Due Dates
First Submission - Due 10/7
Second Submission - Due 10/21
Approximately 1500 words
Description
In this course, we're focusing on how scholars, engineers, writers, and artists theorize and use new media. The New Media Reader offers us a window into how people in various disciplines make different kinds of arguments, and this assignment will ask you to compare two of our readings. The tools of rhetorical analysis allow us to, among other things, understand how an argument is constructed and who the target audience might be. In this assignment, you'll be considering such questions with regard to two of our readings, and then you'll be making comparisons between these two readings. Lisa Ede's The Academic Writer offers us a number of ways to analyze an argument: Aristotle's three appeals, stasis theory, the Toulmin method. She also encourages us to think about writing as design and to develop a "rhetorical" sensitivity. You'll use all of these tools and ideas in this paper.
You'll be comparing two of our readings from the New Media Reader. You can choose from any of the readings we've read thus far. If you would like to write about a chapter in the The New Media Reader that we haven't yet read, please check with me first.
Your task is to develop an argument about how these two arguments are constructed and how their rhetorical situations are similar or different: What similarities and differences are there between these two arguments? How do the authors' disciplinary backgrounds affect their argument, their audience, their rhetorical tactics, and their goals?
Goals of the Assignment
While I will not be grading your paper, I will be providing feedback. That feedback will be focused on whether or not you've addressed the following goals:
1) Consider the differences between the disciplinary backgrounds of the authors and how those differences affect their arguments.
2) Articulate a clear argument about how these arguments are similar or different. While you may be able to determine a number of connections between the two arguments that you choose, it will be your task to focus your argument. What is your argument about how these two pieces of writing are similar or different?
3) Offer concrete evidence from the readings. When making claims about how these author's argue, offer specific examples as evidence.
4) Make use of the terms explained in The Academic Writer to conduct your comparative analysis. We've discussed a number of terms that help us make sense of arguments, and you should think of these terms as your tools for this paper.
5) Explain the purpose of your analysis. For instance, what does your analysis show us? How does it offer us a new way of looking at on one or both of these readings? How would you answer someone who read your analysis and responded with "So What?"
