Q & R 5

Why is it important for students to learn how to read, analyze and write using rhetorical skills?
In her essay, Margret Kantz tries to illustrate to us the great necessity for writing students, and any writer to learn to read, analyze what they read, and write rhetorically to be able to write knowledgeably, clearly, and effectively. She does this by giving us the example of a college sophomore writing student named Shirley. Shirley writes a research paper for her English class about the Battle of Agincourt, however, her instructor Dr. Boyer gives her a C. Shirley obtained this grade because she did not read rhetorically, her research sources. In her paper, Shirley merely summarized what her research had said and restated it, she made no effort to analyze or interpret her sources. Shirley failed to do what so many other college writings students do. They fail to read something and “read between the lines”, to interpret for themselves the true meaning and purpose of a work of fiction or a historical work, and the context in which it was written. Kantz argues that it is very important for all readers and writers to read and write rhetorically so as to be able to gain the deeper meaning of something and to be able to analyze it and think for themselves. Many writing students fail to come up with their own original ideas and to expand on them. If Shirley had known more about the Battle of Agincourt, she might have been able to understand the conditions under which it occurred and from different sources, then analyzed it and drawn from it her own conclusions. It is important for the creation of good, well composed, flowing writing that readers and writers be able to read and write between the lines and draw the true meaning of things.