Example Student Formal Academic Summaries
& Rhetorical Analyses (FAS & RA #1)
 Webpublished with students' permission ~ Thank you! ~ Cora
 Short Cuts  Fall 2002: Noell Devenny (on Coles) | Winter 2003: Heather Hynes (on Adler)
Fall 2003: Stephen DiCicco (on Barry) | Fall 2003: Jana Swanson (on Elbow)

Noell Devenny
WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci
Formal Academic Summary & Rhetorical Analysis #1
14 October 2002 

Coles, Robert.  “I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe.” Redbook February 1980. 

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

         Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 438-442.
 

Robert Coles, Psy.D., esteemed Pulitzer Prize winning author of Children in Crisis volumes 1 & 2,  accounts in his essay “I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe,” numerous interviews with children regarding how they understand and deal with the world, community, and family moral issues in their daily lives. He narrates what children have described to him during personal interviews and how they emulate their parents’ moral beliefs. He states that children learn by example, what their parents show and teach them about “right and wrong.” A nine-year-old Louisiana boy states,  “God made everyone--but that doesn’t mean we all have to be living together under the same roof in the home or the school” (qtd. in Coles 440). Children are also influenced by peers, their families’ social standing in the community, and by cultural beliefs surrounding them. Sources outside the family then become especially important if the family’s moral beliefs are deficient.  A nine-year-old girl living in Texas stated:  “I saw a kid steal in a store, and I know her father has a lot of money--because I hear my daddy talk. But stealing’s wrong” (qtd. in Coles 442). Coles believes that children need parental guidance with moral issues in order to avoid the possibility of endangering themselves while seeking answers from inappropriate sources. He strongly urges parents to take an active role in responding to the moral inquiries children make thus enabling them to make proper choices about “right and wrong.”

Devenny 2

Rhetorical Analysis

            Robert Coles is an author, psychologist, and Pulitzer Prize winner for his general non-fiction work on Children in Crisis volumes 1 & 2. He later expanded this book to five volumes in which he covered a broader spectrum of child studies.  He has interviewed and counseled children all over the country for years, gaining insight and valuing their feelings about major issues, many focusing on moral concerns. In his essay, “I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe,” Coles documents with comments on some of these moral uncertainties voiced by children.

            “I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe” was originally printed in Redbook Magazine, Feb. 1980. Given that Redbook is primarily a woman’s magazine, his initial writing was geared more towards a female audience, perhaps more specifically mothers. In that respect, it implies that Coles targets mothers for being more emotionally attuned to their child’s needs.  Coles’s ideal audience may be parents in educated professions, such as doctors, psychologists or educators. He attempts to enlighten these parents about how children think and solve moral dilemmas in their lives. This information would be least relevant for singles that don’t have or don’t work with children on a regular basis. These individuals are least empathic to a child’s needs.

 This essay exemplifies the author’s thoughts by using children’s stories to describe moral problems. Coles provides a glimpse, through his personal experience and professional expertise, of some of the moral issues that weigh on children’s minds. He shows through interviews how children are influenced by their parents’ actions and reactions to issues with more prodigious social ramifications. The eight-year-old girl in Appalachia whose father is a coalmine owner and his irresponsibility for the worker’s deaths further exemplifies this.

This child is torn between family loyalty and compassion for those who are less fortunate than her (438-439). Coles also relates the moral turmoil of a nine-year-old white boy from Louisiana during the early 1960’s whose father is an “ardent segregationist.” The child is confused of his feelings about attending school with colored children based on his father’s prejudices.  He discovers through his own personal observation and experiences that “coloreds” aren’t really all that different from himself or his “white” peers (440). In both interviews, the author is sketching a picture of how children deal with their moral conflicts. That they seek guidance from those around them, the girl, from her mother and her peers, the boy, from his mother and his religious faith, to make an appropriate decision for the “right or wrong” reaction. 

Coles’s ability to entice children to speak with him about these moral issues, gives credit to his compassionate and caring nature. He is obviously a figure children feel they can trust and disclose some of their deepest concerns to.  He has only the children’s best interests at heart but he is adamant in his crusade of parents taking more active roles and paying closer attention to their children’s moral upbringing.

© 2002, Noell Devenny
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Heather Hynes
WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci
Formal Academic Summary and Rhetorical Analysis #1
27 January 2003  

Adler, Mortimer J.  “How to Mark a Book.”  Rpt. The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the

         Disciplines.  Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. 8th ed.  Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 42-47.
 

Summary:

            Mortimer J. Adler gives college students one essential tip in his essay entitled, “How to Mark a Book,” and that is to own your textbooks!  Adler states that to own a textbook is not merely to buy the work.  Instead, ownership requires the reader to make the material a part of himself.  To do so, Adler contests that one must engage actively in the author’s words.  Adler recognizes the reasons some people have for refusing to write in a book.  He acknowledges the confusion people face when told to actually mark on the pages.  Many people have the false impression that it would be disrespectful to write in or on another’s piece of art.  But Adler truly believes that the author would want his audience to gain something from the reading.  Adler believes that this gain comes from thinking, which, in turn, stems from engagement.  Marking up a book is much more important than merely reading it, because it keeps the reader’s mind from drifting, contests Adler.  It also requires thought and application.  By writing in the book, the reader has an easily accessible memory-refresher every time he opens the pages.  Adler outlines specific activities to be used when marking a book.  His suggestions include underlining, starring, circling of key words or phrases, and writing in the margins.  For those common excuses people come up with to avoid active reading (otherwise known as marking the book), Adler addresses these concerns and comes up with solutions.  For instance, someone might say, “there isn’t enough space for me to write in the book,” and Adler would tell him to buy a small pad of paper and insert the notes into the book.  Another reason someone might have is, “writing slows my reading time down.”  Adler says that reading is not a race, and, oftentimes, reading slowly helps the brain obtain and retain the information better.  The last excuse Adler addresses is, “I won’t be able to lend my books to friends.”  Adler shuts this one down by recommending that books be personal, like a diary, and advises friends to get their own copies.

Hynes 2

Rhetorical Analysis:

            Mortimer J. Adler was a man who believed that philosophy and knowledge should be incorporated into every person’s life.  In his essay, “How to Mark a Book,” he outlines specific learning strategies to achieve the above goal.

            One technique he employs is the use of analogies.  This opens the doors to a whole new perspective.  Many readers might find his comparisons help improve their understanding of the actual points Adler is trying to get across.  For example, Adler compares the difference between purchasing a book and owning a book by transferring this theory to buying a piece of meat: “You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher’s ice-box to your own.  But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream” (43).  For some readers, myself included, the idea of “owning” food is far easier to grasp than that of owning a book, because the former is physical.  People see things in different ways.  Adler is broadening the scope of his audience by allowing for these differences.  This strategy would be well used by students in a writing class, because analogies can make an obscure idea take form and become clear.

            Another tool Adler makes use of in his essay is that of asking questions and then proceeding to answer them himself.  For example, he asks: “Why is marking a book indispensable to reading?” (43).  This technique shows that the author is anticipating (and even welcoming) skepticism from his readers and that he feels confident and able to defend his arguments.  Another instance in which Adler employs this method is when he addresses the question of whether or not we (as readers) disrespect a said author by writing in his book.  Adler sees the validity of the concern and puts his audience at rest by stating that there is a time and a place for conservation (as in a first edition printing) but that for the average reader, he or she will gain much more from the text if it is actively engaged in.

© 2003, Heather Hynes

Jana Swanson
     WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci
     Formal Academic Summary & Rhetorical Analysis #1
     15 October 2003

 Elbow, Peter. "Freewriting." Writing Without Teachers. Oxford Univ. Press, 1973.  Rpt. in The
          McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. Boston: McGraw-Hill,
          2003.  52-55.

        Considered by some writing teachers to have revolutionized the teaching of writing, Peter Elbow is the author and/or editor of over fifteen books on writing. In his essay "Freewriting" he reports that doing freewriting exercises regularly will effectively improve your writing. Elbow declares that freewriting can develop an author’s writing. It will change the way you write to become more like the way you speak, making your voice on the paper more powerful and correct. Elbow alleges that there is a great difference between speaking and writing, and to be able to harness the decisiveness of the art of speaking and incorporate this force into your writing will enhance your abilities as a writer. Elbow claims that by doing habitual freewriting exercises, your writing will advance and become more convincing and fluid, much like the way you speak. Elbow contests that when we write, we are in a constant state of editing, and this forces us to hold back our natural voice. He says t! hat after writing and rewriting an essay for two hours, the final product can be much worse than what the writer began with, because the editing process will confuse the producer and change the original meaning of the essay. Freewriting will help one to practice non-editing. Non-editing teaches a person to write more fluently and beautifully by "undo[ing] the ingrained habit of editing at the same time you are trying to produce" (54). Elbow says that words will come easier once you begin practicing freewriting.

Swanson 2

Rhetorical Analysis

       Peter Elbow has taught as an English professor at several universities around the country. He has popularized the practice of freewriting in numerous American colleges, universities, and writing workshops. In his essay entitled "Freewriting," Elbow expresses his belief that freewriting regularly will improve every writer’s work.

       In Elbow’s essay, he portrays himself as a teacher and speaks as if he is addressing a classroom full of college-aged students. He uses several colloquial terms, such as "squiggle" (53),"babbling" (53), "jabbering" (53),"mushiness" (54), and "lousy" (54) throughout his essay. By using these sorts of vocabularies, Elbow shows that his target audience is not a highly educated, superior group. Instead, the intended readers are probably aspiring writers, or university English students, trying to learn how to better their essays and writing skills. The words Elbow uses here lighten the tone of the essay to show that the purpose of the essay is not to be taken completely seriously. The essay was written as a suggestion, and should be read as just that. The layperson’s vocabulary used helps the reader to stay with the author, so everything is more easily understood.

       Another method Elbow uses to simplify the proposition he is trying to demonstrate, is an example of a student's own freewriting exercise. Elbow uses this example to make evident his perception of the relationship between writing and speaking. He also demonstrates to the reader that any sort of freewriting, whether it be understandable or completely incoherent, is good and should be practiced. By seeing an example, I better understood how the freewriting exercise should be carried out so that I can personally improve my own writing skills.

© 2003, Jana Swanson

Stephen DiCicco
     WR 121, Prof. C. Agatucci
     Formal Academic Summary & Rhetorical Analysis #1
     30 October 2003

 Barry, Dave. "Red, White, and Beer." Dave Barry's Greatest Hits. 1988.  Rpt. in The McGraw-Hill
         Reader.  Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003.  519-521.

        Humorist Dave Barry addresses the issues of patriotism and stereotypes with his article entitled "Red, White, and Beer", from the book, Dave Barry's Greatest Hits.  Barry finds similar traits in the commercials for two American beers, Miller and Budweiser.  In both commercials there are large, masculine men, probably construction workers, drenched in sweat and fiercely shaking hands.  The rock music in the background only intensifies the message that this brand of beer is "by God an American beer, 'Born in the U.S.A.,' and the men who drink it are American men" (519).  In this example, Barry pokes fun at two issues in American culture today.  One is the place of patriotism in commercial advertising, and the other is stereotyping.  He proposes that the beer companies want Americans to think that any construction worker who wants to be a real American should drink Miller or Budweiser beer.  Barry then shares a story about his own experience with guys and beer.  His story of helping a friend move after imbibing a few drinks and crashing a bed through a second floor apartment window gives a perspective closer to reality. In his conclusion, Barry questions the appropriateness of patriotism in television commercials.  He quips, "I'm in favor of the upsurge in retail patriotism" (520), and proposes a laxative commercial with the stereotypical scene of American people at a church picnic. In the background would be the quintessential American symbol, the Statue of Liberty.  To tie it all together, in more ways than one, would be a country singer singing about standing up for one's beliefs, love for the land, and laxatives.

DiCicco 2

Rhetorical Analysis

      Dave Barry's "Red, White and Beer" uses humor effectively to examine the nuances of popular culture in America.  In this essay he does an excellent job of finding the humor in American beer commercials, and what he accomplishes is both a celebration and a criticism of several elements of American culture.  While obviously poking fun at the television commercials and the American penchant for commercialization, Barry manages to sneak in a few fond memories of his younger days.  Whether he would admit it or not, he is precisely the consumer that Miller and Budweiser want to attract.  He pokes fun at a commercial where "burly men build a house" (519).  Barry dismisses the desire to emulate what he sees by joking that "I worry some about a house built by men drinking beer" (520).  But, in narrating the tale of helping a friend move after drinking, he does more than just help the reader see through the machismo of the actors in the commercial.  Barry identifies with the commercial, hence his ability to relay a humorous anecdote. As it turns out, the beer companies aren't only after construction workers; they are after everyday people who lead normal lives, helping a friend move to a new house on the weekend.  He, like many Americans, finds the humor in this advertising.  Barry himself uses brand names to sell his own essay, helping the reader to identify with him through their knowledge of American products.

        Barry doesn't limit his attention to beer commercials.  He understands the reality and irony of the ability of television to promote patriotism, and conversely the ability of patriotism to help the viewer identify with the advertised product.  While Barry's idea for a patriotic laxative commercial might be a little out of the accepted scope of today's advertisements, his hypothetical description of the commercial is surprisingly familiar.  Barry's scene of "actors dressed up as hard-working country folk, maybe at a church picnic, smiling at each other, eating apple pie" (520), while stereotypical to say the least, is certainly a viable stage for a current television commercial.

       Dave Barry's "Red, White and Beer" uses humor effectively to examine the nuances of popular culture in America.  In this essay he does an excellent job of finding the humor in American beer commercials, and what he accomplishes is both a celebration and a criticism of several elements of American culture.  While obviously poking fun at the television commercials and the American penchant for commercialization, Barry manages to sneak in a few fond memories of his younger days.  Whether he would admit it or not, he is precisely the consumer that Miller and Budweiser want to attract.  He pokes fun at a commercial where "burly men build a house" (519).  Barry dismisses the desire to emulate what he sees by joking that "I worry some about a house built by men drinking beer" (520).  But, in narrating the tale of helping a friend move after drinking, he does more than just help the reader see through the machismo of the actors in the commercial.  Barry identifies with the commercial, hence his ability to relay a humorous anecdote. As it turns out, the beer companies aren't only after construction workers; they are after everyday people who lead normal lives, helping a friend move to a new house on the weekend.  He, like many Americans, finds the humor in this advertising.  Barry himself uses brand names to sell his own essay, helping the reader to identify with him through their knowledge of American products.

       Barry doesn't limit his attention to beer commercials.  He understands the reality and irony of the ability of television to promote patriotism, and conversely the ability of patriotism to help the viewer identify with the advertised product.  While Barry's idea for a patriotic laxative commercial might be a little out of the accepted scope of today's advertisements, his hypothetical description of the commercial is surprisingly familiar.  Barry's scene of "actors dressed up as hard-working country folk, maybe at a church picnic, smiling at each other, eating apple pie" (520), while stereotypical to say the least, is certainly a viable stage for a current television commercial.

DiCicco 3

       In conclusion, Barry reinforces something that isn't always obvious to the viewer of a commercial.  Often times the commercial is selling a product that by itself is hard to promote.  One look at a glass of beer doesn't distinguish it from any other beer or any other beverage, for that matter.  One look at a package of laxatives doesn't give anyone a good feeling inside.  But by taking the viewer's attention away from the product and distracting him or her, the advertisement can literally sell anything.

© 2003, Stephen DiCicco

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