11 pt. Font
Times New Roman
double spaced
1 inch margins
Where I have indicated page length requirements, these do not include the bibliography or works cited page. Students should aim for 1-2 (or more) citations for this writing assignment beyond the original article. Please select a citation style and follow the guidelines accordingly. My preferred citation styles include APA (Links to an external site.), Chicago (Links to an external site.), and MLA (Links to an external site.).
For this assignment, students will read and annotate an academic essay from rhetorical studies. You should write up your short paper in the style of a detailed annotation that should answer the following questions. The answers may be bulleted or numbered. Students should focus on fully answering each of the questions rather than providing a narrative flow. This exercise is intended to model (1) the practice of reading academic essays in rhetorical studies and (2) creating notes and annotations to help recall the important or salient points.
Please keep your short paper 2 assignment to no more than 3 pages (not including the bibliography of works cited).
Please do not turn in a marked up copy of the academic article; the assignment should be written out and saved as a docx or a pdf.
Please number your answers. Additionally, I would like folks to either restate each numbered question as part of the answer or to begin each answer with the numbered question in their document. This will help your graders to keep track of which question you are answering.
What is the central claim/assertion/thesis of the essay?
What is the author’s definition of rhetoric? Based on context clues and citations in the essay, how is rhetoric being defined?**
Based on the units we’ve considered in this class, how does the author understand rhetorical criticism? What is the ultimate purpose of the essay?
What elements of the author’s theory or analysis are uniquely rhetorical? Are there any specific key terms or words that mark the theory or contribution that qualify it as “rhetoric”?
Who is the author in conversation with? Who are the people that the author cites the most, builds upon, or takes issue with?**
What does the author contribute to this conversation? What is it that they bring in the way of a new idea, concept, terminology, or kind of analysis?
What are other key terms not already that are especially important to understanding this essay? Why were they important to the overall meaning of the essay?
How might the essay help us to understand circumstances beyond those described in the essay?
**you may choose to draw on or cite other articles to answer this question, for instance, from the bibliography of the essay you are annotating. Please note that the citations you are seeking may be cited in the articles for the assignment, so use the references/bibliography of the article you have selected as a resource when answering these questions.**
Please select one of the essays from the list below. These essays’ central contribution regards rhetoric and rhetorical theory, and are published in journals recognized for contributions to rhetorical studies. One detailed annotation is also provided on the following page.
Please note that you must select one article from this list for your annotation. Annotations of articles that do not appear on this list will receive a grade of “0.”
Kehrberg, Rhetoric of Twitter Fandom
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dcu7u61v76bwnq3/Kehrberg%20–%20Rhetoric%20of%20Twitter%20Fandom.pdf?dl=0
Rood, Our Tears Are Not Enough
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3s8jfqacuzsn4b5/Rood%20–%20Our%20Tears%20Are%20Not%20Enough.pdf?dl=0
Kelley-Romano, Conspiracy on U.S. TV
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ick2q7l50e387i/Kelley-Romano%20–%20Conspiracy%20on%20American%20Television.pdf?dl=0
Stahl, A Clockwork War
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6n1ajlrlsmqd4th/Stahl%20-%20A%20Clockwork%20War.pdf?dl=0
West, Rhetoric of Religious Freedom
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qqpanq461kt235/West%20–%20Wedding%20Cakes%2C%20Equality%2C%20and%20the%20Rhetoric%20of%20Religious%20Freedom.pdf?dl=0
