AP* Course Match

Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing, 1/e

BASIC APPROACH

Brief and accessible, this rhetoric teaches students to read closely, critically, and rhetorically, and to write effectively to achieve their rhetorical goals.

Everyday Use answers the basic question, "What is rhetoric?" It shows rhetoric as set of activities—reading, writing, speaking, listening—that all intellectually engaged people participate in every day. And it shows that a knowledge of rhetoric is essential in understanding how written and spoken texts influence thought and action every day, in private and in public forums, for good or ill. By demystifying rhetoric and rescuing it from common public misconceptions, Everyday Use equips students to be effective communicators in the academic world and in everyday life.

FEATURES

• The reading-writing connection is emphasized throughout, enabling students to write careful, critical analyses of all genres of writing.
• Rhetorical reading and rhetorical analysis receive special attention in Chapters 4 and 5, where students see that they must actively construct a text as they read, not simply decode it passively. And they learn to recognize the classical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos.
• The five traditional canons of rhetoric—invention, arrangment, style, memory, and delivery—are introduced in a particularly accessible chapter, showing students that rhetoric has roots in antiquity but essential applications in our own time (Ch. 2).
• Case studies of student writers demonstrate the writing process at work and underline the importance of the rhetorical context to any piece of writing (Ch. 3).
• Following each chapter is an Interchapter focusing on the same three works: Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience"; Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use"; and "It's a Woman's World" by the contemporary Irish poet Eavan Boland. The Interchapters invite students to know these three works in detail and to apply the principles and concepts developed in each chapter to them.
• A chapter on reading and writing critically about literature (Ch. 6) discusses the use of rhetoric in stories, poems, and plays, and introduces the concepts of character, setting, plot, point of view, and theme.
• Each chapter includes class-tested discussion questions and writing activities, with some tied to visuals, that lead students to understand and practice the principles introduced.
• A glossary of rhetorical and critical terms supports the instruction in the text.

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