Welcome to the Rhetorical Analysis paper. The purpose of this paper is to show evidence of your rhetorical analysis skills. You will show how well you can recognize and evaluate an author’s use of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos. The essay needs to be approximately three pages long. The paper should be formatted according to MLA style.
For this paper, I would like you to choose one of the three essays that I have posted in Week 3/Module 3:“Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff and rhetorically analyze it for its use of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos. In the end, you want to reach a conclusion about how well the piece makes it argument. In order to do this, you need to decide on an audience. You can choose to use yourself, our class, or the audience for whom you believe the piece was intended. Remember that sometimes you can tell who the intended audience is by the appeals the writer uses most (friendly = pathos, hostile = logos, and neutral = ethos). Make sure that you explain how the writer’s use of classical persuasion would work for the audience you have chosen. Keep in mind that the text itself is your greatest source of evidence – use it!
Tips:
Make sure that you have a clear thesis that states whether or not the article that you have chosen does or does not work for the audience you have chosen. Remember that a thesis statement should be the last sentence in the first paragraph.
Your body paragraphs should each focus on the article’s use of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos, which means you should have at least four body paragraphs. If you want to write more than one paragraph about one of the appeals, you can, but it is not necessary.
Use evidence from the text in each body paragraph. For example, if you are writing about how the article uses logos, don’t just mention that it states facts. Give examples from the article. You might say, in Barbara Ehrenreich’s article, “Serving in Florida,” she is using facts as a form of logos when she says, “So begins my career at The Hearthside, where I work from 2:00 til 10:00 p.m. for $2.43 an hour plus tips” (3).
Remember that just stating the evidence is not enough. You need to explain to your reader how your evidence supports your thesis. If your thesis is that Barbara Ehrenreich’s article “Serving in Florida” very effectively uses logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos to reach a college educated audience, in your paragraph about logos, you would need to explain that stating the bare facts like the one mentioned in tip #3 is effective because a college educated audience is unlikely to care about her depiction of how tough life is for many workers in Florida without being presented with the economic reality.
Remember that each body paragraph should be tied back to your thesis. You are trying to convince me that the article you chose does or does not work for the audience you chose. Remember that it can be any audience you like, but if you want to keep it simple, just use the college student audience. After all, you are a college student, so you know what would or would not work for you as an audience member.
Don’t forget to include a conclusion. Try not to simply sum up what you’ve already said, but leave your audience thinking instead. Good conclusions don’t completely veer away from what you’ve just written, but they do show your ability to analyze and think critically about what you’ve just written. For example, if you’ve ever been a server, and you chose “Serving in Florida” as your article, you may say that you can relate to what Ehrenreich is writing about and that makes the article even more effective for you. You might discuss what stood out most to you or why you think an article like this is important or relevant to college students.
Remember that in an academic paper, you should only use “I” in the conclusion. You can use “a reader” or “a college student” or “one” when you are explaining how the appeals work.
Finally, use MLA format. If you need a refresher, you can check out the MLA section in either Everyone’s An Author or The Little Seagull Handbook. Another good resource is Purdue University’s online writing lab- just google OWL Purdue. Try to use an MLA header and in text citations.
ENC 1102 Rhetorical Analysis
Grading Rubric
Thesis Statement/Your Point of View – Have you included a clear thesis at the end of the first paragraph that states whether or not the article’s use of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos does or does not work for (insert the audience you chose)? -10 points
Analysis of logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos – Have you broken your paper into at least four body paragraphs? Does each paragraph address one of the appeals? Have you explained how your analysis supports your thesis? – 35 points
Text Evidence – Have you included evidence from the text that shows logos, ethos, pathos, and kairos? – 35 points
Grammar – Does your paper contain grammar errors? Do the errors inhibit comprehension or are they minor errors? – 10 points
Style – Have you used MLA format and academic style? – 10 points
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