poltcorner.blogg.se - Common rhetorical moves in biography

As Chapter 7 of Turabian states, “The centerpiece of your introduction is your disruptive research question ,” also known as a problem statement. Most students are familiar with the idea of claims (thesis statements), but they are less familiar with questions or problems–and this lesson seeks to foreground their importance. (While Kate Turabian identifies a fourth move, “ significance ,” we see significance as tightly linked to the question or problem and talk about it with students accordingly.)

They respond to this question or problem with a claim, an answer, or the promise of an answer.

They disrupt that stable context with a question or a problem, highlighting something debatable or not yet known that this reader cares or should care about.

They say something about the current situation, creating common ground with the imagined reader and offering some background.

Introductions to academic arguments typically include three main rhetorical moves: We can introduce this notion through how we teach introductions, the moment in an essay where the writer must enlist readers to engage.

But the ability to imagine and write for a reader who could genuinely learn from the student’s argument is, in fact, critical to a rhetorically effective essay.

It is hard for many student writers to imagine a reader other than their instructor, who by definition knows a lot more than they do about the matter at hand.