Uneasy Rhetoric

Back in the old days, at college, when I really was studying rhetoric and not politics, I was a writing tutor. This was cool because 1) I had to be nominated to the post by faculty and 2) I got paid slightly above minimum wage to talk about writing with other people.

Unfortunately, I spent a lot of my time talking fresh students out of very bad habits they had picked up in high school. I had to remind them to flesh out their ideas before finalizing the paper. I had to convince them, through much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, that paper lengths were generally a suggestion and that content mattered more than quantity. (By extension, I also pointed out that my papers generally were longer than required because I learned that, if I didn’t hit the length mark, I was probably forgetting something.) I had to remind them about the power of a thesis statement. Worst of all, I had to tell students to rewrite. I was vicious about it. I had few repeat customers.

A 12-Step Guide to Research and Writing: One Essay at a Time is “common sense” (Lakoff would say that means they deserve closer study). Although focusing on the research paper, they have much in common with the basics of writing a news release: Say what you are going to say, say it, and say what you just said. And almost all of them are recommendations students will avoid due to “time constraints” or “I only write final drafts” or “I can’t edit my own writing” or “but I need twelve pages!”

I would only do one thing to improve the list: I would promote the phrase “context is critical” into the actual recommendation text of number four:

4. Start your preliminary research. Context is Critical. [emphasis mine]

Especially for public policy work, it is important to chose data that fits what you are trying to say as closely as possible. Also, if you are comparing two data points or time series, make sure they really are comparable.

This list should be stapled, Lutheran edict-like, to the forehead of every incoming writing student.

(found via CultureCat, a blog by someone who really is studying rhetoric, not just pretending)