Analysis Of Kenneth Burke's Metaphor Of Academic Writing

Typically when we hear the word conversation we think of two people talking to each other, normally exchanging ideas from their point of view. Kenneth Burke uses this design to write a cleverly worded metaphor that describes how academic reading and writing can be like a conversation. For many years, schools have taught students how to properly read and write along with many skills and techniques to properly express and support their opinions. Reading and writing in a metaphoric way can be seen exactly like a conversation mainly because we can connect hearing the other person to reading and talking to writing . Burke’s metaphor is a good representation of how one should prepare and deliver a piece of academic writing.
The concept of listening is very similar to reading because it is a way of gathering information or understanding what the person or book is trying to explain. While writing could be seen as a way of talking and stating your opinion. As Burke describes in his metaphor, the argument is “interminable.” He creates a scenario of a person walking into a parlor who overhears an argument and after a while of listening to both sides, decides to participate on one side. Similarly, you complete the same process when you prepare to write academically. When writing you must be prepared with evidence and in the metaphor the person does this by …show more content…
We need to analyze the writing and collect our thoughts for us to be able to address the prompt in our writing. Burke would call the analyzing part and thought process the listening aspect of a conversation. This is similar when writing argumentative and persuasive essays. In these types of essays it is required for you to create a strong thesis that you support with information that you gathered. Additionally, some teachers could require to introduce a counter-argument so you could address both