Writing 2202 650
Assignment 2: Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Length: 1000-1250 words (4-5 pages)
Format: Double spaced, in a readable 12-point font
Citation Format: MLA or APA

Value: 30% of your final grade
Purpose
Your purpose for this assignment is to write a coherent, compellingly structured, grammatically correct essay in which you evaluate the effectiveness of the argument presented in an academic article.
Overview
To complete this essay, you must select a topic for your final project and then begin to work on the research component of that project. You may choose any topic you wish, so long as it is one on which you feel you can do some sufficient research (and on which you will eventually be able to offer a compelling argument). The final assignment will require that you incorporate at least five sources in your paper, three of which must be academic in nature.
Once you have selected your topic and begun your preliminary research for the final project, you must choose one of your academic sources to focus on for this assignment. Then, you must complete a rhetorical analysis of that source, constructing an argument in which you evaluate the relative effectiveness of your chosen article.
Structure: Introduction and Thesis
Your introduction should introduce the topic (i.e., the one about which you plan also to write a research essay), summarize the article, and conclude with a thesis that is both specific (stating a viable argument about your subject) and detailed (including a forecast statement identifying the main subjects of the body of your analysis).
Remember: You will argue neither for nor against the issue being discussed; you will analyze how the writer develops the argument and determine whether the author’s argument is effective, credible, and valid. Effectively, you will argue some version of one of three positions:
1. The author develops the thesis effectively.
2. The author develops the thesis somewhat effectively: some aspects are successful, but
others are not.
3. The author does not develop the thesis effectively.
Of course, your final thesis will present a more detailed (and therefore more nuanced) position, but you will start from one of these positions.
Structure: Conclusion
Your concluding paragraph needs to be a fully developed paragraph like any other, and it should neither repeat your introduction rotely nor summarize mechanically the argument developed in your essay’s body paragraphs. Instead, it should bring the discussion to a close in some summative but interesting way.
The conclusion can allow for personal reflection on a subject (if you happen to have any personal experience involving the subject) and/or some measured editorial commentary on the positive/negative consequences of what you identify about the article’s rhetorical success or shortcomings. While such anecdotal evidence and/or personally inflected commentary is not as appropriate for body paragraphs in formal writing, it is acceptable in your conclusion. Remember, however, that your conclusion should never introduce new material that begs further development.
Remember too that even though you are very likely citing only the article under analysis, you need to include a correctly formatted “Works Cited” (MLA) or “References” (APA) page.

^this is the article I need to analyze.