Nonfiction Notes

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Nonfiction Notes
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• Nonfiction prose writing about real people,
  places, and events
• mainly written to convey factual information
• information may be shaped by the authors own
  purpose and attitudes
• II. Examples of nonfiction include newspaper
  article, review, speech, story, advertisement,
  autobiography, biography, memoir, essay, journal,
  and editorial.

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• Autobiographywriters account of his life in
  first person),
• Biographyaccount of a persons life
• Memoir my storyusually discusses one part of
  a persons life
• Essay a brief work of nonfiction that deals with
  a single subject
• 1. Formal essay writers develop and order
  ideas in an impersonal manner
• 2. Informal essay writers expression of ideas
  is less strict and often employs humor and
  anecdotes

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• III. Kinds of Essays
• A. Persuasive essay writer tries to convince a
  reader to share a belief, agree with an opinion,
  or to take some action
• Expository essay writers primary purpose is to
  convey or explain information
• C. Personal essay expresses a writers
  thoughts, feelings, or opinions on a subject
  usually written in an informal, conversational
  style

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• D. Descriptive essay writer tries to recreate a
  person, place, or event mostly through language
  that appeals to the senses
• E. Narrative essay writers purpose is to relate
  a series of events
• F. Reflective essay the author reflects upon an
  event that occurred within his or her life
  generally shows a lesson learned by the author.

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• IV. Objective versus Subjective Writing
• A. Objective facts which can be proved to be
  true by the senses, the calendar, or the clock
• 1. examples the geographic location of a city,
  the time of day
• B. Subjective details that may be true, but are
  verifiable only by reference to your own state of
  mind
• 1. examples feelings about an event,
  description of a person
• 2. word connotation (associations that affect
  meaning)
• 3. May lead to biasmost writing will have some
  sort of bias within it.
•  
•  

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Close Reading Notes
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3 levels of reading

• 1 Reading on the linefind meaning directly in
  the text. You may answer question such as who,
  what, and where.
• 2 Reading between the linesinterpret what is in
  the text. You may consider what a passage
  represents, suggests, or personifies. You are
  also analyzing what you are reading. You may
  interpret, classify, compare, contrast, and even
  find patterns.

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• 3 Reading beyond the linesmove beyond the text
  to connect to universal meaning. You may
  consider how the text relates to your life. You
  will consider what kind of perceptions about life
  the author is communicating to you.

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Close reading

• Becomes easier the more you do it
• Very helpful on the ap exam, ACT, any
  standardized testboth the free response and the
  multiple choice.  
• Helps you to understand the text itself as well
  as what the text suggests.
• Talking with the text
• Annotation
• Dialectical journal

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• Annotation
• Write in the margins include questions,
  comments, and mark words you dont know.
• Dialectical journal
• Like annotation, but more organized.
• Include note taking (or the piece of the text you
  are referring to) and note making (what you want
  to say about that piece of text).
• Include a page and paragraph number so you know
  where to find it in the book.

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Writing about close reading

• You have to reach a deeper understanding of the
  text, or you will simply end up summarizing the
  text.
• As you perform the close reading, you may be
  overwhelmed with all of the possibilities.
• When possible, I will provide you with something
  to focus on, whether it be diction, syntax, or
  even sound devices.
• If I have not provided you with a focus, find a
  pattern and focus on that.
• You can also consider the questions or elements
  from the handouts I have provided.

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Once you understand the basics of nonfiction and
argumentation and how to do a close reading, you
are ready to read and write a rhetorical analysis

• Taken from Professional Development AP English
  Language Reading and Writing Analytically

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• How to write the Rhetorical Analysis
• All textual analysis is ultimately rhetorical
  analysis.
• Rhetoric is the faculty of discovering all the
  things a speaker or write might do in a given
  situation to make his or her text meaningful,
  purposeful, and effective.

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• Rhetorical analysis will include all the basic
  elements that a literary analysis would include
  
• Introduction
• Body paragraphs (with supporting details,
  including analysis and support)
• Conclusion
• The difference is what you focus on in the
  analysis.
• In a rhetorical analysis, you will identify the
  purpose of the writing and discuss how the author
  achieves that purpose.

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Rhetorical Analysis Critical Reading

• You will apply your critical reading skills to
  break down the whole of the text into the sum of
  its parts.
• You must determine what the writer is trying to
  achieve, and what writing strategies he/she is
  using to try to achieve it.
• Reading critically means more than just being
  moved, affected, informed, influenced, and
  persuaded by a piece of writing.
• Reading critically also means analyzing and
  understanding how the work has achieved its
  effect.

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• See your handouts for a list of questions to ask
  yourself when you begin to rhetorically analyze a
  piece of writing.
• These questions can be used even if you're being
  asked only to read the text rather than write a
  formal analysis.  
• Keep in mind that you don't need to apply all of
  these questions to every text often times, you
  may apply one or two.  

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• You can also analyze by discussing various
  elements within the piece, including, but not
  limited to
• Diction (word choice)
• Syntax (sentence structure)
• Logos (logical appeals)
• Ethos (ethical appeals)
• Pathos (emotional appeals)
• Tone
• Arrangement
• Organization
• Structure
• Figurative language
• Again, focus on one or two!

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Argumentation
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• Argumentation (not arguing)
• Toulmins model
• These are all important piece of argumentation.
  Any valid argument will contain most of these
  pieces.
• Claim
• Grounds (or data)
• Warrant
• Rebuttal

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Claim

• a statement that you are asking the other person
  to accept.
• This includes information you are asking them to
  accept as true or actions you want them to accept
  and enact.
• Similar to a thesis.

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Grounds (or data)

• made up of data and hard facts, plus the
  reasoning behind the claim
• include proof of expertise and the basic premises
  on which the rest of the argument is built

Warrant

• Explains how your data relates to or verifies
  your claim

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Rebuttal

• Despite the careful construction of the argument,
  the opposition may still be able to find areas of
  weakness, which they can use to construct a
  counter-argument.
• Some counter-arguments may rebutted within the
  argument itself.
• Any rebuttal is an argument in itself, and thus
  may include a claim, warrant, backing and so on.

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• Test of Evidence
• You should question the reliability of anything
  you see in print, on television, or onlineeven
  information you hear on the radio.
• There are certain qualities of the text that
  will help you determine its credibility.
• Consider
• Authorshipwho wrote it? What makes him credible?
  
• Publishing bodywhat biases do they have?
• Accuracycan I find it elsewhere?
• Coverageis enough information given on the
  topic?

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• In your writing and the published documents we
  read, you will use or see logical reasoning.
• Logical reasoning will rely on
• Facts as evidence
• Research
• Tradition (or precedent)
• Authorities
• Cause and effect
• Analogies (comparisons)
• Logic by sign (physical evidence)

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Faulty Logic (fallacy)A.     Appeal to popular
opinion1.      Everyone else is supporting it so
its right (band wagon)2.      Popularity
doesnt equal correctness or rightness3.     
Tells nothing about the topicB.     Appeal to
tradition1.      should leave the status quo
alone because its always been that way. 2.     
progress must progress (progress for progress
sake)3.      tradition doesnt mean it is
rightC.     Hasty generalizations1.     
Jumping to conclusions2.      Problem dont
have all the facts
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D.     Ad Hominem (against the man)1.      The
idea isnt worthy because of the source2.     
test of evidenceE.      Slippery slope1.
Suggests that taking one good measure will lead
to undesirable measure (one good decision could
lead to a series of bad choices)F.      Appeal
to authority (begging the question)1.      when
you treat the claim as if it was evidence (the
claim is what youre trying to prove)2.     
just because you say it doesnt make it true
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• Appeals to
• Emotions pathos
• Passion, not logic, stirs most people. Use
  carefully! Sob stories should be avoided.
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• Ethicsethos
• Effective arguers not only possess good
  character, but also argue in ways that reveal
  that good character.
• Your test of evidence can establish your ethos,
  or credibility, as well as that of your sources.
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• Logiclogos
• See logical appeals!
•