What Is a Rhetorical Essay and How It Differs from Other Essays
I didn’t understand what made a rhetorical essay different until I was halfway through writing one. I’d spent years analyzing arguments, dissecting persuasive techniques, and thinking I had a handle on composition. Then a professor handed back my work with a note: “You’re summarizing the argument instead of analyzing how it works.” That’s when it […]
What a Critical Essay Is and How It Differs from Other Essays
I spent my first year of college thinking I understood what an essay was. I’d written plenty of them in high school–five-paragraph structures, thesis statements, supporting paragraphs, conclusions that restated everything I’d already said. I thought I had the formula down. Then my literature professor handed back my first critical essay with a note that […]
How do I write a strong body paragraph for analysis?
I’ve been staring at blank pages for years now, watching students panic over body paragraphs, watching professors mark them up with red ink, watching the same mistakes repeat themselves across hundreds of submissions. The thing about body paragraphs is that they’re not actually mysterious. They’re just misunderstood. When I started teaching writing at the university […]