None. But just in case you lost the syllabus for the week (click this link to download a copy)
IN CLASS TODAY:
- Review exercise in vocabulary book, page 38
- Discussion of Jonathan Kozol's "The Cost of an Illiterate Society"
Done on board. Aside: I chose this article because Kozol is a skilled rhetorician and it's fairly easy to see how he plays with the constituent parts of rhetoric to achieve his aims. He also goes REALLY far with his ideology, and it's useful to study that, too, because it provides a model for the limits of rhetoric. His Major Premises are:
- Illiteracy is:
- A crippling limitation on effective citizenship and personal quality of life
- He provides specific examples in a variety of ways to make his point (an inductive argument). We were totally with him on this. He gave compelling cases and reasons for why illiteracy would be a functional limitation.
- A form of subjugation
- Here's where some of us started to get hot under the collar and felt he was stretching things a bit. Subjugation implies that someone else is doing the subjugating. Those who took umbrage at his claims did so because they felt Kozol did not ascribe enough personal responsibility to those afflicted (see, I can sound like a literate smarty-pants, too). [For those who did take umbrage, and for those who bristle at the seeming refusal of the downtrodden to grab their own darn bootstraps already, I encouraged them to join us in tutoring for Operation DREAM to get to know the people who walk the streets where the downtrodden live. From the students we tutor, we can get deeper insights to that observation.]
- A form of subjugation willingingly maintained through "malign neglect"
- At the points where the essay makes this suggestion, it is worth it to do a thorough examination of the rhetoric. Is he appealing to your logic, your trust, and/or your feelings? If you disagree with his assertion (i.e. if you believe this premise is false), try postulating your own argument in defense. How would you seek to convince him that he is wrong, and how would you seek to make that argument?
- We didn't get to enthymemes, but they're there, especially in regard to how people in disadvantaged positions behave/believe.
Highlights include:
- ETHOS: The establishment of credibility/trust with an audience through direct and indirect methods. To establish this effectively, an author/speaker MUST know his/her audience well.
- DIRECT appeals occur when an author or speaker associates himself/herself with a trusted brand, group, person, etc. or claims particular experience that grants expertise.
- For example
- As a member of the federal commission on housing...
- As a longtime professor of...
- As my friend Ronald Reagan always said...
- As a major in the Army...
- With my doctorate in literary theory...
- Having authored 42 published studies on the subject...
- INDIRECT appeals occur through using language in a way that says to the audience either "I am one of you" or "I am an even more evolved version of you." This is the vebal equivalent of dressing appropriately or particularly well for a specific occasion.
- For example
- An author may use lots of scientific terms when addressing an academic audience of researchers, but layman's terms (nonprofessional language)when addressing the public at a book signing.
- QUESTION: How does Kozol seek to establish credibility, or ethos?
- As he seeks to influence an educated, literate audience, he must demonstrate that he is literate and educated. He does so by:
- Alluding to people and groups known by educated people: Socrates, Founding Fathers, James Madison
- Using partcularly sophisticated words (mendacious, countenance, etc.) demonstrating his own highly developed literacy and demanding that readers test the limits of theirs
- PATHOS: The effort to persuade through the use of emotion
- QUESTION: How does Kozol seek to influence emotions/use pathos?
- He does so directly by encouraging us to sympathize with the plight of particular people
- He does so indirectly by playing on our patriotism
- He discusses citizenship first, giving it primacy
- He refers overtly to the Founding Fathers, revered heroes of the American past, and phrases from our most important founding documents and our anthem
- Write a list of TEN topics on which you can take a particular stand. Three of them must be school related. Things to consider:
- What do you want an audience to think/do/believe differently?
- Who is your audience?
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