CO130: Guide for Writing Rhetorical Response Papers

CO130: Guide for Writing Rhetorical Response Papers

1. Brainstorming ideas (before you write!):
2. Choose the text you want to analyze/evaluate:
3. Make sure you fully understand the rhetorical situation:
   • What is the purpose?
   • Who is the audience?
4. Consider the following question:

• Do you believe that the author achieves his purpose with this audience? This will be your thesis statement.

4. WHY? What are some textual features that are effective or ineffective? WHY are these features effective or ineffective?

 

 

1. Read the sample essay from the RHetorical Response Class File. Use the example and these directions to write your paper.  The introduction should include:
2. A “hook” to attract the reader.
3. Information about
   1. Who wrote the article.
   2. What the article is called.
   3. Where the article was published.
4. A brief summary of the article.
5. An explanation of what the purpose of the article is.
6. A description about who the audience
7. A clear thesis statement which is a “map.”
   1. This thesis statement should say whether you think the essay is effective, ineffective, or both; and which textual features the essay analyzes.

 

Body paragraphs: (Please note – if you write about positive and negative points, put positive ones first!)

For each body paragraph complete the following steps:

1. Choose one textual feature (e.g. organization, language, tone, evidence) and identify it in your topic sentence.
2. Explain how it is used, providing examples from the text.
3. Explain why it is effective or ineffective, considering the following questions:

• How does this (the textual feature) make the readers feel?
• What will this make the readers think about the author?
• How does this help the writer achieve his/her purpose?

 Conclusion:

• Summarize your ideas, showing your conclusion about the text without introducing new points.

 

1. Topic Sentences for RHetorical Response Paragraphs:

• X successfully appeals to his readers by ….
• Another successful strategy that X employs is to …
• In addition to …., I also believe that X’s ……. helps him to achieve his purpose with his audience.
• Although X ….. , his failure to ….. undermines his credibility as a writer.
• While X ….., he does not …. and this may cause his audience to question ….
• In addition to …., X also fails to appeal to his audience by….

 

 

2. Introducing Examples: 

• One example where X ….. is when he describes….
• For example,”…”
• X asks the reader, “….”
• X comments that “…”

 

3. Explaining Examples:

• Here X raises an important point because…
• This is an effective strategy because…
• In this example, X is explaining that … , but
• This point could be effective if it were supported with statistics, but…
• While this idea is an interesting one, the fact that ….. undermines his idea
• This strategy is ineffective because…

 

4. Connecting to the Reader:

• This use of …. may cause readers to believe X’s ideas because…
• This lack of … may result in the reader questioning X’s premise because…
• When reading this, writers may feel that…