January 9th Reading Response

Summary

In Margaret Kantz’s article, Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively, she attempts to help college students decipher the difference between factual texts, such as textbooks, and other writings from authors that might be bias towards a subject.  She argues that authors will write their papers with a persuasive approach and that students, like us, should understand who the author is and what background knowledge they actually have on the topic. This will help students understand that some texts are presented in as arguments in rhetorical context.

The word rhetoric, coming from a writing standpoint, is how writers communicate with their readers with the knowledge of knowing how readers will interpret what they are stating. When reading academic articles, it is important to know what rhetoric means because it helps us understand what writers are trying to prove to us and how they present it in their own style.

Questions for Discussion

1)      Kantz contends that facts are truthful and meant to be taken literal, opinions are what writers believe and may be factual if they are knowledgeable about what they are writing, and arguments can be completely off base depending on how strong writers have confidence in what they are attempting to prove. I feel like arguments are normally not accurate.

2)      Students:

·         Don’t know that authors present information with their own twist to it (bias).

·         Misunderstand some things because they read them as stories.

·         Don’t comprehend that some texts are written as arguments and should not be interpreted as facts.

I think Kantz is right because I have the same problem of understanding how I should read texts. I tend to believe that a scholarly author states facts and is always completely accurate. I understand all of Kantz’s points after reading her article.         

3)      Kantz’s article taught me that I should tell myself, before reading a passage, that it may be written persuasively and not factual. When I read something that is a persuasive source, I should use it to back up my argument only if I agree with it.

6)    Yes, after reading this I will research and write differently because now I know that sources should be taken with the understanding that not everything within it is factual and it may be written based on the author’s opinions.

Meta Moments

Kantz uses the conception of rhetorical situations and understanding how to contemplate readings

using a tool known as Kinneavy's Triangular Diagram. There is an Encoder, which is the author, a

Decoder, who is the reader, and Reality, which is the actual meaning. This is helpful because now I

will read persuasive articles like they are a code and know that I should carefully read over it and

"decode" or discover the factual meaning. This will help me pick apart writings

and not just assume that they are truthful.