[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-599251-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":80,"doc-detail-599251-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":73,"head_meta":75,"extra_data":77,"updated_unix":79},105,"en","a-pedagogy-of-amplification","A Pedagogy of Amplification","","A Pedagogy of Amplification argues that the intersection of invention and style provides a productive site for rhetorical study and for critical-creative tinkering: writing new versions of an old text. Drawing on nineteenth-century textbook exercises, the article traces amplification as a way to reveal precursors to innovation in instructional materials. It analyzes exercises, extends connections to African American and Indigenous rhetorical traditions, and describes classroom amplification of Walker Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature,” concluding with a balanced assessment of pedagogical benefits and drawbacks.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-pedagogy-of-amplification/599251/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-pedagogy-of-amplification/599251.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"kopisore","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-25","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What is rhetorical amplification, and how does the article frame it?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"Rhetorical amplification is framed as a process where writing takes what exists “in germ” and gives it explanatory and enforceable life. The article links amplification to the intersection of invention and style and treats tinkering as a way to achieve it.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"What does the article mean by “critical-creative tinkering”?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"Critical-creative tinkering is reuse that infuses writing with an experimental makerspace ethos. Students manipulate existing texts by adding, subtracting, substituting, rearranging, combining, and reformatting through an open-ended approach.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"How does tinkering support both critical and creative outcomes?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"By inhabiting the source text, students gain a deeper understanding of writing and the original passage, making tinkering a critical practice. Simultaneously, tinkering generates new text and invites stylistic experimentation, making it creative.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},599251,1792131797,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":127,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},962090880963,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","A Pedagogy of Amplification  \nDanielle Koupf  \nThis article argues that the intersection of invention and style is a rich site for rhetorical study, for amplification, and for critical-creative tinkering, a process of writing new versions of an old text. At this intersection, writers can tinker to amplify an existing text and thus work to continue or begin anew the inventive process. To illustrate these outcomes, I recover two exemplary exercises from nineteenth-century textbooks, where exercises in tinkering find many promising precursors. Revealing such precursors in the nineteenth century furthers work by scholars, such as Lucille M. Schultz, who have discovered innovation in instructional materials of this period. After analyzing exercises by R. G. Parker and Virginia Waddy, I extend my lens beyond the Western rhetorical tradition and forge connections between tinkering and African American and Indigenous rhetorical traditions. I then highlight an exercise in tinkering from my first year writing classroom in which students amplified a passage from Walker Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature.” Upon sharing and analyzing examples of student tinkering, I conclude by weighing the benefits and drawbacks of teaching amplification, reasoning that in pedagogical rather than performative contexts, amplification can reaffirm invention.  \nIn his  \nJohn  \n1899 rhetoric The Practical Elements of Rhetoric, Amherst professor F. Genung defines rhetorical amplification as “the final process of  \ncomposition”(285) .1 He explains that upon creating a plan for writing, ideas“are expressed only in germ. They need to be taken up anew and endowed with life; to be clothed in a fitting dress of explanatory, illustrative, and enforcing thought. This is the office of rhetorical amplification”(285) . Gideon O. Burton, on his long-running website Sylva Rhetoricae, identifies amplification as “a central term in rhetoric, naming a variety of general strategies as well as some very specific procedures or figures of speech.” Moreover, “amplification names an important point of intersection within rhetoric where figures of speech and figures of thought coalesce. That is to say, means for varying and repeating kinds of expression (figures of speech, or copia verborum) overlap with means for developing ideas or content (the figures of thought, or copia rerum)” (Burton) . Genung acknowledges this intersection in calling amplification “the meeting-ground of invention and style” (285) . This meeting-ground, I argue, is a rich site for rhetorical study, a site where I see the writer stretching, extending, or building upon a text. In taking what  \nComposition Studies 49.1 (2021): 84–102  \nalready exists and giving it greater attention, the writer practices what I call critical-creative tinkering.  \nCritical-creative tinkering, or tinkering for short, is a practice of reuse that infuses writing with the hands-on, experimental ethos of the makerspace (Koupf ) . It recasts writing as a material practice linked with discourses of crafting and making in which texts are open to manipulation and adaptation. Students write inside an existing text by adding, subtracting, substituting, rearranging, combining, and reformatting. They do not adopt a step-by-step procedure but rather an open-ended approach. Still, one change will typically demand another and so on. What results is not necessarily an improvement over the original text, though it may be; instead, it is an alternative—a new version. Tinkering proliferates possibilities, making it a prime tool for achieving amplification.  \nWhen tinkering to amplify an existing text, invention does not only continue, as Genung suggests, but may also begin anew—moving the writer ina new, unexplored direction. I contend that amplification is not always “the final process of composition,” as Genung had it, but sometimes just the beginning. In fact, Genung concedes this point when he writes ofthe composer who amplifies,  \nHaving determin","cbCaieOlXnjDfzT4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieOlXnjDfzT4","pdf",159442,"English","# Rhetoric, invention, and amplification\n## Amplification as reuse and composition\n## Critical-creative tinkering in classrooms\n## Tinkering’s effects: critical and creative gains\n## Nineteenth-century exercise recovery","[{\"question\":\"What is rhetorical amplification, and how does the article frame it?\",\"answer\":\"Rhetorical amplification is framed as a process where writing takes what exists “in germ” and gives it explanatory and enforceable life. The article links amplification to the intersection of invention and style and treats tinkering as a way to achieve it.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the article mean by “critical-creative tinkering”?\",\"answer\":\"Critical-creative tinkering is reuse that infuses writing with an experimental makerspace ethos. Students manipulate existing texts by adding, subtracting, substituting, rearranging, combining, and reformatting through an open-ended approach.\"},{\"question\":\"How does tinkering support both critical and creative outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"By inhabiting the source text, students gain a deeper understanding of writing and the original passage, making tinkering a critical practice. Simultaneously, tinkering generates new text and invites stylistic experimentation, making it creative.\"}]","A Pedagogy of Amplification | PDF",1792088427,48]