This assignment is worth 25% of your Project 1 grade. Therefore, you need to take a little more care with this assignment and take the time to do it carefully. Please see the assignment sheet if you have questions.
Rhetoric is a part of all communication. Therefore, when we do research, we have to be aware that all the sources we are using are rhetorical. Some of the questions we should ask are: How is this source establishing it’s credibility/authority? Is that authority appropriate in this context? What is the purpose this writer had for writing this source? Who was their audience? How does all of that affect the message? How did the context shape what the writer could share? How does this text participate in the larger conversation? Is it useful for my purposes or should I consider a text that made different choices?
Step 1:
This activity asks you to practice a number of skills you will need as an effective writer and researcher including source selection, rhetorical analysis, and summary. To start, you will find two sources on your approved topic. The two sources should be different from each other in terms of at least one of the following: audience, purpose, genre. For example, you can find a persuasive source and an informative source (that would be two different purposes); or you can find a source that’s written for scientists and one that’s written for a general audience; you can find one that’s a newspaper article, and one that’s a scholarly journal (that would be two different genres). Both of these sources should be different from the ones you’ve already submitted in previous assignments. Once you’ve found two sources that share at least one major difference in audience, purpose, and genre, and which are both discussing your topic, you’ll read both of them and complete the summary and analysis described in Steps 2 and 3 below.
Note: as discussed in the assignment sheet for your Unit 1 project, you must find sources that actually build on your knowledge and understanding of your topic in interesting ways. At the end of this unit, you will be required to narrow your topic significantly. Please be sure to do the following: a) find sources that answer questions for you (“research as inquiry”) and b) find sources that are interesting to you (“research creatively”), and c) find sources that make good use of your time (“research efficiently”). You can find these ideas explained in the Information Literacy video (Links to an external site.)from week 1.
Step 2:
- Summarize each of your sources.
- Note: Summaries follow a very particular structure. In other words, there are “rules” for writing a good summary. If you want help making sure your summary is correct, you can find more information on the Writing a Summary page
- Then, discuss how their arguments compare: What do they agree on? How did they build on each other? What did you learn from one source that you didn’t learn from the other source? Which do you think was most useful to help you understand the topic and why? Was that related to the information included or the way that information was “packaged”?
Step 3:
Analyze the rhetorical choices made by each text, paying particular attention to how the sources are different from each other. You’ll want to consider how they are different (in terms of audience, purpose, and genre), what stylistic choices they make, and how their differences shape how these texts can participate in the conversation. To help you write your answer in this section, please see these guiding questions, which I have provided for you. Please use specific examples from the text to support your analysis. Your answer to this section should be at least 300 words long.
You will find in attachments my approved topic and what you should write about. I will pay $32.00 for this assignment. Please read the attached file. Has to be done correctly or I will dispute. Please pay close attention to all three parts and complete all three parts. My topic is the ban on abortions. You will need to find two articles to write about as stated above in the instructors instructions. Please ask any questions at any time.
