How to write a topic sentence for a rhetorical analysis

Rhetorical Analysis Assignment

Instructions:

•Rhetoric: language designed to have a persuasive effect on its audience, through the use of the Rhetorical Triangle: Logos (logic/evidence), Pathos (emotion/values), and Ethos (credibility/authority).

• Rhetorical Analysis asks you to explain to your reader how the writer communicated their essay’s content using the Rhetorical Triangle, with assessments of how effective or ineffective the writer was in his rhetoric.

•The Rhetorical Analysis Assignment asks you to choose one of the two essays and write a 750-word long rhetorical analysis of it.

•The question your essay must answer and explain: Do you think the author

sufficiently supports his argument using appeals to the Rhetorical Triangle?

•Choose ONE of the essays listed below to write your essay about:

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Insulting Colin Kaepernick says more about our

patriotism than his”, The Washington Post

•Andrew Cohen, “Olympics are an antidote to our culture of phoniness”,

The Calgary Herald https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/cohen-olympics-are-an-antidote-to-our-culture-of-phoniness

Formatting Guidelines:

1. Write 5 complete paragraphs for a total of 750-1000 words.

2. Identify the title of the reading and the author by their full name in your introduction paragraph. Put the reading’s title in quotation marks. Subsequently, you do not have to refer to the full title, and you can refer to the author by their last name only.

3. Provide textual evidence (direct quotes, paraphrases, summaries) from your chosen essay to clearly and directly support your conclusions.

4. Integrate your quotes grammatically into your sentence structure.

5. Format your document correctly according to your chosen citation style.

6. Provide in-text citations that are correctly formatted according to your chosen citation style.

7. Provide a bibliography of your sources, even if this is only the original essay, formatted according to your chosen citation style.

Essay Structure:

Introduction Paragraph: Establish your topic with a clear topic sentence introducing which essay is under discussion including complete title and full author name; briefly summarize what you will be explaining and arguing in your three paragraphs; communicate your argument with a clear, direct thesis statement explaining your position.

Thesis Statement Example: “In (this essay), (the author) argues that (…..) and (sufficiently/insufficiently) supports this argument using appeals to the Rhetorical Triangle.”

First Body Paragraph: Explain, using at least two grammatically-integrated and relevant direct quotes from the text as support, the most and the least convincing Logos examples (facts, data, statistics, true anecdotal evidence) the author uses to support the conclusions he draws from his examples. Decide overall if the author sufficiently supported their thesis with Logos appeals and briefly explain why.

Second Body Paragraph: Describe, using at least two grammatically-integrated and relevant direct quotes from the text as support, the most and the least convincing Pathos examples (beliefs, values, ideals, emotions, ideologies) the author uses support his argument. Explain why you think these examples are convincing or not convincing. Decide overall if the author sufficiently supported their thesis with Pathos appeals and briefly explain why.

Third Body Paragraph: Describe, using at least two grammatically-integrated and relevant direct quotes from the text as support, the most and the least convincing Ethos examples (personal expertise and/or connection to topic; other experts’ opinions and evidence about topic) the author uses support his argument. Explain why you think these examples are convincing or not convincing. Decide overall if the author sufficiently supported their thesis with Ethos appeals and briefly explain why.

Conclusion Paragraph: Topic Sentence; briefly summarize the points you made in your body paragraphs; concluding sentence(s) explaining the overall conclusion you made regarding whether the author sufficiently or insufficiently supported his argument using appeals to the Rhetorical Triangle.