PB2B: "Moves"

Moves are critical for an authors because they define their style.  Authors use hundreds of different moves in their writing with the overall goal of getting their thesis and argument better understood by their reader.  Together with the content of the writing, a move is a big definer for specific authors.  Dan Brown, for example, is known to have extremely short chapters with an increasing pace to his writing.  Using the writing pieces “Understanding Rhetoric” and “Shitty First Drafts” we can better understand the use of moves within published works.  

“Understanding Rhetoric” written by Losh and Alexander is a very useful writing piece with the overall message to help the reader better understand what rhetoric is and how to better use it in their writings.  There are many unique moves used by the writers to better their paper.  The most obvious move they used was the form of a comic.  This unorthodox writing style greatly beneficial to the message of the essay.  It gets the point across in a easier to understand method due to the unintimidating structure.  While most authors are set on having a conventional technique and style for their writings, these authors decided to divert from this and make this writing particularly unique.  Most conventional essays eventually blend into each other.  When you read a writing piece such as a comic, you remember both reading it and the messages it describes.  Writing the piece as a comic was a very wise move and really helped the overall message.

Another move that is unique to this piece is the use of direct communication with the reader.  The use of “you” is throughout the writing.  This is a very interesting move since it familiarizes the reader with with the text and makes it easier to relate to the message.  Unlike the comic move, this is used to make it sound like the message and dialogue in the text is directed toward the reader.  When someone thinks that they are being talked to as equals and not by some distant professor they are much more likely to listen and agree with them.  The use of these directing words are a very specific move used by the author and is very beneficial for the essay.

The essay “Shitty First Drafts” written by Anne Lamott shares a lot of the same moves as “Understanding Rhetoric”.  The first move is the use of informality with the essay.  Unlike “Understanding Rhetoric” it is written in a typical essay style, but it still utilizes the same informality.  First off, the title includes “Shitty…”.  Using a commonly used curse word in a title immediately catches the reader off guard.  When reading an academic writing, the preconception is that of a developed and scholarly tone.  When the title contains a curse word it intrigues the reader.  This is a very interesting move and one that if utilized properly can assist in building credibility with the reader, something that every author desires.  

Next, while writing “Shitty First Drafts”, instead of using “you” Lamott includes“I”.  Like the use of curse words in the title, the use of “I” is a move that builds credibility with the author.  The reader will convey this move as the writer is just having a casual conversation with them instead of an academic essay to learn from.  When you are more relaxed and easygoing, you tend to learn a lot more and empathize with the author on a peer to peer basis, instead of student to teacher.

When determining a moves usefulness you have to understand the overall intention of the specific move used.  I think the moves highlighted in my analysis were all quite successful.   The moves that were pointed out all were specifically successful with their own motives.  The difference between the moves with “Understanding Rhetoric” and “Shitty First Drafts” is the unique take on informality.  While “Understanding Rhetoric” took a most stylistic approach with the use of the comic formatting, “Shitty First Drafts” took a more direct tone and diction approach to capture the audiences attention.  

When it comes to a successful essay, you must use certain moves in your writing to better convey your point.  These moves can range from using certain italics, including a summary, to even adding pictures throughout your essay.  The two essays I used to better my  understanding of moves used them in a similar fashion.  The use of moves for both “Understanding Rhetoric” and “Shitty First Drafts” was to provide the audience with unorthodox writing which leads to better absorption of the overall material of the essay.   Moves are crucial to writing and using them correctly will make your writing more successful.