Teaching Samples

 

3) English 102 Assignment sheet: Rhetorical Analysis of a Local History

English 102, Section 22 Brown University of Arizona
Assignment #1
Rhetorical Analysis of a Local History

NOTE: Your text decision needs to be made by class on September 22 (posted to the MOO class list) Rough drafts of this essay are due in class for peer editing on September 24. Final drafts due (posted in the MOO) on September 29.

 

Your first full length assignment for this course is to write a formal analysis of a local history "text. " This assignment will require you to identify a "text" which you will read carefully, place in context, and critique in terms of a specific useful framework.

We have discussed analysis in class, and the journals you have (or will have) written up to this point have been designed to get you working on analysis already. The essay you read for class, "Ideology" was also connected to the process of analysis as it suggests that all interpretations, all texts, and all readings of "texts" (meaning traditional written texts to popular media, etc) are influenced by ideologies, and ideological assumptions often conflict.
Considering what we have discussed and you have read, you will want to look at the best way to frame your analysis of the text you choose. Here are some suggestions for possible approaches:

• All representations of history have some appeal to authority. The author somehow establishes her/his credibility or authority in presenting the history. How does the author do this in your text? Does the author attempt to present her/his authority on the historical material through tone, direct appeals? Or is the author's credibility questionable? How does the author's position effect your reception of the material?
• Does the history attempt to represent itself as "the Truth" or as a "a possible truth"? That is, does the history appear to try to convince the reader that it represents things as they are, or does it suggest that it provides one possible perspective of events. How can you determine that from what the text says/does and the context in which it was produced? What textual or contextual features indicate the author's position on "truth"?
• What is the reason this text was produced? What is its claim to significance? Does the type of representation or technology used for the representation contribute to the reason for its production? For example, the library web exhibits you looked at (“Through Our Parents' Eyes”) were produced for the web with the intention of providing local, unpublished histories a wide audience. They were put on the World Wide Web and are accessible free. This technology has something to do with its purpose. Look at your text and determine how its medium effects its purpose.
• What are the implications of the text beyond, perhaps, its purpose. Does the text have effects that may or may not have been intended? How do you determine those effects? What are the contexts in which that text could be read that it has those effects? For example, the impact of the Sonnichsen text's portrayal of Apaches as "raiders" might be offensive to some, downright harmful to others. One of the implications of that portrayal is to perpetuate the notion that native people's in this region had no rights to this land and had no right to retaliate against the takeover of that land. We can see that in his referring to the Spanish as "settlers." Look at your own text and see what the implications and effects of its representation of history might be. (Note: it doesn't necessarily have to be negative.)
• Does the text attempt to take a specific incident and draw larger generalizations about a culture based on that? Is the text trying to objectify a whole culture based on a perspective on a single incident? What is the culture being represented? Is the culture conextualized? Does the author qualify her/his representation of that culture? Identify textual features that demonstrate the nature of the representation, and provide some additional context about that culture. That is, find another source that represents the culture and see if there are differences/discrepancies or similarities and patterns.

Any of these frameworks will allow you to analyze your text. Choose a text (or texts, if you prefer) wisely. Pick something that you will be able to write about extensively and will lend itself to the type of analysis necessary. You might choose something like a traditional historical textbook (something like Sonnichsen, or even a chapter of Sonnichsen), or you might choose something less traditional like an exhibit at the Arizona State Museum. You might look at a collection of historical photographs, or you might listen to an oral history. You might view a local documentary or go to an organization in town and read their historical representation (for example, the Tucson Trolley Volunteer organization has an extensive "magazine" type publication about the history of transportation here). You might look at a neighborhood history project, or visit a historical building and gather the historical material put together about that site. You might even look at a short literary piece about local history (such as Patricia Precidio Martin's Days of Plenty, Days of Want). You can use a chapter or a section of something. Just make sure you have plenty to write about.

This essay should:
• be well organized.
• have a clear point of analysis (that is a thesis you are supporting consistently throughout).
• have significant examples from the original text.
• incorporate context and have a framework from which you are critiquing the text.
• include enough summary to familiarize your reader with the text in question.
• be about 5 pages in length.