Writing Homework Help

For your “Reading as a Writer” Response #2, compose your own rhetorical analysis of Pollan’s text “Why Bother?” https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/why-bot…

In your rhetorical analysis, focus on the following parts of his text:

1. 1. What is the meaning of the title “Why Bother?” Why do you think the author chose it? What is he trying to tell us, his audience, in this title?
2. Who is the author? What authority does he have to write on this subject? Is he an expert? If not, how would this knowledge affect your reading and interpretation of his text?
3. What is the main idea of this text? Explain why he focuses on this main idea to develop his text.
4. What is the purpose for writing “Why Bother?” What is Pollan trying to achieve? Is the text purely informative, or is he trying to persuade you of doing something?
5. Who do you think Pollan’s audience is? Explain.
6. What do you think is the tone of this text? Is it informative, persuasive, funny, angry, passionate, sad, annoyed, apathetic, etc.? Explain how you figured out his tone.

Helpful Hints: this is an informal argument, in which Pollan takes a specific position on a controversial issue in the first half of his text, and he then attempts to propose a solution in the second half of his text. Go through my lecture titled “Rhetorical Analysis” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/styleguide/chapt…

Length: at least 2 pages. Use MLA 8 format for this response, and incorporate specific quotations from Pollan’s text to illustrate your rhetorical analysis. Do not forget to use “quotation sandwich” structure to incorporate both direct and indirect quotations and include in-text parenthetical citations following quotations. You will need to use specific textual evidence from Pollan’s article to support and illustrate your rhetorical analysis.

-MLA 8 Format: http://williambadke.com/MLA8Guide.pdf

-reminder from prof: I wanted to remind everyone to submit an MLA 8 Works Cited page with each “Reading as a Writer” response and Essay.

• If you are incorporating sources in your assignment, all sources need to be listed on the Works Cited page in alphabetical order by Author’s Last Name
• The Works Cited page should be on a new page.
• Works Cited should not be directly under your last paragraph, even if you only have 1 citation.
• Your Works Cited is not counted towards the page requirement. If the assignment requires 2 pages, you will need 2 full pages of your own writing and the 3rd page will be your Works Cited.

Here is an example of a Works Cited page: https://library.honolulu.hawaii.edu/citingsources/mla8(Links to an external site.) – At the Bottom

This document also has an example: MLA Documentation handout Winiarski 8.2.19.pdf

Works Cited Page – Individual Citations

The format of each citation will be different depending on the source (book, article, handout, picture, interview, Ted Talk, podcast). Use the “MLA8 Guide – Formatting and Citations” (Links to an external site.), posted in my module, to check which parts need to be italicized and where punctuation is placed.

Example of a Citation for a Journal Article online: (Notice the Hanging Indent on the First Line)

Boyer, Holly and Aimee Graham. “Hip Hop in the United States.” Reference & User

Services Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 3, Spring 2016, pp. 215-218. Academic Search

Complete, hccproxy.lib.hawaii.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/

.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=114060504&site=ehost-live. Accessed 23

June 2016.

How to create Hanging Indents in:

• Apple Pages (start at 42 seconds):
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUqDVjMCR80 (Links to an external site.)
• Google Docs and Microsoft Word:
  • https://www.bibliography.com/mla/creating-hanging-indents-for-your-mla-works-cited-list/