Class 10/6/11 and Draft 1.1 (Rhetorical Analysis)

Before class you need to...

- Read Part 1, Section 2, "Rhetorical Situations" (pp. 23-43) in St. Martin's Handbook

- Bring to class three copies of your rhetorical analysis (Draft 1.1). It should include your introduction, at least 3 body paragraphs (it's ok if you have more) and your conclusion. One copy will be turned in for a quiz grade and the other two will be used for in-class peer revision.

Today in class we will...

-Discuss the workshop and next week's substitute-led class

-Discuss how to write an effective conclusion

-In work groups: Revise at least two peers' drafts.

Identify:
Introduction 
What strategy does the author use in the introduction? Narration? Cause and effect? (Think about what you read in 5a-5f in St. Martin's)
Where is the author's thesis located? Is this location effective?
Study the thesis. Does the author mention the title of the original text and the author(s) name(s)?
Does the thesis have a summary of the main point of the text? Is this summary accurate and specific?
Does the author have at least 3 rhetorical devices listed in the thesis? Are these devices appropriate and specific?
How is the author's communication? Does he/she have grammatical errors? Does he/she need to shorten or simplify sentences? Does the introduction flow? Does the author use transition words such as "however" and "therefore."

Body Paragraphs
Does the author have clear and specific topic sentences? What rhetorical device does he/she focus on in this paragraph? Is this device mentioned in the topic sentence?
Does the author have at least two examples from the original text? Are these good examples of this device?
Are these examples paraphrases or direct quotations? Was this choice effective?
Are all direct quotations integrated correctly? (look at pages 108-114 in your textbook for ideas)
Are the citations in MLA format?
Does the author have commentary after each example? Is this commentary specific and clear? Does the commentary discuss how the rhetorical device affects the reader?
How does the author communicate? Do they have grammatical errors? Does he/she need to shorten or simplify sentences? Does the introduction flow? Does the author use transition words such as "however" and "therefore."

Conclusion
Does the conclusion explain the "so what?" of the author's rhetorical analysis? Does the author explain how the rhetorical devices affect the reader? Is there a broad implication for society?
Does the conclusion connect back to what was stated in the introduction?
Does the conclusion synthesize instead of summarize?
Does the author use a quotation in the conclusion? Is it effective?
Does the author mention the "call to action" of the original text?
Does the author avoid using the words "in conclusion," stating a new idea in the conclusion, and making an overly emotional appeal?
Does the author avoid the "That's My Story," "Sherlock Holmes," "We Shall Overcome," and "Grab Bag" conclusions?
Has the author included a works cited in MLA format?

Draft 1.1: Rhetorical Analysis 
(You do NOT have an assignment to turn into Raider Writer this Tuesday, October 4th. Your rhetorical analysis must be turned into Raider Writer on October 12th).

Objective: To demonstrate your ability to rhetorically analyze texts.

Purpose: In the first half of the course, you have been honing your writing skills so as to prepare you for college level writing. You will use all of these skills, (summarizing, paraphrasing, critical reading, constructing thesis statements, and using supporting material via quotations) throughout your writing of this assignment.

Description: To complete this assignment, you will begin by selecting a text to analyze. You may either select an essay from Ch. 11 of your textbook, or another piece of writing from a scholarly journal, reputable newspaper or website. Your classroom instructor may also have suggestions for you as to appropriate texts to analyze. After selecting your text and critically reading it, you will determine the writer’s purpose and intended audience for the text.

Once you have determined these elements, you will begin to analyze the text so as to determine the specific strategies the writer uses to achieve his or her purpose and to meet the needs of the audience. For example, you might choose to look at such elements as the types of evidence a writer puts forward and how he or she does so. Ask yourself if the writer uses evidence from sources, or if he or she tells stories from personal experience. Examine the sentence structures and word choice. How do these contribute to the author’s purpose? Evaluate the overall tone of the text, and determine how it does or does not contribute to the way in which it communicates to its audience. After you determine what these strategies are, consider how well these strategies actually work. As a result of this assignment, you should be able to take these skills and transfer them to any reading you are asked to do in college, and you should see an improvement in your ability to read and comprehend any text.

Although this is an initial draft, it should be carefully edited and written in a professional tone. Please use MLA format for both your in-text citations and your works cited in this draft.

Your draft should be 1200 words in length.

What the graders are looking for:
For draft 1.1, you will apply six of the criteria listed on the critical thinking rubric: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7:

Issue Identification and Focus
The student’s understanding of what a rhetorical analysis is should be the basis for this evaluation. The degree to which the student exhibits that understanding will determine what score is assigned.

Context and Assumptions
The student should demonstrate an understanding of the context in which the artifact being analyzed was written. That is, if the student doesn’t understand the purpose of the text in the first place, it will be difficult to write an analysis of it.

Sources and Evidence
Critical criterion here—consider the choice of quotations, balance of quotations used to identify v. quotations to analyze original author’s choices. Most of the time, this and communication will determine whether the analysis is an A, B, or C piece.

Own Perspective
The thesis will be the primary point of focus for determining this score. Specificity, accuracy, and overall understanding will be primary. Also, does the remainder of the draft indicate that the writer understood what he/she said in the thesis?

Conclusion
What conclusions does the writer draw about the effectiveness of the writer’s choices and of the resulting text overall? How specific and accurate are these?

Communication
Organization is the first thing I’d look at here—if the organization is poor, even if sentence level matters are adequate to good, the score should reflect that.

Class 9/29/11

Before class you need to...

- Read Part 1, Section 3f-g "Planning" and "Drafting" (pp. 61 - 71) in St. Martin's Handbook 

- Read Part 1, Section 5a-f in St. Martin's Handbook

- Bring to class three copies of your introduction (including your thesis) and your first body paragraph of your rhetorical analysis (Draft 1.1). One copy will be turned in for a quiz grade and the other two will be used for in-class peer revision.

Today in class we will...

-Briefly discuss rhetorical analysis quiz #2
-Explain where current participation grades are located on Raider Writer
-Class discussion: Laura Staron's "1301: Rhetorical Analysis of a Text" on pages 589-591 of First-Year Writing
-In work groups: Revise at least two peers' drafts. The draft only includes the introduction (with the thesis statement) and the first body paragraph.

Identify:
Introduction
What strategy does the author use in the introduction? Narration? Cause and effect? (Think about what you read in 5a-5f in St. Martin's)
Where is the author's thesis located? Is this location effective?
Study the thesis. Does the author mention the title of the original text and the author(s) name(s)?
Does the thesis have a summary of the main point of the text? Is this summary accurate and specific?
Does the author have at least 3 rhetorical devices listed in the thesis? Are these devices appropriate and specific?
How is the author's communication? Does he/she have grammatical errors? Does he/she need to shorten or simplify sentences? Does the introduction flow? Does the author use transition words such as "however" and "therefore."

Body Paragraph(s)
Does the author have clear and specific topic sentence? What rhetorical device does he/she focus on in this paragraph? Is this device mentioned in the topic sentence?
Does the author have at least two example from the original text? Are these good examples of this device?
Are these examples paraphrases or direct quotations? Was this choice effective?
Does the author have commentary after each example? Is this commentary specific and clear?
How does the author communicate? Do they have grammatical errors? Does he/she need to shorten or simplify sentences? Does the introduction flow? Does the author use transition words such as "however" and "therefore."


-Explain extended office hours and upcoming draft workshop

BA 5

Unless you have talked to me personally, you should use the same article for BA 5 as you used for BA 4.


Your BA 5 should be organized like this:

Thesis statement

1. "Example" (Featherstone 225).

Explanation 

2. "Example" (Featherstone 226).

Explanation

3. "Example" (Featherstone 227).

Explanation

4. "Example" (Featherstone 228).

Explanation

5. "Example" (Featherstone 225).

Explanation

Remember:

You should only include one thesis statement; therefore, based on the graders comments choose your best thesis statement. If you have not yet received a grade on BA 4, choose what you believe is your best thesis statement.

Your explanations should answer all of the questions listed below (where will it fit in your organization, etc.) and they should be complete sentences in well-organized paragraphs. In your explanation you should specifically state which rhetorical device is found in each quotation (and this rhetorical device should be one of the devices listed in your thesis).

You should cite the author's last name, not their first name.

You should cite page numbers, not paragraph numbers.

Brief Assignment 5: Integrating and Evaluating Quotations

Objective: To identify and evaluate quotations for use in your analysis essay.

Purpose: Quotations pose several challenges for writers. The purpose of this assignment is for you to select quotations from sources you plan to use in your analysis essay, evaluate their usefulness, and discuss how and where you might use these in your upcoming draft.

Description: Begin by writing your working thesis at the top of your assignment. Then, select a minimum of five quotations from the article that you plan to incorporate into your draft as examples of particular rhetorical devices. Write a brief assessment of why each quotation would be useful to you in composing your draft. Your assessment of each quotation should include your answers to the following questions:

Where will this quotation fit in your organization?

How does it demonstrate the points you are trying to make about the author's writing?

Will you use it as a quotation or paraphrase the selection, and why?

Your analysis, not counting the quotations, should be 500-650 words.

NOTE: You may find that in identifying and evaluating your quotations, you modify and improve your original thesis statement.

What the graders are looking for:

For BA 5, you will apply four of the criteria listed on the critical thinking rubric: 1, 3, 5, and 7:

1) Issue Identification and Focus

If the student doesn’t understand what a rhetorical analysis is, this criterion, evidenced by the choice of quotations and analysis, will not score well.

3) Sources and Evidence

Critical criterion here—consider the choice of quotations, balance of quotations used to identify v. quotations to analyze original author’s choices. Most of the time, this and communication will determine whether the analysis is an A, B, or C piece.

5) Own Perspective

How well the writer can explain how the quotations will be used in the analysis is critical here. Vague or non-existent explanations will not score well

7) Communication

Explanations should be clear.

Class 9/22/11

Before class you need to...

-Read Part 2, Section 8, "Analyzing Arguments" (pp. 163 - 185) and Part 3, Section 13, "Integrating Sources into Your Writing" (pp. 276 - 286) in your St. Martin's Handbook. Especially study the green boxes: "Quick Help: Guidelines for Analyzing an Argument" in 8a (and click on the links in blue of questions you do not know the answers to), "Quick Help: Deciding to quote, paraphrase, or summarize" in 13b, and "Quick Help: Signal Verbs" also in 13b.

-Read pages 108-114 in First-Year Writing

-Review Chapter 9 (pages 201-230) in First-Year Writing

-Come to class prepared to take a quiz on these readings


In class today we will...

-In your workgroups answer the following questions on a sheet of paper:
1. When should you use summary?
2. When should you use paraphrase?
3. When should you use a direct quotation?
4. List at least three ways (phrases) to introduce a direct quotation.
5. List at least five signal verbs to introduce a quotation.

-Class discussion over assigned reading and BA 5

-With your work groups do a practice BA 5 using "What's a Girl to Read?" on pages 225-8 in First-Year Writing

-Reading quiz over rhetorical analysis

BA 4

Helpful resources for BA 4 and as you prepare your rhetorical analysis (Draft 1.1):
-When you are working on your thesis statements: In addition to reviewing 3a-3c in St. Martin's (which you should have already read), also take a look at P. 162-4 in First-Year Writing. Although you are writing a rhetorical analysis (not a research paper) this chapter still has some helpful tips.

- In addition to the uses listed on pages 207-9 of First-Year Writing, you also need to be familiar with literary devices. Click here for a brief list. You are not limited to this list; these are just some suggestions. Using these two sources, you should create a specific thesis! If you just list "ethos, pathos, logos" in your thesis you will have points deducted for not being specific enough. Think: HOW does the author appeal to my emotions? Do they use imagery? Do they use personification?

-Remember that all 3 versions of your thesis statement should include: a brief summary of the author's purpose (Ask your self: What are they arguing? Is it effective?), the title of the article, the author's name, and at least 3 rhetorical devices (be specific!) that you will discuss in your body paragraphs. Remember what we said in class about the organization of your thesis matching the organization of your body paragraphs.

Brief Assignment 4: Developing Thesis Statements

Objective: To develop new strategies for writing a thesis statement.

Purpose: One key to writing a successful essay is to develop a focused thesis statement. This assignment will enable you to do so.

Description: For your draft 1.1, you will write a rhetorical analysis. See the description of Draft 1.1 for a discussion of what a rhetorical analysis is and what you will be expected to do. To create your thesis, you need to have the following: 1) one primary text (specified by your instructor) that will serve as the object of your analysis, and 2) the results of your close reading of this text that you will use to formulate your thesis. To complete this assignment, compose three thesis statements that you might use in your draft 1.1. You may write 3 statements which could be used in three different analytical papers, or try out different thesis statements for a single paper.

Choose ONE of the following five articles to analyze and write 3 thesis statements:

- "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift  Click here (Remember: this text is satirical!)

- FDR's Inaugural Address Click here (scroll down, click on the first picture under the subtitle "First Inaugural Address," and read all 9 pages)

- "Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism" by Christine Rosen in First-Year Writing on pages 321-8

- "Unmarried with Children" by Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas in First-Year Writing on pages 388-92

- "Iraq and the Democratic Peace: Who Says Democracies Don't Fight" by John M. Owen IV in First-Year Writing on pages 465-9

Some things the graders are looking for...
Scoring Guide: For brief assignment 4, you will apply four of the criteria listed on the critical thinking rubric: 1, 3, 5, and 7.

Criterion 1 – Issue Identification and Focus
Does the thesis clearly present the paper as a rhetorical analysis rather than a descriptive paper or a summary? Is the thesis sufficiently focused?

Criterion 3 -- Sources and Evidence
Does the thesis identify the author and title of the object of rhetorical analysis (the article)? Does the thesis offer a reasonable interpretation of the central purpose of the source?

Criterion 5 – Own Perspective
Does the student present a clear claim about how he or she will analyze the article? Does he or she list specific strategies the author of the article uses to make a point? In this section, you will want to be sure to examine the selected strategies carefully. How specific are the strategies? Does the student choose actual strategies (emotional appeal, elevated diction, allusion, sentence length, etc.)?

Criterion 7 – Communication
How well does the student do all of the above in regard to tone, style, word choice, and other writing conventions? Does the student communicate his or her purpose and perspective clearly to an intended audience?

Class 9/15/11

Things to keep in mind:

-Assigned reading for 9/15/11: St. Martin's Handbook Part One, Section 3a-3c, "Exploring a Topic," "Narrowing a Topic," "Drafting a Working Thesis" (pp. 44-54); Part Three, Section 10h, "Moving from Hypothesis to Working Thesis" (p. 229); and Part Three, Section 15a, "Refiing Your Plans" (pp. 295 - 296). If you are still having trouble navigating St. Martin's, look at the light green bar at the top of the page. In the "Go to section" box, type in "3a". It will go straight to section 3a. You can also do this for 10h, 15a, and future reading assignments. 

-If you did not find it already, MLA format is in chapter 16 of the St. Martin's ebook. Especially study 16b because it discusses in-text citations.

-Homework assignment - After you have read, complete exercise 3.2 (questions 1-5 in section 3c). Type directly into the boxes and when you are finished click "view notebook." Make sure all five answers are there, then click "email answers." Then type in your class section (1301.59 for 9:30am, 1301.62 for 11am) and my email (hannah.weems@ttu.edu). You must email this to me BEFORE our class on Thursday to get credit. It will count as your reading quiz grade for this week. P.S. There appears to be an error with St. Martin's and everyone's homework assignments are coming in as "RA" where your name should be. To fix this, put your name in the first box (#1 of exercise 3.2) right before your answer. If you have already sent it, resend it to me with your name so that you can get credit.

In class today we will...

-Go over new blog features

-Return the quiz from last class

-Go over the assigned reading: St. Martin's Handbook Part One, Section 3a-3c, "Exploring a Topic," "Narrowing a Topic," "Drafting a Working Thesis" (pp. 44-54); Part Three, Section 10h, "Moving from Hypothesis to Working Thesis" (p. 229); and Part Three, Section 15a, "Refiing Your Plans" (pp. 295 - 296).

-Have a class discussion about the purpose of a rhetorical analysis

-Analyze "What's a Girl to Read?" (P. 225-8 in First-Year Writing) as a class.

-Go over "go to section" box, index, note-taking, and highlighting in ebook

-Go over MLA guide in textbook

Class 9/8/11 and BA 3

Today in class we will...

- Return the quiz from last class
- Discuss the assigned reading. Instructions: go to your ebook and click on the plus sign next to "Part 2 Critical Thinking and Argument." Then you will see chapters 7, 8, and 9 under it. Click on chapter 7, "Reading Critically" and read all of the tabs under it. You also need to read Ch. 9 (pages 201 - 230) in First-Year Writing.
- Discuss BA 3 and rhetorical analysis

-Reading Quiz

Brief Assignment 3: Analysis of a Rhetorical Analysis

Purpose: To demonstrate your ability to understand what a rhetorical analysis is and to analyze its structure

Description: Many writers, in the academic setting and beyond, analyze other writers’ language to explore how effectively the language helps the writer make his or her point. This practice is called rhetorical analysis. Your task for this assignment is to analyze a rhetorical analysis in preparation for writing your own in draft 1.1. Your analysis should focus on the structure of the rhetorical analysis. To complete the assignment, write a 400-600 word essay in which you analyze the organization of one of the three articles below. Identify the author’s thesis, and then describe the organization of the essay. Describe how the paragraphs build the essay as well as how the sentences build the paragraph. Choose two examples of places where the author conducts close reading of quotations. What does the author say about the quotations, and how does the author’s analysis help him or her develop the paragraph’s topic sentence and the article’s thesis?

You should cite examples from the article to illustrate your points. Your essay should be in MLA format. (Please refer to section 16 of the St. Martins' Handbook for information on MLA citation) You must also include the author and title of the article in your introduction.

Choose from one of the following articles:

“Obama Reviews Thanksgiving History, or Are You Ready for Some Football” (Alexis Teagarden) http://silvertonguetimes.com/2010/11/26/obama-reviews-thanksgiving/

“‘Who, li’l ol’ me?’: Sarah Palin on Naivete and Credibility” (Matt Zebrowski) http://silvertonguetimes.com/2010/11/22/lil_ol_me/

“You Know Twilight Isn’t Really about Vampires, Right?” (Doug Cloud) http://silvertonguetimes.com/2010/12/03/twilight/

Some things the graders are looking for:
Criterion 1 – Issue Identification and Focus
Has the student focused on identifying and analyzing the pieces of the rhetorical analysis? Has the student answered all questions thoroughly?

Criterion 3 -- Sources and Evidence
Has the student supported the analysis with textual evidence?

Criterion 5 – Own Perspective
Is the student’s voice apparent throughout the evaluation? Has the student asserted his or her own views of the article's effectiveness?

Criterion 6 – Conclusion
Does the conclusion demonstrate the student's understanding of the genre of rhetorical analysis? Does the conclusion articulate the features that make the article a rhetorical analysis and evaluate the article's effectiveness?

Criterion 7 - Communication
How well does the student do all of the above in regard to tone, style, word choice, and other writing conventions? Does the student communicate his or her purpose and perspective clearly to an intended audience?