For this assignment, you will select texts from our course and analyze them from a rhetorical point of view. You are free to select any text we’ve engaged with throughout the semester – written or not written. Building from our first and second writing projects, this third and final writing project asks that you use your personal experience, worldviews, cultural backgrounds and histories as evidence, students will apply rhetorical theories and strategies to develop a piece of composition that analyzes at least 3 texts from our course, and synthesises your analysis with at least 3 pieces of relevant scholarship/research, for a total of 6 sources. You can use texts and scholarship you’ve worked with before in our course (this paper is meant to give opportunity for growth and development – the continuation of your analytical skill sets)!
Whichever texts you select, keep in mind that the genre of this assignment is analysis, and as such, you should avoid the overuse of summary, and focus on your own original thinking. You will recognize depictions and themes of the human experience in your chosen text; come up with an overarching, singular opinion; use synthesis to show how your observation(s) manifests across time/history and or place/geographical location. You will observe how direct and/or indirect historical, social, economic, scientific, cultural, geographic, political, and institutional factors influence the writer, text, and audience of your selected text.
You will generate original critical thinking in a piece of composition about the diversity of human experience across time and place by synthesizing at least three readings from our course. You will synthesize these texts with research, as well as your own unique personal experience, worldviews, cultural backgrounds and histories to situate works of world literature within historical, social, economic, scientific, and other contexts. Building from the research requirement in the second project, there is a research requirement to this project (see Texts + Research Requirement below). This assignment aims to empower students by: asking that students demonstrate that their analysis comes from their own personal rhetorical situation; allowing students to choose whatever texts interest them from our course readings and viewings.
- Oral Literature in Africa, from the Introduction 3-5; 240-241 Lyric; 266 Topical and Political Songs; 414-415 Riddles; of course, you may read on if you wish https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/OralLiteratureInAfrica.pdfLinks to an external site.
- The Thousand and One Nights, excerpt from Invitation to World Literature
- Your main point of analysis should consider Context(s): Are there any direct and/or indirect historical, social, economic, scientific, cultural, geographic, political, and institutional factors that likely influence the writer, text, and audience. What are the depictions of the human experience in the text? Do these themes relate to any other themes of the human experience across time / history? Do these themes relate to any other themes of the human experience across place/geographical location/country?
- Author: who is/are the author(s) of the text? What do you know about them based on the information provided, and what can you infer? Do some research on the author(s) as well; what are some details about their backgrounds that might be important for understanding the text?
- Origin: in what part of the world does the text originate? where was the text originally published? do some research: do the norms, practices, laws, themes, shared concepts of that culture contribute to the shape of the text?
- Exigence: what is the perceived need for the text – the urgent imperfection a writer identifies and then responds to through writing.
- https://pressbooks.pub/openenglishatslcc/chapter/the-rhetorical-situation/Links to an external site.Links to an external site.
- Audience: who are the intended primary audiences for the text? Does the text target any other audiences, and how can you tell?
- Purpose: what are the authors’ purposes? What are they trying to achieve with this text? How might the text’s audience affect its purpose?
- Rhetorical strategies: what kind of argumentative strategies does the text use? Which rhetorical appeals does it rely on the most? Does it primarily appeal to the audience’s emotions (pathos), logical thinking (logos), or the authors’ own authority (ethos)? How effective are these appeals? Note that usually, you will find a combination of two or three kinds of appeal in any given text or argument.
- Language: What kind of language does the text use? Look closely at the tone, register (level of formality), and any elements that stand out, such as emotionally loaded words, repetitions, metaphors or descriptive words, words or phrases that signify specific political or social viewpoints, etc. How do you think the author(s) tailored their language for their intended audiences?
- Organization and structure: How is the text organized? Does it follow the genre conventions in its organization or not, and why? Where is the central claim located? What do the introduction and conclusion look like? How effective is the organization overall?
- Visuals: What kind of visual elements does the text use? Are there any pictures or images? How do they work together with the text?
- Genre: What genre does the text fall under? How closely does it follow the conventions of that genre? Does the text ever break the expectations for the genre, and to what effect?
The Tale of Genji, excerpt from Invitation to World Literature
https://www.learner.org/series/invitation-to-world-literature
https://www.learner.org/series/invitation-to-world-literature
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4664&context=honors_theses
https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/the-heart-of-history-the-tale-of-genji/
Step 2: Study the texts
read carefully, annotate, write down your reactions, re-read again, paying attention to how your reaction might have changed the second time over
Step 3: start drafting your analysis
Decide which questions are most important for your text and address them in more depth than the others. For example, your text might have no visuals, but the author’s background might require some extra time to unpack.
Do your research:
RESEARCH REQUIREMENT:
3 texts from our course (yes – you can work with texts you worked with in previous writing projects), with 3 pieces of relevant scholarship/research (you may also use scholarship from our course) = total, 6 citations in a works cited page
Note on attribution and citation: You can decide how, when, and if you should use outside sources – how and when to synthesize ideas. For example, if you use a popular source, you can find a text written in the same genre as the main text you are analyzing to help you talk about how well your main text follows–or doesn’t follow–the genre conventions. You can check your sources’ credibility following the suggestions in this guide: https://lib.calpoly.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Evaluating-Credibility-Fall-2017.pdf