Analysis of a text

The text you are writing about is “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to better understand how various factors affect the ways authors
craft their arguments. In this paper you will analyze the ways in which authors have considered the
audience, purpose, stance, context, and medium/design when they constructed an article or essay.
Learning to approach a text in this analytical way will help you better understand how complex texts
are written and will familiarize you with using those strategies in your own persuasive writing.
Task
Write a 5-6 page analysis essay that discusses a particular text as assigned by your instructor. First,
summarize the text’s overall content and scope, and then offer a detailed, well-structured analysis of
how the author has incorporated the needs of the intended audience, a specific purpose, a particular
stance, a larger context, the demands of the genre and of the medium/design.
Follow these specific steps:
1. Provide relevant information about the text, the author, and the subject.
2. Include a main take-away (thesis) that indicates how your paper is structured and what it is
about.
3. Use appropriate “evidence” for your textual analysis, including concrete details from the text
and in-text citations.
4. Specifically analyze the text’s “rhetorical situation:” genre, audience, purpose, stance,
context, and medium/design.
5. Make sure your paper represents a fair and accurate summary of the text.
6. Use exact quotations and accurate paraphrases to support your claims.
7. Describe in detail what the text says and HOW exactly it says it.
One Possible plan for writing your essay:
In your response to your chosen source (article, podcast, documentary) analyze carefully what the
author/creator is saying and what their underlying assumptions and arguments are. Break down the
article from the perspective of your own critical thinking and personal experience. Think of your
response as your analysis of how the text tries to influence and inform its readers and how your
wrestling with the text has expanded and deepened your thinking about its ideas.
In your essay, you should consider the author’s rhetorical strategies, and you can also discuss your
agreement and/or disagreement with the creator’s ideas and share your personal reflections related to
the text. As you work with ideas from the text, remember to use plenty of signal phrases, quotation
marks for any quoted passages, and MLA documentation to distinguish your own points from the
author’s ideas and language.
This should be a formal academic essay with a clear structure at the thesis and topic-sentence level.
Your essay should include paragraphs which cover the following ideas:
1. An intro that sets up the issue the author’s text is discussing and why you find it interesting.
Introduce what text you are dealing with (written, audio, documentary). Be sure to include
the author’s name, title of the piece and its format, as well as an initial indication of the
author’s rhetorical situation and purpose.
2. A one or two paragraph article summary that includes the following:
a. First, provide a clear, complete idea of the author’s (or podcast’s or documentary’s)
overall thesis. Don’t just say, for example, “In Laura Sullivan’s podcast, she
discusses the plastic recycling industry.” Rather, nutshell the author’s bottom-line
position: “In this podcast, Sullivan reveals how the plastic industry has systematically
mislead the general public about the recyclability of recycling plastics.” (something
along those line)
b. The rest of the summary highlights the source’s key points, reasons, ideas,
recommendations, etc. These summary paragraphs should not include any of your
own critique, analysis, or commentary.
3. Next write a paragraph that develops your particular reaction to the text you are writing on.
Your own thesis statement that specifically previews your analysis of and response to the
article. Be sure to refer to you rhetorical critique of the source that analyzes how and why the
author is communicating the way they do.
4. Begin your first paragraph of analysis/response, with a topic sentence that clearly relates back
to your thesis. You should have a number of issues which you want to react to either by
expanding on them or by disagreeing with them in a reasoned respectful way. Be careful not
to focus primarily on the topic; throughout this essay, stay focused on analyzing and
responding to the source itself. Make direct references back to your source throughout.
5. Follow the format for the last paragraph for your next point of reaction to the source in a
second paragraph of analysis/response that starts with a topic sentence. And explains your
reaction to that specific idea in the text.
6. Third paragraph of analysis/response, with topic sentence.
7. Continue this process until you have covered all of you main responses to the original source.
8. Your conclusion. Don’t forget to mention why the topic, your source, and your reaction to the
source might be important to the reader.
How You Will Be Graded
● 5-6 pages (double-spaced)
● Analysis of the arguments presented by the text
● Focus on audience, purpose, stance, context, genre, and medium/design
● Use of specific examples, quotations and images
● Focused thesis statement supported by evidence
● Careful paragraph organization creates cohesive overall structure
● Accuracy in formatting, grammar, spelling, and mechanics

Last Completed Projects