Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beyond The Checklist: Using Rhetorical Analysis To Evaluate Sources As Social Acts, Joel Burkholder

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

Rhetorical analysis can transform information literacy instruction. A familiar concept in the study of rhetoric, it illustrates that all messages are deliberate, social acts, constructed by authors to achieve specific purposes and speak to specific audiences. To be effective, authors must make rhetorical choices that suit both the purpose and audience they are addressing.

Under the current paradigm of source evaluation, librarians largely ignore the rhetorical nature of messages, focusing instead on the identification of surface features that indicate high-quality information. This can lead to the impression that messages are inert objects, rather than dynamic, social acts. Forms of communication, …