ARGUMENT ANALYSIS

ENG 102 MIDTERM EXAM

Due: Sunday, March 8, 2020, 11:59 p.m.

For this assignment, you will conduct an argument analysis of the following Opinion article in
The New York Times: The Parkland Massacre isn’t an “Anniversary” by Gregory Gibson

Your analysis must include a brief summary of the argument and a well-reasoned discussion of
the rhetorical context and strategies central to the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the
argument. You must state your thesis, i.e., your opinion of the persuasiveness of the argument,
in your essay. You will also present your analysis of:
 the article’s genre and its author’s purpose.
 the author’s use of logos, ethos, pathos and kairos
 the persuasiveness of these strategies for the intended audience

You should include textual evidence to develop and support your points. Do not copy chunks of
text from the transcript to support your essay. Instead, use brief quotations for the purpose of
giving the reader a feel of the original text or to review the evidence for itself.

Refer to the chapters and class slides on the Core of an Argument, Ethos and Pathos, to help
you in your analysis. Particularly useful are the guiding questions on pp. 149-150 of your
textbook and the checklists in Sylvan Barnet’s Chapter 5: Writing an Analysis of an Argument.

Your essay should be between 500-600 words. Submit your assignment, typed in double-
spaced, 12-point readable font in D2L’s DropBox by Sunday, March 8, 2020, 11:59 p.m.
Use APA format for citations and references.