Posted: March 15th, 2023
Developed by Amanda Monteleone For internal use within the Department of English at Texas Wesleyan University CC BY-NC-SA to Amanda Monteleone
ENG 1301 Rhetorical Analysis Guidelines
Purpose For this assignment, you will analyze the rhetorical appeals of an essay and evaluate the effectiveness of those appeals in terms of the essay’s intended audience. The essay you will examine is Isis Artze’s “Spanglish is Here to Stay,” published by Education Digest in 2001.
The purpose of rhetorical analysis is to understand how texts work to influence readers. The purpose of this paper is to give you practice analyzing the rhetorical moves that writer makes and considering how those rhetorical moves will be received by readers.
Brainstorming and Drafting To prepare your essay contents, draft responses to the following prompts:
• What is Artze’s main claim? • What reasons does she provide to support this main claim? In order to identify her
supporting reasons, imagine that you could ask Artze in person: “Why do you believe that [main claim]?” Based on the information in the article, how do you think Artze would answer?
• What evidence does Artze provide to support her reasons? • Do Artze’s credentials make her claim more credible? Does Artze seem knowledgeable
and well-informed on the topic? For whose best interest does Artze make this argument? Does she draw on values she shares with the audience?
• Does Artze evoke emotions in readers that are likely to help her case? Does Artze evoke sensations in readers that will make the writing seem vivid?
• Based on your answers to these questions, develop a claim for or against the effectiveness of the essay and provide reasons for your opinion. This statement will be your thesis.
Arrangement As you prepare a draft that you’ll share with readers, begin with an introduction that accomplishes two goals:
• clarifies the purpose of your essay with clear signposting language. • states your thesis, your statement on the overall effectiveness of Artze’s essay.
Each of your body paragraphs will expand on the following topics. Make sure that each body paragraph has a topic sentence that clarifies the paragraph’s purpose.
Developed by Amanda Monteleone For internal use within the Department of English at Texas Wesleyan University CC BY-NC-SA to Amanda Monteleone
• Artze’s main claim, reasons, and evidence. You should summarize at least two reasons from the essay for Artze’s main claim. Using the quotation sandwich style, quote an important piece of evidence, then analyze the effectiveness of this evidence with your commentary.
• Artze’s use of ethos appeal. How does Artze demonstrate credibility in this essay? Describe the ethical dimensions associated with the issue she brings up. Using the quotation sandwich style, quote an important detail to illustrate Artze’s ethos appeal. With your commentary, explain how the quote illustrates ethos.
• Artze’s use of pathos, or emotional appeal. Where does Artze evoke emotions in readers or use vivid imagery? Using the quotation sandwich style, quote an important detail to illustrate Artze’s emotional appeal. With your commentary, explain how the quote illustrates pathos.
You must also provide a conclusion to your essay that includes the following:
• A restatement of your thesis, or main point, about the overall effectiveness of Artze’s essay.
• Leave the reader with a couple of the most compelling points from your essay.
Important Notes
• Do not consult online sources for this assignment. Part of your task is to demonstrate your participation in class conversations and your awareness of what we’ve discussed so far in class. If you have difficulty summarizing the major points from our discussion, see me during my office hours. Moreover, using ideas from outside sources without giving credit will result in a plagiarism sanction. It may be helpful to think of this paragraph as a “test” or “quiz” on what we have covered in class so far about “Spanglish is Here to Stay.”
• To give credit to ideas generated in class, precede your idea with language like “In our class conversations, we discussed how…” or “A classmate brought up the interesting point that…”
Style Your audience for this essay is your classmates and instructor. Therefore, your writing style should be semi-professional. Make a point to use vivid or more specific vocabulary words to make your work more interesting to the audience.
Each paragraph must have a clear topic sentence. Each paragraph should have a clear purpose in the essay and relate to a specific point or main idea specified in the “Arrangement” section.
Your essay must be double-spaced, with 12-point font size and one-inch margins all the way around. Your header, heading and title should be formatted in MLA style. See the Purdue OWL website (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html) for more information on formatting your essay in MLA style.
Developed by Amanda Monteleone For internal use within the Department of English at Texas Wesleyan University CC BY-NC-SA to Amanda Monteleone
Proofread your work carefully before submission. Use spell-check and grammar-check resources before submitting your work. I strongly recommend reading your paper aloud before submitting it to catch missing words or run-on sentences that error-checking resources cannot detect.
Grading Your essay will be assessed on a scale of 0-100 according to the following criteria:
• inclusion of all required elements in the “Arrangement” section • well-developed paragraphs with clear topic sentences • proper MLA formatting and citation styles • professional formatting and proofreading practices
Your essay must be a minimum of three pages long, not including a Works Cited page, to be eligible for a passing grade. To meet this requirement, you should have a substantial amount of text on page “3” of the draft. Extra spaces between lines, paragraphs, or before or after title, and lengthy quotes within the paper will not count toward this length requirement.
Make sure to include all required elements in your essay. Make these elements clearly identifiable by using language that repeats the question or prompt along with your answer. Any degree of generic, “AI-style” writing, fake quotes, or false or off-topic content will automatically receive zero credit and a plagiarism referral. Protect your integrity by clearly referring to the specified elements (main idea, syntax, conflicts, etc.) with key words and by demonstrating your knowledge of the article and our class conversation about the article.
When quoting Artze’s essay, use the “quotation sandwich” style discussed in class, sandwiching quotes with important contexts and following with plenty of your own commentary relating the quote back to the paragraph’s topic.
You must provide a Works Cited entry for Artze’s essay according to the information presented in class.
The Rhetorical Analysis essay is worth 15% of your total grade. Your submission will receive a 10-point deduction for each day late. Your submission will not be accepted after three days past the initial due date/time.
SOLUTION
In your introduction, provide a brief summary of the article and Artze’s main claim. Include a thesis statement that summarizes your evaluation of Artze’s use of rhetorical appeals. In the body of your paper, provide specific examples from the text to support your evaluation of Artze’s use of rhetorical appeals. Use quotations and paraphrasing to support your analysis. Organize your body paragraphs based on the different rhetorical appeals that Artze uses.
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