COMP 2 WEEK 4 CRITICAL ANALYSIS

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Chapter 7 •

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Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

7.1 Explain what it means to think rhetorically about texts.

7.2 Reconstruct a source text's rhetorical context by analyzing the text's author, purpose, motivating occasion, audience, genre, and angle of vision.

7.3 Ask questions that promote rhetorical thinking.

7.4 Conduct a rhetorical analysis of a source text.

In Part One of this textbook, we explained the principles of argument identifying an issue, making a claim, supporting the claim with reasons and evidence (and perhaps supporting the underlying warrants also), summarizing and responding to opposing views, and paying attention to the rhetorical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos.

In Part Two we shift attention to the critical thinking skills you will need when, as a researcher and a reader of arguments, you begin exploring a new issue. By emphasizing exploration and inquiry, Part Two focuses on the truth-seeking aim of argument as the entry point into a new issue.

To engage thoughtfully in inquiry, you need to analyze arguments rhetorically that is, to examine an argument closely to understand the author's purpose and intended audience, to evaluate the author's choices, and to deter- mine what makes the argument effective or ineffective for its targeted audience. A rhetorical analysis identifies the text under scrutiny, summarizes its main ideas, presents some key points about the text's rhetorical strategies for persuading its audience, and elaborates on these points.

Becoming skilled at analyzing arguments rhetorically will have multiple pay- offs for you. This skill helps you become an inquisitive, truth-seeking reader. It also plays a major role in helping you construct your own arguments. Particularly, analyzing sources rhetorically helps you determine the reliability of the evidence

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you might draw from other sources while also helping you summarize and respond to opposing views. In this chapter, we explain what it means to think "rhetorically" about other people's arguments (and your own). Chapter 8 then teaches you to apply rhetorical thinking to an actual issue; there, you will draw on your own critical skills to summarize other stakeholders' arguments, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and begin formulating your own stance.

Thinking etorically about a Text 7.1 Explain what it means to think rhetorically about texts.

To become an effective reader of arguments and to construct effective arguments yourself, you need to think of all arguments as voices in ongoing conversations about issues. Invested stakeholders construct arguments in order to move their audiences to see the issues their way. To understand these arguments fully, you need to think about them rhetorically.

Let's look more closely at what we mean by "thinking rhetorically." At the broadest level, rhetoric is the study of how human beings use language and other symbols to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of others. In a narrower sense, rhetoric is the art of making messages persuasive. Perhaps the most famous definition comes from Aristotle, who defined rhetoric as "the ability to see, in any particular case, all the available means of persuasion."

Thinking rhetorically means determining what "available means of persua- sion" a writer is using in a particular argument. You can do this by getting inside an argument, listening carefully to what the writer is arguing, and determining how this argument has been constructed to reach its audience. To think rhetori- cally, you should imagine stakeholders as real persons who were motivated to write by some occasion and to achieve some real purpose.

Reconstructing a Text's Rhetorical Context 7.2 Reconstruct a source text's rhetorical context by analyzing the text's

author, purpose, motivating occasion, audience, genre, and angle of vision.

To enter an argumentative conversation, you need to think rhetorically about each stakeholder's argument. A first step in doing so is to reconstruct the text's rhe- torical context by asking questions about the author and then about the author's purpose, motivating occasion, audience, genre, and angle of vision. Let's look at each of these in turn.

Author, Motivating Occasion, and Purpose The first three questions you should ask about a source text are these:

• Who is the author?

• What motivates the author to write?

• What is the author's purpose?

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Imagine answering these questions about something you are writing. If you see yourself simply as a student acting out school roles, you might answer the ques- tions this way: "I am a first-year college student. My motivating occasion is an assignment from my professor. My purpose is to get a good grade." But to see yourself rhetorically, it is better to put yourself in a plausible real-world situation: "I am a first-year student concerned about global warming. My motivating occa- sion is my anger at our school's environmental action task force for not endorsing nuclear power. My purpose is to persuade this group that using nuclear power is the best way to reduce our nation's carbon footprint." In real life, writers are motivated to write because some occasion prompts them to do so. In most cases, the writer's purpose is to bring about some desirable change in the targeted audi- ence's actions, beliefs, or views.

If you are in a face-to-face argumentative conversation (say, on a committee), you will know most of the stakeholders and the roles they play. But if you are uncovering the conversation yourself through research, you may have difficulty imagining the author of, say, a blog post or a magazine article as a real person writing for a real purpose sparked by a real occasion. The following list identi- fies some of the categories of real-world people who are apt to write arguments about civic issues.

Typical Stakeholders in Argumentative Discussion of Civic Issues

• Lobbyists and advocacy groups. Lobbyists and advocacy groups commit themselves to a cause, often with passion, and produce avidly partisan argu- ments aimed at persuading voters, legislators, government agencies, and other decision makers. They often maintain advocacy websites; buy advertising space in newspapers, magazines, and online; and lobby legislators face to face.

• Legislators, political candidates, and government officials. Whenever new laws, regulations, or government policies are proposed, staffers do research and write arguments recommending positions on an issue. Often these argu- ments are available on the web.

• Business professionals and labor union leaders. Business spokespeople often address public issues in ways that support corporate or business interests. In contrast, labor union officials support wage structures or working conditions favorable to workers.

• Lawyers and judges. Lawyers write briefs supporting their clients' cases or file "friend-of-the-court" briefs aimed at influencing a judge's decision. Also, judges write opinions explaining their decisions on a case.

• Journalists, syndicated columnists, and media commentators. Many con- troversial issues attract the attention of media commentators (journalists, col- umnists, bloggers, political cartoonists) who write editorials, blogs, or op-ed pieces on the issue or produce editorial cartoons, filtering their arguments through the perspective of their own political views.

• Professional freelance or staff writers. Some of the most thoughtful analyses of public issues are composed by freelance or staff writers for public forum magazines such as Atlantic Monthly or The National Review or for online news sites or blogs such as The Daily Kos or The Drudge Report. These can range from in-depth background pieces to arguments with a highly persuasive aim. (See Chapter 16, Table 16.3.)

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• Think tank members. Because many of today' s political, economic, and social issues are very complex, policy makers and commentators often rely on research institutions or think tanks to supply statistical studies and in-depth investigation of problems. These think tanks range across the political spectrum from conservative or libertarian to centrist or liberal (see Chapter 16, Table 16.3).

• Scholars and academics. College p rofessors play a p ublic role through their scholarly research, contributing data, studies, and analyses to public debates. Scholarly research differs substantially from advocacy argument in that schol- arly research is a systematic attempt to arrive at the best answers to questions based on the full examination of relevant data. Scholarly research is usually published in refereed academic journals rather than in popular magazines.

• Documentary filmmakers. Testifying to the growing popularity of film and its power to involve people in issues, documentary filmmakers often embed their point of view into their dramatic storytelling to create persuasive argu- ments on public issues. The global film industry is adding international per- spectives as well.

• Citizens and students. Engaged citizens in fl uence social policy through e-mails to legislators, letters to the editor, contributions to advocacy web- sites, guest editorials for newspapers, blogs, and speeches in public forums. Students also write for university communities, present their work at under- graduate research conferences, and influence public opinion by writing to p olitical leaders and decision makers.

Audience Effective argument depends on the writer's rhetorical understanding of audi- ence. A writer's analysis of a targeted audience often includes demographic data (income, geographic region, typical occupations), political ideology (liberal, centrist, libertarian, conservative, populist), and what scholars call intersectional positioning (race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity), and other factors. The writer's goal is to walk in his or her audience's shoes, to see where they are coming from, to understand their values, assumptions, and beliefs. Although writers of arguments occasionally preach to the choir (that is, address people who already agree with them), they usually want to reach people who hold alternative views or are otherwise skeptical of the writer's position. As we saw throughout Part One, effective arguers try to base their arguments on audience-based reasons that appeal to the targeted audience's underlying beliefs, values, and assumptions.

Genre Genres, or types of writing, emerge from specific social contexts and represent social actions. Think of these genres, for example: billboard ads, infomercials, product reviews, and letters to the editor. The term genre refers to recurring cat- egories of writing that follow certain conventions of style, structure, approach to subject matter, and document design. The genre of any given argument helps determine its length, tone, sentence complexity, level of informality or formality, use of visuals, k inds of evidence, and the presence or absence of documentation.

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Consider, for example, the difference between a tweet and a letter to the edi- tor. Both genres are short (a tweet is limited to 140 characters, a letter to about 200 words). The initial audience for a tweet are the tweeter's followers; the size of the audience depends on the number of followers and on the number of those who retweet the message to their own followers. (During his presidential candidacy, Donald Trump a master user of Twitter was able to reach millions of potential voters in seconds.) Because a tweet is self-published with no editor or fact checker, the reader must be especially wary. A tweet's shortness allows no space for a com- plete argument, only for an opinion or claim. In contrast, letters to the editor have quite different features. The audience for a letter are those newspaper subscribers who follow the editorial pages. Unlike tweets, letters to the editor are just long enough to allow a mini-argument, letting writers support their claims with brief ref- erence to reasons and evidence. Also, unlike a tweet, there is some editorial review of a letter because editors must read many competing submissions for the limited space and choose letters that contribute something valuable to a conversation.

The concept of genre creates strong reader expectations, placing specific demands on writers. Genres are social practices that arise out of particular social needs and conditions. How you write any given grant proposal, op-ed piece, bumper sticker, or academic argument depends on the structure and style of hun- dreds of previous grant applications, op-ed pieces, bumper stickers, or academic articles written before yours. Table 7.1 identifies some of the important genres of argument that you will encounter as part of an argumentative conversation.

In addition to these commonly encountered print genres, arguments are also carried on in multimedia genres such as advocacy advertisements, advocacy websites, political cartoons, PowerPoint speeches, and documentary films. See Chapter 16, Table 16.1 for a rhetorical overview of sources across a range of genres.

Angle of Vision Angle of vision, as we explained in Chapter 4, refers to the way that writers frame an issue through their own ideological perspective. Rhetoricians often use an optical metaphor: A writer looks at an issue through a lens that colors or filters the subject matter in a certain way. This lens causes the writer to select certain details while omitting others or to choose words with connotations that reflect the writer's view (whether to say, for example, "greedy capitalist" or "job creator"). A writer's angle of vision is persuasive because it controls what the reader "sees." Unless readers are rhetorically savvy, they can lose awareness that they are seeing the writer's subject matter through a lens that both reveals and conceals.

Closely connected to angle of vision is a writer's degree of advocacy along the continuum from "truth seeking" to "persuasion" (see Chapter 1, Figure 1.5). The more writers are trying to persuade readers toward their view, the more the reader has to recognize angle of vision at work. When doing research, for example, you should be aware of the angle of vision taken by many media outlets themselves- journals, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and websites that may be associated with a political ideology. It is important to know, for example, whether an article you are reading came from Mother Jones (a liberal magazine), N a tiona I Review (a conservative magazine), or infowars.com (an alt-right site often associated with "fake news"). For an overview of the angle of vision of many media outlets, see Chapter 16, Figure 16.3).

Table 7.1 Frequently Encountered Genres of Argument

Newspaper editorials and op-ed pieces

Blogs and postings to chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards

Magazine articles

Articles in scholarly journals

• Published on the editorial or op-ed ("opposite-editorial") pages

• Editorials promote the views of the newspaper's owners/editors

• Op-ed pieces, usually written by professional columnists or guest writers, range in bias from ultraconservative to socialist (see Figure 17.3 in Chapter 17)

• Often written in response to political events or social problems in the news

• Web-published commentaries, usually on specific topics and often intended to influ- ence public opinion

• Blogs (weblogs) are gaining influence as alternative commentaries to the established media

• Reflect a wide range of perspectives • Usually written by staff writers or freelancers • Appear in public-affairs magazines such as

National Review or The Progressive or in niche magazines for special-interest groups such as Rolling Stone (popular culture), Minority Business Entrepreneur (business), or The Advocate (gay and lesbian issues)

• Often reflect the magazine's political point of view

• Peer-reviewed articles published by nonprofit academic journals subsidized by universities or scholarly societies

• Characterized by scrupulous attention to completeness and accuracy in treatment of data

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• Usually short (500-1 ,000 words) • Vary from explicit thesis-driven arguments to

implicit arguments with stylistic flair • Have a journalistic style (short paragraphs)

without detailed evidence • Sources are usually not documented

• Often blend styles of journalism, personal narrative, and formal argument

• Often difficult to determine identity and cre- dentials of blogger

• Often provide hyperlinks to related sites on the web

• Frequently include narrative elements rather than explicit thesis-and-reasons organization

• Often provide well-researched coverage of various perspectives on a public issue

• Usually employ a formal academic style • Include academic documentation and

bibliographies • May reflect the biases, methods, and strate-

gies associated with a specific school of thought or theory within a discipline

Asking~ uestions That Promote etorical Thinking

7.3 Ask questions that promote rhetorical thinking.

At an operational level, seeing arguments rhetorically means posing certain kinds of questions that uncover the rhetorical context and position of each stakehold er in the conversation. When you hear or read someone else's argument (let's call this argument a "source" written by a "source author"), you n eed to ask rhetori- cally focused questions about the source author's argument. If you seek answers to the list of questions shown in Table 7.2, you will be thinking rhetorically about arguments. Although a rhetorical analysis will not include answers to all these questions, using some of these questions in your thinking stages can give you a thorough understanding of the argument while helping you generate insights for your own rhetorical analysis essay.

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Table 7.2 Questions for Rhetorical Analysis

The kairotic moment and writer's motivating

• occas1on

Rhetorical context: Writer's purpose and audience

Rhetorical context: Writer's identity and angle of vision

Rhetorical context: Genre

Logos of the argument

Ethos of the argument

Pathos of the argument

Writer's style

• What motivated the writer to produce this piece?

• What social, cultural, political, legal, or economic conversations does this argument join?

• What is the writer 's purpose? • Who is the intended audience? • What assumptions, values, and beliefs

would readers have to hold to find this argument persuasive?

• How well does the text suit its particular audience and purpose?

• Who is the writer and what is his or her profession , background , and expertise?

• How does the writer 's personal history, education, ethnicity, age, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, and political leaning influence the angle of vision?

• What is emphasized and what is omitted in this text?

• How much does the writer's angle of vision dominate the text?

• What is the argument's original genre? • What is the original medium of publication?

How do the genre and the argument's place of publication infl uence its content, structure , and style?

• What is the argument's claim, either explicitly stated or implied?

• What are the main reasons in support of the claim? Are the reasons audience-based?

• How effective is the writer's use of evidence? How is the argument supported and developed?

• How well has the argument recognized and responded to alternative views?

• What ethos does the writer project? • How does the writer try to seem credible

and trustworthy to the intended audience? • How knowledgeable does the writer seem in

recognizing opposing or alternative views, and how fairly does the writer respond to them?

• How effective is the writer in using audience-based reasons?

• How does the writer use concrete language, word choice, narrative, examples, and analogies to tap readers' emotions, values, and imaginations?

• How do the writer's language choices and sentence length and complexity contribute to the impact of the argument?

• How well does the writer's tone (attitude toward the subject) suit the argument?

• Is the writer responding to a bill pending in Congress, a speech by a political leader, or a local event that provoked controversy?

• Is the writer addressing cultural trends such as the impact of science or tech nology on val ues?

• Is the writer trying to change readers' views by offering a new interpretation of a phenomenon , calling readers to action , or trying to muster votes or inspire further investigations?

• Does the audience share a political or reli- gious orientation with the writer?

• Is the writer a scholar, researcher, scientist, policy maker, politician , professional journalist, or citizen blogger?

• Is the writer affiliated with conservative or liberal, religious or lay publications?

• Is the writer advocating a stance or adopting a more inquiry-based mode?

• What points of view and pieces of evidence are "not seen" by this writer?

• How popular or scholarly, informal or formal is this genre?

• Does the genre allow for in-depth or only sketchy coverage of an issue?

• Is the core of the argument clear and soundly developed? Or do readers have to unearth or reconstruct the argument?

• Is the argument one-sided, multisided, or delayed-thesis?

• Does the argument depend on assumptions the audience may not share?

• What evidence does the writer employ? Does this evidence meet the STAR criteria?

• If you are impressed or won over by this writer, what has earned your respect?

• If you are filled with doubts or skepticism, what has caused you to question this writer?

• How important is the character of the writer in this argument?

• What examples, connotative language, and uses of narrative or analogy stand out for you in this argument?

• Does this argument rely heavily on appeals to pathos? Or is it more brainy and logical?

• How readable is this argument? • Is the argument formal, scholarly, journalistic,

informal, or casual? • Is the tone serious, mocking, humorous,

exhortational, confessional, urgent, or something else?

Table 7.2 Continued

Design and visual elements

Overall persuasiveness of the argument

• How do design elements- layout, font sizes and styles, and use of color - influence the effect of the argument? (See Chapter 9 for a detailed discussion of these elements.)

• How do graphics and images contribute to the persuasiveness of the argument?

• What features of this argument contribute most to making it persuasive or not per- suasive for its target aud ienc e and for you yourself?

• How would this argument be received by different aud iences?

• What features contribute to the rhetorical complexity of this argument?

• What is particularly memorable, d isturbing, or problematic about th is argument?

• What does this arg ument contribute to its kairotic moment and the argumentative controversy of which it is a part?

For Writing and Discussion Practicing Rhetorical Analysis

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• Do design features contribute to the logical or t he emotional/imaginative appeals of the arg ument?

• How would this argument benefit from visuals and graphics or some different document design?

• Are appeals to pathos legitimate and su itable? Do the quality and quantity of the evidence help build a strong case, or do they fall short?

• What specifically would count as a strength for the target audience?

• If you d iffer from the target audience, how do you differ and where does the argument derail for you?

• What gaps, contradictions, or unanswered questions are you left with?

• How does t his argument indicate that it is engaged in a public conversation? How does it "talk" to other arguments you have read on t his issue?

In the following exercise, consider the strateg ies used by two different writers to persuade their audiences to act to stop c limate change. The first is from the opening paragraphs of an editorial in the magazine Creation Care: A Christian Environmental Quarterly. The second is from the website of the Sierra C lub, an environ- mental action group.

Individual task: Read the following passages carefully, and then write out your exploratory answers to the questions that follow. Refer to Table 7.2, "Questions for Rhetorical Analysis," to help you examine how these texts' key fea- tures contribute to their impact on readers.

Passage 1

As I sit down to w rite this column, one thing keeps coming to me over and over: "Now is the time; now is the t ime."

In the New Testament the word used for this type of time is kairos. It means "right or opportune moment." It is contrasted w ith chronos, or chronological t ime as measured in seconds, days, months, or years. In the New Testament kairos is usually associated w ith decisive action that brings about del iverance or salvation.

The reason the phrase, "Now is the time" kept coming to me over and over is that I was thinking of how to describe our current climate change moment.

The world has been plodd ing along in chronolog ical time on the problem of climate change since around 1988. No more.

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Simply put: the problem of c limate change has entered kairos time; its kairos moment has arrived. How long w ill it endure? Unti l the time of decisive action to bring about deliverance comes-or, more ominously, unti l the time when the opportunity for decisive action has passed us by. Which will we choose? Because we do have a choice.

-Rev. J im Ball, Ph.D., "It's Kairos Time for Climate Change: Time to Act," Creation Care: A Christian Environmental Quarterly (Summer 2008), 28.

Passage 2

[Another action that Americans must take to combat global warm ing is to transition] to a c lean-energy economy in a just and equitable way. Global warming is among the greatest challenges of our time, but also presents extraordinary opportunit ies to harness home-grown c lean energy sources and encourage technological innovation. These bold shifts toward a clean energy future can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and generate billions of dollars in capital investment. But in order to maximize these benefits across all sectors of our society, comprehensive global warming legislation must auction emission allow- ances to polluters and use these public assets for publ ic benefit programs.

Such programs include financial assistance to help low and moderate-income consumers and workers offset higher energy costs as well as programs that assist w ith adaptation efforts in communities vu lner- able to the effects of c limate change. Revenue generated from emissions allowances should also aid the expansion of renewable and efficient energy technologies that quickly, c leanly, cheaply, and safely reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and curb g lobal warming. Lastly, it is absolutely vital that comprehensive global warming leg islation not preempt state authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions more aggressively than mandated by federal legis lation.

-Sierra Club, "Global Warming Policy Solutions," 2008, http://www.sierraclub.org/

1. How do the strategies of persuasion differ in these two passages? Explain these d ifferences in terms of targeted audience, original genre, writer's purpose, and writer's ang le of vision.

2. How would you describe the re lationsh ip between logos and pathos in each text? 3. How would you describe the writer's style in each? 4. How effective would either argument be for readers outside the intended audience?

Group task: Share your responses to the above questions w ith class members. Explain your po ints with spec ific examples from the texts.

Conducting a Source Text

etorical Analysis of a

7.4 Conduct a rhetorical analysis of a source text.

To illustrate rhetorical analysis, we will analyze two articles on reproductive tech- nology, a subject that continues to generate arguments in the public sphere. (The first article is in this section; the second is in the student example at the end of this chapter.) By reproductive technology we mean scientific advances in the treatment of infertility, such as egg and sperm donation, artificial insemination, in vitro fer- tilization, and surrogate motherhood. Our first article, written over a decade ago, springs from the early and increasing popularity of these technological options.

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Our second article to be used in our later student example responds to the recent globalization of this technology.

At this point, please read the first article, "Egg Heads" by Kathryn Jean Lopez (immediately following), and then proceed to the discussion questions that follow. Lopez's article was originally published in the conservative news commentary magazine National Review.

Egg Heads KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ

Filling the waiting room to capacity and spilling over into a nearby conference room, a group of young women listen closely and follow the instructions: Com- p lete the forms and return them, with the clipboard, to the receptionist. It's all just as in any medical office. Then they move downstairs, where the doctor briefs them. "Everything will be pretty much normal," she explains. "Women complain of skin irritation in the local area of injection and bloating. You also might be a little emotional. But, basically, it's really bad PMS."

This is not just another medical office. On a steamy night in July, these girls in their twenties are attending an orientation session for potential egg donors at a New Jersey fertility clinic specializing in in-vitro fertilization. Within the walls of IVF New Jersey and at least two hundred other clinics throughout the United States, young women answer the call to give "the gift of life" to infertile couples. Egg donation is a quietly expanding industry, changing the way we look at the family, young women's bodies, and human life itself.

It is not a pleasant way to make money. Unlike sperm donation, which is over in less than an hour, egg donation takes the donor some 56 hours and includes a battery of tests, ultrasound, self-administered injections, and retrieval. Once a donor is accepted into a program, she is given hormones to stimulate the ovaries, changing the number of eggs matured from the usual one per month up to as many as fifty. A doctor then surgically removes the eggs from the donor's ovary and fertilizes them with the designated sperm.

Although most programs require potential donors to undergo a series of med- ical tests and counseling, there is little indication that most of the young women know what they are getting themselves into. They risk bleeding, infection, and scarring. When too many eggs are matured in one cycle, it can damage the ova- ries and leave the donor w ith weeks of abdominal pain. (At worst, complications may leave her dead.) Longer term, the possibility of early menopause raises the prospect of future regret. There is also some evidence of a connection between the fertility drugs used in the process and ovarian cancer.

But it's good money and getting better. New York's Brooklyn IVF raised its s "donor comp ensation" from $2,500 to $5,000 per cycle earlier this year in order to keep pace w ith St. Barnabas Medical Center in nearby Livingston, New Jersey. It's a bidding war. "It's obvious w h y we had to do it," says Susan Lobel, Brooklyn IVF' s assistant director. Most New York-area IVF programs have followed suit.

Some infertile couples and independent brokers are offering even more for "reproductive material. " The International Fertility Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, for instance, p laces ads in the Daily Princetonian offering Princeton girls as much as $35,000 p er cycle. The National Fertility Registry, which, like many

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egg brokerages, features an online catalogue for couples to browse in, advertises $35,000 to $50,000 for Ivy League eggs. While donors are normally paid a flat fee per cycle, there have been reports of higher payments to donors who produce more eggs.

College girls are the perfect donors. Younger eggs are likelier to be healthy, and the girls themselves frequently need money college girls have long been susceptible to classified ads offering to pay them for acting as guinea pigs in medical research. One 1998 graduate of the University of Colorado set up her own website to market her eggs. She had watched a television show on egg donation and figured it "seemed like a good thing to do" especially since she had spent her money during the past year to help secure a country music record deal. "Egg donation would help me with my school and music expenses while helping an infertile couple with a family." Classified ads scattered throughout cyberspace feature similar offers.

The market for "reproductive material" has been developing for a long time. It was twenty years ago this summer that the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, was born. By 1995, when the latest tally was taken by the Centers for Disease Control, 15 percent of mothers in this country had made use of some form of assisted-reproduction technology in conceiving their children. (More recently, women past menopause have begun to make use of this technology.) In 1991 the American Society for Reproductive Medicine was aware of 63 IVF programs offering egg donation. That number had jumped to 189 by 1995 (the latest year for which numbers are available).

Defenders argue that it's only right that women are "compensated" for the inconvenience of egg donation. Brooklyn IVF's Dr. Lobel argues, "If it is unethical to accept payment for loving your neighbor, then we'll have to stop paying baby- sitters." As long as donors know the risks, says Glenn McGee of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, this transaction is only "a slightly macabre version of adoption."

10 Not everyone is enthusiastic about the "progress." Egg donation "represents another rather large step into turning procreation into manufacturing," says the University of Chicago's Leon Kass. "It's the dehumanization of procreation." And as in manufacturing, there is quality control. "People don't want to say the word any more, but there is a strong eugenics issue inherent in the notion that you can have the best eggs your money can buy," observes sociology professor Barbara Katz Rothman of the City University of New York.

The demand side of the market comes mostly from career-minded baby- boomers, the frontierswomen of feminism, who thought they could "have it all." Indeed they can have it all with a little help from some younger eggs. (Ironi- cally, feminists are also among its strongest critics; The Nation's Katha Pollitt has pointed out that in egg donation and surrogacy, once you remove the "delusion that they are making babies for other women," all you have left is "reproductive prostitution.")

Unfortunately, the future looks bright for the egg market. Earlier this year, a woman in Atlanta gave birth to twins after she was implanted with frozen donor eggs. The same technology has also been successful in Italy. This is just what the egg market needed, since it avoids the necessity of coordinating donors' cycles with recipients' cycles. Soon, not only will infertile couples be able to choose from a wider variety of donor offerings, but in some cases donors won't even be needed.

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Young women will be able to freeze their own eggs and have them thawed and fertilized once they are ready for the intrusion of children in their lives.

There are human ovaries sitting in a freezer in Fairfax, Virginia. The Genetics and IVF Institute offers to cut out and remove young women's ovaries and cryopreserve the egg-containing tissue for future implantation. Although the technology was originally designed to give the hope of fertility to young women undergoing treatment for cancer, it is now starting to attract the healthy. "Women can wait to have ch ildren until they are well established in their careers and get- ting a little bored, sometime in their forties or fifties," explains Professor Rothman. "Basically, motherh ood is being reduced to a good leisure-time activity."

Early th is summer, headlines were made in Britain, where the payment of egg donors is forbidden, when an infertile couple traveled to a California clinic w here the woman could be inseminated with an experimental hybrid egg. The egg was a combination of the recipient's and a donor's eggs. The clinic in question gets its eggs from a Beverly Hills brokerage, the Center for Surrogate Parenting and Egg Donation, run by Karen Synesiou and Bill Handel, a radio shock-jock in Los Angeles. Miss Synesiou recently told the London Sunday Times that she is "interested in redefining the family. That's why I came to work here."

Th e redefinition is already well under way. Consider the case of Jaycee Buz- 15 zanca. After John and Luanne Buzzanca h ad tried for years to have a child, an embryo was created for them, using sperm and an egg from anonymous donors, and implanted in a surrogate mother. In March 1995, one month before the baby was born, John filed for divorce. Luanne wanted child support from John, but he refused after all, he's not the father. Luanne argued that John is Jaycee's father legally. At th is point the surrogate mother, who had agreed to carry a baby for a stable two-parent household, decided to sue for custody.

Jaycee was dubbed "Nobody's Child" by the media when a California judge ruled that John was not the legal father nor Luanne the legal mother (neither one was genetically related to Jaycee, and Luanne had not even borne her). Enter Erin Davidson, the egg donor, who claims the egg was used without her permission. Not to be left out, the sperm donor jumped into the ring, saying that his sperm was used without his permission, a claim he later dropped. In March of this year, an appeals court gave Luanne custody and decided that John is the legal father, making him responsible for child support. By contracting for a medical procedure resulting in the birth of a child, the court ruled, a couple incurs "the legal status of parenthood." Gohn lost an appeal in May.) For Jaycee's first three years on earth, these people have been wrangling over who her parents are.

In another case, William Kane left h is girlfriend, Deborah Hect, 15 vials of sperm before he killed himself in a Las Vegas hotel in 1991. His two adult children (represented by their mother, h is ex-wife) contested Miss Hect's claim of owner- ship. A settlement agreement on Kane's w ill was eventually reached, giving his children 80 percent of his estate and Miss Hect 20 percent. Hence she was allowed three vials of his sperm. When she did not succeed in conceiving on the first two tries, she filed a petition for the other 12 vials. She won, and the judge who ruled in her favor wrote, "Neither this court nor the decedent's adult children pos- sess reason or right to prevent Hect from implementing decedent's pre-eminent interest in realizing his 'fundamental right' to procreate with the woman of his choice." One day, donors may not even have to have lived. Researchers are experi- menting with using aborted female fetuses as a source of donor eggs.

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And the market continues to zip along. For overseas couples looking for donor eggs, Bill Handel has the scenario worked out. The couple would mail him frozen sperm of their choice (presumably from the recipient husband); his clinic would use it to fertilize donor eggs, chosen from its catalogue of offerings, and reply back within a month with a frozen embryo ready for implantation. (Although the sperm does not yet arrive by mail, Handel has sent out embryos to at least one hundred international customers.) As for the young women at the New Jersey clinic, they are visibly upset by one aspect of the egg-donation pro- cess: they can't have sexual intercourse for several weeks after the retrieval. For making babies, of course, it's already obsolete.

For Writing and Discussion Identifying Rhetorical Features Working in groups or as a class, develop responses to the following questions:

1. How does Lopez appeal to logos? What is her main c laim, and what are her reasons? 2. What does she use f or evidence? What ideas would you have to inc lude in a short summary o f

"Egg Heads"? 3. What appeals to pathos does Lopez make in this argument? How well are these suited to the conserva-

t ive readers of t he National Review? 4. How would you characterize Lopez's ethos? Does she seem knowledgeable and credible? Does she

seem fai r to stakeholders in this controversy? 5. Choose an additional focus from the "Questions for Rhetorical Analysis" (Table 7 .2) to apply to "Egg

Heads." How does this question expand your understanding of Lopez's argument? 6. What strikes you as problematic, memorable, or disturbing in this argument?

Our Own Rhetorical Analysis of "Egg Heads" Now that you have identified some of the rhetorical features of "Egg Heads," we offer our own notes for a rhetorical analysis of this argument.

RHETORICAL CONTEXT As we began our analysis, we reconstructed the rhetorical context in which "Egg Heads" was published. In the late 1990s, a furious debate about egg donation rippled through college and public newspa- pers, popular journalism, websites, and scholarly commentary. This debate had been kicked off by several couples placing ads in the newspapers of the country's most prestigious colleges, offering up to $50,000 for the eggs of brilliant, attractive, athletic college women. Coinciding with these consumer demands, advances in reproductive technology provided an increasing number of complex techniques to surmount the problem of infertility, including fertilizing eggs in petri dishes and implanting them into women through surgical procedures. These procedures could use either a couple's own eggs and sperm or donated eggs and sperm. All these social and medical factors created the kairotic moment for Lopez's article and motivated her to protest the increasing use of these procedures. (Egg donation, concerns for the long-term health of egg donors, surrogate motherhood, and the potential dehumanizing of commercial reproduction continue to be troubling and unresolved controversies across many genres, as you will see when you read Ellen

Analyzing Arguments Rhetorically 11 7

Goodman's op -ed piece at the end of this chapter and student Zachary Stump s's rhetorical analysis of it.)

GENRE AND WRITER When we considered the genre and writer of this article and its place of publication, we noted that this article appeared in the National Review, which describes itself as "America's most w idely read and influential magazine and website for Republican/ conservative news, commentary, and opin ion." It reaches "an affluent, educated, and highly responsive audience of corporate and government leaders, the financial elite, educators, journalists, com- munity and association leaders, as well as engaged activists all across America" (http:/ /www.nationalreview.com). According to our Internet search, Kathryn Jean Lopez is known nationally for her conservative journalistic writing on social and political issues. Currently the editor-at-large of National Review Online, she has also published in The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and the Washington Times. This information told us that in her article "Egg Heads," Lopez is definitely on home territory, aiming her article at a conservative audience.

LOGOS Turning to the logos of Lopez's argument, we decided that the logical structure of Lop ez's argument is clear throughout the article. Her claim is that egg donation and its associated reproductive advances have harmful, long-reaching consequences for society. Basically, she argues that egg donation and reproduc- tive technology rep resent bad scientific developments for society because they are potentially harmful to the long-range health of egg donors and because they lead to an unnatural dehumanizing of human sexuality. She states a version of this last point at the end of the second paragraph: "Egg donation is a quietly expanding industry, changing the way we look at the family, young women's bodies, and human life itself."

The body of her article elaborates on each of these reasons. In developing her reason that egg donation endangers egg donors, Lopez lists the risks but doesn't supply supporting evidence about the frequency of these problems: damage to the ovaries, persistent pain, early menopause, possible ovarian cancer, and even death. She supports her claim about " the expanding industry" by showing how the procedures have become commercialized. To show the popularity of these procedures as well as their commercial value, she quotes a variety of experts such as d irectors of in vitro clinics, fertility centers, bioethicists, and the Ameri- can Society for Reproductive Medicine. She also cleverly bolsters her own case by showing that even liberal cultural critics agree w ith her views about the big ethical questions raised by the reproductive-technology business. In addition to quoting experts, Lopez has sprinkled impressive numbers and vivid examples throughout the body of her argument; these numbers and examples give her argu- ment momentum as it progresses from the potential harm to young egg donors to a number of case studies that depict increasingly disturbing ethical problems.

PATHOS Much of the impact of this argument, we noted, comes from Lopez's appeals to pathos. By describing in detail the waiting rooms for egg donors at fertility clinics, Lopez relies heavily on pathetic appeals to move her audience to see the physical and social dangers of egg donation. She conveys the growing commercialism of reproductive technology by giving readers an inside look at the egg-donation process as these young college women embark on the multistep process of donating their eggs. These young women, she suggests in her title "Egg Heads," are largely unaware of the potential physical dangers to themselves and

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of the ethical implications and consequences of their acts. She asserts that they are driven largely by the desire for money. Lopez also appeals to pathos in her choice of emotionally loaded and often cynical language, which creates an angle of vision opposing reproductive technology: "turning procreation into manufac- turing"; "reproductive prostitution"; "the intrusion of children in their lives"; "motherhood ... reduced to a good leisure-time activity"; "aborted female fetuses as a source of donor eggs"; and intercourse as an "obsolete" way to make babies.

AUDIENCE Despite Lopez's success at spotlighting serious medical and ethi- cal questions, her lack of attention to alternative views and the alarmism of her language caused us to wonder: Who might find this argument persuasive, and who would challenge it? What is noticeably missing from Lopez's argument and apparently from her worldview is the perspective of infertile couples hoping for a baby. Pursuing our question, we decided that a provocative feature of this argument one worthy of deeper analysis is the disparity between how well this argument is suited to its target audience and yet how unpersuasive it is for readers who do not share the assumptions, values, and beliefs of this primary audience.

To Lopez's credit, she has attuned her reasons to the values and concerns of her conservative readers of the National Review, who believe in traditional families, gender differences, and gender roles. Opposed to feminism as they understand it, this audience sanctions careers for women only if women put their families first. Lopez's choice of evidence and her orchestration of it are intended to p lay to her audience's fears that science has fallen into the hands of those who have little regard for the sanctity of the family or traditional motherhood. For example, in p laying strongly to the values of her conservative readers, Lopez belabors the physical, social, and ethical dangers of egg donation, mentioning worst-case sce- narios; however, these appeals to pathos w ill most likely strike other readers who do some investigating into reproductive technology as overblown. She empha- sizes the commercialism of the process as her argument moves from college girls as egg donors to a number of sensationalist case studies that depict intensifying ethical and legal ambiguity. In other words, both the logos and the pathos of her argument skillfully focus on details that tap her target audience's values and beliefs, feeding that audience's fears and revulsion.

USE OF EVIDENCE For a broader or skeptical audience, the alarmism of Lopez's appeals to pathos, her use of atypical evidence, and her distortion of the facts weaken the logos and ethos of her argument. First, Lopez's use of evidence fails to measure up to the STAR criteria (that evidence should be sufficient, typical, accurate, and relevant). She characterizes all egg donors as young women seek- ing money. But she provides little evidence that egg donors are only out to make a buck . She also paints these young women as shortsighted, uninformed, and foolish. As a gap in her evidence, she neglects to examine the potential for long- term health consequences to egg donors. Lopez would rather toss out threats and criticize the young women than really explore this issue. Lopez also weakens her ethos by not considering the young women who may be motivated, at least in part, by compassion for couples who can't conceive on their own.

Lopez also misrepresents the people who are using egg donation, placing them all into two groups: (1) wealthy couples eugenically seeking designer babies w ith preordered special traits and (2) feminist career women. She directs much of her criticism toward this latter group: "The demand side of the market comes

Analyzing Arguments Rhetorically 11 9

mostly from career-minded bab y-boomers, the frontierswomen of feminism, who th ought they could 'have it all."' However, readers who do a little research on their own, as we did, will learn that infertility affects one in seven couples; that it is often a male and a female problem, sometimes caused by an incompatibility between the man's and the woman's reproductive material; and that most couples who take the big step of investing in these exp ensive efforts to have a baby have been trying to get pregnant for a number of years. Rather than being casual about having children, they are often deeply desirous of children and depressed about their inability to conceive. In addition, far from being the sure thing and quick fix that Lopez suggests, reproductive technology has a success rate of only 50 percent overall and involves a huge investment of time, money, and physical discomfort for women receiving donor eggs.

Another way that Lopez violates the STAR criteria is her choice of extreme cases. For readers outside her target audience, her argument appears riddled with straw man and slippery-slope fallacies. (See the Appendix, "Informal Fallacies.") Her examples become more bizarre as her tone becomes more hysterical. Here are some specific instances of extreme, atypical cases:

• her focus on career women casually and selfishly using the service of young egg donors

• the notorious case of Jaycee Buzzanca, dubbed "Nobody's Child" because her adoptive p arents who commissioned her creation divorced before she was born

• the legal contest between a dead man's teen girlfriend and his ex-wife and adult children over his vials of sperm

• the idea of taking eggs from aborted female fetuses

By keeping invisible the vast majority of ordinary couples who go to fer- tility clinics out of last-hope desperation, Lopez uses extreme cases to create a "brave new world" intended to evoke a vehement rejection of these reproductive advances. Skeptical readers would offer the alternative view of the sad, ordinary couples of all ages sitting week after week in fertility clinics, hoping to conceive a child through the "miracle" of these reproductive advances and grateful to the young women who have contributed their eggs.

CONCLUDING POINTS In short, we concluded that Lopez's angle of vision, although effectively in sync with her conservative readers of the National Review, exaggerates and distorts her case against these reproductive advances. Lopez's traditional values and slanting of the evidence undermine her ethos, limit the value of this argument for a wider audience, and compel that audience to seek out alternative sources for a more complete view of egg donation.

Conclusion This chapter explained how to think rhetorically about texts. The first step is to reconstruct a text's rhetorical context by focusing on the author, the author's moti- vating occasion and purpose, the targeted audience, the text's genre, and its angle of vision. We also explained how to apply a list of questions to a text to help you conduct a rhetorical analysis. To analyze a text rhetorically means to determine

120 Chapter 7

how it works: what effect it has on readers and how it achieves or fails to achieve its p ersuasiven ess through appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos.

The following writing assignment includes a student' s rhetorical analysis of another article about reproductive technology. In Chapter 8, w e provide more detailed instruction on how to summarize and respond to source texts.

Writing Assignment A Rhetorical Analysis Write a thesis-driven rhetorical analysis essay in which you examine the rhetorical effectiveness of an argu- ment specified by you r instructor. Unless otherwise stated, d irect your analysis to an audience of your class- mates. In your introduction, establ ish the argumentative conversation to wh ich this argument is contributing. Briefly summarize the argument and present your thesis high lighting the rhetorical features of the argument that you f ind central to its effectiveness or ineffectiveness. Zachary Stumps's analysis of Ellen Goodman's "Womb for Rent" (reproduced at the end of this chapter) is an example of this assignment.

Generating Ideas for Your Rhetorical Analysis To develop ideas for your essay, you might follow these steps:

Step

Familiarize yourself with t he article you are analyzing.

Place the article in its rheto rical context.

Summarize t he article.

Reread t he article , identifying "hot spots ."

Use t he list of q uestions in Table 7 .2 , "Questions for Rhetorical Analysis"

From your notes and freewriting , identify t he focus for your analysis.

Write a thesis statement for your essay.

How to Do It

Read t he article several times . Divide it into sections to und erstand its structure.

Reconstruct the article's rhetorical context fo llowing t he advice in t his chapter. Use the list of quest ions in Tab le 7 .2, "Questions for Rhetorical Analysis ."

If you have never written a summary before, you can find specific instruct ion in Chapter 8 .

Note hot spots in the article-points t hat impress you, disturb you, confuse you, o r puzzle you .

Choose several of these q uestions and freewrite responses to t hem.

Choose several features of t he article that you find particu larly important and that you want to discuss in depth in your essay. Identify points t hat will bring something new to your read ers and t hat wi ll help t hem see this artic le with new understanding . You may want to list your ideas and then look for ways to group them together aro und main poi nts .

Articulate your important points in o ne or two sentences, setting up t hese points clearly fo r your audience .

In find ing a meaningful focus for your rhetor ical analysis essay, you will need to create a focusing thes is statement that avoids w ishy-washy formulas such as, "This argument has some strengths and some weak- nesses." To avoid a vapid thesis statement, focus on the complexity of the argument, the writer's strategies for persuading the target audience, and the features that might impede its persuasiveness for skeptics. The best thesis statements articulate how their writers see the inner workings of these arguments as well as the arguments' contributions to their public conversations. For example:

Lopez's angle of v ision, although effectively in sync with her conservative readers of the National Review, exaggerates and distorts her case against certain reproductive advances, weakening her ethos and the value of her argument for a w ider audience. [This is the thesis we wou ld use if we were writing a stand-alone essay on the Lopez article.]

Analyzing Arguments Rhetorically 121

To make your rhetorical analysis of your article persuasive, you wil l need to develop each of the points stated or impl ied in your thesis statement using textual evidence, including short quotations. Your essay should show how you have listened carefully to the argument you are analyzing, summarized it fairly, and probed it deeply.

Organizing Your Rhetorical Analysis The organization plan in Figure 7.1 provides a possible structure for your rhetorical analysis.

Figure 7.1 Organizational plan for a rhetorical analysis of an argument Organization Plan for a Rhetorical Analysis of an Argument

Introduction

Summary of Argument

Rhetorical Analysis

Conclusion

Readings

• Present the kairos of the article

• Engage reader's interest in the issue of the article

• Indicate your interest and investment

• Present a thesis with three or four rhetorical points

about the article you will analyze in depth

• Briefly present the claim and main points of the

article you are analyzing to help readers understand

your analysis

• [Possibly include the summary of the article in your

introduction]

• Explain, develop, and discuss the rhetorical points in

your thesis, examining the author's rhetorical

strategies

• Use examples and quotations from the article's

argument you are analyzing to make your points

clear to your readers

• Wrap up your analysis

• Perhaps mention the stakes or importance of this

article's contribution to the public conversation on

this issue

Our first reading is by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, author, and sp eaker Ellen Goodman. In our second reading, student Zachary Stumps analyzes Good- man's op-ed piece rhetorically.

122 Chapter 7

Womb for Rent ELLEN GOODMAN

By now we all have a story about a job outsourced beyond our reach in the global economy. My own favorite is about the California publisher who hired two report- ers in India to cover the Pasadena city government. Really.

There are times as well when the offshoring of jobs takes on a quite literal meaning. When the labor we are talking about is, well, labor.

In the last few months we' ve had a full nursery of international stories about surrogate mothers. Hundreds of couples are crossing borders in search of lower- cost ways to fill the family business. In turn, there's a new coterie of international workers who are gestating for a living.

Many of the stories about the globalization of baby production begin in India, where the government seems to regard this as, literally, a growth industry. In the little town of Anand, dubbed "The Cradle of the World," 45 women were recently on the books of a local clinic. For the production and delivery of a child, they will earn $5,000 to $7,000, a decade's worth of women's wages in rural India.

s But even in America, some women, including Army wives, are supplementing their income by contracting out their wombs. They have become surrogate mothers for wealthy couples from European countries that ban the practice.

This globalization of baby-making comes at the peculiar intersection of a high reproductive technology and a low-tech work force. The biotech business was created in the same petri dish as Baby Louise, the first IVF baby. But since then, we've seen conception outsourced to egg donors and sperm donors. We've had motherhood divided into its parts from genetic mother to gestational mother to birth mother and now contract mother.

We've also seen the growth of an international economy. Frozen sperm is flown from one continent to another. And patients have become medical tourists, searching for cheaper health care whether it's a new hip in Thailand or an IVF treatment in South Africa that comes with a photo safari thrown in for the same price. Why not then rent a foreign womb?

I don't make light of infertility. The primal desire to have a child underlies this multinational Creation, Inc. On one side, couples who choose surrogacy want a baby with at least half their own genes. On the other side, surrogate mothers, who are rarely implanted with their own eggs, can believe that the child they bear and deliver is not really theirs.

As one woman put it, "We give them a baby and they give us much-needed money. It's good for them and for us." A surrogate in Anand used the money to buy a heart operation for her son. Another raised a dowry for her daughter. And before we talk about the "exploitation" of the pregnant woman, consider her alternative in Anand: a job crushing glass in a factory for $25 a month.

10 Nevertheless, there is and there should be something uncomfortable about a free-market approach to baby-making. It's easier to accept surrogacy when it's a gift from one woman to another. But we rarely see a rich woman become a sur- rogate for a poor family. Indeed, in Third World countries, some women sign these contracts with a fingerprint because they are illiterate.

For that matter, we have not yet had stories about the contract workers for whom pregnancy was a dangerous occupation, but we will. What obligation does a family that simply contracted for a child have to its birth mother? What control

Analyzing Arguments Rhetorically 123

do should contractors have over their "employees"' lives while incubating "their" children? What will we tell the offspring of this international trade?

"National boundaries are coming down," says bioethicist Lori Andrews, "but we can't stop human emotions. We are expanding families and don't even have terms to deal with it."

It's the commercialism that is troubling. Some things we cannot sell no mat- ter how good "the deal." We cannot, for example, sell ourselves into slavery. We cannot sell our children. But the surrogacy business comes perilously close to both of these deals. And international surrogacy tips the scales.

So, these borders we are crossing are not just geographic ones. They are ethical ones. Today the global economy sends everyone in search of the cheaper deal as if that were the single common good. But in the biological search, humanity is sacri- ficed to the economy and the person becomes the product. And, step by step, we come to a stunning place in our ancient creation story. It's called the marketplace.

"Womb for Rent" (Th e Globalization of Baby Making) by Ellen Goodman. From The Washington Post, Aprilll © 2008 Washington Post Company. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyrigh t Laws of the United States. Th e printing, copy- ing, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited.

Critiquing "Won1b for Rent" 1. What is Goodman's main claim and what are her reasons? In other words,

what ideas would you have to include in a short summary?

2. What appeals to pathos does Goodman make in this argument? How do these appeals function in the argument?

3. Choose an additional focus from Table 7.2, "Questions for Rhetorical Analy- sis," to apply to "Womb for Rent." How does this question affect your per- spective on Goodman's argument?

4. What strikes you as problematic, memorable, or disturbing in this argument?

Our second reading shows how student writer Zachary Stumps analyzed the Ellen Goodman article.

Student Essay

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ellen Goodman's "Womb For Rent"

Zachary Stumps

With her op-ed piece "Womb for Rent," published in the Seattle Times (and earlier in The Washington Post), syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman enters the murky debate about reproductive technology gone global. Because Americans are outsourcing everything else, "Why not then rent a foreign womb?" she asks. Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group, is known for helping readers understand

(continued)

Introduction provides context and poses issue to be addressed

Provides background on Goodman

124 Chapter 7

Summarizes the op-ed piece

Thesis paragraph

Develops first-point 5 in thesis: use of pathos in exploring perspective of poor women

Develops second point in thesis: the complex contexts of this issue- outsourc- ing and medical tourism

the "tumult of social change and its impact on families," and for shattering "the mold of men writing exclusively about politics" ("Ellen Goodman"). This op-ed piece continues her tradition of examining social change from the perspective of family issues.

Goodman launches her short piece by asserting that one of the most recent and consequential "jobs" to be outsourced is having babies. She explains how the "globalization of baby production" is thriving because it brings together the reproductive desires of people in developed countries and the bodily resources of women in developing countries such as India. Briefly tracing how both reproductive technology and medical tourism have taken advantage of global possibilities, Goodman acknowledges that the thousands of dollars Indian women earn by carrying the babies of foreign couples represent a much larger income than these women could earn in any other available jobs.

After appearing to legitimize this global exchange, however, Good- man shifts to her ethical concerns by raising some moral questions that she says are not being addressed in this trade. She concludes with a full statement of her claim that this global surrogacy is encroaching on human respect and dignity, exploiting business-based science, and turning babies into products.

In this piece, Goodman's delay of her thesis has several rhetorical ben- efits: It gives Goodman space to present the perspective of poor women, enhanced by her appeals to pathos, and it invites readers to join her journey into the complex contexts of this issue. However, this strategy is also risky because it limits the development of her own argument.

Instead of presenting her thesis up front, Goodman devotes much of the first part of her argument to looking at this issue from the perspec- tive of foreign surrogate mothers. Using the strategies of pathos to evoke sympathy for these women, she creates a compassionate and progressive- minded argument that highlights the benefits to foreign surrogate mothers. She cites factual evidence showing that the average job for a woman in Anand, India, yields a tiny "$25 a month" gotten through the hard work of "crushing glass in a factory," compared to the "$5,000 to $7,000" made carrying a baby to term. To carry a baby to term for a foreign couple rep- resents "a decade's worth of women's wages in rural India." Deepening readers' understanding of these women, Goodman cites one woman who used her earnings to finance her son's heart operation and another who paid for her daughter's dowry. In her fair presentation of these women, Goodman both builds her own positive ethos and adds a dialogic dimen- sion to her argument by helping readers walk in the shoes of impoverished surrogate mothers.

The second rhetorical benefit of Goodman's delayed thesis is that she invites readers to explore this complex issue of global surrogacy with her before she declares her own view. To help readers understand and think through this issue, she relates it to two other familiar global topics: out- sourcing and medical tourism. First, she introduces foreign surrogacy as one of the latest forms of outsourcing: "This globalization of baby-making comes at the peculiar intersection of a high reproductive technology and a low-tech work force." Presenting these women as workers, she explains

Analyzing Arguments Rhetorically 125

that women in India are getting paid for "the production and delivery of a child" that is analogous to the production and delivery of sneakers or bicycle parts. Goodman also sets this phenomenon in the context of global medical tourism. If people can pursue lower-cost treatment for illnesses and health conditions in other countries, why shouldn't an infertile couple seeking to start a family not also have such access to these more afford- able and newly available means? This reasoning provides a foundation for readers to begin understanding the many layers of the issue.

The result of Goodman's delayed-thesis strategy is that the first two- thirds of this piece seem to justify outsourcing surrogate motherhood. Only after reading the whole op-ed piece can readers see clearly that Goodman has been dropping hints about her view all along through her choice of words. Although she clearly sees how outsourcing surrogacy can help poor women economically, her use of market language such as "produc- tion," "delivery," and "labor" carry a double meaning. On first reading of this op-ed piece, readers don't know if Goodman's punning is meant to be catchy and entertaining or serves another purpose. This other purpose becomes clear in the last third of the article when Goodman forthrightly asserts her criticism of the commercialism of the global marketplace that promotes worldwide searching for a "cheaper deal": "humanity is sacri- ficed to the economy and the person becomes the product." This is a bold and big claim, but does the final third of her article support it?

In the final five paragraphs of this op-ed piece, Goodman begins to develop the rational basis of her argument; however, the brevity of the op-ed genre and her choice not to state her view openly initially have left Goodman with little space to develop her own claim. The result is that she presents some profound ideas very quickly. Some of the ethically complex ideas she introduces but doesn't explore much are these:

• The idea that there are ethical limits on what can be "sold"

• The idea that surrogate motherhood might be a "dangerous occupation"

• The idea that children born from this "international trade" may be confused about their identities.

Goodman simply has not left herself enough space to develop these issues and perhaps leaves readers with questions rather than with changed views. I am particularly struck by several questions. Why have European countries banned surrogacy in developing countries, and why has the United States not banned this practice? Does Goodman intend to argue that the United States should follow Europe's lead? She could explore more how this business of finding illiterate women to bear children for the wealthy continues to exploit third-world citizens much as sex tourism exploits women in the very same countries. It seems to perpetuate a tendency for the developed world to regard developing countries as poor p laces of law- lessness where practices outlawed in the rest of the world (e.g., child pros- titution, slave-like working conditions) are somehow tolerable. Goodman could have developed her argument more to state explicitly that a woman who accepts payment for bearing a baby becomes an indentured servant to

(continued)

Shows how the delayed -thesis struc- ture creates two per- spectives in conflict

Restates the third point in his thesis: lack of space lim- its development of Goodman's argument

Discusses examples of ideas raised by Goodman but not developed

126 Chapter 7

Conclusion

Uses MLA format to list sources cited in the essay

10

the family. Yet another way to think of this issue is to see that the old say- ing of "a bun in the oven" is more literal than metaphorical when a woman uses her womb as a factory to produce children, a body business not too dissimilar to the commercialism of prostitution. Goodman teases readers by mentioning these complex problems without producing an argument.

Still, although Goodman does not expand her criticism of outsourced surrogate motherhood or explore the issues of human dignity and rights, this argument does introduce the debate on surrogacy in the global mar- ketplace, raise awareness, and begin to direct the conversation toward a productive end of seeking a responsible, healthy, and ethical future. Her op-ed piece lures readers into contemplating deep, perplexing ethical and economic problems, and it lays a foundation for readers to create an informed view of this issue.

Works Cited

"Ellen Goodman." Washingtonpost.com, www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-srv /post/writersgroup/biogoodman.htm. Accessed 8 Apr. 2016.

Goodman, Ellen. "Womb for Rent." The Wa shington Post, 11 Apr. 2008, p. B6.

Chapter 8

Rea din__,, Summarizin__,, and S eakin Back

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn to:

8.1 Use exploratory strategies to find an engaging issue.

•

8.2 Summarize a stakeholder's argument as an entry into the issue.

8.3 Respond to a stakeholder's argument through believing, doubting, and dialectic thinking.

8.4 Delay closure by thinking dialectically.

This chapter, like the preceding one, focuses on the inquiring or truth-seeking aim of argument. Truth-seeking is an antidote to locking ourselves up in echo chambers of like-minded individuals who have little interest in other people's views because they believe they already know the truth. Dismayed by these echo chambers, cultural critic Matt Miller recently posed the questions: "Is it possible in America today to convince anyone of anything he doesn't already believe? ... [A]re there enough places where this mingling of minds occurs to sustain a democracy?"*

Miller's "mingling of minds" is essential for the truth-seeking process to work. Argument as truth-seeking depends on the willingness of stakeholders to listen to one another and to change their views in the face of new reasons and evidence. We value the insight of rhetorician Wayne Booth, who proposes that when we enter an argumentative conversation, we should not ask first "How can I change your mind?" but rather "When should I change my mind?"**

Argument as truth-seeking is not easy because argumentative conversations always entail disagreements. Whenever you argue, you necessarily bring your

*Matt Miller, "Is Persuasion Dead?" The New York Times, 4 June 2005, A29. **Wayne Booth raised these questions in a featured session with Peter Elbow titled "Blind Skepticism vs. the Rhetoric of Assent: Implications for Rhetoric, Argument, and Teaching," presented at the CCCC annual convention, Chicago, Illinois, March 2002.

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view into tension with some alternative view: "Although some stakeholders think X, I am arguing Y." Your view on an issue (which you will need to support with your own reasons and evidence) pushes against an alternative view (which you must be able to summarize fairly). When you first begin exploring an issue, you may not know where you stand on the issue, and even if you do know, you should be willing to change your mind as your research takes you deeper into the issue. To participate thoughtfully in this inquiry process, you need two high-level skills: (1) the ability to summarize each stakeholder's view as you encounter it and (2) the ability to formulate your own thoughtful response to that view. Eventually this exploratory process of summary and response can help you stake out your own claim in the conversation and determine your best means of supporting it.

This chapter teaches you these summary I response skills. After presenting strategies to help you discover an engaging issue, we show you how to summa- rize a stakeholder's argument and then respond to it through believing, doubting, and dialectic thinking. To illustrate argument as inquiry, we follow the thinking process of student writer Trudie Makens as she explores the problem of whether fast-food workers and other low-wage laborers should be paid a "living wage" of $15 per hour.

Finding Issues to Explore 8.1 Use exploratory strategies to find an engaging issue.

Your engagement with a controversial issue might be sparked by personal expe- rience, by conversations with others, or by something you listen to, see, or read. Sometimes you will be confused about the issue, unable to take a stand. At other times, you will have a visceral gut reaction that causes you to take an immediate position, even though you haven't thought through the issue in depth. At the start of the arguing process, the confused or puzzled position is often the stronger one because it promotes inquiry as truth-seeking. If you start with a firm stand, you might be less disposed to uncover your issue's complexity and let your position evolve. In this section we examine some strategies you can use to find issues worth exploring.

Do Some Initial Brainstorming As a first step, make an inventory of issues that interest you. Many of the ideas you develop may become subject matter for arguments that you will write later in this course. The strategies suggested in Table 8.1 (Brainstorming Issues to Explore) will help you generate a productive list.

Once you've made a list, add to it as new ideas strike you and return to it each time you are given a new argumentative assignment.

Be Open to the Issues All Around You We are surrounded by argumentative issues. You'll start noticing them everywhere once you get attuned to them. You will be invited into argumentative conversations by posters, bumper stickers, tweets, blog sites, newspaper editorial pages, maga- zine articles, the sports section, movie reviews, and song lyrics. When you read or listen, watch for "hot spots" passages or moments that evoke strong agreement,

Table 8.1 Brainstorming Issues to Explore

What You Can Do

Make an inventory of the communities to which you belong. Consider classroom communities; clubs and organizations; residence hall, apartment, neighborhood , or family communities; church/ synagog ue or work communities ; commun ities related to your hobbies or avocations ; your city, state, region, nation, and world communities.

Identify controversies within those communities. Thi nk both big and small :

• Big issue in world community: What is the best way to prevent destruction of rain forests?

• Small issue in residence-hall community: Should quiet hou rs be enforced?

Narrow your list to a handful of problem- atic issues for which you don't have a position; share it with classmates. Identify a few issues that you would like to explore more deeply. When you share your list with classmates , add their list of issues to yours .

Brainstorm a network of related issues. A ny given issue is always embedded in a network of other issues. To see how open- ended and fluid an argumentative conversa- tion can be, try connecting one of your issues to a network of other issues, includ ing subis- sues and side issues.

How It Works

Because arguments arise out of disagreements w ithin communities, you can often th ink of issues for arg ument by beginn ing with a list of the commu- nities to which you belong.

To stimulate thinking , use prompts such as these :

• People in t his community frequently d isagree about __

• Within my work commu nity, Person X believes __ ; however, this view troubles me because

• In a recent residence-hall meeting, I didn't know where I stood on __

• The situation at __ cou ld be improved if

Sharing your list with classmates stimulates more thi nking and encourages conversations. The more you explore your views w ith others, the more ideas you w ill develop. Good writi ng grows out of good talking .

Brainstorm questions that compel you to look at an issue in a variety of ways . For example, if you explored t he controversy over w hether states should legalize marijuana (see Chapter 1 ), you might generate these q uestions about related issues:

• Is marijuana a gateway drug toward cocaine or heroin?

• How wi ll legalizing marijuana affect the black market in drugs?

• What should be the role of government in regulat- ing the safety and potency of cannabis, including both inhaled and edible versions?

• W hat has been the experience of states that have already legalized marijuana?

Argument as Inquiry 129

disagreement, or confusion. As an illustration of how arguments are all around us, try the following exercise on the issue of a living wage for low-wage workers.

Explore Ideas by Freewriting Freewriting is useful at any stage of the writing process. When you freewrite, you put fingers to keyboard (or p en to paper) and write rapidly nonstop, usually five to ten minutes at a stretch, without worrying about structure, grammar, or correct- ness. Your goal is to generate as many ideas as possible without stopping to edit your work. If you can' t think of anything to say, write "relax" or "I' m stuck" over and over until new ideas emerge. Here is Trudie Makens' s freewrite in response to the protest photo that introduces Part 2.

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Figure 8.1 Full-page ad opposed to raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers

''

orkers Demanding a lbghe -~•o ....

Newly developed robotic chef from Japan's MOTOMAN prepares a dish,

Today's union-organized protests against fast food restaurants aren't a battle against

management they're a battle against technology.

Faced with a $15 wage mandate, restaurants have to reduce the cost of service in order to maintain

the low prices customers demand.

That means fewer entry-level jobs and more automated alternatives even in the kitchen.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JOB LOSSES ASSOCIATED WITH MINIMUM WAGE HIKES, GO TO:

• PAID FOR BY THE EMPLOYMENT POLICIES INSTITUTE

Argument as Inquiry 131

For Writing and Discussion Responding to Visual Arguments About a Living Wage Suppose, in your initial search for a controvers ial issue, you encounter visual texts related to rais ing the minimum wage for fast-food workers: photos of protestors, newspaper ads, cartoons, graphics, and other forms of visual arguments (See Figures 8.1-8.3; see also the protest photo introducing Part 2, just before Chapter 7). Working individually or in small groups, generate exploratory responses to these questions:

1. What claim is each of these visual texts making? 2. What background information about the prob lems of minimum-wage workers do these visual texts

assume? 3. What network of issues do these visual texts suggest? 4. What puzzling questions do these visual texts raise for you?

Figure 8.2 Pol itical cartoon on minimum wage

WllllHIIl 1

RAISE MINI MUM

WAGE

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Figure 8.3 Graph offering employment stat istics relevant to minimum wage controversy

Adapted from Schmitt, John, and Janelle Jones, "Low-Wage Workers Are Older and Better Educated than Ever." Center for Economic and Policy Research. April 2012.

100

80

60 ...... c Q) u s- Q) 0..

40

20

Percentage of Low-Wage Workers By Age Group, 1979 and 2011

4.6 4.2

--------- 17.5

... ... ... 22.1 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 21. 1

... ... ... ...

... ... ... ... 23.7 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 26.0

12.0

065

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D 20-24

D 16-19

0+-----~------~----~----~------~--~

1979 20 II

TRUDIE'S FREEWRITE

Working in the food and service industry as a husser, I relate to the people in the picture wearing union T-shirts and arguing for a $15 /hour minimum wage. It' s hard to live off of minimum wage, and if it weren't for my tips, I wouldn't be able to pay some of my bills. And that is with help from my parents because I am a college student. I can't imagine what it would be like for full-time workers in the fast-food industry where orders are taken via counter. I remember when I worked counter service jobs, as a barista and at a dumpling cafe, no one ever tipped. They didn't feel like they needed to because it was not formal wait service. My work, and my coworkers' work, was not valued. What some people don't realize is that whether you are working at McDonald's or in an upscale restaurant, you are still working hard to provide good service. If anything, it is harder to work jobs like McDonald's where customers are dismissive and don't value the service they are receiving. Think, relax. Why do people not value the work of fast-food and counter service workers? Because it is considered unskilled labor? A lot of the people I have worked with didn't have the time or money to go to college because they were burdened with the financial strains of having children or caring for sick or elderly relatives. I remember my coworker Maria who was always stressed out because she couldn't pay her rent and had a child to support. A living wage would help people who haven't been lucky enough to inherit wealth to pull themselves out of poverty. And it wouldn't hurt corporations like McDonald's to live with a little less profit.

Argument as Inquiry 133

Explore Ideas by Idea Mapping Another good technique for exploring ideas is idea mapping. To make an idea map, draw a circle in the center of a page and write some trigger idea (a broad topic, a question, or working thesis statement) in the center of the circle. Then record your ideas on branches and subbranches extending from the center circle. As long as you pursue one train of thought, keep recording your ideas on that branch. But when that line of thinking gives out, start a new branch. Often your thoughts will jump back and forth between branches. That's a major advantage of "picturing" your thoughts; you can see them as part of an emerging design rather than as strings of unrelated ideas.

Idea maps usually generate more ideas, though less well-developed ones, than freewrites. Figure 8.4 shows an idea map that Trudie Makens created on the issue of the minimum wage after class discussion of the visual texts in Figures 8.1-8.3.

Explore Ideas by Playing the Believing and Deubting Gatne The believing and doubting game, a critical-thinking strategy developed by rheto- rician Peter Elbow that systematically stretches your thinking, is an excellent way to imagine views different from your own and to anticipate responses to those

• v1ews.

• As a believer, your role is to be wholly sympathetic to an idea. You must listen carefully to the idea and suspend all disbelief. You must identify all the ways in which the idea may appeal to different audiences and all the reasons for believing the idea. The believing game can be difficult, even frightening, if you are asked to believe an idea that strikes you as false or threatening.

Figure 8.4 Trudie's idea map

Could reduce

Increase productivity

I poverty among W ill sustain Create happier

More just

I Produce

Need tips to make enough

I Busser, barista

Had a child

I Maria couldn't No safety

payrent net

working poor a family workers income equality

------~ ~---- My experiences --- Saw o lder Pro-raising wage

Con-raising wage

Should fast-food workers make $ l 5 /hour

Questions

---- Raise food Might lead to Might make

prices job layoffs or fast-foodjobs reduced hours too attractive

Discourage people from getting more skills or education

How important is cheap food to the

economy?

I How much would

cost of food actually rise?

coworkers struggle

Are there better ways to reduce

poverty?

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• As a doubter, your role is to be judgmental and critical, finding fault with an idea. The doubting game is the opposite of the believing game. You do your best to find counterexamples and inconsistencies that undermine the idea you are examining. Again, it can be threatening to doubt ideas that you instinc- tively want to believe.

When you play the believing and doubting game with an assertion, simply write two different chunks, one chunk arguing for the assertion (the believing game) and one chunk opposing it (the doubting game). Freewrite both chunks, letting your ideas flow without censoring them. Or, alternatively, make an idea map with believing and doubting branches. Here is how Trudie Makens played the believing and doubting game with the assertion "Fast-food workers should be paid $15 per hour."

Trudie's Believing and Doubting Game

Believing: I doubt anyone strives to become a full-time fast-food worker, but many people become stuck in those jobs and can't advance because they don' t have a college education or because there are no better jobs available. Sometimes the workers are college students, so an increase in minimum pay would help them not accrue so much debt and perhaps have more time to study because they wouldn't have to work so many hours. But the real benefit would come to the uneducated, unskilled fast- food worker whose financial situation has led him or her to the fast-food job. The current minimum wage is barely livable. If fast-food workers were to receive $15 per hour, there is far more of a chance for them to support themselves and their family comfortably without the stress of poverty. Even if full-time fast-food workers do not go on to get more skills or go to college, it becomes more likely their children will be able to go to college if the fast-food worker is receiving a higher wage. Thus, the cycle of poverty as it is inherited generationally is, at least mildly, disrupted.

Doubting: If a $15 per hour minimum wage were to be implemented, the fast-food corporations would have to find ways to compensate for the loss of profits. The most obvious way would be to raise food prices. If prices were to rise, fast food would no longer be affordable. This could have damaging and reversing effects on the working class, which may rely on cheap fast food. Another problem is that the $15 per hour mini- mum wage may encourage workers to stay put in their jobs and not strive for a career. Student workers may no longer see the benefit of going into debt to get a degree and be satisfied with their current fast-food job. The effect of more desirable fast-food jobs may put pressure on other companies to raise the hourly wage of their entry-level positions. The rise in wage may, again, have the ripple effect of higher-priced products, thus reducing sales and forcing these companies to lay off some workers. No matter what scenario is dreamt up, it would seem that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, even if just for fast-food workers, might have damaging effects on the economy that would diminish any benefits or advantages that theoretically come from receiving a higher wage.

Although Trudie sees the injustice of paying low wages to fast-food workers, she also sees that paying such workers $15 per hour might raise the cost of food,

Argument as Inquiry 135

reduce the number of jobs available, or have other negative consequences. Playing the believing and doubting game has helped her articulate the dilemma and see the issue in more complex terms.

For Writing and Discussion Playing the Believing and Doubting Game

Individual task: Choose one or more of the following controversial claims and play the believing and doubting game with it, through either freewriting or idea mapping.

1. A student should report a fellow student who is cheating on an exam or plagiarizing an essay. 2. Federal law should forbid the purchase of assault weapons or other f irearms with high-capacity

• magaz1nes.

3. Athletes should be allowed to take steroids and human growth hormone under a doctor's supervision. 4. Il legal immigrants already living in the United States should be granted amnesty and placed on a fast

track to U.S. citizenship. 5. Respond to a claim from a controversial reading in your class.

Group task: Working in pairs, in small groups, or as a class, share your results with c lassmates.

Summarizing a Stakeholder's Argument 8.2 Summarize a stakeholder's argument as an entry into the issue.

When you research an issue, you will encounter the conflicting views of many different stakeholders. You will eventually push against some of these stakeholders with your own claim and reasons ("Although Jones and Lopez argue X, I argue Y"). But you may also be in full or partial agreement with other stakeholders, drawing on them for support or evidence. In either case, you have to understand thor- oughly the sources you are engaging with.

One way to show this understanding is to summarize a stakeholder's argument in your own words. A summary (also called an abstract, a precis, or a synopsis) presents only a text's major points and eliminates supporting details. Summaries can be any length, depending on the writer's purpose, but usually they range from several sentences to one or two paragraphs. To maintain your own credibility, your summary should be as neutral and fair to that piece as possible.

To explain how to write a summary, we will continue with our example of raising the minimum wage. The following article, "The Pay Is Too Damn Low," appeared in The New Yorker, a magazine with a liberal perspective. It was written by James Surowiecki, an American journalist who writes the "Financial Page" column for The New Yorker. Please read this article carefully in preparation for the exercises and examples that follow.

136 Chapter 8

The Pay Is Too Damn Lo"W JAMES SUROWIECKI

A few weeks ago, Washington, D.C., passed a living-wage bill designed to make Walmart pay its workers a minimum of $12.50 an hour. Then President Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage (which is currently $7.25 an hour). McDonald's was widely derided for releasing a budget to help its employees plan financially, since that only underscored how brutally hard it is to live on a McDonald's wage. And last week fast-food workers across the country staged walkouts, calling for an increase in their pay to fifteen dollars an hour. Low-wage earners have long been the hardest workers to organize and the easiest to ignore. Now they're front-page news.

The workers' grievances are simple: low wages, few (if any) benefits, and lit- tle full-time work. In inflation-adjusted terms, the minimum wage, though higher than it was a decade ago, is still well below its 1968 peak (when it was worth about $10.70 an hour in today's dollars), and it's still poverty-level pay. To make mat- ters worse, most fast-food and retail work is part time, and the weak job market has eroded what little bargaining power low-wage workers had: their earnings actually fell between 2009 and last year, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Still, the reason this has become a big political issue is not that the jobs have 5 changed; it's that the people doing the jobs have. Historically, low-wage work

tended to be done either by the young or by women looking for part-time jobs to supplement family income. As the historian Bethany Moreton has shown, Walmart in its early days sought explicitly to hire underemployed married women. Fast- food workforces, meanwhile, were dominated by teenagers. Now, though, plenty of family breadwinners are stuck in these jobs. That's because, over the past three decades, the U.S. economy has done a poor job of creating good middle-class jobs; five of the six fastest-growing job categories today pay less than the median wage. That's why, as a recent study by the economists John Schmitt and Janelle Jones has shown, low-wage workers are older and better educated than ever. More important, more of them are relying on their paychecks not for pin money or to pay for Friday-night dates but, rather, to support families. Forty years ago, there was no expectation that fast-food or discount-retail jobs would provide a living wage, because these were not jobs that, in the main, adult heads of household did. Today, low-wage workers provide 46 percent of their family's income. It is that change which is driving the demand for higher pay.

The situation is the result of a tectonic shift in the American economy. In 1960, the country's biggest employer, General Motors, was also its most profit- able company and one of its best-paying. It had high profit margins and real pricing power, even as it was paying its workers union wages. And it was not alone: firms such as Ford, Standard Oil, and Bethlehem Steel employed huge numbers of well-paid workers while earning big profits. Today, the country's big- gest employers are retailers and fast-food chains, almost all of which have built their businesses on low pay they've striven to keep wages down and unions out and low prices.

This complicates things, in part because of the nature of these businesses. They make plenty of money, but most have slim profit margins: Walmart and

Argument as Inquiry 137

Target earn between three and four cents on the dollar; a typical McDonald's franchise restaurant earns around six cents on the dollar before taxes, according to an analysis from Janney Capital Markets. In fact, the combined profits of all the major retailers, restaurant chains, and supermarkets in the Fortune 500 are smaller than the profits of Apple alone. Yet Apple employs just 76,000 people, while the retailers, supermarkets, and restaurant chains employ 5.6 million. The grim truth of those numbers is that low wages are a big part of why these companies are able to stay profitable while offering low prices. Congress is currently considering a bill increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 over the next three years. That's an increase that the companies can easily tolerate, and it would make a significant difference in the lives of low-wage workers. But that's still a long way from turn- ing these jobs into the kind of employment that can support a middle-class family. If you want to accomplish that, you have to change the entire way these compa- nies do business. Above all, you have to get consumers to accept significantly higher, and steadily rising, prices. After decades in which we've grown used to cheap stuff, that won't be easy.

Realistically, then, a higher minimum wage can be only part of the solution. We also need to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and strengthen the social- insurance system, including child care and health care (the advent of Obamacare will help in this regard). Fast-food jobs in Germany and the Netherlands aren't much better-paid than in the United States, but a stronger safety net makes work- ers much better off. We also need many more of the "middle-class jobs" we're always hearing about. A recent McKinsey report suggested that the government should invest almost a trillion dollars over the next five years in repairing and upgrading the national infrastructure, which seems like a good place to start. And we really need the economy as a whole to grow faster, because that would both increase the supply of good jobs and improve the bargaining power of low- wage workers. As Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities told me, "The best friend that low-wage workers have is a strong economy and a tight job market." It isn't enough to make bad jobs better. We need to create better jobs.

Thinking Steps for Writing a Sutntnary To help you write an effective summary, we recommend the following steps:

Step 1: Read the argument for general meaning. Don't judge it. Put your objec- tions aside; just follow the writer's meaning, trying to see the issue from the writer's perspective. Try to adopt the writer's values and belief system. Walk in the writer's shoes.

Step 2: Reread the article slowly, writing brief does and says statements for each paragraph (or group of closely connected paragraphs). A does statement identifies a paragraph's function, such as "summarizes an opposing view," "introduces a supporting reason," "gives an example," or "uses statistics to support the previous point." A says statement summarizes a paragraph's content. Your challenge in writing says statements is to identify the main idea in each para- graph and translate that idea into your own words, most likely condensing it at the same time. This process may be easier with an academic article that

138 Chapter 8

uses long, developed paragraphs headed by clear topic sentences than with more informal, journalistic articles that use shorter, less developed paragraphs. What follows are does and says statements for the first three paragraphs of Surowiecki 's article:

Does/Says Analysis of Surowiecki's Article

Paragraph 1: Does: Gives examples of recent news stories about protests of low-wage workers. Says: Hard-to-organize, low-wage earners are now in the news demanding an increase in the minimum wage.

Paragraph 2: Does: Provides details about the workers' grievances. Says: A weakening job market combined with low wages, lack of benefits, and mainly part-time hours keeps low-wage workers at poverty levels.

Paragraph 3: Does: Explains the changing demographics of those who hold low-wage jobs. Says: In the past, minimum-wage jobs were held primarily by teenagers or by women desiring part-time work to supplement family incomes, but today many primary breadwinners depend on minimum-wage jobs to support a family.

For Writing and Discussion Does/Says Statements Working individually or in small groups, w rite does and says statements for the remaining parag raphs of Surowiecki's article.

Step 3: Examine your does and says statements to determine the major sections of the argument. Create a list of the major points (and subpoints) that must appear in a summary in order to represent that argument accurately. If you are visually oriented, you may prefer to make a diagram, flowchart, or scratch outline of the sections of Surowiecki's argument.

Step 4: Turn your list, outline, flowchart, or diagram into a prose summary. Typi- cally, writers do this in one of two ways. Some start by joining all their says statements into a lengthy paragraph-by-paragraph summary and then prune it and streamline it. They combine ideas into sentences and then revise those sentences to make them clearer and more tightly structured. Others start with a one-sentence summary of the argument's thesis and major supporting reasons and then flesh it out with more supporting ideas. Your goal is to be as neu- tral and objective as possible by keeping your own response to the writer's ideas out of your summary. To be fair to the writer, you also need to cover all the writer's main points and give them the same emphasis as in the original article.

Step 5: Revise your summary until it is the desired length and is sufficiently clear, concise, and complete. Your goal is to spend your words w isely, making every word count. In a summary of several hundred words, you w ill often need transitions to indicate structure and create a coherent flow of ideas: "Surowiecki 's second point is that ... " or "Surowiecki concludes by .... "

Argument as Inquiry 139

However, don't waste words with meaningless transitions such as "Surowiecki goes on to say .... "When you incorporate a summary into your own essay, you must distinguish the author's views from your own by using attributive tags (expressions such as "Surowiecki asserts" or "according to Surowiecki"). You must also put any directly borrowed wording in quotation marks. Finally, you must cite the original author using appropriate conventions for documenting sources.

Exam_ples of Sum_m_aries What follows are two summaries of Surowiecki's article a one-paragraph version and a one-sentence version by student writer Trudie Makens. Trudie's one-paragraph version illustrates the MLA documentation system, with complete bibliographic information placed in a Works Cited list at the end of the paper. The in-text citations do not have page numbers because the work cited is from a web source. See Chapter 18 for a complete explanation of the MLA and APA documentation systems.

TRUDIE'S ONE-PARAGRAPH SUMMARY OF SUROWIECKI'S ARGUMENT

In his The New Yorker article "The Pay Is Too Damn Low," James Surowiecki analyzes the grievances of workers at fast-food franchises, Walmart, or Target. In the past, it didn't matter that these jobs were low-pay, part-time, and without ben- efits because they were held mainly by teenagers or married women seeking to supplement a husband's wages. But today, says Surowiecki, a growing number of primary breadwinners rely on these poverty-level wages to support families. The problem stems from a "tectonic shift in the American economy." While in 1960, "firms such as Ford, Standard Oil, and Bethlehem Steel employed huge numbers of well-paid workers while earning big profits," nowadays America's biggest employ- ers are fast-food and retail companies with low profit margins. These companies depend on low-wage workers to keep prices cheap for the American consumer. Paying living wages to workers would completely change the business model, resulting in steadily rising prices. According to Surowiecki, raising the minimum wage is only one tool for fighting poverty. America also needs to create a social insurance system like that of Germany or the Netherlands. Surowiecki calls for an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit, universal health insurance, affordable child care, and investment of almost a trillion dollars in infrastructure to create good middle-class jobs.

Works Cited

Surowiecki, James. "The Pay Is Too Damn Low." The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2013, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/the-pay-is-too-damn-low.

TRUDIE'S ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY OF SUROWIECKI'S ARGUMENT

In his The New Yorker article, "The Pay Is Too Damn Low," James Surowiecki argues that raising the minimum wage is only a partial solution to the problem of poverty and needs to be supplemented with a European-style social security network including an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit, universal health insurance, affordable child care, and investment of almost a trillion dollars in infra- structure to create good middle-class jobs.

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Responding to a Stakeholder's Argument 8.3 Respond to a stakeholder's argument through believing, doubting,

and dialectic thinking.

Once you have summarized an argument, you need to respond to it in thoughtful ways that go beyond simple agreement ("I like it"), disagreement ("I don't like it"), or partial agreement ("It has good parts and bad parts"). To help you resist these simple responses, we urge you to follow the spirit of the believing and doubting game, which will stretch your critical thinking in powerful ways.

Practicing Believing: Willing Your Own Acceptance of the Wr=iter's Views A powerful strategy for reading an argument rhetorically is to will yourself to "believe" a stakeholder's argument even if you tend to doubt it. When you read to believe an argument, you practice what psychologist Carl Rogers calls empathic listening. Empathic listening requires that you see the world through the author ' s eyes, temporarily adopt the author's beliefs and values, and suspend your skepti- cism and biases in order to hear what the author is saying.

Although writing an accurate summary of an argument shows that you have listened to it effectively and understood it, summary writing by itself doesn't mean that you have actively tried to enter the writer's world view. Rhetorician Peter Elbow reminds us that before we doubt a text, we should try to "dwell with" and "dwell in" the writer's ideas play the believing game in order to "earn" our right to criticize.* He asserts, and we agree, that this use of the believing game to engage with strange, threatening, or unfamiliar views can lead to a deeper understanding and may provide a new vantage point on our own knowledge, assumptions, and values. To believe a writer and dwell with his or her ideas, find places in the text that resonate positively for you, look for values and beliefs you hold in common (however few), and search for personal experiences and values that affirm his or her argument.

Practicing Doubting: Willing Your Own Resistance to the Writer's Views After willing yourself to believe an argument, will yourself to doubt it. Turn your mental energies toward raising objections, asking questions, expressing skepti- cism, and withholding your assent. When you read as a doubter, you question the writer's logic, the writer's evidence and assumptions, and the writer's strategies for developing the argument. You also think about what is not in the argument by noting what the author has glossed over, left unexplained, or left out entirely. You

*Peter Elbow, "Bringing the Rhetoric of Assent and the Believing Game Together Into the Classroom," College English, 67.4 (March 2005), 389.

Argument as Inquiry 141

add a new layer of marginal notes, articulating what is bothering you, demanding proof, doubting evidence, and challenging the author's assumptions and values. Writing your own notes helps you read a text actively, bringing your own voice into conversation with the author.

For Writing and Discussion Raising Doubts About Surowiecki's Argument Return now to Surowiecki's art icle and read it skeptically. Raise questions, offer objections, and express doubts. Then, working as a c lass or in smal l groups, list all the doubt s you have about Surowiecki's argument.

Now that you have doubted Surowiecki's article, compare your questions and doubts to some raised by Trudie Makens.

Trudie's Doubts about Surowiecki's Article

• In his second paragraph, Surowiecki outlines three workers' grievances: "low wages, few (if any) benefits, and little full-time work." But increasing the minimum wage addresses only one of the grievances. A higher minimum wage might make it less likely for a worker to receive benefits or obtain full-time rather than part-time work. Moreover, with a higher wage, large companies may try to maintain profits by cutting jobs.

• Surowiecki asserts that large retailers and fast-food companies would absorb the cost of a higher minimum wage by raising prices on con- sumer goods. But if low-wage workers are also consumers, won't higher prices on previously cheap products defeat the benefits of a higher wage?

• Though he ends his article by calling for a multifaceted solution to poverty, he does so without offering a way to accomplish this goal. Where would the money come from in order to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, strengthen the United States' current social insur- ance system, or invest in infrastructure? Further, how would the United States effectively implement and sustain these nationwide social programs without upsetting the already delicate economy?

• In his article, Surowiecki mentions several studies, but there is no way to tell if these are widely respected studies or controversial ones. Would other studies, for example, conclude that low-wage workers today are responsible for 46 percent of their family's income?

These are only some of the objections that might be raised against Surow- iecki' s argument. The point here is that doubting as well as believing is a key part of the exploratory process and purpose. Believing takes you into the views of others so that you can expand your views and perhaps see them differently and modify or even change them. Doubting helps protect you from becoming

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overpowered by others' arguments and teaches you to stand back, consider, and weigh points carefully. It also leads you to new questions and points you might want to explore further.

Thinking Dialectically 8.4 Delay closure by thinking dialectically.

This chapter's final strategy thinking dialectically to bring texts into conversa- tion with one another encompasses all the previous strategies and can have a powerful effect on your growth as a thinker and arguer. The term dialectic is associated with the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who postulated that each thesis prompts an opposing thesis (which he calls an "antithesis") and that the conflict between these views can lead thinkers to a new claim (a "synthesis") that incorporates aspects of both views. Dialectic thinking is the philosophical underpinning of the believing and doubting game, pushing us toward new and better ideas. As Peter Elbow puts it, "Because it's so hard to let go of an idea we are holding (or more to the point, an idea that's holding us), our best hope for leverage in learning to doubt such ideas is to take on different ideas."*

This is why expert thinkers actively seek out alternative views not to shout them down but to listen to them. If you were an arbitrator, you wouldn't settle a dispute between A and Bon the basis of A's testimony only. You would also insist on hearing B' s side of the story (and perhaps also C' s and D's if they are stakeholders in the dispute). Dialectic thinking means playing ideas against one another, creating a tension that forces you to keep expanding your perspective. It helps you achieve the "mingling of minds" that we discussed in the introduction to this chapter.

As you listen to differing views, try to identify sources of disagreement among arguers, which often fall into two categories: (1) disagreement about the facts or truths of the case and (2) disagreement about underlying values, beliefs, or assumptions. We saw these disagreements in Chapter 1 in the conversation about legalizing marijuana. At the level of fact and truth, disputants disagreed about whether marijuana was a dangerous drug. At the level of values, disputants disagreed on their vision of a good society. As you try to determine your own position on an issue, consider what research you might have to do to resolve ques- tions of fact or truth; also try to articulate your own underlying values, beliefs, and assumptions.

As you consider multiple points of view on an issue, try using the questions in Table 8.2 to promote dialectic thinking:

Responding to questions like these either through class discussion or through exploratory writing can help you work your way into a public contro- versy. Earlier in this chapter you read James Surowiecki 's article expressing liberal support for raising the minimum wage and enacting other government measures

*Peter Elbow, "Bringing the Rhetoric of Assent and the Believing Game Together Into the Classroom," College English 67.4 (March 2005), 390.

Table 8.2 Questions to Promote Dialectic Thinking

1. What wou ld writer A say to writer B?

2. After I read writer A, I thought ; however, after I read writer B, my thi nking on this issue had changed in these ways: .

3. To what extent do writer A and writer B disagree about facts and interpretations of facts?

4. To what extent do writer A and writer B disagree about underlying beliefs, assumptions, and values?

5. Can I find any areas of agreement , including shared values and beliefs, between writer A and writer B?

6. What new, significant questions do these texts raise for me?

7. After I have wrestled with the ideas in these two texts, what are my current views on this issue?

Argument as Inquiry 143

to h elp the poor. Now consider an article expressing a quite different point of view, an opinion piece appearing in The Huffington Post written by Michael Salts- man, the research director at the Employment Policies Institute a pro-business, free-market think tank opposed to raising the minimum wage. We ask you to read the article and then use the questions in Table 8.2 to stimulate dialectic thinking about Surowiecki versus Saltsman.

For Writing and Discussion Practicing Dialectic Thinking with Two Articles

Individual task: Freewrite your responses to the questions in Table 8.2, in which Surowiecki is writer A and Saltsman is writer B.

Group task: Working as a class or in small groups, share your responses to the two artic les, guided by the dialectic questions.

To Help the Poor, Move Beyond "Minimum" Gestures MICHAEL SALTSMAN

Actor and director Ben Affleck made n ew s this w eek with the announcement that h e'll spend five days living on just $1.50 the U.S.-dollar daily equivalent of extreme poverty, according to the Global Poverty Project.

Affleck's heart is in the right place, but his actions won't provide a m ea- surable ben efit for people who actually live in poverty. On that score, Affleck's actions are not unlike a series of recently-introduced proposals to raise the federal minimum wage well-intentioned but ultimately empty gestures that will do little to raise poor families out of poverty.

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For poverty-reducing policies to benefit the poor, the benefits first have to be properly targeted to people living in poverty. On this count, a higher minimum wage fails m iserably. Census Bureau data shows that over 60 percent of people living below the poverty line don't work. They don't need a raise they need a job.

Among those who do earn the minimum wage, a majority actually don't live in poverty. According to a forthcoming Employment Policies Institute analy- sis of Census Bureau data, over half of those covered by President Obama' s $9 proposal live in households with income at least twice the poverty level- and one-third are in households with an income three times or greater than the poverty level.

s That's because nearly 60 percent of affected employees aren't single earners, according to the EPI report they're living in households where a parent or a spouse often earns an income far above the minimum. (The average family income of this group is $50,789.) By contrast, we found that only 9 percent of people covered by President Obama's $9 minimum wage are single parents with children.

It's for reasons like these that the majority of academic research shows little connection between a higher minimum wage and reductions in poverty. For instance, economists from American and Cornell Universities examined data from the 28 states that raised their minimum wages between 2003 and 2007, and found no associated reductions in poverty.

Of course, poor targeting isn't the only problem. The vast majority of eco- nomic research including 85 percent of the most credible studies from the last two decades finds that job loss for the least-skilled employees follows on the heels of minimum wage hikes.

That's why better-targeted policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) deserve the support of politicians and public figures who want to do something about poverty. It's been empirically proven to boost employment and incomes, w ithout the unintended consequences of a wage hike. Accounting for the EITC, the full-time hourly wage for many minimum wage earners is already above the $9 figure that President Obama has proposed.

Three Ways to Foster Dialectic Thinking In this concluding section, we suggest three ways to stimulate and sustain the pro- cess of dialectic thinking: Effective discussions (in class, over coffee, or online); a reading log in which you make texts speak to one another; or a formal exploratory essay. We'll look briefly at each in turn.

EFFECTIVE DISCUSSIONS Good, rich talk is one of the most powerful ways to stimulate dialectic thinking and foster a "mingling of minds." The key is to keep these discussions from becoming shouting matches or bully pulpits for those who like to dominate the airtime. Discussions are most productive if people are willing to express different points of view or to role-play those views for the purpose of advancing the conversation. Try Rogerian listening, in which you summarize someone else's position before you offer your own, different posi- tion. (See Chapter 10 for more explanation of Rogerian listening.) Probe deeply

Argument as Inquiry 145

to discover whether disagreements are primarily about facts and evidence or about underlying values and beliefs. Be respectful of others' views, but don't hesitate to point out where you see problems or weaknesses. Good discussions can occur in class, in late-night coffee shops, or in online chat rooms or on dis- cussion boards.

READING LOGS In our classes, we require students to keep reading logs or journals in which they use freewriting and idea mapping to explore their ideas as they encounter multiple perspectives on an issue. One part of a journal or reading log should include summaries of each article you read. Another part should focus on your own dialectic thinking as you interact with your sources while you are reading them. Adapt the questions in Table 8.2 for promoting dialectic thinking.

A FORMAL EXPLORATORY ESSAY A formal exploratory essay tells the story of an intellectual journey. It is both a way of promoting dialectical thinking and a way of narrating one's struggle to negotiate multiple views. The keys to writing successful exploratory essays are: (1) choosing an issue to explore on which you don't yet have an answer or position (or on which you are open to changing your mind); (2) wrestling with an issue or problem by resisting quick, simple answers and by exploring diverse perspectives; and (3) letting your thinking evolve and your own stance on the issue grow out of this exploration.

Exploratory essays can be powerful thinking and writing experiences in their own right, but they can also be a valuable precursor to a formal argument. Many instructors assign a formal exploratory paper as the first stage of a course research project what we might call a "thesis-seeking" stage. (The second stage is a formal argument that converts your exploratory thinking into a hierarchically organized argument using reasons and evidence to support your claim.) Although often used as part of a research project, exploratory essays can also be low-stakes reflective pieces narrating the evolution of a writer's thinking.

An exploratory essay includes these thinking moves and parts:

• The essay is opened and driven by the writer's issue question or research problem not a thesis.

• The introduction to the essay presents the question and shows why it interests the writer, why it is significant, and why it is problematic rather than clear-cut or easy to resolve.

• The body of the essay shows the writer's inquiry process. It demonstrates how the writer has kept the question open, sincerely wrestled with different views on the question, accepted uncertainty and ambiguity, and possibly redefined the question in the midst of reading and reflecting on multiple perspectives.

• The body of the essay includes summaries of the different views or sources that the writer explored and often includes believing and doubting responses to them.

• In the essay's conclusion, the writer may clarify his or her thinking and dis- cover a thesis to be developed and supported in a subsequent argument. But the conclusion can also remain open because the writer may not have discovered his or her own position on the issue and may acknowledge the need or desire for more exploration.

146 Chapter 8

One of the writing assignment options for this chapter is a formal exploratory paper. Trudie Makens's exploratory essay at the end of this chapter shows how she explored different voices in the controversy over raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Conclusion This chapter has focused on inquiry as a way to enrich your reading and writ- ing of arguments. It offered four main strategies for deep reading: (1) use a variety of questions and prompts to find an issue to explore; (2) demonstrate careful listening by summarizing a stakeholder's argument; (3) respond to the argument through believing, doubting, and dialectic thinking; and (4) prac- tice various methods for sustaining dialectic thinking. This chapter has also explained how to summarize an article and incorporate summaries into your own writing, using attributive tags to distinguish the ideas you are summariz- ing from your own ideas. Finally, it has offered the exploratory essay as a way to encourage wrestling with multiple perspectives rather than seeking early closure.

Writing Assignment An Argument Summary or a Formal Exploratory Essay

Option 1: An Argument Summary Write a 250-word summary of an argument selected by your instructor. Then write a one-sentence summary of the same argument. Use as models Trud ie Makens's summaries of James Surowiecki's argument on raising the minimum wage earlier in this chapter.

Option 2: A Formal Exploratory Essay Write an exploratory essay in which you narrate in f irst-person, chronological order the evolution through time of your thinking about an issue or problem. Rather than state a thesis or claim, begin with a ques- tion or problem. Then describe your inquiry process as you worked your way through sources or differ- ent views. Follow the guidelines for an exploratory paper shown in Figure 8.5. When you cite the sources you have considered, be sure to use attributive tags so that the reader can distinguish between your own ideas and those of the sources you have summarized. If you use research sources, use MLA docu- mentation for c iting ideas and quotations and for creating a Works Cited at the end of your essay (see Chapter 18).

Explanation and Organization An exploratory essay cou ld grow out of class discussion, course readings, fieldwork and interviews, or simply the writer's role-playing of alternative views. In all cases, the purpose of an exploratory paper is not to state and defend a thesis. Instead, its purpose is to think dialectically about multiple perspectives, narrating the evolution through time of the writer's thought process. Many students are inspired by the open, "behind-the-scenes" feel of an exploratory essay. They enjoy taking readers on the same intellectual and emotional journey they have just traveled.

Argument as Inquiry 147

Figure 8.5 Organization plan for an exploratory essay

Introduction (one to several paragraphs)

Body section 1 : First view or source

Body section 2: Second view or source

Body sections 3, 4, 5, etc.

Conclusion

• Establish that your question is complex, problematic,

and significant.

• Show why you are interested in it.

• Present relevant background on your issue.

Begin with your question or build up to it, using it to end

your introductory section.

• Introduce your first source and show why you started with it.

• Provide rhetorical context and information about it.

• Summarize the source's content and argument.

• Offer your response to this source, including both

believing and doubting points.

• Talk about what this source contributes to your

understanding of your question: What did you learn? What

value does this source have for you? What is missing from this

source that you want to consider? Where do you want to go

from here?

• Repeat the process with a new source selected to advance

the inquiry.

• Explain why you selected this source (to find an alternative

view, pursue a subquestion, find more data, and so forth).

• Summarize the source's argument.

• Respond to the source's ideas. Look for points of agreement

and disagreement with other sources.

• Show how your cumulative reading of sources is shaping

your thinking or leading to more questions.

• Continue exploring views or sources.

• Wrap up your intellectual journey and explain where you

are now in your thinking and how your understanding of your

problem has changed.

• Present your current answer to your question based on all

that you have learned so far, or explain why you still can't

answer your question, or explain what research you might

pursue further.

148 Chapter 8

Title as question indi- cates an exploratory purposec

Introduction identifies the issue, explains the writer's interest in it, and acknowledges its complexity

Writer states her research question Writer identif-i-es her first source

Writer summarizes the article

Reading What follows is Trudie Makens's exploratory essay on the subject of raising the minimum wage. Her research begins with the articles by Surowiecki and Salts- man that you have already read and discussed. She then moves off in her own direction.

Student Essay

Should Fast-Food Workers Be Paid $15 per Hour?

Trudie Makens

Having worked as a busser in a pizza restaurant, a part-time barista, and a server at a dumpling cafe, I was immediately attracted to our class discussions of minimum wage, sparked by recent protests of fast-food workers demanding pay of $15 per hour. My first job as a barista exposed me to the harsh reality of living on today's existing minimum wage as I witnessed my coworker Maria lose her home because she couldn't pay rent and support her kids at the same time. As a single mother of two, Maria had to bounce from relative to relative, which put a strain on her family relations, her image of herself as an able provider, and her children. I am lucky because, as a student, I am blessed to have my family operate as a safety net for me. If I am ever short on a bill or get sick or hurt, my parents will assist me financially. Many of the individuals I have worked with do not have that same safety net. These individuals are often older and have children or are beginning a family. Understanding the hardships of minimum-wage jobs, I entered our class discussions in support of the $15 /hour demand because this pay rate would give workers a living wage. However, despite my personal affinities with these workers, I also under- stood that raising the minimum wage might have negative consequences for our economy. I wanted to explore this issue in more depth so I decided to pose my research question as "Should fast-food workers be paid a living wage of $15 per hour?"

My exploration began with an article that our instructor assigned to the whole class: "The Pay Is Too Damn Low" by James Surowiecki from The New Yorker. In the past, according to Surowiecki, it didn't matter that jobs at Walmart, Target, or fast-food franchises were low-pay, part-time, and without benefits because they were held mainly by teenagers or married women seeking to supplement a husband's wages. But today, says Surow- iecki, a growing number of primary breadwinners rely on these poverty- level wages to support families. The problem stems from a "tectonic shift in the American economy." While in 1960, "firms such as Ford, Standard Oil, and Bethlehem Steel employed huge numbers of well-paid workers while earning big profits," nowadays America's biggest employers are fast-food and retail companies with low profit margins. While Surowiecki acknowl- edges that these retail companies and food franchises depend on low-wage

workers to keep prices cheap for the American consumer, he still supports increasing the minimum wage but sees it as only one tool for fighting pov- erty. He argues that America also needs to create a European-style safety-net system and calls for an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit, universal health insurance, affordable child care, and investment of almost a trillion dollars in infrastructure to create good middle-class jobs.

Surowiecki's concluding remarks about a safety net system resonated with me. I understood that what protected me from a financial crisis was my family acting as a safety net. The government, Surowiecki argues, should perform the same function for low-wage earners through such programs as child care and health care. He points to Germany and the Netherlands, arguing the stronger safety net put in place for workers by these European governments provides a better economic and social situation for low-wage workers, even though they are paid around the same amount as U.S. low- wage workers. Surowiecki also addressed some of my concerns regarding the economic consequences of implementing a living wage. Even though some low-wage jobs might be eliminated and food costs might go up, government investment in infrastructure might create more high-paying, middle-class jobs, resulting in a net benefit. But I still wasn't convinced or completely satisfied. How exactly would the government raise the money for a redesigned social insurance system? Would the country accept the needed higher taxes? While Surowiecki had convinced me that the govern- ment had an important role to play in creating the conditions for a living wage, I still was unclear on how the government could effectively do so without having a negative impact on the economy.

I wanted to know more about raising the minimum wage from the business perspective, so I Googled "living wage" and found an anti- minimum wage article from Michael Saltsman, the research director of the Employment Policy Institute. The opinion piece was published online in The Huffington Post and entitled "To Help the Poor, Move Beyond 'Mini- mum' Gestures." I also found a full-page ad from the same conservative institute depicting a robot doing the work of a fast-food employee. Salts- man believes that despite the good intentions of living-wage proponents, a higher federal minimum wage will do more harm than good. Within his piece, Saltsman equates the symbolic value of Ben Affleck's pledge to live five days on $1.50, "the U.S.-dollar equivalent of extreme poverty," to proposals for a higher federal minimum wage. Both, according to Salts- man, are "ultimately empty gestures" that do little to lift families out of poverty. What the poor need, Saltsman asserts, is "not a raise" but a job. Saltsman claims that over "60°/o of people living below the poverty line don't work," and those who do earn a minimum wage don't live in house- holds whose total wages are below the poverty line. Even if a member of the working poor were to receive a living wage, Saltsman argues, "job loss for the least-skilled employees follows on the heels of a minimum wage hike." What helps to reduce poverty, according to Saltsman, is not a higher minimum wage but the Earned Income Tax Credit, "empirically proven to boost employment and incomes" and thus providing "a measurable differ- ence for the poor."

(continued)

Argument as Inquiry 149

Writer shows how this article has advanced her think- ing by strengthening her previous mention of "safety nets"

Writer includes doubting points by identifying problems not resolved in first source

Writer shows rhetorical thinking by purposely seeking an argument from a business perspective; she identifies the author's conservative credentials and sum- marizes his argument

Writer summarizes second source

150 Chapter 8

Writer includes both 5 believing and doubt- ing points

Writer shows dia- lectic thinking by comparing and con- trasting views of first two sources

Writer again seeks sources purposefully; she shows how she found the source and places it in rhetorical context

Writer summarizes the article

Writer shows how the pro-business sources have com- plica ted her initial tentative position

Writer uses believing and doubting strategies to think dialectically, looking for a synthesis

Prior to reading Saltsman, I had not fully considered the potential that workers would be laid off because it would be cheaper for businesses to use robots or other automation than to employ higher-wage workers. Though Saltsman got me thinking about the dangers of job displacement, I wasn't convinced by his argument that an increased minimum wage would primar- ily benefit people who didn't need it, such as teenagers or second earners in an already middle-class family. I could see that an increased minimum wage wouldn't help the 60 percent of the poor who are unemployed, but I also realized that the Earned Income Tax Credit wouldn't help the unemployed either because it goes only to poor people who report income. (I Googled "earned income tax credit" just to make sure I understood how it works by giving a boost of income to poor but working tax filers.) Though Saltsman persuaded me to consider the negative economic consequences of a living wage, I wasn't convinced the living wage was entirely ineffective. I thought back to Surowiecki who, unlike Saltsman, saw a living wage as one compo- nent in a larger solution to reduce poverty. Both recommended an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, but Surowiecki went further and also encouraged a stronger social-insurance system in addition to a higher minimum wage. Neither article persuaded me the living wage was either fully beneficial or fully injurious. To clarify my position, I needed to do more research.

I wanted another economist's perspective, so I typed "economic impact and living wage" into ProQuest, an interdisciplinary research database. One of the articles that caught my attention was "Living Wage: Some Gain, Neediest Lose Out." The article was an interview with labor economist Richard Toikka by author Charles Oliver featured in Investor's Business Daily, a con- servative financial newspaper focused on stock and bond investments. In the interview, Oliver prompts Toikka to discuss the unintended consequences of a higher minimum wage. Toikka asserts that in order to absorb the cost of a higher wage, companies seek to hire higher-skilled workers who require less training, and thus cost the company less money. With a higher wage offered, Toikka argues, more high-skilled workers, such as college students, seek these jobs, increasing "the competition low-skilled workers face." Thus an increased minimum wage reduces the number of low-skilled jobs available. Toikka also makes the same argument as Saltsman, concluding that the bene- fits of a higher wage don't go towards the families who need it, but instead to second-earners who aren't living below the poverty line. Toikka cites a survey among labor economists asked to rate the efficiency of anti-poverty measures, and "69°/o said living wages weren't at all efficient in meeting the needs of poor families." The more efficient way to combat poverty, Toikka argues, is not a living wage but an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Putting Oliver /Toikka in conversation with Saltsman, I began to under- stand and heed the warnings of both economists. Though well-intentioned, increasing the minimum wage by itself is not apt to reduce poverty and would ultimately injure the poor rather than helping them. If a living wage does lead to heightened competition and employers slashing jobs, then per- haps a living wage is ineffective and therefore should be abandoned in favor of the Earned Income Tax Credit. So far, all the articles agreed the Earned Income Tax Credit is a good way to reduce poverty, even though it too bene- fits only those with jobs. Even so, I couldn't help but think that abandoning

a living wage was a concession to a flawed economic system that doesn't value the working poor or impoverished, unemployed people enough. I thought back to Surowiecki when he praised Germany and the Netherlands for providing a strong social-insurance system that serves as a safety net for those in low-wage jobs. If Europe can ensure dignity and security to its citizens, then why can't the United States? Although 69 percent of labor economists say that a living wage is an inefficient way to alleviate pov- erty, we don't know what they would say if the government also invested in infrastructure to create well-paying jobs. Right now, it seems from my readings, that the current market doesn't value low-wage workers. What is valued in our economy is capital, profit, and cheap goods, all of which come at the expense of millions of workers. Is the structure of the economy where wealth is unequally d istributed and workers are exploited really inevitable? Or is it an economic trend that can be reversed? I wanted to believe the lat- ter, so I returned to ProQuest to find another article addressing the economic impact of a living wage but from a pro-labor perspective.

In my search, I found an article entitled "The Task Rabbit Economy," authored by Robert Kuttner and published in the progressive magazine The American Prospect. Kuttner begins by describing a successful San Francisco company whose website matches people who have an odd job they need done w ith people who will do the work for a fee. The company, named Task Rabbit, is like an online temp agency that operates by having would- be workers bid against one another, driving the price down for their labor. Kuttner argues that Task Rabbit's business model, which produces cheap labor, is analogous to our current economy, where workers have lost "bar- gaining power" and work has become casual and unstable (46). Kuttner argues that this low-wage economy has produced less economic growth, less prosperity, and more unemployment than earlier eras when there was more job stability and higher wages. According to Kuttner, the claim made by labor economists that a higher minimum wage leaves low-skilled workers without a job ignores how an unregulated labor market has allowed cor- porations to "weaken labor ... and extract abnormal profits" (47). Kuttner draws on the economy of Sweden to provide an example where a living wage, full employment, and a "deliberate effort to narrow wage gaps" has been implemented effectively (48). What's more, Kuttner addresses the con- cern of rising prices by citing a Demos study that found raising wages so retail workers "earned at least $25,000 a year" only cost large retailers "1 percent of their $2.17 trillion annual sales" (52). Kuttner closes his article by emphasizing that "organized labor" is what will change the labor market, using both collective bargaining and "political force" (55).

Kuttner's article moved me in a way that Oliver /Toikka and Saltsman's pieces could not. Instead of accepting an economic system where low- wage workers are exploited for stockholder profits and cheap goods, Kuttner criticizes the labor market for its failure to value workers. Kuttner acknowledges that a higher minimum wage will upset the present econ- omy, but he argues that the present economic system isn't inevitable but rather the result of large employers choosing to value capital over people in the absence of strong governmental policies protecting labor and the

(continued)

Argument as Inquiry 151

Writer purposefully seeks a different perspective

Writer identifies next source and places it in rhetorical context

Writer summarizes the article

Writer shows how this source has advanced and solidified her own thinking

152 Chapter 8

Writer again shows purposeful search for next source

10

Writer identifies next source and places it in rhetorical context

Writer pulls together the results of her dialectic thinking, which has resulted in a synthesis

poor. Moreover, Kuttner's article illuminates the inefficiency of our econ- omy. The studies Kuttner references reveal that the United States was bet- ter off in the years after World War II, when jobs were stable, plentiful, and paid a living wage. Most of all, I appreciated Kuttner's concluding call to action, and his assurance that such action will not lead to eco- nomic suicide but instead create the "dynamic, supple, and innovative" economy our nation strives for. According to Kuttner, we can choose to allow the market to continue unregulated, or, through organizing workers, we can push towards policies that value people their rights, health, and dignity. As I read Kuttner, I wondered what current labor move- ments are in existence today and the progress they are making in their fight to gain rights and a living wage. I again turned to ProQuest.

My search handed me a long list of results, but I found one article that provided a relevant look into a labor campaign organized by Walmart sales associates. Titled "Job Insecurity," the article was written by Kevin Clarke and published in the Catholic magazine America. Clarke begins by introducing William Fletcher, a twenty-three-year-old retail sales associate at Walmart. According to Fletcher, he loves his job and "working with the public" but, he says, he and other employees constantly struggle with "low wages, chaotic scheduling, and insensitive management." Both Fletcher and Clarke wonder why being a retail sales associate for Walmart warrants not receiving enough to "have a home, have health insurance, have all the basic things in life." In order to improve his working conditions, Fletcher joined Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart. OUR Walmart, Clarke states, is "part of an emerging labor phenomenon of non- union activism against Walmart and other powerful, profitable U.S. corpo- rations that maintain large, low-paid work forces." Walmart, according to both Fletcher and Clarke, is a trend-setting company. If labor conditions improve at Walmart, other companies could follow suit. The organiza- tion draws from the tactics of "community organizing and the civil rights movement." Unfortunately, Clarke states, Walmart management continues to thwart protests or walkouts. Despite obstacles, OUR Walmart persists, marking a major moment in the contemporary labor movement. The article ends with Clarke's appeal to the Catholic social justice tradition of solidarity with the poor. He notes that Walmart sales associates depend on govern- ment support programs such as food stamps and housing assistance. He reminds his readers that our continual search for the cheapest goods makes us partially guilty of the exploitation of workers. He urges us to shop con- scientiously and thoughtfully.

I reached the end of the article feeling shocked. I was amazed that Walmart could dismiss the demands of OUR Walmart. Clarke states the owners of Walmart, the Walton family, possess "48°/o of Walmart stock and [are] the richest family on earth, with over $107 billion in net worth." Hearing numbers like these confirmed my forming conviction that the unregulated labor market dangerously exploits workers in order to gain cheap labor, cheap goods, and bloated profits. What's more, Walmart actively tries to scare workers from organizing threatening to take away their jobs. Though there is much more to read and learn about the growing labor movement in the United States, Clarke's article, as well as Surowiecki,

Saltsman, Oliver/Toikka, and Kuttner's pieces, allowed me to round out my position on a higher minimum wage. As I end my exploratory paper, I understand that a living wage is possible and should be provided to service workers as a basic human right. But it also needs to be supplemented with the kinds of social insurance systems stressed by Surowiecki and Kuttner.

Works Cited

Clarke, Kevin. "Job Insecurity." America, 18 Feb. 2013, americamagazine .org/issue/ article/job-insecurity.

Kuttner, Robert. "The Task Rabbit Economy." The American Prospect, 24 Sept. 2013, pp. 45-55.

Oliver, Charles. "Living Wage: Some Gain, Neediest Lose Out." Investor 's Business Daily, 5 Sept. 2000. ProQuest, 10 Jan. 2014, search.proquest .com/ docview /1026806044/ fulltext/DA48476FOF254E4CPQ/1 ?accou ntid=10226.

Saltsman, Michael. "To Help the Poor, Move Beyond 'Minimum' Ges- tures." The Huffington Post, 26 Apr. 2013, updated 26 June 2013, www .huffingtonpost.com/ michael-saltsman/ earned-income-tax-credit- minimum-wage_b_3165459.html.

Surowiecki, James. "The Pay Is Too Damn Low." The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2013, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/ the-pay-is-too-damn-low.

Argument as Inquiry 153

Final sentences reveal synthesis that goes beyond origi- nalleanings in first paragraph

Writer compiles an MLA-formatted "Works Cited" page that lists alphabeti- cally all the sources discussed in the paper. Page numbers are included only for sources in print format; most web a-rticles do not have page numbers

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PART THREE

9 Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments

10 An Alternative to Argument: Collaborative Rhetoric

Increasingly, countries are employing hydraulic fracturing (called £r acking), which extracts natural gas from deeply buried sh ale, to meet their energy needs. Burning n atural gas is cleaner than burning gasoline, oil, and coal and emits less carbon dioxide. However, each £rackin g site uses millions of gallons of water, leaves contaminated waste water, and often emits methane. Also environmentalists fear that £racking may contamin ate aquifers. This photo depicts anti- fracking views in a protest near Manchester, England, in January 2014. To what extent does the garb of the protestors make effe ctive appeals to logos and pathos to turn viewers against £racking?

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Chapter 9 •

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn to:

9.1 Explain the visual design elements in multimodal arguments.

9.2 Analyze the compositional features of photographs and drawings rhetorically.

9.3 Explain the genres of multimodal argument.

9.4 Construct your own multimodal arguments.

9.5 Use information graphics rhetorically in arguments.

This chapter focuses on the rhetorical persuasiveness of images, either by themselves or in combination with words to create multimodal arguments. A multimodal argument is an argument that combines two or more modes of communication, such as words (written or spoken), images, sounds, or numeri- cal graphics. The term multimodal is derived from "multi" (many) and "modal" (modes or modalities of communication). Multimodal arguments most commonly combine words with images (as in posters or print ads), but other combinations are also possible: spoken text and sounds (as in a podcast), sounds and images (as in a photographic slide show set to music), or words and graphics (as in a Power- Point slide featuring words and a pie chart). Advocacy videos typically combine three modes (words, images, and music and other sounds).

To appreciate the power of multimodal arguments, consider Figure 9.1 a photo of demonstrators protesting a federal travel ban on persons from certain Muslim-majority countries. The photograph contains several layers of multi- modal arguments. The protest itself is a multimodal argument in which the pro- testors shout slogans, sing chants, and wave banners emphasizing the value of cultural and religious diversity. In this photograph, the poster carried by one of

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 157

Figure 9.1 A multimodal argument about cu ltural and relig ious diversity

·WE THE PEO PLE ARE GREATER THAN FEAR

the protestors is also a multimodal argument combining words ("We the people are greater than fear" set in different type sizes for rhetorical effect) with the drawing of a Muslim woman wearing the American flag as a hijab. The poster visually identifies and welcomes the Muslim woman as an American whose flag hijab is just as legitimate as a flag cowboy hat or a flag T-shirt.

The poster in Figure 9.1 makes use of all three classical appeals. It appeals to logos by arguing that this woman is one of the "us" in "we the people" (high- lighted in bold capital letters) based on the constitutional claim that the United States is a nation of diverse peoples. It appeals to pathos by taking a patriotic symbol beloved by Americans (the flag) and associating it with groups of people whom the government has labeled as a threat. It also appeals to ethos by show- ing citizens courageously protesting and rejecting fear. The striking multimodal poster and the surrounding protesters in the photo create a memorable social and political argument.

Understanding Visual Design Elements in Multimodal Argument 9.1 Explain the visual design elements in multimodal arguments.

To understand how visual images can produce an argument, you need to under- stand the design elements that work together to create a visual text. In this section we explain and illustrate the four basic components of visual design: use of type, use of space and layout, use of color, and use of images and graphics.

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Use of Type Type is an important visual element of written arguments. Variations in type, such as size, boldface, italics, underlining, or ALL CAPS, can direct a reader's attention to an argument's structure and h ighlight main points. In arguments designed specifically for visual impact, such as posters or advocacy advertisements, type is often used in eye-catching and meaningful ways.

In choosing type, you need to consider the typeface or font style, the size of the type, and formatting options. The main typefaces or fonts are classified as serif, sans serif, and specialty type. Serif type has little extensions on the letters, as on the bottom of the letter "p" in "type." (This text is set in serif type.) Sans serif type lacks these extensions. Specialty type includes script fonts and special symbols.

In addition to font style, type comes in different sizes. It is measured in points, with 1 point equal to 1/72 of an inch. Most text-based arguments consisting mainly of body text are set in 10- to 12-point type, while more image-based argu- ments may use a mixture of type sizes that interact with the images for persuasive effect. Table 9.1 shows examples of type styles, as well as their typical uses.

The following basic principles for choosing type for visual arguments can help you achieve the three key goals of readability, visual appeal, and suitability.

PRINCIPLES FOR CHOOSING TYPE FOR VISUAL ARGUMENTS

1. If you are creating a poster or advocacy advertisement, you will need to decide how much of your argument will be displayed in words and how much in images. For longer passages of text that must be easy on the eyes, choose body or text type (serif). For titles, headings, and slogans, display type (sans serif) or specialty fonts can be effective.

2. Make type functional and appealing by using only two or three font styles per document.

3. Use consistent patterns of type (similar type styles, sizes, and formats) to indicate relationships among similar items or different levels of importance.

4. Choose type to project a specific impression (a structured combination of serif and sans serif type to create a formal, serious, or businesslike impression; sans serif and specialty type to create a casual, informal, or playful impression).

Besides these general principles, rhetorical considerations of genre and audi- ence expectations should govern decisions about type. Text-based arguments in scholarly publications generally use plain, conservative fonts with little variation,

Table 9.1 Examples and Uses of Type Styles

Serif fonts Times New Roman Use type wisely. Palatino Use type w isely. G aramond Use type wisely.

Sans serif fonts Aria I Use type w isely. Ca li bri Use type wisely.

Specialty fonts Papyrus Use t~pe wisel_y. Lucida Calligraphy Use type wise ly.

Easy to read; good for long documents; good for body type , or t he main verbal parts of a document

Ti ring to read for long stret ches; good for display type such as headings, t itles, and slogans

Difficult to read for long stretches; effective when used sparingly for playful or decorative effect

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 159

whereas text-based arguments in popular magazines may use more variations in font style and size, especially in headings and opening leads. Visual arguments such as posters, fliers, and advocacy ads exploit the aesthetic potential of type.

Use of Space and Layout A second component of visual design is layout, which is critical for creating the visual appeal of an argument and for conveying meaning. Even visual arguments that are mainly textual should use space very purposefully. By spacing and layout we mean all of the following elements:

• Page size and type of paper

• Proportion of text to white space

• Proportion of text to image(s) and graphics

• Arrangement of text on page (space, margins, columns, length of paragraphs, spaces between lines and paragraphs, justification of margins)

• Use of highlighting elements such as bulleted lists, tables, sidebars, and boxes

• Use of headings and other means of breaking text into visual elements

In arguments that don't use visuals directly, the writer's primary visual con- cern is document design, in which the writer tries to meet the conventions of a genre and the expectations of the intended audience. For example, Jesse Gon- calves's researched argument in Chapter 13 is designed to meet the document conventions of the American Psychological Association (APA). That paper uses a plain, conventional typeface (for easy reading); double spacing and one-inch margins (to leave room for editorial marking and notations); and a special title page, headers, and page number locations (to meet the expectations of readers familiar with APA documents, which all look exactly the same).

But in moving from verbal-only arguments to visual arguments that use visual elements for direct persuasive effect for example, posters, fliers, or advo- cacy ads creative use of layout is vital. Here are some ideas to help you think about the layout of a visual argument.

PRINCIPLES FOR LAYING OUT PARTS OF A VISUAL TEXT

1. Choose a layout that avoids clutter and confusion by limiting how much text and how many visual items you put on a page.

2. Focus on using layout to create coherence and meaning.

3. Develop an ordering or structuring principle that clarifies the relationships among the parts.

4. Use layout and spacing to indicate the importance of items and to emphasize key ideas. Because Western readers read from left to right and top to bottom, top and center are positions that readily draw readers' eyes.

AN ANALYSIS OF A MULTIMODAL ARGUMENT USING TYPE AND SPATIAL ELEMENTS To illustrate the persuasive power of type and layout, we ask you to consider Figure 9.2, which reproduces a public affairs ad sponsored by the Ad Council and an advocacy organization, StopBullying.gov. This advocacy piece, which is part of an ongoing campaign to curtail bullying among young people, is aimed at parents, urging them to encourage their children to actively oppose bullying.

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Figure 9.2 Anti-bullying public affairs ad

This ad demonstrates how the use of type can create powerful visual effects that combine with the words to convey its argument. The ad's creators chose to use lettering rather than a photograph or a drawing to illustrate bullying. The type style, presentation of the letters, and words themselves create a strange rhe- torical effect simultaneously personal and impersonal that draws viewers into the ad more than an image would. The type style and font make strong appeals to pathos through the blend of the shocking abusive language and disturbing let- tering style. The words "dumb," "piece," and "trash" are all harshly derogatory. The direct address to the viewer in the word "you" conveys that bullying is an attack, sometimes verbal and often physical.

Note how the blurring of the message in the large bold type makes a visual statement about the act of bullying, how bullying is perceived, and the psycho- logical damage it causes. These large, heavy, blurred letters convey multiple mes- sages. Bullying can be crude and forceful, but it is often carried on covertly where

Making Visual and Mult imodal Arguments 161

authority figures cannot see or stop it. The lettering itself bullies the viewers while at the same time reinforcing the idea that not everyone is aware of bullying. The blurring of these letters also suggests that bullying washes out the personhood of its v ictims. In addition, the ad makes it look as though these dark letters have smudged and stained the yellow background, suggesting that bullying also harms society.

The layout of this ad also contributes to its logos and ethos. The shock of reading the bold message propels readers to the black sidebar in the ad's lower right side, where the message in smaller type interprets and explains themes- sage of the blurred letters. The text speaks d irectly to parents' unawareness of the hostility in their kids' environment and makes an urgent app eal to parental responsibility. While the lettering and layout convey the causal reasons behind the need for action, the message in the smaller letters states the proposal claim: Instruct your kids how to become more than passive observers of bullying: "Teach your kids to be more than a bystander." In addition to delivering a strong mes- sage, this ad conveys a p ositive ethos by demonstrating knowledge of the problem and d irecting readers to authoritative sources of information that w ill help them engage w ith this serious social issue.

Use of -Color A third important element of visual design is use of color, which can contribute significantly to an argument's visual appeal by moving readers emotionally and imaginatively. In considering color in visual arguments, writers are especially con- trolled by genre conventions. For example, academic arguments make minimal use of color, whereas pop ular magazines often use color lavishly. The appeal and the associations of colors for specific audiences are also important. For instance, the psychedelic colors of 1960s rock concert posters would probably not be effec- tive in poster arguments directed toward conservative voters.

Sometimes the color choices in visual arguments mean having no color at all for example, the use of a black-and-white image instead of a color image. As you will see in our discussions of color throughout this chapter, makers of visual arguments need to decide whether color will be primarily decorative (using colors to create visual appeal), functional (for example, using colors to indicate relationships), realistic (using colors like a documentary photo), emotional (for example, using colors that are soothing, exciting, or disturbing), or some inten- tional combination of these.

Use of lmages and Graphics The fourth design element includes images and graphics, which can powerfully condense information into striking and memorable visuals; clarify ideas; and add depth, liveliness, and emotion to your arguments. Keep in mind this important point when using images: A few simple images may be more powerful than com- plicated and numerous images. Other key considerations are (1) how you intend an image to work in your argument (for example, to convey an idea, illustrate a point, or evoke an emotional response) and (2) how you will establish the relation- ship between the image or graphic and the verbal text.

Because using images and graphics effectively can be especially challeng- ing, we devote the rest of this chapter to explaining how you can incorporate

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images and graphics into visual arguments. We discuss the use of photographs and drawings in the next main section of the chapter, and we examine the use of quantitative graphics in the chapter's final section.

AN ANALYSIS OF A MULTIMODAL ARGUMENT USING ALL THE DESIGN COMPONENTS Before we discuss the use of images and graphics in detail, we illustrate how all four of the design components use of type, layout, color, and images can reinforce and support one another to achieve a rhetorical effect in a multimodal argument as shown in the advocacy ad in Figure 9.3. Because the intricacies of copyright law restrict our reproduction of advertisements in

Figure 9.3 Advocacy ad: Morement um

MOBILITY IS MORE THAN AN APP

- L--- ------------'"----=----

Morementum provides care, training, and specialized equipment for injured vets. You r donation can help a hero find a new horizon .

MOREMENTUM. THE DIFFERENCE IS US. '

Making Visual and Mult imodal Arguments 163

this textb ook, we commissioned an ad team to create this advocacy piece for a fictitious organization, "Morementum." This ad is intended for publication in a regional magazine or in the ad insert of a major regional newspaper. It highligh ts the design features of image, color, and layout, with type used to interpret and reinforce the message delivered by the other features.

Let's examine the ad in more detail. The layout highlights the connection between the w heel-chair-bound p erson in the lower-left center of the ad, the scene he is viewing, and readers who take in the whole scene. The text in the band of color at the top ("Mobility is more than an app") arouses curiosity and plays on words: For many people, mobility is an app simply touch Uber or Lyft on your smartphone. However, the words "more than" suggest that this ad looks more deeply at the idea of "mobility." What is at stake, as the "story" of the ad makes clear, is a different kind of dependence and independence. The ad's story is sug- gested by the text in smaller print at the bottom of the ad, which leads readers to reconsider the person in the w heelchair: "Morementum p rovides care, train- ing, and specialized equipment for injured vets." The next line of text further interprets the African American man as a m ilitary hero and clarifies the purpose of the ad: to elicit donations to help these vets enlarge their options and expand their quality of life It says, "Your donation can help a hero find a new horizon."

This advocacy ad works on readers by blending three themes the hop e for mobility and independence in the face of disability; a subtle patriotic appeal; and the symbolic meaning of "new horizons" to convey h ow people's support of Morementum can empower veterans with disabilities to help themselves. These themes are portrayed through various visual strategies. The focus on one figure a man in a wheelchair on a boardwalk underscores the fact that he has maneuvered himself to the sp ot on his own. He sits in the kind of athletic wheelchair used in bas- ketball games, and his special leather gloves highlight his ability to roll this wheel- chair himself, emphasizing his desire to be independent, active, and mobile. He is out and about on a nice day, listening to music and taking photos of the attractive view from the side of the lake. This equipment has op ened up activities for him.

The man's identity as a veteran is further developed by the ad's color scheme, which is both realistic and symbolic in its subtle patriotism. The white lettering on a red background relates well with the deep blue of the man's shirt and the white of his shorts, framing the ad in America's colors: red, white, and blue. Finally, the symbolism of horizons infuses this whole advocacy ad. For the photo of the scene itself, the ad designers positioned the camera behind the man in the wheelchair so that the scene includes the disabled veteran but also reaches outward to the view that the man sees, compelling readers to consider the w h ole scene. The fact that the man takes up much of the foreground makes him central to the ad's message. However, the camera's position behind the man also forces readers' gaze out to w h at the man sees, converting the d isabled veteran from a particular individual into an "every veteran."

Note that the man is looking off to the horizon on the other side of the lake. Even the industrial pier with refueling and loading stations for boats and the buildings in the d istance across the lake h ave a subtle symbolism: This is not a resort or vacation setting, but rather a place for jobs and productive activ- ity. Th e brightness of the scene and the deep aqua color of the water combined with the man's engagement w ith the scene capture the sense of hop e and new possibilities inherent in the concep t of horizon. The text itself ties the whole ad together. The organization's title, "Morementum," encomp asses the concept of

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For Writing and Discussion Analyzing an Advocacy Ad

Individual Task Using your knowledge of type, layout, color, and image, analyze the Buzzed Driving advocacy ad sponsored by the Ad Counci l and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration in Figure 9.4. The following questions can guide your response:

1. What story does this ad tell? What is the ad's core argument?

Figure 9.4 Advocacy ad against drunk driving

YOU JUST BLEW $10,000. Buzzed. Busted. Broke. Get caught, and you could be paying around $10,000 in fines, legal fees and increased insurance rates.

Buzzed driving is drunk driving. buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org

***** NHTSA ------

wv.'\v, nbtsa. gov

Making Visual and Mult imodal Arguments 165

2. How does th is ad use type, layout, image, and color for persuasive effect?

• Layout and Image: Does the image convey an idea, illustrate a point, or evoke an emotional response? Why do you think the ad designer chose to give spatial preference to the image?

• Color: Is the use of color in th is ad decorative, real istic, aesthetic, or some combination of these? Explain. How does the use of color contribute to the ad's message?

• Type: What is the relationship between the image and the type? Look at the words and ideas in each line of type. What is the effect of using different font sizes?

3. How does th is ad appeal to logos, ethos, and pathos?

Group Task: Working in pairs or as a class, share your analysis of this multimodal advocacy ad. Consider alternative designs for ads warn ing against driving under the influence of alcohol. What other images, layouts, use of type, and color might be effective in conveying the same message as th is ad?

momentum moving and the altering of "momentum" to include the word "more" suggests a reaching forward to a better and bigger life, not one restricted by disability. It also asks readers to participate by adding something "more" to these veterans' lives through awareness, concern, and donations.

The rhetorical design choices in the construction of this advocacy ad explain its positive effect on readers. The ad portrays an upbeat scene of a veteran enjoy- ing his ability to get around on a city boardwalk to experience the nice weather and lake view. The image, layout, and color scheme work in conjunction with the positive words "help," "hero," and "new horizon." The tagline of the piece- "MOREMENTUM. THE DIFFERENCE IS US" continues the positive feelings by encouraging readers to contribute money so that more veterans can find pleasure in life and move forward.

The Compositional Features of Photographs and Drawings 9.2 Analyze the compositional features of photographs and drawings

rhetorically.

Now that we have introduced you to the four major elements of visual design- type, layout, color, and images we turn to an in-depth discussion of photo- graphic images and drawings. Used with great shrewdness in most product advertisements, photos and drawings can be employed with equal shrewdness in posters, fliers, advocacy ads, and websites. When an image is created specifi- cally for the purpose of advancing an argument, almost nothing is left to chance. Although such images are often made to seem spontaneous and "natural," they are almost always composed. That is, designers consciously select the details of staging and composition. They also use camera techniques (filters, camera angle, lighting) and digital or chemical development techniques (airbrushing, merging of images) to control the message.

Even news photography can have a composed feel. For example, public officials often try to control the effect of photographs by creating "photo opps"

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(photographing opportunities), wherein reporters are allowed to photograph an event only during certain times and only from certain angles. Political pho- tographs appearing in newspapers often come from press releases officially approved by the politician's staff.

To analyze a photograph or drawing, or to create visual images to include with your own arguments, you need to think both about the composition of the image and about the camera's relationship to the subject. Because drawings pro- duce a perspective on a scene analogous to that of a camera, you can apply design considerations for photographs to drawings as well. The following list can guide your analysis of any persuasive image.

Coinpositional Features to Exainine in Photos and Drawings

• Type of photograph or drawing: Is the image documentary-like (representing a real event), fiction-like (intending to tell a story or dramatize a scene), or con- ceptual (illustrating or symbolizing an idea or theme)? The photo of factory farming at the start of Part 1, the photo of the protest for higher wages for fast- food workers at the start of Part 2, and the photo of the anti-fracking march at the start of Part 3 are documentary photos capturing real events in action.

• In contrast, the cartoonish drawing of the fly in the health poster in Figure 9.5 is both a fictional narrative telling a story and a conceptual drawing illustrating a concept. The vaping ad at the start of Part 4 is yet another type of drawing. The drawing of a woman's face, showing her perfect make-up, healthy skin, and vapor-wreathed lips, tries to persuade us visually that vaping is safer and healthier than smoking cigarettes.

• Distance from the subject: Is the image a close-up, medium shot, or long shot? Close-ups tend to increase the image's intensity and suggest its impor- tance; long shots tend to blend the subject into the background. The photo of the fast-food containers spilling out of the garbage can and scattered on the ground (at the start of Part 5) is intensified by the close-up shot without background. In contrast, the medium shot of the boy holding the toy he has found in the wreckage caused by Typhoon Haiyan (Figure 5.1) focuses on both the boy and his surroundings. While the photo captures the magnitude of the disaster, it also shows the child's interests and his attempt to recover some of his past life.

• Image orientation and camera angle: Is the camera (or artist) positioned in front of or behind the subject? Is the camera positioned below the subject, looking up (a low-angle shot)? Or is it above the subject, looking down (a high-angle shot)? Front-view shots (for example, the photo of the £racking protestor at the start of Part 3) tend to emphasize the persons being photo- graphed. In contrast, rear-view shots often emphasize the scene or setting. A low-angle perspective tends to make the subject look superior and powerful, whereas a high-angle perspective can reduce the size and by implication, the importance of the subject. A level angle tends to imply equality.

• Point of view: Does the camera or artist stand outside the scene and create an objective effect? Or is the camera or artist inside the scene as if the photogra- pher or artist is an actor in the scene, creating a subjective effect?

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 167

Figure 9.5 Health poster from the War Department in World War II

r oo '

NEVER GIVE A GERM A BREAK!

•

• Use of color: Is the image in color or in black and white? Is this choice deter- mined by the restrictions of the medium (such as images designed to run in b lack-and-white in newspapers), or is it the choice of the photographer or artist? Are the colors realistic or muted? Have special filters been used (for example, a photo made to look old through the use of brown tints)? Are bright colors intended to be catchy, attractive, dominant, or disturbing?

• Compositional special effects: Is the entire image clear and realistic? Is any portion of it b lurred? Is it blended with other realistic or nonrealistic images (for example, a car ad that b lends a city and a desert; a body lotion ad that merges a woman and a cactus)? Is the image an imitation of some other famous

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image such as a classic painting (as in parodies)? The image of the Muslim woman wearing the American flag (Figure 9.1) as a hi jab makes a visual asso- ciation between an image of a beautiful woman and American patriotism.

• Juxtaposition of images: Are several different images juxtaposed (that is, placed closed together or side by side), suggesting relationships between them? Juxtaposition can suggest sequential or causal relationships, or it can metaphorically transfer the identity of a nearby image or background to the subject (as when a bath soap is associated with a meadow). Juxtaposition of images is frequently used to shape viewers' perceptions of political figures, as when political figures are photographed with patriotic monuments.

• Manipulation of images: Are staged images made to appear real, natural, or documentary-like? Are images altered with airbrushing? Are the images a series of composites of a number of images (for instance, using images of different women's bodies to create one perfect model in an ad or film)? Are images cropped for emphasis? That is, has any part of the original photo been cut out? If so, what is left out? Are images downsized or enlarged?

• Settings, furnishings, props: Is the photo or drawing an outdoor scene or an indoor scene? What is in the background and foreground? What furnishings and props (such as furniture, objects in a room, pets, and landscape features) help create the scene? What social associations of class, race, and gender are attached to these settings and props?

• Characters, roles, actions: Does the photo or drawing tell a story? Are the people in the scene models? Are the models instrumental (acting out real-life roles), or are they decorative (extra and included for visual or sex appeal)? What are the people's facial expressions, gestures, and poses? What are the figures' spatial relationships? (Who is in the foreground, center, and background? Who is large and prominent?) What social relationships are implied by these poses and positions? In the "Morementum" advocacy ad in Figure 9.3, the solitary man in the wheelchair enjoying the view from the wooden boardwalk tells the story of hoped-for independence.

• Presentation of images: Are images separated from one another in a larger composition or connected to one another? Are the images large in proportion to written text? How are images labeled, if at all? How does the text relate to the image(s)? Does the image illustrate the text? Does the text explain or comment on the image?

An Analysis of a Multi111edia Video Argu111ent Using Words, I111ages, and Music To show you how to analyze a multimodal argument with images and text, let's examine a student advocacy video, "It's a Toilet, Not a Trash Can," made for a first-year inquiry seminar on water and citizenship. Eight stills from this advocacy video are shown in Figures 9.6-9.13. The assignment asked students to construct an advocacy video addressing a public problem related to water, inviting them to explore questions such as: What should responsible citizens know about where their water comes from, where it goes, and what it costs? How should we manage water to be certain that it is clean, safe, and available? How do we allot available water to different stakeholders such as households, industry, agriculture, and rec- reation? For this assignment, students were asked to construct a video to encourage

Making Visual and Mult imodal Arguments 169

a sp ecific audience to act responsibly in their water usage. Having taken a class trip to a local wastewater treatment plant, the students in this class became aware of how nonbiodegradable trash enters the wastewater system instead of going to a landfill or a recycling p lant. One group of students chose to attack one cause of this problem: the casual flushing of trash items down residence hall toilets.

This v ideo uses humorous exaggeration to underscore its serious p oint. Th e video begins with scenes from a wind y fall day, with d ifferent groups of students returning to a residence hall with what seem to be full grocery bags. Students walk and talk with friends, take the residence hall elevator, and walk down their hall- way toward their rooms (Figures 9.6 and 9.7). At this point, the advocacy video spins off into hyperbole (exaggeration) and absurdity. Some students, instead of carrying groceries in their shopping bags, have been carrying garbage, which they proceed to dump into the toilet (Figure 9.8). The humorous shock value of this action is intensified through close-ups of a large amount of garbage emptied into the toilet (Figures 9.9 and 9.11 ). Interspersed between action scenes are a few ver- bal text screens that explain the problem of trash in the sewage system and drive home the costs of the problem (such as the verbal text screen in Figure 9.10). The final screens use text to state the video's message explicitly (Figures 9.12 and 9.13) .

As the story builds intensity, this advocacy video combines ap peals to pathos, ethos, and logos. The app eals to pathos begin w ith the simple, fast-paced, haunting instrumental music that plays in the background throughout the video; the music is both pleasant and somewhat disturbing, the kind that lingers in the mind. Student v iewers can also easily relate to the characters in the video (a quality of pathos) in that the student actors wear ordinary clothing and the residence hall

Figure 9.6 Student s carrying p lastic bags into a residence hall elevator

Figure 9.8 Student d umpin g garbage in residence hall t oi let

Figure 9.7 St udent s in residence hallway carrying t he same bags

Figure 9.9 Garbage fi ll in g t he toilet

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Figure 9.10 Screen explaining why th is trash is harmfu l

Figure 9.11 Hand adding more garbage to the to ilet

Figure 9.12 Screen stating the absurd ity of the actions in the v ideo

Figure 9.13 Final screen w ith tagline that summarizes the advocacy v ideo's point

elevator and hallway are so generic that they could be found anywhere in the country. Once the surprise of the garbage dumping starts, the mild shock and humor stir different kinds of emotions. Viewers can no longer predict where the video is going. The dumping of garbage into the toilet is so puzzling and so over the top that it elicits both laughs and gasps from the audience. Close-ups of toilets filled with floating bottles and garbage are ridiculously distressing.

In addition to appeals to pathos, the video includes appeals to logos through the interspersed text-based screens (stark in their white type on a black back- ground) that explain the harm done by trash in the sewage system. Several of these screens also appeal to ethos by citing facts from authorities such as the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency (as in Figure 9.10) and the Clean Watersheds Needs Survey (not shown in the sequence of still photos), which explain the burden and cost of garbage in wastewater treatment plants. In fact, all kinds of items pieces of clothing and plastic, combs, condoms, sanitary products, diapers, even dollar bills find their way into these treatment systems and need to be fished out. The message conveyed by the video emerges from the actions portrayed and confronts readers directly in the final screens. The video does not state its proposal claim initially because the creators of the video did not want viewers to dismiss the claim outright or arouse defensiveness. The final tagline ("It's a toilet, not a trash can") plays on viewers' emotions through its memorable, catchy alliteration ("toi- let" and "trash can"). This line just might come to mind the next time someone is about to drop a piece of trash in the toilet.

For Writing and Discussion Thinking Rhetorically about Photos

Making Visual and Mult imodal Arguments 171

Working individually or in groups, imagine that you have been asked to compose a brochure that either sup- ports or opposes a state proposal to ban the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. Your task is to choose two to four of the fo llowing images for your brochure. First analyze the composit ion of the images. Then explain which ones you would choose to ach ieve the most persuasive impact in your brochure. How would you arrange these images?

1. Study the six images in Figures 9.14 through 9.1 9, and then answer the fo llowing questions: a. What camera techn iques and composit ion features do you see in each photo or image? For each

image, consider the list of compositional features earlier in this chapter. b. What do you think is the dominant impression of each photo? In other words, what is each photo's

implicit argument? 2. Once you have analyzed the images, decide which are the most striking or memorable and try to reach

consensus about your choices for a rhetorically effective brochure. 3. Sometimes designers and ad creators choose cartoon ish images to deliver their arguments. How might

you use a cartoon drawing in your brochure? For ideas, you might consider the cartoon f ly in the War Department's health poster in Figure 9.5.

Figure 9.14 Photo of plast ic bags blowing in a forest

Figure 9.16 Photo of a shopper carrying purchases in plastic bags

Figure 9.15 Photo of dump with p lastic bags and seagulls

Figure 9.17 Photo of ch ildren picking up plast ic bags in a forest

(continued)

172 Chapter 9

Figure 9.18 Photo of a plastic bag tangled in flowers

Figure 9.19 Photo of plastic bags packed for recycling

The Genres of Multimodal Argument 9.3 Explain the genres of multimodal argument.

In some cases, multimodal texts are primarily written text with inserted photo- graphs or drawings that enhance the logos or pathos of the argument. For example, a verbal argument promoting help for AIDS victims in Africa might be accom- panied by a photograph of a dying mother and child. In contrast, in some multi- modal genres the visual design carries most of the argumentative weight; verbal text is used primarily for labeling, for focusing the argument's claim, or for com- menting on the images. In this section, we describe a variety of multimodal genres that rely primarily on visual elements.

Posters and Fliers To persuade audiences, an arguer might create a poster or flier to rally support for a cause. For example, during World War II, posters asked Americans to invest in war bonds and urged women to join the workforce in order to free men for active combat. During the Vietnam War, famous posters used slogans such as "Make Love, Not War" or "Girls say yes to boys who say no" to increase national resistance to the war.

The hallmark of an effective poster is the way it uses a visual-verbal text to focus and encode a complex meaning, often with one or more striking images. These images are often symbolic for example, using children to symbolize fam- ily and home, a soaring bird to symbolize freedom, or three firefighters raising the American flag over the World Trade Center rubble on September 11, 2001, to symbolize American heroism, patriotism, and resistance to terrorism. These symbols derive potency from the values they share with their target audience. Posters tend to use words sparingly, either as slogans or as short, memorable

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 173

Figure 9.20 Poster for The Humble Assessment

directives. This concise verbal text augments the message encoded in an eye- catching, dominant image.

As an example of a contemporary poster urging people to see a recent inde- pendent film, consider The Humble Assessment poster in Figure 9.20. Because this film is new and unknown, the poster must arouse curiosity and elicit interest. In this poster, the text creates the context the competitive job market and the finan- cial anxieties of applicants. The poster shows a man in a business suit, white shirt, and tie in a sitting position, possibly waiting for an interview. However, the poster leaves viewers with many questions: Is the man sitting on a chair or cramped into a coffin-like space? Why doesn't the man have a head? Why is he playing with a Rubik's cube? Why do his hands look tense? Why are the clock's hands replaced by a spider whose eight legs point to a bewildering number of time possibilities? Why are the clock with the spider and the line "The job market has gone to hell" placed between the man's knees? How do the wavering letters of the film's title contribute to the claustrophobic, unsettling impression produced by the text and image? How does the use of the words "stomach for it," "you," "we," and "gone to hell" both draw viewers in and put them on edge? "Assessment" means a

17 4 Chapter 9

judgment of value. What does that word have to do with "humble," and why would a job interview be called "an assessment"? In short, this film poster uses text and image to pique curiosity and suggest disturbing content in this absurdist, surreal postmodern depiction of the demoralizing and dehumanizing corporate job market.

Public Affairs Advocacy Advertisem.ents Public affairs advocacy advertisements share with posters an emphasis on visual elements, but they are designed specifically for publication in newspapers and magazines (and are often reproduced on websites). In their persuasive strategies, they are very similar to product advertisements. Public affairs advocacy ads are usually sponsored by a corporation or an advocacy organization, often are part of a particular campaign with a theme, and have a more immediate and defined target audience than posters do. Designed as condensed arguments aimed at influencing public opinion on civic issues, these ads are characterized by their brevity, audience-based appeals, and succinct, "sound bite" style. Often, in order to put forth their claim and reasons clearly and concisely, they employ headings and subheadings, bulleted lists, different sizes and styles of type, and a clever, pleasing layout on the page. They usually have an attention-getting slogan or headline such as "MORE KIDS ARE GETTING BRAIN CANCER. WHY?" or "STOP THE TAX REVOLT JUGGERNAUT!" And they usually include a call to action, such as a donation, a letter of protest to legislators, or an invitation to join the advocacy group.

The balance between verbal and visual elements in an advocacy advertise- ment varies. Some advocacy ads are verbal only, with visual concerns focused on document design (for example, an "open letter" from the president of a corpora- tion appearing as a full-page newspaper ad). Other advocacy ads are primarily visual, using images and other design elements with the same shrewdness as advertisements.

This text reproduces a variety of public affairs advocacy ads across chapters. We have already examined the anti-bullying ad in Figure 9.2, the anti-drunk driving ad in Figure 9 .4, and the fictionalized Morementum ad in Figure 9 .3. These ads use text and images in different ways to present their messages. Although it is designed more like a poster than an advocacy ad, the World War II health warning about the spread of germs (Figure 9 .5) uses a humorous cartoon drawing to accompany its alarming message about the dangers of infec- tious disease.

As another example of a public affairs advocacy ad, consider the ad featuring a coat hanger at the beginning of Chapter 15. This ad attempts to raise fears about the negative consequences of the pro-life movement's campaign against abortion. As you can see, this ad is dominated by one stark image: a question mark formed by the hook of a coat hanger. The shape of the hook draws the reader's eye to the concentrated type centered below it. The hook carries most of the weight of the argument. Simple, bold, and harsh, the image of the hanger taps readers' cultural know ledge and evokes the dangerous scenario of illegal abortions performed crudely by nonmedical people in the dark backstreets of cities. The ad wants viewers to think of the dangerous last resorts to which desperate women would have to turn if they could not obtain abortions legally. Also consider the hanger

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 175

itself. It is in the shape of a question mark, thereby suggesting a question about what will happen if abortions are made illegal. The coat hanger itself provides the ad's disturbing answer to the printed question desperate women will go to backstreet abortionists who use coat hangers as abortion tools.

Cartoons An especially charged kind of visual argument is the editorial or political cartoon and its extended forms, the comic strip and the graphic novel. Here we focus on political cartoons, which are often mini-narratives portraying an issue dramati- cally, compactly, and humorously, through images and a few well-chosen words that dramatize conflicts and problems. Using caricature, exaggeration, and dis- tortion, a cartoonist distills an issue down to an image that boldly reveals the cartoonist's perspective on the issue. The purpose of political cartoons is usually satirical, often criticizing some groups of people or ideas while delighting and inspiring those who agree with the cartoonist's viewpoint. Because they are so condensed and are often connected to current affairs, political cartoons are par- ticularly dependent on the audience's background knowledge of cultural and political events. When political cartoons work well, their perceptive combination of images and words flashes a brilliant, clarifying light or opens a new lens on an issue, often giving readers a shock of insight.

As an example, note the cartoon by Milt Priggee in Figure 9.22. The setting of the cartoon envisions a humorous blend of prehistoric and contemporary times. This cartoon responds to recent scientific discussions of the creation and develop- ment of the universe and the age of the Earth. (Note the mention of dark matter, which is an energy-mass concept from physics and astronomy.) However, the main story of the cartoon connects the dinosaur characters with the behavior of people today who go about walking and tweeting, oblivious to everything around them, including dangerous environments. Thus, the cartoon links discussions of evolution to discussions of the contemporary obsession with smartphones and social media.

For Writing and Discussion Analyzing Posters Rhetorically Working individually or in groups, examine the the poster shown in Figure 9.21, which shows a photo of an attractive girl behind the line "HEATHER'S LIFE ENDED TOO SOON." This poster, which appears on the TxtResponsibly.org website, reaches out to young drivers and their parents, using both images and text.

a. What visual features of this poster im mediately attract your attention? What principles for the effective use of type, layout, color, and image does this ad exemplify?

b. What is this ad's core argument? c. Why did Heather's parents choose a large photo of her? How does that photo work with the other

photo of a mangled car? d. How does the frankness of the text and the size and use of color lettering combine to convey the ad's

message? e. How would you design a poster warning against texting while driving? Consider the use of type, layout,

and image; the core of its argument; and its appeals to ethos, pathos, and kairos. (continued)

176 Chapter 9

Figure 9.21 Poster argument warning against text ing while driving

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 177

Figure 9.22 Tweeting and evolution cartoon wur-w.-M;~~~-e-.

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For Writing and Discussion Analyzing Cartoons Cartoons can provide insight into how the public is lining up on issues. Choose a current issue such as healthcare reform, use of drones, immigration policy, tax policy, or identity theft. Then, using an online car- toon index such as Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index (www.cagle.com) or a web search of your own, find several cartoons that capture different perspectives on your issue.

1. What is the mini-narrative in each cartoon? What is the main claim? How are caricature, exaggeration, and/ or distortion used in each cartoon?

2. How is kairos, or t imel iness, important to each cartoon?

Websites So far we have only hinted at how the World Wide Web has accelerated the use of visual images in argument. Multimodal websites exhibit the web's complex mix of text and image, a mix that has changed the way many writers think of argu- ment. For example, the home page of an advocacy site often has many features of a poster argument, with hypertext links to galleries of images on the one hand and to verbal arguments on the other. These verbal arguments themselves often contain photographs, drawings, and graphics. The strategies discussed in this chapter for analyzing and interpreting visual texts also apply to websites.

178 Chapter 9

Because the web is such an important tool in research, we have p laced our main discussion of websites in Chapter 16. In that chapter you will find detailed explanations for reading, analyzing, and evaluating websites.

Advocacy Videos Advocacy videos, often posted on YouTube, are perhaps the most influential of all multimodal arguments. Whether professionally made or quickly planned and produced by amateurs using video production software, advocacy videos allow powerful combinations of sounds, images, and verbal text (either as spoken dia- logue, as voice-overs, or as inserted written text). Advocacy websites (and their parallel Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram sites) frequently link to advocacy videos. Earlier in this chapter, we described and analyzed a student advocacy video, "It's a Toilet, Not a Trash Can," and reproduced stills from the video. In the next section we offer guidelines for constructing your own advocacy video.

Constructing Your Own Multimodal Arguments 9.4 Construct your own multimodal arguments.

The most common multimodal arguments you are likely to create are posters, fliers, public affairs advocacy ads, and advocacy videos. The following guidelines will help you apply your understanding of visual elements to the construction of your own multimodal arguments.

Guidelines for Creating the Visual Elem.ents in Posters, Fliers, and Advocacy Ads 1. Genre: Determine where this visual argument is going to appear (on a

bulletin board, circulated as a flier, on one page of a magazine or newspaper, or on a website).

2. Audience-based appeals: Determine who your target audience is.

• What values and background knowledge regarding your issue can you assume that your audience has?

• What specifically do you want your audience to think or do after reading your visual argument?

• If you are promoting a specific course of action (sign a petition, send money, vote for or against a bill, attend a meeting), how can you make that request clear and direct?

3. Core of your argument: Determine what clear claim and reasons will form the core of your argument; decide whether this claim and these reasons will be explicitly stated or implicit in your visuals and slogans.

• How much verbal text will you use? • If the core of your argument will be largely implicit, how can you make it

readily apparent and clear for your audience?

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 179

4. Visual design: What visual design and layout will grab your audience's attention and be persuasive?

• How can font sizes and styles, layout, and color be used in this argument to create a strong impression?

• What balance and harmony can you create between the visual and verbal elements of your argument? Will your verbal elements be a slogan, express the core of the argument, or summarize and comment on the image(s)?

5. Use of images: If your argument lends itself to images, what photo or draw- ing would support your claim or have emotional appeal? (If you want to use more than one image, be careful that you don't clutter your page and confuse your message. Simplicity and clarity are important.)

• What image would be memorable and meaningful to your audience? Which would be more effective: a photo or a drawing?

• Will your image(s) be used to provide evidence for your claim, illustrate a main idea, evoke emotions, or enhance your credibility and authority?

Guidelines for Creating Video Arguments 1. Rhetorical situation: Consider your purpose and audience, your core argu-

ment, and the effect you want your video to have on your targeted audience.

• What is your core argument?

• Are you imagining a sympathetic, neutral, or opposing audience?

• How do you plan to appeal to logos, ethos, and pathos?

• What role will you assume? Will you stay behind the scenes or appear in the video?

• Does your rhetorical purpose call for one point of view or multiple points of view to move your audience toward your view?

2. Use of a storyboard to map out scenes: Storyboards (rough sketch drawings of intended scenes) are like graphic organizers that help you plan your video scene by scene. When creating a storyboard, you plan the scenes you will use to tell a story and plan the camera angles you will use to create the visual narrative.

• How will you organize individual shots? • How will you use camera angles to create a narrative story? • How would zooming, fading, or rapid cuts to a different angle help you

create transitions between scenes?

3. Priority on visual elements: Audiences of video texts expect to be engaged visually at all times.

• How will your sequence of scenes convey your message visually? Con- sider using different camera angles establishing shots (medium or long shots), point-of-view shots (through a character's eyes), and reaction shots (close-ups of faces) to tell a story.

• While keeping priority on images, how might you use words to help read- ers interpret images? Consider using captions, inserted text screens, or

• voice-overs.

• Have you paced your video effectively so that it leaves your audience neither confused nor bored?

180 Chapter 9

4. Incorporation of effective verbal and written text: You can incorporate verbal text into a video through spoken dialogue, voice-overs, or printed text inserted as captions or as separate screens. Video technology allows for more versatile text options than just about any other multimodal form.

• How might spoken or written text underscore the intended rhetorical effect of images by emphasizing main points and highlighting important information?

• If you use voice-overs, how will you avoid using monotonous or uninter- esting visuals as filler during stretches of spoken text?

• If you insert written text, how will you make your points vivid and clear, avoiding both text density and vagueness?

5. Use of musical elements and other sound options: Sound options can under- score important rhetorical goals with auditory effects. Sound or the choice of silence can have a subtle but powerful impact on the viewers of a video text.

• Have you matched sound effects to the meaning and rhetorical effect you want to achieve? Consider how you will use music, background sounds (street noise, cafe buzz, bird chirps, sudden silence), and voice qualities (accent, pitch, emotional emphasis).

• If you have used separate microphones, are they well placed? Is the sound too soft or too loud? Is voice audible rather than muffled?

For Writing and Discussion Developing Ideas for an Advocacy Ad or Poster Argument This exercise asks you to do the thinking and planning for an advocacy ad, poster argument, or advocacy video for your college or university campus. Working indivi dually, in smal l groups, or as a class, choose an issue that is controversial on you r campus (or in your town or city), and fol low the Guidelines for Creating Visual Arguments or the Guidelines for Creating Advocacy Videos to envision the v iew you want to advocate on that issue. For an advocacy video, map your argument as scenes using a storyboard. What might the core of your argument be? Who is your target audience? Are you representing a group, club, or other orga- nization? What image(s) might be effective in attracting and moving your audience? Possible issues might be commuter parking; poor conditions in the computer lab; student reluctance to use the counseling center; problems w ith residence hal l life; financial aid programs; intramural sports; ways to improve orientation pro- grams for new students; work-study programs; travel-abroad opportunities; or new initiatives such as study groups for big lecture courses or new service-learning opportunities.

Using Information Graphics in Arguments 9.5 Use information graphics rhetorically in arguments.

Besides images in the form of photographs and drawings, writers often use quan- titative graphics to support number-based arguments. In Chapter 4 we introduced the use of quantitative data in arguments, showing how stakeholders can use numbers for evidence, often framing those numbers to support their angle of vision. Using spreadsheet and presentation programs, today's writers often create

Making Visual and Mult imodal Arguments 181

and import quantitative graphics into their documents. These visuals such as tables, pie charts, and line graphs or bar graphs can have great rhetorical power by using numbers to tell a story at a glance. In this section, we show you how to make numbers speak with quantitative graphics. We also show you how to analyze graphics, incorporate them into your text, and reference them effectively.

How Tables Contain a Variety of Stories Data used in arguments usually have their origins in raw numbers collected from surveys, questionnaires, observational studies, scientific experiments, and so forth. Through a series of calculations, the numbers are combined, sorted, and arranged in a meaningful fashion, often in detailed tables. Some of the tables pub- lished by the U.S. Census Bureau, for example, stretch across dozens of pages. The denser the table, the more its use is restricted to statistical experts who pore over the data to analyze and interpret them. More useful to the public are shorter tables contained on one or two pages that report data at a higher level of abstraction.

Consider, for example, Table 9.2, which reproduces data from a more detailed table published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This table shows the amount of energy consumed in the United States during selected years from 1950 to 2016 from specified primary sources such as coal, natural gas, nuclear power, wind, or the sun (solar energy).

Take a few moments to peruse the table and be certain you know how to read it. You read tables in two directions: from top to bottom and from left to

Table 9.2 U.S. Primary Energy Consumption by Source, 1950 to 2016 (Quadrill ion BTUs)

Fossil Fuels

Natural Petro- Coal Gas leum Total

1950 12.35 5 .97 13.32 3 1.63

1955 11.17 9 .00 17.26 37.41

1960 9.84 12.39 19.92 42.14

1965 11.58 15.77 23.25 50.58

1970 12.27 21 .80 29.52 63.52

1975 12.66 19.95 32.73 65.36

1980 15.42 20 .24 34.2 1 69.83

1985 17.48 17.70 30.93 66.09

1990 19.17 19.60 33.55 72.33

1995 20.09 22 .67 34.44 77.26

2000 22.58 23 .82 38.27 84.74

2005 22 .80 22 .57 40.30 85.71

2010 20.83 24 .58 35.49 80.89

2015 15.55 28 .20 35.60 79.33

2016 14.23 28.42 35.94 78.57

*Note: Grand totals may not sum exactly due to rounding.

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Electric Power

0.00

0.00

0 .0 1

0.04

0 .24

1.90

2.74

4 .08

6.10

7 .08

7.86

8.16

8.43

8.34

8.42

Hydro- Electric Power

1.42

1.36

1.61

2.06

2.63

3.16

2.90

2.97

3.05

3.21

2.8 1

2.70

2.54

2.32

2.48

Renewable Sources

Geo- Thermal Solar Wind

0 .01

0 .03

0 .05

0 .10

0 .17 0.06 0.03

0 .15 0.07 0.03

0 .16 0.06 0.06

0 .18 0.06 0.18

0 .21 0.09 0.92

0 .21 0.43 1.78

0 .23 0.59 2.11

Bio- mass

1.56

1.42

1.32

1.34

1.43

1.50

2.48

3 .02

2.74

3 .10

3 .01

3 .11

4 .27

4 .73

4 .76

Total

2.98

2.78

2.93

3.40

4.07

4.69

5.43

6.08

6.04

6.56

6.10

6.23

8.03

9.47

10.16

Grand Total*

34.62

40.21

45.09

54.02

67.84

71.97

78.07

76.39

84.48

91.03

98.82

100.19

97.45

97.37

97.40

182 Chapter 9

right. Always begin with the title, which tells you what the table contains by including elements from the table's vertical and horizontal dimensions and by indicating the table's unit(s) of measure. In Table 9.2, the unit of measure is a quadrillion British thermal units (BTU). (A quadrillion is one million billions- that is, a 1 followed by 15 zeros. A BTU is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.) In Table 9.2, the vertical dimension shows years (every fifth year from 1950 to 2015, plus 2016). The horizontal dimension shows various sources of energy. The highest level of this horizontal dimension identifies the three primary energy sources: fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and renewable sources. Fossil fuels and renewable sources are then further divided into subcategories.

To make sure you know how to read the table, pick a couple of rows at ran- dom and explain what each number means. For example, the 1970 row shows that in 1970 Americans consumed 12.27 quadrillion BTUs of energy from coal, 21.8 quadrillion BTUs from natural gas, and 29.52 quadrillion BTUs from petro- leum for a total of 63.52 quadrillion BTUs of fossil fuel energy. That same year, Americans used .24 quadrillion BTU s from nuclear energy and a total of 4.07 quadrillion BTUs from renewable energy. Renewable energy in 1970 was limited to hydropower (2.63 quadrillion BTUs), geothermal (.01 quadrillion BTUs) and biomass (1.43 quadrillion BTUs). (In 1970, biomass meant primarily the burning of wood and charcoal; in more recent years it has included the use of biofuels such as ethanol.) The total U.S. consumption of energy from that year obtained by adding fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and renewable sources is shown in the far right column: 67.84 quadrillion BTUs.

Now that you know how to read the table, examine it carefully to identify the kinds of questions it raises and stories it tells. What does the table show us, for example, about trends in total energy consumption in the United States? Is our use of natural gas increasing or decreasing? How about our use of nuclear energy or solar energy? In addition to looking just at the numbers on the table, you could con- vert numbers to percentages. For example, in any given year, what percent of total energy consumption came from renewable sources versus fossil fuels? Table 9.2 can also initiate interesting causal questions: In 2005, Americans consumed 22.8 quadrillion BTUs of coal energy. But by 2016 that number dropped to 14.23 quadril- lion BTUs. Why has the use of coal declined? (Some people attribute the decline to anti-coal environmental regulations imposed by the Obama administration. Others attribute the decline to cheap natural gas made possible by £racking.)

Using a Graph to Tell a Story Table 9.2 has many embedded energy stories, but you must tease them out from the dense columns of numbers. If you want to make a story pop out for readers, you can convert it to a graph. Three common types of graphs are bar graphs, pie charts, and line graphs.

BAR GRAPHS Bar graphs use bars of varying length, extending either horizon- tally or vertically, to contrast two or more quantities. As with any graphic presen- tation, you must create a comprehensive title. In the case of bar graphs, titles tell readers what is being compared. Most bar graphs also have legends, which explain what the different features on the graph represent. Bars are typically distinguished from one another by use of different colors, shades, or patterns of crosshatching.

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 183

Figure 9.23 U.S. consumption of energy from coal and natural gas, 2005 and 2016 (quadrillion BTUs)

SOURCE: United States Energy Information Agency

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15.0 Coal ·---·-s-u D Natural Gas ~ :1 (j 10.0

5.0------

0.0 ------ 2005 20 16

Bar graphs can help readers make quick comparisons. Suppose you want to link the recent decline in coal consumption to increased use of natural gas. You could tell this story at a glance with a bar graph, as in Figure 9.23. The first set of bars shows that in 2005 Americans used almost equal amounts of coal and natural gas. However, in the second set of bars (2016), the bar for coal has shrunk significantly while the bar for natural gas has grown.

PIE CHARTS Another vivid kind of graph is a pie chart or circle graph, which depicts different percentages of a total (the pie) in the form of slices. Pie charts are often used to show how a whole is divided up into parts. For example, suppose that you wanted your readers to notice the percentage of U.S. energy consump- tion that carne from each of the primary sectors in 2016. You could use a pie chart to make that percentage quickly visible through a pie chart like the one shown in Figure 9.24, which is based on the data in Table 9.2 As you can see, a pie chart shows at a glance how the whole of something is divided into segments. In this case there are only three segments.

A general note: The effectiveness of pie charts diminishes as you add more slices. In most cases, a pie chart becomes ineffective if you include more the five or six slices.

LINE GRAPHS Another powerful quantitative graphic is a line graph, which converts numerical data into a series of points on a grid and then connects them to create flat, rising, or falling lines. The result is a picture of the relationship between the variables represented on the horizontal and vertical axes. By convention, the horizontal axis of a line graph contains the predictable, known variable, which has no surprises what researchers call the independent variable. The vertical axis contains the unpredictable variable (what researchers call the dependent variable), which tells the graph's story.

Imagine that you want to create a line graph that compares use of energy sources that emit greenhouse gases with those that don't. Greenhouse-gas- emitting sources include both fossil fuels and biomass fuels. (Although biomass

184 Chapter 9

Figure 9.24 Consumption of energy by percentage from fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewal sources, 2016

SOURCE: United States Energy Information Agency.

9.7

• Fossil fuels • Nuclear • Renewable

fuels such as wood and ethanol are listed in Table 9.2 as "renewable energy sources," they nevertheless emit greenhouse gases.) The energy sources that don't emit greenhouse gases are nuclear, hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, and wind. Using a spreadsheet you can move the biomass data from the "renewable energy" data and add it to the fossil fuel data. You can then add the nuclear power data into the remaining renewable sources data. You can then use the spreadsheet to create a line graph that compares these two variables over time (see Figure 9.25).

Figure 9.25 U.S. energy consumption from greenhouse-gas-emitting sources versus zero emission sources, 1950-2016 (quadrill ion BTUs)

NOTE: "Greenhouse-gas-emitting" sources of energy are fossil fuels and biomass fuels . "Zero emission" sources of energy are nuclear, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, and wind power.

SOURCE: United States Energy Information Agency

V'l

::::> 1--< IXl c 0 ·---·-s-u ~ :1 0

120.0

100.0

80.0

60.0

40.0

20.0

0.0 0 1.0 0'--

1.0 1.0 0'--

0 -a 0'--

1.0 -a 0'--

0 r--- 0'--

-- Greenhouse Gas Emitting

1.0 r--- 0'--

0 CX) 0'--

1.0 CX) 0'--

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-- Zero Emissions

1.0 0'- 0'--

0 0 0 N

1.0 0 0 N

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1.0 -a - -0 0 N N

--Total Energy Consumed

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 185

To determine what this graph is telling you, you need to clarify what's represented on the two axes. The horizontal axis lists years from 1950 to 2016 while the vertical axis shows the amount of energy consumed in any given year as measured in quadrillion BTUs. The graph's "story" is shown in the three lines: The top line (in gray) shows the total amount of energy consumed in a given year; the blue line below it represents the amount consumed from green- house-gas-emitting sources, and the red line represents energy consumed from zero-emission sources. The good news in this graph is that U.S. energy consump- tion appears to have peaked around 2005 and then declined slightly despite increases in population. Another piece of good news is that the consumption of zero-emission sources is slowly increasing while the use of greenhouse-gas- emitting sources is slowly decreasing. The bad news is that the gap between them is still huge.

Incorporating Graphics into Your Argutnent Today, writers working with quantitative data usually use graphing software that automatically creates tables, graphs, or charts from data entered into the cells of a spreadsheet. For college papers, some instructors may allow you to make your graphs with pencil and ruler and paste them into your document. The following suggestions will be helpful as you think about the best ways to incorporate graph- ics into your argument.

DESIGNING THE GRAPHIC When you design your graphic, your goal is to have a specific rhetorical effect on your readers, not to demonstrate all the bells and whistles available on your software. Adding extraneous data to the graph or chart, or using such features as a three-dimensional effect, can often distract from your graph's story. Keep the graphic as uncluttered and simple as possible, and design it so that it reinforces the point you are making.

NUMBERING, LABELING, AND TITLING THE GRAPHIC In newspapers and popular magazines, writers often include graphics in boxes or sidebars with- out specifically referring to them in the text itself. However, in academic and professional workplace writing, graphics are always labeled, numbered, titled, and referred to directly in the text. By convention, tables are listed as "Tables," whereas line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, and any other kinds of drawings or photographs are labeled as "Figures." Suppose you create a document that includes four graphics a table, a bar graph, a pie chart, and a photograph. The table would be labeled as Table 1. The others would be labeled as Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3.

In addition to numbering and labeling, every graphic needs a comprehensive title that explains fully what information is being displayed. In a line graph show- ing changes over time, for example, a typical title will identify the information on both the horizontal and vertical axes (including the years covered). Bar graphs may also include a legend explaining how the bars are coded. When you import the graphic into your own text, be consistent in where you place the title either above the graphic or below it.

Look again at the tables and figures in this chapter and compare their titles to the information in the graphics.

186 Chapter 9

Figure 9.26 Example of a student text with a referenced graph

Althou gh wind a n d sola r powe r sti ll compri se only a f r ac - }-- Writer's point t i on o f the e ne r gy consumed i n the Un i ted States , it is the f astes t growing e n e r gy segment . As Figu r e 1 shows , References the figure wind and sola r provided nonex i stent o r only negligi b l e ene r gy unt i l the end o f the 20 t h cen tury . In 2000 , wind and sola r combined t o p r ovi de a me r e . 12 quadr illion BTUs o f ene r gy . I n 2005 , howeve r, the contribu t ion o f wi nd and sola r i nc r eased r ap i dly . By 20 1 0 , Ame r icans consumed 1 . 01 quadr illion BTUs f rom wind and solar. By 2016 , that number had nearl y t r ipled to 2 . 7 quadri l lion BTUs . There i s no gua r antee t ha t wi nd and sola r can conti nue to g r ow a t this ra t e , but the futu r e i s p r omi s i ng as t echnology i mp r oves and produc t ion costs decline .

States in words the significant information shown in the graph (independent redundancy)

Fi g . 1 U. S . consumpti on o f energy fr om wi nd and sola r Title (quadr i ll i on BTUs) , 1950- 20 1 6

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3.00 ----------------------------------------------

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2.00 ----------------------------------------+-----

1. 50 ---------------------------------------+------

0.50 ------------------j- ,1------

0.00 0 LO 0 LO 0 LO 0 LO 0 LO 0 LO 0 LO -o LO LO -o -o ['. ['. 00 00 o- o- 0 0 - - -o- o- o- o- o- o- o- o- o- o- 0 0 0 0 0 - - - - - - - - - - N N N N N

So u rce : Un i ted S t a tes Energy In forma t i on Agency

Line telling the graph's story

Source

REFERENCING THE GRAPHIC IN YOUR TEXT Academic and professional writers follow a referencing convention called independent redundancy. The gen- eral rule is this: The graphic should be understandable without the text; the text should be understandable without the graphic; the text should repeat the most important information in the graphic. Figure 9.26 provides an example.

A Note on How Graphics Fratne Data Rhetorically Note that graphs are designed to tell a story hidden in a much larger set of data. Any graph necessarily selects some data from a larger set and omits other data. Because no graph can tell the whole story, it always frames its designer's selected data for rhetorical emphasis. The graph shown in the student example in Figure 9.26 (called Figure 1 in the example) tells a true story about the rapid increase in the use of wind and solar energy. But that graph doesn't tell the whole story. One of the things it omits is the gap between solar and wind production and the total energy needs of the United States. A graph telling this larger story appears in Figure 9.27.

Making Visual and Multimodal Arguments 187

Figure 9.27 Total U.S. energy consumption versus consumption of energy from wind and solar (quadrill ion BTUs), 1950-2016

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120.00

100.00

80.00

60.00

40.00

20.00

0.00 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 00 00 ~ ~ 0 0 - - - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 0 0 0 0 0 - - - - - - - - - - N N N N N

Wind and Solar use

Total energy use

This graph no longer emphasizes the steep upward slope of solar and wind power usage. Rather, it emphasizes the huge difference between the total energy consumed in the United States and the comparatively tiny amount of wind and solar usage. Note that the vertical axis in Figure 9.27 goes from 0 to 120 quadril- lion BTU s in increments of 20, while the same axis in the student graph in Figure 9.26 goes from 0 to 3 in increments of .5. The result in Figure 9.27 is to flatten out the wind/ solar line until it is almost a straight, horizontal line. Both of these graphs (Figures 9.26 and 9.27) accurately use the original data in Table 9.2. Both are "true," but they tell different stories.

Conclusion In this chapter we have explained the challenge and power of using visuals to create multimodal arguments. We have examined the components of visual design use of type, layout, color, and images and have shown how these com- ponents can be used for persuasive effect in arguments. We have also described the argumentative genres that depend on effective use of visuals posters and fliers, advocacy advertisements, videos, cartoons, and websites and invited you to produce your own multimodal argument. Finally, we showed you that graphics can tell a numeric story in a focused and dramatic way. Specifically, we explained the functions of tables, bar graphs, pie charts, and line graphs, showed you how to reference graphics and incorporate them into your own prose, and noted how graphs frame data rhetorically to tell a story but never the whole story.

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Writing Assignment A Visual Argument Rhetorical Analysis, a Visual Argument, or a Short Argument Using Quantitative Data

Option 1: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis of a Visual Argument Write a thesis-driven rhetorical analysis essay in wh ich you examine the rhetorical effectiveness of a visual argument, either one of the visual arguments in this text or one specified by your instructor. Unless otherwise stated, direct your analysis to an aud ience of your c lassmates. In your introduction, establish the argumenta- t ive conversation to wh ich this argument is contributing. Briefly summarize the argument and describe the visual text. Present your thesis, highlighting two or more rhetorical features of the argument-such as the way the argument appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos-that you find central to the effectiveness or ineffective- ness of this argument. To develop and support your own points, you will need to include v isual features and details (such as color, design, camera angle, framing, and special effects) as well as short quotations from any verbal parts of the argument.

Option 2: Multi modal Assignment: A Public Affairs Advocacy Ad, a Poster Argument, or an Advocacy Video Working w ith the idea of an advocacy ad or poster argument that you explored in the For Writing and Discussion activ ity earlier in this chapter, use the visual design principles throughout the chapter; your understanding of v isual argument and its genres; the Guidelines for Creating the Visual Elements in Posters, Fliers, and Advocacy Ads; the Guidel ines for Creating Video Arguments; and your own creativity to produce a visual argument that can be displayed on your campus or in your town or c ity and/or posted somewhere on the web. Consider whether you wi ll use photos or drawings. Try out the draft of your advocacy ad, poster, or video argument on people who are part of your target aud ience. Based on these ind iv iduals' sugges- t ions for improving the clarity and impact of this visual argument, prepare a f inal version of your mult imodal argument.

Option 3: Multimodal Assignment: Cartoon Choose a controversial issue important to you and create a sing le-frame political cartoon that presents your perspective on the issue in a memorable way. Use the cartoon strategies of m ini-narrative, caricature, exag- geration, distortion, and the interaction between image and text.

Option 4: A Short Argument Using a Quantitative Graphic Write a short argument of one to two paragraphs that tells a story based on data you select from Table 9.2 or from some other table provided by your instructor or located by you. Include in your argument at least one quantitative graphic (table, line graph, bar graph, pie chart), which should be labeled and referenced accord- ing to standard conventions. Use as a model the short piece shown in Figure 9.26.