Purpose: Critically examine the rhetorical features of arguments. Construct essays that analyze the rhetorical effectiveness of arguments.
For this essay, you will take your knowledge of rhetoric and the argument presented in the film Blackfish to construct a rhetorical analysis essay. You will initially ask a question for rhetorical analysis then create a thesis statement based on that question. There is a list of questions on pages 155-157 in your textbook that you may use or you may come up with your own question. Remember to make the question big enough to satisfy the length requirement of the essay. Rhetorical analysis includes examining the audience, purpose, or genre as well as the rhetorical persuasion devices of logos, pathos, or ethos.
Structure: Additional information about structure for the rhetorical analysis essay is in WA on page 168. This essay will contain paragraphs as outlined below:
- Paragraph 1: Introduction (with thesis statement)
- Paragraph 2: Summary of argument. This is a brief, non-biased summary of the film and the argument presented.
- Paragraph 3 – 5: Rhetorical analysis. This section is considered the equivalent of the body paragraphs section. You will have at least 3 criteria/paragraphs in this section.
- Paragraph 6: Conclusion
There should be no deviation from this structure. If you’d like to keep things more organized, you may add MLA headers to your essay to divide the essay into well-organized sections.
Your essay should also contain a properly formatted MLA Works Cited page. You are required to have at least one source – the film Blackfish (see below). You are encouraged to have additional resources, however. Remember that if you have a source listed in the Works Cited page, it must be present as an in-text citation in the body of the essay and vice versa.
Film citation:
Blackfish. Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Perf. John Hargrove, Samantha Berg, Mark Simmons, Kim Ashdown, Dean Gomersall. Magnolia Pictures, 2013. DVD.
Audience: You are writing for a formal academic audiencewho wants to examine your point of view about the film and your knowledge of rhetoric.
Logistics:
- Double-spaced, titled, Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1 inch margins, MLA formatting.
- 5-8 full pages of writing including Works Cited page.
- The rhetorical analysis essay must contain a minimum of one source (the film “Blackfish”). You should add additional resources to support your argument.
- Sources in the Works Cited page must be cited per MLA protocol.
- Essay must demonstrate academic awareness of sentence structure, clarity, and effectiveeditingtechniques. For more guidance, you are encouraged to go visit the Writing Center (BP102).
