Everyday Use, pp. 33-35
1. What does the cartoon on p. 33 suggest to you about modern politics? What might it suggest about modern readers and writers?
2. What are the five canons of rhetoric? Which of the five do you use the most? Which do you find to be the most difficult?
3. Read the review of the three appeals on pp. 34-35. Which appeal is used most by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter?
4. As a writer, how can you use strategies in each of the five canons of rhetoric to make a text appeal to your reader?
5. Read the activity on p. 35. What is the primary appeal? Make notes on what details reinforce that appeal.
Everyday Use, pp. 36-81
Quickly skim the entire chapter to answer these questions.
6. What is invention? Name an invention strategy you use on a regular basis.
7. What is arrangement?
8. What is style? Why do you suppose nearly half the chapter (21 of 45 pages) is devoted to material on this canon?
9. How have the canons of memory and delivery changed in modern culture? Why?
Everyday Use, pp. 36-38 (read “Systematic Invention Strategy I” pp. 36-38)
10. Explain the simile used to explain what the activity of invention involves for readers and writers.
11. What is the difference between systematic and intuitive strategies of invention?
12. What are the journalist‘s questions? How can a reader use these questions as an invention strategy?
13. Do the first Activity on page 38.
Everyday Use, pp. 50-52 (Start with “Intuitive Invention Strategies” p. 50; read to bottom of p. 52)
14. Which of the intuitive strategies of invention listed on page 51 have you used successfully? Are there other strategies that you have used to discover or develop ideas for writing?
15. How can the principles of arrangement help a writer? (see ¶2 under “Arrangement”)
16. How does your choice of genre affect arrangement?
17. What are the three basic parts of any text (p. 52)? What is the function of each part?
Everyday Use, pp. 53-54 (Start at top of p. 53; stop before Activity p. 54)
18. List and define the parts of the six-part oration used in ancient Greece for persuasive speaking.
19. How is this arrangement helpful for modern writers and readers?
20. How do the questions under “Functional Parts” relate to the six-part oration structure mentioned above?
21. Will every piece of persuasive writing have all six parts? Why or why not?
Everyday Use, pp. 54-56 (Start with Activity on p. 54; end before the Activity on p. 56)
22. Read the editorial by Joel Caris on p. 41 and do the Activity on p. 54.
23. How will the questions about the parts (pp. 54-56) of the six-part oration arrangement help you as a reader?
Everyday Use, pp. 56-58 (Start with “Style” on p. 56; end before “Style and Jargon” on p. 58)
24. What aspects of life or human nature determine or affect style—either of clothing or writing?
25. What is situational appropriateness?
26. What individual elements affect the stylistic choices you make? (Hint: examine the elements mentioned in the numbered items on pp. 57-58.)
Everyday Use, pp. 58-60 (Start with “Style and Jargon” on p. 58; end before “Dimensions” p. 60)
27. Explain how the expectations of readers for most academic papers affect your use of the following aspects of style.
· jargon
· first and second person pronouns
· contractions
· passive voice
28. Under what conditions would each aspect of style be acceptable?
· jargon
· first and second person pronouns
· contractions
· passive voice
Everyday Use, pp. 60-62 (Start with “Dimensions” p. 60; go to end of 1st ¶ p. 62)
29. List and define the three categories of style. With which one you have the most success? The least?
30. List and define the four types of sentences (according to structure).
31. What is meant by “function grows out of form” as it applies to sentence structure?
32. Analyze your sentence structures in a paper you have written lately.
· Which type of sentence do you use the most? The least?
· Do you have a variety of sentence types in use, or do you tend to use one or two types repetitively?
· Look for a paragraph in which only one or two types of sentences are used. Where could you add some variety?
Everyday Use, pp. 62-63 (Start with 2nd ¶ p. 62; end after Activity p. 63)
33. Define “loose sentences.”
· Study the example in the book and the example below.
Ø Hester Prynne hesitates, her desire to help Arthur Dimmesdale overriding her unwillingness to tell him the physician’s true identity, a revelation that will no doubt cause the minister more hurt and anger.
· Then write a loose sentence by adding to this basic sentence:
Ø Huck Finn makes a decision about Jim . . .
34. Define “periodic sentences.”
· Study the examples in the book and the example below.
Ø Her desire to help Arthur Dimmesdale overriding her unwillingness to tell him the physician’s true identity, a revelation that will no doubt cause the minister more hurt and anger, Hester Prynne hesitates.
· Then write a periodic sentence by adding to this basic sentence:
Ø . . . Huck Finn makes a decision about Jim.
35. What is the main difference between loose and periodic sentences? How do writers and readers use these types of sentences to convey or understand meaning?
36. How do loose and periodic sentences affect pacing?
Everyday Use, pp. 63-66 (Start with last ¶ p. 63; end after Activity p. 66)
37. What is parallel structure?
38. Look at the Gettysburg Address in Holt book on p. 514. Find another example of parallelism in the first two paragraphs of the Address.
39. Do Activity on pp. 65-66—items 1 and 2.
Everyday Use, pp. 66-69 (Start with “Words” p. 66; end before last ¶ on p. 69)
40. How does a writer determine if a word is appropriate to use?
41. Do Activity on page 67.
42. Explain the difference between the following: A) general and specific words; B) Formal and informal words.
43. What are two issues involving pronouns in formal and informal writing? (see pp. 68-69)
Everyday Use, pp. 69-72 (Start with “Latinate” p. 69; end before “Figures of Rhetoric” p. 72)
44. How did Latinate words develop and how are they most often used? Look at the Activity on pages 70-71 and be prepared to discuss it in class.
45. Briefly define slang and jargon. In what way can slang and jargon be considered “dangerous territory” for writers?
46. What does it mean that “words can be loaded”? Why should readers and writers be aware of this?
47. Read the third and fourth paragraphs of Patrick Henry’s speech “Speech to the Virginia Convention” (EL pp. 83-84). Make two lists of words: those with negative connotations used to describe the British government’s actions and those with favorable connotations that describe the colonists’ responses. How does Henry use connotative meanings to weight his argument against the British?
Everyday Use, pp. 72-74 (Start with “Figures of Rhetoric” p. 72; end before last ¶ on p. 74)
48. Why should writers and readers know about figures of rhetoric? What is meant by “a different way of saying something about the world was also a different way of seeing something about the world”?
49. What is the difference between schemes and tropes?
50. How can readers and writers use the scheme of parallelism effectively? How is antithesis a type of parallelism?
51. Find at least one example of parallelism and one example of antithesis in the 2nd or 3rd paragraph of Henry’s speech (EL p. 83).
Everyday Use, pp. 74-76 (Start with “Schemes Involving Interruption” p. 74; go to end of p. 76)
52. List and define the schemes involving interruption. Why do writers use such schemes?
53. List and define the schemes involving omission. What purpose do such schemes serve for a writer?
54. How can repetition be used effectively?
55. List and define the six schemes involving repetition.
Everyday Use, pp. 76-79 (Start with “Tropes” p. 77; end before Activity on p. 79)
56. All of the tropes involving comparison are based on what main trope?
57. List and define the other five tropes involving comparison.
58. List and define the tropes involving word play.
59. What tropes make a point by overstating or understating it? Define each one.
60. What tropes involve the management of meaning? Define each one.