Analytical Essay1

Engl 1201
Analytical Essay (Two Pages)
Due: February 15, 2019

Please note that all papers must follow APA format, which means they
must have a cover page and a reference page, be double-spaced, and use
proper in-text citations when required. For details on everything APA, see
the library's APA guide.

An analytical essay might be a little different from some of the essays you’ve
completed in the past. This essay does not require external research (in fact it
is not recommended) and is meant to focus exclusively on your response to one
of the persuasive techniques used by the essays we’ve studied so far. Thus,
this assignment really only has one question, but as we’ve looked at multiple
essays there are a number of different directions that your essay could take. As
the idea is that this essay will be a response to a specific text, your essay must
be interacting directly with (i.e. providing quoted evidence from and analysis of)
a specific text. Note that the goal here isn’t to agree or disagree with a given
argument, but rather to engage in a discussion that the argument has created.

Here's your task for this assignment:

In each of the essays we’ve looked at so far the author has made what we might
call an implicit argument—in other words, there is a thesis statement, but the
thesis is never directly stated. However, each essay is definitely making an
argument, and each is using different techniques in order to persuade its
readers of the validity of that argument. In your own essay, you will be doing a
close reading of one of the texts we’ve studied so far (texts are listed below) that
examines the following:
 What the implied thesis of the essay is
 What kinds of persuasive techniques the author is using to make his/her
argument convincing
 The effectiveness of the techniques in persuading the reader to adopt the
author’s point of view. Note that this is different from saying whether you
agree or disagree with the author. You are not arguing with them, rather
you are commenting on the effectiveness of their argument.
Please note as well that the structure of this essay should not simply be one
paragraph for each of the above points. My suggestion would be that you
establish the implied thesis early on (using quoted evidence from the essay in
question) and then comment on the techniques and their effectiveness
together. Your own analysis will only be effective if you are giving direct
examples from the text. It’s not enough to tell us that Stenson, for example, is
using sarcasm effectively, you need to show us, using Stenson’s own words to
help your explanation.
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Below is a list of the works we’ve examined so far and some reminders of the
kinds of techniques on display. Again, your essay will look at one of these.

Stenson, F. (2004, January/February). In search of a modest proposal. Alberta

Views, 14-15. Retrieved from http://www.albertaviews.ca

Stenson speaks from his own position of expertise as a writer. He uses a

Socratic dialogue method and he also relies upon sarcasm. You could say that
his writing is satirical.

Valenti, J. (2016). Line violence. In Sex object: A memoir (pp. 9-16). New
York, NY: HarperCollins.

Valenti also speaks from personal experience and relies upon the power
of the confessional and of shock value to make her argument felt. She looks to
redefine the way sexual violence is discussed and to re-examine the idea of
victimhood.

Vowel, C. (2016). Just don’t call us late for supper: Names for Indigenous
Peoples. In Indigenous writes (pp. 7-13). Winnipeg, Canada: Portage &
Main.

Vowel, C. (2016). The myth of taxation. In Indigenous writes (pp. 135-142).

Winnipeg, Canada: Portage & Main.

Vowels looks to be both combative and informative. It seems clear that

she’s writing to a specific audience and that she expects a possibly hostile
reception. She also employs humour. Note how she addresses the reader
directly.

Wallace, D. F. (2004, August). Consider the lobster. Gourmet, 50-64.

Wallace’s approach might be called encyclopedic, in that he looks to

define and historicize his subject. He is very interested in the meaning of words
and in the philosophy of ethics. His essay is philosophical (investigation of
ethics) in nature, but his presentation you might call eclectic. This is surely the
toughest essay to write on, but it also invites the highest number of different
approaches to analysis of it.

***Please note: The goal of this assignment is analysis, not summary. Your
essay should not focus on summarizing the text. You may wish, for the
purposes of explaining the significance of the passage to the overall work, to
give a brief summary of the work as a whole or the context around the passage.
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The main focus of your essay, however, should be on the analysis of the
evidence you provide.