Essay #3 Prompt [Rhetorical Analysis]
PAPER DUE: Sunday, 11 April (digital copy on BB)
For this essay, you will compare and contrast two articles. It is imperative that you quote
directly from each article and give a close reading that indicates your critical thinking and
rhetorical analysis. Your in-text citations and works cited page must be done correctly (just
follow the templates we have used in class and I have provided on BB).
Consider using a strategy like this:
In “On Keeping a Notebook,” Joan Didion writes, “we are talking about something private, about
bits of the mind’s string too short to use, an indiscriminate and erratic assemblage with meaning
only for its maker” (122).
In “On Dumpster Diving,” Lars Eighner writes, “Some material things are white elephants that
eat up the possessor’s substance” (155).
A strong essay concerning these two articles will examine the idea of possession. For instance,
how does Didion’s conception of possessing memories from a journal compare to Eighner’s
conception of possessing materials from a Dumpster? How are these conceptions
similar/different? What does Didion say about keeping a journal? What does she say about
understanding one’s role in society? What does Eighner say about this?
