Summary & Rhetorical Analysis Exercise, w/MLA Style Citation

[MLA Style Heading & Centered Title:]

Juanita Student
WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci
Summary & Rhetorical Analysis Exercise
29 September 2004

Adler's "How to Mark a Book"

[MLA Style Bibliographical Entry:]

Adler, Mortimer J. "How to Mark a Book." [Original publication information not provided.] Rpt.

The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. 8th ed.

Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 42-46.

[Informal Exercise Content: All parts must be completed and labeled, but since this is an INFORMAL "PC" exercise for points, you may handwrite or type/wordprocess, and content may be presented in list form.
In-Text Citation is required, however. That is, please insert in-text citations - e.g.. page numbers in parenthesis as in examples below - whenever you quote, paraphrase, or refer to specific passages from the reading selection. It is understood that most of your citations will be from the primary reading identified in your MLA Style Bibliographical Entry; however, if and when you cite something from the header note preceding the reading, you should identify Muller as the author, as well as the page number.]

SUMMARY
Thesis: Adler contends "that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love" (42). Readers must "'write between the lines'" and mark up a book, in order to get the most out of their reading, absorb it into their bloodstreams, and truly "own" a book (Adler 42- 43).
The reward: books thus actively read, lovingly marked up, and absorbed become "as much a part of you as your head or your head" (Adler 46).
Main Supporting Points:
1. True Ownership: "There are three kinds of book owners," according to Adler, but only the third kind--those whose books are "marked and scribbled in from front to back" truly "own" their books (Adler 43).
2. Active Reading, through writing notes, should be like having "a conversation" with the author (Adler 44); and offers three major benefits: "it keeps you awake," stimulates thinking, and helps readers remember what they have read (43-44).
3. How to mark up a book: Adler's methods are listed (44-45).
4. Objections to marking up a book: Adler addresses various good and bad reasons why readers rightly and wrongly resist marking up books - (Good reasons: see Adler 42-43) - and suggests practical alternatives for "die-hard and anti-book-marker" readers (45).

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS (including MLA style IN-TEXT CITATION examples)
Provide some Rhetorical Analysis Notes, with specific examples whenever possible, on each of Rhetorical Analysis general categories (i.e. parts A, B, & C below), though your completed exercise need not be as long as the following (extended to give you a range of ideas & examples).

A. Rhetorical/Communication Context
Author & Authority: [Who is the author and what are the author's credentials to speak on the essay topic?] Per Muller's header note, Mortimer Jerome Adler (b. 1902 - d. 2001) was well educated--e.g. Ph.D. from Columbia Univ. in 1928, though Muller does not say in what field--wrote more than 70 books and edited Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books project to promote the value of classical philosophy and knowledge for general readers (42). Though Adler's ideas about "unshakable truths" are not now well regarded by contemporary philosophers and academics (Muller 42), "How to Mark a Book" is not about a philosophical truth but about a basic and important educational process--active reading. Adler's academic education and publication record suggest that his advice on active reading is still worth attending to by WR 121 students.
Original Publication Context [Where, when, and for what intended audience?]
--Where and when "How to Mark a Book" was first published is not identified in Muller's header note or in the textbook Credits section. However, external (Muller's header note) and internal evidence (of Adler's essay itself) suggests who Adler's intended audience might be.
--Intended Audience: From Muller's header note: Adler wrote for "the general reader" and, even in his last years, promoted "his goal of universal education and enlightenment" (Muller 42). "How to Mark a Book" is written "in everyday language" (Muller 42) on a "universal" educational skill--active reading.
Rhetoric Question #3 (Muller 46): Name dropping: great painter Rembrandt, great composer Arturo Toscanini, great epic poem Paradise Lost (43)--and at end: Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare, Federalist Papers (46)--suggest that Adler is targeting fairly well educated readers who might know who/what these people and works are--or who want to know/aspire to be well educated, who want or need to get the most out of their reading - and I think that group would include us, today's WR 121 students at the first-year college level.

B. Essay Structure: [Thesis & Introduction: see Muller 23-25; Body Paragraphs & Strategies for Development, see Muller 25-37; & Conclusion: see Muller 37]
Thesis Presentation: paragraphs 1-2, 4, 6, & 27 (Adler 42-43, 46).
NOTE emphasis given thesis idea sentence by putting it alone in one-sentence paragraph 2 (42)
Introduction: paragraphs 1-2 (Adler 42)
Body: paragraphs 3-25 (Adler 42-45)
Conclusion: paragraphs 26-27 (Adler 45-46).

C. Rhetorical Modes/Writing Strategies
Per "Contents of Essays by Rhetorical Mode" [Muller xxi-xxviii]: Adler's "How to Mark a Book" uses Analogy, Illustration, Process Analysis = dominant rhetorical modes/strategies of development.
Analogy [Make sure you know what the identified strategy of development is, & if you don't look it up in Muller textbook: e.g. Analogy, according to Muller = "a form of comparison that uses clear illustration to explain a difficult idea . . . but unlike formal comparison in that its subjects of comparison are from different categories"; in argument, analogies can be used "to heighten an appeal to emotion, but they cannot actually prove anything": Muller, "Glossary of Terms" G-1; see also Muller 83] Example Analogies used by Adler:
1. True book ownership is like eating a beefsteak: both "must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any good" (Adler 42-43).
2. "A book is more like a score of a piece of music than it is like a painting" (Adler 43) - musician marks up the musical score, like reader should mark up books.
3. Reading a book is like having "a conversation between you and the author" (44).
Illustration [= "use of one or more examples to support an idea": Muller, "Glossary of Terms" G-7; see also Muller 27-29]. See above examples: Analogies are a kind of illustration.
Process Analysis [= "explains in a step-by-step way how something is done, how it is put together, how it works, or how it occurs": Muller, "Glossary of Terms G-9.] Example Process Analysis used by Adler:
Title of essay: HOW TO...
Adler explains how he marks up a book in a numbered list of suggestions (44-45); he also analyzes the functions/rewards produced by the "physical act of writing," what to write on (44; paragraphs 12-13), how to use the front & back endpapers to outline the book (45; paragraph 23).
Other Writing Techniques used by Adler:
Causal Analysis [see Muller 31-33]: Why [reasons, causes] readers should mark up their books, why writing in books is necessary, and the rewards [effects] of doing so: paragraphs 1, 9, 12, 25 (Adler 42, 43, 44, 45). Why [reasons, causes, in what circumstances] readers should not up their books: paragraphs 3, 7 (Adler 42, 43). Why [reasons, causes] readers do not want to mark up their books, even though Adler thinks they should: paragraphs 24 - 26
Rhetoric Question #6: Argumentation strategy: Anticipate & answer objections of opponents:
Adler acknowledges some key reasons why readers might resist taking his advice and marking up their books - but then answers each objection: e.g. paragraph 24, Adler advises the "die-hard and anti-book-marker" to write on separate sheets of paper and insert them into the book (45).
Classification [see Muller 34-36] - plus Definition, Description
Adler classifies readers into three groups and briefly defines each type: paragraph 6 (Adler 43). Vivid Description/descriptive language: e.g. books of true owners are "dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back" (Adler 43).
Name Dropping technique (discussed above).
Passionate Tone/Immediacy of point of view: Adler uses "I" to refer to himself, uses "you" to directly address his readers throughout - as if author and reader are having a direct, personal conversation. See Rhetoric Question #1 (Muller 46): you definitely get the feeling that Adler is passionate about his topic and about his own books. E.g. he uses strong emotional language/word choices: "...marking up a book is . . . an act . . . of love" (42); lending a book that you have lovingly marked up "is almost like giving your mind away" (46).

MLA-Style Bibliographical Entries
MS NOTE: Double space your bibliographical entry & indent 5 spaces 2nd & subsequent lines.