ASSIGNMENT:
Read the essay, "Why We Need to Understand Science," 1989, Carl Sagan, Parade Magazine. Assess the essay utilizing the "Questions for Analyzing the Rhetorical Context of Texts" (box on previous page).
• What is the author's purpose? What do I perceive as the effect the author intends to have on the audience? What role does the author assume in relation to the audience?
• What do I know about the author's credibility and background?
• How does the choice of genre, organizational structure, and stylistic features advance the author's purpose?
• For whom is the author writing? In what type of publication - scholarly journal, popular magazine, local or national newspaper - was the text first published? In what type of publication might you think it would be published? Who might read this publication?
• In what year was the text published? What was on people's minds? Is the text current or dated?
• What feeling, event, phenomenon, circumstance, or social practice prompted the author to write the text?
• How is the author drawing on other writers and other texts> How does he/she view what others have said about the topic?