Unit 1 Paper: What is Rhetoric (and How Does it Work in Your Writing)?
The word “rhetoric” has been around since ancient times. Today, the actual word is often used in academic settings and (overused) in politics—where sometimes it is referred to in a negative sense. Nevertheless, rhetoric is everywhere any type of communication/interaction is happening. In this assignment, your task is to explain what rhetoric is and how it works, using a specific piece of your own writing and applying two principles from Doug Downs’ essay on rhetoric.
The Assignment
First, along with reflection on our class materials, put some real thought into how human interaction, especially persuasion, happens around you (or by you!).
Your analysis will be based on some significant piece of writing or writing experience (outside of our 1101 class or any other academic setting) that you’ve had in the last several years. The writing could have been for work, family, or your personal life. It can be private (like an email) or public (like a blog or other online post). It could be a single short document, like a poem or some lyrics. Also usable is an extended project or experience that involved multiple pieces of writing. The point is writing was a response to something. You will not be able to use required schoolwork as your writing experience. You could, though, focus on a piece of writing that was a result of schoolwork–such as an email or a series of texts to a group member who was slacking. To be clear: using an assignment from a teacher is NOT acceptable for this project. The key requirement is that it must be memorable or important enough that you can clearly remember the circumstances surrounding the writing.
To be clear: using an assignment from a teacher is NOT acceptable for this project. Neither is anything that is like a journal entry, where you are basically writing to yourself. The reason is that we have not explored rhetoric enough to complete such a complicated analysis.
For this paper, your job is to demonstrate your understanding of some of the elements of rhetoric Downs presents, specifically in the writing you created. You should explore/apply two (2) Elements Downs discusses (do not use three!).
Just as Downs uses the example of Jayla, Maria, and Ian throughout his essay to show the principles of rhetoric at work, use YOUR writing experience in the same way. You could present the motivation behind your writing or explore the ecology or where kairos was evident.
The idea is to take your experience and dig deep! Make sure you pick out two specific elements (perhaps the ones you related to the most) that your writing experience can demonstrate. There is an option to choose one element to spend your paper on–see below.
Please do not use second-person “you.” You will have a more professional sounding paper without it.
To help you with navigating the article and applying it to your paper, pick Two elements of Rhetoric if choosing these elements individually:
Motivation (Include conscious and unconscious motivations and audience’s motivations)
Narrative
Ethos or Logos or Pathos (Only one of these, not two or three)
Identification
Use ONLY ONE element if choosing one of these elements:
Applying Ecology (include the rhetors of the interaction and all other contributors and influencers–how did they contribute? Also include exigence [reason or need for the interaction] and Kairos [a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action: the opportune and decisive moment])
Mythos (big cultural beliefs that influence writing; by default, it includes values)
Want an example Download example? Here ya go! Note that this is not a perfect paper, but it also includes some comments from me that may help with your own drafting.
Your paper should contain, at minimum, the following:
A brief introduction that sets up context for your paper. Perhaps a brief introduction to the points you plan on using.
A thorough description of a particular writing situation that helps you explain the two rhetorical elements you introduced.
A conclusion in where you speculate on why understanding rhetoric might help you as a writer. Do NOT rehash what you just said in the paper. Your conclusion goes beyond that. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what you’ve learned in this unit and think about how it might help you in the future.
In-text citations—by default, from the Downs article. You are not required to use an outside source for this assignment–just stick to Downs.
Perfect MLA throughout the entire paper, including the Works Cited page.
Format and other info: (Upload your final document in Webcourses)
3 to 5 pages (though it can be longer), not including Works Cited,
Final essay must follow MLA format (see examples in Purdue OWL): 12-point Times New Roman font, double spaced, 1-inch margins, typed, doc or docx
Name and page number in upper-right header (as MLA requires–see the sample paper. Do NOT manually type in the page number on each page)
Have an appropriate, original title (something beyond “Unit 1 Paper”); do not use the assignment title as your title
Remove second person “you” throughout
Final due date is noted in Webcourses
Value: Up to 50 points
