When you are asked to do a “Rhetorical Analysis” of a text, you are being asked to apply your critical reading skills to break down the “whole” of the text into the sum of its “parts
When you are asked to do a “Rhetorical Analysis” of a text, you are being asked to apply your critical reading skills to break down the “whole” of the text into the sum of its “parts
Your Topic: Rhetorical Analysis Paper
Assignment Details: When you are asked to do a “Rhetorical Analysis” of a text, you are being asked to apply your critical reading skills to break down the “whole” of the text into the sum of its “parts.” You try to determine what the writer is trying to achieve, and what writing strategies he/she is using to try to achieve it. Reading critically means more than just being moved, affected, informed, influenced, and persuaded by a piece of writing. Reading critically also means analyzing and understanding how the work has achieved its effect. For this assignment, you are to read one of the following works–Jo Goodwin Parker’s essay, “What Is Poverty?” Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.’s “I have a Dream,” Josephine Baker’s “Speech at the March on Washington,” or Elie Wiesel’s “The Peril’s of Indifference” –and provide your reader with an in depth analysis of the author’s style and material. Has the author accomplished his/her intended goals via his/her chosen style and material? Or would different stylistic and material choices been more appropriate given his/her audience and purpose. You decide and support your various claims with evidence (quotes) from the work.
AUDIENCE: English 105 students who have read the essay you are analyzing and tend to disagree with your stance on it–but who are also open to changing their position (depending upon how well you make your case in your paper).
FORMAT: MLA, Double-spaced, Times New Roman, font 10 or 12.
TARGET LENGTH: At least 4 Typed pages.
FINAL DRAFTS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED THROUGH CANVAS BY 11:59 P.M., Monday, FEB.. 13 (I will accept late papers; however, you will incur a ten-point deduction for each day that your paper is late.)
A WORKS CITED PAGE IS ALSO REQUIRED, BUT DOES NOT COUNT IN THE 4-PAGE TARGET LENGTH.
In preparation for the paper, please refer to the following questions concerning audience, purpose, style and material.
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
I. What is the situation behind the essay?
Who is the intended audience? What is known or can be assumed about the audience’s interests, concerns, values, attitudes, feelings, knowledge, beliefs, etc. What information does the essay itself provide?
What is the subject? What is known or can be assumed about the audience’s knowledge of and response to the subject? What information does the essay itself provide?
II. What is the writer’s purpose or set of purposes?
What precisely is the writer trying to do to, for, or together with the intended audience? Is the purpose or set of purposes explicitly stated? Where? If not, on what do you base your answer? What main idea or thesis about this subject does the writer’s purpose or set of purposes entail? Is that thesis explicitly stated? Where? If not, on what do you base your answer?
III. What support/material does the writer offer for the thesis put forward?
What strategies of argument does the writer use? Examples? Anecdotes? Statistics? Analogies? Axioms? Authority or expert opinion?
From where are the arguments derived or developed? Personal experience? First-hand observation? Conversation with friends or acquaintances? Radio? Television? Films? General reading? Research?
Are the arguments convincing? Why or why not? Overall, given the writer’s audience and purpose(s), is there sufficient support for the thesis put forward?
IV. What is the writer’s style like?
On a scale from formal to colloquial, where does the style tend to fall? What features of vocabulary, sentence structure, and punctuation contribute most to the style?
Are there notable shifts in formality? Where? What features of language contribute to the shifts? What prompts the shifts?
How readable is the style? What features of language contribute to or detract from its readability? How easy is it to follow the sentence structure? What makes it so? How precise is the wording in denotation? How appropriate is the wording in connotation? Is there any use of slanted language? Where? How concrete is the wording? How much figurative language is used?
How does the style tie in with the writer’s purpose(s)? How effective is the style?
V. Overall, how effective is this writing?
Do all the component parts work together to create an effective piece of writing?
Preferred Format: MLA
Number of Sources:
Number of Pages: 4
PowerPoint slides:
Preferred Spacing: Double spaced
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