Sankovich 1 Kyle Sankovich Professor Christian Berry ENC 1102 15 February 2013 Reading Response 4: Critical Discourse Analysis

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an extremely valuable tool to have when you look at a rhetorical situation. It is used to explicate abuses of power in rhetorical situations (Huckin 107). It looks at the advantages/disadvantages one has from holding power while also looking at the advantages/disadvantages of lacking power, within a situation. Upon analysis, CDA can be used to create new discourse more effectively by knowing what position you may be in. CDA also takes into consideration rhetorical ecologies and any genres that may influence the balance of power within a situation. When you look at CDA, it is important to understand that CDA does not determine who has the power in a rhetorical situation but rather it analyzes where it is located. Ferreira-Buckley made this a point because it is often confused. CDA can be used for further study into genre or rhetorical ecologies but it is merely a tool to help one gain knowledge and power within a situation. When you look at rhetorical ecologies, it is important to remember that its main focus is on the roots of a piece or pieces of discourse and their development. CDA takes into account rhetorical ecologies by noticing key parts of the ecologies so that they can be effectively utilized in a rhetorical situation. Huckin et al. states CDA offers the field is a training ground for future graduate students in the area of historical writing studies (111). Essentially I am agreeing with this quote because by learning about the past of something, we know it better in the present. This

Sankovich 2 is similar to the reason why we take history classes throughout our education; we know mistakes made in history so we can be better prepared to not make them again in the future. That is why rhetorical ecologies are important when it comes to understanding rhetorical situations. Genres play a large role in a rhetorical situation by setting the situation up to begin with. Lloyd Bitzer gives a more in depth analysis of what genre exactly is and for the sake of this Reading Response I am accepting his description and understanding of genre. When you look at rhetorical ecologies you can see trends that have occurred previously. For example, a trend may be a repeating rhetorical situation. Instead of taking the time to analyze the situation we utilize a genre, a previously used way to deal with a situation, to help us make our decision faster. Genre is important in CDA because a genre can help who has the power in a rhetorical situation and how they got it. This is a small gap that Huckin et al. failed to go into very deep but it is none the less an important one. When Huckin et al. talks about intertextuality, it brings the point of using previous work to influence present work back up. I enjoyed this part of the article because it helped clear up what intertexuality meant from ENC 1101. I never fully grasped the concept until now it is clearer to me. I agree with Huckin et al. in the article because as I said before knowing the roots of discourse or a genre can help understand it in the present. CDA helps bring rhetorical ecologies, genre and rhetorical situations together in a clear manner. Before reading the article, I relatively understood each of topics before him but I could not make strong connections between them. I know understand the relationships between them significantly better than I did before. Huckin et al. were successful in getting their point across and helping to explain the connections.

Sankovich 3 Works Cited

Huckin, Thomas, Jennifer Andrus, and Jenn Clary-Lemon. Critical Discourse Analysis and Rhetoric and Composition. College Composition and Communication 64.1 (2012): 10729. JSTOR.