For Writing Project #2, you will find a speech (video or written) on a current social issue and rhetorically analyze it with the help of source material.
Throughout the project, you will be explaining and analyzing your own response to the speech, exploring the intended audience and the context for the speech, and explaining and analyzing the speaker’s use of pathos (emotional appeals), logos (logical appeals), and ethos (credibility appeals). Your goal is to craft an argument about why you think this speech was effective.
All sources must be formally cited, both in-text (within your paper) and in a Works Cited page, using the MLA format for citing sources as found in The Norton Field Guide to Writing:
Your choice of a speech (video or written) about a current social issue. The speech can be from TV (either viewed on TV and taped or an ad originally aired on TV but posted on YouTube) or from a website, etc. Make sure the speech is long enough to support a 1,000 word analysis, and make sure it was approved by your instructor before you begin work.
Requirements for Rough/Final Draft Structure:
General Reminders:
Format your paper in MLA style, referring to the guidelines of the sample MLA paper in The Norton Field Guide to Writing.
To avoid plagiarism, every single sentence that contains source material of any kind needs to properly introduce it and use in-text citations (as needed), referring to the guidelines below and in BGW. If something is not attributed to a source, it should be “common knowledge” (information generally accepted as known by most people, which people wouldn’t question the truthfulness of).
Whenever working with source material and others’ ideas in general, adopt a tone of respectfulness and professionalism. It’s important to always explain others’ ideas objectively and fairly and to be professional in your explanations of possible weaknesses with those ideas or other perspectives that should be considered and why.
