mel-u@mail.utexas.edu
Your topic proposal should describe the text you choose to write about. It should mention what sort of argument it is, explain its rhetorical purpose, and identify its intended audience or invoked audience. The proposal should state your claim about the effectiveness of the appeals and rhetorical strategies within the text, and briefly mention the reasons you will use to support this claim. It should follow this format.
SOURCE: CWRL Newsletter, 1/21/2000.
TEXT: Wills, Bob. "The Effective Use of Technology in the Classroom"
RHETORICAL PURPOSE: To persuade readers to employ computer technology in the composition classroom.
AUDIENCE: Composition teachers in community colleges and in state universities, particularly teachers of Assistant Professor rank or below.
The article fails to offer address the concerns of poorly funded institutions and institutions who can not provide their instructors with thorough training. Although it relies on data from composition classrooms, the author does not appeal to instructors' educational values. The author doesn't identify its audience appropriately, and as a result, the author seems biased toward including computer technology at all costs.