Blog Tropes and Figures - Dr. Morgan
-trope - noun
-a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression:he used the two-Americas trope to explain how a nation free and democratic at home could act wantonly abroad.
-a significant or recurrent theme; a motif:she uses the Eucharist as a pictorial trope.
-blogs serve as forums for experimenting w/ forms, tropes, figures.
-trope/figure/form - using interchangeably.
-a generative form or pattern.
-has become regularized enough to be identifiable.
-rhetoric - has figs of speech:
-metonymy - noun (plural metonymies)
- the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing.
-metaphor
-irony
-poetry - uses:
-couplets
-rhyme
-schemes
-forms like limericks and sonnets.
-blogs - make use of all traditional figures/tropes
-add some:
-lists
-rants
-FAQ's
-dialogues
-tropes/figures give form to ideas
-SO - engaging a form helps generate ideas AND shape ideas.
-experimentation not just fueled cuz is public place.
-postings linked to outside blog
-puts posting in larger context.
-allows exposition beyond the close-at-hand.
-blog tropes/figures:
-based on print-based tropes/figures
-often use link to attach or develop exposition beyond immediate page.
-based on online forms:
-discussion lists (rants)
-IM
-FAQs
-typical rhetorical forms in blogs to generate/structure postings:
1- lists - of anything
-fast way of focusing/generating specifics
-can make point about situation.
-can suggest the narrative that created it.
2- variations on lists - the categorization list.
3- haiku-like lines - brevity to the extreme.
-brevity suggests immediacy - immediacy of blog matches immediacy of the posting.
4- haiku-link poems - take brief entry and make words links to other pages and moments.
-hmmmmm…..
5- fragments - of sentences, observations, comments.
6- oppositions/counterposings - w/in entries and between entries.
7- vignettes of a day - no. of postins in one day
-often following unfolding set of events
-or, tracing change in attitude, mood, or mind
8- journal entry - writing = "moment of pause and reflection" about recent events immediate to writer.
-sometimes private/intimate details
-writer may or may not acknowledge reader.
-BUT - fully aware that might be read and shapes posting to suit a rhetorical purpose.
9- rants - characterized by:
- overstatment
- monological
- and single-minded forward motion.
-don't admit alternative views.
-rely on appeals to pathos.
-rants know they're rants - writer often acknowledges the form.
10- FAQ - frequently asked questions.
-form born of Internet.
-can be used to give shape to multitude of ideas.
11- link-poem - poem or set of lines in which links play signif role to create meaning.
12- occasional link-essay - bloggers situate blog entries in place/time by writing about moment of writing.
-this form goes further - makes post a formal essay about a situation of the moment - incorporates links in ways to advance the exposition.
-developed by Joshua Murray
13- commentary -
-by interlineary annotation
-by collection and collocation
14- mosaic - collected extracts - set of quotations/images/links grabbed from online (w/ links to sources and collected to articulate a point.
-point may be stated or unstated.
-or collected to characterize a moment.
15- dialogue - real, imagined, hoped for.
16- linking -
-link types and uses:
-opposition
-annotation
-query
-"hey, look at this!"
-contextualization - link as commentary on linktext - link Walmart ot critical essay on Walmart.
-rhetorical framework of personal letter, email note and 5-paragraph theme all help focus/drive invention.
-gives direction
-signals when complete.