Every Comment

Matters
By: Joey, Rachel, Ashley, Catherine, Phoebe

What is commentary
A response to current issues or events from the
authors perspective
Arguing for a position
Praise or Blame
Points have to be focused on purpose, angle, context and topic.

What is commentary
The author has to go beyond:
from summarizing the situation to analyzing it
To find patterns of meaning in events, trends,
and ideas
Literary devices might be used here to make the story more
interesting

What is commentary
There are many ways that the author could analyze the
article
opinion
interpretation
insight
personal reaction
evaluation

Audience
Raise awareness for the situation
Warn the audience of what is going on in the society

Give readers new perspective about an event

Provide deeper detail and more analysis for those that want to know more

Group of Audience
Targeting people that will be affected by the
situation that is going on
Specific group of people
How Donald Trump Should not be running for the
president
How the Red Sox play this season

CONVENTIONS OF A COMMENTARY part 1:

5 STEPS TO STRUCTURING
YOUR COMMENTARY

"Rhetoric and Composition/Commentaries." - Wikibooks, Open Books for an Open World. MediaWiki, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

1.THE INTRODUCTION
1. Stating topic issue clearly
2. Introduce your thesis:
The position taken on topic
Your opinion
The angles you approached the topic
i.e. Support in support paragraphs

2. THE EXPLANATION
1.What has happened?
give adequate background information
2.What do other writers think about
topic & issue?

3. THE ARGUMENT + SUPPORT

1. State your argument for your position stated
in thesis
Back this up with reasoning
i.e. logos, examples, quotations
2. Reflect and connect!

4. THE CLARIFICATION
This is the part to provide ethos for your position argument
qualifies + avoid overgeneralization

Questions to answer:
What new events or data may cause you to change your stance?
What important facts have you left out that may influence
readers?
Are there any personal contexts that affected the analysis or
stance you have?

5. THE CONCLUSION
Provide an overall assessment of the issue
What is the importance to audience?
Any additional implications for future?

Put it all together.

1. Introduction
2. Explanation
3. Argument + Support
4. Clarification
5. Conclusion

CONVENTIONS OF A COMMENTARY part 2:

PERSONA

PERSONA
Writers get into character depending on their topic
Tone: needs to provide perspective (not objective)
i.e. journalistic
Depends on type:
Amusing commentary
personal point of view about something
emotional-based
Informative commentary

Hartman, Lars. "A Commentary: A Communication about a Communication." Novum Testamentum 51.Fasc. 4 (2009): 389-400. JSTOR. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.

CONVENTIONS OF A COMMENTARY part 3:

RESEARCH & CITATION

RESEARCH & CITATION

Research
Background research of topic
finding sources (i.e. news
articles, blogs, etc.)
finding others opinions

Citation
Citing what other people say, or
what other people dont say
i.e. ONLINE SOURCES, print
sources, empirical sources

Hartman, Lars. "A Commentary: A Communication about a Communication." Novum Testamentum 51.Fasc. 4 (2009): 389-400. JSTOR. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.

CONVENTIONS OF A COMMENTARY part 4:

DESIGN & OTHER ELEMENTS

CONVENTIONS - Continuation
Design
Depend on type of commentary:
writing
paragraph form (short
paragraphs)
may include images
black text, white background
audio & video
shorter (few minutes)
Weitz, Morris. "The Content of Form: A Commentary." New Literary History 2.2, Form and Its

Other elements
Commentaries have a single,
central theme
Rhetorical analysis is not always
necessary
Fits nicely as a column in a
newspaper or personal blog

SUBGENRES

Audio
Commentary

Sports Radio Commentary

Sports Radio Commentary

Structure
Introduction
The explanation
Conclusion
Third Person
Characteristics:
Engaging
Details
Actions
Making the audience feel like they are there
Informing
Accuracy
Keeps Calm
Jargon
Rules
Create Suspense

DVD Audio Commentary

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Ronald Haver, and I'm here to do something which we feel is rather unique. I'm going to take
you on a lecture tour of King Kong as you watch the film. The laserdisc technology offers us this opportunity and we feel it's
rather unique the ability to switch back and forth between the soundtrack and this lecture track

Serious or entertaining
Film's director, cast members, or occasionally
writers and producers. Some DVDs include outsider
commentary performed by film critics, historians,
scholars or fans.
Partial or scene-specific
Feature-length or screen-specific

Binder, Michael. "9. Restoration Age." A Light Affliction: A History of Film Preservation and

Rocky DVD Audio Commentary

Voice of the actor (Sylvester Stallone)
Feature Length
The explanation
The support
Occasionally the voice the actual movie

First person (we)

Chronological order

Written
Commentary

Book Commentary
More technical
- follow the basic rules
of books
More specialized
- have more space
More formal
More scholarly

Example of Book Commentary

The opening paragraphs of Adios, America!:
No further warning will be issued.
For forty years, the people have tried to tell politicians they want less immigration,
but the politicians wont listen. Every single elite group in America is aligned
against the public-the media, ethnic activists, big campaign donors, Wall street,
multimillionaire farmers, and liberal churches. They all want mass immigration
from the Third World to continue. Both political parties connive to grant illegal
aliens citizenship and bring in millions more legally, and the media hide the
evidence.(Coulter, 68)

Magazine Commentary

Mostly current events

political
environmental
social

More subjective and

critical
Heavier effect of design
(cover page, images)

Example of Magazine Commentary

The dust and debris have long ago been cleared from the site where once stood the Twin Towers. In their
place, great gleaming spires now stand. It has been nearly one year since the 1,776-foot tall One World
Trade Center began accepting new tenants and almost 18 months since the memorial to the attacks
opened to the public. At the Pentagon, the damage wrought by attackers was fully repaired, and the
outermost ring of offices was occupied again exactly one year after a plane struck the south faade. A
memorial to the dead in Washington D.C. was complete before George W. Bush even left office. On
September 10 of this year, 152 years after the battle of Gettysburg, another empty field in Pennsylvania
was solemnly consecrated when a memorial dedicated to the Americans who lost their lives in combat
against an enemy of the Republic belatedly began accepting visitors. Americans thought that they had fully
reconciled the September 11th attacks, but the specters of that terrible day still haunt our memories as they
haunt our politics. The wounds have not fully healed, and the current debates roiling both American political
parties reflect that. (Noah Rothman)

Website Commentary
Similar as magazine
commentary

Updated more
frequently(everyday)

Also includes video

Example of Website Commentary

Like the bumper sticker says, a guns only serious enemies are rust and politicians. At least rust has principles.
Of course, nothing inspires shameless partisan ambition in politicians like an awful human tragedy. So, in a spasm of
deceitful grandstanding, President Obama immediately sprang into the spotlight of last weeks terrible shooting in Oregon
to peddle some of the worn, broken and rejected political wares hes never been able to offload on anyone before.
This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in America, Mr. Obama scolded.
By we, he meant all of us Americans who cherish our Second Amendment rights and dont reflexively believe the federal
government is the answer to every problem or bad event.
We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loves ones because of our inaction, he said.
Again, misuse of the word we. He is not talking about himself here. He is talking about you and me. He is saying you and
I do not care about people who are killed.
-By Charles Hurt Obama Offers Crazy List As Silver Bullet To Gun Massacres

Analysis
Format:
-

attractive opening

what happens

argument & ethos to build relationship with audience

Sarcasm & Irony & juxtaposition:
a guns only serious enemies are rust and politicians. At least rust has principles.

Politicians do not have principles.

Use of words: shameless awful tragedy

authors contempt on politicians.

Op-Ed
opposite the editorial page
on the left page: regular columnist
on the right page: individual
contributors
Anticipating readers thoughts
Explaining causes and effects

(Trimbur)

Multimodal Commentary

MultiModal Commentary
mixture of different methods of communication
Image + Text + Audio
Expanded along with technological advancement
Chooses which what happened to point out
suggest a why

Observations + Personal Experience = Perspective

Personal Bias
Prior Knowledge

Characteristics of MultiModal
Commentaries
colloquial settings
-in action
-passive
personable
the more niche the subject matter, the more
personable the commentator

Conventions of multimodal commentaries

Flexible in structure
observation(logos) oriented
USE: 1. experience (ethos) to create perspective/critique
-commentator should be qualified
2. prior knowledge (logos) to add substance
-expertise in the field/subject

Examples
telecommunication (image + text + audio):
-Television News
-Event Commentators
-Talk Shows

The View: Co-Hosts React to Oregon College Shooting

Example: The View

different perspectives/personas:
-Christian
-glorifying shooters shift to heroic victim
-Not mental instability US only

(twitter)

Example: The View

Introduction: Obamas response to Oregon shooting
-Thesis/Perspective: causing outrage
Explanation: The situation has not changed
Arguments + Support & Clarification:
discrimination against Christians, glorification of shooters, mental
illness
constant attention
statistics
Killers tweets, past
knowledge

towards shooters

Examples
Social Media:
-Twitter
-Facebook

(twitter)

-Youtube

(youtube)

ACTIVITY TIME!!

Activities
1. Mute Audio
2. Play video from
00:48 ~ 01:02
3. Create a commentary
-in-action
-passive
4. Length: ~45 seconds

become silent
about things that
matter
-Martin Luther King

Sources
Binder, Michael. "9. Restoration Age." A Light Affliction: A History of Film Preservation and Restoration. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 182-83. Print.
Hartman, Lars. "A Commentary: A Communication about a Communication." Novum Testamentum 51.Fasc. 4 (2009): 389400. JSTOR. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
"Rhetoric and Composition/Commentaries." - Wikibooks, Open Books for an Open World. MediaWiki, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Weitz, Morris. "The Content of Form: A Commentary." New Literary History 2.2, Form and Its Alternatives (1971): 351-56.
JSTOR. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
Enos, Theresa and Brown C. Stuart. Defining the NEw Rhetorics. London: Sage Publications, 1993.
Soliday, Mary. Everyday Genres: Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
2011.
ABC, The View. "The View Co-Hosts React to Oregon College Shooting." 2 October 2015. Youtube. 5 October 2015.
Trimbur, John. The Call to Write. New York: Longman, 1999. Print.
"Obama Offers 'Crazy List' As Silver Bullet To Gun Massacres." - Rasmussen Reports. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

Sources
"Language A: Literature Teacher Support Material." Language A: Literature Teacher Support Material. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Society For Organizational And Industrial Psychology. "What Is I-O?" Commentary_Guidelines. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Beilstein. "Instructions for Authors." Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Tepper, Naomi. "How to Write a Good Essay: Stop Summarizing, Start Commentating." Kibin Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Mizrahi, Janet. Web Content: A Writer's Guide. Business Expert Press, 2013.
Coulter, Ann H. Adios, America!: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Rothman, Noah. "American Politics Is Still Haunted by September 11th." Commentary Magazine. N.p., 20 Oct. 2015. Web. 20 Oct.
2015.
Top 15 Most Popular Political Websites | October 2015. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Questions?