Reference no: EM132347063
Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Essay Prompt
To help explore an issue of your own choice and to begin the research process, you will write a 2-3 page essay that compares and contrasts the rhetorical elements of two articles that take opposing or different positions concerning a similar issue. You will locate two articles on your own by choosing a contemporary issue and then using the library's databases to find scholarly articles to analyze.
You will need to start by performing a close reading of each article-determining what the author's argument is; how he or she uses rhetorical moves in his or her writing in order to persuade the audience; and whether or not the author's use of these rhetorical moves is credible, valid, and effective.
In this essay, your purpose as a writer will be to construct an argument about which writer's article is more persuasive. In order to construct this argument, you will write an article-by-article comparative analysis. (See outline in CRA PDF) This article-by-article comparative analysis asks you to select several different rhetorical points/elements (such as evidence, reasoning, credibility, examples, tone, etc.) to focus on in your analysis. In the body of your essay, you will provide examples and evaluations of Author A's use of these rhetorical elements and then Author B's use of these rhetorical elements in order to prove your own thesis about which author is more persuasive.
The following process may by useful:
• Choose an issue to explore and locate two scholarly articles with DIFFERENT perspectives about this issue.
• Read the articles several times and note specific rhetorical strategies used by the authors.
• Fill out the comparative rhetorical analysis matrix (see D2L) to help organize your material.
• Write a 2-3 page comparative analysis:
o The introduction should contain essential background information on the subject that the authors are both writing about; the names of both authors and the titles of their articles (which need to be in quotation marks); a brief summary of the arguments that each author makes in his respective article; and a statement about the rhetorical elements that you plan to discuss. You also must include a thesis statement-for the comparative analysis essay; your thesis statement will explain why one article is more persuasive than the other.
o The body should discuss the rhetorical strategies of each article, directly comparing these to make assertions about which is more effective and why. You will need to include summaries, paraphrases, and quotations as evidence for your assertions about the effectiveness of these strategies. You can either organize the body by essay-discussing each essay's use of rhetorical strategies separately-or by rhetorical strategy-discussing how they both use the same strategies in different ways. Regardless, the same strategies should be discussed and compared.
o The conclusion should summarize the discussion that you had about each article (so, again, this will be focused on the elements/points that you indicated you would be comparing and contrasting in terms of the two articles). However, since you have fully discussed these points about each article separately, your conclusion should bring your separate analyses together-briefly comparing and contrasting the articles based on your body paragraphs. Your conclusion should also bring home your argument about which article was more persuasive and why, building on the comparative analysis work that you did in your body paragraphs.
• Make sure all information is cited in the text and that a Works Cited page is included.
• Maintain a 3rd person point of view.
The goals of this assignment are for you to:
• Examine an issue of your choice from two different perspectives;
• Practice rhetorical analysis skills through the analysis of two different articles;
• Learn how to use SFA's research resources, including databases, to locate scholarly sources;
• Further build source use and citation skills;
• Practice the building of an argument based on multiple sources.