When writing, your audience is the people that you want your ideas to reach. You can either write to a particular group of people or to a more general audience, but they should share your concerns even if they have different views.
A discourse community is a group of people who share an interest on certain topics and are knowledgeable about the topics. You can be part of several different discourse communities because each one values language differently.
Questions at Issue are questions that may not be easy to answer and require a lot of thought, but are important to certain communities.
The stasis of an argument is the part that is controversial, some people agree and some people do not.
Questions at Issue:
Questions of fact – The reader wanting to know if something is real or if it exists at all
Questions of definition – The reader wanting to know what something is
Questions of interpretation – The reader wanting to know the symbolism behind something
Questions of value – The reader wanting to know if something is quality
Questions of consequence – The reader wanting to know the causes and effects of different situations
Questions of policy – The reader wanting to know what should be done about a current problem or situation
I think a large part of Connor’s essay is a Question of Definition because most of his writing consists of facts and details about the bombs dropping. People knew that the war existed, but he wanted to supply them with more information. He uses numbers and statistics to get the attention of the reader and to inform them of exactly what happened. Connor also answers some Questions of Consequence by explaining that if we would have dropped a demonstration bomb it might not have worked or the plane carrying it might be shot down. Alperovitz on the other hand, answers a Question of Policy by saying that instead of bombing Japan we should have clarified America’s surrender terms to make sure that the Japanese wouldn’t end the war first.
