RWS 280 Essay #1 Prompt WRITING A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

The reading: “The U.S. Should Adopt Income-Based Loans Now” by Kevin Carey published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Oct. 23, 2011

In this first section, the topic is focused on whether or not the government should do more to relieve student-loan burden. It gives us a brief overview of this controversial issue and introduces specific aspects of proposal arguments. Remember, a proposal argument is where an author states a position (thesis) surrounding a specific problem and then proposes a solution to that problem. The focus of this prompt is on identifying the basic elements of a rhetorical analysis.

The Prompt: Write a rhetorical analysis of Kevin Carey’s article, focusing on identifying and detailing the following three parts:

• In Part 1, you will need to detail the author’s project: purpose, goal, stylistic choice(s), overall strategy and (for a grade higher than a C) a general activity.. You will also need to identify the publication’s audience. Where the article was published will tell you about who this audience is, including age and gender of its readers, as well as educational level. This information will help you understand why the author made certain decisions about why and how he presented his article. We will discuss this in class. Be sure to take notes.
• For part 2, you must identify one of the supporting claims in Carey’s article, and then identify and analyze the evidence used to prove, support or illustrate that claim. You must also evaluate the effectiveness of this evidence on the reader. We will identify Carey’s thesis statement, all supporting claims and evidence in class. Again, take notes!
• For part 3, you’ll need to identify where Carey addresses one of the opposition’s claims (also called the counter-argument or prolepsis) and how Carey refutes this claim. You also need to identify the evidence he uses to support or illustrate his refutation/response and evaluate its effectiveness.

I will provide a Writing Strategy for this prompt which you can use to organize and structure your essay, and you can use it as a checklist for your essay. Since I am using the rhetorical strategy of enumeration for this prompt, the Writing Strategy is especially helpful since it gives you more detailed information about how to present and develop each part of the prompt. It will also give you information on what you need to do for a C, B or A paper. Be sure to pay attention to your paragraph structure (see the Basic Academic Outline Handout posted on Blackboard under Course Docs), and edit your entire essay for any grammatical and mechanical errors. You will not be required to include a Works Cited page for this essay, but you do need to include the in-text references for all quotes and/or paraphrases. Feel free to meet with me (or the tutor) if you are having difficulties with any part of the prompt. For those of you who struggle with reading comprehension and/or grammar/mechanics, be SURE to meet with the tutor

LENGTH: 4 TO 7 pgs

CONNECTION TO STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES Successful papers will demonstrate the following abilities:

1) evaluate the arguments/claims and supporting material presented in written texts,

2) evaluate and effectively incorporate an author’s text into your own essay to support and extend your own ideas,

3) use critical reading and thinking strategies to evaluate a public written text,

4) analyze some of the elements of academic texts—particularly argument, genre, and purpose,

5) articulate in writing key rhetorical concepts,

6) explore the significance of texts to oneself,

7) format a simple manuscript (page margins, appropriate font style and size, paragraph indentation, block style, etc.),

8) edit your own writing for grammar, mechanics, and usage appropriate to various writing situation, 9) critique your own and others’ texts to develop your abilities in academic writing.