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Judy Ledford
Dr. Cook
ENG-3580-101
1 December 2014
A Rhetorical Analysis of Thinking Out Loud on Paper: The Student Daybook as a Tool to Foster
Learning
Thinking Out Loud on Paper: The Student Daybook as a Tool to Foster Learning is a
book by six teachers: Lil Brannon, Sally Griffin, Karen Haag, Tony Iannone, Cynthia Urbanski,
and Shana Woodward. These six teachers came together to write a guide for effective
implementation of the Student Daybook into the classroom. The book gives instructions and
suggestions for using Daybooks to improve students critical thinking skills, reading
comprehension skills, and writing skills across all subjects. The six authors of the book all work
together to convince their readers that the Student Daybook is the best learning tool for students
of all ages. Thinking Out Loud on Paper was published by Heinemann in the year 2008. Lil
Brannon is an English Professor at UNC Charlotte and she has taught both middle and high
school English classes; Sally Griffin is a high school English teacher in Gastonia, North
Carolina; Karen Haag is a seasoned educator who has been coaching, teaching, and/or
researching since 1974; Tony Iannone is a fourth grade teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina and
he is especially familiar with technology in the classroom; Cindy Urbanski has taught both
middle and high school and she is the Associate Director of the UNC Charlotte Writing Project;
and Shana Woodward is the Assistant Professor of English Education at Gardner-Webb
University.

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Thinking Out Loud on Paper was written by teachers for teachers. The authors of the
book wrote it with the hope that future and current educators would read it and decide to
implement the Student Daybook into their own classrooms. In Chapter One, Introducing the
Daybook, the authors say, We know that once daybooks become a part of your classroom,
youll find yourself returning to the book to learn more about them (5). The authors use
different forms of the word you in this quote and also throughout the entire book. When they
say your classroom, it is apparent to whom the authors are speaking. Their intended audiences
are future and current teachers.
Pathos and ethos are the authors choices of appeals. The authors begin by building
credibility with their audience. In the first chapter, the authors included a section titled, Who
Are We?. In this very brief section, the six teachers each take turns telling the reader about each
other. For example, the audience first reads about Lil who began her teaching career in Texas in
1973. After her time as a middle and secondary grades educator, Lil became a college professor.
In the last twenty-five years, she has been helping other teachers teach writing, and she is
currently the UNC Charlotte Writing Project Director (5). From this small bit of information,
readers learn that Lil is a seasoned and qualified teacher, therefore, making the information and
suggestions that Lil presents throughout the book credible. This same process is repeated for
each of the other five authors of the book, and it builds the same credibility for them as it does
for Lil.
In the very next section of the book, Some of Our Encounters with Daybooks, the
authors once again appeal to their ethos. In this section the authors provide their audience with
three personal experiences that three of them had with the daybook. Lil, for example, tells
readers how she was introduced to the book; Cindy expresses how the daybook has made her a

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better writer because it has given her the freedom to think in her own way; and Shana shares how
powerful it is to be able to write with a pen in her daybook. This section is very important to the
authors argument because just like the previous section, this section shows readers that even the
authors had to begin using their daybooks at some point, so they have all started and been
through the process. In this section, the authors also express how using the daybook has made a
difference in their own lives. Because the readers can see that the authors have also been through
the process, then the audience can readily take the authors advice and suggestions. The teachers
who are reading know that they can rely on the authors of the book because not only are they all
qualified teachers, but each of them have personal experience with their own daybooks.
To further appeal to the credibility of the information that the authors provide in their
book, they back their claims and teaching choices with support from people like famous
psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. When explaining the process of learning, on page 13, the authors
explain what Lev Vygotsky said about the learning processes and then they relate it back to their
own thoughts. By bringing in support from credible secondary sources, the authors only
strengthen the credibility of their own argument.
The authors final appeal to their ethos comes at the end of their book. Understanding the
daybook is ultimately meant to supplement students learning, the authors included a section
called, What Students Say About Their Daybooks. In this section, teachers can read what real
life students have to say about using the daybook. One elementary student wrote, I like my
daybook so I can write amazing things (135). Reading about the success of the daybook among
actual students proves that the authors methods really do work, therefore making them, and their
book, very credible resources.

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In the Some of Our Encounters with Daybooks section, the authors of the book appeal
to the audiences pathos. Each of the three authors who are featured in this section share
personal, and arguably life changing, experiences with their audience. By doing this, the authors
are appealing to the audiences emotions. After reading about the authors personal success with
the daybook, teachers who are reading begin to empathize with the authors. The audience wants
to feel the same gratification from the daybook that the authors felt.
Perhaps one of the more powerful appeals to emotion is in the section, What Students
Say About Their Daybooks. The authors say:
After all that we said about daybooks, its only right we give our students a voice
as well. We would never have learned what we have learned about daybooks
without our students. Nothing inspires us more to roll up our sleeves and get to
work than the resounding amens of our students. (134)
In this quote, the authors are expressing the personal satisfaction that they feel from helping their
students through the use of the daybook. Just like in the Some of Our Encounters with
Daybooks section, the audience empathizes with the authors. Teachers who are reading the
book want to receive similar reactions from their own students because having students enjoy
and appreciate learning is something that most teachers live for.
Throughout the entire book the authors use pathos and ethos to appeal to the logos of
their message. All of the experiences that they write about, the information from outside
resources that they include, and the sample lessons that they share with their audience are all a
part of the logic behind their message. The authors spent so much time building their credibility
and appealing to their audiences emotions because those things were necessary for them to build

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a strong and sound argument that would support the implementation of the Daybook into the
classrooms of other teachers.
The authors of, Thinking Out Loud on Paper: The Student Daybook as a Tool to Foster
Learning, rely mostly on pathos and ethos to make their argument, but they utilize those two
appeals so well that their argument for the student daybook is very clear and logical. After
analyzing the text, I would say that I am convinced that student daybooks are an excellent
teaching and learning tool because the authors so successfully illustrated their own successes
throughout the book. The authors also give excellent instructions on how to successfully
implement the daybook into a classroom. As a future teacher I am excited to use this book as a
guiding tool in my own classroom.

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Works Cited
Brannon, Lil, Sally Griffin, Karen Haag, Tony Iannone, Cynthia Urbanski, and Shana
Woodward. Thinking out Loud on Paper: The Student Daybook as a Tool to Foster
Learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.