Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

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, you’ll do some research in CCNY’s academic databases) in which you will describe the rhetorical elements–author and audience, tone and purpose, genre and medium, and stance and language–of three sources that you have found in CCNY’s 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 (we’ll discuss “scholarly sources” in detail during the class). With the exception of the website, you must locate your sources within CCNY’s 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, you’ll not only identify, for example, the writer’s purpose–to inform, to persuade, to argue, or something else–but also what in the text tells you what the purpose is. If, for example, I think the article’s purpose is to argue, I’d point out phrases like “In this article I argue,” or point out where the author makes specific claims about their subject. You’ll also need to look at both the articles you choose and the publication in which they appear. Looking at the publication’s web site will give you a lot of information about your article’s purpose and audience.

Finally, you’ll 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, you’re describing a series of articles. Instead of making an argument, as school essays often do, you’re 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 doesn’t 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?