Nonfiction Analysis: Essay #4

Fast Facts:
Length: 3 + typed pages (5 + pages handwritten)
ROUGH DRAFT: Tuesday, June 30
FINAL DRAFT: Tuesday, July 14

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Nonfiction Analysis: Essay #4

This assignment gives you practice in expository writing, where your essay is organized around a specific thesis or main idea of your own. While you will be writing about another writer’s work (and therefore must have a clear sense of the writer’s thesis), your thesis will be grounded in your analysis and interpretation of another’s ideas. Each body paragraph should develop your thesis by pointing to and explaining specific evidence (in the form of textual references) from the essay you are writing about. This means you will need to set up and contextualize each example and explain it in relationship to your thesis.

For Essay #4, you will have several options to analyze one or more nonfiction essay (any essay from this class so far – not a poem).

Option 1: Trace the Argument

In this option, you will examine how an author makes their argument. Give us a “roadmap” to the argument, tracing the development of the writer’s ideas from introduction to thesis to evidence to conclusion. In order to do this, you should explain, clearly and in-depth, the author’s main theme/argument.You will also need to demonstrate how the writer develops his or her argument by citing specific passages from the text that relate back to this main theme/argument.

For this option, your thesis would contain a claim about the thesis of the essay you are analyzing.

Option 2: Form + Content Analysis

For this essay, you will examine how form (structure) influences content (the ideas and concepts). Describe both form and content for one essay, and then examine how they reflect and shape each other. As with the first option, you will need to explain for your reader how specific passages demonstrate what you claim they do.

For this option, your thesis would contain a claim about the interaction of the specific form and content of particular essay.

Option 3: Close Reading of One Paragraph, Relating to Main Theme

Identify one key paragraph that you believe the core of the writer’s argument. Do a close reading of this paragraph, explaining how each sentence reflects the writer’s argument and purpose. In this option you will need to examine diction and tone as well as ideas. For this particular option you might find the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) useful concepts to analyze your chosen paragraph.

For this option, your thesis would contain a claim about the important role of a single paragraph in the context of an entire essay.

Criteria/What we’re looking for:

• A careful, close reading of the essay(s) you are writing about;
• An essay that has a clear sense of the main idea of the essay you are writing about;
• An essay with a clear, specific, and focused thesis;
• An essay that backs up its claims by giving specific examples from the text and explaining how and why these examples demonstrate the your argument about the text;
• An essay with paragraphs organized around one main supporting idea/focus;
• An essay with smooth clear transitions between ideas, sentences, and paragraphs;
• An essay that is carefully proofread for grammatical errors.