STEP 1: Read
For your second blog, you will be to read “Official American English is the Best” by Steven Alvarez (93-98 in Bad Ideas about Writing (Links to an external site.)).
STEP 2: Analyze
Once you feel that you understand the article, your job is to craft a 300-400 word response to the article. You will do two things.
First, briefly summarize the main points of the text. Use what you learned about summary to help you. For example, don’t forget to include the title of the article and the author’s name right away. Also, focus on explaining (in about 3-4 sentences) the main argument of the text. In this part of your response, you should also identify the specific audience and purpose of the text. In other words, who is the author trying to reach with their text (do not say “everyone” – be specific!) and what message are they trying to communicate to this audience?
Second, you analyze some rhetorical choices by the author, speculate on why the author made some of those choices and discuss whether those choices were effective. (Please revisit the material in the Rhetorical Choices Quiz to understand what I mean by “choices” here–that’s the bulk of the assignment and you need to make sure you understand it. You might also consult this handout.) Note: please do not discuss whether you AGREE with the author of the text—just analyze the rhetorical choices the made and the points they are making.
The goal of this assignment is to prove that you listened. When you analyze the author’s choices, please be specific enough that we (your readers) know exactly what moment in the text you are talking about. In fact, while you shouldn’t quote too much (most of the post should be your summary and analysis and quotes take up a lot of space), I’d still like you to use at least one quote in your response–a short quote is a good way to point to a specific moment that you want to analyze.
REMEMBER: Your post cannot exceed 300-400 words. You may want to type your response in Word and check the word count before you post to Canvas. The key is to be thorough in your analysis, but concise.
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