Essay 1: Rhetorical Analysis Your assignment is to write a five-paragraph essay in which you analyze
Essay 1: Rhetorical Analysis
Your assignment is to write a five-paragraph essay in which you analyze the use of the three types of proof (logos, ethos, and pathos) in two different articles on your chosen topic for the semester. One article will be more legitimate and one will be more unreliable. In other words, one article will come from the TCC library database or other reputable source, and one article will be something found through a general search on the internet. You will use articles I selected for you. You will find them in Blackboard. You will compare and contrast the use of the appeals and analyze how these methods contribute to the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of each authors argument.
Use MLA style including Work Cited, double spaced 12 pt. Times New Roman, and 1-inch margins.
Length and Organization
Your paper must include five well-developed paragraphs. The final copy should be at least 1000 but not more than 1500 words long, excluding the work cited page.
Paragraph 1Introduction
Early in your introduction paragraph, identify each articles title, author, and place of publication. This doesnt have to be the very first sentence of your paper, but your audience will not know what you are analyzing until you identify the article titles for them; thus, it makes the most sense to do this very early on. (Remember that article titles should be capitalized correctly and enclosed in quotation marks. Article titles should not be italicized.) Your first paragraph also must include the following:
A summary of the issue explored in the articles
A summary of the authors claims (their positions on the issue)
A description of the articles intended audience
Last but not least, your introduction should include a thesis statementyour own claim about the use of logos, ethos, and pathos to support the arguments you are analyzing. Your thesis statement should be the final sentence of your introduction paragraph.
Paragraphs 2-4Body Paragraphs
In one of your body paragraphs, you should analyze the logical proof, or logos, used in the articles. This paragraph should explain how each article appeals to the audiences reason and common sense. Be sure to identify what types of logical proof used in the article (sign, analogy, statistics, etc.)
In another body paragraph, you should analyze how the each author attempts to demonstrate their credibility (ethos). Explain the strategies utilized to establish goodwill, fairness, and common ground with the audience, and identify any of the authors professional credentials that contribute to the audiences perception of them as
ENGL 1301 – Cure
trustworthy, reliable sources. What differences do you notice between the articles? How convinced are you by
the authors appeals to ethos and why?
In yet another body paragraph, you should analyze the emotional proof, or pathos, used in the articles. Identify and explain examples from the article that appeal to the audiences feelings, motivations (their basic wants), and values. Compare and contrast how the legitimate source uses pathos vs. the unreliable source. Do you notice a different balance of appeals between the two articles when it comes to pathos?
Paragraph 5Conclusion
The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined rhetoric as the ability to find the appropriate balance of ethos, pathos, and logos to effectively persuade a given audience. Based on Aristotles definition of rhetoric, remind your readers why you felt the authors succeeded (or failed) to strike an effective balance of proof, particularly given the audiences for whom they are writing. Do not quote Aristotle in this paragraph. Use your own words to wrap up your analysis.
Source Documentation
Be sure to integrate any direct quotations from the article smoothly into a sentence of your own. Do not drop quoted material into your essay unannounced; instead, try providing a signal phrase to introduce the quote.
If you do quote directly from an article, you must be extra diligent about avoiding plagiarism.
Always enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, even if youve borrowed only part of a sentence.
Do not place quotation marks around information from a source that you have paraphrased, or put into
your own words.
Always be sure to give credit to the author in any sentence where you have quoted from an article.
Always check direct quotations to be sure you have copied them accurately.
A works cited page should appear at the end of your document. The titleWorks Citedshould be centered on the first line at the top of the final page of your document.
You will only use two sources.
Reminders
You will submit your rough draft and final essays via Turnitin in Blackboard.
Your rough draft is a daily grade. You receive full credit if you complete it and submit it on time.
You will meet with me one-on-one for a conference about your rough draft of this essay. Do not miss your conference. You definitely will not do as well if you avoid opportunities to receive detailed feedback from me. John F. Kennedy, in full John Fitzgerald Kennedy, byname JFK, (born May 29, 1917, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.died November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas), 35th president of the United States (196163), who faced a number of foreign crises, especially in Cuba and Berlin, but managed to secure such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas.Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old Dallas citizen, was accused of the slaying. Two days later Oswald was shot to death by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with connections to the criminal underworld, in the basement of a Dallas police station. A presidential commission headed by the chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren, later found that neither the sniper nor his killer was part of any conspiracy, domestic or foreign, to assassinate President Kennedy, but that Oswald had acted alone. The Warren Commission, however, was not able to convincingly explain all the particular circumstances of Kennedys murder. In 1979 a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives declared that although the president had undoubtedly been slain by Oswald, acoustic analysis suggested the presence of a second gunman who had missed. But this declaration did little to squelch the theories that Oswald was part of a conspiracy involving either CIA agents angered over Kennedys handling of the Bay of Pigs fiasco or members of organized crime seeking revenge for Attorney General Bobby Kennedys relentless criminal investigations. Kennedys assassination, the most notorious political murder of the 20th century, remains a source of bafflement, controversy, and speculation.Consider the following questions:
1.What do you think is interesting about this topic?
2.Do you already know anything about this topic?
3.Come up with some brainstorming questions (at least five) to think about in relation to this topicquestions that start with who, what, when, where, why, or how.
