In Margret Kantz’s article “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively” one of the most important pieces of advice that she gives to help students write a more scholarly rhetorical analysis is that students need to read each article or piece of works’ as an argument rather than reading the authors’ words as simply fact. Kantz explains that “facts” are just arguments that the general public accepts with minimal questions and no opposing opinion. Therefore, it is common for students to simply accept what an author says in a text and in their own writing turn into a Polly parrot and repeat and summarize what the author has already claimed. By viewing an author’s text in an argumentative manner, a writer can then creatively and scholarly make new claims and give a more holistic view of the text.

           

Kantz brings up an important point that I have caught myself doing on so many papers. As a student writer, I believe that I feel very intimidated about making my own claims due to the fear of someone telling me that I am wrong. It will also be challenging to not simply repeat and summarize the claims that the researchers have already made as I am not as familiar with the research portion that goes into music therapy. While writing my rhetorical analysis, I hope I am able to keep that piece of advice in mind especially since my topic’s scholarly articles are mostly made up of research and study that is trying to prove and provide facts.

 

Also, another fantastic piece of advice that Kantz points out is the value of a rough draft. Another fault of mine as a writer is to simply discard a rough draft all together if it is not final draft worthy the first time. This then leads to students to throw away perfectly usable starting points for their papers and doesn’t allow them to grow as writers. As humans we learn from our mistakes and therefore as a student I must also learn from my mistakes in order for me to establish my voice and become a more proficient writer. Kantz’s article provides a reflection of not only my mistakes as a student writer but a great guideline on how to keep growing and improve as I begin to make my contributions to my field of study.