Discussion Forum Two: Rhetorical Analysis
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Background
Rhetorical analysis involves critical thinking about how — and how well –- an author presents an argument and persuades his or her audience. This week, you are going to practice analyzing rhetoric by examining the rhetorical appeals an author has used to persuade readers and by determining whether or not they were effective.
Directions for the Discussion Question Response
Be sure to review the Rhetorical Analysis Resources in the Week Two module prior to beginning this discussion. These resources will help you identify rhetorical appeals and analyze how they are being used.
Using the same article you summarized in the Summary/Response assignment – “Virtual Classrooms Can Be as Unequal as Real Ones” from The Atlantic (Links to an external site.)– identify at least two rhetorical appeals the author uses to persuade his readers of his argument. To show your understanding of these rhetorical appeals, clearly explain how the appeals are being used by paraphrasing or quoting examples directly from the text. Refer directly to the appeals by name; for example, you might say, “The author uses logos by including data from the PEW Research Center to appeal to readers’ sense of logic.”
After you have explained how the author uses two rhetorical appeals, analyze how effective you think he is in persuading his audience with these appeals, and why or why not. For example, if you identify the data from the PEW Research Center as a good example of logos, you might say, “The information he presents from the PEW Research Center works well to persuade the audience because …” Alternatively, you might argue that the information presented is too out of date to be relevant; therefore, the appeal to logos (and/or kairos) is not effective enough. Whatever argument you make about the author’s use of rhetorical appeals, whether effective or not, you need to support your points with evidence from the article.
Your response to the discussion prompt should be at least 400 words and several well-developed paragraphs.
Directions for the Reply to Someone Else
Your feedback to a peer should engage their analysis of the rhetorical appeals in the argument. You can do this by agreeing and/or disagreeing with your classmate’s assessment of the rhetorical appeals being used and the textual evidence they provide to support their claims. You can also point to additional textual evidence that demonstrates the rhetorical appeals your classmate has identified, or you can explain the appeals you analyzed and the evidence you used.
