LGBTQ communities
My Social Issue is on: LGBTQ communities for this essay, you will locate two different news articles addressing your chosen social issue and rhetorically analyze them using comparison and contrast. Throughout your essay, you will investigate not only what these articles communicate, but how they communicate with a particular audience. Your overall goal is to use comparison/contrast to analyze how two different news outlets use the rhetorical appeals to inform their readership/audience about a social issue and/or to convince their audience to adopt a particular point of view. It is up to you to choose the two articles you would like to analyze, but keep in mind the following: • Both articles must be about the same social issue, although they might take opposing sides on the debate, and/or their scope can vary • Both articles must either be written or visual (e.g., do not compare a written article with a television segment) • [unique_solution]The articles must be substantial/lengthy enough to support a detailed analysis Throughout your essay you should consider the following: • Rhetorical triangle • Ethos, logos, and pathos • Style, tone, language, audience, dialogue, punctuation, imagery, metaphors, word choice, content, narrative structure, visual images, music, medium, etc. • Claims made by the writers/hosts • Evidence presented to defend claims • Ways in which the articles are similar, yet different Purpose: This assignment prompts you to identify the rhetorical appeals/strategies that a particular article employs. One of the reasons this is useful is that it requires you to understand not just what information news writers/hosts/outlets are disseminating to the public, but also the motivations behind the information, devices, and perspective they circulate. Also, as you get more comfortable identifying the rhetorical strategies other writers employ, you will be able to utilize these strategies effectively in your own writing. Audience: Your audience will consist of your scholarly peers whom you may assume have a basic familiarity with your chosen social issue, although perhaps not with the specific information/arguments that you are analyzing. Audience is an extremely important consideration for the writer; therefore, you also want to determine who you think is the intended audience of the articles/news outlets and explain how and why you came to that conclusion. Content/Subject: Your rhetorical analysis of the news articles will consist mainly of your analysis of the three rhetorical appeals of ethos, and logos, pathos. Ethos deals primarily with credibility. You will want to examine the reputations and authority of the writers, hosts, and news outlets/corporations disseminating the information in the article to the public, but also the originators of any studies or statistics cited within the articles (what is the reputation of the groups who conducted the studies or came up with the numbers? What groups—if any—funded the research, and what biases might be skewing how the information was gathered or presented?). These factors, in addition to the rest of the written or visual content, will either improve or detract from the information’s credibility and effectiveness. Logos is concerned with the logic of the information/content. In considering a news article’s use of logos, you will want to focus on how the information is presented and whether or not that information is easily verified. For this you will need to address the organization and composition of the article. You might also discuss the medium, perspective, and the breadth of information being covered. Pathos deals with emotion. You should identify any attempts to evoke a particular emotion. Content accompanying the written information—the use of images, color, graphics, etc.—can be useful in addressing the article’s appeal to emotions. Finally, you will want to evaluate whether these strategies are effective in conveying the information/perspective that the visual is advocating. Constraints: This is an analytical, academic assignment, and, as a result, your writing should reflect that. This means that your paper should be written in an elevated and sophisticated style that makes use of correct grammar and usage. It’s not enough to just identify what’s similar and what’s different about how the two texts present information on your social issue—after analyzing the rhetorical strategies employed in the texts that you are examining, you need to make a clear argument about how/why your conclusions are significant. For Assessment, I will be looking at the following: • Thesis Statement • Rhetorical Analysis • Supporting Evidence • Focus and Organization • Academic Tone/Voice • Writing Fluency: Clear, Concise, & Correct • MLA Formatting