This
assignment blends two genres: rhetorical analysis and personal essay. You will
tell the story of a specific “text,” which may be written (essay, poem, short
story, novel, memoir, history, letter), visual text (art, image, photo, video,
film), audio text (music, podcast), or multimedia (art, film, meme, Instagram
story), and the role it has played in your life. I am interested in the way
this “text” has influenced you specifically and changed you/your thinking in
some way. You are combining a personal essay about how and when you encountered
this “text” with rhetorical analysis about what effects it had on you, what
specifically you responded to, and why you think the text was particularly meaningful
for you at that time. Questions to help you develop your ideas include:
·
How has a specific “text” or media influenced
you, for better and/or worse?
·
Is there a specific character in a book, movie,
or a show that you see as similar to yourself in some way that’s been
meaningful for your own personal development?
·
If a text/media was not consciously influencing
you or even known to you at a time you were going through a particular personal
experience, how has seeing/hearing something in a text helped you realize or
learn something about an experience
after
you went through it?
·
How has a text depicted a version of an
experience you went through yourself (whether it was something traumatic/bad
like getting robbed or something happy/good like getting married) and how does
your own experience of this event compare with the text’s version of this
event?
GRADING CRITERIA
“Rhetorical
analysis” and “personal essay” are different modes that may occur at different
points (or simultaneously) in the essay. The criteria are worth 10% each and do
not need to appear in any order.
Rhetorical
Analysis:
·
Gives
enough contextual info (when/where it occurs) for an unfamiliar reader to
understand the text, its genre, and its impact on you
·
Shows
how a “text” influenced you or your thinking
·
Provides
details, moments, description, language as evidence for your interpretation
·
Explains/elaborates
on your interpretation of important moments/details from the text
·
Describes
impact of text in depth and detail, avoiding clichés, obvious truths, and other
people’s interpretations found on the Internet
Personal
Essay:
·
Tells
a story about your encounter with a particular “text” of any media/genre
·
Shows
a change in your “character,” the results/effects of this encounter, or “before
vs after”
·
Offers
self reflection about why/how this change occurred, what it means to you
·
Uses
1st
person pronouns and focuses on your perspective, worldview, and
language
·
Depicts
one or more revealing/transformative moments in your life related to this
encountert