Two Essay Reviews
In the past few days we've been typing rhetorical analysis essays. We peer reviewed them, and have to type out our critiques. I know for a fact my "essay" was a steaming pile of shit that I'm going to completely rewrite, but my group mates' essays were actually quite good. My two reviews are as follows.
The first essay is on the controversy surrounding our most recent presidential election. Many consider it to have been rigged by our vodka-chugging, squatting Slavic friends over in Russia, and others argue vehemently against this. The essay examines the arguments both sides make, using various CNN articles and a New York Times article as sources. The author points out how these sources are on the side that believe the election was hacked, and attempt to convince the reader of this through emotional arguments in the case of the New York Times, and factual statements and quotes from the CNN articles. Overall, this essay was an informative read, though I believe it would be improved with a third source, particularly from the opposing side- the introduction states that "Both sides use a variety of methods in order to convince the reader,"but only looks at one side's arguments.
The second essay is about the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and the various articles written by people supporting this movement. The author's chosen sources include two persuasive articles and a meme, and all three support the "Black Lives Matter" movement. For all sources, the author is able to point out the logos, pathos, and ethos behind the arguments, though only in short, one to two sentence statements. I would like to see these segments fleshed out. Additionally, the first half of the essay in particular could use some editing due to its rambling and slight disorganization. The introduction itself could be made a bit more interesting, as opening with the three word sentence "Black Lives Matter." felt rather bland.
No matter how good or bad these essays were, they were leagues above mine- a couple of unconnected paragraphs that literally just had website URLs above them. I'm going to have to burn that "essay" to the ground and rework it, especially so after reading these two actual essays.
The first essay is on the controversy surrounding our most recent presidential election. Many consider it to have been rigged by our vodka-chugging, squatting Slavic friends over in Russia, and others argue vehemently against this. The essay examines the arguments both sides make, using various CNN articles and a New York Times article as sources. The author points out how these sources are on the side that believe the election was hacked, and attempt to convince the reader of this through emotional arguments in the case of the New York Times, and factual statements and quotes from the CNN articles. Overall, this essay was an informative read, though I believe it would be improved with a third source, particularly from the opposing side- the introduction states that "Both sides use a variety of methods in order to convince the reader,"but only looks at one side's arguments.
The second essay is about the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and the various articles written by people supporting this movement. The author's chosen sources include two persuasive articles and a meme, and all three support the "Black Lives Matter" movement. For all sources, the author is able to point out the logos, pathos, and ethos behind the arguments, though only in short, one to two sentence statements. I would like to see these segments fleshed out. Additionally, the first half of the essay in particular could use some editing due to its rambling and slight disorganization. The introduction itself could be made a bit more interesting, as opening with the three word sentence "Black Lives Matter." felt rather bland.
No matter how good or bad these essays were, they were leagues above mine- a couple of unconnected paragraphs that literally just had website URLs above them. I'm going to have to burn that "essay" to the ground and rework it, especially so after reading these two actual essays.
Comments
Post a Comment