Revolutionary Authors Analysis Essay

You will be writing a complete essay analyzing how Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine used rhetorical devices to persuade their audiences to separate from England. This chart will help you organize your ideas, but is not a required or assessed part of the assignment, so ignore where it says "you will be completing a chart." It is, however, highly recommended that you use the chart to help with organization and analytical thinking.

Due dates for your paper are as follows:

Monday: Edwards paragraphs will be returned.
Due Tuesday, 10/27: Intro and body paragraph one (revisions in class)
Due Thursday, 10/29: Revised Intro, body one AND body paragraph 2 (revisions in class)
Wednesday: Unit 1 Test
Due Friday, 10/30: Complete rough draft (revisions in class)
Due Monday, 11/2: Final copy due on paper and through Turnitin.

This assignment will receive summative scores in Transitions, and Analysis, and formative scores in conventions and requirements.

Due Thursday and Beyond!

Due Thursday: We will finally talk about "Franklin and the Gout." You may need to (re)read this passage in preparation for the discussion. Please note that although we will not discuss Franklin's autobiography much, we will mention it in class on Friday. It is also required reading for Unit 1 and is something you will need to get read. Therefore, it would be a good idea if you have it read for Friday.

Due Tuesday: You will have a revisions day for the first two paragraphs of our next writing assignment. You will find out more about this assignment on Friday.

Due Wednesday: The Unit 1 content test is today! Please see below for a questions break down and a reading list of Unit 1 material.

Puritans through Age of Reason Exam

60-ish Multiple Choice Questions

Make sure you know:

Literary Devices:
o Personification
o Periodic Structure
o Allusion, Metaphor
o Parallel Structure
o Metaphysical Conceit
o Epanorthosis
o Rhetorical Questions
o Rhetorical Appeals

Title of Passages we’ve read
o General History or Virginia
o Of Plymouth Plantation
o Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
o Wonders of the Invisible World
o Dialogue…Gout
o Autobiography
o Poor Richard’s Almanac
o Speech in the Virginia Convention
o Declaration of Independence
o The Crisis
o To his Excellency, General Washington

Authors of Passages we’ve read

Approximate dates and purpose of passages we’ve read

You will need to be able to identify excerpts from the passages we’ve read

Due Wednesday, 10/21

Now that we have discussed the Banneker passage thoroughly, you will need to create an outline for a complete essay (that we are NOT going to write) but that would answer the prompt and allow you to show off your best insights into the passage.

Your outline should address multiple rhetorical strategies as suggested by the prompt, and these strategies will most likely become your paragraph topics (in other words, your POA points.) Your outline should include evidence from the text and a brief bullet point explaining the insight gained from that piece of evidence. Please abbreviate quotation as needed, but make sure to leave enough for me to get the general idea.

Your outline should begin with a specific thesis statement that answers the prompt.

A general example:


Thesis statement: Banneker uses [stuff 1, stuff 2&3, and stuff 4] in an attempt to convince Jefferson that [something specific].

Paragraph 1: Stuff 1

- "quotation"
- insight

- "quotation"
- insight

Paragraph 2: Stuff 2 & 3

- "quotation"
- insight

- "quotation"
- insight

- "quotation"
- insight

Paragraph 3 Stuff 4:

- "quotation"
- insight

- "quotation"
- insight

Due Monday--Edwards Paragraph and Grammar!

Finish final copy of Edward's paragraph. You will need to turn it in online as well as on paper.

Please identify the sentences on the worksheet below as either simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. Print (or hand write if your printer is not working) and bring to class completed.


Sentence Structure Practice

If you'd like more explanation of sentence structures, it is available here. (This is a cheesy document, but it might be helpful.)

If you'd like even more practice exercises with explanations, go to the Sprague Online Writing Center and click on the pages for sentence types on the left.