Purpose: This essay is designed to assess your critical reading and analytical writing abilities. For starters, your goal is to choose an essay from the attached list that you want to analyze in your essay. It should be an essay that has a topic that interests you and that features elements you can readily incorporate into an analysis (methods, persona, types of evidence, etc.). You can choose any essay except the essay you wrote about for Essay #1. Your goal is to craft an essay that contains all of the elements of a thorough argument analysis. All drafts of this paper must be double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman with one-inch margins. The paper must include an original title, and it must be 3 pages in length. Use third person (avoid the use of “I” or “you”), a formal tone, and an academic voice. Include a work cited page in MLA documentation style to cite all the sources that you use, including the main article from our textbook, and be sure to use MLA in-text citations throughout your essay. The works cited page should be a separate page and does not count towards the 3 page length requirement.
Your essay should include the following sections:
1. Summary: In this section, you should provide a brief summary of the essay’s content and argument. Your goal in this section is to explain objectively the author’s claim and their reasoning. This section should not begin analyzing or evaluating the argument.
2. Analysis: In the section, you will begin breaking down the author’s argument and exploring the methods they used to support their claim and persuade the reader. You might consider from the following list of questions:
· What is the tone of this essay, how do I know, and what is the significance of this tone?
· Who is the audience of this essay, how do I know, and what is the significance?
· What kind of diction (word choice) does the author use and what is the significance?
· What is the persona of the writer and how is this persona significant?
· Do you see examples of logical, emotional, and ethical appeals and how are these significant?
· Do you see any flaws in reasoning or bias and why is this significant?
· What sort of evidence or support does the author provide and why is this significant?
Choose from among this list of questions; do not attempt to answer them all. Choose the most appropriate question(s) that will lead to a deeper understanding of the essay. Develop your analysis by quoting directly from the essay. Integrate all quotations into your own sentence. Include an MLA parenthetical citation for each quotation. Avoid personal opinion and subjective insights. For example, do not say, “I like the essay.” “I don’t understand the essay.” “I think everyone should read this fabulous essay.”
3. Synthesis: A synthesis requires you to make connections between your primary source and outside information. In this section, you should find at least one outside source (more are permissible) on the same topic. Your synthesis section should then lay out what another author or authors have argued about the same topic. You should pay particular attention to how these outside sources differ in their claims or reasoning from your main author. Be sure to cite your outside source(s) in the Works cited and with in-text citations.
4. Evaluation: Using the information from your previous three sections, you should now evaluate your main essay. An evaluation includes your judgments about the quality and significance of the essay. Support your judgments with citations from the text of your sources.
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Potential Essays for Analysis (Available Online):
- Laura Marsh “Murder, They Wrote”
- Rodale and Musk “Lost in Transition: The Path to Organic”
- Danielle Harris “Combating Sexism: Women and the Military Draft”
- Jessica Bennett “Why Do We Still Use the Word ‘Mistress’?”
- Nancy Jo Sales “Tinder and the Dawn of the “Dating Apocalypse”
- Robert Henig “Death by Robot”
- Alana Semuels “Free Tuition is not Enough”
- Keli Goff “The American Dream is Dead, And Good Riddance”
- Andy Bellatti “Coca-Cola’s Assault on Tap Water”
- Marta Zaraska “Is Lab-Grown Meat Good for Us?”
- Zack Beauchamp “Kapernick Didn’t Bring Politics into Sports. The NFL Did that by playing the
Anthem.”
12. Tristan Harris “Smartphone Addiction: The Slot Machine in Your Pocket”
13. Brian Kateman “We Can Save the Earth Without Giving Up Bacon. Here’s How.”
14. Miriam Hall “In this Impoverished Mississippi Community, Teacher Assistant is a Coveted
Job. It Pays $9 an Hour.”
15. Virginia Sole-Smith “It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the Battle over Overtime.”
16. Kennedy and Impink “A ‘Tour of Duty’ Before College Would Serve Students and the Nation”
17. Lavanya Ramanathan “Why Everyone Should Stop Calling Immigrant Food ‘Ethnic’”
18. Brendan Novak “I Was Wrong About the Alt-Right”
19. Michael Grothaus “What Happened when I Gave Up My Smartphone for a Week.”
20. Joseph E. Stiglitz “Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%”