In an essay of 1300-2000 words, summarize an argumentative source and then support a thesis that analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by the author in his/her attempt to persuade the audience. This essay should be in MLA format (double spaced, no skipped lines, last name and page numbers on every page, parenthetical citations, and works cited page). Since this essay focuses on one source, be sure to include paragraph numbers in the citations to guide your reader to the exact location of the cited information.
This essay should provide the context for the article and the connection to the current, local issue. Use the evidence in the article and place of publication to identify the target audience. The essay should assert a thesis regarding the author’s rhetorical strategies. Are they effective for persuading the target audience? Support the thesis by analyzing rhetorical elements of the article. The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate strategies of argument. The more familiar you become with these strategies, the better you will be able to make use of them in your own writing.
Summary:
A successful summary should do the following:
Include description of the article and its setting (identify the author and the publication, the implied or explicit audience, date/history).
Keep your reader informed, through attributive tags, that you are expressing the author’s ideas, not yours.
Represent the original article accurately and fairly.
Remain objective, not revealing your ideas on the issue but rather only the original author’s points.
Be direct and concise, using words economically.
Use your own words to express the author’s original ideas.
Possibly include quotations for a few key terms or ideas from the original, but quote sparingly.
Be a unified, coherent piece of writing in its own right.
Rhetorical Analysis:
The central purpose of this essay is to analyze the author’s rhetoric: how [effectively] does the author craft the argument to persuade the target audience? The rhetorical analysis will analyze the technique the author employs in working to persuade a specific audience in order to support a thesis evaluating the rhetoric.
Your rhetorical analysis will break down the argument so that you can analyze the persuasiveness of the piece. In your analysis, you should:
Assess whether, taking your analysis of the following factors into account, the argument is ultimately persuasive (which should be asserted in your thesis).
Identify the probable target audiencefor the argument.
Analyze the thesisof the article as well as the major supporting claims.
Identify the motiveof the article (the reason why the author is making this argument for the target audience).
Describe how the author attempts to establish his or her credibility in terms that the target audience will identify with.
Examine what types of evidencethe author uses to support his or her position for the specific audience .
Identify the key assumptionsthat underlie the piece’s logic.
The rhetorical goal—what the author wants to change in the audience’s beliefs, feelings or actions
The main points or claims
Appeals to emotion, logic, and authority
The author’s use of concessions, refutations, and counterarguments(or lack thereof)
Use of language, humor, and so on
All analysis should work to support an explicit thesis regarding the effectiveness of the rhetoric for the target audience. Don’t just identify the existence of rhetoric; use the examples from the article to support your assertions about how the author appeals to the values and concerns of the specific audience.
Some caution is required here. Make sure not to repeat your summary in your analysis. The summary should be an overview in your words; evidence to support your analysis should be more specific and cited. For example, when you are examining the support the writer has used for her/his claim, you should not simply list the different types of evidence used; instead, you will want to look at each type and assess whether it is persuasive, outdated, from an unreliable source, if it actually supports the claim, etc. Consider the audience and the author’s purpose at every turn. Be rigorous about your assessment; no argument is perfect, and no argument is completely flawed. Your analysis should blend critique of the editorial’s flaws with praise for the sections in the piece that seem persuasive (in other words, blends skeptical and sympathetic readings). In both of these aspects of your analysis, though, the key question should always be “Why?” Why is this element persuasive? Why does this element not persuade me? A simple cataloguing or the author’s strategies will not suffice.
When you are putting your analysis together, remember that you, too, are making an argument, just like the person whose writing you are analyzing. What does this fact mean? You need a thesis statement that will probably be along the lines of “this argument is/is not persuasive because….” You should support your claim by providing evidence that the essay is or isn’t persuasive by using your analysis of the writer’s claims, purpose, audience, assumptions, etc.
Who is the author writing to? The details of the article should be supporting evidence in the analysis
last page of of the draft should be MLA work cited page
Who is the author writing to? All analysis of the argument must consider the audience being argued to. For example, do you think the reader will be persuaded by a students’ testimony? Why or why not? the link below is the article that this paper needs to be about
Nunez: Schools should not go back to online-only learning, despite the omicron surge
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