Classification and Division

As a writer, you can't always count on your audience knowing as much about the subject as you do. Oft times the audience can get lost in a sea of confusing phrases and give up on trying to understand what the essay is trying to convey. In these cases, when the subject matter is difficult to comprehend, it is useful to use Classification and Division.

Classification and Division is a technique in which the author breaks the essay down into smaller segments, in which the important terms pertaining to the essay are thoroughly defined. In this way the audience can get some background information so that they can understand the material better. Classification is dividing the essay into bigger chunks of related information, whereas division is breaking down the classification segments into even smaller, more detailed pieces. By using this tool, an author can define any important terms that are used in their essay and directly link them to specific issues within the article. This makes it easy for the audience to follow along and stay on the same wavelength as the writer.

Defnitions cont.

In my article, it talks a lot about something called a "Nuer". A Nuer is a type of ethnic group found predominantly in the newly independant region of Southern Sudan. Nuer's are darker skinned than the northern peoples and easily recognized. The Nuer's are often discriminated against if they live in the north and treated like second-class citizens.

Mary, the subject in my article has only one profitable skill and that is making and selling alchohol illegally. She uses a big plastic jug and a soda bottles to brew it. She has been caught multiple times and has recieved countless whippings as punishment.

Dual citizenship is important in this reading. It means that Mary cannot be a citizen of both Sudan and Southern Sudan. Which leaves her to choose between a underdeveloped and dangerous South Sudan or a discriminating, unjust Sudan.

Description

Details can make or break a writer's work. Too little and the essay will seem dry and listless, too many irrelevant details and the audience will get bored. Definitions should be used to help the audience get a better understanding of the authors point. When explaining a definition, it should be more than just a dictionary answer. A writer needs to explain why the definition is being used, in what context, give an example or possibly explain the process that it is used in.

The New York Times article I chose is entitled "For Woman in Sudan, No Escape From Misery". The article explains the harsh living conditions for Southern Sudanese living north of the border. South Sudan recently split from Sudan to form an independant nation. By doing so, some Southern Sudanese were trapped on the north side and are unable to get back to South Sudan. The discussion in which it is taking part is about the hard living conditions for those in other countries, and the many difficulties they face by living there. The article tries to open the publics eyes as to what people of other nations are having to go through.

Rhetorical Terms

Any good writer knows that rhetorical tools are a must have in their work. I've gone over many different kinds such as plasticity, open-ended closure, visual gazes, compare/contrast techniques and others in my past blogs. As a writer, you need to be aware which specific rhetorical tools will best help get your point across to your intended audience. Some tools are used more effectively towards a certain group of people than compared to another. For example if you are a car salesman, you would probably want to use a compare/contrast technique to show a potential buyer how your cars are better than another car dealer's. You would not want to use, say, open-ended closure because it doesn't suit your needs as a salesman.

Some new rhetorical terms we learned today were persuasive themes, master narratives, content & technical signatures and audience resonance/effects. All of these are applied towards visual media. A persuasive themes aim is to make the audience feel emotions like nationalism, tradition or even scapegoating. It is universal and can apply to anyone. A master narrative is similar, but it applies to people in a specific area. Master narratives are rooted more in culture and context and they can reflect things like shared hopes and concerns of a particular community. Almost all visual communications have a tendancy to package the imagery and technical elements in a way that a viewer could identify a familiar structure or signature to it. This is called content and technical signatures. Signatures reflects distinct characteristics and choices for a piece of visual media. Last but not least is audience resonance and effects. It's a "return of investment". To clarify, it's a way to measure if a campaign had the desired impact of the audience it was intended for. Indicators can help to measure the amount of influence, for example, a soap commercial had on an audience once it was aired. An indicator in this case would be the number of bars of soap that were sold after the commercial started airing.

Compare and Contrast

Compare and Contrasting is important in writing because it can give the audience a lot more details to work with. The audience can decide for themselves which similarities and differences they want to compare, which can influence the way they read something. There are two ways to write an essay in a compare/contrast form. The first is Point by Point comparison, where similarities and differences are found in specific details in two arguments. The writing kind of jumps back and forth between the two stories in order to compare and contrast them.

The second way is called Subject by Subject comparison. This is where the entire argument/story is compared to the entire opposing argument/story. Personally I prefer this way because for me it's easier to look at the big picture all at once and then compare that to another full picture rather then comparing little bits.There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways of comparison though.