Conclusions

Conclusions in Analysis Papers

Introduction: Rhetorical Context

Provide the rhetorical context for the social milieu of your text. In other words, you will want to provide relevant contemporaneous information about the issue/debate the speaker is addressing (e.g, war in Iraq, gun control, dedication of a new monument, etc.). Cite sources to help provide context such as historical events, political climate, or biographical information. You want to explain why your author wrote on this topic at the particular moment (s)he chose to write. Your goal is to provide context for your readers who will know less than you about the text and its contemporary historical moment.

Conclusion: Contemporary Significance

Provide the continuing significance of the issue your paper addresses. In other words, you will want to demonstrate contemporary events that make this something we should still talk about and consider or which make the points less relevant today. You can then evaluate your author’s argument based on whether we should continue to heed his/her warning, dismiss him/her for a certain reason, or pay attention to him/her but not for a good reason (maybe they represent a dangerous or problematic viewpoint on the topic that we should strive to avoid).

Introduction	Conclusion
Rhetorical Context of Your Article	Rhetorical Context of Your Paper
Context of author’s time of writing	Context of your time of writing
Why this issue was important at its publication	Why this issue is important today
Why did your author care then?	Why should we care now?

Places to Look for Sources

-Web search on topic
-Library Search (articles, newspaper, books, etc.): http://library.tulane.edu/
-Encyclopedia: http://www.britannica.com/, use Wikipedia to lead you to more reputable sources
-Google Books for historical sources: http://books.google.com/
-Articles in Various Disciplines: http://scholar.google.com/

Sample Conclusions on Andrew Sullivan's "iPod World"

This article, published 7 years ago, foretold of continued growth in iPod sales and a noticeable change in the social interactions between people. In reality, sales of iPods turned out to be much different than was suggested in 2005. In an article published in 2010 one columnist said, “If sales of Apple’s iPod are any indication, the heyday of the MP3 player is over and done with” citing the continued decline in sales of the device after its peak in 2008 (Bonnington). However, it was not because people decided to rid themselves of such devices and interact in a distraction-free environment as Sullivan suggested, instead Apple has introduced consumers to even more alluring devices such as the iPhone. The predicted popularity of the iPod in 2005 pales in comparison to the actual popularity of the iPhone today with Apple having reported almost 250 million iPhones being sold since its introduction in 2007 (Apple Inc). These increased features over an iPod that the iPhone now offers only further the validity of Sullivan’s argument from 2005. Instead of being limited to music with an iPod, people are now able to talk, text, tweet, message, and video chat from almost anywhere at any time. And Sullivan’s prediction is becoming ever more accurate as Apple incessantly tweaks the device to perfect it for optimal consumption of media, accumulation more distractions every time. With these constant advancements, the points Sullivan brings up are more applicable to current society than when his article was first published and reminds us to always realize that it’s not all bad to have some downtime for the mind.


“IPod World” is funny, witty, and overall truly makes you think about the degrading camaraderie in our society and the value we place on simple human interaction. iPods have become such a large aspect of our culture, when Sullivan wrote his article in 2005, 10 million iPods had been sold—by September 2012 the number has increased to 350 million (Costello). This topic of technological isolation is not just a current debate, but has been talked about since the origin of MP3 players. In 1981, Shuhei Hosokawa wrote an article about the “Walkman effect”. This article was written in response to the recent release of the Walkman in 1980 and its effects on the interactions of others—claiming that these new MP3 players were disconnecting society and causing severe “incommunicability” between people (Hosokawa). Thirty-one years later much has changed. Walkmans have turned into iPods and cassettes have become digital files, but the same problem remains; people’s routine detachment from their environment once deafened by their headphones. Now in 2012, iPods aren’t just MP3 players, they’re movie theaters, books, arcades, and even cell phones. Between iPods and iPhones more and more people are loosing touch with their environment and succumbing to their personal virtual bubble. Sullivan’s article, despite being written seven years ago, is even more pertinent in our current society and makes its reader’s think about what they’re missing when they plug themselves in and tune society out.

Introductions

Students often struggle with introductions because they rely on two rules for introductions: 1) start broad and 2) catch the reader’s attention. Broad is relative to the rest of the paper, though, and the advice of Catherine Prendergast at First Year Comp describes the issue well: “In reality, the best introductions start specific. After that, they get even more specific.” So instead of starting out by describing “the beginning of time” or “today’s society,” think about the specifics of your paper.

Introductory hooks (like beginning with a question, opening with a startling fact or statistic, or crafting a narrative) only become useful if the introduction also 1) creates a substantial rhetorical context that 2) teaches the reader something new. Audiences are often interested if they feel like they are learning from reading. To engage audiences in this way, it just takes a little research on the rhetorical context.

Authors always speak, write, or perform within contexts. They respond to various statements, events, structures, and beliefs that came before they took part in the “conversation” on their topic. Your author(s), too, is in dialogue with other texts. As you introduce the text you are analyzing, then, you will want to consider the following questions: Why did this writer contribute to this topic at this particular moment? What cultural contexts do they draw on? What motivated them to communicate now? One of my students called this the “trigger;" rhetorical scholars call it kairos. You can create powerful introductions by discussing the timeliness  and occasion of the text, those things happening contemporaneously or which have historically informed the text.

In the following example, I provide the rhetorical context for a short dialogue. You can apply the principles and questions to your own article.

            Ben: Want to grab dinner with me tonight?

Cara: Sure, where are you thinking?

Ben: I’m pretty hungry, but I don’t know what I’m in the mood for.

Cara: Well, I know you usually don’t like Italian, but a new restaurant down the street is getting good reviews. They have pizza and salad, too, if you don’t want more traditional dishes.

Now, say we are analyzing Cara’s final argument. Cara wants to convince Ben to eat Italian food. What is the rhetorical context for her claim?

Cara’s Rhetorical Context	Some Principles of Rhetorical Context	Application Questions for Rhetorical Context
Ben spoke directly to her in conversation	Writers often respond directly to the words or actions of others. Writers join a conversation with people talking about the topic at the same time—sometimes directly (as here), sometimes indirectly.	Who else was talking about this issue around the same time your author was? What conversations is (s)he entering?
A critic released a review of the restaurant	Writers often respond to experts commenting on an issue in a new study, statistic, interpretation, or argument.	What experts presented findings on the author’s topic before (s)he wrote the text? What statistics emerged to show the significance of the issue?
The restaurant just opened	Writers often respond to current events, cutting-edge ideas or revivals of older ideas.	What events dealing with the topic occurred around the time the author wrote the article?
Ben doesn’t like Italian	Writers often respond to prevailing attitudes from individuals or from the culture at large.	What are the prevalent cultural attitudes about the topic? Does the author go with or against the grain of these attitudes?
Ben and Cara are hungry	Writers respond to things that affect them, their personal experience. Biography always informs writing.	What personal interest does the author have in the topic? Did something happen to the author to make her/him deal with this topic?

Assignment: Locate 2-3 academic sources that help build the rhetorical context for your text.

Think of it as setting the stage or describing the social milieu. In other words, you will want to provide relevant contemporaneous information about the issue/debate the speaker is addressing (e.g, overuse of technology, gun control, dedication of a new monument, etc.).

Your sources might describe current/historical events, disagree with your author and so show the debate, or provide biographical information. Your goal is to provide context for your readers who will know less than you about the article and its historical moment. Teach them something new.

Find Sources: You might start with a general web search on the topic of your text. First, limit it to the year the text was published.  You can always expand the date range if you need to. Read especially reputable sources like newspaper hits. You might also start with newspaper sources to get the facts first. For access to many newspapers at once, use your library website’s subscription to Proquest Historical Newspapers Database. If you don't have access, you can conduct a similar search through Google News Archives.

Student Examples:                                          

Research:

Question: I originally went looking for a text that addressed the changes to Medicare coverage for obese patients. So, what news articles can help me get the facts about the Medicare obesity debate in America around 2004?

Method: Search Proquest Historical Newspapers Database through library website

Search Term: Medicare Obesity 2004

Source: Found good news sources in New York Times

Question: What other (reliable) writings can I find on the Medicare obesity debate in America around 2004?

Method: Search Google. Look for reputable sources, not just random blogs or pages.

Search Term: Medicare Obesity 2004

Source: Found a lot of sources such as  Washington Post and Gallup

Question: What else was happening with obesity around 2004 in America when this comic was published?

Method: For web keyword search (google), Work on specific search terms: what, when, where?

Search Term: Obesity America 2004

Source: Found a useful statistic

Sample Introductions to Critique:

1. By 2004, more than one in three adult Americans were obese (Ogden et al.). In response to the problem, the United States government changed Medicare policies to cover certain obesity related treatments. Specifically, "the new policy... remove[d] the phrase 'obesity itself cannot be considered an illness'" to newly qualify treatments (Glassman). The legislation spurred debates over funding obesity with proponents of the plan arguing that the change would provide life-improving interventions and prevent premature death (McMurray). Yet 75% of Americans in a 2004 Gallup poll reported believing that obesity was due to "bad eating and bad lifestyle habits" as opposed to a "disease" (McMurray). Political cartoonist, Jeff Parker, sides with this majority. In the cartoon "Sick of Fat," Parker argues that Americans are to blame for weight problems and that the United States government not only inflates these problems by claiming obesity is an illness but also ignores the real problems of other countries.

Works Cited

Glassman, Mark. "Deletion Opens Medicare to Coverage for Obesity." New York Times 16 Jul. 2004.

Higgins, Marguerite. “Obesity Deemed an Illness.” The Washington Post.com 16 July 2004. 10 Aug. 2004.

Ogden, CL and MD Carroll, LR Curtin, MA McDowell, CJ Tabak, KM Flegal. “Prevalence of Overweight and Obsesity in the United States, 1999-2004.” Journal of the American Medical Association 295.13 (5 Apr. 2006): 1549-55. 

2. Obesity carries many stigmas in contemporary American culture, such as lazy, sedentary, and excessive. These labels reflect the prevailing view that obesity is a behavioral and therefore preventable problem. But as obesity affects more and more Americans—over one-third of United States adults were obese as of 2004—the United States government has displaced blame away from the individual American (Ogden et al.). In the summer of 2004, the United States Health and Human Services decided to “remove language in Medicare’s coverage that states obesity is not an illness” (Higgins). This change will allow individuals on Medicare and Medicaid to receive funding for obesity related treatments, and more broadly, it will influence the way Americans think about obesity. In “Sick of Fat,” political cartoonist Jeff Parker argues through the juxtaposition of American and the “third-world” that obesity is a moral disease caused by the excesses of American life. In contrast to the third world, America maintains excessive wealth, excessive power, excessive self-interest, and excessive disinterest in other countries.

Works Cited

McMuray, Colleen. "Public: Lifestyle, Not Disease Causes Obesity." Gallup.

Ogden, CL and MD Carroll, LR Curtin, MA McDowell, CJ Tabak, KM Flegal. “Prevalence of Overweight and Obsesity in the United States, 1999-2004.” Journal of the American Medical Association 295.13 (5 Apr. 2006): 1549-55. 

Finding Texts to Analyze

Speeches
American Rhetoric (searchable bank, list of their top 100, 9-11 rhetoric, speeches in movies)

Famous Speeches Given by Women

Voices of Democracy (speeches organized by Citizenship & Civic Identity, Civil Rights, Freedom of Speech, Religion & Morality in Public Life, Social & Economic Justice, U.S. Internationalism,  War & Peace)

Women's Speeches from Around the World

Nobel Lectures (find a subject, then a laureate, and view their award ceremony speech)

Speeches by American Presidents
Miller Center Presidential Speech Archives
So Just: Speeches on Social Justice
History Channel Famous Speeches (speeches by topic: war, civil rights, sports, space, etc.)

News, Politics, and Culture

Slate

Salon

The American Spectator

Huffington Post

Mother Jones

Townhall

The Nation

Newsmax

Feminist Perspectives
Bitch Magazine
Jezebel
Feministing
Ms. Magazine

Political Cartoons

Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons.com

Advertisements
Gender Ads
Adforum
Adflip Archive of Classic Print Ads

Film Analyses

The Dissolve

Titles

Ineffective Titles

Ineffective titles don’t prepare readers for what the paper will cover. Imagine you are writing a paper on Romeo and Juliet. If you simply name your paper after the work you analyze, a reader could expect to read the full text of Romeo and Juliet, not a literary analysis of Romeo and Juliet. If you refer only to abstract themes without naming the work(s) you analyze, a reader could expect a treatise on the theme of “love” through all time. Finally, titling your paper as an analysis of Romeo and Juliet suggests that you will cover all the aspects of the play as opposed to honing in on a few critical ideas.

1. Titling your paper only after the work you analyze.	2. Titling your paper only after a broad theme you analyze.	3. Titling your paper as an analysis of the text.
Example. Romeo and Juliet	Example.  Love and Death	Example.  Analysis of Romeo and Juliet

Effective Titles

While ineffective titles often use just one strategy above, effective titles build on all three. They name the text and/or author you address, demonstrate that you are analyzing a text, and label the topics within your discussion. Students who craft strong titles often wait until they have finished writing the paper so that they adequately describe the content of the whole. Successful titles draw interest and describe information, managing expectations by forecasting the topic(s) the paper addresses while exciting an audience to read the material. In short, they deliver an engaging preview.

Effective titles are informative and catchy.

Effective titles often use a well-placed colon.

Effective titles often follow conventional strategies.

Conventional Strategies for Titles

1. Incorporate an appropriate quote from the text you analyze.
 “She is a Creature Designed for Reading”: Narrative Intimacy in Young Adult Fiction
“Digital Narcissism is a Narcotic”: A Keen Analysis of the Dangers of Facebook

2. Play on a term that has multiple meanings.
No-Man’s-Land: Gender and Violence in Tim O’Brien’s “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”
Telling it Straight: Christianity and Fallacy in James Dobson’s Critique of Same Sex Marriage

3. Use parallel structure.
Comic Women, Tragic Men: A Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare’s Plays
Destroying Discourse and Constructing Masculinity in the Arcipreste de Talavera

4. List words in a series that name the elements you examine.
Money, Love, and Aspiration in The Great Gatsby
An Archive of Shame: Gender, Embodiment, and Citizenship in Contemporary American Culture

5. Use a related cliché or commonly recognized phrase in its original form or in a variation.
Make Love, Not Warcraft: Virtual Worlds and Utopia
The Renaissance: (Paradigm) Shift Happens 

6. Craft a probing question that describes the debate.
Is Nick an Unreliable Narrator? Narrative Voice in The Great Gatsby
What Should Colleges Teach?

7. Juxtapose items that describe the debate.
Sinner or Saint? Anti-Hero as Christ Figure in the American Novel of the 1960s
Exotic Fable or Stalinist Allegory? Taking Another Look at Shaw’s The Simpleton

8. Incorporate a fitting allusion (e.g. songs, fables, literature).
Children of the Corn: America’s Favorite Cash Crop and Where To Find It (Hint: Everywhere)
“We Don’t Need No Education”: Moore’s Critique of American Politics in “Idiot Nation”

More Forms for Titles

My article "A Rhetoric of Titles: Eighteen Forms for Student Writers" appears in Pedagogy 14.2.