Stance in Writing PDF

# Stance Whenever you write, you have a certain stance, an attitude toward your topic. The way you express that stance affects the way you come across to your audience as a writer and a person. This email from a college student to his father, for example, shows a thoughtful, reasonable stance for a...

# Stance Whenever you write, you have a certain stance, an attitude toward your topic. The way you express that stance affects the way you come across to your audience as a writer and a person. This email from a college student to his father, for example, shows a thoughtful, reasonable stance for a carefully researched argument: Hi Dad, I'll get right to the point: I'd like to buy a car. I saved over $3500 from working this summer, and I've found three different cars that I can get for under $3000. That'll leave me $400 to cover the insurance. I can park in Lot J, over behind Monte Hall, for $75 for both semesters. And I can earn gas and repair money by upping my hours at the cafeteria. It won't cost you any more, and if I have a car, you won't have to come and pick me up when I want to come home. May I buy it? Love, Michael While such a stance can't guarantee that Dad will give permission, it's more likely to produce results than this version: Hi Dad, I'm buying a car. A guy in my Western Civ course has a cool Chevy he wants to get rid of. I got $3500 saved from working this summer, it's mine, and I'm going to use it to get some wheels. Mom said you'd blow your top if I did, but I want this car. OK? Michael The writer of the first email respects his reader and offers reasoned arguments and evidence of research to convince him that buying a car is an action that will benefit them both. The writer of the second, by contrast, seems impulsive, ready to buy the first car that comes along, and defiant-he's picking a fight. Each email reflects a certain stance that shows the writer as a certain kind of person dealing with a topic in a certain way and establishing a certain relationship with his audience. ## Identify your stance - What is your attitude toward your topic? - Objective? - Critical? - Curious? - Opinionated? - Passionate? - Indifferent? Your stance may be affected by your **audience**. How do you want them to see you? - As a colleague sharing information? - As a good student showing what you can do? - As an advocate for a position? Often your stance is affected by your **genre**: - For example, lab reports require an objective, unemotional stance that emphasizes the content and minimizes the writer's own attitudes. - Memoir, by comparison, allows you to reveal your feelings about your topic. Your stance is also affected by your **purpose**: - The two emails about cars show. - Your stance in a piece written to entertain will likely differ from the stance you'd adopt to persuade. ## Communicating your stance You communicate (or downplay) your stance through your **tone**: - Through the words you use - Other ways your text expresses an attitude toward your subject and audience. - For example, in an academic essay, you would state your position directly- "the Real Housewives series reflects the values of American society today"- a confident, assertive tone. - In contrast, using qualifiers like "might" or "I think" can give your writing a wishy-washy, uncertain tone: "I think the Real Housewives series might reflect some of the values of American society today." The following paragraph, from an essay analyzing a text, has a sarcastic tone that might be appropriate for a comment on a blog post, but that isn't right for an academic essay: In "Just Be Nice," Stephen M. Carter complains about a boy who wore his pants too low, showing his underwear. Is that really something people should worry about? We have wars raging and terrorism happening every day, and he wants to talk about how inconsiderate it is for someone wear his pants too low? If by that boy pulling his pants up, the world would be a better place and peace would break out in the Middle East, I'm sure everyone would buy a belt. This writer clearly thinks Carter's complaint is trivial in comparison with the larger issues of the day, but her sarcastic tone belittles Carter's argument instead of answering it with a serious counterargument. Like every other element of writing, your tone must be appropriate for your rhetorical situation. ## Rhetorical situations Just as you likely alter what you say depending on whether you're speaking to a boss, an instructor, a parent, or a good friend, so you need to make similar adjustments as a writer. It's a question of appropriateness: we behave in certain ways in various social situations, and writing is a social situation. You might sign an email to a friend with an x and an o, but in an email to your supervisor you'll likely sign off with a "Many thanks" or "Sincerely." To write well, you need to write with integrity, to say as much as possible what you wish to say, yet you also must understand that in writing, as in speaking, your stance and tone need to suit your purpose, your relationship to your audience, the way in which you wish your audience to perceive you, and your medium. In writing as in other aspects of life, the Golden Rule applies: "Do unto audiences as you would have them do unto you." Address readers respectfully if you want them to respond to your words with respect. ## Thinking about stance - What is your stance, and how does it relate to your purpose for writing? - If you feel strongly about your topic and are writing an argument that tries to persuade your audience to feel the same way, your stance and your purpose fit naturally together. - But suppose you are writing about the same topic with a different purpose - to demonstrate the depth of your knowledge about the topic, for example, or your ability to consider it in a detached, objective way. You will need to adjust your stance to meet the demands of this different purpose. - How should your stance be reflected in your tone? - Can your tone grow directly out of your stance, or do you need to "tone down" your attitude toward the topic or take a different tone altogether? - Do you want to be seen as reasonable? Angry? Thoughtful? Gentle? Funny? Ironic? If you're writing about something want to be seen as taking very seriously, be sure that your language and even your font reflect that seriousness. Check your writing for words that reflect the tone you want to convey - and for ones that do not (and revise as necessary). - How is your stance likely to be received by your audience? - Your tone and especially the attitude it projects toward your audience will affect how they react to the content of what you say. - Should you openly reveal your stance? - Do you want or need to announce your own perspective on your topic? - Will doing so help you reach your audience, or would it be better not to say directly where you're coming from? # Media/Design In its broadest sense, a medium is a go-between: a way for information to be conveyed from one person to another. We communicate through many media, verbal and nonverbal: our bodies (we catch someone's eye, wave, nod); our voices (we whisper, talk, shout, groan); and various technologies, including handwriting, print, telephone, radio, CD, film, and computer. Each medium has unique characteristics that influence both what and how we communicate. As an example, consider this message: "I haven't told you this before, but I love you." Most of the time, we communicate such a message in person, using the medium of voice (with, presumably, help from eye contact and touch). A phone call will do, though most of us would think it a poor second choice, and a handwritten letter or note would be acceptable, if necessary. Few of us would break such news on a website, with a tweet, or during a radio call-in program. By contrast, imagine whispering the following sentence in a darkened room: "By the last decades of the nineteenth century, the territorial expansion of the United States had left almost all Indians confined to reservations." That sentence starts a chapter in a history textbook, and it would be strange indeed to whisper it into someone's ear. It is appropriate, however, in the textbook, in print or in an e-book, or on a PowerPoint slide accompanying an oral presentation. As you can see, we can often choose among various media depending on our purpose and audience. In addition, we can often combine media to create **multimedia** texts. And different media allow us to use different ways or modes of expressing meaning, from words to images to sound to hyperlinks, that can be combined into **multimodal** formats. No matter the medium or media, a text's design affects the way it is received and understood. A typed letter on official letterhead sends a different message than the same words handwritten on pastel stationery. Classic type sends a different message than flowery italics. Some genres and media (and audiences) demand **photos**, **diagrams**, or color. Some information is easier to explain-and read-in the form of a **pie chart** or a **bar graph** than in the form of a paragraph. Some reports and documents are so long and complex that they need to be divided into sections, which are then best labeled with **headings**. These are some of the elements to consider when you are thinking about how to design what you write. ## Identify your media and design needs - Does your writing situation call for a certain medium and design? - A printed essay? - An oral report with visual aids? - A blog? - A podcast? - Academic assignments often assume a particular medium and design, but if you're unsure about your options or the degree of flexibility you have, check with your instructor. ## Thinking about media - What medium are you using-print? spoken? electronic? a combination? -and how does it affect the way you will create your text? - A printed résumé is usually no more than one page long; a scannable résumé sent via email has no length limits. - An oral presentation should contain detailed information; accompanying slides should provide only an outline. - How does your medium affect your organization and **strategies**? - Long paragraphs are fine on paper but don't work well on the web. - On presentation slides, phrases or key words work better than sentences. - In print, you need to define unfamiliar terms; on the Web, you can sometimes just add a link to a definition found elsewhere. - How does your medium affect your language? - Some print documents require a more formal voice than spoken media; email and texting often invite greater informality. - How does your medium affect what elements besides words you include? - Should your text include photos, graphics, audio or video files, or links? - Do you need slides, handouts, or other visuals to accompany an oral presentation? ## Thinking about design - What's the appropriate look for your **rhetorical situation**? - Should your text look serious? - Whimsical? - Personal? - Something else? - What design elements will suit your audience, purpose, genre, and medium? - What elements need to be designed? - Is there any information you would like to highlight by putting it in a box? - Are there any key terms that should be boldfaced? - Do you need navigation buttons? - How should you indicate links? - What font(s) are appropriate to your audience, purpose, genre, and medium? - Are you including any **visuals**? - Should you? - Will your **audience** expect or need any? - Is there any information in your text that would be easier to understand as a chart or graph? - If you need to include video or audio clips, how should the links be presented? - Should you include headings? - Would they help you organize your materials and help readers follow the text? - Does your **genre or medium** require them? ## Writing in Academic Contexts In an introductory psychology course, you're assigned to write an essay taking a position on whether genes or environment do more to determine people's intelligence. Your environmental science instructor asks you to research and write a report on the environmental effects of electricity-generating windmills. Your marketing professor requires you to write a proposal, including a multimedia presentation, for a sales campaign. Academic writing serves many purposes: you may write to explore a topic, to explain what's known about it, to outline what others have said about it, to say what you think about it and why - or for various other purposes. Whatever your topic or purpose, academic writing is a way of adding your voice to some larger conversation. This chapter will help you think about some of the key features expected in academic contexts. ## Key Features of Academic Writing - **Evidence that you've carefully considered the subject**. - Whether you're writing a personal narrative, a report, or an argument, you need to demonstrate that you've thought seriously about the topic and done any necessary research. - You can use a variety of ways to show that you've considered the subject thoughtfully, from citing authoritative sources to incorporating information you learned in class to pointing out connections among ideas. - **A clear, appropriately qualified thesis**. - When you write in an academic context, you're expected to state your main point explicitly, often in a thesis statement. - MIT student Joanna MacKay states her thesis clearly in her essay "Organ Sales Will Save Lives": "Governments should not ban the sale of human organs; they should regulate it." - Often, you'll need to **qualify** your thesis statement to acknowledge that the subject is complicated and there may be more than one way of seeing it, or exceptions to the generalization you're making about it. - Here, for example, is a qualified thesis, from an essay about whether texting affects writing by Michaela Cullington, a student at Marywood University: "Although some believe that texting has either a positive or negative effect on writing, it in fact seems likely that texting has no significant effect on student writing." - The beginning of the sentence acknowledges other views, and the use of words like seems likely and significant indicates that Cullington is not making an absolute, unqualified claim that texting has no effect at all. - **A response to what others have said**. - Whatever your topic, it is unlikely that you'll be the first one to write about it. And if, as this chapter assumes, all academic writing is part of a larger conversation, you are in a way adding your own voice to that conversation. - One good way of doing that is to present your ideas as a response to what others have said about your topic - to begin by quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing what others have said and then to agree, disagree, or both. - For example, in an essay arguing that the American Dream is alive and well, Brandon King presents the views of two economists who say that because wealth is concentrated in the hands "of a rich minority...the American Dream is no longer possible for most Americans." He then responds by disagreeing, arguing that "the American Dream...is based on perception, on the way someone imagines how to be successful." - **Good reasons supported by evidence**. - You need to provide good **reasons** for your thesis and **evidence** to support those reasons. - For example, MacKay offers several reasons why sales of human kidneys should be legalized: there is a surplus of kidneys, the risk to the donor is not great, and legalization would allow the trade in kidneys to be regulated. - Evidence to support your reasons sometimes comes from your own experience, but more often from published research and scholarship, research you do yourself, or first-hand accounts by others. ## Thinking about an academic rhetorical situation - What **genre** does the assignment require? - An essay? - If so, is it a narrative, a report, a reflection, an analysis, an argument, or something else? - Does the assignment specify the genre, or if not, can you figure out what's required from the verb or other key terms in the assignment wording? - If not, do you get to **choose your genre**? - What do you see as your instructor's **purpose** for this assignment? - To have you demonstrate learning of some kind? - Show your understanding of course material? - Discuss ideas, concepts, or facts? - Explore ideas and look for connections among them? - Have you been given a description of what your writing should include? - What is your **purpose** as the writer, apart from fulfilling your instructor's expectations? - To persuade your audience to do or believe something? - To inform them about something and help them understand it? - To play with ideas and see where they lead? ## More things to consider - Who is your **audience**? - Your instructor? - your classmates? - others? - How much does the audience know about the topic? - Are they in an academic field with particular conventions you need to follow? - How can you convey a confident, authoritative **stance**? - By showing that you understand the larger context of your topic? - By showing confidence in what you say? - By stating your claims forthrightly and clearly? - By adopting a tone appropriate for your genre? - What **media** are available, permitted, and appropriate? - Are any required? - Will you present your work as a paper document? - As a digital text? - As an oral presentation? - Can you and should you use photos, drawings, charts, graphs, or slides or embed audio or video files? - What **design** issues need to be considered? - Should you assume that your written text should follow MLA or APA formatting guidelines? - Do you need to include any visual or audio elements? - How much freedom do you have to design your work?