In the first and second essays, you worked with ideas from your own experience about a problem or a successful experience with education. In the next essay we will more fully develop your ability to write in reference to print or video materials (published texts), which is a much valued skill in college writing. To write well about another text we will focus on being persuasive; we will formulate a thesis on and draw quoted evidence from the text to illustrate the worldview that the text expresses. In our discussions we have discovered that there is sometimes a range of responses to a story or article. We must use evidence and persuasion to try to convince readers of the worldview that we see expressed in a text—the message the text is trying to send. How well we word the thesis statement and which quotes and examples we choose to use to support it will determine how persuasive we are in convincing readers of our perspective.
Prewriting
We have now moved into the Critical Literacy (student directed) portion of the course, so you will choose one of the three movies, music videos, articles, or other texts our class will investigate together. Free-write or brainstorm on what in your own experience has been similar to one of the issues we viewed as a class. Have you or someone close to you had an experience that relates to one of those described in the reading? If you have no experience personally look to the media – news stories or other sources that describe the same issue as the one our class explored together.
Drafting
The rough draft must be placed in the wiki, at least 1000 words, with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. We will be working on pushing our analytical reading and looking very closely at the worldview and ideas of the published texts. So this second essay must also reflect strong understanding of the reading/video you will discuss through a specific thesis statement and strong choice of quotes and examples.
a.) Introduction: Aim for 125-250 words describing your own experience as a hook and end the introduction with a specific thesis statement about your topic
example: Will Smith’s “Pursuit of Happyness” shows the superhuman strength needed to overcome homelessnesss in America for one man and his son.
b.) Body: at least 750 words of quotes and examples from the story/video you have chosen with clear Transitions (verbal bridges, connecting phrases) among evidence paragraphs
Each paragraph in the body of the paper generally consists of its own topic sentence and unified focus. For the purpose of this analysis, consider writing paragraphs to explain some of the following:
a summary of the text so your reader will have a basic concept of it as he/she reads
who the immediate audience was, and who the larger audience might be now, and why the piece is important to the audience both then and now
who the author is, and how he or she represents himself or herself in the text, and what other kinds of writing he or she has done (especially if it is about the same kinds of topics as this text). How or why is this author someone we should listen to about this topic?
appeals to ethos, logos or pathos—take another look at your notes to help you remember these terms (you are not required to include these, but they may strengthen your rhetorical analysis if you are certain of their meaning and can find ways in which they are being used in the text).
how the text is organized: look at paragraph breaks, use of white space, use of repetition, definitions, examples, word choices, inclusion of personal stories and where they are placed. We will discuss the organization of these texts in class, too, to help you with this.
what tone the writer has taken—is the writer reflective, angry, demanding, persuasive, being ironic, being humorous, formal, conversational? Quote or paraphrase examples that illustrate the writer's tone (two or three examples are probably sufficient).Explain how or why the example illustrates the tone and how the example contributes to the writer's purpose.
c.) Conclusion: End your essay by telling the readers whether or not you think the writer has been successful in achieving his/her purpose in this writing. Here you can remind readers of the strength of the text (if you think it is strong), of its purpose again, and remind readers, perhaps, why this text is still important, both to you and to others.
Editing
The final essay must be in the wiki and at least 1000 words in length. After getting feedback on your draft from your peers and from me, revise your paper with attention to organization, sentence and paragraph structure, wording, and spelling.