2.4: Essay I- Analyzing Arguments

Overview of Essay

We have read and analyzed essays pertaining to the university community (e.g. articles about the value of a university education, students as consumers, and the effects of binge drinking). We have examined these written texts in terms of their purposes, their audiences, their persuasive strategies, and their effectiveness. Your task for this first major essay is to find an article that addresses the issue you have chosen to focus on this semester, and analyze the strategies the author uses in order to argue/persuade and appeal to her/his audience. You will also need to speak to the effectiveness of the article: In your opinion do you think the article is a successful piece of persuasion? You will need to guide your readers (your peers and your professor) through your analysis so that they too recognize the persuasive strategies the writer has used.

• As you brainstorm for this essay, look back at your notes.
Recall the key questions from pp. 42–3 of Everything’s an
Argument like, Who is the audience for this argument? How
does the audience connect with its audience? What shape does
the argument take? How are the arguments presented or arranged?
What media does the argument use? Take a look at
the full list of questions, and answer as many as you can. I’m
not expecting that your paper address all of them, but use
questions that are generative—that is, the questions that inspire
fruitful, interesting, and complex responses.

• Think about the conversations that we’ve had in class. We’ve
identified arguments of the heart, arguments based on character,
on value, and on logic. Where do you see these arguments
in the text you’ve chosen? Consider how they work in
the text to inform, to move the audience to action, to think
differently, to consider other perspectives, etc.

• Remember, you are also creating an argument to persuade
your reader to accept your point of view. Pay attention to your
own persuasive strategies.

Assessment Criteria

I will be assessing your papers based on the following:

• How well you provide context for your readers (peers and professors). We will not have read the article you are analyzing, so you will need to provide a vivid and descriptive summary.

•How clearly and effectively you make your argument. Remember, you too are creating an argument to persuade your reader to accept your point of view. Pay attention to your own rhetorical choices.

• How thoughtfully you have analyzed the choices and strategies the author uses to argue/persuade her or his audience.

• How thoroughly you have provided your readers with relevant and specific examples/details.

• How cohesively and coherently your essay flows. Is it choppy or repetitive?

• How free your paper is of grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors.

Requirements and Due Dates

• Your paper should be between 5 and 6 pages (double-spaced and typed, 12 pt. font)

• You will need to include a works cited page using MLA format

• See syllabus for rough and final draft due dates

My “Analyzing Arguments Assignment” makes both explicit and implicit nods to the “Outcomes Statement.” For example, the assignment asks writers to exercise their rhetorical knowledge. According to the “Outcomes Statement,” rhetorical knowledge consists of an awareness of purpose, audience, rhetorical situation (a concept that refers to: the speaker/writer, audience, the necessity to speak/write, the occasion for speaking/writing, what has already been said on the subject, and the general context for speaking/writing), and an understanding of genre conventions (what kind of text—written, verbal, visual—is appropriate for a given rhetorical situation).

The underlined portion in the first paragraph identifies the purpose of the assignment and asks that writers be mindful of their own audiences (professor and peers) as they compose their essays:

Your task for this first major essay is to find an article that addresses the issue you have chosen to focus on this semester, and analyze the strategies the author uses in order to argue/persuade and appeal to her/his audience. You will also need to speak to the effectiveness of the article: In your opinion, do you think the article is a successful piece of persuasion? You will need to guide your readers (your peers and your professor) through your analysis so that they too recognize the persuasive strategies the writer has used.

The assignment also asks writers to pay attention to an author’s rhetorical situation: who he/she is writing to, the degree to which he/she is attentive to audience needs and concerns, what compelled him/her to write, why is there a need to write, and what has already been written on the subject.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing is the degree to which we understand and use writing and reading as modes for thinking through ideas, for learning, for synthesizing material, and for conveying information. When writers respond to the prompt, they also exercise their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. I ask my students to examine their chosen text and ask probing questions of them. I try prompting them to engage their critical thinking skills at several points:

Think about the conversations that we’ve had in class. We’ve
identified arguments of the heart, arguments based on character,
on value, and on logic. Where do you see these arguments
in the text you’ve chosen? Consider how they work in
the text to inform, to move the audience to action, to think
differently, to consider other perspectives, etc.

The above are examples of heuristics: questions posed to help writers think more deeply about the articles they are analyzing.

There are other goals that are more implicit in the assignment. For instance, I require at least two complete drafts of an essay (rough and final). The drafts are one way that I build writing as a Process into each assignment. The “Outcomes Statement” emphasizes that writing is recursive, that good writing requires multiple drafts, that we benefit from feedback, and that it is also useful to give feedback to others. I want my students to get feedback from each other and also other people such as the WVU Writing Center peer tutors, so that when they do hand in their final drafts, their papers represent their best effort. In the assignment, I also ask that writers follow a particular format (MLA) and that the paper be “error free,” a nod to Knowledge of Conventions. The only goal that isn’t immediately apparent is Technology, unless we can count that the paper be double-spaced and typed (12 pt font). While Technology isn’t obvious in the assignment, in my classes we make ample use of message boards, email, and Google Docs as we compose. For example, students share and respond to drafts using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature, Blackboard and/or Google Docs.

Even though I’ve identified the goals for FYC and discussed those goals in relation to an assignment, it might not yet be clear how I can claim that the course teaches us how to learn to write. To further illustrate my point, it might be useful to return to Godwin and his experience. Above, he states that FYC served to his advantage later in his academic career. He went on to tell me that in a senior-level, chemical engineering courses, he and his classmates “were required to design an ethanol plant and write up a description of [their] model” (Erekiafe). When it came time to write up their plans and their research, they had to take into account their audience and the audience needs, concerns, and expectations. Godwin identified the professor as the primary audience because the prof was evaluating the collaborative project, but there was a secondary audience as well: chemical engineers. Because Godwin was writing a formal plan, his assignment had to conform to conventions specific to the chemical engineering profession. Godwin was also composing his ethanol plant plan with others. They composed their pieces separately but then had to find ways to bring their individual sections together. According to Godwin, this portion of the project required “drafting and redrafting on multiple occasions.”