Overview

Before you start working on your own research argument essay, you will spend some time studying the arguments of others, to better understand how they successfully structured and presented a persuasive project. The rhetorical analysis is a foundational assignment to introduce you to the “rhetorical situation,” as a concept. The goal is for you to take what you learn about successful argument, and apply it to your own writing in this course.
For this rhetorical analysis assignment, you will analyze a speech (see the options below) to gain a better understanding of “the rhetorical situation”- the audience, purpose, medium, and context–within which the speech was created. In addition to dissecting the speech’s rhetorical situation, you will also identify and discuss the author’s choice of rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) or evidence. *This is the one and only assignment that is not driven by your personal topic selection, as all the following assignments build on each other starting with the Annotated Bibliography and concluding with the Research Story.

Expectations

As a foundational assignment, the rhetorical analysis will help you to:
Identify and analyze the rhetorical elements of a piece of communication
Assess the effectiveness of a speaker’s choices, in relation to the rhetorical situation
Build a foundation for future argument writing based on the skills and strategies identified and analyzed in this assignment