Q 1) Just off the top of your head, how would you define rhetoric? Have you ever used or heard the term before? When or where? 2) Author Analysis • What persuasive text will you analyze for the Rhetorical Analysis assignment? What type of text is this (article, video advertisement, website, brochure, etc.)? Who is the author? When was it published? Why does this text interest you? • Look back at our notes and readings for more reminders about ethos, pathos, and logos. Briefly, how does the author use ethos (credibility or authority on the subject) in the text? • How does the author use pathos (emotional appeal, connecting with or playing on your audiences beliefs and values)? • How does the author use logos (hard evidence, facts, statistics, etc.)? 3) Audience Inventory • Who are the target and secondary audiences for your text—self, classmates, instructor, university community, specific discourse communities (e.g. people with heart trouble, 18-34 year old males, moms) List them all. Be specific; "everyone" is not an acceptable answer here. • What do your audiences already believe about the subject matter, the product or a point of view, of the text? • How familiar are your audiences with the text you will analyze? Where is the text presented? Where did you find it? How often is it presented? Is it old or new? • How much summary information do you need to provide to make your analysis clear to your audience? Do you consider yourself part of the target audience for this text? • How likely is your audience to be convinced by this text? What types of appeals will be most persuasive to this group? Least persuasive? • What kind of voice and ethos does the author or company present in relation to this text (e.g. respectful, satiric, argumentative)? How do you think the audience will respond? • What kind of tone is most effective for this particular audience(s)? 4) Stasis Theory Evaluation (for inventing writing ideas). Before doing any research and using only your primary persuasive text, evaluate what you already know about the topic of the text. • What happened? What is the situation, event, problem? (Argument of Fact) • What is the nature of the thing? Are there terms within the issue that need to be defined (Ex: the terms life or murder in the debate about reproductive rights)? Do those terms get defined differently by different groups? Who and how? (Argument of Definition) • What is its quality or cause? Why is this happening? What is the context, background? What are the consequences for the future? (Argument of Evaluation) • What actions should be taken? What does each side want to accomplish? (Proposal Argument)