Discussion Topic
This unit, you will once again enter a conversation. Your job in this discussion threads is to outline and define the conversation begun by the three assigned readings. Our discussions unit should help you gather your thoughts for your essay due on Sunday.
In this discussion, let’s read rhetorically to understand the central claims, supporting arguments, and persuasive strategies of the authors. Anticipating this unit’s essay assignment, let’s also attempt to outline.
The following articles are the three articles from Chapters 14-19 in our textbook that you should use for your work in Week 5:
“How I Discovered the Truth about Poverty” by Barbara Ehrenreich, p. 482
“Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor” by bell hooks, p. 486
“The Rise of the Working Poor” by Richard Reich, p. 749
In your initial post in this thread this unit, choose 1 of the assigned articles to analyze, using all of the questions below. Answer each questions in 2-4 sentences or so.
- Read the brief introduction to the article. What is the context of this piece? Who is the author? When, where, why, and how was it initially published? Who was the original audience for this article?
- What seems to have motivated the writer to write this piece? Is there some current event, a problem, a question, or another article that seems to have inspired the article? How do you know?
- What seems to be the overall message or point of this article? Where does the author state this point or main claim?
- What evidence does the writer include to support their claims? What pieces of evidence do you find most persuasive?
- How is the article structured? What strategies has the writer used for introduction and conclusions? Why might the writer have chosen these particular strategies?
- How does this article “speak” to the other two assigned articles? What do they have in common? What major differences can you identify? In other words, what is the “conversation” among the articles?
