Short Story Analysis

Pre-work: How to start this analysis…

Consider the rhetorical situation…for each piece. Figure out all the elements of the rhetorical situation of each piece. Make a list. Make an outline. Make a summary. However you best work, create something that details the RS of each piece. After you’ve compiled a Rhetorical Situation outline for all of the included stories, create a mixed genre essay “explaining” you collection of short stories.

Think about the other elements of rhetoric; specifically, consider how the ethos, logos and pathos of each narrator (or author if your feel they come in to their story) effects your reading of the story.

After you’ve created an outline or annotations on each story, you need to find a common theme or shared issue present in all the stories to write an analytical essay on. In this essay you will want to explain a few things. Namely, you will have to address how or why these stories were lumped together into a collection. There is a theme; identify what you perceive the theme to be and construct your essay according to arguing that. There is no pivotal right answer; there is your individual reading of each text and your interpretation of the theme they all speak to. This isn’t meant to be a trick question. Just because I feel that the theme I see is fairly obvious, doesn’t mean that it actually is. Write to me, your audience, what you see when you look at the texts as a collections, and report, analysis, and argue how each individual piece makes up a thematic collection.

Ideal method to complete this assignment:

1. Read all the short stories once.

2. Reread the stories and make a good outline for the elements of the Rhetorical Situation; also include any information you feel needs to be included (direct quotes, page numbers, reactions to the text) to make the outline a proper writing tool to be used later on when you begin to write your paper.

3. Once you have compiled a Rhetorical Situation outline for each story, read over your outlines to find communalities, differences, similarities…all the information you will need to write a paper about all of the stories.

4. Create an outline geared to help you write your analytical essay (see example):

The above outline example is VERY generic. It’s only supposed to help you visualize how to create an outline that synthesizes all of the piece you will have read.

5. Check that your outline lists all the pertinent information you will want to use in your analytical essay.

6. Start rocking your essay!

Consider the Rhetorical Situation for Each Story:

Purpose:

Genre:

Audience:

Stance:

Media/Design:

* As with any assignment, make sure you direct any questions or concerns you may have to me! I can’t help you if I don’t know you need help!

Create a document for each story that addresses each of these elements as well as all other important information you need to remember from your reading! The Rhetorical Situation outline serves as an important outlining tool-but it shouldn’t be considered the end-all-be-all of what’s in a text! This is just an foundational understanding of the text; because you are creating an analytical essay, you need to allow yourself more consideration. You need to do a critical reading of each story, and then critically analyze the entire collection to create a well-grounded theme for your analytical essay.