Rhetorical Analysis - English Composition I | ENG 101, Assignments of Grammar and Composition

Download Rhetorical Analysis - English Composition I | ENG 101 and more Assignments Grammar and Composition in PDF only on Docsity! ENG 101 Heather G. S. Johnson RHETORICAL ANALYSIS (3-4 double-spaced, typed pages) Due: Monday, 10/1 When conducting a “rhetorical analysis,” a writer examines not just the content of a text (such as what an author is saying), but also how the author says it. To further illustrate what it means to analyze a text rhetorically, consider the following questions:  To whom is the author writing? (Who is the audience?)  In what context is the author writing? (Time? Venue? “Climate?”)  What words do you see the author emphasizing or repeating? Why?  How does the author use analogy, imagery, and symbolism?  Does the author refer to other authors? In what ways? To what purpose?  How is the text organized or structured?  What stylistic traits do you see the author using? To what end?  How does the author try to persuade her or his readers?  Who or what does the author praise or criticize? Why?  What reveals the author's attitude toward his or her subject?  How does the author encourage you to respond to her his or her writing?  How does the author employ Ethos, Pathos, and Logos?  What sort of reasoning do you see in the text? Do you see any false reasoning? What effect does it have? For your second major assignment, have two options: 1. You may analyze the rhetoric of any one of the texts that we are reading in this section, including: Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence;” Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions;” Macchiavelli, “The Morals of the Prince;” or Swift, “A Modest Proposal” OR 2. You may do a comparative analysis of either of the two pairs (Jefferson and Stanton or Macchiavelli and Swift). Be aware that the Macchiavelli and Swift essays, because they are satires, will be more challenging pieces to analyze. Also, if you decide to do a comparative analysis, your essay may need to be slightly longer than required page limit. That’s ok. For this essay, I want you to have a basic thesis statement, a main claim. While we will discuss thesis statements more in the future, for our purposes in this assignment, you can think of you main claim as a sentence that sums up your findings: it is the conclusion you can draw by adding all of your evidence together. Generally, your thesis will be the answer to your main inquiry question. The inquiry question in this case is similar for all of us: What rhetorical strategies does the author use and to what effect? Hints:  Don’t just repeat the questions above. Instead, use the questions to "get at" the rhetorical moves that the author is making. Remember that directly answering the questions will not necessarily lead to a good claim. Instead, they are intended to get you to think about the text that you’re reading, and helpfully guide your thought process. You will not be addressing all of the questions in your paper, but you may be addressing more than one (in which case you should explicitly show the connections between your ideas).  Consider the author’s use of words and phrases and how the text itself is structured carefully. This is not so different from the observations you’ve made in your reading records when writing summaries; it's just that now you're noticing the "how" rather than the "what" of the piece. Use what you learned when doing the observation assignment to get at the rhetorical motives of the author.  Your own reaction to the text can be – but is not necessarily – telling. In other words, if you have a strong reaction to some portion, you should consider why you have that reaction.  You don’t need to have a name for every rhetorical strategy. You just need to be able to describe the strategy and recognize its effect. Do use some of the language we’ve learned in class (like denotation, connotation, simile, metaphor, binary, ethos, pathos, logos, premise, induction, and deduction).