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Commentary: Identifying Patterns of Meaning

An overview of commentary as a genre that uses analysis and interpretation to find patterns of meaning in events, trends, and ideas. This genre goes beyond reporting facts to help readers make sense of them. Explore the key features, functions, and examples of commentary in various media forms.

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Commentary: Identifying Patterns of Meaning

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  1. Chapter 9 Commentary: Identifying Patterns of Meaning

  2. Overview • Commentary is a genre using analysis and interpretation to find patterns of meaning in events, trends, and ideas. • Commentary goes beyond reporting facts to helping readers make sense of them. • Examples of this genre can be found on TV and radio, as well as in magazines and newspapers.

  3. Key Feature ofCommentary— Personal Opinion • Takes a position • Presents an explanation from a perspective of the commentator • Presents an interpretation that is intended to persuade readers

  4. Three Functions of Commentators • They label current trends (Generation X, the information superhighway). • They encourage us to think about the causes and consequences of trends and events. • They often praise or blame, and take a moral stance on events or trends.

  5. Commentators reflect society • Commentators often have regular readers or viewers (depending on the media) who look forward to the next article or program. • They seek to both inform and persuade their audience, and to help make sense of the world and what is happening.

  6. We are all commentators! • All of us have opinions and share them with family, friends, classmates, and coworkers • Our choice for president • The latest scandal on Wall Street • A movie sequel (worth seeing?) • The war in Iraq (justified?) • Possible layoffs at work

  7. Commentary in our world • It grows out of our desire to analyze (or look carefully at) and explain what has happened. • Everyday communication functions as “social analysis.”

  8. Readings • Eric Liu, “Remember When Public Spaces Didn’t Carry Brand Names?” • Lundy Braun, “How to Fight the New Epidemics” • Ayn Rand, “Marilyn Monroe’s Sad, Lonely Cry for Help”

  9. Blogs Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq • A 25-year old Iraqi woman in Baghdad began to blog in August 2003. A complete archive and current blogs can be found at: <riverbendblog.blogspot.com>.

  10. Visual Design: Parody • Forkscrew Graphics, iRaq. • Adbusters Prozac parody. • An analysis follows, examining how the parodies make use of recognizable ad campaigns to make a visual commentary.

  11. Further Exploration • Another option, mentioned under working together, is to put together a casebook. • A casebook is a compilation of commentaries on an issue; write a brief introduction and identify the writer.

  12. Writing Assignment • Write a commentary that addresses a topicof interest to you. The chapter gives yousix options. • Your instructor will let you know whether your class will be doing this particular assignment, and provide you with additional guidelines.

  13. Planning and Drafting • See four suggestions for naming a topic,page 306 . • Four questions to ask yourself to discover what you already know about the topic • Frame the issue; chapter lists six ways to frame the issue in the introduction • Four things to do in the conclusion

  14. Peer Commentary and Revising • See page 310 for three questions to use when doing peer commentary with a classmate. • See page 311 for a list of five questions to use when incorporating ideas from the peer commentary into your revision.

  15. Student sample • Rachel Smith, “Socially Acceptable Discrimination” • Three questions about her essay, pages 316-317. • Three questions to reflect on your writing or to interview a classmate about his or her essay.

  16. Ethics and commentary • Commentators often speak on behalf of others. • In doing so, they play a “vital role in a democracy, holding accountable those in positions of power and explaining what the public’s stake is in events, trends, and ideas” (3.9-54).

  17. Ethics and Commentary, cont. • Commentators need to be ethical in howthey write about other people, and shouldn’t stereotype groups, such as single motherson welfare. • This practice tends to create a sense of “us versus them” and does not treat groups fairly.

  18. Student Companion Website • Go to the student side of the Web site for exercises, chapter overviews, and links to writing resources for this chapter: http://college.hmco.com/pic/trimbur4e

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