Before class on Tuesday, I would like you to spend some time working on our current assignment. First, make sure you identify and read your primary text(s) carefully, taking notes and/or annotating them in preparation for your analysis. What claim(s) are these texts making and more importantly, how do they work persuasively? What claims about their rhetorical strategies can you begin to make at this point in your research?
After you engage a bit with these texts on your own, then I'd like you start thinking about what questions you have about them that you need help from other scholars or commentators to answer. I'd like you to find three secondary/scholarly sources before Tuesday and bring them with you to class. What insights do they offer that will help you as you draft your first essay?
Once you've worked through these questions, I'd like you post a comment here that summarizes your research thus far. That is, share with us your tentative claim and explain how you present your analysis in a way that effectively supports your discussion.
As of now, my research is based on the use of rhetorical devices in a court room setting. Most of my reading consists of analysis of closing arguments, looking at the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as individual preparation for the oral presentation of the argument. I am going to compare this to the closing given in the film, breaking down his presentation into the lenses of ethos, pathos, and logos.
ReplyDeleteSo far, the majority of the argument is pathos based, which makes a lot of sense because from a logical standpoint, his client is nothing but guilty, his only choice was to convince the jury that they too could feel the same anger towards the rapists as his client did. As such, pathos was really the only choice that he had, and he did a damn good job at making us see why his client should be forgiven for his offense.
For this assignment, I am looking at the rhetorical effectiveness of an article written by Danna Korn about the benefits of having a Celiac diagnosis. I will use an article on the rhetoric of gastrointestinal disorders to provide substance to my argument. I will also use an article from the LA Times to enhance my own appeal to logos, as well as the logos of the original article. I will analyze the pathetic appeals of the original article, of which there are plenty. I am also looking at the possibility of including a section about the kairos of the article.
ReplyDeleteMy central claim will be somewhere along these lines: People don’t tend to openly discuss gastrointestinal disorders like Celiac Disease, but when they do, they focus on how to cope with their diagnosis, implying that the Celiac is a bad thing. That is what is astonishing about Korn’s assertion. She claims that having a Celiac diagnosis makes a person lucky.I want to emphasize the significance of Korn's argument to the Celiac community.
For my essay, I plan to look at the rhetorical strategies of recent NY Times texts surrounding the recent budget cuts to Planned Parenthood. I am looking at three different editorial pieces as primary sources. The most substantial one, a piece called "The siege of Planned Parenthood," discusses importance of Planned Parenthood as an organization. Although it is most widely known for providing women with abortions, because that's the most controversial service it offers, many people over look the other help they provide through health services such as screening for many diseases.
ReplyDeleteFor secondary sources, I have multiple NY Times articles to use as contextual pieces. Additionally, excerpts from a book written by the president of Planned Parenthood, titled "The War on Choice," which extensively talks about how the press (which is dominated by the right-wing) has used different rhetorical tools in order to unfairly discuss topics on reproductive rights. One chapter solely discusses the rhetorical tools used by the press to persuade their audience against legal abortions, but she points out their false claims.
My main point through this essay is to show that my primary sources are extremely persuasive predominately because they provide the reader with a large amount of facts in order to illustrate a more well-rounded argument instead of being one-sided. Also, a lot of pathos is created by these rhetors by talking about past cases, such as Roe v. Wade, and how easily the right to choose can be taken away. Additionally, there are multiple examples of logos and kairos throughout my primary sources. I plan to analyze all of the different ways the authors are successfully persuasive and what are some flaws with abortion rhetoric, as pointed out by "The Way on Choice."
My primary text will be an article by Stephen Jay Gould discussing the idea of evolution. The rhetoric involved in the essay will be discussed and analyzed. I will discuss first scientific rhetoric in general and what that entails, drawing from secondary text like: "Composition and the rhetoric of science : engaging the dominant discourse" as well as "Rational rhetoric : the role of science in popular discourse"
ReplyDeleteWill also discuss Gould's rhetoric specifically with help from "Stephen Jay Gould and the Rhetoric of Evolutionary Theory."
In the paper I hope to focus mostly on the idea of scientific rhetoric and how for many decades the idea has seemed almost like an oxymoron. Even in current times scientists are often seen as sort of enigmas with no real rhetorical value. However, this stereotype is not really correct, as will be shown through looking at the rhetorical strategies that Gould employs like any other well practiced rhetor.
For my essay, I am going to examine two Bob Dylan songs which were written in 1963. I will look at “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Masters of War.” Both of these songs have a menacing tone which almost intimidates the audience into accepting what Dylan is saying. However, the tone of the music matched with the song lyrics creates a different overall mood which has a strong impact on the listener. I plan on combining these two aspects of Dylan’s music to argue that through his imagery and tone, Dylan is able to convince his audience to accept his opinions about the war and the civil rights changes of the 60s.
ReplyDeleteI am going to use secondary documents like “Rhetorical Ascription and the Gospel According to Dylan”, “American Popular Music and the War in Vietnam”, and “The Sixties between the Microgrooves: Using Folk and Protest Music to Understand American History” to provide some historical background on the era as well as some rhetorical analysis on the music of the time. This will add more depth to my analysis of the two songs I chose.
For my essay, my primary text will be the tea party State of the Union response by Michele Bachmann. He speech rubbed many people the wrong way. Bachmann is known for her ‘inflammatory’ rhetoric that riles up her party. This paper will analyze if her State of the Union response raised her support or hurt it. It will be compared to the official Republican response by Representative Paul Ryan to see which speech more effectively used rhetoric to affect American citizens. Bachmann relied on kairos to play into people’s current concerns about the economy and unemployment in the country. Her speech also effectively relies on strong emotions and pathos to connect her to her audience. I will also look at how her past speeches have affected her rhetoric’s credibility, or ethos, for this last speech.
ReplyDeleteThe secondary sources I will be using include a response to both Bachmann and Ryan’s speeches in the Washington Post looking to see which was more affective. Another source I will be utilizing is an article written about the effects of Bachmann’s rhetoric in past speeches and how it has impacted her popularity within her home state of Minnesota. One more secondary source I am using is an article analyzing other female politicians and their need to appear tough and use ‘gun-slinging’ rhetoric to keep up with male politicians. It also looks at whether that is a necessity for women to survive in politics. I will tie this in with Bachmann’s own rhetoric to see if she could make changes about the way she presents herself through her speeches.
For this essay, my primary text will be the speech, A More Perfect Union, which Barack Obama gave during the 2008 Presidential Election. I am mainly focusing on the effectiveness of this speech in helping Obama become president. He uses rhetoric to achieve two main goals: unite the nation and make the people feel as if they have power and can make "change". I am arguing that his use of rhetoric was very successful, and I will explain more deeply what this rhetoric is and how it works.
ReplyDeleteMy secondary sources include commentary on the specific speech, an analysis of Obama's rhetoric in general, and sources which give background information. These pieces tend to look at the benefits and flaws of Obama's rhetoric, and will help me support my argument and understand the counterargument.
FDR's primary claim is that the problems confronting America can be overcome. He argues that if the citizenry bonds together and trusts him as their leader he will lead them out of the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteI plan to first establish the kairos surrounding this speech with newspaper articles from the 1930's. Then I want to break down what causes this speech to be motivational and comforting. What are the rhetorical strategies used? How do those strategies gain their effect?
I plan to use some secondary sources about presidential rhetoric and FDR as a president to help me analyze his rhetorical patterns and intentions.
For this essay, I am analyzing Adolf Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag in 1938. In this address, he constantly reaffirms pride for the German nation through subtle appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos. None of these strategies are readily apparent, but they are nonetheless conveyed through his confident statements about what the “people of Germany” have accomplished in the post-WWI years and how they will continue to rise in power and strength despite the hindrances placed upon them by other nations.
ReplyDeleteThinking in terms of kairos, this speech (as well as Hitler’s rise to power, in general) is particularly effective because of the poor economic state of Germany and the bitterness felt by the German public toward the League of Nations for imposing the Treaty of Versailles on their already weakened country.
The secondary sources that I have found will hopefully refresh my memory on some of the political issues that Hitler refers to, particularly those that occurred in the months surrounding the date upon which this speech was given. I also plan on supporting my claims about rhetorical appeals using the excerpts we read by Covino and Aristotle.
Thus far, I have made significant progress in acquiring secondary source material including (most importantly) several books on the issue of race and rhetoric / race and public discourse, and issue on which there has been significant research.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the large body of evidence, which could support a wide variety of claims, means that my topic has become significantly more…sprawling. I know for certain that my original idea of a significant compare/contrast with another work as a way to examine rhetoric will not be effective. It’s somewhat difficult to narrow the essay, but I think that comparing the rhetoric of the speech to a concept of what race-based rhetoric ought to be, would provide ample opportunity for the discussion of rhetorical elements.
For my research paper on Madison’s Federalist 10, I would like to focus mainly on his use of logos, but also try to incorporate his use of pathos and ethos into making the audience feel guilty if they do not support his claim. My tentative claim is that Madison’s expert utilization of rhetoric led our country to have a government based upon Federalist ideology.
ReplyDeleteI was initially having a difficult time of identifying exactly how Madison employed logos to be such an effective rhetor, however I then found a secondary source entitled, "The Argument of Madison's "Federalist," No. 10,” that was a teaching document from 1953. It is an outline as to how it is possible to teach the classical “Topics”—and it uses Federalist No. 10 as an example. This document helped me to see that there is an overarching enthymeme in Federalist No. 10, even though they call in syllogism. Previously, I had seen that Madison employed many little enthymemes, but I could not connect them to a larger picture.
For providing background on the importance of Federalist No. 10, I found another very good secondary source from the Library of Congress website. It had specific details of Madison’s adept understand the governmental situation in the newly formed United States led to his ability to use that situation to his advantage in the crafting of the Federalist Papers. Essentially, it details Madison’s understanding of the kairos of the situation.
In terms of ethos and pathos, I have not yet found a secondary source that looks into Madison’s “guilt-tripping” of the audience. From my interpretation, Madison’s ethos and pathos must be looked at simultaneously because he combines the two to create a “look how smart I am and you should agree with me” aura. The audience Madison was addressing was not as knowledgeable as he was on governmental issues and he was therefore able to transition quickly between a professorial tone and sympathetic tone to garner support for the Federalist cause.