The document outlines the grading rubric for an analysis project in an English course focused on evaluating two sources regarding poverty. It details grading criteria across various sections including introduction, analysis, conclusion, citations, formatting, and writing mechanics, totaling 100 points. Additionally, it presents five ethical dilemmas for students to consider, encouraging critical thinking and personal reflection on morality and decision-making in complex situations.

1. ENGL1304 – Dr. Salome – Fall 2016
Major Writing Project #1 Grading Rubric
Evaluation and Analysis of Two Sources
GRADING CRITERIA
POSSIBLE POINTS
POINTS RECEIVED/COMMENTS
Introduction Section:
· Purpose (Introduces two sources to include author names and
title of text, along with the subject matter.)
· Claim/Thesis/Main Idea from Authors (Provide the main claim
or thesis statement of each author.)
· Analysis Parameters (What methods of analysis will you use to
analyze the sources? Explain what criteria are used in your
paper.)
15
Analysis Section:
· Provide at least three characteristics by which to analyze each
text (i.e., Ethos, Pathos, Logos or Style, Tone, Sentence
Structure, Toulmin Model, etc.)
· Compare and contrast elements of each text/author arguments
(What are the similarities? How are they different?)
· Provide specific examples from each text in order to support
your comments (quotes with in-text citations)
· The details should be thorough and logical
30
Conclusion Section:
· States the major inferences that can be drawn from the
analysis.
· It is based entirely on previously stated information.
· It does not introduce new material or evidence to support your

2. analysis.
15
Works Cited and In-Text Citations:
· There must be at least two sources on the same topic of your
overall project
· Works cited page contains each source used in the in-text
citations.
· There are at least three in-text citations from each source used
throughout the analysis.
10
Format and Organization:
· MLA style formatting is used throughout the paper, including
works cited page and in-text citations
· Effective use of headings and subheadings throughout
· 11- or 12-point font size for main body of writing (Arial,
Calibri, Cambria, or Times Roman font type)
· Paragraphs of approximately five to seven sentences
· Standard 1” margins
· Ragged right justification
15
Writing Style and Mechanics:
· The tone is appropriate for the audience and the purpose.
· Sentences are complete, clear, concise, well- constructed, and
varied.
· Rules of grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation are
followed.
15
TOTAL
100
Points Earned: /100

3. Type: Individual Project
Unit: Default
Due Date: Mon, 10/10/16
Deliverable Length: 2 - 3 pages
Ethical Dilemmas: Read the following scenarios and answer the
questions listed at the end of each scenario.
Situation 1
A rich businessman’s daughter, Patty, had the best of everything
all her life. Her future
would have included college, a good marriage to a successful
young man, and a life of
comparative luxury—except that she was kidnapped by a small
band of radical extremists
who sought to overthrow the government by terror, intimidation,
and robbery. After being
raped, beaten, and locked in a small, dark closet for many days,
continually taunted and threatened, she was told that she must
participate with the terrorist gang in a bank robbery;
otherwise, she and her family would be killed. During the
course of the robbery, a bank
guard was shot. Was her action immoral? What if she had killed
the guard? What if the terrorists had kidnapped her mother or
father, too, and told her if she didn’t cooperate, they would kill
her parents immediately? What would you have done in her
place?
Situation 2
You are taking an essay exam in a college classroom. The test is
closed-book and closed notes,
yet you look up and see that the person sitting next to you has
hidden under his
blue book a piece of paper filled with notes, which he is using
to answer some questions.
What would you do? Would your answer change if the test was
graded on a curve? What if
the student were a friend? What would you do if the student was

4. flunking the course and
was going to lose the scholarship he needed to stay in school?
What about a situation of
plagiarism? Would you turn in a student if you knew they
turned in a plagiarized paper?
Why or why not? If someone cheats in school, isn’t it likely that
they will be less honest as
a criminal justice professional?
Situation 3
You are selected for a jury in a trial of a 64-year-old mother
who killed her two adult sons. The two men had Huntington’s
disease, a degenerative brain disease, and were
institutionalized. They were certain to die and would endure
much pain and suffering before they expired. The defendant’s
husband had died from this same disease, and she had nursed
him throughout his illness until his death. The defendant took a
gun into the nursing home, kissed her sons good-bye, and then
shot them both through the head. She was arrested for first-
degree murder. The prosecutor informs you that there is no
“mercy killing” defense in the law as it is written. If you were
on the jury, how would you decide this case? What punishment
does she deserve?
Situation 4
You are completing an internship with a juvenile probation
agency and truly have enjoyed the experience. Although
working with the kids is challenging, you see many rewards in
the job, especially when you sense that you are reaching a client
and making a difference. Mr. Childers, the probation officer
with whom you work, is less optimistic about the kids and
operates in a strictly by-the-book legalistic manner. He is
burned out and basically does his job without getting too
involved. Although you respect him, you know you would
approach the clients differently if you were to be hired full-
time. One weekend, you are out with friends in a downtown bar
frequented by college students. To your surprise, you see Sarah,

5. a 16-year-old probationer, dancing. In watching her, you realize
that she is drunk and, in fact, is holding a beer and drinking it
while she is dancing with a man who is obviously much older
than she is. You go over to her, and she angrily tells you to
mind your own business and immediately leaves with the man.
Later she comes back into the bar and pleads with you to keep
quiet. She is tearfully apologetic and tells you that she already
has had several violations of her probation and at the last
hearing was told that if she has one more violation, she will be
sent to a juvenile detention center. You know that Sarah has
been doing much better in school and plans to graduate and
even go to college. On Monday morning, you sit in Mr.
Childers’s office. What should you tell him?
Situation 5
All your life you have played by the rules. When you went to
college, you studied hard and didn’t party to the extent that it
hurt your grades. During your senior year, you began to make
plans to graduate and begin your career. One Friday night, you
were in a car with four other students heading home from a bar.
Before you knew what happened, the car was hit head on, and
all of you were injured seriously. You now are paralyzed and
face the rest of your life in a wheelchair. The car that hit you
was driven by a drunken student who, coincidentally, was in
several of your classes. Several days after you return home from
the hospital, he wants to see you. Despite your anger, you do
see him, and he begs for your forgiveness. He breaks down and
cries and tells you that he had never done anything like that
before and wishes he were dead. Can you forgive him? When he
is prosecuted, what would your sentence recommendation be?
Would your answers be different if someone had died? What if
he had prior drunk-driving incidents? What if he also had
committed other crimes and was not a fellow college student?
Major Project #1: Analysis of Two Sources
The goal of this paper is to analyze the rhetorical appeals of an

6. argument that are presented by two different authors who have
written on the subject of poverty. In the article, "Poverty in the
United States" by Isabel V Sawhill, she says, "Despite our
wealth and these efforts to reduce income inequality, poverty is
more prevalent in the United States than in most of the rest of
the industrialized world,"(Sawhill). In the article, "How Poor
Are the Poor" by Thomas B. Edsall, he says that the actual
poverty rate has dropped and we have not really begun to tackle
the problem of poverty. This paper will look closely to the
rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos found within these
two articles. Not to mention, this paper will also stress the
importance of both author’s similarities and differences.
Analyzing all the facts between the two authors, they are
making somewhat similar points that have been backed up and
supported by scientists and sociologists. In the article, "Poverty
in the United States" by Isabel V Sawhill, she says that poverty
in the United States is temporary rather than permanent. Her
intrinsic ethos is strong because when writing the article, she
sounds confident in what she wrote. She supported it all, not
having any reader to wonder where she got the information. Her
extrinsic ethos is weak because there wasn't much experience
written, she didn't connect to the topic, mostly wrote facts. In
the article, "How Poor Are the Poor" by Thomas B. Edsall, he
says, “The measurement of absolute progress is a worthy
undertaking, but in terms of evaluating the lived experience of
poverty and its detrimental effects, it is equally important, if
not more so, to explore the relative progress of the poor,”
(Edsall). On the topic of the question of how to compare the
levels of poverty over a half-century and how it still remains
hotly contested. Edsall intrinsic ethos is strong because the way
he words the article and is able to support every point he makes
with quotes from sociologists and so forth makes his article
very trustworthy to read.
Moreover, both articles brought a connection between them and
their readers through their words. Isabel connected her topic to
the heartstrings of people reading the article by using facts and

7. bringing up children in poverty. Sawhill did not bring up
personal connections about how she is connected to poverty but
she wrote about family, which everyone can connect to. By
writing about family, she got the readers’ attention. Reading
about children and family in poverty is enough to pull at
anyone’s heartstrings. According to Sawhill, “The rapid growth
of households headed by women and unrelated individuals, who
typically cannot earn as much as married-couple families, has
left a larger share of the population in poverty,” Edsall mostly
discussed facts and his opinion, after saying some facts; he
would support it with more information so the readers do not
have to wonder where he pulled out that information from. He
wrote his opinion on articles he read that were the topic of
poverty. “These are the very poor who are without work, part of
a population that is struggling desperately”. Edin and Schaefer
write that among the losers are an estimated 3.4 million
“children who over the course of a year live for at least three
months under a $2 per person per day threshold,” ”(Edsall,) In
this sentence, he touches you heart slightly by bringing up
children into the topic. Both authors did not use as much of a
pathos appeal, also known as pathos. It is called pathetic appeal
because if the words that an author writes connect to the reader
through love, pity, fear, anger, sorrow, and about the different
emotions that people are capable of feeling, then it is pathos.
Lastly, logos is the most of the three rhetorical appeals that
these two articles can relate to. Edsall said, “To support his
case, Mishel points out that hourly pay for those in the bottom
fifth grew only 7.7 percent from 1979 to 2007, while
productivity grew by 64 percent, and education levels among
workers in this quintile substantially improved,” (Edsall,) after
bringing up Mishel’s points on poverty, he supported his case
with more facts. Here Sawhill says, “The trend in poverty masks
the divergent incidence of poverty among various demographic
groups,” (Sawhill,) after she wrote this, she supported it with
facts. Both articles related more to this appeal than ethos and
pathos because of the way that they both supported their facts

8. with more facts. It makes these articles very convincing and
credible. Logos is one of the strategies to use to persuade
someone.
In Conclusion, analyzing the two articles, both articles are
argued that poverty in the United States is a serious problem,
now more than ever. This paper looked over the three rhetorical
appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as discusses the
similarities and differences. The two articles related mostly to
logos, then ethos, but not so much to pathos. It was a matter of
facts, not so much of pathetic appeal. They supported their work
with facts from people from Yale all the way to sociologists.
Works Cited
Edsall, Thomas B. "How Poor Are the Poor?" The New York
Times. The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 23 Sept.
2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/how-poor-
are-the-poor.html?_r=2>.
Sawhill, Isabel V. "Poverty in the United States." , by Isabel V.
Sawhill: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of
Economics and Liberty, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.
<http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/PovertyintheUnitedStates.

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