Instructions
Project Description:
All writing is a conversation. Authors talking to each other between time and space are influenced by different factors, positions, ideas, and beliefs. As we’ve read about, rhetorical analysis is one of the methods for determining contexts that inform and influence authors, audiences, and the texts being broadcast between them. Remember: rhetoric is the art of finding the best available means of persuasion. Those means include factors related to what other people are saying, thinking, and feeling.
The best way to practice close reading and working with sources to determine the state of a conversation in order to understand both the issue and how it maps over the elements of the rhetorical triangle is to examine controversy or arguments which inherently contains different positions, stakeholders, ideas, and perspectives. To simplify: the ability to summarize multiple perspectives on an issue is a key writing skill. You will select a controversy or public argument (perhaps using examples found in the discussion board) and write an essay that summarizes, contextualizes, synthesizes, and documents several perspectives found doing secondary research.
In this essay you will summarize different perspectives relating to your chosen controversy, stating clearly what the positions are (they do not, and should not, all agree with each other) and then highlighting the relationships among them, trying to produce a “big picture” view on the issue. Imagine you are writing this summary for an audience who is curious and perhaps even concerned, but not totally informed on the controversy. Your job is to provide an unbiased summary of the different perspectives on the controversy of your choosing.
Project Details:
To begin, you should provide an overview of the context and background of this controversy and explain to readers the significance of the issue. You may want to explain why or how this issue became a controversy, how the results of this issue effects stakeholders and readers, and why readers should care about these perspectives.
In 4 to 6 pages of writing, summarize the different perspectives ranging across the entire field of the controversy or the various proposed solutions to the controversy: what should be done to fix the problem? What factors influence or hinder solutions? Why does the central issue fueling the controversy occur in the first place?
To provide a full range of perspectives on the controversy, cite at least four sources that do not all agree. Your goal is to summarize the perspectives for an uninformed reader. Summarize each source’s most compelling arguments without agreeing or disagreeing. Do not present a one-sided view of the various positions, even if you strongly disagree (or strongly agree!) with the authors of those sources. Your job is to avoid bias and present a neutral summary of the issue.
Requirements:
4 – 6 double-spaced pages of writing in 12pt Times New Roman font
Cite at least four sources: one peer-reviewed scholarly source from an academic journal, two sources from reputable venues like a newspaper or magazine, one visual source, and a 4th source of your own choosing. These sources should not all agree
MLA or APA style in-text citations and attributions for direct quotes
An MLA or APA style works cited page at the end of your essay
