Analytic Reflection of the Sci-Tech Blog Post, “Urban Sprawl Is Giving Us Cancer”

Lindsey Marcus

ENC 4404

Professor Graban

September 24, 2014

Analytic Reflection

The foundational principals of my Sci-Tech blog post, “Urban Sprawl Is Giving Us Cancer”, are based on the theories from the critical texts “Rhetorical Situations” by Grant-Davie and “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” by Porter. Grant-Davie's and Porter's texts each significantly influenced my creation of this blog post. They illuminated the purpose of deconstructing Stratton's "New Ruralism" and understanding how one work can relate to another intertextually. These theories explain the way society and the human mind function, which was especially useful in deciding what kind of information to bring into the blog post and how to present it to the audience.

            Grant-Davie's "Rhetorical Situations" taught me the power of exigence, "an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be" (Grant-Davie 265). The exigence of the blog post was the harmful effects urban sprawl has on food sources and the environment. The exigence is the cause of urban sprawl and the harmful effects it has on various aspects of society. The problem presented in the blog post can be understood with the rhetorical discourse presented. The exigence was a way to persuade the audience discretely and made the piece more interesting to read.

            While collecting sources for the blog post, I remembered Porter's idea that there is no original work. Meaning that each piece of writing has some level of intertextuality, pieces of the past and pieces of other texts. The blog post was completely inspired by other works, whether it be Stratton or articles from The International New York Times. "Examining text 'intertextually' means looks for 'traces', the bits and pieces of Text which writers or speakers borrow and sew together to create new discourse" (Porter 34). The exigence was inspired by texts that already existed prior to the formation of the blog post and they all derive from the same network.

            A major part of Porter's theory that I implemented into the blog post is his idea that there are two types of intertextuality, Iterability (using references, quotes, allusions, and traditions) and presupposition (the assumptions a text will make about its reader and context). The iterability of the blog post is the quotes from other texts that I brought in to bolster my exigence. The blog post's presupposition is that the audience cares about their health and the wellbeing of the environment and that they would be interested in learning about solutions to a pressing issue.

Overall, Porter's and Grant-Davie's theories are very different, but they both helped tremendously when it came to understanding how bringing in certain sources strengthened the power of exigence and why intertextuality is so important when forming an argument. The repeatability and presupposition of complicated the exigence and audience's reaction to the blog, influencing its success.

Works Cited

Grant-Davie, Keith. "Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents." Rhetoric Review. 2nd ed. Vol. 15. London: Taylor & Francis, 1997. 264-279. Spring, 1997.

Porter, James E. "Intertextuality and The Discourse Community." Rhetoric Review. 1st

ed. Vol. 5. London: Taylor & Francis, 1986. 34-47. Autumn, 1986.