Students will read and reread an educational article of their choosing and write a one page summary of the text, along with 4-5 page analysis of the rhetorical strategies of the document. Note that you have two separate parts to this assignment: summary and analysis. Students will analyze the background, audience, purpose, development, organization, persona, and style of the text. This project aims to help students take a more in-depth look at the writing conventions of this professional discourse community, meanwhile offering them strategies that they can adapt to their own writing. This analysis of a professional piece of writing will serve as a nice contrast to the group project that follows in which they analyze the conventions of theoretical pieces from the academic sphere.I. Academic Free-Standing SummaryThroughout the course of your college career, professors will call upon you to summarize texts for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, you will need to summarize, verbally, an author’s ideas in order to participate in a class discussion or support a point you want to make. At other times, you may be required to incorporate summaries of research into a larger synthesis in an essay. Likewise, in order to conduct a successful rhetorical analysis of a reading you must be able to summarize the text for an audience that is potentially unfamiliar with the piece. Conventions for an Academic Free-Standing Summary:1. Title: Simply title your summary with the author’s name, the title of article in quotation marks, and the words “A Summary.” Example: Margaret Sanger’s “The Cause of War”: A Summary.2. Begin your writing with a one-sentence summary of the central claim of the text (i.e. thesis that you identified in the close reading assignment during week four). Summarize the main points that the author (or authors) makes by employing action verbs (argues, explains, points out, discusses, asserts, details, concludes, etc.). Don’t just tell your readers that the author talks about this or that; explain what analytical or argumentative point (thesis) the author is making. Differentiate between examples and points. A summary aims for the complete gist of the article and cuts through much of the supporting evidence and examples to present only the main points of an author’s argument. Remind your own readers throughout the summary that these are the author’s ideas; you can achieve this by bringing in references to the author.3. The summary should be no longer than one-fourth the length of the source article. Paraphrase the author’s text. Use quotes only when absolutely necessary, and be sure to document any direct quote with a page number. Offer transitions between major thoughts and paragraphs. Sentence combining will help you tighten your prose and offer your reader more information in less space. The summary should be coherent and should “flow.” **Note, most experts recommend that quotes are used sparingly; that is, no more that 10% of a paper should be directly quoted. If your paper is 1200 words, then no more than 120 words should be from direct quotes. 4. Finally, write the summary from the author’s point of view. Do not judge. This is not an analysis, but a summary. You need to be objective and provide your reader with a succinct summary of the source text.
II. Rhetorical AnalysisIn the rhetorical analysis for the project, you will practice the work of reading texts critically by analyzing [the article you chose] for what it reveals about the rhetorical choices—as well as the assumptions and beliefs—of [the author].Getting Started: This assignment will require you to explore {the article] as a text on three levels: 1) as an attempt by someone to communicate something important; 2) as a document that has intentionally been written and structured in such a manner as to lead readers to think, feel, and react in specific ways; and 3) as a cultural artifact that embodies (at least on some level) the values, attitudes and beliefs of a certain group of people at a particular moment in time.Thus, in order to do this project well, you will need to carefully re-read this text several times, analyzing the work on each of these different levels. That is, in your paper you will need to be able to discuss what you think [the author(s)] are trying to say in [the article], so you will want to spend some time carefully considering what you think the main ideas of the text are. But the bulk of your paper will require you to analyze and engage how the authors are attempting to get their points across, and why they have done so in the manner that they have. So, using rhetorical concepts such as purpose, audience, genre, stance, media/design, ethos, pathos, logos, syntax, structure, language, voice, etc., (choose carefully and do not think of these items as a list of things to fulfill) you will want to spend some time carefully reconsidering what [the author(s)] are attempting to do stylistically and structurally as writers, and why. Finally, you will want to explore the work as an historical and cultural document, looking carefully not only at the text itself, but considering the wider context in which it was written, and to speculate on the connections between its audience, context, and the wider culture and values of the period. Rhetorical Considerations: Your purpose in this project is to make an argument (provide a clear thesis) about some aspect of what [the author(s)] are trying to say and do as writers in [the article}. In the process of discussing this, you should offer some analysis of the cultural and/or historical context in which the text was written. Example Thesis: Colleen Ruggieri employs a subtle rhetoric and sense of urgency to convince educators that the time for change in instructional practices, from a testing focused methodology to research-based strategies, is now.Your audience for this paper is someone who may know some basic rhetorical concepts, but who has little familiarity with [the author] or [the topic]. Thus, the bulk of your discussion will want to focus on providing your reader with specific examples and clear explanations of how the text is working and why. In other words, do not assume that your readers will have [the author]’s text to refer to as they read your paper. You must be able to explain and support your points through summary, paraphrase, and quotation.Putting It Together: There are a number of different organizational strategies you might use to structure your paper, but keep in mind that your ultimate aim is to lead your reader through an orderly discussion that focuses on a few main claims about [the author] and rhetoric. You must also provide
evidence to back up your claims, which in this context means specific examples from the text in the form of summary, paraphrase, and/or direct quotation. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, with standard one-inch margins. Your paper should be 5-6 pages (that is, you’ll have a one page summary and 4-5 pages of analysis); (approximately 1250-1500 words).