There are two parallel sets of processes involved in academic composition: the mechanical and the rhetorical. The mechanical processes are those that produce writing. The rhetorical processes are those that refine ideas and their presentation to an audience. You cannot separate these activities because each act of writing reflects rhetorical…
Tag: writing
There are many ways to calculate the estimated reading level of a writing sample. We will look at a series of methods used to determine the reading levels for different student age groups. Teachers can use these methods to determine whether new material is suitable for their class and also…
Evaluating Errors One of the challenges for teachers of composition is deciding how serious an error is. How serious we judge an error to be affects both grading and teaching. We tend to focus a great deal more on serious errors than those we know are minor oversights. This guide…
Rhetorical Analysis Steps in Rhetorical Analysis Identify the question being addressed Identify the author’s purpose Observe diction, syntax, examples (anecdotes), structure, and persona Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies at conveying the questions and meeting the author’s purpose Categories of Questions at Issue These are also known as Stasis Questions. Fact…
Rhetoric is the art of testing ideas with people who share our questions. It involves not merely the language we use but all the decisions we make and how to communicate effectively with others. Dictionary Definition: From the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000: (N) 1a.…
What’s a rubric? The standard definition of a rubric is a category or set of categories. In education, we sometimes call a grading matrix a rubric. This matrix is a table of measured areas, criteria for mastery, and evaluation scale. Unlike grading a multiple-choice exam, evaluating writing is always somewhat…
Information for Educators We are compiling information of use to educators, recognizing that teaching either English grammar or writing is never easy. We hope to address issues of lesson preparation, learning theory, and student evaluations. As with the other Tameri Guides, we understand some will disagree with our choices and…
Perfecting Paragraphs Use paragraphs to pace the story Your teachers probably told you that paragraphs are sets of related sentences. Then they added rules. One outrageous rule was that a paragraph must have at least three sentences. Yes, a paragraph is a set of sentences, but serious readers know that…
A plot is not a story, nor does every story have a strong plot. Good writers know the importance of both plot and story, especially before they dare to write a story with a “weak” or “thin” plot. Any plot can feature a love story; that illustrates the difference. Plots…
Point of View Selecting the narrative perspective There are two levels of point-of-view to consider when writing a story. In the larger sense, there is the perspective of the narrator. On the scene level, you should consider the perspectives of individual characters. Narrative Points of View Narration is said to…