SQR4

Eloy Gonzalez

Arturo De La Torre

English 1320-1301

Instructor: Trang Phan

9/21/10

Rhetorical Reading strategies and Construction of Meaning

            S: In what I understood of the article it talks about how rhetorical reading helps a reader and writer get a deeper meaning of an article. The authors Christina Haas and Linda Flower explained that there are three types of strategies. These strategies are Content strategies, Function/ Feature strategies, and Rhetorical strategies. Parts of rhetorical reading would be two facts and two claims that explain the content. Rhetorical reading is more concerned with the effect over the reader and the author’s purpose. The article also explains how a student reader differs from an experience reader by how the experience readers see a point and try to explain it behind what they are reading. Experience readers explain the point in detail and create a constructive opinion about what they are reading and student reader just tries to make the reading understandable and does not try to go beyond and discover what the text is trying to say. Good reading means not only to understand the physical reading you as a reader see it but to understand what is “between the lines”. Teachers are trying to make student readers not only exchange information from the text but also have a more complex and critical reading understanding of what they are reading. Understanding the content of the reading is one thing but also reading between the lines and understanding what the writer is trying to tell you is very important to become a good reader and also a good writer.

Christina Haas and Linda Flower.” College Composition and Communication”, Vol.39, No.2 (May, 1988), pp. 167-183

Q: Christian Haas and Linda Flower describe reading as a constructive process, rather than a receptive one. What do they mean “Constructive Process” and “Receptive Process”?

R:  Christian Hass and Linda Flower describe “constructive process” as a way to help the reader comprehend not what’s only what is in the reading but  go beyond that. In “constructive process” the reader questions the point of view of the writers work. The authors explain “receptive process” as a reader that only receives the information that he is reading. A receptive reader does not go beyond what he is reading and often does not try to see the writers point. For example, receptive reading would be more like reading statistics in a sports magazine or reading only information. Many readers however do read in a receptive way when the topic does not catch the readers’ attention. When I read sports magazines I generally just take information without going beyond the point since it is only an informative article. A constructive reader takes the time to ask himself questions that will help him or her understand more of what the writer opinion is or the point they are trying to make. For example, when reading a novel that is interesting a constructive reader is emerged to ask himself questions that will help him comprehend what the author of the book is trying to say through the different points of view of each character. Constructive readers are more efficient in getting the information than receptive readers.