Develops clear cogent analyses and convincing arguments about rhetorical choices

Rhetorical

Analysis Essay (use angela carter’s tiger’s bride & atwood bluebeard’s egg)

This assignment asks you to produce a thesis-driven analysis, complemented by secondary sources, of an aspect of rhetoric in an assigned text.

Outcomes

● Develops clear cogent analyses and convincing arguments about rhetorical choices

● Identifies and articulates genre expectations, situating the text at hand within a larger conversation in a particular rhetorical situation, with a particular audience

● Selects credible and pertinent material from readings and outside texts to support a point or argument as well as illustrates awareness of viewpoints and competing arguments

● Situates, integrates, and contextualizes different types of evidence effectively while distinguishing the writer’s voice from those of sources.

● Demonstrates effective organization and style – for a particular purpose, within a particular genre, to a particular audience

● Develops understanding of and mastery of rhetorical choices within genre conventions, and develops an awareness of how writers must make careful decisions based on purpose, audience and argument to execute project/writing professionally across writing situations

● Rewrites and edits language, style, tone, and sentence structure according to genre and audience expectations

● Practices applying citation conventions systematically in their own work

● Plans and executes a revision process that does not rely ​only​​ on direction from the instructor, developing ownership of both process and product to revise purposefully

Assignment

Consider this assignment an opportunity to further explore and expand a line of analysis that you began with your Critical Reading exercises and then develop that analysis into a more complete and complex argument. You will now write a more expansive rhetorical analysis of your primary text. Your rhetorical analysis can delve into message, audience, rhetor, historical and/or social context or even a combination of these aspects.

Include secondary sources to strengthen your argument as part of the academic discourse community. Show that you can situate and integrate credible sources into your argument so that it exists as part of an ongoing dialogue among multiple parties involving the text being analyzed. Your task is not to only restate what these sources have said, but to engage and provide insightful responses as a member of this academic discourse community.

Basic requirements

● Length: 1500-1800 words, typed, double-spaced, and presented in MLA format.

● A minimum of three (3) secondary sources, not including the primary text being analyzed, must be used to develop the essay. A works cited with source annotations will be required as part of the final draft.

● Process work must be submitted to your instructor in order for the final draft to be graded.

Rhetoric of Fairy Tales

Option 1: Choose one of your completed Critical Reading Exercises to develop into a longer, more complex argument. Feel free to tinker with the questions and/or your response.

Option 2: Apply one of the assigned Critical Reading questions to a different fairy tale than the one(s) you originally wrote about (including tales we have not yet read in class).

Option 3: Develop your own question about fairy tale genre and rhetorical situation, based on your individual interests and in consultation with me.

Additional Guidelines:

● Your RA thesis should make an ​arguable claim​​ (one that another well-informed person could reasonably disagree with) about HOW your chosen fairy tale(s) communicates meaning to a particular audience and achieves the rhetor’s purpose. ​Refer to p. 189-198 in the ​​AGWR​​ for additional information on the types of arguments you might make, how to develop your main thesis, and how to organize and contextualize your ideas.

● Keep in mind that you will not be able to discuss every single aspect of your chosen tale’s rhetorical situation in only 1500-1800 words. You will need to choose specific genre conventions to connect to specific aspects of the tale’s rhetorical situation–particularly audience and/or context.

● I strongly encourage you to choose ONE tale to focus your attention on. If you really, really want to compare two tales, come talk to me in office hours for approval.

● You should use the critical essays included in our Norton edition and our Fairy Tale Bibliography​ for your three required secondary sources. You may choose additional sources if they are directly relevant to your specific arguments, in consultation with me. ​ Refer to Chapter 4 “Citing and Integrating Sources” and pages 242-243 in the ​​AGWR​​ on how to cite sources properly in your RA and how to write your annotations (see ​Midterm e Portfolio Submission Guidelines​).