The objective of this assignment is to enable you to write a well
constructed rhetorical analysis that makes a claim regarding the rhetorical tools exhibited in a text.
The subject of your analysis will be a rhetorical article (editorial) approximately 1-2 pages long.
Suggested sources: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the London Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, your citys newspapers editorial page, etc..
You can use any editorial writer. Suggested writers include:
Richard Cohen, Ellen Goodman,
Maureen ODowd, William Raspberry, Anna Quindlen.
Sample Websites from which to harvest editorials:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/edi
torialboard.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/
In a rhetorical analysis, you should:
1)Make a clearly stated, complex claim about the texts rhetoric and its effectiveness (thesis)
2)Contextualize the text using the Rhetorical Triangle (author, audience and purpose)
3)Discuss rhetorical appeals of the text (logs, ethos, pathos)
