pb2b:moves

Moves are present in every piece of writing.  I can examine the concept of moves while reading to give me a better sense of awareness of the text and to improve my writing style.  Here are a few examples of moves from the course reader that I found interesting:

• Introducing Quotations: “In fact, according to rhetorician Kenneth Burke, rhetoric is everywhere: ‘wherever there is persuasion…’” (Carroll, 47).
• It is okay to go straight into a quote, but to change things up and giving a little introduction before the quotation makes it less dull.  Giving a proper introduction of a quote gives the reader a preview of what is going to happen next and some background information of the circumstances surrounding the citation.
• Commonly used Transitions (contrast): “Instead, you took in the information and made an informed, and likely somewhat accurate, decision about that person” (Carroll, 46).
• The author may have used the transitional word instead to transition to the next sentence.  This allows the reading to be smoother, and it lets the reader know that the next sentence will be an opposition to the previous sentence.  This move transitions from a statement someone else says to an opposing statement he believes is true.  
• Establishing Why Your Claims Matter: “This is important because it’s the same thing you should be thinking about while you are writing…” (Bunn, 81).
•  Claiming that a matter is important allows a reader to know that it is important.  Without this move, it will be another random sentence with the same amount of significance as the others.  One must make sure an important claim stands out, even by simply mentioning that it is important.
• Signaling Who is Saying What: “And learning every genre would be impossible anyway, as Devitt notes that ‘no writing class could possibly…’” (Dirk, 259).
•  It is useful to let the reader know that Burke is the one who said/wrote what was in the quote to let the reader know who is speaking to them, and to give Burke credit for the original piece.  It is good to add several voices in an essay by adding in quotations, and extra research can be done by stating who was responsible for the original quote.  
• Explaining Quotations: “In other words, most of our actions are persuasive in nature” (Carroll, 47).
• Restating a quote in your own words reinforces the original quote and adds even more detailed analysis to the paper.  This is effective because providing a lot of analysis gives more support for a claim to prove that it is believable.  
• Italics tricks: “But notice that what most heightens this critical awareness is not so much the writing down of words in the first place, though of course that helps, but the coming back to a text and re-seeing it…” (Elbow, 58).
• The author used italics to distinguish certain words from the others.  It is an effective way to use it because it is not to distracting and it is legible, while it still creates a change to the format of the chosen word or phrase.
• The Additional Abbreviation: “For most college students RLW is a new way to read, and it can be difficult to learn at first” (Bunn, 75).
• This strategy makes it so that we don’t have to read all the words of that phrase each time, and it saves space.  Bunn uses the abbreviation RLW (reading like a writer) many times throughout the text, and it gets a bit annoying if he spells out the whole phrase each time it is used.  
• Big Bullets: Used in the beginning of Janet Boyd’s Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking) pg 88.
• Using bullet points is an effective way of communicating when trying to list multiple ideas of the same topic.  It makes it easier to read, as all the words are in a list instead of being congested within a paragraph.  Bullet points send an effective message that differs from the normal paragraph form and allows the reader to remember the information.  
• Multiple NOTS!: “Not like a teacher.  Not like a judge.  Not like an editor or critic” (Straub, 19).
• Throwing in the word not to start off three straight sentences emphasizes the peer editor how not to edit the paper.  Restating words multiple times throughout a paragraph, especially when put in a few sentences in a row, establishes a great way to put a point a point across to the reader.  
• Terrific Titles: “The Rhetorical Situation, Or Discerning Context” (Carroll, 48).  
• Putting in titles within a text is useful so that it separates the reading into several categories, and it allows the reader to know the topic of what he/she is going to read next.  It is effective because it allows the reader to take a break, process the information of the previous part, and then start reading about the next topic.