Greg Klotz

Work in Progress
English 104:
Class Notes

Academic Writing
Documenting Sources
Rhetorical Situation
Audience Purpose Context
Organizing a Paper
Aristotle's Three Appeals
Logos Ethos Pathos

Academic Writing
Remember that academic writing is different from writing we've done on our sitcom papers. Here are a couple things to keep in mind when you write your papers:

• the length is not important, but having a complete argument is; make sure you address all aspects of an issue when you write
• complete your thoughts so your readers know exactly what you are trying to say; you can use examples, stats, analogies, etc.
• your introduction should introduce your topic, not what your are going to say in your paper
• your conclusion should tie the elements of your paper together, not summarize what you've said
• when organizing, group similar ideas together, separate different ideas
• don't leave your reader hanging with a conditional clause: "Since the jury decided he was guilty."—they're expecting something more here
• make sure pronouns are clear; don't say "It was bad."—leaving your readers wondering what "it" is referring to
• watch for sentence fragments and conversational writing, like "So anyway..." or "The movie sucked big-time..."
• proofread your papers for correctness; check punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc.

Documenting Sources
Within the Text of Your Paper
In the body of your paper, you need to indicate the author's last name and the page where you found the information. When you refer to a source from your bibliography, you use a significant, unique term from that entry (usually the author's last name or, if that is not unique, a key word from the source's title).

Direct Quotes
"The worst dates are often the result of the fix-up" (Seinfeld, 13).
or
Seinfeld argues that "the worst dates are often the result of the fix-up" (13).

Indirect Quotes
Fix-up dates do not work because people don't like to admit they need help finding a date (Seinfeld, 13).
or
Seinfeld also argues that fix-up dates do not work because people don't like to admit they need help finding a date (13).

Within the Bibliography of Your Paper
In the bibliography of your paper, authors are listed last name first if there is a single author. If there is more than one author, the first listed is last name first, and the rest are listed first name then last name. If any of the necessary information is not available, it is simply omitted from the entry, and all of the other components are listed as shown. Bibliographies are alphabetized according to the first word of each entry and are not numbered or centered.

Books
Author. Book Title. Edition. City: Publisher, Year.
Seinfeld, Jerry. Seinlanguage. New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

Journals
Author. "Article Title." Journal Title Volume (Year): Pages.
Floreak, Michael J. "Designing for the Real World: Using Research to Turn a 'Target Audience' into Real People." Technical Communication 36 (1989): 373-381.

Magazines
Author. "Article Title." Magazine, Date Month Year: Pages.
McCallum, Jack. "Lords of the Rings." Sports Illustrated, 18 February 1991: 30+.

Movies
Movie Title. Director. Main Actors. Production Studio, Year.
Tommy Boy. Peter Segal. Chris Farley and David Spade. Paramount, 1995.

Newspapers
Author. "Article Title." Newspaper. Day, Date Month Year. Section.
Jacobsen, Scott. "Just Jake." Iowa State Daily. Friday, 14 January 2000. A3.

Websites
Author. "Article Title." Newspaper. Day, Date Month Year. Section. URL.
McCall, Bruce. "The Perfect Non-Apology Apology." The New York Times. Sunday, 22 April 2001. WeekinReview. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/weekinreview/22MCCA.html
(basically, you add the URL at the end of the regular information, as seen above in an online newspaper article)

Rhetorical Situation—Audience, Purpose, & Context
When you discuss the rhetorical situation, discuss in the present tense unless you are refering to something in history; for example, an advertisement continues to convey its message, so you should write in present tense when saying things like, "The politician preys upon audiences' emotions (fear, anger, despair) in order to get them to support his stance for stronger missile defense."

Thinking about how changing audience, purpose, or context would change the rhetorical situation may give you ideas of how the current audience, purpose, and context affect the argument. However, you do not actually have to analyze what would happen if you were to change one of the variables, but fully investigate what effects each of the current variables has on the rhetorical situation. Try asking questions like these of your topic (there are more questions you may ask, these are just a few):

• Audience— who is the intended audience? what about secondary audiences? what ways best reach/influence this/these particular audience(s)? what beliefs do your audiences have about the topic? why do they have these beliefs? what influences on your audience cause them to believe certain things? what characteristics do they have that would affect how they feel about the topic? what sorts of concerns do they have? does the audience really know enough about the situation to make a decision?
• Purpose— what is the point of the argument: inform, persuade, sell, enlighten, create a debate over a topic, etc., or a combination of these? how can you achieve this purpose? does the audience understand both sides to the argument? do you want them to change their minds, or just consider a point of discussion? do they need to be informed before they can make a knowledgeable decision? do you need to do this?
• Context— in what setting is the argument percieved (where/how do people become involved with this topic)? how does the setting of the argument affect the presentation of its message? is the argument dependent upon anything from current events or other media (books, movies, political events, sports, etc.)? is the argument a part of another larger issue? (example: Stop Signs - do stop signs simply mean drivers should stop, or are they trying to achieve a higher purpose, such as creating order in a society)? what doesn't the audience know that is necessary to understand the topic?
  Remember that context is not only the setting, but more importantly, the issues surrounding the topic that influence the way people think about the topic.
  does the argument try to relate to an audience by incorporating or responding to any current events in any way?
• Combination of These— what particular tactics are necessary for the argument to achieve its purpose with a given audience (does the argument have to approach a topic carefully, is it a sensitive topic, etc.)? is the way the argument is presented (live speaker, magazine, tv, radio, etc.) affected by its particular audience?

Look for a good way to focus your analysis; you don't necessarily have to jump back and forth between audience, purpose, and context; try to focus your paragraphs; you might find that rather than organizing your paper by audience, purpose, and context, it may be easier to choose a component of the topic itself and show how that component is affected by the intertwining audience, purpose, and context, then choosing another component of the topic and doing the same, and so on.

Organizing a Paper
Keep in mind that this is not the only way to organize a paper, but one of many possible ways.

First, think of the different parts that your paper should contain, then collect that information:

Information Parts	Art on Campus	Social Experiment
Topic	Union Fountain	Union Zodiac
Background	history of the fountain (artist, date, origin) myths about the fountain	history of the zodiac (artist, date, origin) myths about the zodiac relationship to the fountain typical interaction people have with the zodiac (walking around it...)
Description	fountain details (statues, pool, water, colors, etc.)	experiment details (people's reactions, walking patterns, facial expressions, movements, interactions, etc.) how did you set up your experiment? (equipment, location, time, weather, etc.)
Analysis / Interpretation	what does the art symbolize? what significance does it hold on campus? what does it mean to you?	how did people act in / respond to your experiment? why did they act this way? what specific details about your experiment affected the way people responded to the experiment?
Evaluation	is this piece art? what makes it art? (does it symbolize something, hold a meaning to individual viewers, etc.?)	what did you learn about people from your experiment? why do people act in certain ways? did people act how you anticipated they would? how / how not?

Once you have the material for your paper, find a way to organize that material:

Topically / Chronologically

Fountain	Zodiac
history of the Union Fountain description of the art (parts, colors, materials, etc.) analysis of the meaning behind the art (is there a history or significance?) evaluation of the art	history of the Union Zodiac setup of your experiment (time, location, equipment, weather, etc.) description of people and interactions (reactions, walking patterns, facial expressions, movements, interactions, etc.) analysis of people's actions evaluation of your experiment (what did you learn?)

By Component

Fountain

Zodiac

history of the Union Fountain description and analysis of statues around fountain description and analysis of fountain pool itself description and analysis of the relationship to the Union Zodiac evaluation of the art

history of the Union Zodiac setup of your experiment (time, location, equipment, weather, etc.) description and analysis of the effect that time of day had on people and interactions description and analysis of the effect that the weather had on people and interactions description and analysis of the effect that the location had on people and interactions description and analysis of the effect that other specific components of your experiment had on people and interactions evaluation of your experiment (what did you learn?)

Just because there are a certain number of main sections like above, you do not have to have that same number of paragraphs in your paper. Be sure to proofread and edit!

Aristotle's Three Appeals—Logos, Ethos, & Pathos

Logos (logos)
logical support of an argument
logical or rational evidence to support an argument: facts, statistics, mathematical proof, scientific facts, etc.; anything that is absolute, irrefutable, solid fact that supports your argument	Example: Claim: businesses could purchase land for an office in the middle of nowhere and conduct business through the Internet Support: the company becomes more profitable because land, taxes, and other property expenses are lower due to location, but the business can remain competitive because the Internet allows them access to the market
Ethos (eqos)
establishing credibility to support an argument
support that makes an argument more credible, such as support from expert sources, proving your own expertise in a certain subject, etc.; any way to support your argument that makes you seem like a believable source or able to be trusted	Example: Claim: people should use Weight Gain 2000 products for body-building Support: the products are endorsed by Arnold Schwarzenegger--not only is he huge, but he is respected as an expert in fitness knowledge
Pathos (paqos)
using emotions to support an argument
support that creates an emotional response to sway your audience toward your beliefs: pleas for sympathy, appeals to peoples' sense of morals and values, etc.; any way to persuade people by making them sympathize with your argument; however, remember that laughter is an emotional response, so a LOT of your beer commercials... yup	Example: Claim: people should send money to starving children in Africa Support: Sally Strothers using expressions such as, "poor, starving, little boys and girls" with sympathetic tone as a plea for help