Essay

Rhetorical Situation

Rhetorical Feature

Identification

What is it?

Textual Evidence

What suggests that answer?

Explanation

Why does that text suggest that answer?

Occasion

To teach

based on the responses of freshman college students and experienced writes

Title of essay, "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers"

Audience

Teachers

This study was based on the responses of freshman college students and experienced writes.

sequence of changes in a composition

Purpose

To persuade teachers and students that revision is an important key to a good essay

Writer sees their revision process as a recursive process, each cycle of writing is important

seek to discover meaning in revisions

imagine a reader when writing, helps influence their revision process

Sommers suggested that writers should focus on the idea of the work, elaborate those ideas, and find a position for their work

Argument/Message

How to revise a paper

She explains that the students did not see revision as something they actually do but as a term their instructor uses

Sommer ending words, “Good writing disturbs: it creates dissonance. Students need to seek the dissonance of discovery, utilizing in their writing, as the experienced writers do, the very difference between writing and speech- the possibility of revision”

Rhetorical Appeals

Rhetorical Appeal

Textual Evidence

What in the text makes that appeal?

Explanation

How does it make that appeal?

Evaluation

Why is this an effective or ineffective appeal?

Logos

Four revision operations were identified: deletion, substitution, addition, and reordering. Also four levels of changes were identified: word, phrase, sentence, and theme. These methods were the most common among the writers as processes for revision.

Author used comparisons

Effective appeal, logic of argument

Logos

revision is understood as a separate stage at the end of the process—a stage that comes after the completion of a first or second draft and one that is temporally distinct from the prewriting and writing stages of the process

Audience will think that what author was saying makes sense

Effective appeal, logic of argument

Ethos

The study included twenty freshmen from Boston University and the University of Oklahoma with SAT verbal scores from 450-600. Also included twenty experienced writers, including editors and journalists. The examination consisted of writing three essays each (twice) with a total of nine essays. These essays were analyzed and categorized identifying different revision operations.

Use of credible source

Effective appeal, Author’s credibility and character

Ethos

Nancy Sommers conducted a series of studies over three years in which she studied revision processes of student and experienced writers to see their methods of revision during their writing process

expression of experience

Effective appeal

Author’s credibility and character

Pathos

Most of the students I studied did not use the terms revision or rewriting. In fact ,they did not seem comfortable using the word revision and explained that revision was not a word they used, but the word their teachers used.

author depicts vivid description

Effective, Author made her point with specific word and phrase about revision