Introduction to Rhetoric: The Art of Argument
Objectives: Learn It
-Begin learning about college level argument, specifically as applied to writing.
-Engage your analytical and critical thinking skills: first, as, employing active reading skills, you break down (analyze) professional reviews to use as models; next, as you construct your own review by generating a thesis statement and support (both will require you to critically examine and analyze your source material, the title you are reviewing).
-Apply what you learn (and learn through doing) by constructing your own argument essay in the form of a review (of a book, movie, CD or video game).
-Learn the basics of college expository essay conventions--introduction with a thesis, body paragraphs with topic sentences and support (examples), and conclusion--by deploying them appropriately in your paper.
Content: Know It
Essay Conventions--
For our first essay, we employed narration and description and wrote in the first person point of view: these add up to what is considered informal, or at the most semi-formal, writing.
Oh sure, we threw in some formal flourishes to get us prepared for the rest of the semester which focuses on writing college level expository essays: no contractions or abbreviations and slang, MLA format so papers have a standard look to them, proper sentence structure, and so on.
For our next essay, though, we are going all the way formal by completely moving into argument essay territory.
First, instead of the beginning, middle and end that a narrative essay has, we need to start thinking about the components or conventions formal essays contain and use:
-Introduction: with a thesis statement
-Body (paragraphs): with 1) topic sentences; 2) support that backs up, develops or explains the thesis
-Conclusion
The point of these essay conventions is not to confine us as writers, but rather to act as signposts for our readers, our audience, to make it easier for them to grasp the complex topics, analyses and arguments we are bringing to their attention.
This way, in spite of the complexities of our subject, our audience grasps (or is more likely to, anyway) the concepts we highlight for them.
Introduction--
The introduction serves to lure the reader in. For the review, that may merely involve noting something exceptional about the title under consideration. Later in the semester, we will discuss what the pros do to get their audiences to turn off the T.V., step away from their computers or put down their controllers and give their gaming consoles a rest.
In longer essays (for instance, maybe the final 2000 word research essay for our class) the introductory paragraph may be more than one paragraph: in this case, the first paragraph often functions as a hook to draw the reader in, and then the second paragraph is the official introduction.
As papers grow even longer, so too can introductions--until by the time we reach book-length manuscripts a whole chapter may perform the task.
For our purposes in these shorter essays, we want to demonstrate succinctness and discipline by keeping the intro to one paragraph.
Thesis Statement--
The thesis statement is our opinion stated in the third-person: e.g. “George W. Bush is one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.”
Now, I could have said, “I think [or feel or believe] George W. Bush is one of the worst presidents in U.S. history” but that lacks the impact of the third-person version: in fact, to tie this in to the Wikipedia project, such words as “think, feel, believe” are rightly called weasel words in their guide to writing strong articles.
By stating your opinion as fact, you give it authority. Remember, essays are arguments in writing and you want to win, right? Additionally, we are in college to learn to be an authority on something: now is our chance to sound like one--we need to practice until we are.
Is that thesis exceptional? No, it is not. I would call that a working thesis: the basic idea for an essay is there, with stress on the word basic. It contains both an opinion and a topic, but lacks focus and refinement (the latter term alludes to the subtlety of writing).
Opinion and topic bear repeating, though, since if you miss either component in your thesis statement, you do not have one. The opinion or debate part challenges every level of writer, but it has to be there.
Try asking yourself “Could a reasonable person argue with me on this topic or issue?” If not, you probably are mired in a fact--you can place a fact in your thesis statement (for instance, Bush really was our president), but the opinion part needs to be there as well.
Another way to test a thesis statement is to ask ourselves, “Provided I knew where to look for the information, could I easily prove or disprove this statement?”
For instance, “Jesus Christ provides just one of many resurrections myths in religions throughout history.” If I boned up on myth and religion, I could figure out if this were true or false so no debate there, just fact (it is true by the way).
Next, tying back in to the initial George Bush thesis example, writers often start with a working thesis and then, as they conduct research, refine it.
A better thesis, after some thought, might run, “As scholars--historians, political scientists, ethicists, legal experts--assay George W. Bush’s two terms in office, the crucible of careful scrutiny will reveal one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.”
By selecting a review as one of our assignments, I did my best to help make your first experience at developing a thesis in the class as easy as possible: a thesis statement for a review is sort of ready-made, right?
EXAMPLE: “This [movie, book, CD, video game] is great because [specific reasons].”
That is still a working thesis; hopefully, by the time you reach the end, you have refined it so it is not so boilerplate as this example.
Considering where to place the thesis statement for maximum impact, remember the signpost guideline since, arguably, the thesis statement is the single most important one: since it functions as a signpost, do not hide it.
Would you appreciate it if as you were driving the street signs came up after the turns? Not so much, right?
With that in mind, consider the conventional placements, the last sentence or two or the first sentence or two of the introduction.
There is another, less frequent but still effective place to put it: keep reading to discover where that is.
Body--
Each body paragraph needs to perform one of the following functions for the thesis statement--support, develop or explain.
What acts as a signpost for the readers here are topic sentences: these must be the main idea or topic of each paragraph and so resemble a mini-thesis.
Where they differ is that they do not have to be debatable, although they may be as well--in this latter case, they would be a sub-claim to your main claim (claim and thesis are synonymous).
Many different kinds of support exist; reviews focus largely on one kind--examples drawn from whatever is being reviewed. Again, that makes our work straightforward if not easy: we merely have to ask ourselves “What makes this so good, specifically (we always need to remember to be specific)?”
We will explore other types of support later as we head into research essays that bring in outside support.
In body paragraphs, transitional sentences smooth the flow and add cohesion: these happen when the last sentence or two lead in to the next paragraph; another way to smooth the flow and create this kind of cohesion is to use the first sentence or two as a link to the previous paragraph.
EXAMPLE: “In addition to the cinematography, the score, an orchestral tour-de-force, helped create powerful scenes imbued with emotion.”
This sentence works as either the end of a paragraph discussing cinematography and leading into the next paragraph on the film’s score, or the beginning of a paragraph on the movie’s soundtrack preceded by one on cinematography.
Conclusion--
For the purposes of the review, we just want to make sure that we do not suddenly come to a halt--that is jarring for a reader (everything we do, we do for our audience). Instead, we want to wrap things up in an interesting way that leaves our audience thinking about what we wrote about.
Sometimes writers design an essay (and this happens in reviews as well--see if you can identify this tactic in any of the professional reviews you analyze as models) to come to a crescendo or climax: in this case, the thesis statement often winds up here, in the conclusion.
While not as common as putting the thesis statement in the introduction, this makes it interesting simply because it is unusual.
Reviews, Reviewing and Reviewers--
I found an excellent primer on How to Write a Review which saves me a lot of lecture time: her second to last line mirrors one I always find myself repeating like a mantra to all my classes, “The biggest mistake review writers make is giving too much summary and not enough clear criteria.”
Somehow a few students every semester miss or fail to understand this: make sure it is not you--junior high and its requisite book reports are long gone.
Next, when looking for model professional reviews to analyze numerous magazines and newspapers provide good fodder: Rolling Stone, L. A. Times, New York Times, Blender, Mojo, Entertainment Weekly, PC Gamer, Game Informer . . .
The web provides options as well--for instance, most print pubs also have an online presence; sometimes they want you to pay or at least register, though--although caution is the key word as the reviews must be written by professionals and not an anonymous blogger, fanboy, or enthusiast:
Metacritic: As the prefix meta implies, this cite trolls the Internet for free reviews on all the things we can write on (Yes, that is right--movies, games, CDs and books though their coverage on the last has dwindled, and they try to pawn you off on another website for these.) and gathers them in one place; the trick here is to pick the big, well-known publications (Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, L.A. Times, New York Times, for instance), not the no name little pubs of dubious quality.
Roger Ebert: Yes, this is THE venerable Roger Ebert, movie reviewer, but instead of his show, it is his newspaper column at The Chicago Sun Times.
Reel Geezers--YouTube: Wizened movie critics with over eighty years of movie reviewing experience between them, these octogenarians put films to the test. You cannot print these up since they are videos, but many of these are hilarious (and these people are pros).
There are plenty more places to go on the Internet for pro reviews, but these three will get you started. Again, when finding them, make sure you choose one published by a nationally (or internationally) recognized periodical. Also, make sure the review is of sufficient length (four sizable paragraphs or more is a good guide): happy hunting.
Practice: Live It
Next class you are supposed to bring in a professional review from a major newspaper or magazine.
When called on in class, be prepared to provide and explain two key facets of your review: 1) the author’s thesis; 2) specific supporting details (examples drawn from what is under review) that back up the writer’s thesis.
Suggestions--
-Bring in an example of a review on the medium you wish to write about as well (e.g. do not bring in a video game review if you intend to write about a book review--instead bring in a book review).
-While you are only required to bring in one review, read a number of them, trying to figure out how they are constructed, so you can emulate the pros.
Closely analyze the reviews looking for theses and specific examples of support (i.e. how the writers back up their thesis statements).
When finding examples of support, really consider how these examples back up, develop and explain the thesis or central claim or argument, rather than merely summarizing (this happened, then this happened and this happened) because pure summary is what you want to avoid as it will sound the death knell of your paper.
-Find reviews in the third person point of view (this should not be hard because according to my very unofficial survey about seventy-five percent of reviews are written this way) since yours should be: this way your models help with this aspect of your essay as well.
Warning: many students struggle with the transition from first (informal point of view often used in narratives) to third person point of view (the one always accepted in essays, the most formal type of writing, because it sounds authoritative and factual), so make sure you understand how to do it and help yourself by finding models in the correct point of view.
-Finally, remember, do not read a review on the title you wish to write about.
You are finding professional reviews; this means most of them will sound really good tempting you to discount your own ideas and use theirs’: the point of this whole exercise is to get you writing and flexing your analytical and critical muscles, not to channel someone that already does this on a daily basis for a living.
Additionally, any of this counts as plagiarism since you are supposed to use no outside sources other than the title you are attempting to review.
Assignment: Do It--ESSAY 2, The Review
ESSAY 2: Essay 2 is a review of a book, movie, video game or CD and an introduction to the argument essay (the kind you will be writing the most of in college).