Macbeth Rhetorical Strategies Essay Required Text Shakespeare, William,Macbeth. Traditional Essay Prompt (Choice No. 1): Compose an essay where you

Macbeth Rhetorical Strategies Essay Required Text

Shakespeare, William,Macbeth.

Traditional Essay Prompt (Choice No. 1):

Compose an essay where you provide a close reading

analysis of the text of your choice and the author’s use of at

least two rhetorical strategies. If you are stuck, please use the

provided Close Reading Worksheet. In your thesis, you should

make a claim about the effectiveness of these strategies.

Make sure you show examples from the text that connects to

the point/claim you want to make and support your thesis.

(These examples form the I or Illustration of PIE format.) Also,

make sure to explain how the illustration proves your claim to

be correct. (This will form part of your E or Explanation in PIE

format.)

Specific Requirements

□

Your essay must include an

academic summary

of

your chosen text.

□

Your

essay

must

also

include

your

argument

about

the

effectiveness

of

the

author’s

rhetoric.

▪

That means you need a

thesis

and

topic sentences

which state your

claim

and

reasons

why. You also

need support for your argument in the form of cited

material from the text itself.

▪

Remember, your thesis needs to contain both your

limited subject and your attitude (claim) about your

limited subject.

▪

For this essay, your limited subject is the

specific rhetorical strategies you choose to

focus on, and your attitude is whether or not

the author is successful in their implementation

of these strategies.

□

You must include a total of at least

SIX direct quotes

in your essay.

□

You are required to

cite your sources

using proper

MLA

format

, so don’t forget your

Works Cited

page.

□

Length: 5-6 pages

□

Your essay needs to have a creative title.

Components

to

Include:

In

your

introduction,

include:

1.

a

hook

or

attention

grabber;

2.

background

information

on

the

topic

3.

Academic

summary

of

your

chosen

text

4.

your

thesis

statement

–

your

thesis

should

state

your

limited

subject

and

attitude

In

your

body

paragraphs,

include:



PIE

Format



Topic

sentences/Points

that

make

a

claim

about

the

effectiveness

of

a

rhetorical

strategy



Information

that

is

directly

quoted

from

the

text



Explanation/Evaluation

of

each

quote

that

does

the

following:



Explains

what

the

quote

means

in

your

own

words



Connects

the

quote

to

your

point/claim.

Shows

how

the

quotes

supports

the

point.



Explains the significance of the quote.

In your conclusion, include

1.A brief summary of your key points

2. Restate your thesis

3.Final thoughts about your topic

Close Reading Worksheet

For example, look at

diction

. What kinds of words does the author use? Look up any that

are unfamiliar. Does she or he aim for lofty diction (used for special occasions) or

common diction? Are the words long or short, Latinate or Anglo-Saxon, specialized (i.e.

legalistic, medical, jargon, elite) or ordinary? Remember that the rules for diction are

different at different times in history.

The PowerPoints for this week:

Rhetorical Strategies

and

Rhetorical Devices

can help

you narrow down what you want to focus on for your close reading.

3. Next, look at

sentence structure

. Can you map the sentences (find the subject

and verb, locate phrases and clauses)? Does the author use active or passive

verbs? What rhythms or patterns does the sentence structure create—long flowing

ones, short choppy ones—and how do these relate to the meaning?

4. Does the passage contain

figurative language

? What sensory images or

metaphors or similes do you observe? What is the significance or effect of the

author’s use or lack of figurative language?

5. What do you notice about the

structure

of the passage overall? Does it have a

climax or significant turning point? How does it organize or develop its ideas,

impressions, or themes?

6. You can also analyze

tone

. Is the narrator being straightforward, factual, open?

Or is he taking a less direct route toward his meaning? Does the voice carry

emotion? Or is it detached from its subject? Do you hear irony? If so, what do you

make of it?

7. Once you have a grasp of the language, you can begin to look for

problems or

complications

in your reading of the passage, to move beyond

description to

interpretation

. What are the effects of the technical features of the passage? In

the example above, you may discover some difference between what the author

appears to be doing (giving you a complete, unbiased narrative) and what she also

accomplishes (raising doubts about the narrator’s point of view, whether he fully

understands the implications of what he’s seen, whether this narrator can be

trusted, etc.). You can now begin to talk about the ways Shelley’s language,

which

seems

to invite our confidence, is also raising these doubts.

8. At this point, you can propose a generic

hypothesis

, something like, “In this

passage, Shelley raises questions about Victor Frankenstein’s character through

her contrast between the violence Frankenstein witnesses and his seemingly

bland, even inappropriate response to it.” You can proceed to fill in the outlines of

this point by explaining what you mean, using details and quotations from the

passage to support your point.

9. You still need an argument and will need to go back to your opening to sharpen

the thesis. The question is

Why

? Or

to what effect

?

Your thesis might build on

what you’ve already written by suggesting the larger implications of your

observations and by structuring your paper more rigorously.