Use commenting to describe one of Wollstonecraft’s writing strategies that gets your attention. Explain what she is doing and why it caught your attention. (Remember: for the Unit 1 Assignment, you will be writing your own speech or letter.)
About
Professor: Dr. Ruth G. Garcia
Email: RGarcia@citytech.cuny.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 10:30-12:30
This is a course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques, including use of the library. College-level readings are assigned as the basis for classroom discussion and for essay writing.
Sharing
Logged-in faculty members can clone this course. Learn More!
Search This Course
Find Library Materials
Library Information
Ursula C. Schwerin Library
New York City College of Technology, C.U.N.Y
300 Jay Street, Library Building - 4th Floor
Acknowledgments
This course is based on the following course(s):
When reading Wollstonecraft’s letter, I found her use of the rhetorical strategies ethos and logos very appealing because it reveals to her audience that women can differentiate from emotion and be logical thinkers. She purposely left out the rhetorical strategy of pathos or the sentimental appeal to her argument. She wrote her letter in an assertive manner so that she could maintain the argument that women should obtain their basic human rights. For example, when she uses logos, she uses cause and effect thinking. There was a moment in the letter where she states “if you are going to exclude women, without consulting them, from sharing in the natural rights of mankind, then defend yourself against accusations of injustice and inconsistency by proving that women don’t have reason. If you don’t do that, then this flaw in your New Constitution” (Wollstonecraft 2). Her if-then statement here shows that she’s thinking critically and she has a purpose in her mind, which was to persuade the reader intellectually so that “he” could reconsider his assessment about women. Furthermore, to the end of the letter she says, “I have produced what seemed to me to be irrefutable arguments, drawn from matters of fact, to prove my often repeated assertion that women cannot by force be confined to domestic concerns” (Wollstonecraft 3). She comes off as very trustworthy since she is a woman herself, and she knows what it feels like to be belittled or put down by society. As someone who had familiarity with the claim she is trying to make, Wollstonecraft shows her confidence in her delivery of the evidence and facts through her letter.
This is all excellent. I especially like your example of where she says that by not educating women they are not adhering to the New Constitution. This is all after the French Revolution and so she is using what they value to make her argument–she understands her audience’s beliefs and uses it to build common ground.
But I would say she is kind of using pathos when she tells men that women will be the kind of faithful wives and dedicated wives they desire if they are educated.
One of Wollstonecraft writing strategy is making many arguments on a principle. The arguments she is making is based on the principle that women aren’t given knowledge to be men companions. This caught my attention because I have not seen a letter that uses an overal principle to make many arguments.
This is one of my favorite strategies in Wollstonecraft’s letters–it is veiled threat. She uses what they value (women that are domestic companions) against them and points out that they will not have this without educating them. Not only that they will have the opposite–women that are unfaithful and manipulative. It’s a big “Beware” moment in her letter that she comes back to in various forms.
One of Wollstonecraft’s writing strategies that caught my attention was that she was able to give a descriptive letter of her problem through the uses of the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, why). This caught my attention because by incorporating this writing strategies, I did not have a hard time finding her thesis/argument and her reasoning. It is clear who she addresses (M. Talleyrand-Perigod), what her problem is (talks about how Talleyrand disregards women’s rights), where and when this took place (1792, French Revolution), and why she decide to take this stance (fighting for equality).
This is a great point–it is important to have a clearly outlined problem and a clear goal/point for your argument. Wollstonecraft get to her point immediately in the first sentence of her letter and then she expands on this in the second paragraph.
In Wollstonecraft’s letter, one of the writing strategies that stood out to me is her tone. I can sense that she is very passionate about this topic on the rights of women. She discusses how women should be allowed to seek for an education rather than being isolated through her tone.
What would you call or table her tone? And this is a real question that I have and do not have the answer to She tries to be complimentary and does this in her first sentence and then again the first sentence of her third paragraph. But other than this, I’m not sure what I would call her tone. She is super logical and works to support all her claims with reasons. I’m not sure.
One of Wollstonecraft’s writing strategies that caught my attention was that she targeted her audience but most importantly she used the appeal logos. Mary stated facts within each paragraph and used examples to defend her reasoning. This caught my attention because when learning to strengthen our writing skills we are taught the importance of targeting our audience and using appeals to help improve the effectiveness of our writing. Mary doing this made her letter easy to understand, it was simple yet direct.
Excellent! she absolutely knows her audience and what they value–see my responses above to Marcus and Moushmi. She knows they value women that are domestic and dependent wives and devoted mothers, that they value the idea of equal rights (though they are not including women in that, just white men of different classes), and that they are against tyranny. And she says that to educate women means falling in line with these things she values.
The strategy that caught my attention is tone because it makes her point of view to get across. It provokes emotions to the reader too. She does this to cause the reader to feel the same emotions as her allowing her words to have more meaning.
See my comment to Pauline above. She also notes Wollstonecraft’s use of tone–but as I ask her: What would you call that tone? Where do you see it at work? I myself am not sure what to call it–though you are both right that she has a tone as all writing does.
Wollstonecraft uses many writing strategies that effectively convey her point across quite directly and persuasively. One of her writing strategies that gets my attention is her use of pathos within the dedicatory letter, essentially showing a grand wave of emotion while using specific vocabulary and tone. I was intrigued to see how I personally felt her anger throughout the letter and that she was eager for them to listen to her. She uses an enraged tone and even includes offenses for anyone who would oppose her idea, because it was immoral after all. Aside from multiple figurative languages used, her appeal to pathos caught my attention and was effectively used to evoke a reaction to her intended audience.
I would love an example here to illustrate what you are seeing. I agree that she is using pathos to appeal to the reader’s emotions but I would say she is trying to make there worried and anxious that they are not meeting their own standard. See my responses to Moushmi and Marcus for a bit more on what I mean.
One of Wollstonecraft’s writing strategies that she uses is persuasive writing. My reasoning for this claim is because throughout her letter she convinces the reader that there is a flaw in her community that she is trying to correct. This caught my attention because I have encountered someone with similar experiences as Wollstonecraft describes.
I agree that Wollstonecraft tries to persuade her reader but persuasive writing is a rhetorical mode rather than a strategy. Her strategies are the things she does/says in her letter to persuade her reader to do as she wants. For example you are right that a strategy by trying to show them there is a flaw in their way of doing things. Specifically their flaw is to treat women as unequal which leads to problems with women’s behavior. She saying–you think women are terrible but it is your own doing.
Only of Wollstonecraft writing strategies were the use of the Argumentative strategy. It’s as if she’s arguing with another person to get her point across, this caught my attention because I believe this is the most effective way to bring your point across, it allows you to also implement facts, otherwise your argument will become invalid.
As I say to Billie just above, argumentative writing, like persuasive writing, is a rhetorical mode. Her strategies are what you does to create a convincing argument. And you are correct that one strategy is that she appeals to the audience’s reason by using factual observations about women to convince the reader that there is a problem that needs to be addressed and to convince them that education is the way to fix the problem
The writing tragedy which Mary Wollstonecraft is using is that she is using pathos and logos to make her appeal. She sees facts and she sees emotion to get the approval she wants. She puts it out there that women need to be independent, she brings up the idea of patriotism and the idea of kids growing up to see their mother have no rights. This really caught my attention because she is a very brace individual, she stood up and voiced her concerns and she even questioned men’s morals. She used a very strict and honest tone to make the point of the injustices that were happening and this really caught my attention because she had to have been a very educated individual to have been able to make such points.
It’s a great point–She is playing on their emotions by. invoking the idea of patriotism. Also, in terms of the kids, she is also playing on their emotions here. She’s saying if you want you kids to come out right and be good citizens then you need to educate the person (mothers/women) who have the most influence on them.
One writing strategy that jumped out to me is persuasive writing. She is trying to persuade her recipient by presenting her points in a way that will sway him to understand her view and agree with her. She is not attacking him or arguing with him, she is trying to get him on her side. This jumped out to me because while I was trying to analyze her reasoning behind writing this letter I also realized that the whole premise is to persuade him to agree with her.
As I said to Billie and Victoria above, persuasive writing is a rhetorical mode and the strategies are the things she does to be persuasive. For example her logical organization that you point out here is indeed a strategy. Another strategy you point out here is that she is not attacking but rather she is actually complimenting them at times and then saying to be these great things (to be someone who values equality and is anti-tyranny) you need to also be pro-educating women and treating them as your equal.
During the French Revolution times were extremely difficult. Two years before the reign of terror Mary Wollstonecraft had published a defense of the revolution against Burke. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote this letter because she felt as if she needed to stand up for the inequality of the women gender in France. One writing strategy that Mary Wollstonecraft uses is Pathos and Logos, she uses this writing all throughout her writing to deeper emphasize her message or point across. Mary Wollstonecraft fought for the women of France in numerous of ways. Mary Wollstonecraft insisted that women have the right to an education that they can learn from and use in their life, the role that women are expected to follow became even more important in society. In addition she provided valid arguments such as educating women would strengthen the marital relationship. A stable marriage as she believed, is a partnership between a husband and a wife. A woman, thus, needs to have the knowledge and reasoning skills that her husband does to maintain the partnership. A stable marriage also provides for the proper education of children. Mary Wollstonecraft believes that women should be able to provide more to society rather than men controlling everything. Instead of being neglected and living in the world of men or their husbands, women should be able to join the men and work together as one. Women would receive the consideration that is due to human beings in their own right, enjoying the same rights as their male counterparts. Maria Wollstonecraft made it very transparent in her book that she believed women had the ability to be equal partners to their husbands, and in society.
You have a lot that is good here but is buried in the context . For examples, as I tell Marcus above, one of my favorite things in Wollstonecraft is the way she tries to convince her reader that women should be educated because it as actually to their benefit. They will be happier husbands and fathers if they educate women–they will have faithful and subservient wives that are devoted to their kids but only if you make them equal in terms of education. She is very good at using the values and beliefs of her audience to create common ground and be persuasive.
Two writing strategies that Wollstonecraft uses are tone and opening strong. I say her tone because it let the people who are reading it actually understand her and feel her point of view. I say her opening strong because she got straight to the point and introduced who she was speaking to and why. Unlike some who take a while or make it confusing to understand what the issue is and who it is addressed to.
Yes–I say to Jenny above, you are both correct that Wollstonecraft has a clear point for her audience and she states it in the first sentence. One can not be ambiguous about the point one is making in a persuasive piece. As for tone–what would you label it? In terms of tone, see my responses to Pauline and Diana above,
One writing strategy that Mary Wollstonecraft uses is tone. She uses certain vocabulary to show how passionate she is about the issue. One example of this is her use of the word “tyrant”, she explains that it’s tyranny for men to say that know what’s in the best interest of women. She also says that women’s rights should be natural rights, to emphasize the point that there should be no argument against it.
Rather than tone, I would say these are moments where Wollstonecraft uses that values and beliefs of her audience to build common ground and convince them that they should do what she asks because it is actually something that fits in with their values and beliefs and that to not do it goes agains those values and beliefs.
One writing strategy that Wollstonecraft used in her letter that really caught my attention was definitely her persuasive writing. When she presented the problem and issues with women not getting rights she really gave good points to argue with the men and prove to them that women’s rights should be given to them to progress as a whole. She also does this by giving out multiple good points and tries to show that they could do better for the future by coming together.
As I say to several of your classmates, persuasive writing is a rhetorical mode and the strategies are what she does to be persuasive. For it is a strategy when she develops the idea (that you are pointing out) that men can not progress without treating women as equals in terms of education and that therefore it is to their benefit to treat them as equal.
I would say what really caught my attention is Wollstonecraft’s letter was the way she structured it so it seems kind and pleasant in the beginning, but more aggressive as it goes on. She starts off the letter in a more soft manner stating she is not doing this for herself, but for her sex. She claims her “personal wants” are very little. Later on, she lets loose and says: “If you are going to exclude women, without consulting
them, from sharing in the natural rights of mankind, then
defend yourself against accusations of injustice and inconsistency by proving that women don’t have reason. If you don’t
do that, then this flaw in your New Constitution—the first constitution based on reason—will show for all times that
man must in some way act like a tyrant, and that tyranny,
in whatever part of society it raises its arrogant head, will
always undermine morality.” as you can see she begins to use her words in more of a aggressive manner.