Analytical Reading and Writing - I

Analytical reading and writing – I
What really is ACADEMIC WRITING?

Debraj Mookerjee
debraj.mookerjee@ramjas.du.ac.in 1 23/08/2022
Learning goals …
 Consider the act of writing as a goal oriented task, oriented
towards the goal of persuasion; to examine and interpret
other writers’ writings as a crucial preliminary stage to being
able to produce successfully persuasive writing yourselves.
To achieve this, you need to …
 Identify the writer’s central purpose or thesis; to consider
how writers use personal authority and trustworthiness,
argumentative logic, comparison and contrast, example,
and emotional appeals to make their arguments.
 Identify their own historical social and personal contexts to

understand their own biases and Ideologies.
 To analyse an academic topic or question; to gather
information and to notionally organize material required to
address that topic or to answer that question.
 To design and then write a lucid thesis statement that

outlines the students’ central argument in the paper, essay
or article. To produce both preliminary and fleshed-out
outlines which identify the structure of the proposed paper.
 To finally produce a paper that follows the guidelines of

their own theses and outlines; and to use the appeals of
ethos, logos and pathos throughout the paper as multiple
persuasive strategies.
Questions to ponder …
 When you write an important text, do you make more than
one draft?
 Do you prefer to write on paper or use a computer? Have
you ever asked yourself why?
 What do you do before you start writing?
 How do you start writing? Do you begin at 'the beginning' or
jump in wherever you have some ideas? Do you think one
approach is better than another?
 What do you do while you are writing? Do you stop and
think? Do you ever go back to the beginning and start again?
 When you finish your first complete draft, what do you do
next?
Rhetoric?
 Sublime according to LONGINUS –

 FIVE sources of sublimity:
 great thoughts
 strong emotions
 certain figures of thought and speech
 noble diction, and
 dignified word arrangement
Sublime/Rhetoric - transcendence
 Persuasion through the beauty of the aesthetic

product.
 Kant called it a product of the mind and not nature.
 The sublime is often viewed as the quality of

greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual,
metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic.
Aristotlian idea of RHETORIC
Rhetoric
Faculty of finding the available means of persuasion
Fundamental concepts
logos, ethos, and pathos

Aristotle taught that a speaker’s
ability to persuade an audience is
based on how well the speaker
appeals to that audience in three
different areas:
Logos, Ethos, and Pathos, or the
rhetorical triangle.
Rhetorical triangle
LOGOS
[Reason/Text]
ETHOS PATHOS
[Credibility/Writer] [Values
Beliefs/Audience]
Logos
 Logos appeals to reason. Logos can also be thought

of as the text of the argument, as well as how well a
writer has argued his/her point.
Ethos
 Ethos appeals to the writer’s character. Ethos can also

be thought of as the role of the writer in the
argument, and how credible his/her argument is.
Pathos
 Pathos appeals to the emotions and the sympathetic

imagination, as well as to beliefs and values. Pathos
can also be thought of as the role of the audience in
the argument.
 [OBAMA CONVENTION SPEECH]
Questions to help you recognize and utilize logos, ethos, and
pathos –
Logos:
 Is the thesis clear and specific?
 Is the thesis supported by strong reasons and credible
evidence?
 Is the argument logical and arranged in a well-reasoned
order?
Ethos:
 What are the writer’s qualifications?
 How has the writer connected him/herself to the topic being
discussed?
 Does the writer demonstrate respect for multiple
viewpoints by using sources in the text?
 Are sources credible?
 Are sources documented appropriately?
 Does the writer use a tone that is suitable for the
audience/purpose?
 Is the diction (word choice) used appropriate for the
audience/purpose?
 Is the document presented in a polished and professional
manner?
Pathos:
 Are vivid examples, details and images used to engage the
reader’s emotions and imagination?
 Does the writer appeal to the values and beliefs of the
reader by using examples readers can relate to or care
about?
Academic versus non academic
Choose …
Mind to matter
 The writing process: Visualising your text

To write texts that are academic, begin by thinking about three key
elements: audience, purpose and material. Ask yourself: Who is the
text for? Why is the text needed? What resources - what data,
evidence, reference material, and so on - have I got that I can use?
You should then find it easier to start writing. Looking back at Task 6 might also
help.
Ideas for starting an academic text

The following are some ideas for getting started with developing
your own academic text :
Material …
Start with 'material'.
Make sure you have all your research materials in one place. Read
quickly through the texts and use (if permitted) highlighters to
indicate material that you think you can use in your own writing.
Use one colour highlighter for ideas, another for evidence, and
another for arguments.
Make sure you use the same colour for the same idea wherever it
appears. You'll end up with some related points from different
texts. That suggests these are important aspects of the topic.
Write one or two rough sentences ( don't worry about language
correctness at this stage) to state one of the ideas or arguments
in your own way.
 Now move on to do the same with another highlighted area.

Purpose …
Start with 'purpose'.

 Find out what your text is going to be used for. For
example, are you expected to report or to argue?
 When you read reports, you will see that they are not
written in the same way as essays or arguments.
Audience …
Start with 'audience'.

 Think about who will read what you have written.
How much do they know about the topic?
 What will they use the text for?
 What kinds of writing are they used to reading?
LANGUAGE AS EXPRESSION
 How do you understand language in its various

graphic forms and thereby learn to its different forms
optimally?
Research Report or Paper
Structure of the research report or paper

 The most common structure of a research report, a
thesis or a research article is referred to as IMRD,
which stands for Introduction, Method, Results and
Discussion.
 In the social sciences especially, the literature review
is considered so important that (rather than being
part of the Introduction) it is given a section to itself.
Key features
Introduction
 Mapping of the field (in some disciplines, there will
also be a literature review)
 Identifying a research 'gap'
 Making a claim about needed research
 Giving some idea of the MRD (Method, Result,
Discussion) approach that will be used
Method
Answering: How will this research be done? With what
materials or subjects? How many? etc.
Working according to the principles of Clarity and Reality
Using the Relevance principle to dictate the amount of detail
to use
Results
Answering: What happened? Why? How sure can I be of the
meaning of these results?
Working according to the principles of Honesty and Reality
Discussion
This is probably the single most important part of the report,
since it is here that you demonstrate that you understand
and can interpret what you have done.
Michelangelo's FRESCOES
 FLOW
 RELEVANCE
 ENGAGEMENT
 STRUCTURE
 CONSISTENCY
 ORDERLINESS
 EFFERVESCENCE
 STYLE

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Analytical reading and writing – I

What really is ACADEMIC WRITING?

 Identify their own historical social and personal contexts to

 To design and then write a lucid thesis statement that

 To finally produce a paper that follows the guidelines of

 Sublime according to LONGINUS –

 Persuasion through the beauty of the aesthetic

 Kant called it a product of the mind and not nature.

 The sublime is often viewed as the quality of

logos, ethos, and pathos

 Logos appeals to reason. Logos can also be thought

 Ethos appeals to the writer’s character. Ethos can also

 Pathos appeals to the emotions and the sympathetic

 [OBAMA CONVENTION SPEECH]

 The writing process: Visualising your text

Ideas for starting an academic text

 Now move on to do the same with another highlighted area.

Start with 'purpose'.

Start with 'audience'.

 How do you understand language in its various

Structure of the research report or paper

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