RHETORICAL ANALYSIS SAMPLE ESSAY Harriet Clark Ms. Rebecca Winter CWC 101 13 Feb. 2015 Not Quite a Clean Sweep: Rhetorical Strategies in Grose’s “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier” A woman’s work is never done: many American women grow up with this saying and feel it to be true. One such woman, author Jessica Grose, wrote “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier,” published in 2013 in the New Republic, and she argues that while the men in our lives recently started taking on more of the childcare and cooking, cleaning still falls unfairly on women. Grose begins building her credibility with personal facts and reputable sources, citing convincing facts and statistics, and successfully employing emotional appeals; however, toward the end of the article, her attempts to appeal to readers’ emotions weaken her credibility and ultimately, her argument. In her article, Grose first sets the stage by describing a specific scenario of house- cleaning with her husband after being shut in during Hurricane Sandy, and then she outlines the uneven distribution of cleaning work in her marriage and draws a comparison to the larger feminist issue of who does the cleaning in a relationship. Grose continues by discussing some of the reasons that men do not contribute to cleaning: the praise for a clean house goes to the woman; advertising and media praise men’s cooking and childcare, but not cleaning; and lastly, it is just not fun. Possible solutions to the problem, Grose suggests, include making a chart of who does which chores, dividing up tasks based on skill and ability, accepting a dirtier home, and making cleaning more fun with gadgets. Throughout her piece, Grose uses many strong sources that strengthen her credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build her argument. These sources include, “sociologists Judith Treas and Tsui-o Tai,” “a 2008 study from the University of New Hampshire,” and “P&G North America Fabric Care Brand Manager, Matthew Krehbiel” (qtd. in Grose). Citing these sources boosts Grose’s credibility by showing that she has Hook Context Article author’s claim or purpose Thesis Summary of the article’s main points in the second paragraph (could also be in the introduction) Third paragraph begins with a transition and topic sentence that reflects the first topic in the thesis Quotes illustrate how the author uses appeals to ethos done her homework and has provided facts and statistics, as well as expert opinions to support her claim. She also uses personal examples from her own home life to introduce and support the issue, which shows that she has a personal stake in and first-hand experience with the problem. Adding to her ethos appeals, Grose uses strong appeals to logos, with many facts and statistics and logical progressions of ideas. She points out facts about her marriage and the di ...

1. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
SAMPLE ESSAY
Harriet Clark
Ms. Rebecca Winter
CWC 101
13 Feb. 2015
Not Quite a Clean Sweep: Rhetorical Strategies in
Grose’s “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier”
A woman’s work is never done: many American women grow
up with this
saying and feel it to be true. One such woman, author Jessica
Grose, wrote “Cleaning:
The Final Feminist Frontier,” published in 2013 in the New
Republic, and she argues that
while the men in our lives recently started taking on more of the
childcare and cooking,
cleaning still falls unfairly on women. Grose begins building
her credibility with

2. personal facts and reputable sources, citing convincing facts and
statistics, and
successfully employing emotional appeals; however, toward the
end of the article, her
attempts to appeal to readers’ emotions weaken her credibility
and ultimately, her
argument.
In her article, Grose first sets the stage by describing a specific
scenario of house-
cleaning with her husband after being shut in during Hurricane
Sandy, and then she
outlines the uneven distribution of cleaning work in her
marriage and draws a comparison
to the larger feminist issue of who does the cleaning in a
relationship. Grose continues
by discussing some of the reasons that men do not contribute to
cleaning: the praise for a
clean house goes to the woman; advertising and media praise
men’s cooking and
childcare, but not cleaning; and lastly, it is just not fun.
Possible solutions to the problem,
Grose suggests, include making a chart of who does which
chores, dividing up tasks

3. based on skill and ability, accepting a dirtier home, and making
cleaning more fun with
gadgets.
Throughout her piece, Grose uses many strong sources that
strengthen her
credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build her argument.
These sources include,
“sociologists Judith Treas and Tsui-o Tai,” “a 2008 study from
the University of New
Hampshire,” and “P&G North America Fabric Care Brand
Manager, Matthew Krehbiel”
(qtd. in Grose). Citing these sources boosts Grose’s credibility
by showing that she has
Hook
Context
Article author’s
claim or purpose
Thesis
Summary of the
article’s main

4. points in the
second paragraph
(could also be in
the introduction)
Third paragraph
begins with a
transition and
topic sentence that
reflects the first
topic in the thesis
Quotes illustrate
how the author
uses appeals to
ethos
done her homework and has provided facts and statistics, as
well as expert opinions to
support her claim. She also uses personal examples from her
own home life to introduce
and support the issue, which shows that she has a personal stake
in and first-hand
experience with the problem.

5. Adding to her ethos appeals, Grose uses strong appeals to logos,
with many facts
and statistics and logical progressions of ideas. She points out
facts about her marriage
and the distribution of household chores: “My husband and I
both work. We split
midnight baby feedings ...but ... he will admit that he’s never
cleaned the bathroom, that I
do the dishes nine times out of ten, and that he barely knows
how the washer and dryer
work in the apartment we’ve lived in for over eight months.”
These facts introduce and
support the idea that Grose does more household chores than her
husband. Grose
continues with many statistics:
[A]bout 55 percent of American mothers employed full time do
some housework
on an average day, while only 18 percent of employed fathers
do. ... [W]orking
women with children are still doing a week and a half more of
“second shift”
work each year than their male partners. ... Even in the
famously gender-neutral
Sweden, women do 45 minutes more housework a day than their

6. male partners.
These statistics are a few of many that logically support her
claim that it is a substantial
and real problem that men do not do their fair share of the
chores. The details and
numbers build an appeal to logos and impress upon the reader
that this is a problem worth
discussing.
Along with strong logos appeals, Grose effectively makes
appeals to pathos in
the beginning and middle sections. Her introduction is full of
emotionally-charged words
and phrases that create a sympathetic image; Grose notes that
she “was eight months
pregnant” and her husband found it difficult to “fight with a
massively pregnant person.”
The image she evokes of the challenges and vulnerabilities of
being so pregnant, as well
as the high emotions a woman feels at that time effectively
introduce the argument and its
seriousness. Her goal is to make the reader feel sympathy for
her. Adding to this idea
are words and phrases such as, “insisted,” “argued,” “not fun,”
“sucks” “headachey,” “be

7. judged,” “be shunned” (Grose). All of these words evoke
negative emotions about
cleaning, which makes the reader sympathize with women who
feel “judged” and
shunned”—very negative feelings. Another feeling Grose
reinforces with her word
choice is the concept of fairness: “fair share,” “a week and a
half more of ‘second shift’
work,” “more housework,” “more gendered and less frequent.”
These words help
Analysis explains
how the quotes
show the effective
use of pathos, as
noted in the thesis
Analysis explains
how the quotes
show the effective
use of ethos, as
noted in the thesis
Quote that
illustrates appeals
to logos
Quote that
illustrates appeals

8. to logos
Transition and
topic sentence
about the second
point from the
thesis
Quotes that
illustrate appeals
to pathos
Transition and
topic sentence
about the third
point from the
thesis
Analysis explains
how the quotes
show the effective
use of logos, as
noted in the thesis
This document was developed by the
College Writing Center
STLCC-Meramec

9. Created 2/2015 by HSC
establish the unfairness that exists when women do all of the
cleaning, and they are an
appeal to pathos, or the readers’ feelings of frustration and
anger with injustice.
However, the end of the article lacks the same level of
effectiveness in the
appeals to ethos. For example, Grose notes that when men do
housework, they are
considered to be “’enacting “small instances of gender
heroism,” or ‘SIGH’s’—which,
barf.” The usage of the word “barf” is jarring to the reader;
unprofessional and immature,
it is a shift from the researched, intelligent voice she has
established and the reader is less
likely to take the author seriously. This damages the strength of
her credibility and her
argument.
Additionally, her last statement in the article refers to her
husband in a way that
weakens the argument. While returning to the introduction’s
hook in the conclusion is a
frequently-used strategy, Grose chooses to return to her
discussion of her husband in a

10. humorous way: Grose discusses solutions, and says there is “a
huge, untapped market ...
for toilet-scrubbing iPods. I bet my husband would buy one.”
Returning to her own
marriage and husband is an appeal to ethos or personal
credibility, and while that works
well in the introduction, in the conclusion, it lacks the strength
and seriousness that the
topic deserves and was given earlier in the article.
Though Grose begins the essay by effectively persuading her
readers of the
unfair distribution of home-maintenance cleaning labor, she
loses her power in the end,
where she most needs to drive home her argument. Readers can
see the problem exists in
both her marriage and throughout the world; however, her shift
to humor and sarcasm
makes the reader not take the problem as seriously in the end.
Grose could have more
seriously driven home the point that a woman’s work could be
done: by a man.
Works Cited

11. Grose, Jessica. “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier.” New
Republic. The New
Republic, 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Quote illustrates
how the author
uses appeal to
ethos
Transition and
topic sentence
about fourth point
from thesis
Analysis explains
how quote
supports thesis
Transition and
topic sentence
about fourth point
from thesis
Conclusion returns
to ideas in the
thesis and further
develops them
Analysis explains
how quote
supports thesis

12. Quote illustrates
how the author
uses appeal to
ethos
Last sentence
returns to the hook
in the introduction
Briefing Cases
In general, it should not take you more than 20 minutes to brief
a case after you have read it carefully. The brief should be no
longer than two typed pages and should include the students
name, the assignment, and the date at the top of the first page.
Every brief should contain the following elements:
Identification of Case
1. Name of Case: The title of the decision contains the name of
the litigants.
2. Citation (for possible later reference to complete official
text): A judicial citation contains the volume number and page
number of the reporter system in which the decision appears as
well as the year in which the decision was issued.
3. Date decided (at the highest court level) and the highest
court: The level or type of court is important because it
indicated the federal or state jurisdiction immediately affected
by the decision.
Analysis of Case
4. Background and Facts: Include previous court rulings here:
Facts include the actual circumstances, events or occurrences
involved in the case.
5. Issues (no more than two or three issues per case in one line
each: include “yes” or “no” answers after each): An issue is a
disputed point or question of law on which a legal action is

13. based. Issues are of two types, procedural and substantive.
a. Procedural: Involves specific disputed questions of law and
these issue are the basis of an appeal to a higher court.
b. Substantive: involve broader questions of legal rights and
principals, such as liberty and property interests.
6. Decision of the Highest Court
7. Majority opinion or reasons for the decision (about three to
six lines)
8. Any dissenting or concurring opinions (two or three lines
each)
9. Comments from you and/or your sources
Please cite all sources at the end of the brief. It is not necessary
to create a separate reference page.
Essay 1: Rhetorical Analysis
This is the assignment sheet for your first major essay. Study it
carefully. Use it as your guide.
Formatting & Length Requirement
Compose an essay that is no less than three full pages in length
and no more than five full pages (plus MLA works cited page)
that offers a rhetorical analysis of a selected article (provided
below). Use the MLA Citation Style (8th edition) guidelines in
order to format the document and document sources.
Audience
Educated readers expecting an unbiased, accurate,
comprehensive summary of the source’s ideas and a rhetorical
analysis that wallows in complexity and offers insight. This
audience expects your essay to apply the conventions of closed-
form prose.
Purpose

14. To analyze an author’s rhetorical choices
Genre
Rhetorical AnalysisEssay Assignment
Select one of the readings just below. In response to your
chosen reading, compose a rhetorical analysis essay that
incorporates:
A. 150-200 word summary of the reading,
B. focused and developed analysis of the reading’s rhetorical
situation and the author’s use of rhetorical appeals (logos,
ethos, and pathos).
C. You might analyze the angle of vision, as well, to determine
how it colors the author’s presentation of his or her thinking.
Specifically,
Select One of the Following Readings to Analyze for Essay 1
· Option1: “Why the portion of Americans with jobs keeps
shrinking”
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/07/11/p
ortion-americans-jobs-keeps-shrinking
· Option 2: Jeff Mosier “Texas Fracking Numbers Are
Mindboggling, But What Do They Really Mean?
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2016/04/14/texas-
fracking-numbers-are-mind-boggling-but-what-do-they-really-
mean
· Option 3: “My Selfie, Myself”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/sunday-review/my-selfie-
myself.htmlSome Help
· Revisit Concepts 1.2, 3.1, and 3.2 before you attempt this
essay. They are the main concepts you will apply.

15. · Study Skills 17.4, 17.5, 17.6, 17.7, and 17.8 as well as the
MEAL Paragraph Strategy
· Here are two sample rhetorical analysis thesis statements; use
them as guides:
· Notice how each thesis names the author and article and makes
clear analytical points about the article through its rhetorical
appeals:
· In “The Shape of Things to Come,” Javier Li relies on
research and reasoning from facts to build credibility and uses
anecdotes to move readers’ emotionally.
· In “Vampire Weekend,” Samaira Patel chooses diction and
examples that provoke readers into acting on her call-to-action.
· Here are two sample rhetorical analysis topic sentences; use
them as guides:
· Notice how each topic sentence makes a clear claim that
presents a single main idea:
· Three stirring anecdotes make up Li’s appeals to pathos.
· Patel’s attempt to enrage her readers becomes clear in a few
provocative word choices.
· Here is one possible framework for a rhetorical analysis essay;
use it as a guide:
Notice that this essay is organized by rhetorical appeal. The
writer has tackled each appeal in its own paragraph.
· Introduction
· Introduce readers to the topic or problem the text addresses
· Introduce readers to the text you will critique and its author
· Break down the text’s rhetorical situation

16. · Summary
· Summarizes the text in 150-200 words. The summary is a
balanced, accurate, concise, and neutral presentation of main
points.
· Thesis
· Present your analytical thesis about rhetorical appeals (and
perhaps angle of vision, too)
· Body Section 1: Logos
· Topic Sentence: Presents an analytical claim about the
author’s use of logos
· Presents first example from text to support claim
· Analyzes and explains the example to show exactly how it
supports the claim
· Presents second example from text to support claim
· Analyzes and explains the example to show exactly how it
supports the claim
· Continue as needed with further examples and analysis and
explanations of them…
· Body Section 2: Ethos
· Same paragraph development as Body Section 1
· Body Section 3: Pathos
· Same paragraph development as Body Sections 1 and 2
· Conclusion
· Wraps up the analysis briefly to leave readers thinking about
both the source text and the writer’s response to it. Does not
summarize the writer’s essay or restate the thesis.
· Another framework might look like this:
It, too, would use topic sentences, evidence, and explanations of

17. evidence as the body sections in the first framework above.
Notice that this essay is organized around broader conclusions
the writer has drawn from her analysis of the article; the writer
uses rhetorical appeals as they relate to her conclusions. This is
a very effective structure.
· Introduction
· Summary of Text
· Thesis
· Body Section 1: Claims, reasons, and evidence are the
backbone of Li’s article. (will focus on ethos and logos)
· Body Section 2: Li will likely offend some readers with her
diction. (will focus on pathos and ethos)
· Body Section 3: Two key examples reveal Li’s angle of vision,
revealing her target audience and agenda (will focus on angle of
vision and ethos)
· Conclusion