The goal of this exercise is to produce a very rough draft (a “zero draft”) of your first essay. This will help you find raw material (i.e. potential evidence and rough ideas) that can be refined and further developed in your formal draft.

Estimated time: 2-3 hours
Due by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, February 13th

Assignment

1. Review the guidelines for the Rhetorical Analysis Essay and the guidelines for essay submissions in the course syllabus.
2. In one paragraph, offer a summary of “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).” Ensure that you define what Cohen means by the term “monster.”
3. Describe, in no more than two paragraphs, two writing patterns in “Monster Culture” that you think are important clues to better understanding the intended audience of Cohen’s essay. Like we did in our last class, provide at least two examples of each pattern, citing the page and Thesis in which the examples are located.
4. For around two pages, free-write on each pattern you have chosen and attempt to work towards insightful (i.e. not obvious) and sophisticated (i.e. not simplistic) arguments about each. In other words, how do the writing patterns help you to better understand the specific audience that Cohen is writing for? As we did in class, you will have to look up specific examples of the patterns you’ve chosen in order to better understand what they mean and to determine what type of reader would be familiar with them. This part of the draft should be very rough and messy. (If this is polished and free of grammatical errors, it means you did not follow my instructions.) You should explore potential paths of inquiry without necessarily knowing whether or not they will lead to fruitful conclusions. The point of this part is to explore! Do not “go back” to fix spelling or grammar errors, or to revise or change ideas; keep going forward! Allow your messy, nascent thoughts (and questions) to unfold and develop on the page. If you have a non-English first language, incorporate words and phrases from your first language as much as you want.
5. End your zero draft with one paragraph in which you attempt to state your hypothesis or tentative thesis. In other words, how would you describe the specific audience that Cohen is writing for?
6. Include a one-paragraph self-evaluation on a separate page in which you briefly explain what challenges you are encountering as you attempt to develop a thesis, and how your understanding of Cohen’s essay has been deepened and/or been complicated since the first time you read it.
7. Name your Word document as explained in the course syllabus and then submit it to https://www.dropbox.com/request/lIH85R5aEPUDuHR2JQm1