Before class you need to...
- Read Part 7, Sections 34-39, "Confusing Shifts," "Parallelism," Comma Splices and Fused Sentences," Sentence Fragments," "Modifier Placement," Consistent and Complete Structures" (pp. 643-678); Part 8, 41-42, "Coordination and Subordination," "Sentence Variety" (pp. 686-699) in the St. Martin's Handbook.
- Read over your Draft 1.2 that you have been working on the last few weeks. This assignment is due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (November 29th); therefore, this Thursday's class is our last chance to discuss it. As you read over your draft, what are you still struggling with? Are you unsure if you should use a certain example? Are you confused about a grammar rule? For your quiz grade this week, you need to email me a specific question you have regarding Draft 1.2. It can be grammar related or a more general question. I will answer as many of these questions as possible in class. You must email me your question before 8 pm Wednesday night (November 16th) in order to receive credit for this quiz.
Today in class we will...
- Answer draft 1.2 questions
- Watch grammar video clips
- Complete course evaluations
Draft 1.2: Rhetorical Analysis
Objective: To complete a final, polished draft of your analysis paper
Purpose: In the first half of the course, you honed your writing skills so as to prepare you for college level writing. You used all of these skills, (summarizing, paraphrasing, critical reading, constructing thesis statements, and using supporting material via quotations) throughout the writing of the initial draft of this assignment. Since completing Draft 1.1, you have written peer critiques and practiced revising various sections of the draft. This assignment asks you to put everything you’ve learned this semester together in writing a final draft of your rhetorical analysis.
Description: To complete this assignment, first evaluate your initial draft (Draft 1.1) by answering the following questions: Did you select a text to analyze? Recall that 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.
Did you select your text and critically read it to determine the writer’s purpose and intended audience for the text? Do you have a good understanding of those elements? Have you analyzed 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 have chosen to look at such elements as the types of evidence a writer puts forward and how he or she does so. Remember that you should have examined several strategies, including tone, word choice, and sentence structure. After you determined what these strategies were used, you were to have considered how well these strategies actually worked.
If you have not completed any or all of the above, your revisions should start by addressing these concerns. If you did, your revisions might begin with adding additional discussion of the text, or they may begin with a close analysis of your own evidence, sentence structure, word choice, and tone. How could you improve the communication of your own points to your intended readers?
Given that this is a final draft, it should be proofread carefully to ensure that it is grammatically and mechanically correct. Please use MLA format for your works cited and your in-text citations.
Your revised draft should be 1300-1500 words.
Some things the graders are looking for...
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.
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