Arguing Value (Evaluative Argument) about the book: SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson

Assignment Description:
For this assignment, you will assume the role of a pop-culture critic. You will choose a text and write a
detailed evaluative analysis. You will research the genre of your pop culture text in order devise a set of
criteria through which to evaluate the text and to construct your argument about its aesthetic, social, and
cultural value (in other words, its quality and importance). In an effort to enter a current ongoing
conversation regarding your text, you will find, utilize, cite, and respond to at least two reviews of your
text that have been written by other people (the reviews may mirror your position or offer an opposing
view).
In order to establish whether or not your chosen text is good or bad, valuable or worthless, culturally
relevant or worthless fluff, etc., you must first establish a set of criteria for judging this text. What
category does x (your text) fall into, and what set of criteria is appropriate for judging members of this
category? In order to answer this question, you will need to consider the expectations of genre, and
whether your chosen text fulfills these.
Goals of Assignment:
1. To be able to focus on a specific rhetorical purpose, namely, the evaluative judgment of a particular
cultural text.
2. To write empirical, historical and cultural analyses regarding the social relevance of a particular facet
of popular culture.
3. To situate a contemporary cultural text within the context of the system or genre to which it belongs
(i.e., How does Texas Chainsaw Massacre rate as a horror film?). Remember, your text is to be
evaluated in terms of the conventions and standards of a genre to which it belongs.
4. To identify the kind of ideological work a text undertakes and how it serves to advance a particular
cultural or social point of view.
5. To take part in a dialogue with other pop-culture critics by responding to other reviews of the same
text.

you can use the book as one source and the rest from the net