The Rhetorical Analysis is a formulaic and impersonal document. It can be tempting to add your opinions into any paper, and when talking about issues, you may be tempted to agree or disagree with the author. This, however, is a strategy best left to other essays and will not be appropriate here. When beginning writing, it is always important to first ask: what is the assignment asking me to do? In this case, the assignment is asking you to interpret a writer’s strategies, not their argument. You should not take a side in the argument at all but should instead focus on what the writer does well, and what the writer could approve upon as a writer. In short: you should focus on the writer, not on the subject. For this assignment, you may pick (1) any essay by Roxane Gay in Bad Feminist; (2) One of your “Happy” articles; OR (3) Any other article or text (including news video, blog, social media post, etc.) that you feel you could write 1,000 words about, focusing only on the writing strategy. Your Rhetorical Analysis should have the following sections: An introduction paragraph with 4-5 sentences. The first sentence should be an overall description of what the issue is (i.e. “Feminism is…” The second and third sentences should introduce the different “sides” of the argument (i.e. “Those who identify as feminists believe that… Those who do not identify with this label believe that…”). Here, you may add an optional sentence that discusses other viewpoints. Finally, you should end the paragraph with an introduction of the essay you will be talking about (i.e. “In her essay collection, Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay argues that…and makes a compelling argument through use of…/fails to make her point due to use of….”) 4 body paragraphs: Each paragraph should tackle a different rhetorical strategy. You should, therefore, have one paragraph that focuses on ethos, one on logos, one on pathos, and one on kairos. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that sets the scene (i.e. “Roxane Gay successfully builds her credibility (ethos) by….”) The rest of the paragraph will give examples and analyze how they are or are not succesful uses of the rhetorical strategy. Each paragraph should be at least 5 sentences long (1 topic sentence; 1 sentence with an example; 1 sentence analyzing that example; 1 more sentence with another example; 1 more sentence analyzing the second example). A conclusion paragraph: 2 sentences long, this brief paragraph should (1) summarize your main points and (2) tell us why this matters–what are the consequences of Gay successfully or not successfully making her point? Your rough draft will be graded on the following criteria: It is a minimum of 1,000 words It follows the Rhetorical Analysis instructions listed above
