EVALUATIVE RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ESSAY

Prompt
ASSIGNMENT:
Write a well-researched, coherent, and balanced analysis of writing strategies utilized in an academic text of your
choosing. For this assignment you must assume the role a critical academic reader and prepare an analysis that will
contribute to the academic community’s understanding of the composition and meaning of your academic text of your
choosing. In other words, you will reveal how a text is able to convey the meaning that it does by analyzing its use of
claims, evidence, and language. You will need to use at least two secondary sources (in additional to the academic
text you are analyzing, but not from Envision in Depth or Rules for Writers).
Your analysis is restricted to the following three writing strategies: claims (objective; personal); evidence
(broad; specific); language (simple; complex). As with the advertisement analysis, your rhetorical analysis must
defend an arguable, specific, and complex thesis. It is advised that you prioritize your paragraphs (beforehand, as well
as in the actual organization of in your essay) and consider the relationship(s) between the three writing strategies. You
will be expected to analyze these writing strategies from the perspective of either a “specialist” audience or a
“non-specialist” audience.
TEXT SELECTION & RESEARCH:
For this assignment you will want to select and analyze one academic text. This text can be of any genre or field of your
choosing (i.e. science; social science; law; philosophy; etc.), but it is recommended that the text belong to a field you
are genuinely interested in or are majoring in. Regardless of the genre or field, the text must be of a brief length so as to
be manageable enough for a comprehensive rhetorical analysis.
Research for both your academic text and, eventually, your secondary sources will be aided by consulting ProQuest and
JSTOR Databases from the COC Library homepage ( https://www.canyons.edu/academics/library/index.php ). On the
COC Library homepage ProQuest and JSTOR can be found under “Databases.” When accessing ProQuest and JSTOR
from off-campus, the following login information will be required:
• Username: peanut
• Password: butter
NOTES:
The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with some of the concerns that the academic community may have
about a text’s written production. In writing this essay, it will be necessary to identify and assess three kinds of writing
strategies used in an academic text in order to explain what the effects of these strategies might be per the critical
concerns of the academic audience.
FORMATTING
Your essay should be 5-6 pages and include a bibliography. Your essay must be typed, double-spaced, observe one-inch
margins all around, and use reasonable font. You will need to observe MLA style in your use of in-text citation as well
as in your bibliography. Be sure to bring 3 copies of your outline on the day it is due.
DUE DATE, LOCATION, & DOCUMENT TYPE:
• Outline (5%): Wednesday, October 23, 11:59pm PST / Turnitin.com / Word Document
• Essay (15%): Sunday, November 10, 11:59pm PST / Turnitin.com / Word Document