Rhetorical Analysis Paper Assignment Overview Purpose: To analyze rhetorical strategies and their effects in a particular speech Topic: Any speech of interest to you Delivery: Academic essay with citations in APA, MLA, or Chicago style Length: 500-750 words (2-3 pages, 11-12 point font, double-spaced) Key areas of focus: Writing a clear thesis statement Grabbing your reader’s attention and providing context in the intro Ending your paper on a strong note Supporting your claims about the effects of specific speech strategies using evidence from the speech (quotes, summaries, descriptions) Signposting ideas and writing transitions Description: Rhetorical analysis is the study of how rhetors (speaker and writers) use language to advance a purpose with an audience. A rhetorical analysis explores a rhetor’s goals, the techniques they use to achieve their goals, examples of those techniques, and the effectiveness of those techniques. When writing a rhetorical analysis, you are NOT necessarily saying whether or not you agree with the argument. Instead, you’re discussing how the rhetor makes the argument and whether or not the approach they used is successful. The goal of your paper is to connect communication strategies–that is, *any* element of the spoken or nonverbal communication used in the speech–to effects–that is, purposes served by communication strategies. Speech purposes may be overarching (e.g., the goal of informing an audience about something) or incremental (e.g., the goal of grabbing the audience’s attention in the intro). For every strategy you discuss in your paper, you should talk about its effects. Every time you talk about a speaker’s goals, you should describe specific communication strategies they use to achieve these goals. Remember that your reader will not be as familiar with the speech you’re analyzing as you are. You must be specific in your writing. Quote lines from the speech to support your claims about strategies being used. Describe effects on audience members in some detail to support your claims about the purposes being served by particular strategies. You will need to cite the speech you analyze both in the paper and in a full citation at the end. You are not required to use any other outside sources, but if you do, you will need to cite them as well. See the Citing Sources in Papers discussion thread in module 6 for more information. Brainstorming: First, find a speech that interests you. It may be a political speech, YouTube vlog, special occasion speech, conference or class presentation, stand-up comedy, poetry slam performance, or even a song. For the purposes of analysis, you will need to have a transcription of the speech you choose. If you can’t find one, you are welcome to write one yourself, but note that transcribing does take a significant amount of time. TED (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and American Rhetoric (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. are two good sources for speeches with transcripts. Next, conduct a pre-analysis to identify specific communication strategies used in the speech and speech purposes served by the speaker. The pre-analysis assignment should help you to identify stuff that you’re interested in discussing in your paper. Pre-writing questions are NOT a template for your paper. Identify at least 3 communication strategies and/or effects to focus on in your paper. Outline your paper before you start to write to make sure that your arguments are well-supported. Paper Grading Criteria: Thesis and argument: Your thesis statement explains the speech strategies and/or effects discussed in the paper. You use quotes from the speech to support your claims about communication strategies. You discuss specific effects of rhetorical strategies used in the speech. Organization: You capture your reader’s attention and provide some background information about the speech in your introduction. Your paper is well organized. Your arguments are well-supported. You provide clear transitions between paragraphs. You provide a memorable conclusion that addresses the question ‘why should we care about this speech?’. Delivery: Your paper is 2-3 pages long. Your paper shows signs of careful writing and preparation. Your paper includes in-text citations (when necessary) and a full reference citation in a Works Cited/Bibliography/References section at the end. You use descriptive language to help your reader visualize the speech. Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language. One person engages another person in an exchange of symbols to accomplish some goal. It is not communication for communication’s sake. Rhetoric is communication that attempts to coordinate social action. – Gerard A. Hauser