knowing
how to ask, or how to answer, this question.

EPILOGUS

The end of the paper is not always the same as one’s thesis—the answer to the question
that one has posed. The epilogus, or closing, can be either simultaneous to, or even be
presented after, the presentation of one’s answer.

The epilogus is the way that one exits one’s paper, just as the exordium is the way that
one enters. Although it not necessary to do any of the following, certain forms of the
epilogus serve to stylistically “wrap-up” a paper, and may do so in a variety of ways,
past the point where one has answered the question at hand.

The following includes a few of those ways:

• One could return, stylistically, to one’s opening (e.g.: tell the second part of a
narrative opening)

• One could show why it is important to look at the question in this light

• One could show the implication of this answer in light of other questions, or
other contexts, or in relationship to real people or situations

• One could show how a new question could be proposed, in light of this answer,
that would call for further academic inquiry (by someone else)

If the thesis, or answer, is placed somewhere else in the essay, in a rewrite (i.e.: in
the exordium, or opening, where answer and question can, in some conventions, be
given in quick succession), then the epilogus will always be different from the thesis.

What one does not do is merely to repeat one’s thesis, if it has already been offered.
Repetition in an essay is a sign of poor organization.

epilogus in action

An epilogus that extends beyond the answer that one gives is not a requirement;
some questions simply end with their answers, and that is sufficient. The following is
an example, from a student paper, of such an epilogus. The original question that it
answers is: What roles does the outcast play in society?

150 REASON TO WRITE

“Outcasts” play an important role in our society. First, they serve as an
example that those who are inside of a social system can observe. The
result can be positive or negative. Outcasts are visible, and tend to draw
attention. One can look at a person and think, “I never want to be like
that.” One can also look at a person and say to oneself, “This is a person
who has taken risks, and whom I admire.”

The figure of the outcast does the unusual, whether right or wrong.
Some become leaders because they act outside of the boundaries of
mainstream society, and some become examples of what happens when
one steps outside of those boundaries.

Being an outcast is what gives these people their ability to play this role,
in the first place. To gain that viewpoint, an outcast has to be on the
outside, looking in. An outcast must view the society as a whole, and in
relationship to which he or she is slightly apart.

An outcast is a person who has the ability to see what someone on the
“inside” cannot. From this unique perspective, they sometimes develop
a means for change. And in this light, an outcast can be both one of the
most powerless people in society, and at the same time can also be one
the most powerful agents of change in society: the Activist, the Artist,
the Critic, or the Revolutionary.1

3 formatting is fun! –not

I f it were possible to simply establish, once and for all, the rules for formatting the
academic essay, this would be an easy section-one would simply follow a template
and get on with one’s life. What prevents this is that the rules of formatting change.
They are updated every year. As such, any attempt to provide the details of such rules
would quickly become obsolete. That is the reason college handbooks exist, and why
one must find the newest edition of that handbook, if one is to format correctly.

Nevertheless, there are certain important pieces of general information to under-
stand about formatting. First of all, formatting is both a function of convention—like
wearing a black suit to a funeral—and also serves a purpose. The practical function
of formatting is to standardize a series of elements in the academic essay for the
purpose of publication. Those elements include the appearance of the article (size of

1 Writing 1. Winter 2008. UCSB.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 151

margins, placement of title, formatting of date, whether or not it has a cover page,
etc.), and ensures that anyone reading the article would have a reliable way to access
any source material presented within the article.

Many college handbooks are expensive. It is possible to find the information online,
provided one is willing to take the time, and that one trusts the source (e.g.: a university
website), and that one knows that the information represents the most current update.
Otherwise, one must simply pay for the information.

There are several advantages to formatting a paper correctly. The most practical refers
to the nature of one’s readership. Many instructors require it, and it can be a part of
your grade. Even if they don’t require it, formatting an essay demonstrates academic
professionalism. In other words, instructors, like other people, are creatures of habit.
It is soothing to see the date in a uniform format. Few instructors respond well to
pink ink.

The stakes get higher when one submits an essay to a conference panel, or to an edi-
torial board for potential publication. Often, the first wave of submissions is weeded
out on formatting alone. These go into the round file. The general feeling is that if you
can’t be bothered to take the time and effort, well…right back at you. It doesn’t mat-
ter if you’ve written brilliantly, any more than it matters if you have a lot of market-
able skills, but you show up at a corporate job interview in a wrinkled suit and badly
mismatched socks.

There is probably no more tiresome task than formatting an essay correctly. It is a
boring task, and it is a necessary task, and your willingness to engage in it will affect
such things as your G.P.A., as well as the reception of your writing within other aca-
demic contexts.

Formatting determines a series of rules that govern the presentation of
academic writing:

• The physical layout of the document, including such things as page size,
margins and spacing between elements, tabs, indentation, how pages are num-
bered, and in what area of the document information is given, etc.

• The text on the page, including such things as font size, title, subtitles, under-
lining or bold, date, author name, etc.

• The order of presentation of the information, including the presence or
absence of a cover page, whether or not there is an abstract, where the docu-
ment begins, how one orders the information, the sorting of appendices, etc.

152 REASON TO WRITE

• How one indicates sources, including in-text citations, or footnotes, or endnotes,
or a notes page, whether citation goes at the end of the paper or on a separate
page, what the citation page is titled, whether one indents lines on the source page,
what information must be included, what numerals are used to indicate sources,
what information must repeat within the text in regard to sources, etc.

These rules are laid out very precisely, and all formatting indicates a specific difference
between how one indicates a source within the body of one’s text, and how one indi-
cates a source within a separate source page. In all forms of formatting, both are
always present.

Formatting conventions are partially tied to disciplinary divisions. The three major
divisions are the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. In the strictest sense, the
sciences are constrained to those disciplines that employ a limited range of quantita-
tive methods: physics belongs to the sciences; archaeology is in the humanities. The
arts, as the third division, refer to disciplines that engage in the practice of producing
art. Any interpretation—such as Art History or Art Appreciation—would fall under
the humanities.

To clarify, the U.S. Congress defines the humanities as the following:

The humanities include, but are not limited to: history; literature; phi-
losophy and ethics; foreign languages and cultures; linguistics; juris-
prudence or philosophy of law; archaeology; comparative religion;
the history, theory, and criticism of the arts; and those aspects of the
social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science,
government, and economics) that use historical and interpretive rather
than quantitative methods.

The humanities are distinguished, within this tripartite structure, by emphasis on
logic, analysis, and the exchange of ideas.

The current compartmentalization of the disciplines within the university is rela-
tively new. After Aristotle, the Romans broke study down into: grammar; rhetoric;
logic; geometry; arithmetic; music; astronomy. When Christianity swept through
Europe, universities became primarily theological, and this continued well into the
17th century. In contrast, scholars in Iraq and Persia were already engaged in analysis,
experimentation, and publication of findings as early as the 11th century.

The 19th century brought a radical secularization of the university. There was still
no word for “scientist” until 1833, and even then it still referred to Aristotelian con-
cepts of logic. It was not until the 20th century that Karl Popper, who died in 1994,

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 153

formalized scientific method, and science splintered from the humanities—although
still retaining much of the methodology derived from formal logic. This is why math-
ematics is a subset of logic.

This left the social sciences in an awkward position—on the one hand, it often
engages in study involving quantitative data, but, on the other hand, it also engages
in questions regarding humanity, and not just natural phenomena. As such, the social
sciences remain in the humanities, but the formatting that is used to present scientific
material was developed in the social sciences, from the field of psychology.

There are three forms of formatting with which you should be familiar, broken down
according to how a typical reader of that kind of document would be best served in
terms of accessing the information contained within it. The three primary forms of
formatting, for the purposes of an introduction to academic writing, are:

MLA Formatting:

Appropriate to the Humanities

MLA formatting is governed by the Modern Language Association,
which also oversees official rules for the standardization of grammati-
cal and syntactical rules within the English language.

In general, MLA has no cover page or abstract, uses in-text citation
and signal phrases, utilizes footnotes or endnotes for commenting,
and includes a Works Cited page with citations that are formatted in a
specific style.

Chicago Style Formatting:

Appropriate to the Humanities, including Social Sciences, and especially for the pur-
pose of writing and research. Chicago Style is especially common within the disci-
plines of anthropology and history.

Chicago Style is governed by the University of Chicago, and also dic-
tates official rules for the standardization of grammatical and syntacti-
cal rules within the English language, as well as presentation of research
material. Chicago Style is the oldest of the formatting styles, and set
foundational standards for citation of source material in research
writing.

154 REASON TO WRITE

In general, Chicago style has a cover page, but no abstract, and does not
use in-text citation, but, rather, gives that information in either foot-
notes or endnotes, indicated by raised numerals within the body of the
text. Full citation material is given in what is called a Bibliography, with
citations that are formatted in a specific style.

APA:

Appropriate to the Social Sciences, especially to the degree in which the writing
engages with primarily quantitative data, and the Sciences. It is also adopted in non-
academic writing, with some variation, including grant and business proposals.

APA is governed by the American Psychological Association.

APA format, in general, has a title page, an abstract page, and utilizes
in-text citations and signal phrases. Full citation information is given in
what is called a References page, with citations that are formatted in a
specific style.

Which formatting style you use will, therefore, depend on the discipline in which
you are writing, the degree to which the writing engages in research, and instructor
preference. This formatting style will, in general, also determine how you present
elements: for example, APA style uses an abstract, and an abstract always offers, at
the beginning of the final paper, the findings, or answer, to the question posed within
the study.

4 primary and secondary sources: raw or cooked

T his is also an excellent time to deal with the issue of the difference between pri-
mary and secondary sources. In the draft, the ideal initial situation is to try to
avoid secondary source material.

Unless there is a genuine need for a secondary source, such as an initial theory upon
which to build, analysis in a draft should initially consist of primary sources.

In academic writing, any research is original research, and original research is
almost exclusively performed, at this academic level, in the realm of primary sources.
Secondary resources are appropriate for a final draft, in learning academic writing.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 155

Therefore, it’s important to know the difference.

Primary Sources can be thought of as “raw.” For example, let’s say your question
has to do with the preference, in the general population of the United States, for
pumpkin pie.

In your primary research, you locate the record of what kinds of pies are stocked, in a
typical months, from 1,000 supermarkets and bakeries. You find that pumpkin pie is
not as popular as chocolate cream pie, although it is the most popular pie during cer-
tain holiday seasons. Those are your raw data drawn from primary source material.

Secondary Sources are “cooked.” For example, for your study, you could reference
Joe Schmoe’s article entitled: “Study from a Survey Concerning Preference for Pumpkin
Pie in the General Population.” Joe Schmoe has done his own primary research into
this question; you may have a conversation with him about those findings, in your
writing, but you cannot take his primary source research, and call it your own.

The difference between a primary and secondary source often doesn’t have to do with
the source, itself. The difference between a primary and a secondary source has to do
with how you use the source.

Let’s say your question is, instead: “Do more people prefer pies made from pud-
dings, or made from fruit?” In that case, Joe Schmoe’s study on pumpkin pies is still a
Secondary Source, even though he didn’t answer your question directly. His study
provided you with “cooked” material to work with—an answer that was not common
knowledge, and that the author did his own work to provide, and that speaks directly
to your question, in however small a way.

Then again, let’s say your question is, instead:

“How can the way that questions are posed, in a survey, change the answers that
people provide?”

In that case, Dr. Joe Schmoe’s survey could become a Primary Source. In his study,
he performed research on pies—not on how surveys are worded. Thus, his survey
would provide you with “raw” material concerning his survey techniques, a topic
about which he did not intend to provide information.

Many primary sources cannot be “cited” in the typical way, although some can. For
example, if you were researching migration patterns of moose by tracking them in the
wilderness, you could hardly cite the moose, could you? However, if you were looking
at representations of certain types of music in a series of films, you would have to cite
both the artists of the music, and the films you used to conduct your analysis.

156 REASON TO WRITE

Primary Sources provide you with the information you need to conduct your own
original research. You analyze such data to draw conclusions.

Secondary Sources can be useful: they provide you with a comparison to your own
ideas. You can use them: as backup; to argue against; to set an example of; to illustrate
a technique for analysis you are going to use; etc. They also can be, and are, routinely
misused: an essay composed of other people’s work is the subtlest form of plagiarism.
Even if you find 500 sources that support the claim that pumpkin pie is popular, so
that you can prove, in your essay, that pumpkin pie is popular, all you’ve assembled
is a book report. A book report is an assignment designed to reflect what you have
learned; in university, we write to instruct others.

5 review

CHAPTER REVIEW

In academic writing, there are certain functions that can be identified. Each serve
a particular purpose in the process of creating reasoned conclusions. A particular
function may appear in a specific place within the writing (e.g.: opening), or the writer
may engage in an ongoing process that includes that function (e.g.: organization).

These functions include the following, although not all elements will be in this order:

• Opening the essay and introducing the question at hand

• Putting the question at hand into a specific context in order to refine it and
prepare for analysis

• Defining any terms that are ambiguous

• Performing analysis through breakdown of constituent elements. This includes
engaging in a recursive return to the original question, based upon informa-
tion drawn from the analysis

• Determining a principle of organization for the writing

• Anticipating and answering to legitimate points of contention

• Establishing the heart of the matter

• Offering an answer to the initial question

• Closing the essay

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 157

In rhetoric and logic, these functions break down, roughly, into:

• Exordium

• Narratio

• Definitio

• Amplificatio

• Partitio

• Refutatio

• Stasis (Thesis/Antithesis/Synthesis)

• Epilogus

Primary and secondary sources are different: primary sources are the raw mate-
rial of the world that you collect for analysis, in relationship to a question. Some
can be cited; some cannot. Secondary sources are the result of someone else’s
research in primary source material. You cannot use secondary sources to answer
your question directly, because that would be merely stealing other people’s ideas
and work. A book report offers knowledge of other people’s ideas. Research is
original.

VOCABULARY REVIEW

APA formatting
From the American Psychological Association, a formatting style appropriate to
writing occurring within the sciences and social sciences, as well as non-academic
contexts, such as informal and formal proposals
arts
One of three disciplinary divisions in the university engaged in direct instruction in
the production of artistic works
Chicago Style formatting
From the University of Chicago, a formatting style appropriate to writing
performed in disciplines within the Humanities, including social sciences, but
especially history, anthropology and research-oriented writing

158 REASON TO WRITE

culture
In part, specific traditions that tend to accumulate around ethnic identity, often
linked to nationality

definitio
The act in which the writer stipulates the definition of any term

epilogus
The closing of the paper that can serve the function of answering the question or
stylistically wrapping up the paper

ethnicity
In part, a particular politico-geographical point of origin for an individual, often
involving a shared history or culture

exordium
The point at which one prepares one’s audience (the reader), in the opening, for
the writing that will follow

formatting
Formal guidelines determining a wide range of rules for the physical presentation of
academic writing

humanities
One of three disciplinary divisions, with a primary emphasis on logic, analysis, and
the exchange of ideas

MLA formatting
A formatting style primarily appropriate to writing performed in disciplines within
the Humanities

narratio
Putting a question into a specific context in order to refine it and prepare for
analysis

nationality
In part, the boundary in which one holds legal status (citizenship)

partitio
The logical organization of the body of a paper based upon the analysis
performed

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 159

primary source
Material that provides you with the information you need to conduct your own
original research. You analyze such data to draw conclusions

refutatio
Any point in which a writer anticipates an objection on the part of the reader and
engages actively with that objection

race
In part, a means by which people identify, and are identified, within a context that
is entirely socially constructed

sciences
One of three disciplinary divisions, with a primary emphasis on value-neutral
quantitative inquiry based upon scientific method

secondary source
Material that represents the results of other people’s analysis of primary sources,
and therefore used for the purpose of interacting with conclusions drawn from the
analyses of others, but never as representing one’s own analysis

stasis
The source of the primary conflict that first motivated the initial question

6 the draft

D ifferent writers have different approaches to drafting a paper. The important
thing to realize is that no paper can be simply written, printed, and submitted.
Re-writing, including editing, is as essential as any other portion of the process of
composing a quality academic essay.

However, first one must get something down on paper. The more organized your first
attempt is, the less work there will be on the other side. One of the first things to do
is to determine the formatting in which the essay will be written, and set up a new
document for that formatting.

At this point, you should already have a title, opening paragraph, and an organizing
principle drawn from analysis. When composing writing, it is often helpful to imag-
ine the essay as a house. Writing is a lot like an act of hospitality; one invites another

160 REASON TO WRITE

into one’s thoughts, and shows that person around, in an organized manner. This
means that the house has an entry, which is your reader’s introduction to you. Make
a good first impression.
The shape of the house will depend on your organizing principle, but one thing will
always be consistent: at the center of the house is a question. Each time you lead your
guest into a particular room, and collect an item of value, you return your guest to
this main room in order to show how all of it fits together.
Your organizing principle should give you the first step after the opening. You have
broken the issue down; pick the first door that you will open. If your organizing prin-
ciple is chronological, the rooms will be taken in a particular order determined by
that order: earliest to latest, or latest to earliest, etc. If your organizing principle has
types and subtypes, you may show your guest to a room, and then several smaller
rooms connected to it, before returning to the main room.
Go slowly; take one room at a time, and be a gracious host. Do not rush through a
particular room, and make sure to explain any items with which the reader might
be unfamiliar. Explore all of its contents. If the room changes shape, let it—the nice
thing about extended analogies is that, unlike a real house, one is free to reorganize it
to accommodate that change without having to do any demolition.
Keep track of any details regarding source material, as you find them, and make sure
to note all essential information for that source, so you do not have to find them later,
which is time-consuming.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 161

STEP 6: THE DRAFT GUIDE

Taking into account all of the functions of the essay, as well as the elements you
already have in preparation to write the draft, format your paper and begin after
the opening. Deal with the first issue called for by your organizing principle. As you
progress, it can sometimes help if you put in subheadings; you can always suck them
out, later.

Remember that your reader has not thought about this in the way that you have, and
needs to be introduced to your ideas in a way that is steady and logical. Your tone
should be objective, reasonable, and you should define any terms that are ambiguous.
Do so in a casual way, and not: “X is defined as…” Take into account paragraph breaks
(2-3 per page), and avoid emotional language.

There are certain places in which students commonly get stuck when learning how
to write the essay, and they correspond, interestingly enough, with the number of
pages a student has written, and the length of the final paper. A five-page paper
often gets blocked shortly after page three; a seven-page paper often gets blocked
after page five, and so on. Inevitably, a part of learning to write is to learn how to get
around this blockage while avoiding two traps: 1) going off on a tangent; 2) repeating
oneself.

These blocks usually have to do with two issues:

1. Field too broad

If a question is too broad, because a writer is trying to cover his or her
bases in terms of meeting a length requirement, it will actually have the
opposite effect, and make a paper too short. Specific insight into details, not
generalities, is what generates things to say. Start out too broad, and you can
only skim the surface of an issue.

2. Depth of analysis.

This issue relates to the first: without depth analysis into details, and the
patterns that they offer, one quickly runs out of material. In other words, one
can only say so much, if one only has only so much to say. This means one
must return to the analysis, refine it, and go into more depth in regard to
those specifics.

162 REASON TO WRITE

If one is dealing with a critical question, and has refined it, defined one’s
terms, and performed a competent analysis, length should not be an issue. If
it is, it would probably be helpful to return to the previous guides—including
the critical question guide—and make sure that one’s question has not caused
one to fall into a writing trap that would limit meaningful content.
Most of all, relax a bit, and treat the writing as exploratory; that’s what drafts
are for.

SECTION II • CHAPTER 7 Arrangement 163



SECTION III

RHETORIC
REVISION
PUBLICATION

Contents 165



Chapter 8

Communication and rhetoric

1 168“THAT’S JUST RHETORIC” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 172APPEALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 175FALLACIES AND OTHER fallacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 GETTING OUR DARNED ICE CREAM CONE 177. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 181REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ETHOS PATHOS LOGOS

167

1 “that’s just rhetoric”

“Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge’s chambers believes in an
unprejudiced point of view.”
—Lillian Hellman

W riting occurs in all sorts of places, for all sorts of reasons. The writing that
occurs in the academy is involved in the study of rhetoric. Rhetoric is a part of
the way in which Western discourse has figured out how to analyze and describe the
way in which people reason and communicate across all kinds of contexts, inside and
outside of the academy.

The word “rhetoric” has recently gotten a bad rap. It is often used to refer to empty
jargon, or double-talk. This is ironic, if only because, if one has a background in rhet-
oric, one is actively trained to recognize exactly when, and by what means, one is
being deceived through such things as language or images. It is those who are not
trained in rhetoric who usually end up being persuaded by the manipulation that can
occur within communication, because such people often simply don’t recognize that
the manipulation is occurring.

To address this routine misuse of the term rhetoric, William Safire draws from The
Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant for a word that distinguishes between “rhetoric,”
and the misuse of the word in popular discourse. He calls empty, evasive talk designed
to obscure meaning bloviation. He says: “If [by rhetoric] you mean ‘bloviating,’ get off
‘rhetoric’s’ back: we need ‘rhetoric’ to do a job that no other word does well” (3).

Rhetoric is both its own discipline, and also fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature.
As an analytical and practical tool, rhetoric is applicable to the hard and soft sciences,
and to the humanities. Yet it does not stop there. Rhetoric is just as at home in the
“rhetoric of popular culture” as it is in the “rhetoric of business communication” as it is
in “the rhetoric of science.”

Rhetoric and logic are both the basis of, and also open up new ways to understand,
information in all academic disciplines. At one time, the teaching of logic (now
reduced to the teaching of forms of mathematics), and the teaching of rhetoric (now
reduced to the teaching of debate, formulaic writing, and grammar) would have been
as fundamental to education as learning to read, as Michael Holzmann comments:

By good writing, then, we meant…rhetoric. In antiquity, rhetoric was
education, the leading out of the child from the private world of the

168 REASON TO WRITE

family…to the social and political worlds. Learning to write well…was
the necessary preparation for what was seen as the only truly human
existence: that of a participant in the social life of the community and
the political life of the state.

Because rhetoric is, in part, the study of logic expressed within language, which is
what we used to mean by “argumentation,” rhetoric is a part of the study of human
communication.

Communication occurs all of the time. Music can communicate emotion. Facial
expressions can communicate states of mind. Striking someone can communicate
anger. Speaking and writing can communicate ideas. In other words, writing is often
communication, but not all communication is written down. It helps to get a sense of
what qualifies as communication.

Communication:

In rhetoric, communication is defined as an act that must involve a speaker, audience,
vehicle, message, and intention. If the communication is designed to persuade, it can
also involve what are called appeals.

speaker The source of the message, whether that source is immediately
present, or not. For example, the sender of an advertisement
could be a corporation.

audience The receiver of the message. For example, people in a car who
read a bumper sticker, or the reader of a book, or someone who
listens to a speech.

vehicle The means by which the message is transmitted. For example:
speech; writing; gesture; body language; singing; a visual image.

message The content of that which is relayed from speaker to audience.
For example: a child crying may contain a message of distress.

intention The purpose of the speaker in conveying a message. For
example, a person may sing a song of love-gone-wrong in the
shower, and other people might hear that performance, but
if the speaker does not intend to convey a message, it is not a
communicative act.

appeal The manner in which a speaker seeks to produce belief
or action in an audience through suasion—dissuasion or

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 169

persuasion. Not all communication is persuasive in nature.
For example, communication may be intended to educate, to
entertain, or to comment.

Think about the last thing that you heard, or read, or viewed, that really blew you
away: a speech, a lecture, a reading, or even the lyrics to a song. Most of us have, at
one point or another in our lives, stumbled across language or images that have made
us stop in our tracks and really think.

EVER WONDERED? If the effect is profound, there is a kind of intimacy
that is generated between yourself and the mes-
The words affect and effect are sage; you may feel as if it perfectly expresses an
often confused. Affect is the verb, idea that you hold, or it moves you emotionally, or
as in “He affected her.” Effect is the it helps you to form your value system.
noun, as in: “The effect was that she

blushed.” One does not walk away from such an experience

with the feeling of having engaged in a remote

intellectual exercise. Rather, it affects you in other ways: it might reaffirm beliefs that

you already held, create a sense of belonging, or make you look at something in a

new light.

DEFINITION When that happens, it’s pleasurable. Good criti-
cal writing is rhetorically effective. It makes you
suasion: a communicative act think. Great critical prose can alter the world-
intended to compel belief or view of an audience that responds to it. That
action in the audience, whether is what rhetoric intends by its use of the term
persuasion or dissuasion suasion.

Rhetoric is, in part, the study of communication, and is especially adept at providing
tools for analysis of communication that is specifically designed to compel another
person or persons to act or believe in a certain way. All communication is rhetori-
cal, and rhetoric is especially helpful for studying communication that attempts to
compel belief or action. In this way, writing is often rhetorical, but not all rhetoric is
written down.

The contexts in which persuasion or dissuasion occur are pretty broad. It doesn’t just
cover a lawyer in a courtroom who is arguing a case to a jury in order to persuade that
jury to return a verdict of “guilty,” but also a child whining to a parent for an ice cream
cone in order to persuade the parent to purchase it for him or her.

170 REASON TO WRITE

It includes an essay that tries to persuade a reader that a given question has a given
answer, but it also includes a police officer waving a driver around an accident in
order to dissuade the driver from blocking traffic.

It includes a political speech designed to persuade people to vote for a certain candi-
date, but it also includes an advertisement in a popular magazine that is designed to
persuade people to buy a certain product.

It includes a scientific treatise published in a scientific journal that proposes
experimentation in stem cell research, and it also includes a conversation at a
dinner table between two friends about whether or not stem cell research is ethically
sound.

Strange as it may seem, you don’t need language to have rhetoric. It is not that every
act of communication is persuasive, but rather that persuasive acts of communica-
tion can occur in a lot of different ways. One of the first steps to understanding rheto-
ric is being able to identify which messages are designed to persuade, and which
serve another purpose. Let’s take some examples:

Images

• An image of a child on a fundraising pamphlet can be designed to
persuade people to donate money.

• A painting of a landscape may not be designed to persuade, but
merely to give pleasure.

Gestures

• A gesture that involves someone pointing to a door may be designed
to persuade a person to get out of the room.

• A rude gesture on the freeway, to another driver, may not be designed
to persuade anyone, but merely to comment.

Road signs

• A road sign can be designed to persuade drivers to obey a traffic law,
such as stopping at a stop sign.

• A sign on the road giving directions to a party may not be designed
to persuade, but merely to give information.

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 171

Clothing
• A man dressing in a suit to meet his future in-laws for the first time
may be trying to persuade them that he will be a suitable spouse.
• A person dresses in jeans to do housework may merely be practical.

2 appeals

W e rarely persuade someone just by telling them to do something. We have to
appeal to that person in some way. To take just a few examples, we may appeal
to a person’s sense of loyalty, or we may threaten that person, or we may show the
rightness of our message to a person through sound reasoning. Some are fair, and
some are not.
There is nothing inherently wrong with appeals in and of themselves. There is noth-
ing wrong with attempting to persuade someone to act or believe a certain way. We
do it all the time. We reason with our parents or friends, present our political views
to our peers, dress to impress a potential love interest, talk about our professional
experience at job interviews, etc.
Nevertheless, the discipline of rhetoric is very clear about the difference between
an ethical and sound use of persuasive appeal, even if it is particularly skillful, and
an unethical appeal that is designed to deceive another, or to hide our true inten-
tions. In other words, rhetoric studies strategies of persuasive trickery in order to
recognize when they are being used. In rhetoric, these are called fallacies: unethi-
cal ways of getting your way. Examples of fallacies would be to lie, to distract an
audience from the real issue, or simply to use outright force to compel action or
belief.
Rhetoric breaks down the ways we can persuade into three basic kinds of appeals:
an appeal to logic (logos), an appeal to emotion (pathos), or an appeal that attempts
to persuade an audience through the use of the speaker’s personal credibility
or authority (ethos). In most cases, all three appeals will be combined to create

172 REASON TO WRITE

persuasion; it is rare to see only one kind of appeal used in a single persuasive
message.

While logic may seem like it would be the strongest of the appeals, it is more effective
in certain contexts than in others. In advertising, for example, logos can be very dull.
Imagine an advertisement for a cell phone that simply listed, in a series of lines, the
uses for the device. In fact, advertising is best served by an ethos appeal, such as a
testimonial endorsement of the product by a famous figure. Secondary in efficacy in
advertising is a pathos appeal, which arouses desire for a product by evoking, or even
simply staging, a pleasurable or fearful emotional situation.

In academic writing, in contrast, the most effective appeal is logos, because the rhe-
torical situation involves an audience that tends to expect reasoning to be the primary
way in which persuasion will occur. However, ethos also comes into play, because
one must sound reasonable and because certain speakers will already have credibility
within their field, in the form of previous publication, and their writing will tend to be
given more credence in the general readership on the basis of that authority. While
pathos is not absent within academic writing, any overt usage will tend to diminish
the ethos of the writer as an authority who can be trusted to be scrupulously objective.

Any appeal can be used in a way that is ethical, and any appeal can be used dishon-
estly, too. It depends on whether the intention is an honest effort to communicate, or
if the intention is to deceive or make one’s point through unfair means.

One can twist logic to suit one’s own ends, or make it appear as if something is sensi-
ble, when it is not. One can divert the attention of the audience from the true issue at
hand by creating an emotional response that is disconnected from the issue, or pres-
ents it in an unfair light that evokes strong emotion. One can use one’s own power or
authority to force another to believe or act a certain way. Whether used ethically or
not, the three appeals are broken down in the following ways:

logos: Appeal to Logic

Logos produces suasion by appealing to the reasoning of a given mes-
sage. This is where logic comes into play when persuading another: If
one can show that one’s reasoning is sound, others may agree with what
one has to say.

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 173

For example, if a political candidate was delivering a speech while
running for public office, he or she might offer a message that demon-
strates how, if he or she wins the election, he or she plans to reduce the
budget deficit. He or she may persuade someone to vote for him or her,
based upon the soundness of his or her plan.

pathos: Appeal to Emotion

Pathos produces suasion by appealing to the audience’s emotions.

For example, if a candidate was delivering a speech while running for
public office, he or she might:

• Speak passionately about the importance of civic duty.

• Talk about overcoming personal adversity.

• Bring a spouse/children onto the stage.

This appeal does not have to be unethical; it can be an expression of pro-
foundly honest emotional intent. When Martin Luther King Jr. opened
his famous speech with “I have a dream…” he was not referring to a
sleep state. He used the line—and the repetition of that line—to evoke
emotion in his audience.

ethos: Appeal to Personal Credibility/Authority

While at first glance one might think that ethos refers to appealing to the
audience’s sense of ethics, it is not. Appealing to an audience’s sense of eth-
ics is still an appeal to pathos. If a speaker were to evoke patriotism in order
to talk about enlistment in the armed forces, the speaker is attempting to
evoke a sense of duty in the audience, which is an emotional response.

Ethos appeals to the audience by establishing the credibility of the
speaker. If one can establish that one has authority to speak on a given
matter, one can persuade one’s audience, in part, through that authority.

For example, if a candidate was delivering a speech while running for
public office, he or she might talk about experiences in the Senate, or as
a policymaker, that make him or her especially qualified for public office.

174 REASON TO WRITE

Ethos—credibility and authority—can be drawn from a lot of sources:

• Police officers, judges, teachers, and priests draw their credibility
from institutional authority that is granted to them.

• Someone who has had a particular experience may gain credibility
by virtue of that experience. For example, a person who has had a
broken leg may be perceived as more qualified to speak on the topic
of the pain of broken bones than someone who has not.

• One may gain credibility with an audience if the audience is gradually
persuaded through one’s communication that one as fair and reason-
able, and that one is taking all sides of an issue into account.

3 fallacies and other fallacies

“The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely
related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated

that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms
of the concept. And in these realms there are exquisitely sophisticated
craftsmen who—with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of
market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological testing, and so
forth—dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they

produce exactly right.”
—Harry G. Frankfurt

U nderstanding persuasion—which is the function of an appeal within a
communication—does not just make people effective thinkers and writers. If
people are not taught about how persuasion functions within communication, and
how such persuasion can be used in ways that are both honest and dishonest, people
remain vulnerable to very powerful and carefully rendered appeals that ultimately
may not be in their best interest. Public education may have forgotten rhetoric, but
politicians and advertising representatives know it very well.

On the following page is a short list of common fallacies that one sees in usage all of
the time. Look them over; you should be able to think of a time when such a fallacy
was demonstrated for you.

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 175

176 REASON TO WRITE

4 getting our darned ice cream cone

“What if there were no hypothetical questions?”
—Anon

T o quickly learn about rhetorical appeals, let’s take a very simple example: a child
wants a parent to buy an ice cream cone. The speaker (a child) may produce a
rather simple message (“buy me ice cream”) through a vehicle (verbalization) with
the intention (to persuade) of getting the audience (a parent) to buy the ice cream.
However, the appeals that the child uses may vary in complexity and strategy.

• The child may appeal through logic (logos)

• The child may appeal through emotion (pathos)

• The child may appeal by invoking his or her authority (ethos).

The child may, in making his or her appeal, also employ an unfair persuasive tactic, or
fallacy. There are fallacies in each kind of appeal. For example, a fallacy that is used
while appealing through logos is called a logical fallacy.

Here are some examples of different appeals that the child might attempt. Each
example will demonstrate the child using a certain appeal. That appeal may be fair
and valid, or it may be unfair or invalid (a fallacy).

Before reading the answer, see if you can identify what appeal is being used, and
whether or not the appeal is a fallacy, drawing from the list on the previous page. If
you believe that the appeal is a fallacy (or fallacious), state which fallacy you believe
is being used.

“Give me ice cream because I ate a healthy lunch”

Appeal being used: Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____

Is this a fallacy? No _____ Yes _____

Fallacy ____________

ANSWER

In this case, the child is using an appeal to logic, or logos. There is no fallacy
involved.

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 177

In a nutshell, the child is saying: “I know that your reason for denying me the
ice cream is probably not based on the fact that you do not have the money,
or that you hate that particular ice cream vendor. Rather, I have inferred, from
past experience, that you might deny it to me because ice cream is not nutri-
tious, and you are concerned about my health. Yet, because I already con-
sumed a nutritious lunch, this dramatically weakens your reason for denying
me the ice cream cone, and strengthens my logic for receiving it.” Not bad for
a kid, huh?

“Give me ice cream, or I’ll whine”

Appeal being used: Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____

Is this a fallacy? No _____ Yes _____

Fallacy ____________

ANSWER

Sometimes a message is not outright stated. It is implied. If the question at
hand is the purchase of a motorcycle, and occurs between a parent and a child
of age to drive, and the parent says: “I still pay your rent, Mister,” the threat is
implied (“If you buy a motorcycle, I will no longer support you”), but still has
an effect.

Thus, in this example, the child may not directly say he or she is going to whine
until he or she gets the ice cream cone, but the parent “gets it” that this is the
situation at hand, and the child “gets it” that this is the appeal he or she is
offering.

In this case, the child is using pathos, and also employing what is called a
pathetic fallacy: an appeal that uses unfair means, through an appeal to emo-
tion, in order to compel action or belief.

In this case, the fallacy is called argumentum ad baculum. It translates, liter-
ally, into “argument with a club.” Its common name is: “Appeal to Force.”

While argumentum ad baculum is an appeal that can be used in different
ways by different people (“Do you like your job?”/“Give me your wallet, or
I’ll shoot you”), its functions is to compel a person to action or belief through
direct threat (to withdraw livelihood, to harm the body, or, in the case of the
ice cream, a threat to parental sanity) instead of dealing with the issue on its
own merits.

178 REASON TO WRITE

“Give me ice cream because it will make my time with you special”

Appeal being used: Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____

Is this a fallacy? No _____ Yes _____

Fallacy ____________

ANSWER

In this case, the child is again using pathos: appeal to emotion. The child is
basically saying: “I know that you value my feelings toward you, and I am offer-
ing a way for you to ensure that I will view you in a favorable light. I’ll get the
ice cream, you’ll get to know that I like you for it, and that will make both of
us feel good.”

It’s tempting to think of this one as a fallacy, because the child is being so out-
right manipulative in making his or her affection dependent upon receiving ice
cream. However, this does not make this argument a fallacy. Poor persuasion
is not the same as deceptive persuasion. In addition, most of us expect chil-
dren to employ such obvious tactics, considering:

• How little power a child has within this particular relationship

• That the child is relatively new to the game of persuasion, and may not yet
recognize the transparency of the appeal to its audience.

In other words, if you think about it, such an appeal would be less likely to
work between adults.

“Give me ice cream, because I always get ice cream when we come here.”

Appeal being used: Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____

Is this a fallacy? No _____ Yes _____

Fallacy ____________

ANSWER:

In this case, the child is employing a logos argument, and using it in a way that
is also a fallacy.

This is a logical fallacy called Argumentum ad Antiquatem. Its common name
is “Appeal to Tradition.” Basically, this fallacy argues that because something

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 179

has been so, in the past, it is true and valid, now. The child is saying: “Whenever
we pass this ice cream stand, I should receive an ice cream cone, because this
has been the case, in the past.”

Another example of the fallacy “appeal to tradition” would be one routinely used
in public discourse to argue against gay marriage. The statement that “Marriage
is between a man and a woman” says nothing except that “this has been so.”

If we were to go back to a time when women couldn’t vote in the United States,
it would be similar to a person justifying refusal to allow women to vote based
on the statement: “Voters are men.” These are fallacies regardless of the topic
that is under debate: one is arguing that “the way it has been” is fair and true
for its own sake.

“Give me ice cream because I want it.”

Appeal being used: Logos _____ Pathos _____ Ethos _____

Is this a fallacy? No _____ Yes _____

Fallacy ____________

ANSWER:

This is an appeal to personal credibility, or ethos. It is not a fallacy. It is an
attempt to draw upon the personal authority of the speaker. Basically, the child
is saying: “The fact that I want something, coupled with the fact that I per-
ceive myself to be basically the center of the known universe, should be reason
enough for you to give me ice cream.”

In most cases, children quickly learn to avoid this particular appeal, because it
usually doesn’t work very well. Children don’t have much personal authority,
because children don’t usually have that much power in the parent/child rela-
tionship. It’s a lot different if a police officer orders someone to “step back”—
now that’s an ethos appeal.

A typical conversation between a parent and a child, in the example used,
might involve an exchange based solely upon ethos, with no logos or pathos
being used on either side. Because ethos has to do with power, the conclusion
is rather predictable:

Child: “Give me an ice cream.”

Parent: “No.”

180 REASON TO WRITE

Child: “I want it.”
(Appeal to ethos: child’s personal authority)
Parent: “No.”
Child: “Why?”
Parent: “Because I said so.”
(Appeal to ethos: parent’s personal authority).
In this conversation, the child attempts suasion by appealing to his or her personal
authority, and the parent counters with superior authority. In other words, the parent
quite simply pulls rank—no other explanation required.
Depending on the parent, any of the appeals that a child may attempt may have vary-
ing degrees of success in persuading the parent to act (to buy the ice cream cone for
the child). In any case, it does demonstrate that humans start rhetoric early.

5 review

CHAPTER REVIEW

The information to take from this chapter is that the history and the meaning of the
term rhetoric are often misunderstood. Rhetoric is foundational to the development
of logic in Western discourse, in all areas of knowledge.
Rhetoric particularly concerns itself with communication, in whatever form that
communication is offered. It defines communication by a series of five elements that
must be present in order for communication to occur: speaker, audience, vehicle,
message, and intention.
In its study of argumentation, rhetoric elucidates specific issues regarding the use
of communication and suasion, whether persuasion or dissuasion, partly through
an analysis of appeals. Appeals are broken down into three areas: an appeal to logic
(logos), an appeal to emotion (pathos), and an appeal to the authority or credibility
of the speaker (ethos). Rhetoric also identifies areas of the misuse of any of these
appeals, either through error or deliberate deception on the part of the speaker. The
misuse of an appeal is called a fallacy.

SECTION III • CHAPTER 8 Communication and Rhetoric 181