The Little Seagull Handbook’s review of “Rhetorical Analyses”

Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Directions. The Little Seagull Handbook’s review of “Rhetorical Analyses” (49-53) cites a wide variety of texts, including newspaper and magazine articles as well as advertisements, speeches, textbooks, websites, paintings, movies, and TV shows, in order to highlight the concept of rhetoricity; that is, their ability to persuade and/or influence audiences to accept their perspectives across a range of themes. And all kinds of themes circulate in the chapters we’ve read from Díaz and in the essays from The Seagull Reader, which among others collects the rhetoric of the following writers: Angelou, White, Woolf, Clinton, Douglass, Tan, Kingston, and Orwell. Your challenge for this assignment requires selecting one of these authors and writing a rhetorical analysis in which you reveal what you regard as the text’s central teaching.
Claim (Thesis). Present a clear arguable thesis that identifies your chosen author and states a plausible meaning of his or her essay. For example, an analysis of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” might focus on the writer’s effort to persuade audiences that not all colonial agents desire to persecute their colonial subjects. Moreover, you might claim that the rhetoric of Maxine Hong Kingston’s “No Name Woman” suggests that naming a social problem begins a process of resolving it. Remember that a claim must be debatable, and, therefore, it requires your providing a strong supply of evidence for demonstration.
Development. Through the use of paraphrase and quotation, assemble enough relevant evidence to sufficiently backup the claim. Also, craft an introduction, body, and conclusion to give your essay the shape and focus demanded by its audience, and provide an original title.
Audience. Attend to your academic audience’s needs. Anticipate its knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases about your claim (especially if you pose a controversial claim).
Cohesion. Deploy words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax (word order) to link the major sections of the text. The sense of cohesion generated should also clarify the relationship between the claim and evidence.
Conventions. Modify your language to create a formal, objective tone that demonstrates standard English conventions of usage and mechanics while attending to the formatting and documenting norms of MLA Style (including the use of in-text citations and a Works Cited page). Such norms include the use of one-inch margins, headers, double-spacing, and Times New Roman or Calibri font size twelve. The essay should be 800-1000 words in length.

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