2QE: Second Quarterly Essay

For the past three weeks, we have been surveying rhetorical theory in order to better understand how language, and specifically argumentation, ‘works.’ We have focused on understanding rhetoric as a method for analysis, identifying types of appeals and their efficacy, and evaluating the validity and ethicality of arguments.

Your second quarterly essay asks that you apply these principles and attempt (essayer) a rhetorical analysis of your own; thus, the 2QE is, in essence, a deepening of the blog prompt you completed for week 4 and, in fact, may be an expansion and revision of your blog exercise.

In short, you should select any public argument that interests you —that is, a specific, supported claim advanced in the public sphere—and evaluate it from a rhetorical perspective. In your analysis you should consider elements including, but not limited to kairos, rhetorical purpose, audience, type(s) of appeal(s), legitimacy of support (is it fallacious?), and overall effect (does it work?).

Please refer to our class notes r/t rhetorical analysis to help support or guide your approach. This essay should result in a project that is approximately 4 to 6 pages in length (double-spaced) to start, but as always, please honor the content of your work over the length of the project: quality over quantity is our gold standard. If you have written a thorough, substantive analysis in three pages, or if you require eight, so be it. Please refrain from ‘fluffing’ or abridging your work at this stage in the drafting process.