Powernotes Rhetorical Analysis (pick your own topic

C. Pickrel English 20 updated 2019

Rhetorical Analysis Research and White Paper

Preparing for the assignment:

• Gather 3-5 primary documents (these sources should be typical writing done by writers in your field of study). You could use the three academic journal articles that you collected for our

literature review since these are written by writers working in your major/field of study (or a

field of study you are considering). Alternatively you could gather samples of writing done in a

career that is typical for this major. Be sure that your documents do not cover too many different

genres. You want to be able to make generalizations about what you see in the writing. (See

Canvas for some samples of documents students have used in the past.)

• Gather one secondary source that talks about writing done in your field of study. (see Canvas for some samples of documents students have used in the past.)

• We will read about, watch videos on, and discuss rhetorical conventions and strategies that authors use to present their content to an audience. See “Backpacks vs Briefcases” or Canvas for

more information.

• Using powernotes to track your information, you will annotate, collect examples, and document how writers in your field of study or future career use these rhetorical strategies. Your notes will

detail appropriate conventions, discuss how the writing is structured, and determine which kinds

of rhetorical strategies are used most often. Your powernotes should highlight examples, identify

what the rhetorical strategy is that you see working in the example, and comment on how or why

it is working or why it is used in this field. (See Canvas for some samples)

• Some basic suggestions for types of research to track: Make notes about the way the author structures (organizes) his/her piece. Does s/he make use of any rhetorical appeals? Does s/he

use Toulmin argument, logic or some other type of argumentative strategy to structure his/her

point? Who is the typical audience for this kind of writing? What kinds of purposes do these

writers seem to have most often? What are the academic/social/political contexts for

communication? What counts as evidence? (For further instructions see last page of this

assignment) See Canvas, studymate, for a list of other rhetorical strategies to investigate.

• Remember that you are not critiquing a particular author’s ideas (content) but composing an analysis of the author’s rhetorical choices (how s/he makes his/her point and achieves his/her

purpose).

This Rhetorical Analysis assignment has two parts (each part is worth 50 points):

Part One Powernotes (collecting examples and beginning your analysis):

1. Use powernotes to gather examples and make annotations. You will download a Word document and upload this word document of your final notes to Canvas.

Part Two White Paper (writing out your analysis and delivering this information to an audience):

2. Write a detailed white paper that presents the most common rhetorical strategies and conventions used by authors in your field. Audience: someone who wants to learn about

writing in this area.

C. Pickrel English 20 updated 2019

Requirements:

• You must draw on specific details (quotations/examples) from your research to make your points.

• List your citations/reference (the primary and secondary sources) according to the research paper style preferred in this academic discipline/major: MLA, APA, Chicago,

CSE, etc so that it is clear where to sources can be found.

• The white paper content should be approximately 1,200 words, white paper style.

This assignment covers the following English 20 Learning Objectives:

• Reading texts from a variety of disciplines in a variety of genres

• Identifying appropriate context-based writing conventions

• Composing, informally and/or formally, in a variety of genres

• Developing the ability to think critically about the values and standards of various disciplines

Assignment Objectives:

Focus on creating a clear picture of writing in this field and providing specific examples as support for your

analysis. Demonstrate your understanding of how rhetorical choices contribute to the success of a piece of

writing.

Powernotes: See Canvas for more information and links to using powernotes

White paper format/content: See Canvas for more information on the white paper genre and samples

Grading (see rubrics below the assignment on Canvas):

• Powernotes document (50 points) o Should annotate 3-5 documents written by writers in your field of study. o Annotations should define samples that show a particular rhetorical strategy or element,

explain how it is working, and why it is working well/not so well, or why the author is

using the rhetorical element or why it is used in that field of study.

o You should have notes covering at least five different topics (five different rhetorical strategies/elements).

o You should collect at least three examples for each topic/strategy so that you have some to choose from when you go to write your paper.

• White paper 50 points o Write up your analysis based on your powernotes by creating a document in the genre of

a white paper that explains what you have discovered about writing in this field of study.

o This paper may be informational: you give information about the most common strategies/ways of writing a piece for the genre you looked at.

o This paper could be persuasive: you discover that writers are not using effective strategies and you want to advise writers to adopt another approach so they can be more

successful with writing in their field.

o The paper should be written objectively, connect with what the audience needs to know and use a white paper format that guides/informs/engages readers.

o Your paper should include quoted examples from your primary sources with close analysis of these examples as well as generalizations about how they represent writing in

this field of study.

o Your paper should include information from at least one secondary source (an article that talks about writing in your field of study) as additional evidence to support your findings

or as background information about writing in this field

• Other graded learning activities: submitting sources and peer review DUE Dates – See Canvas