Rhetorical Planning and Invention

Effective communicating is not easy; it issues from a careful balance of many activities.  A writer or a speaker must consider the topic, his or her role as a communicator, and, of course, the audience's expectations or needs.  Communication is a skillful "juggling" act.  Written communication (which people use less frequently than oral communication) especially requires the orchestration of various complex activities.  The ability to orchestrate these activities demands practice, and, even when people master it, their writing involves continual revision.  "Clearly," Erika Lindemann explains, "writing is a messy business, rarely in real life as tidy as textbook descriptions portray it.  We don't begin at step one, 'Find a topic,' and follow an orderly sequence of events to 'proofread the paper'" (A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers 23).

The "messy business" that leads to effective communication will figure prominently in a successful CAC program.  One of the guiding concerns (if not the primary concern) of a CAC program is a concern for helping students understand the importance of preparation in effective communication.  Consequently, a CAC class should provide students with opportunities to develop their projects.

David Jolliffe of DePaul University suggests that the development stage of communication is the point where writing instruction should begin.  Because this stage of writing is so important, he prefers the name "communicating throughout the curriculum" rather than "communication across the curriculum."  The preposition across suggests communication work that appears at the surface of a course, he explains, rather than communication work that lies in the depths of a course.  "Across the curriculum" suggests a stone skipping across a stream. "Throughout the curriculum" indicates a curriculum that makes communication integral, including all stages of writing and speaking in instruction.  Merely assigning communication projects and grading them will not promote better communication.  Instructors need to provide students with a forum to learn how to communicate effectively (SIUC Communication Across the Curriculum Lecture Series, 23 April 1999).

Often, this concern for the preparatory stages of communication is called the "process approach" to writing or speaking.  This approach emphasizes the idea that effective communication emerges from a process of assessing rhetorical situations and developing written or spoken texts that meet the needs of those situations.  This concern for process, however, does not condone poor communication.  Rather, it incorporates the development stage of communicative acts in the class so that students' projects do not have the complexion of a first-draft or the marks of haste.

Students' communicative difficulties usually are related to two aspects of communication: (1) the development of compelling information and (2) the use of effective modes of conveyance.   Students often have trouble discovering interesting ideas for the rhetorical situations presented by class projects; they often have trouble using critical thought to write; and they often ignore the importance of  "cognitive dissonance" in the development of effective communication.  Furthermore, they often do not critique the presentation of their ideas.   As a result, they often offer incomplete work as final products.

Composition research over the past two decades confirms that most students do not revise . . . as the term revise is understood by expert writers. . . . Of course students think they are revising, but usually they are merely editing -cleaning up spelling, tinkering with sentences, playing with punctuation. What they submit to [instructors] for grades, by and large, are first drafts that exhibit the problems typical of most first drafts, even those of expert writers: confused purpose, inadequate development, rambling organization, uncertain audience, lack of clarity. (Bean Engaging Ideas 29)

So instructors must introduce students to the process of communication (the messy business) if they want their students to avoid the underdeveloped and the unclear; they need to provide students with the opportunity to "get their rhetorical hands dirty."  From hard work, effective communication comes, and good communication instruction will make such hard work part of the course, requiring students to plan their rhetorical approaches and to prepare their major course projects carefully.

Since the development of ideas and revision pose problems for students, when you introduce your students to the difficult process of communication, you should consider treating

1.       Invention of ideas and exploration of subjects

2.       Development and organization of ideas

3.       Concern for audience and the standards of the rhetorical situation

You should use this preparatory work to promote sincere attempts to communicate, to encourage rhetorical risk-taking (guided by an assignment's criteria), and to habituate students to the conventions of a discipline.  If you provide students with the opportunity to work on course projects in these three areas, the major course projects will more likely posses the sheen of hard work and careful development than if you simply present assignments and then collect them.

For many the students communication poses a significant problem immediately; from the start, many are often paralyzed by the inability to "say something."  Instructors often compound this paralysis by their concern for critical thinking, their interest in seeing new ideas and not regurgitation's of their lectures.

You should not abandon any concern for critical thinking or interest in seeing students present their own ideas, nor should you abandon your desire to see evidence of this thought and these ideas in their work.  Critical thinking should remain the mark of good communication.  Instead, you should provide your students with opportunities to explore ideas as part of the course work, guiding them in this exploration, and requiring them to demonstrate their thinking about course projects before they are due. 

This stage of the communication is often called prewriting or invention, and there are a variety of ways to encourage students to investigate their topics in ways that lead to effective communication.  Regardless of the approach, the key to effective invention strategies (often called heuristics) is the creation of cognitive dissonance.  Students must be prompted to investigate the various aspects of their topics, to awaken, as John Bean explains, "to the existence of problems all around them."  Students must have the chance to learn how to render issues problematic so that they can resolve these problems and, after this work, have "something to say."

Freewriting.  The easiest technique for promoting the exploration of a topic is the freewrite.  For this assignment, the student thinks about his or her topic and simply writes as much about it as he or she can in a limited amount of time.  Encourage them to capture all thoughts about their topic no matter how random these thoughts might be.  If you'll pardon the oxymoron for a moment, here are the basic "rules" of freewriting that students should follow:

Ø       Don't stop for anything

Ø       Go quickly without rushing

Ø       Never stop to correct, think of the exact word, etc.

Ø       Give your full attention, focus, and energy for the short amount of time you write (usually 5-15 minutes)

Freewriting is an effective way to guide students toward original and clear communication as soon as you assign a project.  If, for example, you are assigning an essay and wanted to approve students' topics or approaches, you could discuss the assignment and then have students freewrite on their potential topics or approaches for ten minutes in class.  After the ten minutes have passed, collect these freewrites; then, read them before the next class, make some brief comments or suggestions on them, and return them to the students in the next class.  These freewrites will not resemble an effective essay or speech. They will likely involve broad, unfocused, and wild thinking about a subject, and students should be told that such writing is not a substitute for carefully planned papers or presentations.  But these freewrites often galvanize creative and critical thought, and they will provide you with an opportunity to provide support and guidance as soon as students begin to formulate their papers, instead of after they have handed in a finished product.

In computer-assisted classrooms, students might be asked to turn off their monitors when they freewrite.  In doing so, they will be forced to generate text without the interference of that internal editor that often prevents people from generating ideas.  Monitors should be turned back on when the freewriting session is done.  At that point, what has been written can be reviewed, saved, or discarded.

Looping. If you wish to have your students focus these freewrites on their own, you could have them use "looping" (or "focused freewriting") as a mode of invention.  When students employ looping, they use a series of freewrites to guide their thoughts about a subject toward a particular topic that they can treat in a paper or a presentation.

Have your students freewrite about a topic for ten minutes.  Then, have them select some aspect of the freewrite and freewrite for ten minutes on this aspect, and then freewrite a third time on an aspect of their second freewrite.  These freewriting "loops" will help many students narrow their topics, develop thesis statements, and often subordinate their multiple thoughts about a subject to a thesis statement so that they can logically discuss these various aspects in their work.

Clustering.  Students often have difficulty relating various aspects of a topic; they often have trouble engaging in the critical thinking that renders topics complex and, consequently, interesting.  Clustering assists students in discovering a variety of issues to address under a primary topic.

In clustering, students start with a main idea and draw a matrix of circles, squares, and lines that represent ideas and their relationship to one another.  The matrix, which will resemble a Tinkertoy model, will ideally suggest various facets of a topic and the way in which they can be related and developed. This approach to invention aids in the development of logical structures that students will usually need to compose course projects.

Classical Topics.  Likely the oldest method of rhetorical invention, the topics (or topoi) come from classical rhetoricians and logicians such as Aristotle, Cicero, and Boethius.  Today's adaptation of the topics focuses on five aspects, and each involves a series of questions. The following list appears in Erika Lindemann's A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers (82-83).

A. Definition

1.       How does the dictionary define __________?

2.       What earlier words did __________ come from?

3.       What do I mean by __________?

4.       What group of things does __________ seem to belong to?

5.       What parts can __________ be divided into?

6.       Does __________ mean something now that it didn't years ago? If so, what?

7.       What other words mean approximately the same as __________?

8.       What are some concrete examples of __________?

9.       When is the meaning of __________ misunderstood?

B. Comparison

1.       What is __________ similar to? In what ways?

2.       What is __________ different from? In what ways?

3.       __________ is superior to what? In what ways?

4.       __________ is inferior to what? In what ways?

5.       __________ is most unlike what? In what ways?

6.       __________ is most like what? In what ways?

C. Relationship

1.       What causes __________?

2.       What are the effects of __________?

3.       What is the purpose of __________?

4.       Why does __________ happen?

5.       What is the consequence of __________?

6.       What comes before __________?

7.       What comes after __________?

D. Testimony                      

1.       What have I heard people say about __________?

2.       Do I know any facts or statistics about __________?

3.       Have I talked with anyone about __________?

4.       Do I know any famous or well-known saying about __________?

5.       Can I quote any proverbs or any poems about __________?

6.       Are there any laws about __________?

7.       Do I remember any songs about __________? Do I remember anything I've read about __________ in books or magazines? Anything I've seen in a movie or on television?

E. Circumstance

1.       Is __________ possible or impossible?

2.       What qualities, conditions, or circumstances make __________ possible or impossible?

3.       Supposing that __________ is possible, is it also feasible? Why?

4.       When did __________ happen previously?

5.       Who has done or experienced __________?

6.       Who can do __________?

7.       If __________ starts, what makes it end?

8.       What would it take for __________ to happen now?

9.       What would prevent __________ from happening?

Tagmemics.  This form of invention was developed by Richard Young, Alton Becker, and Kenneth Pike (Rhetoric: Discovery and Change [New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1970]).  The heuristic emphasizes the importance of multiple perspectives, and it encourages students to see how one subject can be treated as multiple subjects.  This heuristic particularly encourages students to find relationships and to analyze their topic.

Tagmemics requires the analysis of a subject in three ways: (1) as unit (2) as a wave (3) as a field.  These three analytical approaches are each expanded by asking how the subject contrasts with others (as a unit, wave, and field), how the subject can change (as a unit, wave, and field) and still remain the same, and, finally, how is it distributed in a larger system (as a unit, wave, and system).  

For example, if a student were investigating the 1991 Gulf War, he or she would begin to examine the event by looking at the war as one unit-an entity called the Gulf War-and then examine this unit:

Ø       By comparing it to other martial units (the invasion of Panama, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the World Wars)

Ø       By establishing the parameters that define it as the Gulf War (the invasion of Kuwait, the participation of other countries)

Ø       By seeing how it fits into a larger system (U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the Cold War and its end, the global economy)

The student would then proceed to treat the subject as wave and as a field and analyze it by comparison, establishment of parameters, and placement in a larger field.

Burke's Pentad. Kenneth Burke, philosopher and rhetorician, has developed what he calls a pentad of generating principles that can be used to investigate the attributing of motives. He developed these principles after asking the question, "What is involved, when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it?" (A Grammar of Motives, Berkeley: U of California P, 1969; xv).  Whenever we make a well rounded statement about the motives of human action, says Burke, we will perforce say something about the act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. As might be expected, most statements about human motives are not well rounded, so the pentad helped Burke isolate the particular slant of a given philosophy.

Burke intended the pentad to be a form of rhetorical analysis, a method readers can use to identify the rhetorical nature of any text, group of texts, or philosophical system that seeks to identify the basis of human motivation.  He found that particular texts tended to highlight one of the key terms as the "titular" term.  (For instance, Marxism and Marxist texts tend to privilege scene as the ultimate ground of human motivation.)  Burke also used the pentad to "open" a text to multiple perspectives.  We can identify an "act" in a text, then investigate how the other terms are related.  As the "act" is described we may find an author noting aspects of scene, purpose, etc., but not mentioning "agency." It's Burke's point that any "well-rounded" account of human action must include some reference to the five elements of the pentad.  Writers have also found that the pentad is a useful method of generating ideas.

Here is the entire pentad, with a brief description of what each term suggests:

act-names what took place, in thought or deed.  What was done?

scene-the background of the act, the situation in which it occurred.  When or where was it done?

agent-names what person or kind of person or people performed the act. Who did it?

agency-names what means or instruments the agent used.  How and with what was the act performed?

purpose-suggests why the agent performed the act

It would be possible, for example, to generate ideas about why a university (such as ours) would want to develop a Communication Across the Curriculum program using the Pentad, as follows:

act-the creation of a communication across the curriculum program

scene-a state university responsible for preparing a literate citizenry

agent-faculty and (more particularly) campus constituencies such as the Faculty Senate, the Core Curriculum Executive Committee, and the UEPC, as well as the University's administration

agency-a CAC Task Force, a website, workshops, this "guide"

purpose-to improve the educational experience of undergraduates and to foster the professional development of faculty

Note that much hinges on how each component of the pentad is defined when applied to a specific situation.  Students can be coached to deliberately experiment with the arrangement.  Rename the act, for instance, as "breaking down artificial disciplinary boundaries and fostering 'interconnectivity'" and the rest of the terms help generate new ways of seeing CAC.  The purpose of applying the pentad in this way is not to simply arrive at single answers, but to generate many possible explanations for human action.

Although these terms of the pentad may at first seem much like the journalist's questions-who, what, when, why, where, etc.-they differ in that each of the terms is related to another.  (This fact makes the pentad ultimately much more powerful.)  It is possible to discuss the ratios between terms of the pentad by asking, for example, "How does the scene influence the act?"  Here are all the possible ratios: 

Ask, "How does the ________ influence the __________?

act-scene          scene-agent      agent-agency     agency-purpose

act-agent           scene-agency    agent-purpose               

act-agency        scene-purpose

act-purpose

Each of the ratios can be reversed also.  For instance, rather than asking how the act influenced the scene, we can ask how the scene influenced the act.

Students will find as they work that the pentad helps them discover those areas of their subjects that they need to know more about, which is part of its power.  They may find that they need to do some research, that the text they're analyzing doesn't supply very good answers to some of the questions they ask of it, or that they need to develop certain ideas further. 

Once students have chosen topics and successfully explored them, they have only taken the first step.  In fact, successful invention might seem to set students a step backward: They should have more information than they could actually use in their projects, and this wealth of information might frustrate students' attempts to communicate their knowledge; they will not know how to successfully organize all the information that they have quarried.  As a result, writing assignments usually are more effective when they provide students with an opportunity to discover effective ways for the development, organization, and presentation of the material that they have.

This organization period may be the most crucial in the writing process . . . and the most overlooked.  Often, students will offer exploratory writing as final products.  Instructors should thus take great care to encourage students to discover effective organization techniques and modes of presentation, and they should provide students with particular guides for developing their work.  These guides can range in formality and involvement-from outlines to drafts of the project. Regardless of the form, a guide should provide students with an opportunity to let you know how their work is progressing.  As John Bean explains, developing writers need attention in their writing processes (Engaging Ideas 221).  Below are some ideas for giving students an opportunity to develop their work.

Talk-Write. This mode of project preparation is particularly effective for students who are not able to perceive problems in their arguments.  In this method of organization, students explain their topic to an instructor or a classmate.  The auditor takes notes and raises questions as the student explains the topic and makes his or her points.  After he or she has finished, the student and the auditor discuss the points of the argument or explanation that were strong and the points that were weak.  After the student has discussed the topic and the project with the auditor, he or she then uses the notes to draft the project.

The talk-write is an effective technique to use for written work, because it forces the writer to pay attention to audiences.  Furthermore, it aids in the development of oral communication skills that can be lost in a course that emphasizes written work.

Group Debate.  In classical rhetoric, the organization of a speech often included a confutation, the argument that dismissed an opponent's objections.  When developing writers or speakers make arguments, they often ignore this aspect of effective argument, and, as a result, their topics lack development.  One way to encourage development is to force students to refute objections, and a group debate may help students encounter and answer objections.

To use a group debate, you could have one student present a tentative argument for the topic. Then, you would allow students to choose sides, supporting or opposing this argument. After the two groups of students have had an opportunity to marshal their arguments, you could moderate a debate between the two sides.  This interaction would help students see how their topics might need to be developed and explained. 

Such debates would be difficult to use if all the class members were addressing different topics in course projects; a series of debates would likely use too much class time. But this approach to encouraging the development of course projects could work if students were treating the same topic or similar topics in their projects.

Like the talk-write, the debates encourage students to think about what their audiences will expect and accept as organizational strategies and what topics they will want treated. They also foster effective oral communication and emphasize the connection between writing and speaking that lies at the foundations of a CAC program.

Abstracts. Abstracts will effectively promote the development of clear theses and supporting arguments.  Require students to write and submit abstracts before a project is due. Then, respond to the abstracts, indicating points at which their arguments seem plausible and points at which the students might run into trouble.

Abstracts are particularly effective for focusing those students who tend to let their arguments drift and tend to overwrite.  When they are forced to write their argument in two-hundred words, such prolix students often discover one of the most important features of effective communication-concision.

Prospectus.  Like the abstract, the prospectus immediately requires students to focus their arguments and provide some ideas of their supporting claims before they begin writing.  The prospectus, John Bean explains, will guide the students away from writing and speaking that is merely accumulative (and then, and then, and then) and tends toward a large "information dump" (Engaging Ideas 222).

Unlike the abstract, the true prospectus also provides the instructor with a way to "check up" on the students' approaches to their projects since a prospectus should include a thesis statement or question, a short explanation of the topic and brief literature review, an explanation of the intended methods of investigation or research, an indication of tentative arguments, a schedule, and a working bibliography.  When the students provide this material, you will have a good idea about each student's topic and approach.

Microthemes. This mode of argument development requires students to design concise and well-supported arguments in a small number of words.   As the Kansas University "Writing Consulting: Faculty Resources" website explains, microthemes are short and pithy writings that clearly explain an issue or make an argument.  Students usually compose these microthemes on 5"x 8" note cards, and the limited space necessitates compressed but clear writing.  To use the microtheme assignment, distribute note cards to students and then require them to make the arguments of their papers on the note cards, touching upon each main point and relating it to the point before and the overall thesis.  "Microthemes are useful in both large and small classes because they involve limited writing (and, therefore, less grading) while forcing maximum thinking, thus placing responsibility with the student" ("Writing Consulting: Faculty Resources").

These themes can take a variety of forms.  Students can be asked to write summary themes, in which they summarize a topic or an argument of another author.  Or they can be given a problem-solving microtheme assignment, in which they must solve and explain a problem.  These two forms help students prepare parts of their own work; the summary microtheme, for instance, might supply a student with the first section in which he or she explains a position that he or she will refute.  Students can use a theme to prepare their own arguments by writing thesis-support microthemes, in which they present their theses and their supporting evidence.

Though the microtheme might appear to resemble an outline, you should likely avoid turning the microtheme into a hierarchical presentation of the argument.  The advantage of the microtheme is that it should be a compressed version of the major project, and, therefore, should read more smoothly than an outline.  If students treat the microtheme as a small version of a project-rather than a numbered list of their main points-they will likely have less difficulty making transitions between ideas when they develop the final versions of their projects.  (For more information on microthemes see John Bean, Dean Drenk, and F. D. Lee's  Microtheme Strategies for Developing Cognitive Skills.)

Exploratory Essay. This assignment works well for students who are having difficulty "discovering" a thesis for a project.  Rather than having students present and defend a thesis, the exploratory essay requires them to find one.  "The assignment typically asks students to propose a problem and then to write a narrative of their own thought process in trying to think through the problem," John Bean explains (Engaging Ideas 92).  This assignment encourages students to make the projects their own and develop theses with which they can work.

This organizational tool resembles the prospectus because it requires students to suggest paths that they might explore in an argument and ideas that they wish to canvass.  Unlike the prospectus, it will not require a rigid presentation of ideas that are as developed as those in a prospectus.

Bean suggests that instructors assign this exploratory essay as an intermediate step in the development of a project. In fact, you could use this assignment after a prospectus in order to encourage students to reassess their ideas and how their projects are reflecting them.  The exploratory essay is metarhetorical-it requires students to write about the development of texts that will present their ideas.  Therefore, the exploratory essay effectively promotes critical thinking.   When people analyze their own thinking (and communication), they often experience cognitive dissonance [LINK]; this intellectual "turbulence" requires them to reassess their ways of thinking and communicating and refine both.   Bean extols the exploratory essay for its ability to lead students to more advanced levels of thought and communication: "Because the subject matter of the exploratory essay is the student's thinking process, the essay encourages and rewards critical thinking while giving teachers wonderful insights into the intellectual lives (and study habits) of their students" (Engaging Ideas, 93).

Rough Draft.  The rough draft is "workhorse" of the process approach to communication instruction.  Though it has become a regular feature of writing classes (and some other classes), it remains an effective approach to guiding students toward good communication projects.

An easy way to assess students' development of ideas is to require a rough draft of a project a couple of weeks before it is due. You can examine the drafts and make recommendations to the students for improving their work.  (An effective way to respond to students' drafts is to record your reactions on an audio tape that the student supplies.)

The advantages of the rough draft are (1) students actually develop the project in the form in which the project will finally appear and (2) they receive the instructor's feedback on their ability to meet the particular requirements of a rhetorical situation.  Thus, students who compose and submit rough drafts with a genuine interest in receiving constructive criticism will likely better understand the modes of communication required by a certain rhetorical situation.  If mastering a particular form of communication is a major goal of a course, you should likely consider using the rough draft as a facet in the process of communication projects.

Project Development Process (The Inquiry Contract).  One way to encourage students to spend time on their communication projects, develop and organize their ideas, and strengthen their ability to convey information clearly and trenchantly is to require that they work on one subject all semester.  David Jolliffe contends that this approach effectively introduces students to a scholarship in a discipline because they will engage in the same activities that expert scholars in the field do: they will spend time with one subject, explore it, and work their discoveries into a final paper or presentation (SIUC Communication Across the Curriculum Lecture Series, 23 April 1999).

Jolliffe refers to this approach as an Inquiry Contract.  Students in his courses agree to research contracts that they fulfill during the course of the semester.  The contract has five stages:

Ø       A Contract Proposal that requires students to explain their subject, suggest some parameters for their research, and indicate why the subjects interest them and how studying them will be beneficial;

Ø       A Clarification Project that requires students to explain what they already know about their subjects, to reflect their feelings and thoughts about the subjects, and to suggest how they might develop their understanding of the subjects;

Ø       An Information Project that requires students to learn something about their subjects and report what they learned; this project could be an annotated bibliography, an interview, or a literature review, or even a newspaper or magazine article;

Ø       An Exploration Project that requires students to foster intellectual "turbulence" by investigating the many facets and problems of their subjects, asking a number of questions and offering a number of answers for each question; and

Ø       A Working Document Project that requires students to compose a text that convinces an audience to change their minds and take a particular action; this project could be a speech, a conference presentation, or a journal article

The advantage of this approach is that students will have fully explored their subjects and worked with the subjects in a variety of communicative modes before they compose their final projects.  The result should be projects that display in-depth understanding and communicative facility.

For some instructors, Jolliffe's Inquiry Contract project might seem like less work for the students than a number of discrete projects: If the students only treat one topic all semester, then they are not engaging enough material.

The Inquiry Project does not necessarily mean less work for students-if instructors use it correctly.  Even if students only treat one subject during the semester, they will be expected to treat their topics with a level of expertise that shorter projects do not require.  Furthermore, students can be required to treat broad subjects that they explore from a variety of perspectives. Thus, for example, a Western Literary Tradition instructor might direct a student interested in the heroic ideal in Homer to investigate this ideal and its appearance in the Western literary tradition.  The student might, then, compare the Homeric heroes to other heroes in Western literary works that are covered during the semester (Gilgamesh, Aeneas, Arthur, Roland, Don Quixote, Joseph Andrews).  Such a project would ensure that the student engages a variety of ideas.

This approach might also improve class discussions.  If each student becomes an expert on a topic or theme-the literature class might have hero experts, love experts, father-son relationship experts, mother-daughter relationship experts-then each student will have a particular perspective on each topic in the course to which an instructor could refer.  The student who is a hero expert, for example, could be a "featured" speaker one day when the class is discussing Dante's Divine Comedy. This student would suggest ways to view the protagonist as a Homeric hero.