Eng 309 Unit 2 Assignment Sheet Spring 2021

1. ENGL 309 Fall 2021
Project 2:
Stylistic Analysis and Imitative Essay
In Unit 1, you focused on understanding style as a product of genre. In Unit 2, we will
delve into a deeper understanding of style in the work of a single writer; however, we
will still be studying style as a rhetorical phenomenon.
We’ll use the genre of the literary essay as the basis of this project. The invention of the
essay as a literary form is commonly attributed to Michel de Montaigne, a sixteenth-
century French writer who published his famous Essays in 1580. The etymology of the
term “essay” comes from the French essai, which means “trial” or “attempt.”
So far nobody has come up with a satisfactory definition of the essay, but there do
seem to be some generic traits upon which most people agree:
● An essay is often written from a personal point of view (though many exceptions
can be found: there are plenty of essays by people, especially scientists or
specialists writing for a general audience, that are written from a fairly impersonal
point of view).
● Essays tend to be conversational, with a rather loose structure—however, this is
not to say that they’re sloppy. Rather, just like most things that look effortless, it
takes a lot of hard work to polish an essay up to this degree of apparent
looseness.
● Essays begin with a question in the writer’s mind—i.e., from curiosity. Even if the
essay seems to digress occasionally from this question (digression being a
native part of the essay form itself), the question is always there, lurking in the
background.

2. ENGL 309 Fall 2021
● Related to #3, an essay always has a point. It may not make an explicit
argument; however, all essays are aware that they have readers, and attempt to
persuade or convince readers of something, even if that point remains implicit.
An essay should never be simply informational (like the infamous “research
paper”).
Learning Objectives
By the time you complete Project 2, you should be able to…
● Analyze a piece of writing to identify all aspects of rhetorical style at work there:
purpose or “story”; motives of language, subject, writer, and reader; physical and
social footing; deviation from convention; tropes, schemes, and images.
● Make decisions about which of these aspects of rhetorical style best characterize
a piece of writing.
● Replicate those aspects of rhetorical style using a different topic.
Project Deliverables
I use “deliverables” to refer to the actual things you’ll be handing in for the assignment.
1. Stylistic Analysis of a Model Essay
First, use the following questions (taken from Vivian Gornick’s “The Situation and the
Story” and Performing Prose) to analyze the stylistic attributes of the essay from Best
American Essay of the Century that you have chosen as your model. Be sure to flesh
out the answers to your questions. This means first making a claim in response to the
question, then using evidence from the essay to explain and support that claim.
While not all questions will be equally important in explaining the overall rhetorical
effects of each essay, they're designed to generate material and ideas that you can then
shape into a more coherent analysis.
Generative Questions for Stylistic Analysis
● What’s the “situation” and “story” of the essay? [whole essay]
● Map the movements of the essay: describe what each paragraph/section/chunk
is doing. For instance, “Lifelike” begins with an observation of a scene; then it
provides commentary on the practice of what’s happening in that scene; then it
provides a history of that practice; etc. [whole essay]
● What are the most obvious or important motives of language in the essay?
How does the essay use particular types of word classes (articles, prepositional
phrases, etc.) to create specific effects? [choose a significant passage to
analyze]

3. ENGL 309 Fall 2021
● What is the main motive of subject, or how does the language of the essay
reinforce or contradict the subject matter? [whole essay]
● What is the motive of writer, or how does the essay work to shape our
perception of the writer? [whole essay]
● What is the motive of the essay toward the reader? How does the essay work
to establish a particular stance toward the reader, and what effect does this
have? [whole essay]
● Which of these motives are most important to the essay as a whole? [whole
essay]
● In what ways does the essay deviate from convention? Why do you think the
writer made these choices? What are the effects on the reader? [whole essay]
● What is the footing of the essay? How does the piece work to create a sense of
physical space? [whole essay]
● What are the dominant tropes, schemes, and images in the piece? What
rhetorical effects do these create? [choose significant passages to analyze]
When you’ve answered these questions to the best of your ability, reread the essay and
consider which of the stylistic elements are most important to the essay. Then write your
stylistic analysis, focusing on those elements that make the essay most stylistically
distinct. The point of this exercise is ultimately to create a sort of "map" to this particular
essay's style, one which someone could follow to write an essay in a similar style.
You can format your analysis as a memo. In the introduction to the memo, you can
explain the purpose of the stylistic analysis, and also which stylistic elements of the list
below you found to be the most important to creating the stylistic effects of the essay.
Remember to use specific, concise headers, and chunk your analysis to be more
readable. The memo should be approximately 900-1200 words (as always, I am not
really concerned with word count - I want to see a good, in-depth analysis of the essay,
though).
2. Imitative Essay
Using the knowledge of style and genre that you gained through deep stylistic analysis,
write an essay in the style of the essay you analyzed. After thoroughly analyzing the
essay, you will write about a topic of your choice in the style of the essay you chose.
The goal of this essay is to move your readers to think in new ways about your question
or problem, while deepening your awareness of style by attempting to inhabit the style
of another writer.

4. ENGL 309 Fall 2021
Your imitation will be guided by the features you found (in your stylistic analysis) to be
most stylistically distinct. Though obviously there will be differences, I should be able to
clearly see the stylistic influence of your model in your finished work.
Feedback Criteria, Project 2
I will use the following criteria to give you feedback on your Draft for Evaluation.
Remember that as per the grading contract, depending on the grade you want to earn,
you’ll be taking the feedback and revising the Draft for Evaluation for the Final Portfolio.
● Strength of stylistic analysis. The stylistic analysis memo clearly articulates how
the model essay reveals the stylistic features and concepts discussed in
Performing Prose and in class.
● Clarity of purpose and depth. It’s obvious after reading the essay why it was
written; the question or problem is clear and compelling, and the author’s
personal investment is obvious. Personal experience and reflection, primary, and
secondary are used, depending on the stylistic model the essay is imitating.
Includes background and history where needed.
● Successful imitation of a model essay. The essay demonstrates attention to the
stylistic characteristics of a given model, including structure and sentence-level
aspects.
● Quality of execution. It has a clearly defined structure, and the final product is
well polished, stylistically sound, confident, and error-free.