Inquiry Two: Rhetorical Analysis

In this inquiry, you will be analyzing a piece of rhetoric by analyzing the perceived intentions of a text and then arguing why or why not you think the text succeeds in accomplishing its goals. Some of the things that you will want to consider for this paper include (but are not limited to) the following: intended audience; kairos and the rhetorical appeals; visual or audio rhetoric. Answer the following questions thoroughly and specifically when examining your text: What kind of text are you analyzing? What genre does the writer use? Is its intent to answer a question, pose a problem, add to research on a given topic, introduce a new idea, argue a point, etc.? How can you tell? What other examples of this kind of text can you find?

Where did this text originally appear? What, from the context in which it appeared or the article itself, can you tell about its audience? For example, are they experts in the topic, novices? Do you feel you are part of the intended audience? How can you tell? What cultural assumptions does the writer make? What is the subject of the text? What themes does the text explore/reflect? What types of evidence are used? How does she use the rhetorical appeals? What does this suggest about the author's assumptions regarding the audience? Assess the style of the piece. List examples of techniques (figurative language, repetition, complex sentences, etc.) and specialized vocabulary. If specialized vocabulary is used, is it explained or are readers expected to know it?

Look over your answers to all of the questions above. What patterns emerge? What values and assumptions are revealed? Note: You do NOT need to answer all of these questions in your paper. Instead, you can focus your attention on just critically analyzing a select group of rhetorical strategies that you find most interesting and relevant in the texts you have chosen. I would much rather see you offer a complex and deep analysis of a few rhetorical strategies rather than see you attempt to employ a ton of concepts in a superficial way. The conclusion of a rhetorical analysis is often an evaluation of an individual discourse: for example, was President Obamas television address to the nation on the BP Gulf Oil spill, or his speech on the death of Bin Laden, an effective speech for its occasion and audience? But sometimes a rhetorical analysis makes a broader point (about society, about culture, about political events) or exercises cultural critique (e.g., critique of the depiction of women in rap videos). The Boring Stuff Your essay should total 1,200 words in length. Don't forget to include a link to or copy of the text you analyzed so that I can access it. Also, don't forget to include the cover letter. If you need to gather research to support your claims, cite it in MLA format. Upload your essay to Niihka as a .doc or .odt file with the name lastname2final. Point Breakdown 50 points: First Draft;peer review;in-class writing 80 points: Final Draft 20 points: Cover Letter ---------150 points TOTAL Due Dates: First Draft Due: 09/12 Final Draft Due with cover letter: 09/24

Inquiry Two Schedule:

09/05 Read: Write: 09/07 Read: Write: 09/10 Read: Write: 09/12 Read: Write: 09/14 Read: Write: 09/17 Read: Write: 09/19 Read: Write: 09/21 Read: Write: 09/24 Read: Write: Final Draft uploaded to Niihka by 11:59pm. Ch. 5 of EA FORUM: Post a link to one image, video, or text we can analyze in class. Jones Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother with Logic Proposals for analysis Ch. 4 of EA BLOG None FIRST DRAFT INQUIRY TWO DUE An Analysis of Student-Written Articles on Diversity by Courtney Lattimore CCM (pages 65-74) BLOG Campaign Websites (Local candidate, presidential candidate) BLOG: Comment on the text, images, and arrangement of the main page Comments on your draft (from me and your peers) Revision Exercise Gaines Intro to Rhetorical Style BLOG NONE Final Draft Due before class

09/05 Lesson Plan: The introduction to Inquiry Two will start with a homework reading of most of Chapter 5 of Everything's An Argument. The brief look at rhetorical analysis will allow students to get into groups of 4 or 5. I will have each group focus on one of the sections: arguments based on logic, arguments based on emotion, arguments based on character, and audience/style(?). In the forum post outlining the instructions for the presentation, I will point to the page numbers on which each section begins and include a complete list of questions that the presentation should answer. Each group will have about 25 minutes to come up with a short (3-5 minute) powerpoint presentation that analyzes a video or text selected by students for homework the previous night. I'll assign the texts to be analyzed at the beginning of class, having screened them beforehand for appropriateness and relevance. I'll ask students (for the previous weekend's homework) to not pick something as small as a print advertisement in order to encourage more creative ideas, and as an example, I might tell students the anecdote Nicole told me about a teacher she knew who assigned a taped Madonna concert for rhetorical analysis. At the end of class, I will assign a writing activity that might resemble a sort of list of zero drafts (a list of texts that have a rhetorical argument that the student might like to analyze in this same way). They'll be asked to pick and elaborate on the one they are most likely to choose as the basis for their rhetorical analysis. This short class will model rhetorical analysis from a number of different angles, and it'll give me a chance to see what kind of texts the students themselves are interested in analyzing. My concern is that by modeling the parts of this analysis as separate, students will apply this method to their paper assignment, which is a little bit different. I might mitigate that by asking eventually if maybe a text students picked can be an argument based on any of the other rhetorical concepts we've talked about. Particularly in the audience/style group, which should ideally go last so that the people who have already contributed can kind of chime in using the part of the text in which they were the specialist.