Major Essay #3 (“Connection”) Length: 1000-2000 words, ~4-8 double-spaced pages. Workshop Draft Due: 20th class; bring 4 copies to class Mandatory Revision Due: 22nd class; email me a copy before class starts; bring 1 hard copy to class Optional Revision Due: No later than the last class, class #27; email me a copy before class, bring 1 hard copy to class Steve’s goals for ME #3: The point of this assignment is to get you to delve deeply into each aspect of the text, not simply to list the things you saw but to explore, examine, elaborate, interpret, and evaluate. I want you to pull out all the rhetorical stops and make this essay the most rhetorically sophisticated essay you have written this semester. Craft your essay to make effective use of ethos, logos, pathos, and style. For any of the Options below, ample quotations from the text and your commentary about those quotations are needed for a successful essay. Option #1: Analysis and Argument Purposes: To use close analysis of a text(s) to make an argument about a topic. To argue that your analysis and interpretation are valid. To use rhetorical techniques and strategies effectively. Advice: You have unique analytical insights into the rhetoric and the ideas of texts to offer, but you have to do the exploration and thinking required to develop those insights in a convincing and compelling way. Directions: Select 2 texts to work closely with. You may • Select any “Connections” question in the book that you have not written on, including ones that deal with texts or even sections (e.g., “Education”) not assigned for the class. • Or you may develop your own topic that brings together (in some meaningful way) at least 2 of the texts in IDEAS (they can obviously be from different sections of IDEAS and they do not have to be texts that were assigned for class). • You may also use Singer’s “Famine” and/or Hardin’s “Lifeboat” with each other or use one (or both) of them in conjunction with a text from IDEAS • Select two significant texts from elsewhere, create your own complex “Connections” question, and write the essay. Structure: • Intro: an Intro does the following (not necessarily in this order): o Names the author and the document.o Establishes kairos—why should we particular readers care about this particular text at this particular time? Since we are all rhetors in search of good strategies to use, your Research Question should be a big help with this task. o Explain the rhetorical situation (audience, context, occasion, where the document was first published or delivered as a speech, etc.). If you are using a text from IDEAS, Jacobus’ head notes will give you most of that information. This should be 1-3 sentences. • Background: A summary of the rhetor’s purpose, thesis, theme, and major points (1-2 paragraphs). • Analysis and Argument: The majority of your essay--here you explore the texts, bounce them against each other, consider their ethical and rhetorical appeals, develop your own position, etc. • Conclusion: 1-4 paragraphs that answer such questions as “What are the ethical and practical implications of my position for my own life? For the USA?” Option #2: Rhetorical Analysis of a Text and Argument Purposes: To say something useful and meaningful to your assigned readers about rhetoric. To argue that your analysis and interpretation are valid. To use rhetorical techniques and strategies effectively. Advice: You have unique analytical insights into the rhetoric of texts to offer, but you have to do the exploration and thinking required to develop those insights in a convincing and compelling way. Directions: Select a text. It could be • One essay from IDEAS • or some other significant text or texts (for a total of at least 6 pages of reading) o this could an article(s) in magazines such as Harpers, New Yorker, Nation, National Review, Atlantic Monthly o this could be two (or more) articles on the same topic (the obvious choice might be reactions and discussions of the election)--one from the liberal Nation and one from the conservative National Review, Time and U.S. News and World Report o this could be two or more articles on the same topic from a specialty magazine (e.g., Sporting News and Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan and Allure, o this could be a series of editorials/articles on the same topic from a newspaper (or a comparison and contrast of two newspapers--e.g., the Globe and the Herald, two campus newspapers) Procedure: • First, determine the text’s thesis and themes (Rhetoric Tool Chest, page 1-2)• Then develop a Research Question about rhetoric. Your Research Question should be stated explicitly. Here are some sample Research Questions: o “How does Martin Luther King, Jr., use metaphors to develop an appeal to pathos and to reinforce his text’s themes?” o What aspects of style does Martin Luther King, Jr., use to create effects in his readers? o What types of evidence (page 3 of “Rhetoric Tool Chest”) does Martin Luther King, Jr., use--when is it effective and when less so? Why? o What types of language strategies (page 3 of “Rhetoric Tool Chest”) does Martin Luther King, Jr., use to create what kinds of effects? o In what ways does Martin Luther King, Jr., make appeals to values, commonplaces, needs, and symbols to convince his readers to accept his thesis? o Your answer to the Research Question will be your thesis. • Then select 2-4 Units of Analysis (a Unit of Analysis is one significant rhetorical element--everything in the “Rhetoric Tool Chest” under “For Analysis,” pages 1-6) o Note--if you wish, you can make one of the Units of Analysis “ethical appeals” and use material from the Ethics Tool Chest • Then go through the text again, looking for and listing all examples of each unit. (e.g., you would make a list of all the metaphors in the text). • Then categorize them (e.g., metaphors of light, of modern vs. old-fashion, of salvation). o The list and categories, however, are merely raw data. o In your essay you will need to answer the “So what?” question. • Then decide/discover the impact that unit has on the meaning and effect of the whole text. Structure: Your essay should have the following 6 sections: • Intro: an Intro does the following (not necessarily in this order): o Names the author and the document. o Establishes kairos—why should we