In your annotated bibliography projects this month, you are collecting a series of texts which help us better understand your chosen focus. To help you write about them, I want you to practice reading and writing rhetorically.

Reading rhetorically means not just reading to figure out what the text says. Reading rhetorically asks you to consider the context that the text is situated in, how the text is designed, and why the text matters (who it’s meant to reach, what its significance is to that group).

Read John Bean’s “Rhetorical Reading,” linked here.

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It will help you consider the relationship between reading and writing from a rhetorical standpoint.

Now, read Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” linked here

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and James Baldwin’s writing advice linked here (Links to an external site.).

For this journal entry focus on what each text does, how, why, and for whose benefit. Walk yourself and me through what each text’s main focus is, why it matters, and who its audience is. Audiences in academic contexts: the audience of a text isn’t just who reads it/watches it/looks at it. It is instead who can do something with the information. You need to determine what the creator of the text wants from people engaging with their text to better understand it and make use of it.

Create one entry for each text, two total. Be thorough and detailed. Aim for two robust paragraphs for each.