climate change -rhetorical situation, rhetorical elements and persuasive strategies

Description

The first major assignment in GLE 230 requires students to write an evaluative textual analysis of an argument that concerns climate change that relates to your major or personal interests. The theme is to help you focus your efforts, but, perhaps more importantly, to expose you to ideas that affect the world and your own experiences within it. This assignment will demonstrate the student’s knowledge of the rhetorical situation, rhetorical elements, and persuasive strategies. The instructor’s evaluation criteria for this assignment will also include clarity, organization, grammar, and punctuation.

The paper itself will be an overview of the article you choose that identifies claims and other rhetorical elements as well as evaluates its effectiveness. Position yourself as a scholar responding to other scholars. This does NOT mean you should use personal pronouns like “I.” This practice is not often employed in academic writing.

Students should choose one of the articles linked below to use as the subject of their paper.  There also are resources linked at the bottom of this assignment that outline the general structure of different types of scholarly articles. You might find them useful when identifying the structure or organization of your chosen    ttext

Steps

1Choose between the articles linked below (at the bottom of this assignment). This text will be the subject of your paper. Since one of the goals of GLE 230 is to ground students in the conventions of writing within their academic disciplines, students are encouraged to choose the article that best aligns with their academic interests.

2Carefully read the article and identify its rhetorical elements, including situation, claims, audience, and purpose. Find information about the rhetorical situation and rhetorical elements in Chapters 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of The Norton Field Guide textbook.

3Read the article again and consider how the writer persuades the reader. Look for the strategies that the writer uses to persuade the reader. Find information about strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos in Chapter 38 of The Norton Field Guide textbook.

4Compose a 1,250-1,500 word paper that identifies the rhetorical elements and discusses the persuasive methods the writer uses. In it, you should:

1Write an introduction (this may well be more than one paragraph) that introduces the article and the issue. Here is where you should identify the rhetorical situation. This means you should discuss what you think the context (What is the specific issue? Why is it important?), author, purpose, and audience of the text is and why you have drawn those conclusions. The introduction should also include a brief (about 2-3 sentences) summary and an identification of the gist or overall main idea of the article.

2Craft body paragraphs that:

1describe how the article is organized (Does it have clear sections? What is the purpose of them? Are there charts or other visuals?

2identify of the main ideas and points within the article’s sections (What does the author argue? How do they argue it? What examples are used?)

3discuss the persuasive strategies used in the chosen article (How does the author appeal to the reader? Does it rely on emotion, logic, something else? What elements, like word choice or structure, reveal these strategies?)

4evaluate the effectiveness of the argument (Is the argument convincing? Is it comprehensive and well-informed? Is it missing anything?)

3Conclude with a paragraph that not only wraps up your ideas, but also that looks outward and considers other perspectives on the issue with which your chosen article engages. This means that you are opening up the conversation. Think about who else might have something to say on the issue and how they might enter the conversation. You might even think about positing who might be affected by the issues that your article discusses.

Requirements

•1,250-1,500 words

•Double-spaced

•12 pt. Times New Roman font

•Heading

•Page numbers

•Proper formatting and citation in either MLA or APA style