Demonstrate understanding of the basic components of argument: claim/thesis, evidence/support, structure, rhetorical strategies, and appeals and demonstrate recognition that successful writing emerges from a process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, documenting, and formatting.

Unit 1: Rhetorical Analysis of a Written/Multimodal Text

Purpose of assignment:

The purpose of the assignment is in two folds:

1. to demonstrate understanding of the basic components of argument: claim/thesis, evidence/support, structure, rhetorical strategies, and appeals and

2. to 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.