Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis Assignment (100 points)
For your First Project in WRT 1050, you will choose a writing artifact (brochure, letter, report, website, video, etc.) that professionals in your chosen field have written for one audience or another. “Your field” refers to your major or the potential career that your Oakland major and other course work are preparing you for.
If your chosen field is literature, you might choose a scholarly essay about a literary text. If your chosen field is business, you might choose a power point or memo. If your chosen field is pharmaceutical science, you might analyze a prescription or an informational pamphlet put out by a drug company. For almost any career field, you could select a web site for a rhetorical analysis, but feel free to get creative in how you define “written artifact.”
Once you’ve selected your artifact, spend some time analyzing whom the audience seems to be. Try and get as specific as possible here considering age, gender, race, and region. Be sure to cite evidence from the artifact itself to back up your analysis. Next, discuss how effective you think the written artifact is in reaching the desired audience. Cite rhetorical modes of logos, pathos, and ethos that the writer(s) apply and discuss whether and how those devices work to achieve the author’s purpose. You may also want to bring in other rhetorical terminology we’ve discussed (kairos, context, exigence, constraints, media, etc.)
Audience and Purpose:
Your audience for this paper is your instructor and classmates—educated individuals who know something about rhetorical analysis, but who may not know a lot about your own field. Your purpose is to help us understand the rhetorical strategies used in your field and to demonstrate your understanding of rhetoric itself.
Requirements:
Tips for the Rhetorical Analysis Cover Letter (20 points)
The cover letter should be a 350-500 word reflection about the writing of your rhetorical analysis. Write it after you complete the rhetorical analysis.
Writing the cover letter gives you an opportunity to provide for your reader some context for the assignment. It also allows you to think about and reflect on the decisions you made with your essay and why. Generally, I read the cover letters before reading the essays themselves. However, you should write it after you have completed the rhetorical analysis. Here are some topics to cover. You must address all of these in order to get full credit: