RUNNING HEAD: Research Argument

Research Argument
Polett Rothenbucher
The University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1301
April 29, 2015
Paul LaPrade

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Audience
This assignment includes various information and research that will help conclude the
reasoning of my argument. This research argument will be about why UTEP should require
students to take RWS 1301 and RWS 1302. For example using my major of nursing, I will
include my experiences and how this course has helped me in many ways to be prepared and use
what I learned after graduating as a licensed nurse. This assignment will include my audience
which will be all of UTEPs pre nurses that will be able to realize and experience of the
importance of this argument and how it can be persuasive by noticing the importance of taking
RWS and how it would help in their professions.
Introduction
Many majors include having a degree plan that will help them organize themselves and
know the type of courses they need to take in order to reach their goals of becoming what they
studied for. For example, in the article Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing
a Research Argument by Stuart Greene, he speaks and includes information about how to make a
good argument and what are you planning to win on this argument. For this argument it is to be
able to communicate with The University of Texas at El Paso and help students who are in pre
nursing notice the importance of taking the courses of RWS 1301 and 1302. Having to be
required to take this course many believe that since they are studying in a medical field it would
not be important to focus too much on composition; however for this course it is trying to
communicate in your writing and to be rhetoric. Rhetorical writing studies is a course of not
English and writing, but basically a communication course that helps you gain the skills of
learning communication skills.

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Main Claim and Confirmation

Professors that teach RWS want students to learn the importance of using rhetoric in
composition. In the article Chronos and Kairos, Strategies and Tactics: The Case of
Constructing Elon University's Professional Writing and Rhetoric Concentration by Timothy
Peeples, Paula Rosinski, & Michael Strickland , they argue on the importance of having
programs like professional writing and rhetoric (PWR) and why students should give these
program a chance in order to improve more of their writing skills. What we find most powerful
about this framework is the way it emphasizes the rhetorical, productive, compositional nature of
program development; we write and re-write our programs (Peeples,Rosinski, Strickland, pg.
58). In this article the authors argue why this program should be required for students who are
majoring in English explaining how PWR can increase more in their writing especially for their
English majoring. Likewise how many students especially in pre nursing here in the University
of Texas at El Paso should be required to take the course of RWS course as a helpful resource of
helping developing their writing skills.
Students should learn the use of rhetoric as an important writing skill that can be later on
helpful for their profession either if its medical, engineering, etc. Using rhetoric in writing can
be useful, for example in my experience, taking this course I managed to understand how this
class works and how it has helped me improve my writing skills. In the beginning of this course I
always asked myself of why it could be important to use rhetoric as a writing skill and how it
would help me in my profession of nursing. In the article of Helping Students Use Textual
Sources Persuasively by Margaret Kantz, she explains the true meaning of rhetoric and how it is
not only about a mere term in composition and that writing and reading is only about gaining
information. Given this chapters focus on rhetoric, several of its pieces suggest writing and

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reading are not just about transmitting and receiving information (Kantz, pg. 428). The author
makes it logically explainable of how rhetoric, the use of being persuasive, is used a lot in
composition but it sometimes not mentioned and hidden in a persons writing.
Kantz also explains how to make a better and professional research paper. In this article
she explains how a research paper is not only about gaining information, but also explaining how
to make you r audience more into your topic by creating an understandable argument on a typical
topic; likewise how using valuable information on explaining the importance use of RWS for pre
nurses to prepare them and be professional in the use of writing. However when it comes to the
nursing majors many suggest on why is it required to use writing in their major and how is going
to help in this profession. In this major the use of writing is useful majorly because when it
comes to writing doctoral reports and also as a use of communication with their patients. For
example in the use for the course of RWS the term rhetoric means speaking in persuasion and as
a communication skill.
When it comes to writing rhetoric, it is used a lot and many writers do not usually notice
it. For example in the article Disciplining the nurse writer: Doctoral Nursing Students'
Perspective on Writing Capacity by Maureen M Ryan, Madeline Walker, Margaret Scaia, Vivian
Smith, the article explains the importance of learning writing skills in the medical field. The
authors mentions and argues that if student who wants to major in nursing or doctoral they tend
to lack in their writing capacity and think that it can be a major issue when it comes to a very
challenging profession. While it is not our purpose to suggest that such an approach to nursing
doctoral education lacks merit, we will argue that what presents as a narrowed view of
developing doctoral nursing students writing capacity may be problematic and, in turn, shape a
limited view of what constitutes nursing scholarship (Ryan, Walker, Scaia, Smith). In this

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article it is similar to the situation that it is very important to learn the skills that RWS has require
for pre nurses in the University of Texas at El Paso and why it could be very useful for this
profession. For example in my experience the use that I give to RWS 1301 is that my professor
gave us an assignment to do called Discourse Community, and for this assignment I thought
that it was the most interesting and enjoyable assignment that I managed to do.
In this assignment I was required to explore the field that I plan to study. The term
Discourse Community is when you join a community where you feel you belong and where you
get to explore the different environment than what you are already accustomed to. A Discourse
Community includes of having a group a people that tend to share the same goals as you. For
example in the use of my profession of nursing I was able to explore the community of a nursing
environment and learn their genres and type of communication they use. In this assignment I was
able to understand how the community of nursing works and how it could be different to any
other community. Overall having to do this assignment was really useful because you get to
explore and learn a little more about the profession you want to accomplish.
In this assignment it helps in many ways especially when if its about your major; these
type of assignments we worked on in this course could be a great resource because you can not
only learn to be rhetoric in writing, but to explore more things about composition that can be
used in your profession. For example in the means of rhetoric composition in the article Rhetoric
of Respect Recognizing Change at a Community Writing Center by Tiffany Rousculp, she
explains the meanings of being in a community where writing is more involved, she talks about
how in this community theres more to than just writing in this article it mentions how to view
more into writing in a writers point of view. The author explains how much rhetoric studies are
respected in a writers perspective. Tiffany Rousculp advocates cultivating relationships within

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a rhetoric of respect that recognizes the abilities, contributions, and goals of all participants
(Rousculp). However in this book it is a type of discourse community that explains the visual
explanation for writers who shares the same goals of learning more about composition.
Many do not notice the importance of rhetoric composition and how using rhetoric in
composition can help when using writing in your profession. As how Tiffany Rousculp mentions
in her book arguing how it is in respecting rhetoric in writing and the importance of it as a
writers point of view. As how when it comes to the profession of nursing, a nurse needs to
understand rhetoric because it is well used when youre trying to communicate with your patients
and trying to be persuasive in a medical term that can be helpful in many situations. In the article
Writing for Publication in Nursing and Healthcare by Karen Holland and Roger Watson, they
mention the importance of writing for nurses in how to use it when turning in manuscripts to
doctors and the use narrative terms they write in order for their manuscripts to be professional
and acceptable, since it becomes very important in the medical field. Also there has been proof
the use of rhetoric in the nursing situation; there have been notes that nurses and doctors tend to
use narrative in their profession.
According to the article Narrative Matters in Medical Contexts across Discipline by
Franziska Gygax and Miriam A. Locher, they explain how it is important for many doctors and
nurses know the use of narrative. Likewise how learning in a Rhetorical Writing Studies course;
narrative is used a lot when having to write your composition and this article mentions the way
doctors and nurses use narrative as a communication reference to their patients. The
introduction explains the rationale for the chapters by the contributors to the collection and
shows how they approach narratives in different medical contexts from different research
traditions: literary and cultural studies, linguistics, psychology and medical training (Gygax &

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Locher). In this article it helps understand that in medical professions it is important to learn
more about composition and since is known with more narrative, rhetoric can be used a lot.
Conclusion
Having to do when using rhetoric and narrative it is communication that many students
should learn and increase their communication skill not only to speak out loud in front a class,
but to also be persuasive in their writing. RWS is very useful to many professions and
universities should require pre nurses or any profession to take this course and use it as a helpful
reference for their majors. In nursing it is viewed that RWS is a great source and used frequently
in medical situations. For example as a pre nurse student having required of taking this course it
has been very helpful and I have used the knowledge that Ive learned in this course would help
me not only gain more information about rhetoric, and composition, but having it as a
preparation for my major in nursing.

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References
Gygax, F., Locher, M. A., & Ebooks Corporation. (2015). Narrative matters in medical contexts
across disciplines. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Retrieved
from http://www.UTEP.eblib.com/EBLWeb/patron/?target=patron& extendedid=P_1982429_0
Holland, K., & Watson, R. (2012). Writing for publication in nursing and healthcare. Chichester,
West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://www.utep.eblib.com/
patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=990817
Peeples, T., Rosinski, P., & Strickland, M. (2007). Chronos and kairos, strategies and tactics: The
case of constructing elon university's professional writing and rhetoric concentration.
Composition Studies, 35(1), 57-76. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=25473994&site=ehostlive&scope=site
Rosinski, P., & Peeples, T. (2012). Forging rhetorical subjects: Problem-based learning in the
writing classroom. Composition Studies, 40(2), 9-33. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=89673880&site=ehostlive&scope=site
Rousculp, T. (2014; 2014). Rhetoric of respect :Recognizing change at a community writing
center. Urbana, Illinois; 4: Conference on College Composition and Communication, National
Council of Teachers of English.

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Ryan, M. M., Walker, M., Scaia, M., & Smith, V. (2014). (Un) disciplining the nurse writer:
Doctoral nursing students' perspective on writing capacity. Nursing Inquiry, 21(4), 294-300.
doi:10.1111/nin.12045
Spears, L. A. (1997). Writing business communications. Nursing Management, 28(12), 43-45.
Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=1261754&site=ehost-live&scope=site