Rhetorical Analysis Assignment

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:

• Your final draft will be 3-5 pages long, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, with 1-inch margins.
• It will be written in MLA style, with the document you are analyzing cited correctly in-text and in the Works Cited page.
• You will do an in-class invention/pre-writing activity to develop ideas and get feedback.
• You will have an early draft of your analysis ready for peer reviews.
• You must submit a draft for an advisory grade to get a final grade when you submit the final draft at the end of the semester.
• After completing the advisory grade draft, you will compose a reflective cover letter addressed to me explaining your writing and revision choices.

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:

• What did you choose to write about for your rhetorical analysis and why?

• What is your main claim, or thesis, about the text you have analyzed?

• Specifically, what did you do to revise your essay based on your classmates’/peer reviewers’ comments? Reference specific comments/suggestions made by peers.

• Specifically, what revisions did you make based on your professor’s comments/feedback? Reference specific comments from your conference.

• Did you receive any other feedback (from the Writing Center, roommates, friends, etc.?) Did this additional feedback help, and if so how?

• Explain what was challenging, what was easy, what you learned, and/or what you still don’t understand about rhetoric and composing a rhetorical analysis.