Essay by discussing and contextualizing the topic

Essay by discussing and contextualizing the topic/English

Essay Considerations

Introduction

1) If the student’s introduction is short, can the student introduce the topic mater of the essay by discussing and contextualizing the topic addressed by the student? (Optional)

2) Does the student introduce the author’s name, publication, text, date, and venue for each text they plan to analyze?

3) Did the student briefly mention the author’s project and argument in the introduction? When you think about the project, think about some of the primary methods of action that an author takes to assemble an argument: interviews, researches, provides testimony, relies on experience, and relays information, inform, move, persuade. You focus on certain elements based upon your discussion.

4) Does the student include a project statement about what they intend to do? Does the introduction effectively lead up to this project statement in some way?

Example: Pink creates a very persuasive argument that has been viewed by millions, but the question is, how and why is his argument so persuasive? In this essay, I will analyze how Pink’s text is so effective for his overall purpose and intended audience.

5) Does the student mention the primary strategies they analyze in their thesis to explain how the  authors use certain strategies based upon context?

Example: Pink incorporates precedent from authorities to prove that intrinsic motivation encourages productivity, uses humor to set a framework for the evidence that follows, and creates a cause and effect framework to provide a solution for businesses, but Jennifer Kahn uses narration to engage a general audience, description based upon personal accounts, and authorities to appeal to academics. Both texts use strategies that are effective for their context, but those strategies differ based upon the author’s purposes.

Do the body paragraphs accomplish the following goals?

• Does each paragraph include a clear topic sentence or claim (student’s claim) that first transitions from the previous paragraph and then controls the current paragraph.
• If the body paragraph focuses on a claim, does a body paragraph describe the author’s claim in relation to the argument; does it explain how the claim supports the argument, and does the student provide a representative quote? Does the student explain the logic in their own words?
• For strategy analysis paragraphs, does the student analyze how a strategy or linking strategies have some kind of effect on the audience by nature of the strategy use, suggest certain ideas, or influence the audience in some way?
  • To develop this analysis, reference contextual issues to explain why an author might have chosen a rhetorical move and discuss how the strategy has an effect on the audience in some way. That effect is based upon the appeal the strategy makes, and the best strategies make all three appeals.
  • Also be keen to note how the strategy functions and therefore influences the audience. Narration creates a personal story-telling vibe, cause and effect demonstrates the effects of action, comparison contrast highlights similarities and differences, and so on.
• Does the student provide enough detail? Does the student explain the ideas well, or is the discussion too general?
• Is there an evaluative tone in this essay? That evaluation can come later in the essay, but it should be included in each analysis paragraph.

Rhetorical Analysis Body Paragraph Outline X 3

1) Does the topic sentence highlight the strategy under analysis?

2) Does the student contextualize the strategy within the overall argument, claim, or section? What does the strategy help the author to achieve? Does it function as an organizational structure for claims? Does it function as evidence? Does it allow the author to provide an aside and engage the audience? Does it encourage the audience to consider something contrary to social commonplaces?

3) Does the student provide an example or paraphrase the strategy? Does the student draw critical information from the strategy to help illustrate how it is used?

4) Does the student explain how the strategy advances a particular part of the argument, and is detail included in this discussion?  This is part summary, part discussion about how a strategy functions to promote a part of the argument. In your analysis, include evidence/facts/points that are relevant for your discussion. If you explain how an author uses a particular strategy or move to address and challenge a common perspective, then you need to pull facts and details from context to explain how society understands a particular topic, and then discuss how the author works to alter or address that common perspective.

5) The analysis should be based upon the type of appeal that the strategy makes, and before each section of analysis, the student should mention what kind of appeal they are focusing on (ethos, pathos, logos) as if to create mini topic sentences within the paragraph. Remember, the best strategies make all three appeals. If the strategy encourages the audience to feel for someone, that is a pathos appeal, and if that same strategy supports a claim, then it also functions as a logos appeal.

Conclusion

1) Does the student bring all the ideas together and paraphrase how the strategies were selected based upon context? Does the student briefly recap each strategy and talk about how it supports the argument/a part of the argument. Are they discussed in the same order found in the body paragraphs?

2) Does the student leave the audience with something to think about or a way to apply these or similar strategies in other assignments, writing approaches, speeches, or everyday life? What is the significance of your analysis? What can you conclude about the writing process and conveying information to others based upon your analysis? The student can also mention how all acts of conversation or somewhat rhetorical, so they can explain how approaches similar to those described and analyzed could be used in everyday life.

3) The conclusion can be longer than one paragraph, and concluding paragraphs read well when the author includes their own viewpoint, responds with significance about their discussion, or relates the argument to something their audience can identify with.

Other considerations

• Is the essay organized effectively and/or logically?
• Does the student include transitions or metadiscourse that connect ideas and signal what will come next?
• Are transitions between paragraphs included in the first sentence of each paragraph? (transitions and metadiscourse usually achieve the same goal)
• Does each paragraph include a clear topic sentence/claim?
• Does the student use signal verbs, reporting verbs, or attributions when conveying information from an author? These verbs can be found in your PPACES document.
• Does the final sentence of each paragraph conclude the idea for each paragraph and look up to what the paragraph has said?
• Does the student describe what the author does and paraphrase the author’s concepts?
• Does the student add their own voice to their discussion towards the end of the essay; this should be done in the rhetorical analysis and conclusion paragraphs. The conclusion can be more than one paragraph long, but the final conclusion paragraph should paraphrase the main forms of evaluation discussed in the body paragraphs. Does the student have a point to make that is relevant for this discussion? Do you get a sense of their voice in this essay?

Grammar and Punctuation

1) Does the student provide a clear subject or pronoun and active verb for every sentence?

2) Is the right subject doing the right action?

3) Is every sentence clear?

4) Does the student make proper use of commas, including separating intro clauses from main clauses; separating a digressions, asides, or parenthetical phrases (additional information) from the rest of the sentence with a comma before and comma after?

5) Does the student include proper subject/verb agreement?

6) Does the student use proper attributions, meaning does the student describe how the author does something? Remember, verbs for attributions can be found in your quoting guide and in your PPACES text.

7) Does the student include enough detail so that everything is contextualized, meaning you have no questions about how an author does something because the student’s paraphrase is so detailed.

8) Does the student include a full sentence before and after semicolons (;)?

9) Does the student include a full sentence before colons (:)?