Choose ONE of the two articles listed/linked below.
1. **An article on solitary confinement in Canadian prisons, by Robert Fulford (The National Post):
2. A Ted Talk by Chimamanda Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” (watch with the captions)
Compose an essay with a THESIS and SUPPORTING POINTS about how the author appeals to emotion/uses pathos to persuade us of the merits of their argument.
Your pathos analysis might look at how the author uses loaded language or how they relate an anecdote or illustration to make their argument.
Structure
1. Introduction (1 paragraph)
-includes the title of the article, the author’s full name, and the year of publication
-includes a sentence about the topic of the article and the author’s main argument
-includes a thesis statement that evaluates the effectiveness of author’s use of pathos (Does the author’s appeal to emotion strengthen or weaken the argument?)
2. Body (2 paragraphs)
-each body paragraph must begin with a topic sentence about how the author makes use of pathos in the essay
-each body paragraph should include one or two examples — direct quotations — from the article/talk to illustrate your point about how pathos functions in the author’s argument
-each example must be integrated into the paragraph correctly — e.g. lead into the quotation/example, and discuss it afterwards
3. Conclusion (1 short paragraph, 2-3 sentences)
-on the whole, is the author’s appeal to emotion successful; how so?
Formatting
Your summary must be double-spaced with 1” margins on all sides and in a 12 point (Times New Roman or similar) font.
Include APA citations for direct quotations/examples.
Include an APA-style References page.
Evaluation
A successful analysis will:
Outline how the author makes their argument
Evaluate the argument in terms of pathos (loaded language or anecdote).
Cite specific passages and demonstrates how they function within the overall argument
Identify any significant strengths or weaknesses of the argument (or a mixture of both) and ties them back to the claims of the argument (evaluation)