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Composition II: Is there a Right to Free Speech?

Research Paper Instructions:

As you know, the reason you’re in Composition II -- and the reason everyone has to take Composition II -- is to continue improving your writing knowledge and ability. And, of course, one of the best ways to stimulate improvement in this area -- or any area -- is to be reflective about how and why you do what you do, and to analyze how and why others do what they do.

We’ve spent the first two weeks of class honing our rhetorical analysis skills by looking at sample research writing (Ariely and Wertenbroch on procrastination, Mary Roach on being swallowed alive, and the samples you found). In doing so, we looked carefully at texts in order to determine features of their rhetorical situations, such as the audience and the purpose of the piece. In addition, we broadened that view to think about how the essay as a whole is put together, how sources -- the most significant “tell” of a research paper -- are used, and what sorts of “writerly moves” (rhetorical choices) these authors make in order to convey their research to their target audience.

This assignment invites you to apply this kind of rhetorical analysis … to your own writing. To prepare for this assignment, choose a paper you’ve written that utilizes sources for a specific purpose. This paper can come from any class/discipline -- though Composition I would be a good first place to look -- but must make use of (ideally multiple) outside sources, and be at least a couple of pages long. Then, do the following:

Part 1: Rhetorical AnalysisRefer to the class-generated “how-to guide” posted on Schoology as you work

Explain the exigence for this paper. Recall that exigence is a problem or issue that compels the writer to write. What compelled you to write this? Was it the unanswered question on the prompt? Was it the risk of a poor grade if you didn’t do the task? Something else entirely?

Explain what the purpose of your paper is. In order words, what does your paper try to accomplish? To get your readers to think about a topic in a certain way? To demonstrate what you know? Something else entirely?

Describe your style of writing and cite some examples that demonstrate the tone of your paper.

Identify some writerly moves you made because of the genre of this paper. What kind of paper is this? What are the conventions of that genre that you made sure to stick to? Cite some examples of moves you made in order to write within this genre.

Identify some writerly moves you made because of the audience for this paper. Who did you envision would read this? Cite some examples from your writing to illustrate that you were making certain rhetorical choices in order to deliberately speak to that readership.

Now think about other potential audiences. Who else would be interested in this or care about this paper? Who might benefit from reading your work? What changes would you make in how you delivered this paper based on these additional readers?

Part 2: Reflecting on Research-writing:

Looking at your paper in conversation with Ariely & Wertenbroch, Roach, and the two samples your chose, compare the writerly moves (rhetorical choices) you made to theirs.

Where do see yourself making the same moves?

Where are you doing something different from them?

Why might those differences exist? (Are you writing for different purposes or audiences, or in a different genre?)

What moves of theirs might you try utilizing if you were to rewrite your paper? Why?

Now think more globally: In doing this study, what have you learned about the research-writing genre?

What has all of this taught you or told you about research-writing?

Which rhetorical choices do you want to meaningfully make in future compositions?

Here’s the tl;dr version

I want you to apply the rhetorical analysis skills we’ve been practicing in the first two weeks of class to your own writing, and I want to think about the moves you made as a writer in comparison to the moves we saw in other pieces of writing. Ultimately, I expect your finished product will be in the ballpark of four pages long, and that it’ll demonstrate to me your ability to rhetorically analyze and to insightfully contrast your writing with the work of other writers.

The How-to

Please submit both your rhetorical analysis and the original paper that you’re analyzing digitally via Schoology. (You can just copy and paste your own paper that you’re analyzing to the bottom of the document. Don’t feel like you need to include the original grade or any of the comments that your previous instructor might have left.)

Your complete draft should be posted to Schoology before class on Tuesday, February 12th. (That’ll be worth 15 points.)

Your final revision should be posted to Schoology before class on Thursday, February 14th. (That’ll be worth 200 points.)

Research Paper Sample Content Preview:
Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Composition II Part I. Rhetorical Analysis I chose to analyze the essay titled “Is there a Right to Free Speech?” The exigent of this essay was to fulfill the class requirement. Everyone was to choose a topic and write an argumentative essay for the fulfillment of grade requirements. I decided to argue on the topic of the rights to free speech because I have often seen this right suppressed in our society. The thesis/purpose of this paper was to defend the right to free speech and inform my audience about their rights. I wanted to prove through research how the right to free speech has been suppressed and tell my audience that even though the right to free speech is a constitutional provision, the limitations that exist in our society makes it impossible for people to enjoy this right. I was concerned that there are many limitations in American society today where people are not allowed to express their freedom or defend their rights without interference from police and the government. In the paper, I argue that the right to free speech is theoretical and support my exigency with evidence from peer-reviewed articles and court cases. My style of writing is argumentative. I argue against the existence of the right to free speech. For instance, on the second page of the paper, I write to discuss the example of the right to abortion for women. I argue that women have the right to determine what to do with their bodies, but anti-abortion debates are still evident in our society. Men are the primary obstacles when it comes to defending the rights of abortion. In my paper, I used euphemism as a rhetorical choice to win the support of women and other audience of my paper. For instance, when arguing on how women are objectified in mainstream media, I wrote that women are used as “objects of sexual pleasure” instead of referring to them directly as prostitutes. I understand that “prostitute” is unethical, and I wanted to win the support of my audience by maintaining ethical standards. I also used identification as a rhetorical choice to show my audience that I share their pain. For instance, when arguing on how students are denied the right to discuss politics in colleges, I used first-person narration to side with students to show that this is a pressing issue for all of us. Even though I wrote this paper as an academic requirement, I was also concerned with the right to free speech in our society. I knew that researchers and future academics could land on my paper and critique it. As a result, I supported each claim with the evidence from the peer-reviewed work of other scholars. I did not make unwarranted claims. Each claim was supported by proper in-text citations and proper references in the works-cited section. I think that other potential audience of this paper could be policy makers and feminists. Since this paper targeted audience from different academic fields, I would have modified the tone to win the support of politicians. I would have changed how I present my argument so that I appeal to their emotions. For instance, I will have to change how I cite past cases involving the arguments on the right to free speech. The reason for modification is to win inclusivity and maintain the support of policymakers. Part II: Reflection I find that the rhetoric choices I made in my paper are different from that of Ariely and Wertenbrauch due to the difference in the audience. My audience was feminists and researchers interested in the topic of human rights. Additionally, I wrote my paper as an essay for the academic requirement, hence I had to adhere to the format. On the other hand, Wertenbrauch and Ariely were researching procrastination. This difference in the audience makes ...
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