ASSIGNMENT | Choking the Oceans with Plastic

Paper 2: Rhetorical Analysis
For this paper, you will create a 2-3 page rhetorical analysis of an article. Choose ONE of the following articles:
A Small World After All?’ Ethan Zuckerman
A Terrible Shame,’ Eric Posner
The Capitalist; The Case Against Tipping,’ Michael Lewis
The Case For Tipping,’ Jonathan Kay
Choking the Oceans with Plastic,’ Charles Moore
Maxed Out on Everest,’ Mark Jenkins
For the article chosen, analyze the purpose, context, audience, main arguments, methods of development, logical appeal, character appeal, and emotional appeal used by the author. Include short quotations to support your analysis and cite these appropriately. Include a Works Cited entry at the bottom of the page. This paper is worth 100 points.
The essay should contain the following:
• a concise introduction that includes a brief (4-5 sentences) summary of the article
• a thesis statement that argues whether or not the text makes an effective argument
• an analysis of the author’s purpose, context, and audience
• identification of the main arguments, supporting arguments, and methods of development
• analysis of the logical appeal, character appeal, and emotional appeal
• a clear defense of your stance that explains what makes the article effective or ineffective for its audience
• paragraphs that develop logically from the thesis statement
• short quotations or paraphrases to support your discussion; these are a part of your paragraphs
• MLA citations for all primary source material used
• a Works Cited entry
• clear and concise writing
Your essay should contain approximately 500-600 words (about 2-3 pages), use 12-point standard font, double space, and have 1-inch margins. You may skip a few lines to add the Works Cited entry at the bottom; you do not need to put it on a separate page. Add a heading at the top with your name; you do not need a separate title page.
Notes
This paper is worth 100 points. I will not accept late assignments or papers. I encourage you to use the tutors in the Learning Lab for assistance in any of the following areas: understanding the articles, crafting your thesis, organizing your draft, and polishing grammar and mechanics. The Learning Lab is NOT an editing service. Be sure to bring your text and this assignment sheet with you if you visit with a tutor.

Additional Notes
In Your Introduction:
Summarize what the author is arguing. This should be about four-five sentences.
After the summary, be sure that you IDENTIFY THE AUTHOR’S MAIN CLAIM using a “because” clause.
Example: The author argues that we must address the drop-out problem because if we don’t, the resulting low-paying jobs, unemployment and welfare recipients will burden every taxpaying member of society.
Identify the intended audience. Work on demographics and other defining traits rather than something as broad as “Americans.” Determine if the author is arguing to a friendly, unfriendly, or neutral audience. Think about the purpose of the argument. Who is the author trying to persuade or convince?
Be sure that you PROVIDE AN EVALUATION of how persuasive the author is to his intended audience, using a “because” clause here as well:
Example: The author is persuasive to his intended audience, because he provides shocking statistics about how many students drop out and how much this is costing taxpayers.
Provide a specific reason why the argument is or is not persuasive—don’t just say that the author had good logos.
Underline both the author’s main claim and your evaluation of the author’s persuasiveness to the intended audience.

In The Body of Your Paper:
Write a SEPARATE paragraph for each appeal and for the style analysis. This will ensure that each appeal and the style is addressed and evaluated. (The body of your paper requires multiple paragraphs.)
QUOTE supporting examples from the text as evidence to support your analysis and evaluation. If the statistics are solid, quote a particularly impressive one. If there’s a point at which you connect on a value or feel an emotion, quote that part of the text.
Weave EVALUATIONS into your paragraphs. Go beyond identifying the value that the author appeals to (our hard-earned money) to evaluate how persuasive the appeal is: did the author succeed in making you so protective of your cash that you feel moved to act to defend it?
Consider beginning each paragraph with an evaluative claim: Although the logos appeal was persuasive, I found the pathos appeal to be lacking, because… You could also rank the appeals and choose to present your analysis accordingly: the strongest appeal was ethos…the weakest appeal was logos…it was the author’s style that truly made this argument persuasive…
The order in which you present your analysis is up to you. I recommend tackling the appeal that first comes to mind as you read.
In Your Conclusion:
Be sure that you WRITE A CONCLUSION!
Re-state the main argument. This is a good time to go back and make sure that you DO have the main claim identified and underlined in your introduction.
Identify strengths and weaknesses in the argument. Be more specific than just saying the logos was strong and the ethos was weak. Which elements of logos blew you away? What would make the author a more credible authority on the subject? If you wanted to see the author address opposing views, clearly state what those views might be. If you wanted more statistics, state what kind and where in the essay the author needs them.
Conclude with an evaluation: the author’s argument is/is not persuasive to the intended audience BECAUSE… (provide a reason for your evaluation).
Now that you’ve written your conclusion, go back and make sure that you also have a solid evaluation with a specific supporting reason underlined in your introduction—you may need to tweak it now that you’ve nearly finished your essay.

Be sure that evaluations of the appeals, the style, and the argument overall are clearly stated and developed in your essay.
To recap then,
Your paper must have an introductory paragraph.
Your body paragraphs must analyze the effectiveness of each of the three appeals and you must also write one paragraph in which you analyze the argument and method of development (Causal, Definition, Narrative, Position, or Proposal).
Your paper must have a concluding paragraph.

English 1301: Composition I
Grading Sheet for the Rhetorical Analysis Paper

YOUR INTRODUCTION:
Identification of the author, the title (title in quotes), the original source (in italics) and the
original date of publication Yes No
Summary of the author’s main argument, which should include the main claim+reason or
evidence Yes No
Identification of the text’s intended audience and the purpose for the argument Yes No
Clear evaluative claim (with a supporting reason) regarding the persuasiveness of the author’s
argument to the intended audience Yes No

YOUR RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:
Emphasis on evaluating the author’s rhetorical strategies rather than discussing the topic of the
argument Yes No

You must identify (provide evidence of) and evaluate the following:

The author’s use of LOGOS (both parts of logos) to reach the intended audience
Evidence of logos Yes No Logos evaluated Yes No

The author’s use of PATHOS to reach the intended audience
Evidence of pathos Yes No Pathos evaluated Yes No

The author’s use of ETHOS to reach the intended audience
Evidence of ethos Yes No Ethos evaluated Yes No

The author’s consideration of and response to opposing views Yes No

The author’s stylistic elements and an evaluation of them Yes No

The kind of argument the author employs (narration, position, causal, etc.) Yes No

ORGANIZATION OF YOUR ANALYSIS:
Each paragraph developed to support a distinct evaluative claim Yes No
Logical and effective sense of structure (not randomly stated claims) Yes No
Solid quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text to support your evaluations Yes No

YOUR CONCLUSION:
Clear statement of evaluation (with a supporting reason) regarding the persuasiveness of the
argument to the intended audience Yes No
Identification of the strengths of the argument and suggestions for overcoming weaknesses in
the text Yes No

FORMAT OF YOUR PAPER:
3 – 4 pages in Times New Roman 12 Yes No
Correctly formatted left corner information Yes No
Correctly formatted right header information Yes No
Regular double-spacing throughout and one-inch margins around each page Yes No
In-text citations in MLA format Yes No
Works Cited page in MLA format Yes No
Carefully proofread Yes No

EVALUATION OF YOUR PAPER: ______________________________

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Plastics are all around us, and few of us ask where they end up, especially after being wrongly disposed of. “Plastics are in our cars, carpets, food and virtually everywhere and it is out to threaten our future in unimaginable ways,” Charles Moore of the New York Times wrote. Using personal experience as a researcher the author argues that the quantity of plastics of every nature is utterly shocking. Moore builds his credibility of the assertion by mentioning examples of those plastics and adds that the plastics could form a buoy for one to walk on (Moore). Using statistical facts of the prevalence of plastics…