English assignment

Your task is to analyze a text, paying special attention to the features that influence a piece of writing the most: the audience, the writer’s orientation, the rhetorical situation, and the genre (COLFV features). Use the sample rhetorical analysis on pages 42-47 as a flexible guide (not a rigid model). The content of your project should differ from the sample because you are analyzing a different text, but the format of your analysis should contrast with the sample as well, due to the nature of this assignment.

PART A : TEXT & SUMMARY (Due Wednesday, Feb. 10th)

• Select one of the texts available on BlackBoard under Project #1, labeled “Text Options.” Annotate a hard copy of the text.

• Write a SUMMARY: Use one of the texts made available for this assignment on Blackboard. Apply what you have learned about analyzing texts using the COLFV model and write a summary of your findings.

Your COLFV summary will include: 1: rhetorical information about the text 2: a brief description of content 3: a brief description of organization 4: a brief description of language 5: a discussion of the values that might be held by the discourse community of

readers and writer.

PART B : CONTEXT (Due Friday, Feb. 12th on Blackboard)

• Use the close reading, summaries, and notes to analyze the text — in particular, examine the effects of the audience, writer’s orientation, rhetorical situation, and genre (COLFV elements) by responding to each of the following questions with 2-5 sentences each. The format of this section should be a numbered set of responses to each question, BUT this does not mean giving short or one-word answers.

1. What is the context of the issues? What do you know about the topic? What issues does the topic raise? Is there a larger debate, discussion, or controversy already going on? What seems to be at stake?

Project #1 Prompt

Monday Wednesday Friday

Week 4 Review Prompt PART A: • Bring in annotated text to

class • Upload Summary to

Blackboard before class

PART B: Upload Context to Blackboard by 6pm

Week 5 PART C: Bring your handout to class

PART D: Upload the final draft of the handout to BBD before class

Unit 2!

2. Who is the writer? What do you know about the writer’s background, credibility, knowledge of the topic, beliefs, and social allegiances?

3. What is the publication/source? What do you know about its intended readers, reputability, political slant, and the topics it covers?

4. How does the writer define to rhetorical situation and identify the call to write? What is the writer’s orientation toward the issues involved? What is at stake for the writer?

5. Who is the intended audience? Is the writer addressing one group of readers or more than one? Is the writer trying to bring an audience into being (to create a group/ audience)? What kind of relationship is the writer trying to establish with readers? What assumptions about readers does the writer seem to make?

6. How does the writer use language? What is the writer’s tone? What does the writer’s word choice chow about his or her assumptions about readers? Does the writer use specialized terms or slang? Are there memorable figures of speech? Does the writer stereotype?

7. What is your evaluation of the rhetorical effectiveness? Does the writer accomplish his or her purposes? What constraints, if any, qualify the writing’s effectiveness?

PART C : HANDOUT (Due Monday, Feb. 15th)

• Write your genre analysis in the format of a handout using a title, subheadings, bullet points, brief content, and optional images. This should take one to two pages.

a. Begin with the rhetorical information: title, author’s name, date, source, genre, target audience, purpose.

b. State your claim. (How effective is the text based on the colfv analysis?) c. List all five elements of the colfv model separately; identify 2-3 features for each

element, include quoted and/or paraphrased text, and explain how these features connect to the text’s effectiveness or ineffectiveness.

d. List the reference information, using APA or MLA format.

• Bring your handout to class on Monday, Feb. 15th. We will be conducting a peer edit in class on Monday.

PART D : PEER EDIT (Due Wednesday, Feb. 17th)

• Use the feedback from your peers and the self-edit to guide your revision of project 1. Be sure to take all comments into consideration, but use your own judgment about whether or not following your peers’ advice is helpful to your assignment.

Resources: • Call to Write Chapters 1 and 2 (rhetorical strategies) • Keys for Writers (especially APA citations pgs. 241-292 • COLFV Direct Questions [HO] • Organization Strategies [HO] • Project 1 – Genre Analysis Rough Draft [HO] • Student Sample [BBD] • possible more helpful documents [BBD] • Class Notes [you can only get these in class, so come to class]