CL 2/6

Why Swales’s Article Is Bad:

• The reading was dry ( too dry for reading in one sitting)
• The words were too technical for people outside of the profession
• Why do people care?
• It’s not meant for ‘us’
• The reading is long for a paper
• The words don’t make sense (technical jargon/ technical terms)
• BORING, BORING, BORING
• Why does it matter for this class?
• Beats around the bush for the main point
• I had to read it for a class…
• Wasn’t interesting

• VIDEO NOTES:
• Rhetoric, language used to persuade.
• Rhetorical Situation: audience, speaker, issue.
• Writing does not exist in a vacuum.
• Be an audience friendly writer.
• Who is my audience? What does my audience care about? What does my audience know? What counts as evidence?
• How do you portray yourself? What is appropriate?
• What is the conversation? Where are the gaps?

• If we take this as true, in your own words describe what you think Swales sees as the gap in this conversation he’s participating in (the conversation described by the editors in the preface to the chapter).
• I believe that swales thinks that the gap is the people don’t know how to properly establish a difference in written, and verbal rhetoric, as well as what defines certain groups of rhetoric.
• In your opinion, how does this piece fill that gap?
• In his article, Swales defines 6 defining characteristics of community discourse, and Discourses, and he establishes at least to himself what he believes to establish the difference between written and verbal rhetoric.
• Who do you think is the audience for this essay?
• I would believe that the audience for an essay like this, would be other English professors, or people who are substantial in the literature world. So that they can understand what Swales is trying to persuade that their is a defining difference between written and verbal rhetoric.
• What’s the danger of an essay like this?
• The danger of an essay like this, is that it is meant for a very specific group of people to read, and could confuse and bore many other readers who happen to find it in their hands. Another danger in an essay like this, is that the readers may not fully agree or disagree with some of Swales’s arguments/points.