To complete this worksheet for paper 1 you should:

Go through the annotations in the article and find the interesting pieces of evidence, patterns, contrasts/opposites that you think you might want to work with.

As you go through the annotations ask:

 Which of these pieces of evidence points most clearly to the author’s argument?

Which pieces of evidence overlap? Can groups be created out of certain pieces of evidence?

Which of these pieces of evidence would be the most interesting to discuss?

Rank your evidence from the most important to least important and explain how each piece of evidence or patterns of evidence supports a specific complex argument that the author is making within the text.

When linking evidence into the author’s complex argument you should consider:

How does the author’s specific language in the evidence I’ve chosen speak to the argumentative position the author is taking? In a basic way, consider whether the words that the author is choosing pointing towards a negative or positive attitude towards their general subject?

Why has the author made the deliberate choice to use the words that you have chosen as specific evidence? What do those words mean? Why would the author choose those words and not an alternative?

In what ways is the evidence that I have chosen a small compact example of the larger argument the author is making? In other words, how does the small specific piece of evidence chosen expand out to the author’s larger complex argument?

Review the information on the rhetorical analysis handout.

Think about audience

Who is the actual audience for this text and how do you know?

Who is the invoked audience for the text and where do you see evidence for this in the text?

What knowledge, beliefs, and positions does the audience bring to the subject-at-hand?

What does the audience know or not know about the subject?

What does the audience need or expect from the writer and text?

When, where, and how will the audience encounter the text and how has the text—and its content—responded to this?

What roles or personas (e.g., insider/outsider or expert/novice) does the writer create for the audience? Where are these personas presented in the text and why?

How should/has the audience influenced the development of the text?

Think about Purpose:

What is the aim/goal of the writer?

What motivated the writer?

What is the author’s perspective/leaning/bias in the argument?

Think about exigence:

The exigence refers to the perceived need for the text, an urgent imperfection a writer identifies and then responds to through writing. To think rhetorically about exigence is to think about what writers and texts respond to through writing.

What has moved the writer to create the text?

What is the writer, and the text, responding to?

What was the perceived need for the text?

What urgent problem, or issue, does this text try to solve or address?

How does the writer, or text, construct exigence—something that prompts response—for the audience?

Think about the rhetorical appeals

Ethos: (credibility of author)

Who is the writer?

What is the historical/ political/cultural/professional background of the author and/or the source?

What type of source/s does the passage/text use, if any? (research data, reports, interviews, personal experience, etc.)

Pathos: (emotional appeals, appeals of value, appeals of necessity)

How does the writer create an emotional response?

Does the writer use familiar references to explain an unfamiliar idea? (remember most of the things we read in this class are written for a specific audience where the writer assumes they are knowledgeable with the content.) Think about how well the writer uses examples.

Logos: (logic of claims and evidence in the argument)

What logical steps does the author take to make his/her point? (compares, contrasts, shows through examples, explains events, etc.)

Kairos: (time and place the rhetorical appeals and devices are used)

Think about context: What is the context in which it was written/uttered?

This relates also to audience, purpose and exigence