Reading Assignment: Read the Rhetorical Analysis Posted by Your Colleagues

People, especially teachers, make learning to be a good, solid writer more complicated than it has to be. The truth is, writing is tough work in which you wrestle with the basics of your purpose, what you know of the craft, and your audience. Throw in revision, and you have the basics of writing.

In this wrestling match, you craft a message you hope will accomplish your purposes for writing. Repeat this wrestling match enough--and you will have to, because writing is expected of you in most jobs--and your writing will get better. However, there are better and easier ways to learn how to become a good writer, and the basic technique is to learn from the writing others do.

One of the many reasons I have asked you to do rhetorical analysis is to learn the single most important lesson of the class, namely,

"The easiest way to become a better writer is to try and learn how to write better every time you have the opportunity."

As your classmates post their rhetorical analysis, read them and take notes. Notice: I said take notes. One way to increase the chance something sticks in your head is to write about it. Keep a running list of the things you see your classmates doing which make their rhetorical analysis good. Especially pay attention to those ideas, insights, and techniques which you think make a classmate's rhetorical analysis stand out and be a tad better. Think about how you might incorporate these aspects of their writing into your own.

Your goal is simple. Try to find something about each analysis which might make your own writing better. You can learn from every one's writing. Unfortunately, you will not remember everything the next time you write, but if you remember one or two things the next time you write and the next, etc., your writing will get better because the changes for the better will begin to accumulate. Your main worry is developing the habit of giving your attention to opportunities to learn from other folk's writing. Once you have the habit, your writing will improve.

Keep track of the notes you take as your read your classmate's rhetorical analysis, and review them before or as you draft your next short rhetorical analysis, and it *will* be better than your last. This is how to make significant improvement as a writer, namely, learn a new technique or idea, work to incorporate it into your own writing, and let the changes accumulate over time.

Steve

PS Including some of your notes along these lines in your portfolio and discussing how you used them to make your writing better will help you prove to me you have learned the basic lessons of the class.