Animesh Ray

One excellent strategy Tan uses when she talks starts off her narrative with a tone that appeals to the audience and tells her she is unbiased and honest. She said that she is not exceptional in “English or literature” which shows how she was straightforward with how she speaks which is not the best for the readers. She fully acknowledges this. She then proceeds to talk about how she loves languages being a writer and everything for it. The language she displays is a very strong tool and how much you can interpret it. This gives more content to the readers about how she is invoking passion for the topic of languages and Englishes. This also appeals to the audience to gain their trust for her concrete passion of the work she does with her writing. Tan also uses the rhetorical strategy of employing commentary to present her data. She gave out her lengthy speech in which she would describe “grammatical errors” that have occurred within it purposefully and how far she has come. The readers are grasping the scenario she is in and willing to demonstrate the problems with her English. With all this in mind, Amy Tan as you can see wants the audience to take her perspective and point seriously with the argument she is trying to employ to the audience. She simply wants the audience to relate to her and her problems with the language barrier. Even though she was a proficient writer to where she is now, she wants to talk about her real experience and her real problems. She could have started out the essays on what she has accomplished but didn’t to her advantage to have the audience be attached to her argument.

In this narrative, Amy Tan has used pathos to appeal to the audience. With how she is starting off the essay mentioned in the earlier paragraph, you can see how she is going with her narrative. She uses the words like “broken” and “fractured” to indulge us in to how she is annoyed by her mother’s English as she said it would others would perceive her and her family as inferior. A lot of the audience that is a part of second-generation Americans can relate to what Tan mentioned here. People would simply be bothered by how their first-generation parents have trouble with their ability to speak English and others that are proficient in it would look down on them. And with all this Tan had to help out her mother with her English skills as a sort of like a translator almost to the people out in public. She pointed out that she received phone calls in which she would pretend to be her mother to speak to them. Another instance would be the big Cat Scan incident where Amy Tan’s mother was simply dismissed by the Hospital. The pathos in this part of her narrative stands out a lot and provides a contrary claim to how she had a family of improper English and she has an audience of readers who are proficient in it. This is to let out her argument even more and make it more compelling.

Animesh Ray

Amy Tan wrote an article titled Mother Tongue. Under Western Eyes was its original title, and it appeared in The Threepenny Review in 1990. The article examines the language difficulties faced by first and second-generation Chinese immigrants in the US. Cultural and linguistic problems are inspired by Tan’s personal experiences. She spoke standard English in public but slurred English at home. As a result of this, she has basically been set into multiple identities in which she finds one superior to one. This changes her perception as she experiences the obstacles.   
 
In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan walks us through linguistic principles and contrasts them with those of English. She also stops to question what is acceptable and what is considered decent English and language. She does not see good grammar and perfect English as indicators of competence. She cited sections of her mother’s writing that contained numerous grammatical errors. Others found it difficult to understand her because of the grammatical errors and “improper language”. The narrative does not make it evident that her mother has a solid grasp of the English language, but she argues that she does. The whole article was Tan’s appraisal of her mother’s language and how it shouldn’t be treated improperly from other’s viewpoints (critics). 
 
Tan’s writing with her own experience can be relatable in multiple aspects. Examples of discrimination occur everywhere with the correct terminology of English speech. African speech is a perfect example of this form of discrimination Tan is arguing about. In its own country, it is perfectly normal but in other countries, people would simply make it comedy for no reason other than to look down upon you. Why should one have to judge others for how they speak, English may not be their first language but they are learning and that shouldn’t percept someone treat as unfair. Even though there are numerous grammatical errors contained in one’s speech, they have all the right to say it. This is what Tan is arguing about and is evident in her experiences and especially her mother’s. Articles on realism can show appreciation for something that is defined as normal in another continent. It isn’t up to others to judge you for not speaking broken English. This would connect to me as well. 
 
Some experience I’ve had is once when I hear my dad is on the phone call with a hirer and the person would tell him about requiring good English. It was a job in security management and my dad would have a Bengali accent chopped English. My dad was enraged by this comment. This is what I would resonate with Tan’s mother’s experience as first-generation immigrants have it rougher. It shows how society is unfair and can come at you anytime about a simple English speech.  

Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Your name:

Completing this worksheet may take more time than you think. It’s worth the time. The information you gather will help you later when writing up assignments. But more importantly, the process of addressing each of the questions below will slowly work to change how you read texts. Keep in mind that some answers will not be obvious or even observable in the text, and so you may have to do some critical thinking and, at times, even some online research. Use full sentences. Take as much space as you need.

Context & Exigence: What topic/conversation is this text responding to? What year is the text published? What is the exigence–that is, what motivating occasion/issue/concern prompted the writing? The motivating occasion could be a current or historical event, a crisis, pending legislation, a recently published alternative view, or another ongoing problem.

Author: Who is the author of this text?  What are the author’s credentials and what is their investment in the issue?

Text: What can you find out about the publication?  What is the genre of the text (e.g., poem, personal essay, essay, news/academic article, blog, textbook chapter, etc.)? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? What information about the publication or source (magazine, newspaper, advocacy Web site) helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?

Audience: Who is the author’s intended audience? What can you infer about the audience (think about beliefs and political association but also age, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, education, geographic location, religion, etc.)? Look for clues from the text (especially the original publication) to support your inference.

Purpose: What is the author trying to accomplish? To persuade, entertain, inform, educate, call to action, shock? How do you know?

Argument: What do you believe is the main claim/idea/argument that the author is trying to communicate? What stance does s/he take?

Evidence: How is the argument supported? Types of support include reasons and logical explanations as well as evidence. Types of evidence include anecdotes, examples, hypothetical situations, (expert) testimony, quotes, citing sources, statistics, charts/graphs, research the author or another source conducts, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc.

Rhetorical Strategies: What aspects of this text stand out for you as a rhetorical reader? In other words, what do you observe about what the author strategically does (consciously or not) in hopes of appealing to their audience? List here as many observations as you can make about what the text does.

Citation: Add the correct MLA or APA bibliographic entry for this text. Use easybib.com if you prefer.

Notes: What do you want to remember about this text?

Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Your name:

Completing this worksheet may take more time than you think. It’s worth the time. The information you gather will help you later when writing up assignments. But more importantly, the process of addressing each of the questions below will slowly work to change how you read texts. Keep in mind that some answers will not be obvious or even observable in the text, and so you may have to do some critical thinking and, at times, even some online research. Use full sentences. Take as much space as you need.

Context & Exigence: What topic/conversation is this text responding to? What year is the text published? What is the exigence–that is, what motivating occasion/issue/concern prompted the writing? The motivating occasion could be a current or historical event, a crisis, pending legislation, a recently published alternative view, or another ongoing problem.

Author: Who is the author of this text?  What are the author’s credentials and what is their investment in the issue?

Text: What can you find out about the publication?  What is the genre of the text (e.g., poem, personal essay, essay, news/academic article, blog, textbook chapter, etc.)? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? What information about the publication or source (magazine, newspaper, advocacy Web site) helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?

Audience: Who is the author’s intended audience? What can you infer about the audience (think about beliefs and political association but also age, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, education, geographic location, religion, etc.)? Look for clues from the text (especially the original publication) to support your inference.

Purpose: What is the author trying to accomplish? To persuade, entertain, inform, educate, call to action, shock? How do you know?

Argument: What do you believe is the main claim/idea/argument that the author is trying to communicate? What stance does s/he take?

Evidence: How is the argument supported? Types of support include reasons and logical explanations as well as evidence. Types of evidence include anecdotes, examples, hypothetical situations, (expert) testimony, quotes, citing sources, statistics, charts/graphs, research the author or another source conducts, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc.

Rhetorical Strategies: What aspects of this text stand out for you as a rhetorical reader? In other words, what do you observe about what the author strategically does (consciously or not) in hopes of appealing to their audience? List here as many observations as you can make about what the text does.

Citation: Add the correct MLA or APA bibliographic entry for this text. Use easybib.com if you prefer.

Notes: What do you want to remember about this text?

Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Your Name:

Completing this worksheet may take more time than you think. It’s worth the time. The information you gather will help you later when writing up assignments. But more importantly, the process of addressing each of the questions below will slowly work to change how you read texts. Keep in mind that some answers will not be obvious or even observable in the text, and so you may have to do some critical thinking and, at times, even some online research. Use full sentences. Take as much space as you need.

Context & Exigence: What topic/conversation is this text responding to? What year is the text published? What is the exigence–that is, what motivating occasion/issue/concern prompted the writing? The motivating occasion could be a current or historical event, a crisis, pending legislation, a recently published alternative view, or another ongoing problem.

Author: Who is the author of this text?  What are the author’s credentials and what is their investment in the issue?

Text: What can you find out about the publication?  What is the genre of the text (e.g., poem, personal essay, essay, news/academic article, blog, textbook chapter, etc.)? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? What information about the publication or source (magazine, newspaper, advocacy Web site) helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?

Audience: Who is the author’s intended audience? What can you infer about the audience (think about beliefs and political association but also age, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, education, geographic location, religion, etc.)? Look for clues from the text (especially the original publication) to support your inference.

Purpose: What is the author trying to accomplish? To persuade, entertain, inform, educate, call to action, shock? How do you know?

Argument: What do you believe is the main claim/idea/argument that the author is trying to communicate? What stance does s/he take?

Evidence: How is the argument supported? Types of support include reasons and logical explanations as well as evidence. Types of evidence include anecdotes, examples, hypothetical situations, (expert) testimony, quotes, citing sources, statistics, charts/graphs, research the author or another source conducts, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc.

Rhetorical Strategies: What aspects of this text stand out for you as a rhetorical reader? In other words, what do you observe about what the author strategically does (consciously or not) in hopes of appealing to their audience? List here as many observations as you can make about what the text does.

Citation: Add the correct MLA or APA bibliographic entry for this text. Use easybib.com if you prefer.

Notes: What do you want to remember about this text?

Language & Literacy Narrative Brainstorms Worksheet for ENG 110

Your name:

Instructions: Please respond to the questions that follow with as much detail and description as you can. The more you put into reflecting now on the complexities of your language and literacy development, the better off you’ll be in completing our major assignment for the first phase of this course. Take as much space as you need.

When it comes to your experiences with language (speaking and listening) and literacy (reading and writing), what specific moments in your life can you recall that are particularly vivid or that emerge as being significant to you? Yes, it could be an example from your earliest memories of learning to speak, read, and write (in school or elsewhere), but it doesn’t have to be. It could be a memorable encounter—a moment of tension, confusion, or triumph. It could be about experiences developing additional dialects/languages and advanced literacies (i.e., learning to speak/write in different peer groups, at school, at work, with family, online, in different locations across the nation or world, etc. Please select 3 moments to describe. Then, explain why each is interesting or significant.

What specific materials or artifacts (i.e., objects, writing, learning materials, pictures, video recordings, etc.) from your past can you locate/recall and that in some way represent a meaningful moment in your reading/writing development? This can be something like a journal or book, but also anything at all (e.g., a toy, piece of furniture, cereal box, art supplies, etc.) What memories and feelings can you extract from these examples you’ve gathered/recalled? Explain.

For better or worse, who and what impacted how, when, and why you develop your languages and literacies? Who in your family, at school, among your peer group, or in your community played a part? How did your particular situation or experience shape your literacy? That is, what sorts of issues, experiences, organizations, or life circumstances played a part? What kinds of languages and literacies did you gain from those people and your particular situation? How? Why? Explain.

In what ways do you see your language, reading, and writing capabilities as having social consequences or impacting your life circumstances—that is, what advantages did/do you have and what disadvantages did/do you face as a result of your language and literacy learning?

How might your experience with language and literacy connect to larger social realities (e.g., of your life, family, generation, gender, race, culture, nation, geographic location, historical moment, etc.)?

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