Writing

I will upload three articles. Please do a rhetorical analysis for the papers in page one.

In a rhetorical analysis of an article or communication (you will be doing a lot of these), there are key components that you need to address:
• Audience
• Purpose
• Evidence
• Reasoning
• Communication strategy

For these readings, I have identified the following for you. Publication, audience, and purpose:

The readings for today were published in The Atlantic for their 150th Anniversary Issue. The Atlantic is a monthly periodical, read primarily by a reasonably well-informed and well-educated audience, the kind of people who are likely to read The New York Times, Harpers, The Wall Street Journal, and similar publications. The publication is rather middle-of-the road in politics, but includes both liberal and conservative opinion pieces. The writers of each opinion piece (there were about fifty altogether in that issue) were identified as prominent thinkers, theologians, educators, politicians, and even included Ms. Manners.

In page two:

to the extent possible, you will discuss the other elements (don’t panic – this is just an introduction to this kind of analysis).
Answer these questions and any other that occur to you:
Who is the author? How might that affect the response?
What assumptions about American Identity are being made? Do you agree with them? What evidence does the author give for the claims made?
How does s/he form the argument (communication strategy) – examples, logic, appeal to emotion?
What are the biases you identify in this text?
What other observations do you have?
In your response, be sure to be specific – support your answer with specific items (quotes or paraphrase) from the text.

Double spaced. Each one is a separate paper. Due Saturday