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Grounds for Writers: Critical Perspectives for Reading
Jeanne Gunner, Chapman University
Doug Sweet, Chapman University

ISBN-10: 0321055292
ISBN-13: 9780321055293

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2008
Format: Paper; 656 pp
Published: 10/29/2007

Suggested retail price: $50.00
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Through the lenses of four critical frames, Grounds for Writing shows students how texts can be read from different perspectives and how those perspectives can shape their own writing. 

 

    The three chapters that make up Part 1 are devoted to reading and writing critically. These chapters also give basic coverage of critical methods and explain how to analyze texts rhetorically using critical frames.

    Parts 2 to 5 each cover a critical frame–Psychoanalytic (Part 2), Materialist (Part 3), Postcolonial (Part 4), and Semiotic (Part 5).  

Each Part opens with an  introduction that covers the key concepts and rhetorical issues associated with the frame.  The first chapter in each Part   (Chapters 4, 7, 11, and 15 )  includes  primary source readings--for example in Chapter 4 students read an excerpt from Freud on psychoanalysis, in Chapter 7 they read  excerpts from Karl Marx. To help students see how to apply the critical frames to their own writing, these chapters conclude with a section called  “Applying the Frame: A Sample Drafting Process.”  These sections use the film Jurassic Park  to  illustrate  how different critical frames pose different ways of seeing a single text and lead to different interpretations.  Students are also shown  how each frame uses different rhetorical approaches.

    The balance of the chapters ( 5-6,  8-10, 12-14, and 16-17) include readings that students analyze from  the point of view of the  critical frame being studied. Every reading is followed by discussion questions and writing assignments end each chapter.  Each Part concludes with writing projects  that ask student to write about  contemporary issues from the perspective  of the critical frame. Assignments are varied and allow students to submit their projects  as conventional essays or in a genre of their choice.

 

  • Part One gives students the key rhetorical tools they need to read critically and write effectively.
  • The four critical frames that comprise Parts 2 to 5 are introduced simply with a minimal number of terms and concepts.  
  • The wide range of readings, all  chosen with student accessibility in mind, are drawn from both academic and popular culture and include classic authors (Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx) to contemporary voices (Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Paul Theroux, Nancy Mairs).   Each reading is followed by discussion questions that can be the basis of class discussion or assigned as brief writing assignments. 
  • Each frame includes a section showing students how to use the interpretative frame in their writing. Using the film  Jurassic Park,  students see the rich source of interpretation the frames provide.  Should an instructor prefer to use a different film or text,  the Instructor’s Manual provides the needed instruction.
  • The Writing Assignments that end each chapter ask students to develop responses that are rhetorically effective and  address the interrelationship of author, audience, and purpose. Each Part concludes with research-based Writing Projects that ask student to write about contemporary issues from the perspective  of the critical frame.
  • The chapters are not sequenced and instructors can select among the sections and readings to suit their own classroom goals. 

Preface to Instructors       

 

PART I             Establishing the Grounds for Writing: Rhetorical Theory and Critical Frames   

                 

Chapter One     The Basics of Rhetoric: Author, Audience, and Purpose

Author: Persona, Stance, and Voice

Rhetorical Analysis: Looking at/for the Author

Audience: Creating Community

Rhetorical Analysis: Finding the Audience

Purpose: Arguing to Persuade

Reading for Author, Audience, and Purpose                             

Rhetorical Analysis: What Does Effective Persuasive Prose Look Like?

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Two     Rhetorical Uses of Critical Frames

Frames, Lenses, Perspectives

Rhetorical Analysis: Using Frames to Shape Meaning

Rhetorical Uses of Critical Frames

Rhetorical Analysis: Reading for Persuasive Strategies

Reading for Critical Frames and Rhetorical Choices

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Three     The Rhetorical Use(s) of Conventions

A Rhetorical Approach to Writing Conventions

Rhetorical Analysis: Writing as a Social Situation

Genre, Thesis, Voice

Rhetorical Analysis: Working with Thesis and Voice through Genre

Genre and Organization

Rhetorical Values over Time

Writing Assignments

 

PART II            The Psychoanalytic Frame

Introduction and Historical Origins

Adding to the Conversation

Rhetorical Issues in the Psychoanalytic Frame

 

Chapter Four     Exploring Psychoanalytic Frames

Jerome Kagan and Ernest Havemann, “Introduction to Psychoanalysis”

Sigmund Freud, from Civilization and Its Discontents

Terry Eagleton, “Psychoanalysis”

Writing from a Psychoanalytic Frame: A Sample Drafting Process

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Five     Critically Reading Case Studies

Jack Schaefer, from Shane

The Brothers Grimm, “Little Red Riding Hood”

 “Pygmalion and Galatea”

Roy Richard Grinker, “Pygmalion”

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Six     Connecting Texts and Audiences

Nancy Mairs, “On Touching by Accident”

Scott H. Decker and Barrik Van Winkle, from Life in the Gang

Jon Krakauer, from Into the Wild

Samantha Power, from A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide

Through a Psychoanalytic Frame

Writing Assignments

Writing Projects: Framing and Composing from a Psychoanalytic Perspective

 

PART III:         The Materialist Critique

Introduction: Linking Language, Ideology, and the Real World

Adding to the Conversation

 Rhetorical Issues in the Materialist Critique

 

Chapter Seven     Exploring the Materialist Critique

Karl Marx, from Critique of Political Economy

                                               

Friedrich Engels, from Conditions of the Working Class in England

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, from The German Ideology

Ignacio Martin-Baro, from Writings for a Liberation Psychology

Richard and Dorothy Wertz, from Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America

Writing from a Materialist Frame: A Sample Drafting Process

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Eight     Exploring  Social Values

Clarence J. Karier, from The Individual, Society and Education

E. D. Hirsch, Jr., from Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know

Jean Anyon, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Nine     Exploring Legal Values

Bruce Catton, from Reflections on the Civil War

Sidney Lens, from The Labor Wars

Through a Materialist Frame

Web Pages: “Three Days of Hell in Los Angeles”

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Ten     Exploring Corporate Values

Charles A. Reich, from The Greening of America

Neil Postman, from Amusing Ourselves to Death             

Thomas de Zengotita, “The Numbing of the American Mind”

Writing Assignments

Writing Projects: Framing and Composing from a Materialist Perspective

 

PART IV:         Working with Postcolonial Frames        

Introduction and Historical Origins

Adding to the Conversation

Identifying Rhetorical Issues in Postcolonial Critique          

                          

Chapter Eleven    Exploring Postcolonial Critique

Hans Bertens, “Postcolonial Studies”

Building the Frame    

Aime Cesaire, from Discourse on Colonialism

Building the Frame

David Henry Hwang, Afterword to M. Butterfly     

Building the Frame    

Writing from a Postcolonial Perspective: A Sample Drafting Process

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Twelve    Exploring Perceptions of “Others”

Paul Theroux, “Walkabout in Woop Woop”

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

Elizabeth Bumiller, “Beyond the Veil: The Women of the Village of

Khajuron”

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

Frantz Fanon, from Black Skin, White Masks

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Thirteen    Exploring Domestic Colonization

Victor Villanueva, “An American of Color”

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

Ann Fadiman, from The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Through a Postcolonial Frame

Jonathan Kozol, from Savage Inequalities

Through a Postcolonial Frame

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Fourteen   Exploring Resistant Voices and Rhetorical Forms

Gloria Anzaldua, “Towards a New Consciousness”

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

Jessica Enoch, “Inscribing Zitkala Sa”

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

bell hooks, “Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words”

Through a Postcolonial Frame        

Writing Assignments

Writing Projects: Framing and Composing from a Postcolonial Perspective                  

 

PART V:          Working with a Semiotic Frame

Introduction and Historical Origins

Adding to the Conversation

Identifying Rhetorical Issues in Semiotics

 

Chapter Fifteen     Exploring Semiotics

Paul Cobley and Litza Jansz, from Introducing Semiotics

Building the Frame

Jack Solomon,“Semiotics: The Science of the Sign”

Building the Frame

Roland Barthes, from Mythologies

Building the Frame

Writing from a Semiotics Frame: A Sample Drafting Process

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Sixteen    Exploring Cultural Myths

Dominick A. Miserandino, “Anthony Robbins, Anthony–Motivational Speaker and Author”

Through a Semiotics Frame

Anonymous, from Comp Tales

Through a Semiotics Frame

Francisco Jimenez, “The Circuit”

Through a Semiotics Frame

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Seventeen     Exploring Visual Signs

Cultural Texts:  A Syllabus; Contract; Brochures

Through a Semiotic Frame    

Writing Assignments

Writing Projects: Framing and Composing Semiotically

 

Alternative Table of Contents

 

WPA Outcomes for First-Year Composition

 

Glossary of Rhetorical and Critical Terms

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