PB2B: "Moves"

I chose to compare and contrast Kerry Dirk’s Navigating Genres and Karen Rosenberg’s Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources from the Reader. Both writers have a unique variety of “moves” that they use in their writings. These “moves” or writing styles allow the readers to better understand the authors’ main points and allows the authors to keep the readers’ interest and attention. Most of their “moves” that they made were successful, but there were a few that were not.

            First I will discuss Kerry Dirk’s “moves”. As I just demonstrated, the idea of starting paragraphs with using words like “I” or “You” commonly appears throughout her writing. For example, Dirk said, “When I started writing this essay, I had some ideas of what I wanted to say” (15). She probably does this because she wants her writing to feel more personal and conversational to the reader and she succeeds in this. Additionally, she opens her piece with a joke and briefly discusses it. This move allows the reader to relax, hopefully gain a positive first impression of what he/she is about to read, and grab his/her attention. This humorous hook is a “move” that other authors use and can be effective if the intended sentences are in fact funny. Arguably, Dirk’s writing is humorous. She also seems to enjoy inserting amusing examples that are typically relatable and relevant to the reader. For example, Dirk said, “I like examples, so here is one more. Many of you may be familiar with The Onion, a fictitious newspaper that uses real world examples to create humorous situations” (254). Also, as I have been trying to demonstrate in my own writing, Dirk uses lots of good transitions. This “move” allows the reader to ideally read her writing effortlessly and be able to follow the direction that she is moving in. She is successful in creating a steady flow in her article. Using bullet points is another “move” seen throughout. This is not always a good “move” to make because it can create choppiness and disrupt the writing flow. However, the bullet points give diversity to the typical paragraph structure of articles. She probably uses these to clearly separate and draw more attention to her writing. Her use of posing questions for the readers to ponder is an effective “move” because it can force the reader to stop and think about the article. Lastly, Dirk includes lengthy quotes from others, such as professors and rhetoricians. This “move” may validate her arguments, but these paragraph block quotes can be distracting and seem purposeless.

            In comparison, Karen Rosenberg has many different “moves” than Kerry Dirk. Rosenberg begins her article by saying, “During my first year in college, I feared many things: calculus, cafeteria food, the stained, sweet smelling mattress in the basement of my dorm” (84). She inserts background information about herself and stories in order to sound more personal. This is effective because it allows the readers to better understand the author and this can allow them to connect more with what she is saying. Her humor is similar to Dirk and is apparent throughout, such as when she describes a personal story about a peer’s elbow (85). This “move” gives a relaxing and interesting feel to her writing and is for the benefit of the reader. As with Dirk, she uses the words “I”, “me”, and “you” to also make the reader feel that she is talking directly to him/her and she is successful at this. However, a successful “move” that Dirk doesn’t make is when she writes with bold titles to clearly define the break-up of paragraph ideas. She also uses italics and bold face words to place emphasis on certain terms, which can sometimes be distracting. This can be an unhelpful “move” because the reader’s eyes tend to focus more on these words. However, she is successful with using this “move” because the words she focuses on seem to be important and it shows when she is moving on to discuss a new term or topic. Also, using contractions are a “move” and this adds to the casualty of the article. She repeatedly uses the “move” of asking questions in order to create interaction and engage the reader. In the conclusion, she gives a series of commanding sentences.

            Although Dirk and Rosenberg use many different “moves” throughout their writing, they have many similar “moves”. They use terms such as “I”, “me”, and “you” in order to make their writing more personal to the reader. This “move” is successful because it allows the reader to read the article more conversationally. They both incorporate humor, which is also successful because, at least for me as a reader, it caught my attention and kept me engaged in their writing. Overall, they both demonstrate the effectiveness of their “moves”.