Smarthinking Writer's Handbook

Chapter 3, Lesson 3: Section 4

Burke’s Pentad

Objective

In this lesson, you will learn how to use Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic Pentad to help you discover and investigate ideas for essays that you write.

Introduction

What can the Pentad offer me in my writing?

The Pentad offers you a way to discover and develop ideas for writing by asking questions systematically about a topic or situation. In addition to helping you discover ideas, it can also help you see connections among some of your ideas, to perhaps help with organizing your ideas.

Who is Kenneth Burke?

Kenneth Burke (1897-1993) was a philosopher and literary critic who developed an intense interest in the ways we use language to achieve certain ends, commonly to persuade others to think or act in certain ways. A system of analysis arising out of this interest and study is called “dramatism” and the tools of that system are referred to as the “Pentad.” Like many philosophers who lived during the first half of the twentieth century, both World War I and World War II deeply influenced his thinking. It led to concern for how people can use communication to understand more deeply people’s motives for their actions and words. Burke believed that if we could more deeply understand human motivation, we could become more conscious of how our words and actions influence others and how others influence us and we could use that knowledge to ease the strife we experience with each other.

What is the Pentad?

The Pentad comprises five terms, similar to the “five W’s” or six questions of journalistic writing: agent (who), act (what); scene (when and where); agency (how); and purpose (why). His Pentad is different from the journalists’ questions, however, in that he also makes connections among the various parts.

The agent can be anybody or anything that acts. An agent can be a specific individual (the President of the United States, you, your teacher, etc.) or a group of individuals (doctors in the American Medical Association, a committee of the U.S. Senate).
The act is what happened. The act can be any action from writing an essay or giving a speech to throwing a rock or hugging a friend. The Pentad distinguishes action from motion in that not every movement is an act, only those that have motivation behind them. Slipping on the ice is not an action but simply a motion, but purposely falling to collect insurance money is an action.
The scene is where and when the action took place. The scene can be described in multitudes of ways, from broad and general to specific and detailed. For example, we could say the president gave a speech from the Oval Office on a specific day, or we could say he gave the speech from the White House on a day when something important was happening, or we could say he gave the speech from the U.S. when fighting was happening in the Mideast.
The agency refers to how an action was accomplished. Examples of agency include using the television to broadcast a speech, using a computer to write these words, using a slingshot or a hand to throw a rock.
Finally, purpose is why the agent performed the act. Purposes may be stated, or you may have to interpret or guess why someone did something in particular. Examples of purpose include the desire or intent to persuade, to harm, to inform, or to express affection.

For generating ideas, the Pentad goes beyond the journalistic questions by also asking how these various parts influence each other, making it a powerful tool that does more than simply “gather the facts.” For example, if we wanted to understand some of the underlying motivation for a particular presidential speech, we could not only look at agent (president), act (speech), scene (White House), agency (television), and purpose (to persuade us to think a certain way about a certain issue), but we could also consider how the scene may have influenced the agent (if he had given the speech elsewhere, what might he have said differently?), or how the agency may have influenced the purpose (if he didn’t have access to the television airwaves, how might his purpose have changed?)

Exercise

One of the biggest strengths of the Pentad is that it gives you a lot of questions you can ask about a particular situation or topic. In the explanation above, there are two examples of questions you can ask, using the five parts of the Pentad and asking how one may influence the other. Here is a sample situation: The college president (agent), during the New Year’s address (agency) in the college chapel (scene), is proposing that the college change its name (act) to attract “higher quality” students and professors (purpose). Below are two questions you could ask about this situation. List other questions that you could ask:

How does having the speech in the college chapel affect the college president’s approach? (How may the scene influence the agent?)
How does the fact that this speech is the first formal college act of the New Year affect the potential for gaining “better” students and professors? (How may the agency influence the purpose?)

Applying the Pentad

The Pentad can help you do several things in your writing. First, it can help you understand more deeply the situation you are investigating in your writing. Second, it can help you see places where your information is incomplete or weak. Third, it can help you more deeply understand your own writing situation and your own motivations.

Let’s look at an example. In a history class, you are asked to investigate and write an essay about the influence of any speech made in the United States, and you choose to write about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech made in Washington in 1963. How could you even begin to figure out how to talk about the influence that speech made in any organized manner? You could use any of the other methods of invention available to you, like brainstorming or clustering, but how many ideas are you going to be able to get just off the top of your head? Additionally, you are going to have to do some research to see what was said and done as a result of that speech. How do you know if you’ve looked at enough sources to give you good support for the points you make?

If you use the Pentad, you will have a number of good questions you can ask yourself to do an effective job of analyzing the speech and its influence on U.S. society, then and now.

How did the fact that it was televised (agency) influence King, and how did the speech influence people at the time, and how does it influence us?
How does who he was (agent) influence what he said and (act) and how he said it (agency)?
How did the way he said it (agency) influence his immediate audience?
How did it influence his television audience?
How does the videotape influence us today?
What was his purpose in giving that speech, and was he successful, based on the information and evidence you discover?

These are just a few of the questions that could guide your research and developing ideas for an essay like this. These questions can also help you see where you need to get more information: for example, if you don’t have any information about the people in the audience that day at the Lincoln Memorial, you know you will need to find out about that or else your writing will not be complete.

You could also use the Pentad to analyze your own situation: How do I write a successful paper (act) for this particular professor in this particular class (scene)? What techniques and style (agency) do I need to use to fulfill my purpose? How am I going to present myself in this essay (agent) and what is my purpose in writing it?

Exercise

Let's try the Pentad on your own ideas. Think of one significant situation that has occurred in your life over the last couple of days. For example, think about a discussion with someone; something someone did that had an impact, positive or negative, on you; or a speech on the news. Think about anything where someone did something intentional and analyze it using Burke’s Pentad.

Freewrite briefly about the event, just letting your random ideas flow on paper.
In the textbox below/, write as many details as you can regarding the five questions of the Pentad: agent, the action, the scene, the agency, and the purpose.
Using the questions you wrote down in the previous exercise, add observations and ideas you have about the interconnections between the agent, action, scene, agency, and purpose.
Finally, re-evaluate your ideas. What insights do you now have about the event that you hadn’t thought about before asking these questions? How does asking these questions make you see the event differently than you had before your deeper analysis? If you were asked to write an essay about this event, what insight could you use to write a thesis for the essay? What information from your analysis using the Pentad could you use to support that insight/thesis? What further information might you need to fully support your ideas?

You can use Kenneth Burke’s Pentad to help you discover and develop your ideas in ways that help you to write more effectively. The Pentad helps you (1) to analyze a situation or writing topic in detail; (2) to point out places you need to do more research or analysis to make your essay complete; and (3) to determine your own writing situation and purpose.