January 10:

Academic Writing
Thonney Ch 1
Rhetorical Analysis
Today’s class
• Review Thonney Ch. 1
– What is academic writing?
– What are the goals of academic writing?
– What’s challenging about academic writing?

• Discuss Rhetoric
– What is rhetoric?
– What are rhetorical appeals?
– What defines the rhetorical situation?
 Thonney Ch 1: Key terms
• Discipline: A field of study, such as psychology, biology,
engineering, or literature. Disciplines vary in their use of vocabulary,
research methods, perspectives, and modes of inquiry.
• Genre: A type or category of text. Textbooks, magazine articles,
novels, and blog posts are just a few examples of genres.
Academic writing is a broad genre with many subgenres, including
essays, lab reports, and research reports.
• Genre theory: According to genre theory, every genre of writing
has features that reflect how the genre is created, who reads it,
how it’s read, and why it’s read.
 Additional terms
• Academic writing: Writing produced by scholars for other scholars, but
also writing by students for college courses. Academic writing typically
develops a central claim with evidence.
• Primary source: An original source that provides firsthand information
on the topic. This source informs you directly rather than through an
explanation or interpretation.
• Secondary source (scholarly sources): Secondary information has
been collected, compiled, summarized, analyzed, synthesized,
interpreted, and evaluated by someone conducting primary
research. Written by scholars, the audience is usually other scholars.
These sources provide in-depth analysis, are typically peer-reviewed
by other scholars, cite sources, etc. Usually found in academic journals
and books.
Discussion
• What makes good writing “good”?

• How does academic writing differ from other kinds of

writing?

• How have you found (or how do you expect to find) writing
in college to be different from other kinds of writing you’ve
done for school or work or pleasure?
Features of Academic Writing
• Specialized audience
– Written for other scholars

• Writing in context
– Aware of academic conversation surrounding topic

• Specialized vocabulary
– Specific phrasing and definitions for each discipline

• Discipline-specific perspectives and modes of inquiry

– How they address the issue, reasons for study, ways of understanding
– For example:
– Science and math emphasize data, applying models
– Humanities emphasize analysis and interpretation of events or arts

• Emphasis on research and evidence

– All disciplines rely on these but place different values on different types of research and evidence
 Rhetorical Analysis (Quick Review)

• Ethos: the appeal to the

credibility of the speaker
or writer
• Logos: appeal to reason or
logic
• Pathos: appeal to
emotion, values, and
beliefs
Watch
video
here.
Rhetorical situation

Who is the intended

audience for each of
these ads?

What appeals do you

see being used in
each ad?
Group activity • Newspaper articles
– Front page
• In groups of 3-4, choose a genre of – Sports
writing to analyze. I’ve provided a
list, but you may choose any non- • College textbook
fiction genre. • Resume

• Identify the following: • College website

– Intended audience • User manual

• Billboard
– Purpose
• Book review
– Typical features of the genre
• Article abstract
• Why are these features so
• Press release
common? What aspects of the
audience, purpose or context • Business memo
explain the features? • Thank you note
For Friday
• Review course website page covering project 1
– Proposal
– Assignment requirements

• Consider what questions you might have about the assignment

• Be prepared to brainstorm topic ideas in class

Reminder: Dropbox assignment and syllabus quiz are both due by

11:59 p.m. Please review guidelines for naming your folder before
you add me to the folder and for naming documents before you
submit the quiz.