Unit 1: Rhetorical Analysis of a Written/Multimodal Text
Demonstrate understanding of the basic components of argument: claim evidence/support, structure, rhetorical strategies, and appeals and
2. Demonstrate recognition that successful writing emerges from a process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, documenting, and formatting.
Assignment Introduction and Objectives
Many people have speculated what makes one written or oral argument stronger than another. Aristotle deduced that a strong argument is composed of three interrelated appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. Others, such as Stephen Toulmin, have developed methods to describe how an effective argument is constructed.
For this assignment, you will closely analyze an essay or a multimedia material and analyze it rhetorically. Using our notes and discussion of argumentation from class, you will suggest whether the essay’s/speech’s/films’ argument is ultimately strong, weak, well-developed, insufficiently supported, etc. Keep in mind that you will focus mostly on how the author conveys and develops his or her argument, not necessarily on the subject matter. Thus, you may disagree with the author’s viewpoint and still find the argument strong and persuasive. As you analyze the argument, it is to your advantage to support your claims about the argument’s strengths and weaknesses with quotations and specific details from the essay/multimedia material.
Your essay should be formatted according to MLA benchmarks, including accurate parenthetical citations and a Works Cited Page.
Helpful Information for a Rhetorical Analysis
To accomplish our learning outcomes for this assignment, revisit resources provided and class notes/lectures on the following components of rhetoric and argumentation:
✓ Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
✓ Logical Fallacies
✓ Academic Arguments
✓ Toulmin Model
Items to Submit:
➢ A Final Draft
➢ Professional Review (optional)
Available Readings/Audio-Visuals for Analysis (hyperlinked)
To write this essay, choose one of the following hyperlinked readings/multimedia materials:
1. “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
2. The Danger of a Single Story—–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
3. Secrets to a Happy Life—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
4. Is Google Making Us Stupid?
5. The End of the College Essay (Links to an external site.)
Method of Organization
I. Introduction: In your introduction, provide a hook or lead-in sentences to get your readers interested in your topic (options: a brief discussion of strong and weak, rhetorical questions, striking quotations, personal anecdotes etc.). You should then concisely summarize the point of your chosen material article/video. Be sure to include the following: the title and author of the article/speech you are analyzing, the argument/claim about the article/speech expressed in specific terms with focal persuasive reasons (think in terms of rhetoric appeals).
II. Body Paragraphs: Every body paragraph should have a topic sentence that helps develop your argument/essay. The topic sentences provide new reasoning to support your thesis and keep the essay from becoming aimless or redundant. The rest of the body paragraph seeks to support or explain the topic sentence. At this point, you may use direct quotations from the reading/speech in order to support your analysis.
III. Conclusion: A successful conclusion may return to the argument or thesis of the essay in order to remind the reader of the objective of the essay; it may also provide a broader perspective on the issue. For instance, an essay that analyzes an argument may discuss in the conclusion the effects of a strong argument.
