Writing and You Audience Purpose Genre " writing stimulates, challenges, and stretch your mental powers while giving you a voice in important academic civic, and professional conversations" Ramage, Bean and Johnson Recall the types of writing that has impact on your lives in last week - everything from grocery shopping to school registration forms. Compare them to the kinds of writing required by your syllabi

Close FormOpen Form Top-Down Thesis-based Prose: thesis explicitly stated in introduction all parts of essay linked clearly to the thesis body paragraphs develop thesis body paragraph have topic sentences structure forecasted Top-Down Thesis- based Prose thesis explicitly stated in introduction all parts of essay linked clearly to the thesis body paragraphs develop thesis body paragraph have topic sentences structure forecasted Thesis-seeking prose essay organized around a question rather than a thesis essay explores problems or question, looking at it in many ways writer may or may not arrive at thesis Theme based narrative: often organized chromatically or has story like elements often used to heighten or deepen a problem, or show its human significant often has an implicit theme rather than a thesis often violates rules of closed-for

Question and Problem Writing as a mean of investigation When writers are asking question, they begin to engage problems, and problems are the heard of sucessful writing projects You see something puzzling in a natural or cultural phenomenon – Your Interior Mental State: – Something deviates from your expectation – Testing possible solution – Example: – Why is Tweeter more popular among middle-aged adults than teenagers

You see something unexpected, puzzling or unplanned in a poem or painting – Your Interior Mental State – You can't see why the artists/maker did something in such a way – You wonder why this artifact is different from the other artifact that you thought would be similar You articulate something inconsistent or contradictory in your own view of the world Example I am against consumerism, but I really want a plasma TV. Is consumerism really bad? Am I a materialist?

Purpose What am I writing to accomplish in this paper? persuade? demonstrate? describe?

Genre and Audience Audience – Who are my intended readers? – Friends, parents, teachers or bosses? – What do they know about my subject? and how much do they care about it? Genre Requirement format, structure and style memoir, research paper, journal, scholarly article, shopping list, traveling catalogue

Rhetoric Kenneth Burke: rhetoric involves the use of symbols to nurture cooperate Aristotle: rhetoric involves the ability to persuade Ethos: appeals to common practice Pathos: appeals to emotions logos: appeals to logos Effective writer must consider this purpose and motivations and their audience' prior believe