You have to read the instruction carefully and do the assignment.

http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-22-02-0049

Rhetorical Analysis

Since the beginning of the semester, we have discussed Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle to understand the roles that ethos, pathos, and logos play in constructing a successful and balanced argument. In our second essay of the semester, we will closely examine one of our readings and rhetorically analyze the argument in terms of its audience, the author's intrinsic and extrinsic ethos, and the logical and emotional appeals of the argument. Your thesis, which will establish your persona in the essay using the first person "I" will articulate whether or not you think that the argument is persuasive based on the rhetorical appeals; a strong thesis will tell why you feel the argument successfully persuades the audience, based on the writer's ethos, and the logos and pathos of the argument.

(NOTE: your thesis will not tell how you feel about the issue or whether or not you agree with the author's position; since your purpose here is to analyze, your thesis must tell whether or not the essay successfully persuades the audience based on its rhetorical appeals)

The length requirement for this essay is four to five pages in MLA format. You must include a citation for the text on your works cited list. You are not required to bring in outside sources, since the purpose of this paper is to analyze one text closely, but if you do wish to include any outside information, your sources should be properly cited both in text and on the works cited list. Please organize your essay into the following sections (include bold headings): Intro, Audience, Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Conclusion.

INTRO

In the introduction of this paper, you will open by fully contextualizing the text for readers (assume that the reader needs explanation and background about the text!) First, you must introduce the author and title of the piece. You should then provide a brief summary of the argument, identifying the target audience and what the author's is trying to persuade this audience to believe. The final sentence of the intro will be your thesis sentence, telling whether or not you feel the author makes a successful argument based on the author's ethos, and use of pathos, and logos.

AUDIENCE

In this paragraph, you will identify the text's target audience, and list other possible secondary audiences. Does the writer succeed in persuading this audience? Explain in a well developed paragraph.

ETHOS

Here, you will discuss the author's extrinsic (ie credibility outside of the "Letter") and intrinsic ethos (ie the credibility established in the argument based on tone, word choice, appeals to shared values, etc.) Does the author's credibility outside of the essay strengthen the persuasiveness of the text? What about the author's credibility inside of the essay? How would you describe the author? Educated? Reasonable? Respectful? Of good moral and ethical character? What examples inside and outside of the text reveal this? Provide specific examples and explain/analyze the examples thoroughly.

PATHOS

In this section, you will analyze how the author appeals to the emotions of the audience through the use of strategic examples and elevated/heightened word choice. You should introduce and discuss at least two examples and thoroughly explain how these examples contribute to the overall persuasiveness of the argument.

LOGOS

Here, you will examine, discuss, and analyze the logical appeals made in the text (facts, comparison, cause and effect reasoning, analogies).

CONCLUSION

Your conclusion must restate your thesis and the main points made in the sections of your paper. You can develop your conclusion through a variety of strategies: you can end with an incorporation of a key quote, question, or point; return to an opening example or quote; discuss how the paper relates to current conditions; discuss the topic's overall importance to society.

Remember that our audience this semester is an academic audience that requires a formal tone; always refer to an author by their last name! While you can use the first person I, try not to use the second person you, since it tends to make the tone less formal and more conversational.

I will read your "final for now" with the purpose of providing feedback for further improvement of the draft for the Portfolio. Therefore, I will not assign the essay a grade until that point, but will instead read your draft and discuss your success at meeting the following guidelines:

• An intro paragraph that contextualizes the text for the audience thoroughly
• A thesis sentence that expresses, using an I plus a strong verb, whether or not the text is rhetorically successful overall and specifies reasons why
• A conclusion that rephrases the thesis sentence and all of the main ideas of the essay in order, then ends with a meaningful thought about the text
• Bolded headings to organize the ideas of the paper
• Strong body paragraphs (ie "hamburger" academic paragraphs) with clear topic sentences
• Relevant and strategically chosen examples from the text to illustrate the author's ethos, pathos, and logos appeals
• Solid and insightful analysis that thoroughly explains WHY the examples chosen are successful and persuasive appeals to the target/secondary audience (or not)
• Smooth flow of ideas via transition words/phrases both inside and between paragraphs
• Professionalism/Editing-at the final for now stage, the essay should have limited errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and demonstrate effective use of academic English
• Audience awareness: maintaining an academic tone and keeping the reader interested and engaged
• MLA-correct MLA formatting, in text citations, works cited list
• Length-4-5 pages (1200-1500 words).