Rhetorical Analysis Of On Keeping A Notebook

Joan Didion in the article, “On Keeping a Notebook” (1968) explains that keeping a notebook is a great way to keep your thoughts together. Didion supports her explanation by telling about examples of a girl who starts to keep a notebook; she tells why keeping a notebook is important other than just trying to keep our thoughts together. The author’s purpose is to enlighten to begin to keep a notebook. The author writes in a personal tone for anyone that is skeptical about keeping a notebook. Didion uses three rhetorical strategies in her article; rhetorical questions, flashbacks, and pathos.

When Didion begins her article “On Keeping a Notebook”, she tells about finding a note in her notebook and she doesn’t remember where it came from. She’s sitting in a bar on a Monday morning in Pennsylvania and she’s having trouble remembering why she’s there. In paragraph three, she uses rhetorical questions. She asks these questions to try and figure out why she wrote down the note. Didion asks the questions such as; “Why did I write it down?” “In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it that I wanted to remember?” “How much of it actually happened?” “Did any of it?” and “Why do I keep a notebook at all?” By the author asking these questions, it makes the readers of Didion’s article think about the

She had given it to her in hopes that Didion would learn to keep herself entertained and maybe it would occupy her time and it would cut down on Didion whining so much. She reads her entries that she had written when she was only five years old and she realizes (and wonders why) she had written such ironic and random stories. Didion uses flashbacks like this one throughout her article to prove to the readers that keeping a notebook is not just a recollection of what happened during our day, but rather, anything that the writer wants to put