https://purpose.nike.com/ceo-letter (The piece of writing to do rhetorical analysis on)
Our first assignment in class is designed to help you familiarize yourself with critical reading skills. For this assignment, you will conduct a rhetorical analysis of a piece of business writing of your choice. Whereas the annotated bibliography will be a much more detailed piece of writing comparing multiple sources about one larger topic, the rhetorical analysis asks you to reflect upon and analyze a single piece of writing.
First, you are to find a piece of business writing–this can be just about anything you choose, so long as it provides enough content for you. It might be a proposal, similar to what you’ll write later in class, or a memo, a business letter, an email, a marketing campaign, a report, the minutes of a company meeting, a press release, the homepage of a company’s website, or even a job letter. Your response, which should be formatted as a short essay, should answer the following questions:
What genre of writing is this? What are the normal expectations of this genre?
Who is the AUTHOR of this piece? What are their potential biases? (for example, a company’s press release would have a certain type of bias). Note that some items (e.g., a website) may not have a clear single author.
Who is the AUDIENCE of this piece? What are their expectations?
How well has the author engaged their audience? What were their strategies? What made them successful (or unsuccessful)?
The analysis should be between 750-1000 words. Important–please do not simply write a question and answer for the above questions. You should write a cohesive response, with paragraphs, topic sentences, introduction, and conclusion.
A C-range grade means that the author has done an acceptable job of analyzing their chosen piece of writing. They show a general understanding of the writing they chose, along with an understanding of the audience. This range lacks sufficient detail, and likely remains a bit too much in the realm of summarizing their chosen piece of writing rather than explaining or examining its strategies and goals.
A B-range grade means that the author has done a very good job of analyzing their chosen piece of writing. The author shows an impressive understanding of the writing they chose and its genre, with a generally more thorough analysis provided. The audience is noted well, as are the author’s strategies, though they are not examined at a length that warrants a higher grade.
An A-range grade means that the author has done an excellent job of analyzing their chosen piece of writing. The author shows an impressive and thorough understanding of both their chosen piece of writing as well as the genre of which it is representative. The audience is noted and the author’s strategies at engaging them are evaluated and analyzed fully, with attention to both what they did well, what they did not do well, and where the piece might have been strengthened.
