Argument Analysis Essay Assignment
Learning Objectives:
1. Analyze a text for the strengths and weaknesses of its argumentation strategies.
2. Construct a successful academic essay.
3. Document the essay correctly using MLA format.
Assignment:
Write an essay of approximately 900 words (plus or minus 05%), demonstrating the techniques and strategies an author/authors use in developing his/her (or their) argument. Choose one text from the list below, and write an analysis of the argument using proper terminology, including the kinds of appeals being made.
Your thesis is relatively limited: you are essentially arguing whether or not the author’s rhetoric is successful and why you understand it to be so. A successful essay will focus on demonstrating why your text is correct through a detailed analysis of the article you are engage with.
There are key elements to include in your analysis and are best included in the introduction:
Who is the intended audience of the text?
What is the purpose of the text (to argue, inspire, cajole, etc.)?
What is the thesis or main argument of the essay?
The majority of your essay should be based on key examples of how the author attempts to support his or her position. If you do not support your argument about the text with evidence (examples from the text), your assertions will be ungrounded and therefore less powerful.
All choices are available through eReserves. Choose one from the following list:
Author and text choices:
Madelein Thien, “The Closing Down of Personhood”
George Eliott Clarke, “History: Map or Trap?”
Michael Ondaatje, “We Need More than One Voice”
