Ja’Najah White
ENGL 1001-025
Rhetorical Analysis-Rough Draft
9 Feburary 2020
Understanding “Inventing the University”
Being a teacher can be a little challenging, it’s not just about your tone of voice or how you present yourself. Teachers should be able to teach students at all levels; it doesn’t matter what subject you are introducing. In order to do that professors, have to understand the meaning of teaching professionalism. Dr. Bartholomae journal “Inventing the University” focuses on how the teachers should better themselves as an instructor so their students can better themselves as a writer. A teacher is the one who has all the power; they’re the ones who control what happens inside the classroom. Which means they shouldn’t pretend to be ones sitting on the opposite side being the apprentice. Teachers have the ability to gain research and figure out what is another reason for students to come from basic writers to excellent writers. A writer should write as if they are the readers trying to comprehend the writers’ story. A writer must connect with the reader’s expectations. The goal for teachers is to help students comprehend the main points of writing a paper. Every student falls into a different category of writing. Students are placed in different classroom levels based on their writing skills. Teachers scrutinize students writing so they should be more precise and helpful with the feedback for the student’s papers. Teachers should step out of their comfort zone by finding a way to help basic writers to improve.
- Purpose/Audience
Reading the article, Bartholomae “Inventing the University” focuses on how basic writers should connect with the readers before moving onto another argument dispute. This article is giving facts and information to teachers about how they should establish a student to be the insider instead of the outsider. Bartholomae has clarify students must follow traditional forms and genres as if they are a part of that centered area of rule (17). The narrator in the article educate teachers about how students should “speak the language of the university.” In order for this change students, teachers must allow students to draw their own conclusions. Leading students to believe that they are responsible for something new or original, unless they understand what those words mean with regard to writing, is a dangerous and counterproductive practice (Bartholomae 10). According to the author, teachers are the ones who should be able to help prep students in writing papers.
B. Content Analysis
It sometimes can be very hard for students to take control when writing papers. On page 7, Bartholomae argues that teachers “get neither a technical discussion nor an “academic” discussion but a Lesson on Life”. The ambition that teachers would like to see from students is to be more pedagogy being able to write to the readers as if they don’t have any clue of the subject. According to the author, students have to learn to adapt to the audience with creativity. (Bartholomae). I admit that teachers should start allowing their students to write more often to increase their writing skills. Schools focus on students taking multiple-choice tests rather than preparing them for a qualify writing class in college. The more students
write the more they will get the hang of writing to a specific audience while speaking the language of the university. It constitutes his authority as a writer and not just as a musician (that is, as someone with a story to tell) (Bartholomae 13). In the essay with the jazz music he writes as if its his own instead of being the musician playing the role.
C. Organization, language, and style – diction, word choice, jargon
In the beginning, reading the article it was a little hard of understanding. Continually reading it over and over you notice the article starts with a thesis then the back up evidence that allows us to see if the thesis is very true about it. Finally, there is a conclusion to sum up the information. This article is also known as a scholarly article which the vocabulary is very hard to comprehend. Once you organize the article and really break down vocabulary to where you can understand it the article all comes together to what the author purpose is saying.
D. Evidence – logos, pathos, ethos
“Inventing the University” is an article that states a topic to convince an audience by logic or reason. Throughout the article, Dr. Bartholomae uses a lot of college student’s essays as evidence to back up his purpose. Choosing many different types of essays shows the difference between a struggling student and a tremendous writer. “This is a failure of teachers and curriculum designers who, even if they speak of writing as a mode of learning, all often represent writing as a “tool” to be used by a (hopefully) educated mind” (Bartholomae 11). You will notice that he brings up a lot of teachers should better themselves as an educator. I feel that the evidence that is provided inside the article is very
acceptable. Another reason this evidence is very acceptable because it allows us to understand what the author is expressing.
E. Overall (close) Assessment
A writer should be able to write as if they are playing the role of the discourse community. On page 13, Bartholomae argues that “Anyone who improvises “knows” that improvisation follows rules and guidelines”. Creativity is a very strong term used in the English field. The writer of the jazz paper, you will notice the student doesn’t write as if she’s the musician. According to the author, students have to try to learn to write the action of meaning something for the commonplace to stand by itself (Bartholomae). I felt very astonished when reading this article. I didn’t know there was a key to writing papers. Bartholomae argues that students have to “speak in the voice and through the codes of those of us with power and wisdom”, which means they must be to put themselves in a position to where they’re the teachers.
III. Conclusion
The connection between me and “Inventing the University” is I am one of the writers who doesn’t write as if I am playing the part. Me being a university student I don’t try as a college student because my work is still a high school level. Inventing the University is not just about you reading any old article. Its about showing students to write as speaking the language of the discourse. By reading this article I think I should write more as a student to improve my writing skills. I also can apply “inventing the University” to my course work by allowing myself to be the educator ready to inform to other.
Works Cited
Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the university.” Journal of Basic Writing, vol. 5, no. 1, 1986, pp. 4-23.
Ja'Najah 