Rhetorical Paper

 Wade Webster

Zuzu Feder

Writing 101

9-15-2014

Analysis of

Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively

by Margaret Kantz

I've always had trouble writing research papers in a manner that would emphasize the information in a way that would help prove the thesis of my paper. I had never been taught any specific style of process to express my opinion or prove information. This was extremely difficult, because I could not write about topics while I only stated facts and never anything analytical or thought provoking. Margaret Kantz however wrote this article called “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively” about the processes needed to write a solid research paper. It focused strictly on how to analyze research and other factual sources. Kantz first discussed a girl named Shirley who was writing a paper. She could not go into great depth about her research area, the Battle of Agincourt, but she could only retell information that had been given to her. Then Kantz goes on to talk about a theory of thought called Kinneavey's Triangle. After that the differences between facts and opinions are discussed. Finally Kantz discusses a process of constantly producing questions while reading any text. This is all what Kantz believes and wants to spread to her audience.

Margaret Kantz is the author of this piece and she taught at the University of Central Missouri for twenty-one years before retiring. She is a very smart woman who has taught multiple English classes such as Freshman English, World Literature, and Advanced Rhetoric. She also holds a doctorate degree in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University (Margaret (Peggy) Kantz). In 1990, Kantzs' article was published by the College English, which is a peer reviewed journal with editions published once every other month. College English was first published in 1939 and is still in operation today. This journal, which is directed at college writing teachers and graduate students, focuses on topics such as literacy, rhetoric and other common reading and writing theories (College English). In this article, the amount of data shown is very limited, but the impact it has is very strong. In the findings by James E. Ford and Dennis R. Perry written in Research Paper Instruction in the Undergraduate Writing Program, only 84% of college freshman composition course and 40% of advanced course give any instructions on the writing of research papers (Ford, James E., and Dennis R. Perry). Kantz wrote this article to get her point across about using her methods to write a research paper, but she had written this for specifically college professors and also graduate and undergraduate students. She makes the statement that many classes are not teaching their students the correct way to write research papers or let alone interpret textual sources accurately. She is writing this paper to help these students learn the accurate technique that should be implemented. In my personal opinion she did this in a very effective manner. She had poised all of her points strongly and supported them with accurate descriptions and evidence.

Kantzs' article starts off with a description of common mistakes made by students. As described earlier, Shirley was used as an example of such mistakes. She was a very smart student and had always been able to succeed in school with ease, but one assignment she was assigned made her realize that she had been lacking in one certain area of literacy comprehension. She could not analyze information given to her about her topic and in the end received a C- on her paper. Shirley then consulted help from her friend, Alice, who taught her ways of properly analyzing a textual source. Processes such as identifying bias in the sources is very helpful to easily understand the topic better and the author of the source. Like the old saying goes, “the victor writes the textbooks,” and this is incredibly accurate in that only the information the successor wants released will be released. If after a war, would the winner want to document any war crimes they had committed, or would they rather document in great detail the war crimes the enemy had committed? The answer is quite obviously the latter, as he wants to make his actions seem just and convince the audience that they had done justice. This is exactly what readers must identify as they read different texts. The reader must also think about cultural differences in texts. An author at Woodstock would have a much different view on the use of drugs compared to an author who is an elderly individual during the 1950's. Kantz then goes on to talk about a theory of interpretation of texts called Kinneavey's Triangle. This triangle is made up of terms needed to understand any literacy pieces. These terms are encoder, decoder, and reality. The encoder is the author of the piece and is named this because of his ability to inscribe details into the page. The decoder is the audience, and they must discover the message of the encoder. The reality is the subject of the matter being written or read. The basis of this triangle is that the decoder stops at each point and poses questions such as “Am I the intended audience?” This is important, because if done correctly the reader should be actively thinking about the piece while reading and will leave the reading completely understanding it. Lastly, Kantz moves to a point about the difference between facts and opinions. She states that both are presenting information to the audience, but the difference between the two is the way the audience interprets the new knowledge.

This new information is interesting, but what is the purpose of it all. First, talking about Shirley having trouble reading the texts. She had been reading these texts like a story, similar to young kids reading the Magic Tree House books. During elementary school as the teacher read to the class about Jack and Annie going back to the age of dinosaurs, the students believed absolutely everything that was in the book. This is wrong to do as a student writer in college, because as you read you should not be accepting everything that is presented to you. Like my high school physics teacher, Mr. Like, frequently stated, “we are scientists, and scientists don't accept anything to be 100% truthful.” Nothing can be guaranteed that is found in a textbook. There are too many outside variables that could have affected the writing of it, such as politics, economics, or religious factors. Shirley also needs to learn the difference between fact and opinion in order to implement the most effective writing possible. As stated earlier the difference between the two is how the audience takes in the information and how much they believe it. If the writer doesn't state their claim with confidence the audience will most likely consider it an opinion as they have no reason to believe it. In writing, the author must put their facts or opinions, regardless of what they are, on the paper in a manner that will help them prove their point. This will help Shirley prove her thesis of any essay every time.

Margaret Kantz wrote this article in the hopes of teaching students and teachers the proper way to compose a research paper. This is important in college especially, because as the number of papers assigned rises, the skill needed to write better papers must also increase. This is Kantzs' goal as she described the story of Shirley and her improvements from the help of her friend Alice. Shirley learned to not believe everything that was presented to her and to not read texts and books as stories but as what they are, sources of information. She also learned that bias views are also present in texts and the reader should be weary of them. Kantz also wanted to emphasize the process of using Kinneavey's triangle. This was very important to her in that she believed this was the basis for the complete understanding of a text. In my opinion, Kantz did a very spectacular job explaining her process of creating a perfect research paper.

Sources Cited

"College English." NCTE Comprehensive News. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2014”

“Ford, James E., and Dennis R. Perry. JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014”

"Margaret (Peggy) Kantz." Margaret Kantz. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014”