Discussion: Understanding Context and Research Reflection

Questions for Analysis

What is Carroll saying about the nature of rhetorical analysis? How do the fundamentals of rhetorical analysis figure into your life, both as a student and as a citizen? Describe a pair of specific examples in which these concepts might play (or have played) a role in your participation in those areas.

Using at least one citation from Carroll’s essay, comment on the role of context in framing contemporary arguments. Is there enough contextual background on news stories, speeches, advertisements, and other areas of rhetoric in today’s digital information culture? How does the Washington Post’s proposed feature of the “Knowledge Map” (noted in this Shan Wang article

Links to an external site.) enrich the contemporary news environment?

Finally, in the second half of your essay, explain to your classmates the general features of your research argument. Using the taxonomies of reflection in the previous section as a guide, answer the following questions in your final four paragraphs:

What did you learn about your topic that you didn’t already know or that was surprising to you?

What is an area that you would like to improve upon as a writer moving forward, and which aspect of your research argument are you most proud of?

Finally, how do you see the subject of your research argument changing over the course of the next ten years? Where will it be in a decade’s time?

Where applicable, feel free to use hyperlinks to connect your essay to a resource or two in support of your answers.