Guillermo Lopez

10/09/2017

Beam in Robillard

When we write essays we oftentimes do not give too much thought to how we develop

our arguments and/or our stories. We have been taught about the many rhetorical strategies that

can be used such as imagery, figurative language, etc. However there is a different way to

rhetorically analyze an essay and it is one that is not well known and that method is known as

BEAM, as described in the essay BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research

Based Writing by Joseph Bizup. BEAM itself Stands for Background, Exhibit, Argument, and

Method. Background, according to Bizup, is what the writer accepts to be true or factual. In his

essay Bizup goes deep into the practical application of BEAM as a Framework for Reading

(BEAM, 77) and explains how exactly beam can be used to analyze a text as I will do for Amy

Robillards essay, It's Time for Class: Toward a More Complex Pedagogy of Narrative. He

uses three texts for examples to show how BEAM is used to break down a text by going through

each one and pointing every part of it that is an example of BEAM out. He then takes a look at

just how it can be used in writing to help students use sources in a more qualitative manner

instead of a quantitative one. This approach, Bizup explains, leads to the development of well

thought out arguments and papers while using sources in a way that best supports their theses.

Robillard, in her essay, focuses on the disappearance of personal narrative in pedagogical

writing and opts to look deeper into how students can benefit from including personal narrative

in their writing. She gives many examples of how these narratives can be used in writing whether

it be to grab the attention of the audience or to change the direction of the essay. One of the main

points of her essay is to convince her audience that there should be a reform in the way we are
taught to write by our professors. Instead of forbidding personal narrative, she believes that we

should be encouraged to use them when writing essays in order to understand the different

backgrounds and places that students of different classes come from. Now if we take a closer

look at the way her essay is written we can see just how her essay falls in line with the rhetorical

strategies described in Joseph Bizups essay about BEAM.

Background being the first and quite possibly one of the most important as background

is what the author accepts as fact or to be true. In her essay we see her using background when

she talks about Syracuse University. This is an example of background because it is one of her

main sources of information as she herself works at this university. This means that she sees

exactly what goes on the classrooms and is possibly one of the reasons that she is writing her

essay. She explains how she remembers professors telling students not to include their personal

experiences in their writing. This goes against the main point of her essay and serves as a basis

for where she is getting her knowledge as she herself has seen this firsthand. This experience

gives her paper more credibility because it shows that she is not just making these things up and

she shows this by offering the reader a story from her time at Syracuse University. Furthermore,

her narrative of what she sees at Syracuse University reinforces her main point because her

example of Syracuse makes it so that the reader can more easily understand where she is coming

from.

Exhibits are what the author brings up in order to analyze or further explain. In her essay

one main example of her using exhibits is in her opening paragraph where she gives a personal

narrative which she then uses to explain the main point of her argument. Her personal narrative

is used to explain that it is common for authors to open with a personal narrative yet we are

taught to avoid using them at all costs. She explains that using personal narratives in the opening
gets readers hooked and that it is an effective way to get a point across early and effectively. This

is one example of how personal narratives can improve a paper as personal narrative sparks the

curiosity of a wide variety of readers, which most other forms of writing can not. In Robillards

case, her personal narrative about how she was taught never to be late to anything serves as an

attention getter and at first glance appears to be just that and nothing else. We now know better

than that and understand that it is actually an exhibit within her essay. This introduction with a

story of her mother has a purpose in the entirety of the essay and she explains what it is right

after. She introduces the main point of her essay which is to prove that writing about your

personal experiences has a place in writing. This is done using this exhibit because she gives this

story as place in her writing as an attention getter which furthers her point as it exposes the

reader to a way that their personal narratives can be used effectively in writing. Another main

exhibit in her essay is when she talks about the importance of class consciousness for the student.

She explains throughout the essay how class consciousness can be shown through telling stories.

Her examples of this are from herself, the working class student, and the privileged student. She

understands the idea of class consciousness and its significance in writing because she knows

that people of different classes go through different daily rituals and have experienced different

things. These differences shape the way that students look at life and will influence the way that

students write. The working class student, for example, will go to school in the mornings and

then need to go to work whereas the privileged student will not have this burden on their

shoulders. This alone is enough to have drastically different perceptions of the world and

influence their writing but we do not get to see this because personal narrative is not encouraged

in modern educational institutions.

 She incorporates a variety of arguments which she either contradicts or supports. One of

her supporting arguments is that students of different backgrounds see the world in a completely

different way. This means that each individual student has experienced different things therefore

would be able to argue certain points by using their own personal narratives or stories to support

or refute arguments. This in it of itself gets the reader on the side of the author because it appeals

to the emotions of the reader as it would get them thinking of the way that they interpret

everyday life based on their history. Their recollection of events or times in their lives would

remind them of where they come from and would influence what it is that they write in their

essays and could be used to explain points that they need to make. This is one of the reasons that

she says personal narratives should have a place in writing because they can serve as strong

pieces of evidence depending on the situation. On the other hand, one of her counterarguments

comes in when she attempts to bridge the gap between narrative and analysis. She articulates that

the distinction between the two is blurred because of how they essentially blend together to form

one main argument. They blend because the story becomes the analysis and the analysis

becomes the story (Robillard). This means that narrative and analysis are basically the same

when it comes to arguing for or against a certain point. By bringing these two together she is

effectively changing the way the reader or potential writer looks at narratives.

The final aspect of beam is method. Although it is arguably the most difficult of the four

to find it is still present in the essay. Her main method is to use the very thing that she is writing

about to prove how effective it can be which is known as circular reasoning. Throughout the

essay Robillard looks back at her own personal experiences starting with the first paragraph

where she explains that she was taught to never be late to anything. She uses this story to show

one way in which personal narratives can be used which in this case is to get the attention of the
reader. One of her other stories show how she can completely change the tone and mood of an

essay by choosing to include and exclude certain details. She does this when she talks about how

her mother was always home when she arrived from school and always had money to buy ice

cream from the ice cream man when he came by but then explains that it could be completely

different if she said that her mother never had a job and that she got by on welfare checks. This

drastically changes the tone of the essay from a normal one to a somber one. The reader in this

instance changes how they feel towards the whole story. At first they feel at ease as if the author

had an average normal life and can relate to the author but then after reading the second version

feel empathy for the author. Thus this shows one of the ways that her personal narrative was able

to change the direction in which the essay was going depending on what it is that she is trying to

get across. Both of these stories have a purpose in the essay and that is to show how strong

personal experiences in our lives can improve our writing whether it be to grab the attention of

the audience or to simply to set the right mood of a piece of literature. And this is exactly what

circular reasoning is. She is trying to show the reader how important it is to use personal

narratives in their writing by effectively using personal narratives in her writing. She uses them

as attention getters, as examples, as sources for reference, and as a way to change the mood of

her essay which all end up showing the reader that there is a place for personal narratives in

writing.

Bizup explains BEAM and how it can be used as a framework for reading and it truly can

be used as one. It was seen in Robillards essay and Im sure it can be found in many other

essays as well. Robillard uses Beam to her advantage as she develops her essay and applies all

aspects of it to her writing so that she would develop a strong point with plenty of evidence to
support it. In a way BEAM was like the skeleton of her essay and everything that she said was

the muscles that moved it all in such a way to produce a strong argumentative essay.

Bibliography

Robillard, Amy E. It's Time for Class: Toward a More Complex Pedagogy of Narrative

. It's Time for Class: Toward a More Complex Pedagogy of Narrative , vol. 1, no. 1, ser. 1,

2003, pp. 7492. 1.

Bizup, Joseph. BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based

Writing. BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing, vol. 27, ser. 1,

2008, pp. 7286. 1, doi:10.1080/07350190701738858.