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Argument Analysis
Sometimes, the best way to learn how to write a good argument is to start by analyzing other arguments. When you do this, you get to see what works, what doesn’t, what strategies another author uses, what structures seem to work well and why, and more.
Therefore, even though this section on argument analysis is one of the last lessons in this area, your professor may have you start here before you draft a single word of your own essay.
In the pages that follow, you will learn about analyzing arguments for both content and rhetorical strategies. The content analysis may come a little easier for you, but the rhetorical analysis is extremely important. To become a good writer, we must develop the language of writing and learn how to use that language to talk about the “moves” other writers make.
When we understand the decisions other writers make and why, it helps us make more informed decisions as writers. We can move from being the “accidental” writer, where we might do well but are not sure why, to being a “purposeful” writer, where we have an awareness of the impact our writing has on our audience at all levels.
Thinking About Content
Content analysis of an argument is really just what it seems—looking closely at the content in an argument. When you’re analyzing an argument for content, you’re looking at things like claims, evidence to support those claims, and if that evidence makes sense.
The Toulmin method is a great tool for analyzing the content of an argument. In fact, it was developed as a tool for analyzing the content of an argument. Using the different concepts we learn in the Toulmin model, we are able to examine an argument by thinking about what claim is being made, what evidence is being used to support that claim, the warrants behind that evidence, and more.
When you analyze an argument, there is a good chance your professor will have you review and use the Toulmin information provided in the Excelsior OWL.
However, the lessons you have learned about logical fallacies will also help you analyze the content of an argument. You’ll want to look closely at the logic being presented in the claims and evidence. Does the logic hold up, or do you see logical fallacies? Obviously, if you see fallacies, you should really question the argument.
Thinking Rhetorically
As a part of thinking rhetorically about an argument, your professor may ask you to write a formal or informal rhetorical analysis essay. Rhetorical analysis is about “digging in” and exploring the strategies and writing style of a particular piece. Rhetorical analysis can be tricky because, chances are, you haven’t done a lot of rhetorical analysis in the past.
To add to this trickiness, you can write a rhetorical analysis of any piece of information, not just an essay. You may be asked to write a rhetorical analysis of an ad, an image, or a commercial.
The key is to start now! Rhetorical analysis is going to help you think about strategies other authors have made and how or why these strategies work or don’t work. In turn, your goal is to be more aware of these things in your own writing.
When you analyze a work rhetorically, you are going to explore the following concepts in a piece:
Before you begin to write your research paper, you should think about your audience. Your audience should have an impact on your writing. You should think about audience because, if you want to be effective, you must consider audience needs and expectations. It’s important to remember audience affects both what and how you write.
Most research paper assignments will be written with an academic audience in mind. Writing for an academic audience (your professors and peers) is one of the most difficult writing tasks because college students and faculty make up a very diverse group. It can be difficult for student writers to see outside their own experiences and to think about how other people might react to their messages.
But this kind of rhetorical thinking is necessary to effective writing. Good writers try to see their writing through the eyes of their audience. This, of course, requires a lot of flexibility as a writer, but the rewards for such thinking are great when you have a diverse group of readers interested in and, perhaps, persuaded by your writing.
Rhetorically speaking, purpose is about making decisions as a writer about why you’re writing and what you want your audience to take from your work.
There are three objectives you may have when writing a research paper.
- To inform – When you write a research paper to inform, you’re not making an argument, but you do want to stress the importance of your topic. You might think about your purpose as educating your audience on a particular topic.
- To persuade – When you write a research paper to persuade, your purpose should be to take a stance on your topic. You’ll want to develop a thesis statement that makes a clear assertion about some aspect of your topic.
- To analyze – Although all research papers require some analysis, some research papers make analysis a primary purpose. So, your focus wouldn’t be to inform or persuade, but to analyze your topic. You’ll want to synthesize your research and, ideally, reach new, thoughtful conclusions based on your research.
- TIPS! Here are a few tips when it comes to thinking about purpose.
You must be able to move beyond the idea that you’re writing your research paper only because your professor is making you. While that may be true on some level, you must decide on a purpose based on what topic you’re researching and what you want to say about that topic.
You must decide for yourself, within the requirements of your assignment, why you’re engaging in the research process and writing a paper. Only when you do this will your writing be engaging for your audience.
Your assignment or project instructions affect purpose. If your professor gives you a formal writing assignment sheet for your research paper, it’s especially important to read very carefully through your professor’s expectations. If your professor doesn’t provide a formal assignment sheet, be prepared to ask questions about the purpose of the assignment.
Once you have considered your audience and established your purpose, it’s time to think about voice. Your voice in your writing is essentially how you sound to your audience. Voice is an important part of writing a research paper, but many students never stop to think about voice in their writing. It’s important to remember voice is relative to audience and purpose. The voice you decide to use will have a great impact on your audience.
- Formal – When using a formal, academic or professional voice, you’ll want to be sure to avoid slang and clichés, like “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” You’ll want to avoid conversational tone and even contractions. So, instead of “can’t,” you would want to use “cannot.” You’ll want to think about your academic or professional audience and think about what kind of impression you want your voice to make on that audience.
- Semi-formal – A semi-formal tone is not quite as formal as a formal, academic or professional tone. Although you would certainly want to avoid slang and clichés, you might use contractions, and you might consider a tone that is a little more conversational. Students sometimes make errors in voice, which can have a negative impact on an essay. For example, when writing researched essays for the first time, many students lose their voices entirely to research, and the essay reads more like a list of what other people have said on a particular topic than a real essay. In a research essay, you want to balance your voice with the voices from your sources.
It’s also easy to use a voice that is too informal for college writing, especially when you are just becoming familiar with academia and college expectations.
Ultimately, thinking about your writing rhetorically will help you establish a strong, appropriate voice for your writing.
Appealing to ethos is all about using credibility, either your own as a writer or of your sources, in order to be persuasive. Essentially, ethos is about believability. Will your audience find you believable? What can you do to ensure that they do?
You can establish ethos—or credibility—in two basic ways: you can use or build your own credibility on a topic, or you can use credible sources, which, in turn, builds your credibility as a writer.
Credibility is extremely important in building an argument, so, even if you don’t have a lot of built-in credibility or experience with a topic, it’s important for you to work on your credibility by integrating the credibility of others into your argument.
Aristotle argued that ethos was the most powerful of the modes of persuasion, and while you may disagree, you can’t discount its power. After all, think about the way advertisers use ethos to get us to purchase products. Taylor Swift sells us perfume, and Peyton Manning sells us pizza. But, it’s really their fame and name they are selling.
With the power of ethos in mind, here are some strategies you can use to help build your ethos in your arguments.
If you have specific experience or education related to your issues, mention it in some way.
Appealing to pathos is about appealing to your audience’s emotions. Because people can be easily moved by their emotions, pathos is a powerful mode of persuasion. When you think about appealing to pathos, you should consider all of the potential emotions people experience. While we often see or hear arguments that appeal to sympathy or anger, appealing to pathos is not limited to these specific emotions. You can also use emotions such as humor, joy or even frustration, to note a few, in order to convince your audience.
It’s important, however, to be careful when appealing to pathos, as arguments with an overly-strong focus on emotion are not considered as credible in an academic setting. This means you could, and should, use pathos, but you have to do so carefully. An overly-emotional argument can cause you to lose your credibility as a writer.
You have probably seen many arguments based on an appeal to pathos. In fact, a large number of the commercials you see on television or the internet actually focus primarily on pathos. For example, many car commercials tap into our desire to feel special or important. They suggest that, if you drive a nice car, you will automatically be respected.
With the power of pathos in mind, here are some strategies you can use to carefully build pathos in your arguments.
- Think about the emotions most related to your topic in order to use those emotions effectively. For example, if you’re calling for change in animal abuse laws, you would want to appeal to your audience’s sense of sympathy, possibly by providing examples of animal cruelty. If your argument is focused on environmental issues related to water conservation, you might provide examples of how water shortages affect metropolitan areas in order to appeal to your audience’s fear of a similar occurrence.
- In an effort to appeal to pathos, use examples to illustrate your position. Just be sure the examples you share are credible and can be verified.
- In academic arguments, be sure to balance appeals to pathos with appeals to logos (which will be explored on the next page) in order to maintain your ethos or credibility as a writer.
- When presenting evidenced based on emotion, maintain an even tone of voice. If you sound too emotional, you might lose your audience’s respect.
Logos is about appealing to your audience’s logical side. You have to think about what makes sense to your audience and use that as you build your argument. As writers, we appeal to logos by presenting a line of reasoning in our arguments that is logical and clear. We use evidence, such as statistics and factual information, when we appeal to logos.
In order to develop strong appeals to logos, we have to avoid faulty logic. Faulty logic can be anything from assuming one event caused another to making blanket statements based on little evidence. Logical fallacies should always be avoided. We will explore logical fallacies in another section.
Appeals to logos are an important part of academic writing, but you will see them in commercials as well. Although they more commonly use pathos and ethos, advertisers will sometimes use logos to sell products. For example, commercials based on saving consumers money, such as car commercials that focus on miles-per-gallon, are appealing to the consumers’ sense of logos.
As you work to build logos in your arguments, here are some strategies to keep in mind.
- Both experience and source material can provide you with evidence to appeal to logos. While outside sources will provide you with excellent evidence in an argumentative essay, in some situations, you can share personal experiences and observations. Just make sure they are appropriate to the situation and you present them in a clear and logical manner.
- Remember to think about your audience as you appeal to logos. Just because something makes sense in your mind, doesn’t mean it will make the same kind of sense to your audience. You need to try to see things from your audience’s perspective. Having others read your writing, especially those who might disagree with your position, is helpful.
- Be sure to maintain clear lines of reasoning throughout your argument. One error in logic can negatively impact your entire position. When you present faulty logic, you lose credibility.
- When presenting an argument based on logos, it is important to avoid emotional overtones and maintain an even tone of voice. Remember, it’s not just a matter of the type of evidence you are presenting; how you present this evidence is important as well.
You will be thinking about the decisions an author has made along these lines and thinking about whether these decisions are effective or ineffective.
The following page provides a sample rhetorical analysis with some notes to help you better understand your goals when writing a formal rhetorical analysis.
This content was created by Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License . You are free to use, adapt, and/or share this material as long as you properly attribute. Please keep this information on materials you use, adapt, and/or share for attribution purposes.
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Argumentative Analysis Essay Assignment Sheet
English composition ii (engl 1302h), lee college, students also viewed.
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A major assignment for Unit 3, you are writing a 2 - 3-page, 5 paragraphs essay, double-spaced in 12-point print. Use the Modern Language Association (MLA) format, which is nothing new to you.
Readings and Videos that you've done in preparation for this paper:
Read all the documents in the Unit 3 folder.
Watch all videos assigned to you in the Unit 3 folder documents. Episode One of Race: The Power of Illusion: “The Difference Between Us” 3 Videos on what is argumentation: Using Evidence in Debate, Argument and Debate, and The Aristotelian Appeals (Ethos, Pathos, Logos).
Requirements and Guidelines:
Organize a five-paragraph argumentative analysis composition of the film “The Difference Between Us.” Apply a few of the lessons you learned doing the assignment on the critical element in Folder 3B. Show how the film makes an argument about how biological race is bad science. “The Difference Between Us” argues that race is a social construct. It makes an argument about how good science shows we are all similar in certain ways. It also shows that we are different in similar ways, the one black person might in a certain case, have more affinity to a white person than to another black person. Likewise, the video shows that science cannot support the argument that race is about biological differences between people. Last, the video presents how advocates of biological race theory practiced bad science. These eugenicists asserted things that were just wrong, based on what we know now, and fabricated and prejudiced evidence just so they could be right. Race being a genetic reality is false, and has long been disproved, the idea of “natural” race is a lie in a desperate search to prove itself. It is an idea without a scientific basis. That's not to say race isn't real. Race is a social construct, and as such is as real as anything social. It's just that race isn't genetic. There's no way to measure its biology because there is no biology to it. You should organize your paper, namely the three body paragraphs, around points such as I make in the paragraph above this one. Analyze the logical strengths of the video. How does it make its case? Another point to make is how the video analyzes the defective or bad thinking of those who believe in race as biology. I like students to organize papers by the topics in the video and develop those topics by evidence talked about in the video. You'll be telling me how the film is logical, as well as
illustrating how it is disproving the logic of “natural race.” You are analyzing the argumentative strength and weaknesses of the video “The Difference Between Us.” You are not writing about the theme or values expressed in the video. You are telling me how well it says what it says. You are not writing a paper expressing an opinion. You are applying argumentative elements to the video.
Again, analyze the effectiveness of the argument of the film that turns back the idea that race is biological. Point out the way the film proves its point by logic and argumentation. Race is a social construct, but for a long time, and even today, some in America have had attitudes that suggest race is biologically determined. The film argues that there are no differences in human genetic variation based on a so-called race. Under the skin, we are all the same, even to the point that the more we “look” different, the more we may be genetically alike. Again, using a few of the various elements of argumentation that you've studied in folder Unit 3B, analyze the film's argument against race having a biological foundation. In what way do the filmmakers use argumentative elements in this film? In other words, how does the film toggle between ideas and evidence to disprove the idea of race similarity having a genetic basis? Here are some considerations (maybe too many, but I am trying to jog your ideas). Identify one element per body paragraph:
Analyze how well “The Difference Between Us” affirms or upholds its argument that race is a social construct on good logical grounds. Analyze how well the video negates or rejects something on good logical grounds Analyze the good use of evidence in the video. Analyze the claim (limited statement of truth), warrant (the support), impact (importance) Study the use of history related to truth and untruths. What affirmative deductions does the film make? By the same token, how are evidence and proof used to debunk an idea? Is the evidence sufficient, significant, and representative?
Use details from the film.
Two examples:
- You can say the film uses the idea of a prejudiced science in its effort to dispel the eugenics movement and then go into details about a book they mention, titled The Extinction Thesis,” to develop how the film proves its point by rebutting that book.
- Another critical element is sufficient evidence. You could isolate the DNA tests that were spoken of in the film and write about the way the filmmakers convinced you by logic. Taking the same topic point, you could isolate the details of ow the filmmakers logically convinced the students featured in the film. These are just examples, and you do not have to apply them to your paper, or you might.
- Multiple Choice
Course : English Composition II (ENGL 1302H)
University : lee college.
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2024 A Guide to Analyzing Arguments in an Academic Setting
A guide to analyzing arguments in an academic setting.
This textbook will teach you what an argument is, how to identify its parts, and whether or not a text you’ve encountered is making an argument. Once you are familiar with these basic aspects of arguments, you will be able to analyze most of the writing you will read in English 101 and elsewhere—whether in classes for your major or in content you find on social media.
This resource was supported by funding from the OER Creator Program at UMass Dartmouth.
Full Resource is Attached as a Word and PDF File
Introduction.
For First-Year English Faculty:
The material in this textbook was developed by UMass Dartmouth FYE faculty to help instruct our students in argument analysis. Every instructor has their own approach to teaching argument analysis, and to that end, we hope that you will incorporate or adapt pieces of this textbook to complement your teaching.
Whether you assign pieces of this textbook or merely use it to jumpstart ideas for your own teaching and assignments, the shared vocabulary of argument analysis offered here can help our students make sense of the important skills we teach in FYE.
For the Wider UMass Dartmouth Community:
Our aim is also to reach the wider UMD community. For instructors outside the Department of English and Communication, we hope some excerpts from this text might help reinforce best reading practices in your own classrooms.
For tutors, advisors, and all student support services throughout the university, we hope this can provide insight into the goals and outcomes of the FYE department and assist you in supporting our student population.
For our administrative partners, we hope that this can provide context into the continued dedication of our FYE community and offer an understanding of the specific role that First-Year English plays in developing our student population.
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10: Writing Argument Analysis
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Learning Outcomes
- Write an analysis of an argument's appeal to emotion
- Write an analysis of an argument's appeal to trust
- Connect an assessment of an argument's logical structure to an assessment of the effectiveness of its rhetorical appeals
- Give constructive feedback on an argument analysis essay
- Describe how the visual features of an image can reinforce the message of a visual argument.
- 10.1: How Argument Analysis Essays are Structured An argument analysis should summarize the argument and discuss how well any appeals to trust and emotion are likely to work with readers.
- 10.2: Analyzing an Argument's Situation (Kairos, or the Rhetorical Situation) Examining the author, audience, context, purpose, constraints, and genre of the argument can help us understand what shapes it.
- 10.3: Generating Ideas for an Argument Analysis Paper We can generate material by asking ourselves questions about an argument's logical structure, its appeals to emotion, and its appeals to trust.
- 10.4: Reviewing an Argument Analysis Essay We can ask ourselves certain questions as we read and give feedback on an argument analysis essay.
- 10.5.1: Annotated Brief Sample Argument Analysis
- 10.6.1: Annotated Longer Sample Argument Analysis
- 10.8.1: Annotated Sample Visual Argument Analysis
Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.
Article links:
“Argument” provided by the authors
“Handout: How to Make an Effective Argument” provided by Lumen Learning
“Reflective Writing Prompt: Argument Assignment” by the authors
Chapter Preview
- Explain the five-part structure of an argument essay.
- Recognize key questions for developing an argument essay.
provided by the authors
Now that you have learned and practiced with rhetorical tools to analyze and evaluate arguments, you are now ready to create your own argument about a topic. Note that this will not be a “formal” researched argument – that’s the realm of English Composition II. However, this project will prepare you by asking you to analyze your own views on an issue, then craft an argument that might sway an audience on that issue.
The purpose of this assignment is for you to reflect on and apply your newly gained understanding of composing strategies, genre, audience, and rhetorical situation to create an argument for a public source. Crafting an argument in this way prepares you to write an argument in any context, not just academic. This is not a research essay – you will be using your own knowledge, observations, and experiences.
Aside from reflecting carefully on your own stance within the argument, you will need to reflect back on the rhetorical tools we have been cultivating, to create an audience-centered argument. As you compose, you will need to continually consider how you can best persuade your audience to consider (or perhaps even agree with) your views.
Handout: How to Make an Effective Argument
provided by Lumen Learning
Think through the issue.
- What’s the problem?
- Who’s involved?
- What’s at stake for the people involved?
- Have other people examined the problem? What solutions have they come up with?
- Are those solutions valid or not in the situation you are involved in? Why or why not? Are you taking an objective (arm’s length) view of the problem or are you taking it personally and subjectively?
Think about what life would be like for you and the people involved in this problem if it didn’t exist.
- What do you think could and should be done to solve the problem?
- Who else has worked to solve the problem? Have their solutions been effective or not? How? Why? Could you use their solutions in your own situation?
Who should you be talking to about this problem?
- Reflect again on the stakeholders . Get a clear picture of them.
- How can you use the arguments that others have made to solve the problem that you’re seeing? What’s the good stuff from them that you can use solve the problem?
- What will those stakeholders respect? What authorities will they listen to?
- Focus on who you’re arguing with and use sources appropriate to your audience.
What kind of credible, authoritative sources should you use?
- Ivy Tech Library databases: keyword search, limit to the last five years, full-text published articles authored by credible writers who are knowledgeable in their field. Articles should have references.
- Online databases: must be published in reputable newspapers or professional journals. Articles must be authored by credible writers who are knowledgeable in their field. Articles should have references.
Important Concepts
e ffective argument
stakeholders
authoritative sources
Reflective Writing Prompt
Argument Assignment
For this reflective assignment, you will write a letter to yourself about your argument paper with a particular emphasis on those key terms and the way you think about writing may have changed. Write this letter as though you are giving advice to yourself as a writer. Your letter should be 600 – 700 words.
Your letter should include some discussion of How your awareness and perception of your audience contributed to your writing. (For example, did you have a real-world audience in mind or did you have to “imagine” an audience? How did that audience’s possible stances, values, knowledge, etc. affect your approach to supporting your argument?)
How your experiences with the previous papers this semester affected your writing and your writing process for this paper. (For example, what did you bring with you from those papers that you found helpful – or perhaps unhelpful – for this one? What might you use or not use in the future?)
Use examples from this text and your last paper to support your discussion of the above two points.
Licenses and Attributions
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL
Composing Ourselves and Our World, Provided by: the authors. License: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
CC LICENSED CONTENT INCLUDED
This chapter contains an adaptation from English 111 by Lumen Learning. License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
MULTIMEDIA CONTENT INCLUDED
- Video 1: How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay: Logical Structure by Kevin deLaplante . Licensed: Standard YouTube License.
Composing Ourselves and Our World Copyright © 2019 by Auburn University at Montgomery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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Doyle Online Writing Lab
Analysis of an argument, genre objectives.
Ideally, the skills that you learn from this assignment will help you analyze arguments in lecture, primary texts, and secondary texts both for the rest of the year and the rest of your time at Reed. This is an essential skill, and it is worth practicing these steps outlines below until they feel comfortable and/or second nature. Some of the skills you will need for analyzing an argument are the ability to summarize an argument and evaluate it in terms of logic, rhetoric, and content.
Steps to Take When Evaluating an Argument
- Summarize the argument succinctly. For example, in question number three, you would want to clarify for yourself (and your reader) why and how Socrates draws an analogy between a city and a soul. How are they analogous? This should be brief and NOT take up the bulk of your paper.
- Evaluate the argument rhetorically. If it is a printed argument, you will want to consider how the argument uses invention, arrangement, and style. If it is a speech, you may also want to consider how well it was memorized and delivered--the final two aspects of classical rhetoric. Use the paper topic to help guide your response: for example, if you are asked to evaluate if the argument was persuasive, you should spend a considerable amount of time brainstorming on the subject of invention, since this covers how people are persuaded.
- Evaluate the logic of the argument. (Actually this is part of invention as well, but since it is so important, I am giving it a separate heading.) Identify the primary type of logic being used (e.g. you may have discussed causal arguments when reading Herodotus, or arguments by analogy when reading Plato). What are the usual types of weakness found in this type of argument? Are they found here? Also, are there any other logical fallacies in the argument (e.g. hasty generalizations, faulty use of authority, doubtful causes, false analogies, ad hominem, false dilemmas, slippery slopes, straw man, non sequiturs, ad populum? (See the article "Common Fallacies" by Annette Rottenberg.)
- Evaluate the subject of the argument. Is the scope reasonable (i.e. is something necessary or damaging missing)? Is it biased in any way?
Requirements: What Qualities Does a Successful Analysis of an Argument Essay Usually Have?
- A Thesis that is a debatable assertion
- Coherent and logical structure
- Persuasive substantiation of Argument
- Brief Recapitulation of Argument
- Discussion of Strengths and/or Weaknesses of the Argument
Need More Help?
Take a look at the following essays/handouts in the Writing Center:
Sylvan Barnet, "Paraphrase and Explication" Richard Marius, "Paragraphs," A Writer's Companion Annette Rottenberg, "Common Fallacies," The Structure of Argument "Writing More Interesting Introductions & Conclusions"
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I have to analyze an argumentative article for my English class and was wondering if anyone has a good example of an argument analysis essay that I could use as a reference. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Sure! I can provide an outline for an argument analysis essay that you can use as a reference while working on your assignment. Keep in mind that the actual content will depend on the article you're analyzing, but this outline should help provide a general structure for your essay.
1. Introduction
- Briefly introduce the argumentative article (mention the title, author, and publication).
- Provide some context or background information about the topic of the article.
- State the author's main argument or thesis.
- Give a brief overview of your analysis, including your main points.
2. Summary of the Article
- Describe, in your own words, the main points of the original argument.
- Provide a concise summary, but don't go into too much detail (save that for your analysis).
3. Analysis of the Author's Claims
- Identify the author's main claims (arguments) in the article.
- Evaluate the strength of each claim by considering the evidence provided, the logic of the argument, and any potential counterarguments.
- Discuss any flaws, assumptions, or weaknesses you find in the claims.
4. Analysis of the Author's Use of Rhetorical Strategies
- Analyze the author's use of rhetorical strategies, such as ethos, pathos, and logos.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in persuading the reader and supporting the argument.
- Discuss any instances where the use of these strategies is weak or ineffective.
5. Evaluation of the Argument's Strength and Persuasiveness
- Based on your analysis of the author's claims and rhetorical strategies, assess the overall strength and persuasiveness of the argument.
- You can also consider the broader implications of the argument and discuss whether it provides meaningful insights or solutions to a social, political, or personal problem.
6. Conclusion
- Summarize the main points of your analysis.
- Restate your overall evaluation of the argument.
- Provide any final thoughts or recommendations for the reader.
Remember to always use examples and evidence from the article to support your analysis. Good luck with your assignment! I hope this outline helps you to craft a strong argument analysis essay.
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2. What tasks do I perform that will help me begin an argument analysis? At the outset of an argument analysis, it is important to recognize that the speaker or writer is trying to persuade an audience of something. One task, then, is to identify the conclusion—the overall position that the speaker or writer is supporting. The word conclusion ...
Content analysis of an argument is really just what it seems—looking closely at the content in an argument. When you’re analyzing an argument for content, you’re looking at things like claims, evidence to support those claims, and if that evidence makes sense.
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Whether you assign pieces of this textbook or merely use it to jumpstart ideas for your own teaching and assignments, the shared vocabulary of argument analysis offered here can help our students make sense of the important skills we teach in FYE. For the Wider UMass Dartmouth Community: Our aim is also to reach the wider UMD community.
10.3: Generating Ideas for an Argument Analysis Paper We can generate material by asking ourselves questions about an argument's logical structure, its appeals to emotion, and its appeals to trust. 10.4: Reviewing an Argument Analysis Essay We can ask ourselves certain questions as we read and give feedback on an argument analysis essay. 10.5 ...
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- Restate your overall evaluation of the argument. - Provide any final thoughts or recommendations for the reader. Remember to always use examples and evidence from the article to support your analysis. Good luck with your assignment! I hope this outline helps you to craft a strong argument analysis essay.