The process of initiating a research project and building new knowledge requires us, first, to recognize different perspectives, and second, to offer something new to our audience based on our own research, analysis, experience, and insights. This essay asks you to apply the strategies of analysis toward two essays related to your topic. You will read, analyze, and construct an argument that develops a rhetorical stance in relation to the essays you have chosen.
Keep these things in mind as you develop your essay:
Read and annotate two essays (if you do not yet have two relevant essays from your own research, get in touch with me and I will assign you two);
Analyze each essay according to methods taken from Chapter 2 in FIAW;
Identify each authors central claim and how he or she supports it (e.g., by citing other authors, by narrating experience, by including evidence he or she gathered through research);
Draft a thesis statement that takes a stance in relation to the arguments you have analyzed.
The Composing Process
Academic research writing takes many forms. For this assignment, however, you will adopt a common organizational structure. Specifically, you should introduce your subject and state your thesis, offer some context for your analysis, present your analysis, come to a general resolution that balances the perspectives you have analyzed and reinforces your thesis, and conclude the paper by pointing toward additional research that should or needs to be undertaken. Consider the following as you structure and draft your paper:
Introduction (frame your topic)
Thematic Context (build on Essay I why is this topic relevant, urgent, etc.)
Rhetorical Analysis (focus on 2 comparable sources)
Resolution of Perspectives (reinforce your thesis)
Conclusion & Directions (gesture toward future action)
