Rhetorical Analysis on two sources

Rhetorical Analysis on two sources

Use these two sources for the essay!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/comment…

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/02/jn.aspx

Assignment #2: Rhetorical Analysis of Written Texts

Minimum: 1200 words, not including Works Cited.

For your second assignment, you will write a rhetorical analysis of two sources addressed in your annotated bibliography. One way to better understand the kinds of writing and thinking valued in the university is to compare them to more popular forms of writing and thinking with which you are familiar.This assignment asks you to find a popular news source and an academic article regarding the same topic in order to analyze the differences between the two types of discourse. Using one of your popular news sources about your topic (e.g., a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc.) article and an academic journal article regarding the same topic, make some initial observations about how they’re different.Are there any clear similarities?Begin speculating about the reasons for those similarities and differences.

Researching and Analyzing

Analyze the differences between the academic paper and the popular news source.The technical name for what happens when a scholarly source becomes popularized is accommodation. In addition to being well written and organized by rhetorical strategy, the most successful responses will do the following:

• Describe the rhetorical situation of the text(s) being analyzed (audience, purpose, author, the genre, the medium, and the context or exigency).
• Succinctly summarize the central argument presented in the text(s).One or two sentences should be enough to briefly capture the essence of the argument in your source(s).
• Include a clear and precise thesis statement that summarizes your analysis and suggests whether the text presents and effective argument or not.
• How subtly or obviously are claims stated in each?How accurately are they stated?How do the academics state the significance of their claims?How does this compare to how the media account reports their significance?
• How are non-specialists addressed in the mass media piece—for example, through language change, tone change, more overt statements of significance, the use of more sweeping claims (i.e., “the only kind” or “the first kind”), use of logical fallacies (e.g. sloganizing, slippery slope, bandwagon, etc.), placement of information in the paragraph or sentence, removal of qualifiers or hedges (i.e., taking out “appears” or “suggests”), or other changes in phrasing?Why were these changes made?Do they change the meaning of the original?
• Explain and analyze how the text connects with (or fails to connect with) the audience by using the rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos).
• Is contradictory evidence omitted in the accommodation?If so, why?
• Are unsupportable or unsupported claims included in the accommodation?If so, why?
• Address the overall effectiveness of the text as an argument, which is a good thing to do in your conclusion.

Now step back and consider what values are suggested by the scholars’ language and what values are suggested by the media’s language?For example, do scholars value objectivity and caution more than the media?What do the media seem to value?How can you explain the differences?

Organization

Consider what you found by asking yourself the following:

• What are the differences between the writing done by academics or scholars and the writing done by those in the popular media?What do these differences tell us about the values of academic writers?
• What is difficult and unfamiliar to you about the academic writing?
• How do academics support their claims?How does this compare to how the news media support their claims?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of each type of writing?

Additionally:

• Do you have a title that appropriately conveys your topic and gives a reader a reason to keep reading?Does it engage your audience, or is it a boring title that adds little to the paper?
• Does your introduction effectively introduce the articles you will address?Are the titles of these articles in “quotes” and are the authors’ names spelled correctly?
• Is your thesis on the first page, and preferably the last sentence of your introduction?
• Are your body evidence paragraphs arranged logically with a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph?
• Do you have effective transitions between paragraphs to effectively guide your reader to your next example or evidence?
• Is your conclusion more than re-stating word for word what appears in your thesis statement?Does it leave your reader with a parting thought or idea?
• Have you proofread effectively?Is your works cited included, and is it properly formatted to MLA guidelines.

What Makes It Good?

Once you know the differences between the scholarly article and its accommodation, or popular source, your job is to educate other students about what you have learned.You should be able to explain to them how academic writing differs from more popular kinds of writing, and you should be able to help them understand why these two kinds of writing are so different.A really good analysis will not just explain what is different but why those differences exist and what they mean.

Documenting Sources:

Use MLA to consistently to attribute information and expression of ideas to your sources.Every time you quote or paraphrase from the sources provide the corresponding parenthetical citation.The last page/section of your essay should be a “Works Cited” page, which as the name indicates, lists the sources to which you made reference in your essay.You do NOT have to make this a separate page, if your essay ends with enough room on the last page to allow for your Works Cited listing.

Again, once you have completed a draft of your paper, REVISE! Read it a few times for content, paying attention to the clarity of your statements, the evidence you provide for them, and the logical flow of your ideas. After you have revised the paper a few times for content, try reading it aloud to yourself, which will help catch small grammatical and typographical errors. Revision is crucial.