WRA 150: EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN THOUGHT TUESDAY, SEPT. 17, 2013

AGENDA  Housekeeping  Body Rituals of the Nacirema  Writing and reading rhetorically  Invention and Arrangement  Researching  Research paper vs research report  What’s next

BODY RITUALS OF THE NACIREMA  In groups, discuss the following  How did you feel while reading this? Surprised? Intrigued? Confused? What are some specific examples that illustrate these feelings?  How does the author establish ethos, pathos or logos in the article? Cite specific examples.  What was the author’s overall purpose in writing this article?

THE SHOCKING TWIST??

NACIREMA CONT’D  If you already knew this was a satire, when exactly did you realize?  If you didn’t, what made this article believable?  How did the author use language to assert his claims of the Nacirema as an unfamiliar culture?

CONTEXT  To show you one example of how to analyze a culture However, we will not be writing satires…  To disrupt everyday understandings of your own culture  As a way to “decenter” yourself from your own culture  This is a useful way to approach whatever artifact/culture you wish to write about  Making the strange familiar, and the familiar strange  Be sure to not exoticize any culture that is not your own and be as objective as possible.

ACTIVITY  Using the Nacirema anthropological study as an example, write a short story about an event or activity you did this weekend.  Provide an explanation of the assumptions or logics that make that particular activity mundane or valuable to its culture  Remember to decenter yourself and write about this as if nobody knows what you’re talking about  This activity should hopefully help you start writing your own paper and think about things like invention and arrangement, and argument.

WHAT CAN WE MAKE OF THIS?

MY THOUGHTS  Relevant, given our discussion about what culture is.  Illustrates assumptions about culture that are being made constantly about non-dominant cultures  Something to be aware of when you start to analyze culture in your own papers How can we be sensitive to cultures different to our own but at the same time represent difference?

WRITING RHETORICALLY  Revision  Arrangement  Invention  Delivery  Style  Mode  Audience  Purpose  Situation RAIDSMAPS

WRITING RHETORICALLY  Revision  Arrangement  Invention  Delivery  Style  Mode  Audience  Purpose  Situation RAIDSMAPS

INVENTION  Think back to our activity last class where we all generated questions about an object. This is invention  This is an exercise that you all should do when you choose your artifact After you’ve created a list of questions, look for patterns and group them by similarity After grouping, begin to answer these questions, starting with the most interesting/compelling ones Inquiry!  Broader things to consider: who am I writing to? Why am I writing? What do they need to know?

ARRANGEMENT  How things are put in relationship to one another  Ways to organize your paper  Spatial: top to bottom, left to right (describing people, places, spaces, etc)  Chronological: Recounting a sequence of events as they occurred.  Inductive: presenting evidence that leads to a conclusion  Deductive: starts with the conclusion and bolsters with evidence  How are some ways to arrange a paper like the cultural artifact analysis paper?

RESEARCH  Because the audience for this paper is an academic one, research is essential to build your credibility as an author  However, as we talked about last class, this is not a traditional research paper either.  We begin with observation and questions, not answers Invention  Don’t simply report on facts that you find, unpack your findings and provide commentary  Basically don’t do what Miner did in Nacirema. Talk about cultural relevance of the artifacts/practices.  Arrangement

RESEARCH CONT’D  You must use two written sources or an interview with a credible source  Online sources are fine, and in fact they might be the only sources you find (depending on your topic)  Refer to pp in The Curious Researcher to read about evaluating print and online sources.

QUESTIONS?  What questions do you have going into this next paper?  What would you like to know more about?  More about research? More about RAIDS/MAPS?

FOR NEXT CLASS  Read:  “Holding it Down for Women.” (on course website)  “Nicki Minaj’s Curious Manhood” (on course website)