Summary
For my WP3, the article I
selected is “Textual Silences” by Huckin. The article investigates the
rhetorical power of “silence.” In other words, it analyzes the different ways
that information is purposefully omitted from something, and why the
author/speaker chose to do so. It looks at the ways in which certain
information is conscientiously left out, and what that accomplishes. The
article focuses mainly on the deceptive and manipulative ways that textual
silences are used.
A textual silence can be
implemented in various ways. A “topical silence” is one where “some topic
relevant to a larger issue is omitted from discussion” (421). Usually, the
information omitted for a topical silence “surreptitiously disadvantages” the
audience. Then there is the “conventional (genre based) silence”, in which
information is left out because it is appropriate for the genre. For example,
one would not write about a man’s drinking problem in his obituary (423). There
is also the “discreet silence,” which is then the writer “refrains from
mentioning sensitive information either to avoid offending the reader, avoid
revealing organizational secrets to rival forces, or avoid infringing on
another person’s privacy” (423). A “lexical silence” is when a word is used in
place of another that possesses more descriptive features. For example, if you
say the word “run” when someone is in fact sprinting, you are silencing the
features of “sprint” (424). In an “implicational silence,” something is not
openly said because it can be inferred from another statement which is more
explicit. Finally, there is the “presuppositional silence,” in which relevant information
is left out because it is assumed to be already known to the reader. For
example, in an advanced Calculus, the teacher would not have to explain simple subtraction
and addition, as it is already well known by the class. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Younger Genre Transformation: Children's Story
(Pictures of pages of actual book included at very end of post)
The Six Evil Silences
Once
upon a time, there was an evil politician named Mordrake who lived in the far
away land of Flowerville. Mordrake had six minions called “The Silences.” Their
names were Topical, Conventional, Discreet, Lexical, Implicational, and
Presuppositional. All had different powers, but they were all good at making
the evil politician seem less evil to the town. Each one helped Mordrake gain
power by trying to make him seem good.
Mordrake
was trying to become mayor and take over the town, but he needed the help of
The Silences. Mordrake simply couldn’t think of a good speech that would
persuade the city to elect him. He was just too evil, and didn’t know what
kinds of things the city wanted to hear. So, he looked to his minions for help.
The
first Silence the evil politician went to was Topical. When Mordrake showed
Topical the speech, Topical immediately started laughing. In Mordrake’s speech,
he provided terrible details about all of the cities he robbed and burned down.
Topical warned Mordrake, “You can’t put stuff like that in your speech! That
would scare townspeople and make them not like you!” So Topical crossed out
that entire section of the speech, in order to deceive the town into thinking
Mordrake wasn’t bad. They didn’t want anyone to know how truly evil the
politician is.
Mordrake
went on to the next minion, Conventional. When Conventional read the speech, he
too started laughing, just like Topical. When Mordrake asked what was so funny,
Conventional said “You can’t call the members of the city ‘peasants’ or ‘fat’!
You’re writing a speech to make them want to elect you as mayor. You can’t use
mean words towards them, or they won’t like you!” The evil politician agreed,
and got rid of all mean words towards the townspeople. Who would want to elect
someone who calls you ‘peasant’?!
Mordrake
went to Discreet for help next. Discreet read Mordrake’s speech, and what do
you know – he started laughing. When the evil politician looked confused,
Discreet said “You can’t just tell them that once you take over, you’re going
to kick out all the people you don’t like! You don’t want them to know your
true intentions, or they’ll never elect you. You have to keep that part discreet.” The evil politician nodded
his head in agreement, and moved on to the next minion - Lexical.
After
Lexical read the speech, giggles followed. Lexical explained to the evil
politician “You can’t just tell the town that you want to ‘dictate’ them! They
don’t want that. You should say that you want to ‘lead’ them instead. That
sounds much better than ‘dictate’!” So Mordrake listened to Lexical, and fixed
all the negative words in his speech to something the people of the town would
like more.
Mordrake
then looked to Implicational for help. Implicational read the speech, and
chuckled quite a bit. Implicational giggled, “You can’t always say such
straight-forward things like ‘I am evil’! You can just imply those concepts
through other things you say in your speech. That way, you can deny that you’ve
ever said you’re evil.” Mordrake accepted this advice, and moved on to his
final minion - Presuppositional.
Does
it even need to be said? After Presuppositional read the paper, he spewed out
laughter. Presuppositional claimed “Master Mordrake, you don’t need to say ‘I
am here to run for mayor’! The town already knows you’re running for mayor, or
else you wouldn’t be giving the speech!” The evil politician nodded in
understanding.
After
talking to all six Silences, Mordrake sat in his office and thought about what
his minions had told him. Their advice all had one thing in common – they all
took out something from the speech. The evil politician was starting to
understand that certain things just need to be left out sometimes, because they
just show the town how evil he is. The townspeople would never elect someone
evil. Mordrake now saw that leaving information out could help him deceive the
townspeople into thinking he was not evil.
Mordrake
eventually gave his speech, and ended up being elected for Mayor. The people of
Flowerville had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
The
moral of the story is that sometimes, people leave information out for the
wrong reasons. Evil people can leave information out to deceive and trick others.
Not including information in something should only be done if it does not harm
people in any way!
The End.
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Older Genre Transformation: College-Course Homework Assignment
Journalism 101
Ms. Johnson
Homework Assignment 1:
Identifying
“Textual Silences” In News Reports
Due: Friday, September 29
700-1000 words
Assignment: For
your first homework assignment, you will be analyzing reports about the same
topic from two different news stations/publications, such as Fox News, CNN, or
the LA Times. You will be investigating and writing about the different
techniques and strategies that each author used, and how their style unfolds in
the article. In addition to studying how the writer presents their work, you
must also analyze the things they don’t say.
These are called “Textual Silences” (See the following page for a list of the
types of textual silences). A textual silence is defined as “the omission of
some piece of information that is pertinent to the topic at hand.” It is the absence of information relevant to the
topic being discussed. Textual silences can be harmless, but can also be used
to deceive the reader by keeping them in the dark about something. In other
words, you will be investigating the ways that these people purposefully omit
information, and why they make the decision to do so. Think very hard about
this part – the purpose of this assignment is to understand why writers make
the choice to leave out certain information, and what effect it achieves. Knowing
the different kinds of textual silences and how they are used will be a big
part of your career as a journalist, so it is important to be able to identify
them and understand how they work. Being a journalist involves knowing what to
say, and, similarly, what not to say.
Questions to Consider
When Writing: What was similar between the two articles? What was different?
Were there things mentioned in one article that were omitted in another? Why do
you think the author chose to leave certain things out? What effect does that
have on the audience? Is there anything one article accomplishes that the other
doesn’t?
Tips: You should
choose articles with topics that you are familiar with and are interested in,
as you will have an easier time seeing what exactly the report did not include.
You should also look into more works about that topic to see what is relevant
about it, and what other people included in one report that may not be in the
one you chose. After looking at reports from other people, you can return to
your original article, and make note of what is missing. Do a
critical/rhetorical analysis of these textual silences and speculate on how they
might influence the intended reader.
Types of
Textual Silences
The Topical Silence
Explanation: The
topical silence is where some topic that relates to a larger issue is not
mentioned. This is the most common type of silence, as few texts are able to
discuss everything about a matter.
This type of silence can be used to exclude relevant information that may be
disadvantageous or unpleasant for the reader.
Example: In the
U.S. news media, the Congo genocide is seldom mentioned. In the past 10 years,
the Congo genocide has killed over five million people and sexually traumatized
even more. The topical silence is used to keep the American public uninformed
about a very pressing issue, which benefits certain economic and political
interests.
Conventional (genre-based) Silence
Explanation: The
conventional, or genre-based, silence is used when a certain genre calls for
certain types of information being omitted. In other words, the omission is
used because it is standard for the type of genre being used.
Example: The
obituary genre calls for the omission of information that might make the dead
look bad. In obituaries, one never mentions information that is unfavorable to
the dead, such as how someone might have been an alcoholic or abusive parent. It
is also used in advertisements, where companies purposefully omit the bad
aspects of a product, such as how eating McDonald’s is bad for your health.
Discreet Silence
Explanation: The
discreet silence is when the writer excludes sensitive information that might
offend the reader, reveal a secret, or infringe on someone else’s privacy.
Example:
Hospitals won’t release someone’s medical records to the public to retain that
person’s privacy. It could also be something like refraining from mentioning
someone’s race when discussing college admissions so as to not seem like you’re
attributing their success to their race.
Lexical Silence
Explanation: The
lexical silence is slightly more complex than the ones mentioned above. A
lexical silence is when one word is chosen that excludes features that other
appropriate words may provide.
Example: Think of
the words “run” and “sprint.” If you described someone as running when they
were actually sprinting, then you are omitting the features of “sprint” that
aren’t present in the word “run.” Another example relates to the issue of
abortion. People that are for abortion use the word “pro-choice,” indicating
that the mother’s opinion in the matter is relevant, but the interests of the
fetus are not. However, people that are against abortion say they are “pro-life,”
which silences the woman’s interests and focuses on the fetus. Both terms don’t
mention some key aspects of the underlying issue.
Implicational Silence
Explanation: The
implicational silence is when something is not explicitly said, because it is
implied, or conveyed, by other ideas. It is an idea that is not stated
explicitly because it is inferred from another statement. In a more
manipulative way, implicational silence can be used in case someone needs to be
able to deny something later. One can say they never said such a thing, as they
never explicitly stated it, it was
just implied (this is commonly used in politics).
Example: Before
you and your friend goes out to a party, your friend asks “Don’t you want to
brush your hair before we go?” Although your friend is not explicitly saying
it, it’s inferred that your hair looks messy, and that your friend thinks you
need to brush it.
Presuppositional Silence
Explanation: A
presuppositional silence is used when information is not mentioned because it
is assumed that the reader already knows it. Something is omitted because it
seems like it should be obvious to the audience
Example: Imagine
there’s a news article with the line “So and So was arrested and placed in
jail.” The article doesn’t need to explicitly say that the police did the
arresting, because it seems obvious enough.
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Piper
Harris
Zack
De Piero
Writing
2
4
March 2016
Self-Analysis
Part of being a successful writer is
knowing how to navigate throughout genres, and understanding how the
conventions of those genres work. That is, “good communicators “morph”
themselves and their writing to fit different subjects or situations” (Losh and
Alexander 117). When writing my WP3, I had to really sit and think about how I
could effectively convey the messages of “Textual Silences” to both the younger
and older communities. I heavily considered which genres would appeal the most
to each age group, because “different communities will find certain identities
more or less credible or reliable.” How, exactly, could I make “Textual
Silences” relevant to two completely different age groups? After much time and
effort, I think I hit the jackpot.
For my younger audience, I chose to
transform the piece into a children’s storybook. I decided that story is being
given to a fifth grade class that has been learning about the value of being
honest and always telling the truth. The purpose of the story is to teach
little kids about how important it is to always tell the truth – and what can
happen if they don’t. This transformation was a little difficult, as it is hard
to make a concept as abstract as textual silences relevant to children as young
as fifth graders. However, “adopting an identity can be about doing real
research – not just putting on a costume” (Losh and Alexander 125). So, in
order to best transform the article into a children’s story, I researched many
children’s books so I could get a better understanding of their features and
implement those in my own story.
The main goal of my book was to try to
convey the message of “Textual Silences” in a way that children would
understand. I never explicitly say the words “textual silences,” as that would
probably just confuse the children, but I tried to convey the concept through
the story so that the children would be able to follow along. One move I chose to make was using the names
of the different types of textual silences as the names of the characters –
Topical, Conventional, Discreet, Lexical, Implicational, and Presuppositional.
Then, I gave each character the qualities of its definition; for example, the
character Topical told the evil politician not to mention his blundering of
cities, since topical silences are used to omit information that is unfavorable
to the audience. I did this so that the function of the type of silence could
be made clear, but in a more interesting and less confusing way than just
stating it in a word/definition format. To further help the children better
understand, I had the characters say what, exactly, in the speech should be
taken out. For example, Conventional told the evil politician Mordrake not to “call
the members of the city ‘peasants’ or ‘fat’” because a conventional silence
omits things that are not appropriate for the genre, which in this case is a
speech given by someone running for mayor. I also tried to have the characters explain why certain things shouldn’t be
said, so that the children can understand the function of the silence as well
as what it actually is. In addition, I showed how each character took something
out of the speech, which helps convey
the idea to the children that the silences are used to omit information.
Now on to the more technical stuff. In
all of the children’s books I researched, they all used extremely short
sentences. The reason for this is obvious – children wouldn’t understand long,
complex sentences. So, I tried to implement the same move and keep my sentences
relatively short, such as “Mordrake went on to the next minion, Conventional”
and “After Lexical read the speech, giggles followed.” I also tried to use very
simple, clear wording that wouldn’t confuse children. When editing my story, I
realized I had used words like “language” and “conquests,” which children would
probably wouldn’t understand. Thus, I changed the more complex words to simpler
phrases like “words” or “robbed and burned down.” I also used the move of “repetition,” which is fairly common in
children’s books. When the evil politician shows his speech to each minion, I
used repetition by saying they all laughed at it. In addition, I included many
colored pictures in my storybook, as practically every children’s book has a
myriad of pictures. The pictures are used to keep the children interested in the
story, so that they aren’t just reading paragraphs and paragraphs of words.
I was even sure to include some of the subtler
conventions of a children’s book. One thing I read in Losh and Alexander’s “Writing
Identities” that I found particularly important was that my “tone should engage
your audience in a way that will invite them to feel receptive to your message
(129). Thus, I considered what kind of tone would be most effective with fifth
graders. Being serious and solemn would probably not keep their attention, so I
decided to use a very fun, casual tone with my writing. I also tried to convey
my conversational, friendly tone with rhetorical questions such as “Who would
want to elect someone who calls you ‘peasant’?!” and “Does it even need to be
said?” Another move I made was including the moral of the story at the end. Although
the moral was conveyed through the most part through the story, I felt it
needed to be explicitly written. Sometimes, young children can read a story and
completely miss the point of it, so I was clear in stating what the point was. Finally,
I was sure to include the children’s story convention of writing “The End” at
the last page.
When writing towards an adult audience, I
chose to transform my article into an assignment description for a
college-level journalism class. The goal of the assignment description is for
college students entering the journalism field to understand and work with
textual silences. As Losh and Alexander wrote, “Writers need to be clear about
why their perspectives are distinctive and useful to others” (125). Therefore,
I tried to clearly state why learning about textual silences would be useful to
the students of the class by writing that “Knowing the different kinds of
textual silences and how they are used will be a big part of your career as a
journalist, so it is important to be able to identify them and understand how
they work.” I was clear in explaining the relevance of the assignment to the
students and showing why they should
care by saying that textual silences will be present in their career.
An important part of the transformation
over to an older genre was making sure to use the right tone. I had to think
very carefully about “the audience I’m trying to reach in my rhetorical
situation – and make sure I adjust my tone and voice to get the effect I want”
(129). Unlike the children’s story, a college course homework assignment needs
to take on a much more formal tone. Since I was writing as a college professor
addressing a journalism class, I used a very professional, and serious tone in
my writing, such as “Do a critical/rhetorical analysis of these textual
silences and speculate on how they might influence the intended reader” because
as Losh and Alexander claim, using “a forceful yet measured tone encourages
your audience to take you seriously” (129). Assignments for a college course
are expected to use formal and professional language, and any other kind of
tone would not have been regarded with respect from the class.
When structuring my homework assignment,
I was sure to keep the format very simple and professional. First, I separated
the different parts of my prompt so that it would be easy for the students to identify
the different sections. Then, the different parts of the prompt were clearly
labeled and bolded, with subheadings such as “Assignment” and “Questions to
Consider When Writing.” I also included some questions to consider when
writing. The purpose of that section was to get students to think about why authors use textual silences, and
their effectiveness.
One move I made was turning the four
steps for identifying and analyzing textual silences that Huckins wrote into
“Tips” for the reader. That way, they could see how exactly to complete the
assignment, and it seemed more like guidelines than rules. Another move I made
was thoroughly describing each of the silences on the page following the
assignment description. The purpose of this is pretty obvious – to teach the
students the different kinds of silences they should be considering when
analyzing their reports. I tried to explain the types of silences in less
complex terms than the original article, so that the students would be able to
better understand, since it is a slightly confusing topic. Another move I made
was including examples along with all the definitions, so that the students
could get an even clearer understanding of the concept. Textual silences are
not an easy thing to understand, so I tried to make the information as
straight-forward as possible – even to a college-level class.
Overall, I think I did a pretty good job
of making the transformation from the original article into two completely
different genres – a children’s story and a college course homework assignment.
This project taught me a lot about “how to communicate effectively with different
communities” (117), and I feel I now possess much more knowledge about writing
and navigating through genres.
Works Cited
Alexander, Jonathan, and Elizabeth Losh. "Writing
Identities." Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing 3
(n.d.): n. pag. Web. 29 Feb. 2016
Hacking, Thomas. On Textual Silences, Large and Small.
Publication. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
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Writing 2 – WP3 Feedback Matrix
Writer:
_________
|
|||
Did
Not Meet Expectations
|
Met
Expectations
|
Exceeded
Expectations
|
|
Transformed Genres
(Overall) |
X
|
||
Younger Genre’s Conventions and Rhetorical
Factors
|
X
|
||
Older Genre’s Conventions and Rhetorical Factors
|
X
|
||
Consideration of “Big Ideas”
in the Scholarly Article |
X
|
||
Perceived Effort
|
X
|
||
Self-Analysis Reflection
(Overall)
|
X
|
||
Description of “Moves”
|
X
|
||
Attention to Genre/Conventions and Rhetorical
Factors
|
X
|
||
Use of Translated Genres
as Evidence of “Moves” |
X
|
||
Use of Course Readings
(McCloud, Losh/Alexander, Etc.) |
X
|
||
Sentence-level Clarity, Mechanics, Flow
|
X
|
||
Other
Comments and Grade
|
|||
Pictures of Storybook (for younger genre transformation)
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