RHETORICAL ANALYSIS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Due Date: Sunday, April 21 (+automatic 48-hour extension)
File type: .pdf
Word count: minimum 800 words
Grading: Complete/Incomplete
The assignment does not require a revision unless notified: If an integral part of the assignment is incomplete and doesn’t meet the baseline grading criteria, I’ll notify you by email/Canvas message that you need to revise. You must then submit the revised version to the same assignment portal within 48 hours of the Canvas notification or email.
Be sure your Canvas notifications are set to “Notify me,” SO YOU DON’T MISS A REQUIRED REVISION!
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to explore how effective authors are in accomplishing their purpose for writing for their intended audience. Analyzing and comparing the rhetorical strategies of multiple texts on similar topics and themes will reveal more than considering just one text in isolation.
Writing this essay will help you to develop your skills in the following learning outcomes for WR 122z:
Apply rhetorical concepts to achieve writing goals within a given discourse community.
Engage with primary, scholarly, and public sources to enrich a process of inquiry and inform students’ writing.
Develop strategies for generating, drafting, revising, and editing texts based on feedback and reflection.
Locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and integrate multiple perspectives from a variety of sources.
Analyze how writers reflect, challenge, and transform their discourse communities, including in their relationship to formal and stylistic conventions.
Task
Write a rhetorical analysis essay comparing three previously read/viewed Ecology of Place texts from your rhetorical reading discussion assignments [review link]. You may also choose to include as a fourth text the political cartoon you analyzed in your analysis (optional).
Analyze the audience and purpose of each text and explain how the audience and purpose affect the tone, layout [arrangement, organization], language, and content of each article. The questions you answered in the ‘Discussions’ assignments and your notes will help you focus your analysis:
What is the purpose of writing these articles?
How does the language / tone1/ layout2 of the articles support the authors’ purpose for writing?
Who are the intended audiences (who do they hope to inform or persuade)?
Who are the stakeholders3?
Which part of the article might be persuasive for this audience? Why? [Here, you should consider how the author is persuading in terms of their uses of rhetorical strategies. How does each author’s use of them compare?].
Is there an alternative / opposing viewpoints? If so, what is it?
“The thesis statement will assess and compare the three authors’ effectiveness in accomplishing their purpose with the intended audience through the use of rhetorical strategies”
CHECKLIST: Your rhetorical analysis essay should include
Brief introduction paragraph that introduces the three authors by name and their essays or multimodal works.
A conclusion paragraph that discusses what can be learned from analyzing these three texts together that couldn’t otherwise be learned by considering them in isolation.
Body paragraphs that describe a few concrete form and content choices made in each text and analyze those choices based on audience and purpose.
1-2 specific examples from each text that illustrate the above points (quote, concrete example, description of image, description of structure/headings etc.)
Comparison transitions/transition sentences between paragraphs that compare/contrast the text you just discussed with the subsequent or previous text
Other Requirements:
Your essay should be a minimum of 800 words
While you can include evaluative judgments (good/bad/successfully/unsuccessfully), avoid spending too much time evaluating. Focus on analysis, or explaining why a choice makes sense given the audience and purpose (or works against the purpose) and how the author’s choices compare.
Make sure to focus on concrete examples from the texts (brief quotes, description of images, specific examples)
Introduce each text by including the writer’s name and the title in the essay.
When quoting or paraphrasing, cite the author and include the page number (for articles) or the paragraph number (for websites and newspaper articles).
Present a ‘balanced’ analysis with all three authors
Provide context for your quotes and specific examples.
Format
This assignment should use the Written Work Requirements, including your name, section number, name of the assignment, date, and word count. It must be double-spaced and uploaded to Canvas as a .docx or .pdf file. Label the file [last name_analysis.docx]; for example, smith_analysis.docx.
Criteria for Success
Explore the student example [link] as one possible way to analyze texts. Read “The Four Moves to Incorporate Sources” [link] in Week 3 modules and use that method when quoting or paraphrasing. As you write your paper, refer to these instructions to make sure you meet all the requirements. Go into detail and give examples from the text that illustrate the points you want to make to give your analysis strength and help readers appreciate your point of view more. As with many assignments in this class, I’m looking for evidence that you made your best effort to address the points above. There are many ways to analyze these texts – there isn’t one ‘correct’ approach!
