Rhetorical Analysis: Essay 1 Prompt
Select one written and/or visual argument that is of interest to you and write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical situation, emphasizing the relationship (intended and unintended) between author/speaker and audience(s).
You will want to pick a piece that has a clear, debatable/controversial argument, and that uses clear rhetorical appeals for you to thoroughly analyze. Mediums you may choose to analyze include: news editorials, speeches/TED Talks, advertisements, music videos/songs, etc.
You should answer: What is the argument/main claim? Is the argument rhetorically effective? What parts/strategies were particularly effective or not effective and why or why not? Consider: which audiences did the argument have an effect on? Is it the effect the author intended? Back up your analysis with quoted evidence from the text and/or explanations of visual data.
Write in the present tense (they “argue,” not “argued”). Begin by introducing who the author/speaker is: what do you know about their background, credibility, knowledge, and relationship to the setting/context? Set up your essay clearly by stating the title, location (if applicable), date, author, publisher (if applicable), argument and claims before you begin analyzing specific rhetorical devices and moves:
- CONTEXT: What is the background surrounding the creation of this piece or the situation of its urgency? What does the audience already know and/or assume that aids in their understanding of the argument and makes it more (or less) effective with certain audiences?
- RHETORICAL STRATEGIES: In what ways does the speaker/writer/artist appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos?
- EVIDENCE: Having previously identified the author’s claim, discuss how they are supported. What types of evidence are presented (data, anecdotes or stories, quotes, research, real-life scenarios, personal examples, statistics, expert testimony, historical references, etc.)? Is this evidence sufficient to support the claim? What about the evidence is persuasive or fails to be persuasive?
- AUDIENCE: Who are the intended audiences and how do you know/what are the clues? Who are the sympathetic, neutral, and hostile audiences? In what specific ways does the writer/speaker develop a relationship with the audience/appeal to their values? What assumptions does the author seem to make about their audience? Discuss the audience’s potential thought process, emotional reaction, actual response and overall engagement. Avoid using a generic second person “you” – keep your analysis focused on “audience, reader, viewer, American” etc.
- PROJECT: What is the writer’s work/purpose/call to action? Is there some sense of urgency involved? How do they identify the significance of the issue(s) they address? What effect do they want to have in the world and/or on their audience?
- EFFECT: Conclude with your evaluation of the rhetorical effectiveness of the speaker and their relationship to the audience. Does the author accomplish their purpose? Was the author persuasive to you personally? (It’s okay to use “I” here.) What effect did their argument have in the world, if any?
Essays with excessive summary will not earn a passing grade. Keep your sentences and essay focused on what effect rhetorical moves have on specific audiences, not merely what is “said.” The quality of your insight, interpretation, analysis, and articulation of ideas is important and is the basis of my grading.
Length: 3-4 pages
Style: MLA Format and Works Cited
*You’ll need a Works Cited page (a 4th or 5th page after your rhetorical analysis) that cites the argument itself as well as transcripts and/or any secondary material you’ve quoted within your essay.
Due Dates:
First draft is due Thursday, September 19.
Second draft is due Thursday, September 26.
Third draft is due Thursday, October 3.
Essay 2: Narrative Argument
The Importance of Narratives: Stories provide our rationale for what’s going on. We add meaning to an action we observe and that meaning is the story. Stories are our interpretation of the facts. They help explain what we observe. The stories we tell ourselves can help us improve, transform, and progress into the next stages of our life narrative.
For Essay 2, you will use a story you have experienced as evidence to support an argument (something you learned from the experience). Making meaning out of an experience you have had, you will write a narrative argument by developing an arguable claim using a personal story. In order for your narrative to be successful, the significance to you must be clear. What do you want your readers to take away from the story? Your essay has to have a clear purpose (along with being sad or empowering or funny or all three).
An argument may be judged by its reasonableness. In order to know if something is reasonable or not, we make sense of events by situating them within a context. The context that a story provides gives us the sense-making perspectives that we need to make connections. Use your narrative or story to convince your audience that your point is a fitting response and your reasons are reasonable given the situation. Consider that arguments are often in some way controversial (i.e. things most anyone would agree with don’t necessitate persuading others of its value).
Your audience is your classmates and your instructor. Write about something you will feel comfortable sharing. Provide enough information in your narrative for your audience to understand where, when, and how the experience took place, and also provide enough detail and analysis for us to understand, relate, care about your experience, and ultimately, be persuaded to learn what you learned from it.
In order to write a successful narrative, you need to include plenty of vivid, relevant detail. Your goal should be to make your readers feel as if they were there with you during the experience. Some other ways of bringing a narrative to life include: using figurative language such as metaphors and similes, using specific and descriptive word choice, and using dialogue.
Requirements:
- Your final essay should be 3-4 full pages long, typed in MLA format, 12 point font, in Times New Roman or other similar/easily readable font, double spaced, and have an original and creative title.
- Your essay should explain the significance of your story.
- Your essay needs to include a story with significant details and clear examples that support your central idea.
- Your essay should be organized into a logical series of paragraphs that relate to the central idea.
- Your essay should have a minimum of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
- Your first draft is due Thursday, October 10 by the end of class.
- Your second draft is due Thursday, October 17 by class time.
- Your final draft is due Thursday, October 24 by 11:59pm.
Below are narrative prompts that would facilitate writing a narrative argument essay about education that you are welcome to follow if they resonate with you and/or you would like ideas about what to write about:
- Write about a time when you learned something new, either inside or outside of a school setting. How did you learn? What was your learning style? Research learning styles, so you understand them. Make an argument about your learning style based on your experience learning something new. For instance, you could argue that a particular method worked well for you because you’re a visual learner.
- Write about a wonderful or terrible academic (school) experience. What made the experience so wonderful or terrible? Make an argument about your education based on this experience. For instance, you could argue that a particular teaching method was effective for you and why.
- Write about a time when you overcame an educational obstacle. What was the obstacle and how did you overcome it? With help or on your own? Make an argument about what you learned from this experience.
- Examine how you learned something outside of school. Tell us how you learned to adapt the skills you used to learn something outside of school and made them transferable skills to help you learn something inside of school. Argue that you can “code switch” and use the strategies used to learn outside of school, inside of school.
Take this learning style inventory: http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/index.html to learn more about learning styles.
WRT 101S 