Today’s Plan:
- Write-Ups and discussion: 40 minutes
- My Write-Up: 10 minutes
- Rhetorical Analysis Paper: 20 minutes
My Write-Up
I didn’t have time to write a short one, so I wrote a long one instead.
Rhetorical Analysis Paper
Your first longer assignment of the year asks you to conduct a rhetorical analysis of a politician. I want you to select a politician for whom you actually want to vote. Following Miller, we are not going to critique others as much as practice some self-skepticism. Your analysis should examine that person’s campaign materials to determine how demagogic or democratic they are. So, let’s use Burke, Miller, and Mercieca to figure out what we could/should be looking for.
In terms of what you should look at, your paper should analyze:
- Website
- Television Interview
- Campaign speech
- Twitter Feed
Note: I am particularly interested in how the candidate discusses policy and the place that policy discussions hold in his/her campaigns.
