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CLOSE READING from “I, Robot”
(Be Prepared to Annotate)
by Eva Arce
Paraphrase
What does the author say?
Who is the speaker?
What is the subject?
Who is the primary audience?
What is his main idea or point? (Assertion or Thesis)
What are his supporting points? (Claims)
Assertion or
Thesis
• Claim• Claim• Claim
Reader/Audience Subject/Topic
Speaker / Writer
Remember to Annotate!
ObserveHow does the author create meaning?
What is his attitude, tone, or feeling toward the subject?
What is his purpose? (Think rhetorical modes: to narrate, to compare, to persuade, to describe, to analyze, to explain, …)
What strategies and devices does he use?
How does he appeal to his audience? Does he have a bias or slant?
Appeals:EthosLogosPathos
Bias
Reader/Audience
Subject/Topic
Rhetorical Devices How does the author create meaning?What strategies and devices are evident?
Rhetorical Modes Identify the purpose
Tone
In the TEXT
Speaker / Writer
Assertion or
Thesis
• Claim• Claim• Claim
Remember to Annotate!
ContextualizeIdentify the context of the passage.
What was the exigence or motivation for the speaker? (What pressing or urgent situation compelled him to compose?)
What was the occasion?
When was it delivered or published?
Where was it delivered or published?
How was it received by the primary audience?
Appeals:EthosLogosPathos
Bias
Reader/Audience
Subject/Topic
Rhetorical Devices How does the author create meaning?What strategies and devices are evident?
Rhetorical Modes denfityIdentify the purpose
Tone
In the TEXT
Speaker / Writer
Assertion or
Thesis
• Claim• Claim• Claim
Context: Time, Place, Occasion
Remember to Annotate!
AnalyzeStudy all elements of the passage carefully.
What is the author saying?Identify the author’s meaning. (Assertion and claims)
How does the author deliver his points? See how the author creates meaning. (Tone, Appeals, Modes, Devices, Strategies)
Appeals:EthosLogosPathos
Bias
Reader/Audience
Subject/Topic
Rhetorical Devices How does the author create meaning?What strategies and devices are evident?
Rhetorical Modes denfityIdentify the purpose
Tone
In the TEXT
Speaker / Writer
Assertion or
Thesis
• Claim• Claim• Claim
Context: Time, Place, Occasion
Remember to Annotate!
ArgueConversation with the
AuthorConcession: With which point(s) do you agree?
Rebuttal: BUT what is the limit on the truth of that assertion or claim? (Only under these conditions or in these situations is that point valid.)
Add an example from history, current events, literature or personal experience.
Remember to Annotate!
Reading Selection
Asimov, Isaac from “Reason” (1941), I, Robot. Gnome Press, 1950.
Gregory Powell spaced his words for emphasis. “One week ago, Donovan and I put you together.” His brows furrowed doubtfully and he pulled the end of his brown mustache.
It was quiet in the officer’s room on Solar Station #5 – except for the soft purring of the mighty Beam Director somewhere far below.
Robot QT-1 sat immovable. The burnished plates of his body gleamed in the Luxites and the glowing red of the photoelectric cells that were his eyes, were fixed steadily upon the Earthman at the other side of the table.
Powell repressed a sudden attack of nerves. These robots possessed peculiar brains. Oh, the three Laws of Robotics held. They had to. All of U. S. Robots, from Robertson himself to the new floor-sweeper, would insist on that. So QT-1 was safe!And yet – the QT models were the first of their kind, and this was the first of the QTs. Mathematical squiggles on paper were not always the most comforting protection against robotic fact.
Finally, the robot spoke. His voice carried the cold timbre inseparable from a metallic diaphragm, “Do you realize the seriousness of such a statement, Powell?”
“Something made you, Cutie,” pointed out Powell. “You admit yourself that your memory seems to spring full-grown from an absolute blankness of a week ago. I’m giving you the explanation. Donovan and I put you together from the parts shipped us.”
Cutie gazed upon his long, supple fingers in an oddly human attitude of mystification, “It strikes me that there should be a more satisfactory explanation than that. For you to make me seems improbable.”
Example of a First Reading Annotation
See I, Robot Editing document
ParaphraseWhat does the author say?
Who is the speaker?
What is the subject?
Who is the primary audience?
What is his main idea or point? (Assertion or Thesis)
What are his supporting points? (Claims)
Sci-Fi Readers in 1941
Technology
Isaac Asimovauthor, bio-chemist, futurist, visionary
Remember to Annotate!
Technology could be a threat to humanity.• Technology creates an eerie setting/situation• Scientists should be cautious in testing new technology for safety.• Artificial intelligence can match - if not exceed - man’s capabilities
ObserveHow does the author create meaning?
What is his attitude, tone, or feeling toward the subject?
What is his purpose? (Think rhetorical modes: to narrate, to compare, to persuade, to describe, to analyze, to explain, …)
What strategies and devices does he use?
How does he appeal to his audience? Does he have a bias or slant?
Appeals:Ethos: trust the scientist who is in doubt about his creationLogos: “mathematical” laws of roboticsPathos: fear and doubt
Bias: caution in development of new technologies
Reader/Audience
Subject/Topic
Rhetorical Devices eerie imagery, ironic situation, doubtful diction and syntax, (see details on next slide)
Rhetorical Modes Narrative, persuasive to show how technology could supersede humanity
eerie, cautionary,
ironic
Speaker / Writer
Assertion or
Thesis
• Claim• Claim• Claim
Remember to Annotate!
Rhetorical Deviceseerie auditory imagery: The setting is “quiet” with the only sounds initially coming from the “Beam Director,” an entity that must also be a machine because it is “purring…somewhere far below.” The robot’s “cold timbre” voice has an unnatural, disconcerting sound.
eerie visual imagery: Gregory Powell and his co-worker Donovan appear to be isolated, surrounded only by machines, in a space station. The robot’s behavior is unsettling with its “oddly human attitude” and demonic “glowing red…eyes”
diction and syntax that create a doubtful, anxious tone: This is evident when “his brows furrowed doubtfully,” and when the robot stares at him, Powell holds back “a sudden attack of nerves.” Then beginning in the fourth paragraph, Powell has an internal monologue trying to convince himself that the robot is “safe!” By placing this word in italics, Asimov reveals that Powell is not really sure of the robot. This doubt is also evident in Asimov’s syntax in the monologue using fragments and short sentences to show Powell’s anxiety. Furthermore, contrasting “Mathematical squiggles…against robot fact” exposes Powell’s, as well as Asimov’s, lack of certainty concerning this modern technology.
Irony: By juxtaposing a logical, sentient machine to an unsure, doubtful scientist, Asimov shows the irony that the robot is in control of the situation. Irony is evident when the robot chastises the man for the “seriousness of such a statement” in a role reversal of a parental/creator figure.
Contextualize
Identify the context of the passage.
What was the exigence or motivation for the speaker? (What pressing or urgent situation compelled him to compose?)
What was the occasion?
When was it delivered or published?
Where was it delivered or published?
How was it received by the primary audience?
Appeals:EthosLogosPathos
Bias
Reader/Audience
Subject/Topic
Rhetorical Devices How does the author create meaning?What strategies and devices are evident?
Rhetorical Modes denfityIdentify the purpose
Tone
In the TEXT
Speaker / Writer
Assertion or
Thesis
• Claim• Claim• Claim
Context: Time, Place, Occasion
1941, short story in a magazine titled Astounding Science FictionAlmost three decades before man landed on the moon and long before the establishment of a Skylab in space -
in an era, when one of the most advanced technological achievements was the use of an airplane for aerial bombardment - Isaac Asimov was writing about space stations and sentient robots.
Remember to Annotate!
ArgueConversation with the
AuthorConcession: I agree that an intelligent, sentient robot could displace man and take many of our current jobs.
Rebuttal: BUT only if the engineer fails to program the robot with ethics that identify humans as superior beings.
An example from current events “Meet Big Dog…”
http://live.wsj.com/video/meet-big-dog-google-newest-robot/C91C335A-CB28-4A30-9E58-47667BD29626.html#!C91C335A-CB28-4A30-9E58-47667BD29626
An example from literature Kara Quantum Dreams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5m-r4S6j0oRemember to Annotate!
Argue$SEE-ITT
$ (Money): What would this technology cost? Who can afford it? What jobs will it create or take from people?
S (Safety): How safe are these devices? How might they physically help or hurt man?
E (Ethics): How does this technology affect or influence our morals?
E (Environment - natural, political, social): How does this technology affect the natural environment? What social or political issues does it impact?
Argue$SEE-ITT
I (International Impact): How does this technology affect our relationship with other countries?
T (Technology): Yes, this is a technological issue.
T (Time): How soon might we expect to see a robot like QT or Kara as a household product?
So What?Thematic Conclusion
Currently, our technology speaks to us through a variety of devices: vehicles beep to warn us that an object is behind us, calculators answer our math problems, and computers ask us to consider our spelling and grammar errors. How would we feel if our cell phone questioned our abilities? Our intellect? Even now, smart phones have a talking feature that answers the owner’s questions. So, with its performance capabilities, who could blame the device if it said to us, “For you to make me seems improbable.”
