Exercise 4.

Arrangement: The Nestorian Order

If you have not read the following reading posted to the Assignments folder on Blackboard, then you should do so before proceeding. Arrangement Instructions:

You may use the Justificatory/Counterargument or any other of the pieces you have written thus far for the seminar, or you may come up with a new proposition. Be sure to base it on class readings. If you choose to expand upon your prior text, remember to revise based on feedback and your own constantly evolving understanding of the material and of your audience. In this exercise, your draft expands to address the very basis of rhetoric, which demands that you take into account the psychology of your reader as well as the dynamic interaction between the various elements of your text. When, for example, should the counterargument be introduced? Should there be a conclusion, or will it be more effective to end on the strongest reason? In some disciplines and genres, this work of what to include and where to place it has been done for you. For example, a lab report is entirely formalized, as is the standard business report, with clearly marked subheadings and expectations about the content beneath these. News stories are highly formalized, while the elements and organization of the feature story is less constrained. Depending on the profession and the genre, you may be on your own in terms of how to order your work and thus must anticipate how each element of your text facilitates or interferes with the readers willingness to embrace your position. Assignment Options: You have two options: either to create a new piece of writing, a Nestorian order chunk of 500 words, or to use the Nestorian principle of ordering and imbed the additional reasons in your working draft of the Justificatory/Concession essay (or other previous work for the class), with a limit of 1200 words. Be sure to base your proposition on course readings.

If you wish to start fresh, open with an introductory paragraph that culminates in your proposition and then proceed with two paragraphs in Nestorian order: one paragraph that opens with your second strongest reason and contains at least three more reasons in support of your proposition; followed by a paragraph that opens with your strongest reason and develops that reason. Do not write a conclusion. If you wish to imbed the Nestorian in one of your working drafts, then your first presentation of reasons must begin with a paragraph that opens with your second strongest reason and contains at least three other reasons, and you must have a separate paragraph devoted to your strongest reason. Your strongest

 Possible architecture for your imbedded Nestorian includes but is not limited to: I. intro/proposition paragraph refutation/concession of proposition paragraph with second strongest, followed by three other reasons. paragraph with strongest reason, developed. II. intro/proposition paragraph second strongest reason, developed in a paragraph refutation of second strongest reason paragraph of four reasons refutation/concession of one or more of these reasons, evidence, or proposition paragraph with strongest reason, developed conclusion III. intro/proposition paragraph of second strongest reason, and three other reasons. refutation/concession strongest reason paragraph (conclusion) Please note that you are nearing the end of practicing these rhetorical strategies. The work you are doing is leading to your mid-term justificatory essay. In the work you do for other classes and other professions, you will need to follow their formats or develop your own rhetorical structures by rearranging these elements (or perhaps inventing new ones, now that you are versed in the fundamentals). Step One: Prewriting for draft one of Nestorian 1) Think of a tentative justificatory proposition or adapt one of your prior propositions. 2) List as many reasons and evidence as you can think of to support your proposition. Dont forget to review your previous prewriting notesby now you may have several reasons available 3) Choose at least five reasons. One of these should be a strong reason that doesnt require too much development. Three others may be less compelling but should also require little development. Your strongest reason, however, should require development (a paragraph). Gather what

reason should appear near or at the end of the essay; the Nestorian order means that you finish with your strongest argument.

you need to support these reasons. As always, adapt to your audience and purpose as best you can. 4) Revise your current proposition (or rewrite it entirely) so that it captures your selected reasons. 5) If you are imbedding the Nestorian, your work is somewhat different. You need to come up with at least three more reasons and decide whether they are stronger or weaker than the two reasons you have in your working draft. You may wish to keep your two reasons paragraphs, and create a Nestorian paragraph (four reasons) that you insert prior to these two. Step Two: The draft Set your timer and your goal for how much time you will spend on this draft. Calculate it in relation to how much time you have been spending on these drafts. You should be getting faster and more efficient, and you should also be getting a pretty good idea of how much time you need to write X amount of words when you have done some work in preparing for that task (reading, skeletal outlining, writing in chunks). This will help you manage your time as well as your understanding of the way substantive research papers are written, writing in chunks that incorporate your research, building an essay rather than attempting to spew one out at the last minute. Step Three: The Abbreviated Outline By now you have likely internalized the habit of checking your sentences for what they are saying and doing. Its time to move on to the Abbreviated Outline, which is more of a checklist to insure that your logic is coherent and your structure fits your goals. The Abbreviated Outline is simple: in addition to your overview (proposition, audience, goal, plan) write a one sentence summary of what each paragraph is saying, and a one to two sentence summary of what each paragraph is doing. Make sure that you pay attention to what all of your sentences are saying and doing, and note if any are not doing or saying what they should. The abbreviated outline combines three critical writing skills: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation toward revision. For example: P1 says: The Rangers have many outstanding players P1S1-3 does: Introduces the evidence for the second strongest reason supporting the proposition. (Note that P1S2 is a tangent: delete). You have now spent enough time with your topic, your argument and your audience to have a reasonably clear sense of what you are trying to argue. At this stage, you should start putting some real pressure on your proposition. You have to walk the line between having a proposition so fuzzy and broad that not even you know quite what youre trying to argue, and one so short and pointed that you have forgotten what it was you set out to demonstrate. Premature pruning sometimes results in losing what is most inventive about your argument. At a certain point, however, your proposition becomes crystal clear and that is when you can prune it mercilessly. You have

introductory sentences to set it up, and an entire essay to elucidate it; and you know where youre going with it. Aim for a simple declarative sentence with the subject and verb at the opening: no slow wind-ups. The reader should readily see the agent and the action. The verb should be active: We should abolish the death penalty, not The death penalty is wrong. Make sure there is only one relationship, not the death penalty is wrong and we should abolish it (two jobs) and wherever possible eliminate abstractions such as wrong, for as you have learned, abstractions are empty universals that need to be filled with meaninga big, unwieldy task. Remove all needless words. Strive to reduce your proposition to 10 or fewer words. Be as plainspoken and concrete as possible. Finally, check your draft and your outline for logical coherence. The proliferation of reasons, evidence, and other strategies takes a toll on ones logic. Make note of any errors of grammar, mechanics, or spelling in your Custom Proofreading Sheet.