WRA 150: EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN THOUGHT TUESDAY, SEPT. 17, 2013.
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Transcript of 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?
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.
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
RAIDS MAPS
WRITING RHETORICALLY
Revision Arrangement Invention Delivery Style
Mode Audience Purpose Situation
RAIDS MAPS
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. 60-68 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?