Writing Homework Help

You are to write a rhetorical analysis (2-3 pages long/ double spaced) of the speech that has been selected.  The speech is titled “The Girl Who Silenced the World for Five Minutes.” I have provided the video in Blackboard as well as the written transcript of the speech. Once you have viewed the video, you should do a close reading of the text from the transcript.  This will help you identify some very important aspects needed to complete the assignment. The speech and transcript have been provided for you in the Rhetorical Analysis Assignment Folder in Blackboard. I have assigned several different readings, videos, and handouts to help you through the process of developing this assignment. Please review all material (videos and handouts) in the Rhetoric folder. The “Rhetoric” folder is essential to identifying strategies for analysis of the speech.  This assignment should not be written in first or second person perspective. It must be written in third person perspective only.  Please review the Academic Writing Dos and Don’ts handout before submitting the final draft.

To begin the assignment, you must know that you will have to read the transcript several times; however, you should begin the assignment by reading the transcript and watching the video once without taking notes. Then you should do a closer reading making notes as you identify different parts of the rhetorical situation or even when identifying rhetorical strategies at work in the text. 

Annotate the texts. Examine the rhetorical situation, the appeals, and surface features.

Summarize the speech.  Develop a paragraph that includes the rhetorical situation. See the SOAPStone section of the Lecture Notes to help guide the identification process of the rhetorical situation of the speech. 

The rhetorical situation will be a part of the introductory paragraph. 

Pay attention for the following when identifying the rhetorical situation:

Who is the audience?

What is the purpose of the speech?

In what ways does the speaker attempt to appeal to the audience?

Find examples of Pathos – emotion

Find examples of Logos – logic

Find examples of Ethos – establishing credibility

Is the speaker making a particular argument?  Do they prove their argument?

What is the context of this speech?  What does your reader need to know in order to understand this speech?  Does the speech take place somewhere that is important / relevant?  Is there a particular history involved that is relevant to the speech?

Who is the speaker?  What does your audience need to know about the speaker in order to understand this speech?  

As mentioned before, you may have to read the text several times.  By the third reading, you should have established the rhetorical situation and looking to identify rhetorical strategies in the text. Rhetorical strategies can be found in the structure and organization, language (diction and syntax), appeals to ethos (character credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (rationale and logic), and even the tone. Some strategies are used to create an appeal. However, it is up to you to find 3-5 rhetorical strategies that you can identify within the text. Once you have identified those strategies, you must then begin to think about the speaker’s use of this strategy. Some questions to ask for effective analysis are the following: Why did the speaker use this strategy for this audience?  Was it an effective strategy in presenting the point?  Explain the effectiveness of the strategy. Just saying that it gets the speaker’s point across is not 

analysis.  Do not forget to explain the intended impact on the audience. 

Thesis Statement (See “Rhetorical Analysis Thesis Statement” in Blackboard)

The thesis is very important to this essay, as it is with any other essay. You must create a thesis statement, and it must be the final sentence of the introductory paragraph. The thesis statement should do the following:

State the overall argument of the text.

Assert your conclusion.

Take a stand on the author’s/speaker’s rhetorical strategies. 

State what techniques you will be analyzing and the impact of these techniques on the effectiveness of the text.

Body Paragraphs 

The body paragraphs will discuss the 3-5 rhetorical strategies that you identified when doing the close reading. Do not try to discuss these strategies in a paragraph together. Instead, discuss each strategy in a paragraph of its own.  All paragraphs require a topic sentence.  This sentence will simply introduce the strategy and define it. The next sentence conveys the writer’s support for the main idea by identifying and providing a specific example of one rhetorical strategy used by the writer.  The example of the strategy will come from the text.  Therefore, you must cite this paragraph with an in-text citation. The following sentence explains how the rhetorical strategies you discussed in the previous sentence help the writer achieve his/her purpose. Finally, identify the effect of the writer’s use of these rhetorical strategies on the audience.

Conclusion

The conclusion should restate the thesis and highlight the main points from the body paragraph. This should be the easiest part!  Simply put your paper to the side, and develop a paragraph that highlights the overall point of each body paragraph. You can conclude the essay with a statement that sums up your evaluation of the speech.

Remember: Keep in mind that your focus is not on your own opinion about the topic being discussed in the speech, but on explaining how the author/ speaker of the article has put together her argument and how she appeals to the audience. In other words, if you were writing about an essay discussing the war in Iraq, what you think about the war would not be the focus; rather, you would need to show how the author argues her point and how her strategy is working.