Chapter 2: Contemporary Rhetoric

Yes! Yes! Yes! Writing as thinking! This is a good strategy in the improvement of writing skills.

It is about teaching the craft of writing not about mimicking someone else’s writing style. Of course there are writers that students can learn their approach on how they deal with content, because content is imperative in writing. It’s about how the writer integrates, focus on content (themes), and orient the audience (rhetorical intent/effect) in their writing. Students need to learn how important the linking episodes formalize the unity. The structure is imperative; it creates the tension that is needed in books (novels) and so on. The central idea should reflect humanity where people battle internal and external demons (greed, corruption, and oppression), and the healthy conquest that people strive for (humility, self-discovery, overcoming corruption).

Apprenticeship is a good approach to getting students involve in their writing skills. Technology is the dominate tool that students are engaged in which lessens their interest in education. The problem with technology (television) is not the invention, but the programs that are shown. Basically, the negative content that is in programs contributes to the decline of students’ motivation in the school system. There is a fascination with all the images (violence, sex, various relationships, masculinity, and femininity) that children seek for a source of “self-identity” that Charles Dickens’ character Pip can’t delivered. Students want the quick emotional release and television satisfies that emotional and psychological need. Williams states that the “NAEP Report Card” illustrates, “report card has shown a steady decline in the writing abilities of our students, even though process pedagogy has been incorporated” (Williams 55). The media has a powerful affect on the minds of the students and as a result of the psychological control; teachers need to be taught new techniques that will alter the passive learning tool that television produces. So, how can teachers convince students to become more interested in the students own creativity, views of the world and innovators over their personal interests?