Essay Two: Discourse Analysis and Evaluation
Prompt: Research your future field of academic study or profession and present the arguments and
topics about their discourse. Argue what they believe is important and what should be done about them.
What are some things they should be discussing, but are not?
Purpose: It is the rare thing to come across something that we are truly neutral about in our society and
culture. True Neutral doesnt really exist. While we might not care strongly about something, when
pressed people tend to come down on one side or the other. For example, I do not care about sports, but,
when pressed, I can tell people about my favorite team. (FYI, its whatever team beat the Green Bay
Packers last.) There is also the old adage, if you can fake sincerity, you can make it anywhere.
Further, professionals and communities tend to argue about certain things, while not arguing about others.
In other words, people tend to talk about the same thing. An example of this is holiday meals: families
tend to talk about the same topic and everyone know which topics to avoid mentioning. This type of
professional discourse can be researched and analyzed to understand what the important topics in the field
or community are, along with what professionals believe should be done about them.
Finally, this essay assignments builds on the skills and topics of essay one and requires you to argue
which article is persuasive. One thing you cannot do is take the middle roadthe thesis must clearly
articulate which is better and why. Use the rhetorical terms and concepts as points of analysis to compare
and contrast the articles. It must also integrate examples and evidence to support your argument.
Structure: In this essay, I am expecting to see the following skills and concepts demonstrated:
A clear thesis statement in the introduction, supported by clear main ideas
A clear stance about topics in this discourse and which are the most important (there must be
some emphasis and prioritization in the main ideas)
At least one body point should contain your analysis about something left out of this discourse
Effectively integrated sources into body paragraphs used as evidence
Organized and clear paragraphs and sentence structure
o I am available to help with revisions and editing, and Writing Center tutors are available,
as well.
Minimum Expectations:
Essays not meeting any of these minimum expectations shall earn a 55%.
The essay must be 900 usable words and written with a professional writing style.
The essay must use only third person writing style.
The essay must use a minimum of four (4) sources: and one must come from a library
database and one must be a professional organization.
Includes an annotated bibliography for each source
The essay must contain in-text citations.
The essay must contain an acceptable MLA works cited page
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