AP English Essay

[HSHARK]

Hello guys, can you please read my AP English rhetorical analysis essay? Please provide feedback so I can improve it Thanks!

Prompt: Analyze the Rhetorical Strategies of Margaret Thatcher's eulogy to the American People in honor of Ronald Reagan

The full prompt can be found here: Prompt

President Ronald Reagan was an influential figure both during his term as president and after his retirement. His death was mourned by many including former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. In the speech she gave to honor President Reagan’s achievements, Thatcher used rhetorical strategies such as appeal to Ethos and parallelism to convey that Reagan was a great president for the United States and an excellent diplomat for the international community.
To introduce the topic, Thatcher used a short and abrupt introduction to the speech. This establishes the fact that Reagan has passed away and sets up a reflective tone in the rest of the speech, which shows Thatcher’s extensive knowledge of Reagan. Also, Thatcher’s use of parallelism in “Lost a great president, a great American, and a great man” to state her respect for President Reagan by describing Reagan as “great” in all his identities. Finally, Thatcher concludes the introduction with “I have lost a dear friend” to establish her credibility on the subject of Ronald Reagan by showing that she and Reagan have closely interacted.
In the next 5 paragraphs, Thatcher focused on the life achievements of Reagan. She used parallelism in paragraph 1 when listing achievements to highlight the amount of achievements Reagan had. “To mend…, to restore…, and to free…” emphasized many things Reagan did to solve problems both at home and abroad. In paragraph 2, Thatcher shifted her commentary from Reagan’s achievements to the personality that made Reagan successful. Thatcher utilized many adjectives in paragraph 2. Quotes like, “…One great heart at least remained sane and jocular…” and “…Ronnie himself certainly believed that he had been given back his life for a purpose” vividly depicted Ronald Reagan’s positive attitudes on life, which helped to show that the reason of Reagan’s success. Finally, Thatcher concludes her descriptions of Reagan through 3 short parallel structure paragraphs, emphasizing Reagan’s most notable achievements.
Beginning in paragraph 6, Thatcher begins to shift from Reagan’s achievements to her personal remarks on Reagan. She facilitated a point of view change in the beginning of paragraph 6 from a third person point of view to a first person point of view. The use of the pronoun ‘I’ in quotes “I cannot imagine…” and “I worked closely with Ronald…” not only appealed to ethos but also conveyed her positive subjective view on Reagan. Thatcher also praised the efficient thoughts of Reagan by using the words “clearly”, “decisively”, and “instinctively” to establish imagery on Reagan’s clear thought process to the audience. Finally, Thatcher used an anecdote regarding how Reagan dealt with the Soviet Union spanning paragraphs 12 and 13. Thatcher portrayed Reagan as both a strategist and a fighter for justice through sentences such as “sensed it was being eaten away” and “did not shrink from denouncing Moscow…” as a final testament to the greatness of Reagan’s achievements.
Margaret Thatcher concluded her speech with an allusion to the American principle,” freedom and opportunity for ordinary people.” Not only does Thatcher proved to the world that Reagan was a skilled diplomat, but she also proved that Reagan was a firm upholder to his people’s values. Thatcher therefore proved to the world that Reagan was a great man and should be remembered for his efforts.

[James Comey]

Looks pretty good. I used to do these essays all the time.

[the Analogist]

These are perfect examples of needlessly giving names to realities, the discussion of which is meaningless.

"appeal to Ethos", what is the benefit of knowing this is a thing?
"parallelism", what is the benefit of knowing this is a thing?
"sets up a reflective tone", fluff, fluffy fluff
"She facilitated a point of view change in the beginning of paragraph 6 from a third person point of view to a first person point of view", fluffy fluff

Holy crap! What grade is this? This is an AP assignment? Nothing against your writing, but daaang, this assignment is a piece of crap.

The topic also kept me from being objective. And it sounds like schools are just phoning it in when it comes to handing out assignments.

Please actually take the time to listen to this BTW:


Watch on YouTube

[James Comey]

In my experience, teachers hardly give a crap. I think someone once told me a dude wrote an essay so long he shoehorned in a paragraph that had nothing to do with the subject, and still got an A.

[the Analogist]

I can believe it. We were all pretty in one of my college classrs that our professor never read any of our essays and just gave us all the same grade, A-

[HSHARK]

There essays will just become useless in 10 years

[James Comey]

(08-22-2016 01:04 AM)HSHARK Wrote:  There essays will just become useless in 10 years

Yes. Do just enough.