4.2 Planning for the rhetorical analysis assignment

In class today you worked in groups to analyze and plan an essay David Zinczenko's "Don't Blame the Eater."

You started by working in groups to confer on the characterization of the rhetorical moves you wrote for homework.  After you had a list of what moves Z. made, paragraph by paragraph, you answered 3 questions.

1. What moves does Zinczenko make and where (characterize the pattern for his use of ethos, pathos, and logos)?

2.  Which moves are effective and why?

3. Is Zinczenko's essay effective for its audience and purpose?


After talking trhough your analyses of Z's essay and your assessment of its effectiveness- we noted that the way to "prove" that the essay was effective (or not) was to describe how he used ethos, pathos, and logos - and to state why and how each of those moves was effective.  If the essay makes effective use of ethos, pathos, and logos for its audience & purpose => then it is effective.


Assignment sheet for the Rhetorical Analysis project.  We then looked at the rhetorical analysis assignment and notices that this assignment asks writers to do exactly the kind of evaluation /analysis that we have just done.  Because you cannot write the essay until after you have spent considerable time analyzing the essay, and because there are so many demands/criteria stated on the assignment sheet - we suggested the following process of writing this assignment.

1. read the essay
2. write a paragraph by paragraph analysis of how the essay uses the rhetorical elements (see list from last class)
3. do some drafty writing (answer the 3 questions above in some detail) to develop your ideas about how the essay uses the rhetorical elements
4. create a map for your essay (list the order of the points you will make in the intro, body, and conclusion of your essay)
5. draft your essay
6. workshop/make a plan for revising/revise your essay
7. revise again if necessary
8.  turn in final draft

You spent the last part of class working in groups to create a "map" for an essay on Zinczenko.  This map should list the points you will cover, in the order you will cover them.  We talked in some detail about the points you could make in the introduction.  And we suggested that the organization of the body might be in terms of a paragraph by pargraphy or section by section discussion of the essay's use of ethos, pathos, and logos; or it could be a point by point discussion of how (and where) the author uses the 3 rhetorical elements.  As we noted, there were lots of choices for how to organize an essay that would cover all of the requirements listed on the assignment sheet => and that is why it is important to map out a plan before starting to write.  You might not use the exact plan you come up with, but your plan will be a point of reference - so you can make sure you are writing to the assignment.

Good work today!

For next class:
Read: Michelle Obama's essay, p. 417.
Write: make a list (briefly and in some cases by section) of the order of Obama's rhetorical moves

I will be reviewing the persuasive writing portfolios over the weekened.  Make sure all documents, portfolios etc are set so that "anyone with a link" can access the materials.  Material which is not accessible to me will be marked as not turned in.