Analyzing a Written Text Essay Assignment

  PLEASE READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

I have attached the article, what I have completed so far along with tutor response and rubric.

Make sure sources are shown, essay should be about the article, making claim about the author and the article, NOT about eating disorders.  I need a good THESIS statement as well.  

Integrating Sources with APA Style

As you learned in the Reader-Response Essay, we use APA style to format our papers.  While APA has specific rules for your title page, running heads, page numbers, and paper formatting that you practiced using the APA template in that first essay, the Analysis of a Written Text essay requires you to also use APA style to integrate sources into your paper.

What does it mean to integrate a source?

Whenever you use ideas, thoughts, facts, or other types of information that you learn from another source, you must give credit to that source in two ways:

1. With an in-text or parenthetical reference that appears in the body of your paper.


2. With a full reference in the References page at the end of your essay. NOTE: The References page should be the last page of your essay. APA formatting is required.  An example References page can be found on the APA template.

Be sure to review the lesson on Integrating Sources “Cheat Sheet” to become familiar with when, why, and how to integrate sources into your paper.

What do I need to cite in the Analysis of a Written Text essay?

In this essay, you are required to practice integrating sources with APA style.  This will help you become familiar with using research for future assignments that will require research-based writing. Since you will be analyzing one of the two assigned texts for this class, you will need to cite that as one of your sources.  Additionally, you are required to conduct outside research to integrate one additional source to support your analysis.  Review the sample Written Text Analysis Essay to see how that writer integrated the required two sources into their paper.

Your analysis essay should be an examination of how a writer successfully communicates a message to readers. It should investigate, explain, and support how the writer of a chosen essay accomplishes an intended purpose.  To do this, you should explain the meaning of a text, analyze its structure and features, and help readers understand how/why it is thought-provoking, engaging, or impactful.  In other words, your goal is to study the impact a text has by analyzing the author’s writing strategies.  You will have to use specific examples from the chosen essay to prove your points, making critical reading an integral part of this process. One important note to keep in mind is that analysis is not simply a summary. Summarizing parts of your text may be necessary to support your analysis, but summary alone is not analysis. Analysis breaks the text apart to better understand what it is doing and how/why it is doing it. Assume your readers have also read the text you are analyzing; thus, to bring new insights/information to your readers, you’ll have to go beyond just telling them what happens in the text.

***   All writing is purposeful and audience-driven.  Whether you are writing an email to your manager at work, a letter to your child’s teacher, or an essay for class, a specific goal and a direct audience should impact the writing choices you make.  As a writer, it is important to understand these choices and make decisions that will best impact your goal.  As a reader, it is important to analyze how other writers make choices and how those decisions impact the effectiveness of their messages.  Because the reader-writer connection is so intertwined, we will focus our efforts in this unit on critically reading a variety of essays in order to develop insight into and analyze the effectiveness of written texts.  Our work in this unit will culminate in the second major essay, an analysis essay. 

ESSAY COMPONENTS (you can find a rubric here):

• An introduction that identifies the written text you are analyzing with brief background information (the author, year published, and important background of the text). 


• A thesis statement that clearly and directly provides an analytical position about the effectiveness of the written text.  Note: You will workshop your thesis in the discussion forums. 


• Targeted summary or description of the text.  You will not focus exclusively on summarizing the plot of your chosen text.  Instead, approach this essay as if your audience has also read your chosen essay, so instead focus only on the features within the text that play a key role in supporting your analysis.  Targeted summaries, as well as direct quotes, serve to support and illustrate the points of your analysis. 


• An explanation that demonstrates how your analysis supports or proves your thesis statement. 


• A conclusion that leaves the reader with a lasting impression as to why the essay is impactful. 

ESSAY REQUIREMENTS: 

• APA formatting, including a title page, page numbers, running heads, 12-point Times New Roman font, and double-spacing. 


• A reference page including the essay chosen as the subject of your analysis.  You will need to have AT LEAST one source for the final submission. It can be the text you read or another, academic source.


• 2-3 or 600-900 words pages of content (excluding title and references page).