2. Cluster
Criticism
Developed by Kenneth Burke, a specialist in
symbol-systems and symbolic action
Burke said
•rhetoric takes place through the process of identification
•rhetoric functions to name or define situations, meaning
a speech or a poem is a “strategy for encompassing a
situation.”
•rhetoric is a rhetor’s solution to a perceived problem.
Consubstantial: an association between
people who share beliefs, values,
occupations, friends, and physical objects.
Burke said consubstantial is the same as
identification
3. A rhetorical
artifact or act
provides assistance to
its audience as a
vocabulary of thoughts,
actions, emotions
may encourage
acceptance of a
situation
provides an orientation
to a situation
reveals the worldview,
the terministic screen,
of the rhetors who
created it
4. A cluster
analysis
provides insights into the meanings of key
terms
allows the researcher to assume some
structure among the terms or objects.
is a method for examining the terministic
screen of rhetors.
provides insights into the worldviews of
rhetors by analyzing the termanistic
screens
5. Cluster
analysis
is useful when a researcher explores the
nature of the data or to examine a
previously stated hypothesis.
is used when identifying groups within
the data
has no statistical basis and cannot be
used to draw inferences from a sample to
a population.
6. How does
cluster analysis
work?
The objective is to define the structure of the data by
placing the most similar observations into groups.
Conduct cluster criticism in three steps:
1-identify the key terms in the artifact
2- chart the terms that cluster around the key terms
3- discover an explanation for the artifact.
Select an artifact (discursive and nondiscursive- long
and complex enough)
Analyze the object
Identify key terms (either repeated or if removed
would change the impact of the paper; god and devil
terms)
Chart the cluster
Discover an explanation of the artifact
Formulate a research question
7. Key terms
are nouns.
Find no more than 6 terms that seem to be
significant to the rhetor.
Significance is determined by frequency or
intensity
If the artifact is nondiscursive, the key terms
are visual elements: color, shape and image
Chart the terms that cluster around each of
the key terms.
8. Agon analysis
examination of opposing
terms. Look for terms that
are opposites or that
contradict other terms.
Chart all terms and the
clusters around the terms.
Categorize the clusters
Identify the important
clusters—those with the
most explanatory value for
the artifact.
Make a statement of the
significance of the clusters.
Let the cluster suggest
insight into the rhetor’s
worldview
9. Formulate a
research
question
Formulate a research question
Perhaps about the strategies used to accomplish
particular objectives, or
the kinds of meanings that are being communicated
for rhetorical processes or public controversaries.
Write the essay.
