Assignment Sheet for Paper #1: A Rhetorical Analysis of a Text-based Argument

Overview:

In this first formal assignment, you will write an essay (4 to 5 pages) in which you apply Aristotelian principles to the analysis of a text-based argument. Demonstrating your understanding of rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) as well as elements of style, arrangement and, contributing factors to the text, situation (e.g, audience, purpose, form of argument), you will characterize the (potentially) persuasive dimensions of the text you select. In doing so, your analysis will make clear how this text exemplifies the rhetorical character of public argumentation, that is, a collaborative act between a speaker and an audience.


Texts:

Choose one of these classic or contemporary texts:

"Civil Disobedence, " Henry David Thoreau
    http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Thoreau/CivilDisobedience.html

"Brooklyn Prof in Godless Shocker," Katha Pollitt
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050627/pollitt

"Parks and Wreck -- Against Jet Skiers, Snowmobilers, and Other Louts," Dave Shiflett
    http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_5_53/ai_72007013/print
 


Timetable and Practicalities:

Friday, 9/29 -- Paper assigned
Monday, 10/2 -- argument to analyze selected
Friday, 10/6 -- Invention notes due (email fine)
Wednesday, 10/11 -- Draft workshop (bring two copies to class)
Monday, 10/16 -- Paper due (include first draft, pre-proofead copy of final draft, and final draft)

Your paper should be computed generated, typed (in a professional 10 or 12 pt. font), and be in the range of 900 to 1200 words. Each numbered page should feature your name and the assignment name in a header or footer. Employ MLA style for citation and quotation. Title paper appropriately, e.g., "An Analysis of X in YYYYY"


Resources:

One could find dozens of helpful guides for conducting a rhetorical analysis or producing a well-crafted analytical essay. Here are several I think worth consulting.

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Pedagogy/Rhetorical%20Analysis%20heuristic.htm
http://english.ecu.edu/%7Ewpbanks/rhetoric/rhetanalysis.html
http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Handouts/RhetAnal.html

http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/comp2/evidence.htm
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Persuasive%20Appeals/Persuasive%20Appeals.htm
Aristotle's 28 lines of argument (a la Bill FitzGerald)


Sample analyses:

As you prepare notes for use in your analysis, you will benefit from some sample analyses, some of text-based arguments and some of

1. Martin Luther King, Jr's, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is among the most eloquent, powerful public arguments ever composed. This link takes you to a schematic breakdown--excellent and instructive in its way--of various appeals that can plausibly be identified at the sentence level:
http://faculty.millikin.edu/~moconner/writing/king1a.html

Note, however, that a single sentence is not always this or that kind of appeal. A single 'loaded' word in an otherwise 'logical' argument can be an element of pathos, while a calm, reasonable tone throughout an entire discourse can contribute to a persuasive ethos of credibility or intelligence. Rhetorical appeals can be braided together. Finally, I noted, it might prove highly useful to take the same color-coded approach you find here.

2. Analyses with advertisements: http://www.assumption.edu/users/ady/Media/adanal.html

3. Several more sites of analysis:

       http://rhetoriciansforpeace.org/rhetanalysis.html