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ENG 111: Argumentative Essay (Frost-Loudoun)

The assignment requires students to research a contemporary social issue, do a rhetorical analysis of a scholarly article, a literature review, and a research-based analysis of a piece of media pertaining to the issue. Citations for two scholarly articles

Goals for our library research session

Goal 1. Identify at between 5-10 key concepts about the contemporary social issue you plan to explore for this class.

Goal 2. Identify at least two ways to get research assistance from the library.

Goal 3. Find at least two sources in class today. Save them so that you can find them later. It's OK if you don't end up using them in your final paper!

Remember, what you learn about conducting research for this class can be applied to research for other classes or even work-related research. 

 

Rhetorical analysis

What do we mean by "rhetorical analysis"? The Illinois Writers Workshop describes it as explaining "how writers or speakers within specific social situations attempt to influence others through discourse (including written or spoken language, images, gestures, and so on). A rhetorical analysis is not a summary. It also does not ask you to agree or disagree with the author’s argument. Instead, the purpose of a rhetorical analysis is to make an argument about how an author conveys their message to a particular audience: you’re exploring the author’s goals, describing the techniques or tools used and providing examples of those techniques, and analyzing the effectiveness of those techniques." For more on how to write a rhetorical analysis, check the Workshop website.