I find the most important concept from Bolin Carroll’s piece Backpacks Vs. Briefcases: Step Toward Rhetorical Analysis is that context is crucial. She gives interesting examples such as choosing your clothing depending on where you are going, or viewing a commercial on a specific day. All that is context. The sentence that caught my attention is “One of the first steps to understanding a piece of rhetoric is to look at the context in which it takes place” (52). I find that very true because in order to find the writer’s argument, we have to find the supporting details. Let’s say someone got shot. First of all, the questions asked should be why did he get shot, where was he, or who was there? These questions come up for a good reason. It is the process of understanding what the main idea is and using critical thinking skills.

The author further states “In order to perform analysis, you must understand the context and then you must carefully study the ways that the discourse does and does not respond appropriately to that context” (56). I definitely agree that you have to understand the context, if not, you cannot even answer questions or jot down the main points. The second part of this is to figure out if that sentence or idea fits in the context. For example, if the first paragraph is about the opening of a new park, then in the middle of the paragraph, you write “I like vanilla ice-cream. This does not flow or make sense at all.

I appreciate how Carroll tries to connect with us throughout the piece, especially in the introduction. The YouTube videos, Book chapters, PowerPoint Presentations, and Bar Graphs we have encounter in school is a form of persuasion. I and maybe some of you did not notice that, so I’m glad that the author pointed that out.