For this essay, you will choose a text that interests you to analyze closely. You’ll be expected to describe a text in careful ways as you analyze its meaning. You can use one of the readings embedded in the chapters of Writing Moves, but can also select a text of your own choosing. Remember that in our class discourse community, text refers to any form of digital media. You might want to look at a meme, an argument, a song, a tweet, an article. If you do use a meme or another text that doesn’t include much writing, I do ask that you also analyze a related article.
In this paper, you will introduce the text and point to the larger context that grounds its meaning and function. You’ll want to consider how the text was created and circulated, as well as how its larger audience responded to it. This paper is meant to show a very close “reading” and analysis of a text that brings readers beyond a basic understanding of it.
An important writing move in academic essays is to use the language or jargon of the discipline you are studying. Our course is rooted in the field of composition and rhetoric. As you comment on particular aspects of the text you are analyzing, you should use some of the concepts and terms presented in Writing Moves when appropriate. For example, key words from chapter 1 – 3 include: textual ecology, kairos, intertextuality, pathos, and more.
In this paper, you’ll want to be sure to do the following:
● Introduce the text (or texts) you are analyzing.
● Provide a sense of context by talking about who wrote this piece, where it was published, and how it has been shared.
● Nod to the cultural context that might situate this text: what was going on in the world or in a more local community that impacted this text and how it was written or read?
● Use key concepts from Writing Moves and our class discussions as you look at specific elements of this text as you consider how it works. These concepts include:
○ Rhetorical appeals > pathos, logos, ethos, and kairos
○ Demonstrating close reading or working with source material
○ Analyzing evidence > explaining but also breaking down evidence, finding patterns, making connections, tracing your own responses
○ Critiquing and evaluating the source > looking at the credibility of the source’s creator(s); gaps in information; push back to what the source is suggesting.
● Make points about your text as you consider what it is about, how it is written, how it has been shared, who it addresses, and what it contributes to larger, public conversations.
● Consider what a close analysis of this text reveals about our contemporary writing and reading practices and the wider conversations that are carried out online.
● Use MLA format, including a Works Cited list.
As you write about a text (or a few) texts, be sure to use summaries, paraphrases, and quotations to ground your work.
These are things I will be looking for as I read these pieces:
1. Orienting your Readers
Title
Is there a title that speaks to the subject and theme of this piece?
Introduction
Do you catch your readers’ attention in your introduction? Do you give them some idea of what this text will be about or argue? Do you introduce the text you are focusing on?
Structure
Do you arrange paragraphs around a main idea or point? Are they organized in a logical manner? Do you use paragraph breaks to lead your readers through your text?
Conclusion
Is your conclusion developed? Does it provide some finality to your paper?
2. Moving Between Specifics and Generalizations
Concrete Details
Are there specific examples from the text you are analyzing that help you support the points you make in this piece? Do you discuss this text in close ways? Do you show how carefully you have read and considered it?
Generalized Reflective Comments
Do you comment on the evidence you bring into this piece and tell your readers why they are important and what they show about the text you are studying? Do you lead readers to broader, more generalized points about this text as you move through this paper? Do you answer the implicit “so what”?
3. Finishing Touches
Proofreading
Have you polished this paper before handing it in? Do grammatical, or surface level features, affect the readability of this text?
Formatting
Have you formatted this research paper in an appropriate way? We will use MLA formatting.
