ARGUMENTATIVE ELEMENTS IN THE GENRE “READER´S LETTER”

Abstract

This paper deals with the recall of classical rhetoric elements in Aristotle and Quintilian’s doings, highlighting the enthymeme as well as the use of these elements as necessary knowledge for teaching and improving post graduate student argumentative writing in the production of a specific genre: the reader’s letter. The methodology used in this paper was qualitative, with the purpose of building a tool for the analysis of argumentative letters produced in an experiment that took place in a post graduate course. Among the letters produced by twelve postgraduate students, it was sellected the ones written by a master’s degree student in Psychology as an illustration of the instrument. Accordingly, this student was introduced to the classical rhetoric elements, as well as the arrangement and operation in the production of these kind in question, starting from the entimema as a central element. Simultaneously, specimens of the genre reader’s letter sent to the Carta Capital magazine, were analyzed to recognize in them the presence of these elements and to analyze how they combine and contribute to the making of the objective, clear and persuasive argumentative text. At the end of each meeting, from reading the magazine subjects, the student went on to produce similar letters to those sent to the reader’s section, with the purpose of employing the elements reconvened seen so far. This experience has shown that the use of these elements was able to contribute to improving this student practice of argumentative writing.