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Understanding Rhetoric

A Graphic Guide to WritingThird Edition ©2021 Elizabeth Losh; Jonathan Alexander; Kevin Cannon; Zander Cannon

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Home Features New to This Edition Reviews

SEE why this is the book students want to read

After shaking up writing classrooms at more than 550 colleges, universities, and high schools, Understanding Rhetoric, the comic-style guide to writing that instructors have told us gets “nothing but positive responses from students,” has returned for a third edition! Combining the composition know-how of Liz Losh and Jonathan Alexander with the comic-art credibility of Kevin Cannon (Far Arden, Crater XV) and Zander Cannon (Heck, Kaijumax), Understanding Rhetoric encourages deep engagement with core concepts of writing and rhetoric, as teachers and students alike have told us. With brand new coverage of fake news, sourcing the source, podcasting as publishing, and support for common writing assignments, the new edition of the one and only composition comic covers what students need to know—and does so with fun and flair. And the detailed instructor’s manual will help both novice and experienced instructors plan a course around Understanding Rhetoric.

Features

Advice students need to succeed in first-year writing courses—in an engaging comic format. Understanding Rhetoric takes a rhetorical approach to the composition course, asking students to analyze the choices they and other writers make. The illustrations make challenging concepts (such as synthesis, ethos/pathos/logos, and a writer’s identity) both clear and fun to read about, while visual reference features offer the quick help that student writers need.

Student-friendly ReFrame sections with a focus on applying each chapter’s advice. Student characters Luis, Cindy, and Carol “reframe” the key concepts of each chapter by tackling assignments such as analyzing written and visual texts and doing ethnographic research.

A “Walk the Talk” game-board spread within each ReFrame helps students see how to put concepts to use in their own reading and writing.

Assignments at the end of each chapter. Each set of assignments includes a visual strand calling for analysis of images (including the contents of the chapters themselves) and suggested writing prompts for individual or collaborative projects, such as an analysis of the rhetoric of an online profile or a proposal for writing based on firsthand experience.

Plentiful instructor support. An instructor’s manual offers advice from Liz Losh and Jonathan Alexander, as well as Jasmine Lee, and Keith McCleary, two instructors with experience teaching with Understanding Rhetoric. This helpful resource offers detailed advice for structuring a course using Understanding Rhetoric, support for instructors teaching with comics for the first time, and a robust set of assignment ideas and class activities, with additional resources available on the Macmillan Community.

New to This Edition

Expanded support for common writing assignments makes Understanding Rhetoric even easier to teach and learn from. A brand new directory of writing assignments helps students connect the text with the writing that they will complete in their composition class. From a rhetorical analysis of a visual text to an argumentative essay, informational websites to critiques, the new edition provides support for common assignments.

Substantially revised and expanded Issue 8, now titled "Fake News and Real Publication," includes a brand new "Fake News!" section which discusses the origins of this extremely relevant topic and offers insight into its complexities. The end of Issue 8 also includes a brand new "Walk the Talk" on Podcasting as Publishing.

Engaging examples that students can relate to. The authors and illustrators of Understanding Rhetoric recognize that keeping students engaged is a vital part of successful learning. Some of the brand new engaging features to which your students might relate include:

A brand new rhetorical analysis of two job ad flyers in the ReFrame of Issue 1 follows students Cindy and Luis as they compare and analyze these visual texts.
"Setting the Scene for Arguable Assertions" in Issue 4 includes a new section that discusses the debate about free college tuition, one that many students can relate to in a time of increasing higher education costs.
A brand new "Walk the Talk" in the ReFrame of Issue 5 tells the true story of a group of students from Kennesaw State University who collaborated to help make Understanding Rhetoric even better.

Expanded coverage of evaluating sources. Issue 6 includes a brand new section on "Sourcing the Source" which helps students navigate the complexities of evaluating sources in a fun and relatable way as they watch author Jonathan fall for an online story from a questionable source.

This is the most successful text I have ever taught with in terms of student enthusiasm.

--Jim Haendiges, Dixie State University

Understanding Rhetoric practices what we preach about multimodal rhetoric.

--Sarah F. McGinley, Wright State University

I like the fact that its accessible, but more than anything it is rhetorically aware.

-- Chris Gerben, St. Edward’s University

This is such a focused text. … clear, accessible, creative, thoughtfully composed, smart, fun, and generative.

--Kate Pantelides, Middle Tennessee State University

I have had nothing but positive responses from students when they read this text.

--Rachael Ryerson, Ohio University

I really like this book -- it filled a niche for our student population that was overdue to be filled.

--Sonja L. Andrus, University of Cincinnati

Understanding Rhetoric

Elizabeth Losh; Jonathan Alexander; Kevin Cannon; Zander Cannon

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Understanding Rhetoric

Third Edition 2021

Elizabeth Losh; Jonathan Alexander; Kevin Cannon; Zander Cannon

Preface: Getting Graphic

Introduction: SPACES FOR WRITING
Discovering Contexts for Writing
Going Boldly through Writing Processes
*Exploring Visual Literacy
ReFrame: Why Rhetoric? Why a Comic Book?

Issue 1: WHY RHETORIC?
Piecing Together a Definition of Rhetoric
Reanimating Ancient Views of Rhetoric
Setting Rhetorical Concepts Loose on the World
*ReFrame: What Does Aristotle Have to Do with Me?

Issue 2: STRATEGIC READING
Investigating Texts and Analyzing Meaning
Putting the Pieces Together with Synthesis
Using Reading Strategies
Imagining Ideal Readers
ReFrame: How Do I Read This?

Issue 3: WRITING IDENTITIES
Leaping into Identities in Writing
Trying Out Choices for Different Audiences
Revealing the Performer within the Text
ReFrame: Am I Having an Identity Crisis?

Issue 4: ARGUMENT BEYOND PRO AND CON
Spotlighting Strategies for Argument
*Setting the Scene for Arguable Assertions
Zooming in on Claims and Evidence
Focusing on Effective Organization
ReFrame: The Office Hour!

Issue 5: COMPOSING TOGETHER
Getting Together
Multiplying Your Research Options
Collaborating with the Audience
Managing Collaborative Writing Projects
*ReFrame: Get It Together!

Issue 6: RESEARCH: MORE THAN DETECTIVE WORK
Keeping the Story Straight
Tracking Down Sources
*Sourcing the Source
Making Sources Talk: Summary, Paraphrase, Quotation
Coming Clean with Citation
ReFrame: Wrong Turns or Shortcuts?

Issue 7: RETHINKING REVISION
Looking beyond the Red Ink
Reviewing Rhetorically Seeing through Others’ Eyes
Revising Radically
ReFrame: Am I Missing Something?

*Issue 8: FAKE NEWS AND REAL PUBLICATION
Launching into the Future of Genres
*Navigating among Media
*Fake News!
Entering the Final Frontier with Publication
*ReFrame: How Does This Look?

Glossary
Index
*Directory of Writing Assignments

Understanding Rhetoric

Third Edition 2021

Elizabeth Losh; Jonathan Alexander; Kevin Cannon; Zander Cannon

Find Your Rep

Elizabeth Losh

Elizabeth Losh is the Gale and Steve Kohlhagen Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at William and Mary. Previously she directed the Culture, Art, and Technology program at the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of Virtualpolitik: An Electronic History of Government Media-Making in a Time of War, Scandal, Disaster, Miscommunication, and Mistakes (MIT Press), The War on Learning: Gaining Ground in the Digital University (MIT Press), and Hashtag (Bloomsbury).

Jonathan Alexander

Jonathan Alexander is Chancellor’s Professor of English and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, where he served as the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Writing and Communication and is currently associate dean in the Division of Undergraduate Education. The author, coauthor, or coeditor of sixteen books, he writes frequently about how people learn to write with a variety of digital tools. He’s also a proud nerd who enjoys reading and writing about science fiction, comics, movies, and young adult fiction.

Kevin Cannon

Kevin Cannonis an award-winning cartoonist, children’s book illustrator, and cartographer. His most recent graphic novel, The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy, was published by Hill and Wang. A Minneapolis native, Cannon spends his free time camping, reading dusty books about arctic explorers, and drawing cartoon maps.

Zander Cannon

Since 1993, Zander Cannon has written and drawn comics about astronauts, robots, paleontologists, feng shui masters, demons, and police officers. His latest comic book series, the Eisner-nominated KAIJUMAX, about a prison for giant monsters, is published by Oni Press. He lives in Minnesota with his strong wife, Julie, and his above-average son, Jin.