You have been working on short writing assignments and exercises that practice the three individual parts of a rhetorical analysis—identification of the rhetorical situation, close analysis of the parts of the work, and a critical evaluation of the author’s moves and effectiveness. Now you will be putting it all together. You will write a rhetorical analysis on one of the speeches found on this website:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

You will identify the rhetorical situation, do a close analysis of a principle or strategy being used, and draw a conclusion on how well the author has accomplished his or her objective. Make sure you do NOT use the same speech as your peers.

Assignment:
Choose one of the articles. Write …show more content…
You should begin by defining each part and identifying each in your paper. This includes the author’s purpose, topic, audience, context etc. (See your rhetorical situation assignment)Make sure that you begin your analysis with a short summary of the article including the author’s stance, thesis and supporting evidence. Make sure that the summary is concise and does not take up too much space. Once you have summarized and identified the rhetorical situation identify one strategy of the author—one way the author manipulates the text, content, structure or style. Content- What the author includes in his/her text, structure arrangement or how it is organized or the order in which the material is presented and style concerns the language and sentence structure the author uses to convey material. Do not feel the need to address all of the rhetorical strategies. Instead chose one strategy that occurs most in the text and analyze its effectiveness. For example, you can identify the thesis, stance and support and explain how these are effective. You could also discuss the appeal being used (pathos, ethos, logos). Your thesis statement will provide the final assessment of the author’s success using your judgment and analysis as …show more content…
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address effectively establishes the North’s moral imperative for successful Reconstruction by making repeated appeals to authority and emotion. (Wilhoit 139)
2: Author fails to achieve his or her rhetorical purpose
Ex. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address fails to establish the North’s moral imperative for successful Reconstruction because he relies too heavily on religious allusions and does not adequately address the North’s desire for revenge after the war. (139)
3: Author has mixed success in achieving his or her rhetorical purpose
Ex. Lincoln’s attempts to establish the North’s moral imperative for successful Reconstruction in his Second Inaugural Address are aided by his repeated appeals to authority, but they are hindered by his overreliance on religious allusion. (139)
Outlining
Once you have finished taking your notes you can begin to gather your thoughts through the various brainstorming suggestions found in your textbooks. After you have gathered your ideas, you will make an outline based on the organization or structure of your paper. You will create an outline using Word and bring it to class next Saturday. The following is a guideline to ensure your content is organized