Reading, Thinking, Writing: a Practical Rhetoric with Readings.

Abstract

Believing that much instruction in composition fails to meet the needs of a wide variety of students who may not be English majors, I have written a dissertation which is actually a rhetoric textbook designed to remedy what I consider deficiencies in many traditional composition textbooks. It is my contention that reading, thinking and writing skills are inextricably interdependent, and that a composition text must also teach reading and thinking. Accordingly, my approach to teaching rhetoric departs considerably from conventional texts in that it attempts to integrate the teaching of all three of these skills. The text is divided into four sections: reading, thinking, writing, and a final section of selected essays which illustrate basic rhetorical patterns. The section on reading suggests techniques for improving speed and comprehension. Moreover, I have adapted these techniques from numerous academic and non-academic sources. My primary concern has been with the practical effectiveness of a method or approach, not its theoretical impressiveness. I do not think, for instance, that reading instruction which consists of developing "study skills" or answering multiple-choice questions about a passage is very effective, no matter how widespread the practice. My approach concentrates instead on improving skill in structuring and summarizing reading passages since these skills are needed in a variety of fields beyond the academic one. My text differs from traditional writing texts in that attention devoted to purely literary concerns is minimal. Many of the texts which I have selected to serve as models of expository and persuasive writing are taken from current newspapers and magazines. In place of analyzing point of view in a short story, this text analyzes what makes the Time style readable and that of The New York Times objective. This textbook omits the traditional composition exercises designed to improve a writer's grammar, usage and mechanics. Concern about these surface features of writing ought to be relegated to the final revision stage of a student's writing, not taught in a classroom since there is usually little transfer of the rules learned in a grammar drill to actual writing. Writing is effectively learned by analyzing, and sometimes imitating, the writing of people skilled in the craft. Included are many exercises which subject topical reading selections to critical and semantic analysis, this analysis serving as the foundation for the student's own writing. A large part of this textbook consists of essays or adaptations of essays followed by various application exercises. These essays, ranging from Montaigne's classic essay on the art of conversation to Neil Postman's essay on the causes of stupid arguments, have been chosen with great care to illustrate some aspect of writing, to appeal to a wide variety of students, and to reflect contemporary life in America.