Krystal Bowen Reaction Journal 11:30-12:20

Haas and Flower, Rhetorical Reading Strategies and Construction of Meaning

Summary Haas, Christina, and Linda Flower. Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning. Boston:Bedford,2011.120-137. Paperback Textbook The concept of rhetorical reading and writing is something that has always been very unclear to me, because it requires not only comprehension of the reading, but also application of ones experience or knowledge. However I found that Christina Haas and Linda Flowers approach was very refreshing and helpful in improving my understanding and growth as a reader. There tactics of consistently using rhetorical questioning has forced me to delve deeper into how I read, what I use to gain clarity and what sort of reader I am . Understanding the way how students read is just as difficult as how to teach them to write because they are all at various levels and have been taught differently, so I thought that the experiment at Carnegie Mellon was an interesting approach because it was fair to all participant from freshmen to experienced readers while helping the writers gain insight on how meaning is constructed. The revelation of the most used strategies from readers being, content, function/feature, and rhetorical has taught me how to differentiate from a good reader and an experienced reader. Reading is more than only knowledge getting it is about understanding the rhetoric, context, and the writers motivation; and since we are not able to get into the mind of readers so the think-aloud protocol was used to convey the readers thought process.

Analysis With the authors use of rhetorical questioning it forces me the reader to evaluate how I read and what strategies I use when I am reading. Learning what devices I used to gain clarity helps me to identify what kind of reader I am. The proof that more experienced readers use rhetorical reading when their reading proves that these device allows for better comprehension and increase in ones knowledge of the topic. Rhetorical reading and writing is just as hard to learn as it is to be taught because they use them to construct meaning and gain information from the reading. By understanding the authors purpose for reading and structure allows for easier comprehension of the rhetoric and content. As a result of that understanding I gained after rereading particular parts of the article I was able to learn why experienced reader where able to uncover claims faster that the good readers. They dont simple scour for information they apply it and create it in order to understand the authors perspective. I can see why we would read this in a first year writing class because it allows you to criticize yourself and identify your flaws in order to end the knowledge getting approach to reading. This article as showed me as a reader and a writer that there is always room for growth and that everything is said blatantly in the article sometimes we have to apply what we know prior.