{"id":12703,"date":"2025-09-21T15:44:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/core.humanities.uci.edu\/?page_id=12703"},"modified":"2025-09-21T15:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:44:22","slug":"fall-essay-assignment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/core.humanities.uci.edu\/index.php\/history-and-archives\/2024-2025-writing-and-research\/fall-essay-assignment\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall: Essay Assignment 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rhetorical Analysis of Worldbuilding in Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/i> Downloadable Essay Rubric<\/a><\/p>\n

Assignment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Select a passage (~2\u20134 Stephanus pages) from Books 2, 4, 5, 6, or 7 of Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em>, as translated by G. M. A. Grube. You may not<\/em> write about the allegory of \u201cThe Cave\u201d in Book 7 (514\u2013521). Summarize what happens in the passage in your own words, then conduct an analysis of the rhetorical strategies that the speakers employ to achieve a particular aim in that section of the dialogue. Make sure to provide specific textual evidence from the passage to support your argument. As you develop your ideas and claims, consider the following questions: How does the speaker craft their message to engage and persuade their interlocutor(s)? Does the speaker make appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos? If so, how and to what ends? If Plato employs an analogy, allegory, myth, or other figurative device in your passage, what conceptual work does that figure accomplish? How does this passage relate to Plato\u2019s larger worldbuilding project in the dialogue, either in defining the way the world currently is or in articulating the way an idealized world might be?<\/p>\n

Your final paper will be between 3\u20134 pages in length (no more than 5) and will be worth 40% of your writing grade. For the purposes of this assignment, you will treat Grube\u2019s translation of Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em> as the primary source.<\/p>\n

<\/i> Learning Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n