Elements of written communication: 1. Invention 2. Arrangement 3. Style

1. Elements of written communication: 1. Invention2. Arrangement3. Style

2. Strategy 1: Invention • Invention strategies help to generate material that is clear, forceful, convincing, and emotionally appealing • Journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why, how • 5 elements of Drama: Act (what happened), Scene (when and where did it happen), Agent (who did it), Agency (how was it done), Purpose (why was it done)

3. Intuitive Strategies • Free writing • Journaling • Conversation • Graphic organizers • Develop and inventory of material

4. Logical invention • Argument in all writing = more than one side; writer presents his view • Enthymeme shows logical relationships between ideas and beliefs; • Syllogisms (kind of enthymeme) = patterns of logic • Major premise = generalization • Minor premise = example, particular • Conclusion = logical idea following

5. Example • If major premise is not arguable, then syllogism is necessarily true • Major: All juniors must take English. • Minor: Mary is a junior. • Conclusion: Mary must take English.

6. Example • If major premise is arguable, then syllogism is not necessarily true • Major: All English teachers are always nice. • Minor: Ms. S is an English teacher. • Conclusion: Ms. S is always nice. • Watch out for qualifiers like all, never, only, and always!

7. Strategy 2: Arrangement • Order/Structure • Support different parts • Select the best ideas, examples, propositions from inventory • Decide how to order parts most effectively to achieve purpose

8. Genre • Choose type of composition based on context, purpose  varies • Beginning = central question, argument hints at development • Middle = reasons supported with examples, illustrations, details, stats • End = “so what?”, consider or act

9. Visual Arrangement • OPTIC: Helps students to interpret elements of visuals by looking at • Overview • Parts • Title • Interrelationships • Conclusion • Students can then compare and contrast the meaning of these visuals to the meaning of the text.

10. 3. Style • Need to write comes from the topic writer is inquiring about • Situation dictates choices • Jargon: insider status of writer, audience • You and I: analytical, academic v. personal • Contractions: formal v. informal • Passive v. Active voice • Active = Doer Action Receiver, stronger, forceful • Passive = Receiver Action (helping verb) by Doer; wordier, doer often concealed

11. Sentences • 4 types: function follows form • Simple • Compound • Complex • Compound-complex • Loose v. Periodic • Loose = basic with details at the end • Periodic = basic with details at the beginning or in the middle • Changes emphasis, fluency, speed, movement

12. Parallelism • Measured, deliberate, balanced • Same grammatical form in all parts of the sentence • Gettysburg Address

13. Diction • Word choice/types • Dictio = style of speech, not just pronunciation • Situation, genre, purpose

14. Word Choices • General v. Specific: concrete words are generally more useful to reader • Formal v. Informal: understand occasion, p/a agr  pick a gender or pluralize ant. • Latin v. Anglo Saxon: more formal, longer v. more direct, shorter • Slang v. Jargon: obscure meaning; signals membership • Denotation v. Connotation: literal v. loaded

15. Schemes and Tropes • Schemes: artful variation from typical word arrangement in a sentence (syntax) • Trope: artful variation from typical way a word or idea is expressed (diction) • A different way of saying something about the world or a different way of seeing something about the world

16. Schemes Involving Balance • Zeugma = parallel words, phrases, clauses governed by a single word usually a verb; highlights similarities (e.g., I will wash the car and the dog.) • Antithesis = parallel words, phrases, clauses that contrast; highlights differences (e.g., To err is human; to forgive, divine). • Antimetabole = words repeated in different grammatical forms (e.g., When the going gets tough, the tough get going).

17. Schemes Involving Interruption • Parenthesis = using dashes to set off words, phrases, or clauses; use ? or ! if an entire sentence acts as an interrupter • Appositive = two coordinating elements set side by side, the second modifying the first

18. Schemes Involving Omission • Ellipsis = any omission of words, the meaning of which provided in the overall context of the passage • Asyndeton = omission of conjunctions between related clauses

19. Schemes Involving Repetition • Alliteration = beginning, middle consonants in adjacent words • Assonance = vowels in stressed syllables • Anaphora = same words in beginning of clauses • Epistrophe = same words at end of successive clauses • Anadiplosis = rep. end of one clause at the beginning of next • Climax = rep. of words, phrases, clauses in increasing importance

20. Tropes of Comparison • Simile = explicit • Metaphor = implied • Synecdoche = part for the whole • Metonymy = entity referred by one of its attributes • Personification = inanimate  human • Periphrasis = descriptive word/phrase replaces proper noun

21. Tropes Involving Word Play • Pun = two meanings • Anthimeria = verb replaces a noun • Onomatopoeia = sound reflects meaning

22. Tropes Involving Statements and Meaning • Hyperbole = overstatement • Litotes = understatement • Irony = words mean opposite of literal def. • Oxymoron = words with contradictory meaning are juxtaposed • Rhetorical Question = poses to move the development of the idea along or suggest a point