Questioning
Literary and Rhetorical Analysis

With classical, rhetorical underpinnings and well-chosen essays, the author uses questioning techniques to move from critical reading and the rhetorical triangle to research and documentation. The author hopes by offering selections that challenge our beliefs and raise our social conscience that he can foster a deeper commitment on the part of the student to self-examination and introspection. These reflect the expectations of Dr. Peter Elbow who advocates, “you should expect reading and writing assignments that help you to make sense of your ‘lives and feelings.’”

Intended Market:
Meant for use in a second semester course in composition or a first semester course with an emphasis on persuasion and argument. The book uses professional and student essays to establish lines of argument that culminate in a research paper and a reflective essay.

Unique Features

• Questioning techniques are used throughout the text to reinforce the power of analysis as a useful tool to help students discover their own, quoting from Questioning, “‘stasis’, or places to ‘stand’ relative to those with opposing views”.
• Students are encouraged to keep those answers, the responses to their writing from the instructor and their assigned peer group in an electronic or written journal. Journaling becomes an essential invention, analysis and assessment strategy in Questioning.
• Archived journal entries are the documents used at the end of the semester to help students create a portfolio and to help them evaluate through a reflective essay their growth as a writer.
• Assignments are chosen and grouped by theme to help students find a reason to care about their writing, and, when persuasion is not possible or not the goal, new methods for mediation are discussed.
• Classical rhetorical organization provides a framework for developing the techniques and strategies essential to learning how to write in a composition course.
• An emphasis on literary analysis and the subtext of inherent meaning engenders an understanding of the elements of literature in a variety of genres including a play and a separate chapter on writing about poetry.