Assignment Criteria for Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Length: a minimum of 850 words.

Format: Check “Assignment Format and Submission” on the course policies handout for information.

Content, Organization, Style: The essay should accomplish the following: • The writer will analyze the argumentation skills of another writer who has taken a position on a controversial issue and attempted to defend it. In the course of his or her analysis, the writer will state his or her judgment about the effectiveness of the other work’s approach to the issue under discussion, and s/he will base his or her analysis on any fallacious attempts at reasoning on the part of the other writer. In addition, s/he will acknowledge and refute any plausible opposing interpretations. • The writer should share his or her position with the reader in the form of an essay: a piece of writing that states or implies a thesis in the introduction and then develops the thesis by supporting it with a mix of personal experience and logical analysis and explanation. • The essay’s introduction should get the reader’s attention and introduce him/her to the controversial topic at the center of the essay; most importantly, however, the introduction should state or imply the essay’s thesis. The essay’s supporting points are often foreshadowed in the introduction of an argument essay. • The body of the essay should be organized logically, perhaps from least persuasive point to most. Discussion of the supporting