1. Remediation for VLT#2 Writing
English III Honors

2. The Project:
Remember what a rhetorical analysis is— analyzing a piece of writing to establish the author’s purpose and the strategies/devices used to communicate that purpose.
It is taking apart the whole and looking at the pieces, studying how they all fit together and work together to achieve its purpose.
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3. Remember our practice essay?
The prompt was:
Analyze the strategies/devices Fitzgerald uses to characterize the Valley of the Ashes
The thesis we made was:
In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald characterizes the Valley of Ashes as:
a dismal, dreary place
a place of dying dreams
a place of hopelessness
Etc.

4. Our first order of business was to establish his purpose—how he characterized the place
Dismal, dreary, hopeless, etc.
Then find the strategies that make the land
appear that way
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

5. The Prompt:
Write an essay in which you analyze the strategies Marquart uses to describe and/or characterize the upper Midwest area of the United States.
Your first decision must be what that characterization/description is, before you can analyze the strategies that accomplish it.
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6. Order of business: Look at the descriptions you highlighted
What do they say about the Midwest?
Then include that in your thesis (the characterization) before you state the strategies she uses to communicate it (Note: the characterization may include more than one aspect, or both a positive and a negative)
Example:
In her memoir The Horizontal World, Debra Marquart characterizes the upper Midwest as ______________ through the use of ….
Then note the different kinds of language, resources, techniques, etc. that she uses to get this message across.

7. Organize by strategy… Name the strategy
Provide examples (evidence) of that strategy and explain how that strategy helped to convey that characterization
Make sure your evidence includes all examples of that strategy throughout the text
Each paragraph highlights a different strategy with its evidence and explanation
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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

8. Or organize by section..
Analyze all the strategies and evidence in the first section of text and explain how they prove her characterization
Then do the same with every other section of the text
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9. Strategies:
Imagery—remember, the purpose of all imagery is to help the reader visualize or imagine what it looks like. You don’t have to tell why the author uses it, just prove that is what she did and how it helps with her characterization
Figurative language: simile, personification
Allusions to well-known authors, literature, movies, etc.
Ethos—agreement from other respected people
Humor, in the form of exaggeration or satire