This assignment will ask you to analyze and evaluate a written argument. What argument you
write on is up to you, though I do ask that you keep it at least semi-academic. Feel free to think
on an article/book/text on your own time, but we will spend some in-class time locating an
argument.
The CMAPP Analysis is basically a rhetorical analysis, but where you utilize the CMAPP
process when constructing the analysis. Using each step
[Context/Message/Audience/Purpose/Product], and the questions associated with them, you will
create a document that explains how the author builds an argument to persuade his/her audience
of that author’s claim. In your essay, analyze how the author uses one or more of the features
from the course textbook to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his/her argument. Be sure
that your analysis focuses on the most relevant aspects of the passage.
Basically, a rhetorical[CMAPP] analysis is an essay that tasks you with analyzing what a writing
is trying to do, to analyze a writer’s major argument throughout his or her essay, and analyze
how they try to persuade their audience (to change their thinking about a subject).
A thesis statement for a rhetorical/CMAPP analysis should ideally look something like this:
“How [author] tries to change […]”
but can take any form as long as it asserts a position on an argument within the text. You will
then continue to analyze the questions the author likely considered while composing the text.
What was the context? What was the message? Who was the primary audience? Was there a
secondary audience? Etc.
The rhetorical essay for this class will be a standard essay with an intro, thesis, a body of
evidence, and a conclusion.
What makes this the first, and arguably easiest, writing assignment for this semester is that you
rely almost exclusively on what the written argument already sets forth. You find quotes from
the text to prove your thesis correct. Let the text work for you, and it should be much easier.
At minimum, the five chapters of our text (Engineering Communication) we will have read
before the analysis due date, as well as the other readings/discussions, should provide you with
plenty of vocabulary and ideas about how to analyze rhetorical arguments.