Essay 2 Prompt 

Objective:

Write a rhetorical comparison essay that effectively compares two texts and analyzes the authors’ use of rhetoric,  presenting evidence from both texts as support. Have the ability to recognize different rhetorical strategies and how they contribute to effective writing.

Course SLOs Addressed:

Student will organize ideas in well-developed, coherent, and stylistically sophisticated analytical essays.

Student will apply logical reasoning to identify and evaluate authors’ use of rhetorical techniques, participate in critical thinking class discussions and activities, and compose clearly organized and effectively argued written analyses of those texts.

Student will discuss a variety of argumentative and analytical assignments and demonstrate the effective use of rhetorical strategies and an awareness of style.

Background:

What is a Comparison :

Comparison/contrast normally analyzes two or more things, using an established logical system. 

Comparing things is examining them for their similarities; whereas contrasting them is looking for their differences. When you want to persuade your readers that a difference exists between what they believe and what you want them to believe, a comparison/contrast is an effective system of organization for illustrating those differences. 

A Reminder on Rhetorical Analysis:

As we have discussed in class, a rhetorical analysis examines and explains how texts are constructed so as to evaluate their effectiveness for a given audience. This means that while your analysis might discuss the ideas (content or topics) in the texts that you choose, your main concern is how the purpose and message of the text are presented and constructed to appeal to the targeted audience and the implications thereof. In constructing a rhetorical analysis, the writer (that’s you!) identifies and critically analyzes the rhetorical strategies the author/writer uses in order to comment on the effectiveness and/or significance of the text. 

• Due Dates:
• Rough Draft: Thursday of Week 5
• Final Draft: Tuesday of Week 6

Length:

5-6 pages, not counting the Works Cited page

Required Reading:

The two articles you read (“California Schools Should Remain Closed until Science Says It’s Safe to Reopen”

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and  “It’s Past Time for Schools to Reopen”)

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both address an issue that directly affects you, reopening our schools. The two articles take different approaches and try to convince you, as the reader, to support/believe the claims being made. The key here is to be a critical reader as you consider these arguments. For this assignment, you will develop a rhetorical analysis of texts (just like you did for Essay 1). However, you will focus not only on one but on both of these texts. Your purpose is to analyze the effectiveness of each argument to show which text has a stronger argument. 

Remember that your job here is not to argue whether or not schools should open. Your job is to argue which author made an overall more effective argument and how. 

Prompt:

Write an essay in which you evaluate AND compare the authors’ arguments. As always, this does not mean that you will agree or disagree with the arguments. (You should not be focusing on the issue re-opening schools; you should be focusing on the way they present their arguments and the rhetorical strategies they use or logical fallacies they commit). You should not comment on the actual arguments but rather focus on how well/effectively those arguments are written or developed.

You will want to explain each rhetorical choice for each of your sources, give descriptions or examples, and explain why the author(s) made that particular choice. Your thesis for this paper should focus on which is more effective in convincing the audience if its claims. 

• In order to analyze the argument, you will consider and compare/contrast both authors’ use of:
• Pathos

Ethos

Logos

Assumptions

Logical fallacies

Tone

Types/Strength of evidence

Objectivity/Bias

You will need:

Introduction

The introduction should give readers background into the issue of rhetoric, introduce both texts concisely, and end with a thesis that makes a claim about which argument is overall stronger or more effective.

Sample thesis: Overall, Rachel Baird developed a more effective argument in her article due to her superior use of ethos, logos and organizational type. 

A minimum of 2-3 body paragraphs 

Each body paragraph should focus on one strategy to compare. It should provide at least one example from each of the texts and then analyze (show why/how the one text was stronger)

Conclusion

MLA formatting and a Works Cited page, which lists both articles

For help with the formatting and organizing of this essay, please see Comparing and Contrasting: Point by Point. 

For an example of what this essay will look like, please check out Sample Essay 2-Rhetorical Comparison. 

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The sample focuses on two different texts but the same prompt.