Kantz Summary

Kantz Summary:

Shirley is an example of Kantz's average college student. She can paraphrase, summarize, and quickly pick out main ideas within a text. However, what she does lack is being able to rhetorically read and analyze a text. Kantz argues that the reason why students have issues finding an argument is because they do not want to find faults within facts and if they do, they just see it as some sort of error rather than a tool that might have served a purpose. She also states that students do not understand that facts and opinions are both claims and that the only difference between them is that facts are claims that are widely accepted by the audience without proof and that an opinion is a claim of which an audience asks for some proof. However, finding an argument within certain texts can be difficult. The more difficult the task is, the more likely the student will try to find shortcuts and simplify the assignment in a way that it may still match the requirements. Such actions, though, may result in an unorganized paper without any analysis but a bland compilation of previous arguments put together. In her essay, she uses Kinneavy's triangle that consists of three parts: the encoder or the writer, the decoder or the audience, and the reality or the topic. By asking and answering questions that transitioned between the parts, she says that the student could find or create an argument within their sources and synthesize them. Such techniques may be difficult to learn which is why the teacher must guide them on how to do so; to teach them how to do rhetorical reading. By doing so, the student learns to become creative in his or her paper.

AE 2:

During my years in high school, my English teachers seemed to contradict each other. My first teacher, Mrs. Shaw said that in our research papers, we are not allowed to state our opinion; however, my second English teacher, Mrs. Wryst, said that our thesis was supposed to have our opinion. Confused, I simply tried my best to write according to how my teachers wanted me to write. My first research paper was just spitting out information and trying to prove it. My second research paper was even worse and it really had no argument. My third research paper, the one where I was supposed to express my opinion, got the best grade out of all my research papers, but it might have been because that teacher was more lenient in her grading. It wasn't until my final English teacher, Mrs. Hall, when I learned that I was supposed to make an argument and a synthesis between the sources. Although, even then, my technique was a bit shaky. Being able to create an argument is definitely hard, especially when the topic seems too bland. Properly finding an argument and analyzing a text thoroughly seems like a technique that can only be mastered after a couple years of attempt. I do agree that creating an argument is plenty more interesting than just regurgitating information. Perhaps teachers should have more activities that ask the student to create arguments out of texts and to have exercises that ask for the students to create questions between the different parts of the triangle.