Essay Assignment: The Researched Rhetorical Analysis Paper
The essay assignment in ENG102 is the researched rhetorical analysis paper; this paper should be five to seven pages (1250-1750 words) in length, not including a Title and References pages. In the position essay, you defended your own position on an issue. In this essay, you will be analyzing how well someone else argues their position on an issue. Ideally, you'll work with the same issue in both essays. To successfully complete this assignment, you will:
• Identify a current article that argues a position on an issue.
• Summarize the argument in that article.
• Identify the audience of the argument so you can fully analyze how well the writer appeals to that audience.
• Identify ethos, logos, and pathos in the argument, as well as any fallacies used.
• Analyze and evaluate how well those appeals are used for the target audience.
• Support your analysis with appropriate research and support.
Prewriting: You will begin this assignment by first finding an article that is well-suited to the assignment. Ideally, this article will have an identifiable author, be somewhat recent (within the last five years), be published in an actual publication you can identify the audience for, and it should make a clear argument. It is possible that you may have an article from the position essay that you can use for this assignment.
Research: The first step in research should happen in the pre-writing stage, as mentioned above. The essay should incorporate quotations, summaries, and paraphrases using introductory phrasing and document sources in the text according to APA: The Easy Way! At least five different sources must be used with not more than two deriving from the Internet. Reference sources, such as an encyclopedia, (e.g. Wikepedia.org) or a dictionary will not count as legitimate sources. This includes reference sites like WebMD.org and About.com. In addition, personal blogs or essays posted on personal websites or self-published on sites like Associatedcontent.com and Helium.com are not acceptable.
Typical uses of research for this particular essay include research to establish context, research used to identify the target audience, and research to establish credibility of the author and publication.
Basic Organizational Pattern: There are multiple ways to organize a rhetorical analysis essay. Note that the sample below develops on that basic outline, showing how each appeal gets its own section.
• Introduction: Setting up some context for the issue is a great way to open a position paper, as it allows you to show the issue is current. In the rhetorical analysis, context also helps your reader understand how the article fits into the larger debate on the issue. End this introduction paragraph with your thesis statement.
• Summary: Summarize the argument in the article that you are analyzing.
• Audience: Create a profile of the target audience of the argument. This can be determined by analyzing the actual publication the article appeared in.
• Analysis of the author's ethos
• Analysis of logos
• Analysis of pathos
• Conclusion: Think about how you can lead the reader back out of the paper.