As we have discussed in class, a rhetorical analysis looks at the textual features as well as the context of any given text and analyzes what is going on in and around the issue and the text. For your first full-length essay, I am asking you to review the debate surrounding the University of Arizona's student identification card: CAT Card. This issue continues to be a highly charged controversy on this campus, and there are a significant number of "rhetorical" positions being taken concerning the card. Your job is to investigate the documents, arguments, and advertisements for the card, figure out what is at stake and who is impacted by the issue, choose a central point of interest to you, and write an analysis of the documents you select to represent that central point.

You are free to choose any documents you wish, but you must select at least two to analyze. You might pick two editorials, an editorial and a CAT Card office response, Likins comments and an editorial in response to those comments, an advertisement for the CAT Card and an email editorial from the privacy issues listserv, or whatever else serves your purpose. You don't necessarily need to contrast views on the issue, but that might be one approach.

Your essay needs to make a thesis claim about the issue and the documents you are analyzing (we will workshop approaches in class). You will need to draw directly from the text to support your analysis of what is going on in the issue and the texts. You will need to explain how the textual analyses you do support your rhetorical analysis/claim about the issue. In order for the essay to be an effective analysis, you must provide summary and context about the issue, as well as identify the texts clearly for your reader. Inevitably, you will come to your own position on the issue. That should come through in your analysis, but the main focus (and the thesis) is your analysis, not an argument defending your view.

The essay should be 5-7 pages in length, be well supported, and use MLA documentation (to be discussed in class, but the format is available in the student guide and on-line at your website). You will need to cite sources within the text with proper citation format and include a "Works Cited" page.

Due Friday, June 26

Rough draft due Wednesday, June 24 for workshopping