Essay #1: Source-Based Essay on Rhetorical Situation: Author, Audience, Tone, Purpose, Genre, Medium, and Stance

For this assignment, you will write a source-based article (that is, youll do some research in CCNYs academic databases) in which you will describe the rhetorical elementsauthor and audience, tone and purpose, genre and medium, and stance and languageof three sources that you have found in CCNYs academic databases and on the open web on the subject of your choice. You need to have at least three sources, and they must include a web site (including social media posts), a magazine or newspaper article, and a scholarly source (well discuss scholarly sources in detail during the class). With the exception of the website, you must locate your sources within CCNYs academic databases. We recommend that you use Academic One File, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, and the National Newspaper Index, but the choice is up to you.

You will be asked to write a short personal narrative essay ahead of your analysis, which you may wish to assimilate into your final essay, but will be graded separately.

For each article you choose, you will provide a brief summary, describe its author and audience, tone and purpose, genre and medium, and stance. In your analysis, youll not only identify, for example, the writers purposeto inform, to persuade, to argue, or something elsebut also what in the text tells you what the purpose is. If, for example, I think the articles purpose is to argue, Id point out phrases like In this article I argue, or point out where the author makes specific claims about their subject. Youll also need to look at both the articles you choose and the publication in which they appear. Looking at the publications web site will give you a lot of information about your articles purpose and audience.

Finally, youll make connections between the various articles that you analyze. In what ways are your various sources similar or different? What conclusions can you draw from this analysis, and what does it tell you about rhetoric in a larger framework?

Format

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font. Make sure you have a clear heading with your name and class information, and number your pages. In this essay, youre describing a series of articles. Instead of making an argument, as school essays often do, youre exploring your sources from a rhetorical perspective. This will be new to many of you, so be sure to review the below information. The essay should include:

A general introduction, that tells the reader what your subject is
Rhetorical analyses of four sources (including all eight key terms for each)
Your thoughts about the relationships between the rhetorical elements of your sources
With the exception of the general introduction, your essay doesnt have to be in this exact order. You might, for example, want to talk about author and audience across all of your sources at the same time instead of separately presenting the audience analysis for each article.

Length:
Personal Narrative: 3-5 page
First Draft of Essay: at least 5 pages
Final Essay: 6-7 pages, including citations (1,500-1,750 words)

Identified and made comparisons between the various rhetorical aspects of your sources?