Via request, I have extended the due date on the second project to next week, providing you with one additional weekend to work together. But I will start on our next units this week: both the unit dealing with rhetoric in the real world and the unit focusing on research.
To get us started, I want to work with Ian Bogost’s Persuasive Games and his focus on procedural rhetoric. While not an overly dense or intentionally opaque book, it is difficult, and I imagine, for some of you, this might be the first time you have encountered a theoretical text.
Working from that assumption, I want to introduce a few procedures for reading more difficult prose.
Identify the Problem
All texts are responses to problems, usually multiple problems. A key to penetrating and appreciating an academic text is to identify the problems it addresses. Sometimes, these problems will be explicit and easily identifiable. Other times, they can be more implicit. But as you are reading–and particularly as you are reading introductory material, be on the look out for the problem an author hopes to solve.
Have Google at the Ready
When you are reading theoretical texts, it is extremely helpful to have a search engine and/or wikipedia at the ready. You’ll want to search quickly for key terms and names you don’t recognize.
I emphasize “key” because you don’t want to fall into a hole searching for every term you don’t recognize. Try to focus on the one’s the author emphasizes.
Searching for names can be particularly important because it can help you to identify the author’s problem. Often, writers are working with or against other writers. Being able to map the relationship of an author to other writers/movements/problems/solutions can be extremely helpful.
Read with a pen, never a highlighter
Studies have shown that reading with a highlighter does absolutely nothing to increase retention. Reading with a pen, however, can be extremely beneficial. I recommend using the pen for two things:
- First, either underline or mark the margin in any significant place.
- Second, at the top of any page that contains a mark, write a few word that indicate what the mark is about–even if it just repeats words from the marked passage. The idea is to create a “flip index” of main ideas across the top of the page.
Preparing for Class Discussion
When I prepared as a student, I would try to mark off three things as I read:
- A passage I didn’t understand
- A passage of critical importance to the author’s problem/solution
- A passage that got my attention, made me laugh, made me growl
If you come to class with even two of these three passages, you will rock any class discussion.
Write it Up
A final point: when you finish reading something, you should always write a brief 3-5 sentence summary of it somewhere.
