Rhetorical Arts Class Analysis

“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, is a hilarious must read for junior high school students and any other aspiring writers. Her essay inspires comfort and confidence in writing a first draft. It concretes that all writers experience the “shitty” first draft. Anne Lamott wrote this instructional information in 1995, but it is timeless information. She blows the idea of writing an immaculate first draft out of the water. Anne supports the idea that bad first drafts will almost always lead to better second, third and final drafts. She symbolizes the first draft to be like a child. Where you put all your thoughts and emotions out there in words on paper, you go all over the place, you say all kinds of ridiculous things, and all with the

A college education is valuable and its quality is of the highest importance to most Americans. In his essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” Mark Edmundson utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos to effectively deliver his argument that the current educational system, especially in college, revolves around consumerism which in turn has negatively impacted students, teachers, and universities in general. However, although Edmundson presents an overall logically sound argument, there are few instances throughout the article that may hinder the reliability of his claims to the audience.

In May of 1998, Kipland Kinkel brought a gun to his school. Over the course of two days this escalated from: being sent home, to murdering his father and mother, to murdering 2 students and wounding 26, earning a lifetime sentence of 111 years and 8 months in prison. In the court case being examined, the presiding judge addresses the original case, defendants ground for appeal, and the justification for the State’s decision to deny the appeal. Judge Haselton effectively uses ethos, logos, and pathos to support the Higher Court’s decision to deny the appeal because the original sentence was constitutional and just.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream (1963)” speech, he addresses the idea that in order to fulfill the premise that “all men were created equal,” the people of the nation must work together to move past the injustices inflicted on African Americans in order to ultimately grant them their civil rights. King’s claim is supported by first repeatedly alluding to historically renowned milestones in the fight against oppression and illustrating numerous metaphors to create an emotional connection with his audience. King’s “dream” that he frequently mentions is the nationwide unification to work toward a common goal in order to bring integration of all races and coexist without oppression. By establishing his goal, he creates an earnest

In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our

Starting this year, I thought English 102 was just going to be another general education requirement I needed to have in order to graduate. English has never been my favorite subject, so I guess it is safe to say that I was not super excited about this class. However, this class turned out to be different then I thought. It turned out to be more useful then I originally thought. English 102 was both helpful and fairly simple because of what what I learned, the effort I put in and how prepared I was.

Many people in today’s society tend to believe that a good education is the fastest way to move up the ladder in their chosen. People believe that those who seek further education at a college or university are more intelligent. Indeed, a college education is a basic requirement for many white collar, and some blue collar, jobs. In an effort to persuade his audience that intelligence cannot be measured by the amount of education a person has Mike Rose wrote an article entitled “Blue Collar Brilliance”. The article that appeared in the American Scholar, a quarterly literary magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, established in 1932. The American Scholar audience includes, Company’s , Employees,

“We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread” (1-3). Throughout Florence Kelley’s speech to the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she emphasizes the injustice of child labor laws and the need for women to take a stand by fighting for the right to vote. Kelley is one of many inspirational leaders who fought for women’s rights. She reaches out to a group of women so that they might call to mind their right to petition. In doing so, Kelley is persuading the audience to fight for their right to vote to change child labor laws. Kelley uses several rhetorical devices such as imagery, diction, and pathos

Every individual has traditions passed down from their ancestors. This is important because it influences how families share their historical background to preserve certain values to teach succeeding generation. N. Scott Momaday has Native American roots inspiring him to write about his indigenous history and Maxine Hong Kingston, a first-generation Chinese American who was inspired by the struggles of her emigrant family. Kingston and Momaday manipulate language by using, metaphors, similes, and a unique style of writing to reflect on oral traditions. The purpose of Kingston’s passage is to reflect upon her ancestor’s mistake to establish her values as an American

A passage can be found at the beginning, middle, and end of The Help by Kathryn Stockett that shows great examples of tone, diction, and syntax. “Miss Skeeter look real confused. ‘The home… the what?’ ‘A Bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help… Miss Skeeter, she frowning at Miss Hilly. She set her cards down face up and say real matter-of-fact, ‘Maybe we ought to just build you a bathroom outside, Hilly” (9). This early in the book, we have learned what Stockett’s opinion is based her tone, as well as how she presents Hilly and Skeeter. Hilly is first described through Aibileen, who doesn’t care for Miss Hilly at all because of the way she treats the help. We have already learned that Hilly is incredibly racist and self-entitled. Everyone has a Hilly of some

In this lengthy article “Guns Don’t Kill People, the Mentally Ill Do,” that was published in the Townhall Daily, the author, Ann Coulter, argues about a major prevailing issue today, gun control. She believes the problem isn’t the guns themselves, but the mentally disturbed people. Coulter credits the declining mental health system as the main setback. She supports her argument by providing tragic examples from mass shootings that took place in the past. One example was the 2011 shooting that took place in Tucson, Arizona where the shopping mall shooter, Jared Loughner was so obviously disturbed that he stated “If I stay long enough to make the

In ‘Here’s Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense’, Alex Newhouse, a lawyer who resides in the area of Sunnyside, Washington addresses the controversial issue of the legalization of cannabis. The sole purpose of Newhouse’s article is to persuade readers and voters that marijuana should be legalized. Throughout his article, Newhouse focuses on the use of ethos and logos, while also slightly focusing on the use of pathos, to help persuade his audience. The incorporation of such rhetoric strategies allows Newhouse to change the opinions of individuals with views opposing the opinions he, himself, holds.

Logos: It is an appeal to the mind with the use of logic, rationality and critical reasoning to persuade the audience. The author uses logos in his article to make a logical connection with the topic. For example, the author uses the explanation of ideas in the article and employs lots of diagrams in each parts of the topic to show the visualization to support his evidence which is very informative because the visuals give lots of information about what the article is about and that to get attention of the audience.

Rhetorical Analysis Outline Sample Outline: Rhetorical Analysis I. Introduction A. Contextualize selected essay: discuss its exigence/social context; paint a quick picture of the cultural climate into which this argument was introduced B. Introduce author and essay: Deborah Pearlstein author, of Rights in an Insecure World, is the Director of the United States Law and Security Program at Human Rights First. C. Describe briefly essay’s subject matter/gist: Pearlstein’s purpose is to elaborate and examine different ways our rights are redefined against us after September 11 attack. D. Identify briefly author’s main claim(s): The author emphasize her claim about Liberty and Security after September 11 attack on the United States.

Today was the day that the Professor Armstrong explained the class to her students. I could not believe my ears of all of the work that we have to do to receive a good grade in her class. I was astonished to hear that we will need to do seven Rhetorical Analysis (RA) papers and seven unit projects. I understood that going to a university was a whole other level then going to college, but I could not believe that this was going to kill me by the end of the semester. The RA papers had to be a topic from the Disabilities Studies Quarterly website. We needed to summarize the paper about the author facts and if she should include it in her future classes. It had to be 2 pages, well-written, and needed to be turned in to the website called turnitin.com.