Essay One: Othering and Rhetorical Analysis

English 1050
Essay One
Othering and Rhetorical Analysis

Requirements
(1) Part One: Othering; Part Two: Rhetorical Analysis
(2) Part One: 3-5 pages, double-spaced; Part Two: 1-3 pages
(3) 4-6 sources from the text; reference to at least one other students discussion commentary
(4) MLA Citation, including heading, a Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Note: when you post your draft for peer review, copy and paste it in the Discussion space,
just as you do your weekly discussions. Youll do peer response to the one thats posted
right before you and the one thats posted right after (first and last to post by the deadline
will respond to each other).
Then when you submit the essay for me to grade, submit it to the Assignment space (click
on Modules and on Essay #1) as a Word Document.
Youll actually do two short essays rather than one long one. Here are your two topics; then more
explanation and detail will follow:
Part One: (About 3-5 pages)
The term othering is often used to describe how those in a majority view and treat those of
other races and ethnicities. In your weekly discussions of the assigned pieces, you have been
asked to discuss how we as a society have changed in that treatment and view; and you have also
considered how we have not. Discuss how othering continues and how we have and have not
changed in our treatment of minority groups.
Develop an introduction that includes a thesis and refers to how the pieces youll be citing in
your essay are directing and informing your ideas about your topic. Then support your
discussion with specifics from at least four pieces we have studied. Remember that your
purpose is not to summarize the readings, but to use them to support your argument, to
compare and contrast them to other works you use, and to show how they relate to and
inform your conclusions.

Use at least 4 sources that we have studied (explained in detail further down)
In addition, incorporate at least one point that another student has made (identify the
student and the week).

Part Two (About 1-3 pages):

Choose one of the pieces that we have studied; identify where the piece is from, then do an
analysis of what it does to make its point. You should focus on such things as rhetorical
stance (p. 459-60), language and word choice, sentence structure, use of examples, etc.
Comment on how it uses these elements to make its point, what that point is, and why it does or
does not succeed, in your opinion. (This may be similar to the discussion prompt you did
comparing Obamas and Douglass rhetorical strategies, and you could, in fact, choose one of
these pieces; but other pieces would work especially well, also.)
If you are analyzing an image, comment on its elements and techniques, how they make its point,
what that point is, and why it does or does not succeed, in your opinion (you may refer to the
guide on pages 6-7).

Now, heres the explanation about the topics and requirements:

Before beginning your essay, review A Guide to Visual Analysis: Images, Film, and Web Sites,
pages 6-9.
Review the MLA Podcasts on the course home page.
Also review the student essay sample on pages 45-48; it follows MLA requirements in the way it
is set up, and your essays should also follow MLA, as far as heading, spacing, using internal
parenthetical documentation, and including a Works Cited list at the end of the paper.
The sources you use in your essays will be those that we have studied in class. Even though
they are all in the same book, each one is a separate source; so if you are required to use,
for example, 4 sources in your essay, the entire book is not a source, but each piece within it
is:
Mead, Margaret. We are All Third Generation. 94-101.
If you use information from some of the introductions in the text, credit Diana George and
John Trimbur with those, and that becomes a separate source:
George, Diana, and John Trimbur. 48.

You are not required to use outside sources, but if you do you must identify and credit them
appropriately, and you do need to include full Works Cited entries for them.
Review the MLA power point here in Canvas; it will have some reference to a 2010 class and
book, so just ignore that part, but its information is relevant.
If you need more MLA explanation, you can find it online, and there are many good little
handbooks that are helpful; you could get them from any bookstore or online.
If you quote pieces we have read:
Frederick Douglass observes, We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the
present and to the future (464).
(and Douglass would be in Works Cited)
But if you quote from commentary/introduction from our text editors:
Diana George and John Trimbur say that the picture makes Smith and Carlos monumental
figures (454).
(and you would include this in your Works Cited)
If you refer to commentary from another student, identify that in the text of your paper,
but its not included in your Works Cited.