Arguing in print, online, and face-to-face

In Theresa Enos and Shane Borrowman’s article “Authority and Credibility,” the authors synthesize the classical definitions of ethos with the emerging importance of online sources.  This article inspired me to create an activity based on their assertion that “students often intuitively work through issues of credibility.  They know, for example, that Time is a better source than The Daily Wildcat…They know that neither is as good as an article from a scholarly journal or new anthology published by a university press” (107).  The activity is an introduction to ethos, and it begins with the class brainstorming different sources of getting news.  After a student finishes writing all of the different types of sources on the board, students will get into groups and arrange the list in order of least credible to most credible news sources on the board.  Afterwards, we will debrief on the lists and discuss the role and importance of credibility in developing an argument.

Gesa E. Kirsch and Jacqueline J. Royster’s article “Feminist Rhetorical Practices: In Search of Excellence” inspired me to have students write a reflection throughout their papers.  It was refreshing to have the author write their reflection as I read because it offered me an insight on the author’s thought process.  This reflection will help students become even more conscious of their writing process through reflecting on their writing and thinking-process.  In this manner, a writing assignment can turn into a meta-writing assignment where students reflect on their writing process.

 Bo Wang’s article “Engaging Nuquanzhuyi: The Making of a Chinese Feminist Rhetoric” was a little disappointing.  It was refreshing to step into the point of view of a marginalized group of people, but the subject-matter was a little out of touch with contemporary feminist theory in China due to the fact that the author chose to focus on feminist writings from the early twentieth century.  With the scarcity of women in China, women have gained more power.  It would have been interesting to see how the significant gender imbalance in China has contributed to the female perspective on rhetoric.  In this manner, the article was slightly disappointing.

My favorite reading this week, Brian Jackson and Jon Wallin’s “Rediscovering the ‘Back-and-Forthness’ of Rhetoric in the Age of YouTube,” focused on the difference between arguing in an academic paper, arguing online, and arguing in face-to-face scenarios.  The article argues that although academic institutions are great at having students produce argumentative writing, they are neglecting the equally if not more, important medium of arguing online and face-to-face.  Coming from a high school teacher’s perspective, the common core standards require that students collaborate and argue with each other throughout their high school career.  However, it is rare that teachers require students to argue online.  Although it is a rough outline, I believe that teachers can design activities that require students to either write blog responses to other students’ blogs they disagree with or require students to make an argument to a real-world organization in the community.  These activities would help empower students’ voice and provide a meaningful learning opportunity respectively.  Overall, these readings helped me develop three in-class activities that will help my students understand and employ rhetoric better.