Critical Analysis
PAPER 1
ZAZA- English 1302
Due Date
Turnitin copy due Saturday June 20,2015
Formatting
 12 point Times New Roman font, double spaced, 1” margins.
 MLA Format (heading and header, as discussed in class).
In your analysis, answer this question:
What strategies does this writer use to persuade the reader of their claim?
Some ways you could go about this assignment
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You could identify three to five of the writer’s most effective modes, and devote a paragraph
to each one, discussing in the paragraph how they are used to make his/her argument
persuasive to the intended audience.
You could identify three to five of the writer’s least effective modes and devote a paragraph
to each one, discussing in the paragraph how they are used to make his/her argument
persuasive to the intended audience.
You could identify the two most effective and two least effective modes and devote a
paragraph to each one, discussing in the paragraph how they contend with each other in the
article.
You could show how the author appears to be making an argument about one thing, but is
actually telling a story (or making an argument) about something else, and devote your
body paragraphs to explaining how the author manages the interaction of the explicit
(obvious) and tacit (unstated or less obvious) story.
You could focus the central rhetorical appeal(s) and explain why this strategy is most
effective for the writer’s audience.
Other requirements
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Your intro paragraph should explain the author’s main argument. You may not find a
“thesis statement” anywhere in the author’s piece—the author’s main argument may only
be identifiable through some detective work, because authors often only imply their main
arguments. Figuring out the thrust of the piece is part of the thinking work of doing this
assignment.
Your intro paragraph will also identify the audience for this article and support this
assumption of this audience with evidence.
Don’t write about whether you agree or disagree with the author. This assignment is not
about your opinion on or reaction to the issue or the article. It is only about how the article
works.
Make sure your paper goes beyond just summarizing what happens in the article. Your
paper should interpret the article and explain how it does its work.
This paper should not have first person (“I”) or personal stories in it.
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You don’t need to do any research for this assignment, but if you do research, be sure to cite
and quote appropriately any ideas, words, or information you find using MLA in-text
citations and an MLA Works Cited page.
Organization
 Remember to organize your essay into:
POINT –claim
example: Smith uses narrative throughout her essay to engage the reader
emotionally.
ILLUSTRATION – evidence
example: She tells three stories that help the reader understand the injustice of the
mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users. The first story is about a young man
who was arrested sitting in his uncle’s car. In this story, Smith shows how the law is
applied. The second story compares two different scenarios of drug offender and
makes the reader understand how the laws unfairly target poor people. The third
narrative examines the life of a man serving a fifty years sentence for his recurring
arrests to addiction to crack cocaine.
EXPLANATION – connecting evidence to claim
All three of these narratives show how those affected by mandatory minimums are
individuals rather than statistics. The reader may feel angry at the injustice done to
these individuals or sad because they are “casualities of system” (Smith 245).
What are “modes”?
Writers narrate, define, describe, discuss cause and/or effects, analyze the process, exemplify,
juxtapose etc.
What are “appeals”?
Logos- Appeal to reason
Pathos- Appeal to emotion
Ethos-Appeal to credibility