Clay Spinuzzi's Courses

In Everything's an Argument, the authors suggest that you conduct a rhetorical analysis. "You perform a rhetorical analysis by analyzing how well the components of an argument work together to persuade or move an audience" (p.42).

You'll perform a structured rhetorical analysis in this project. That is, you'll learn some of the essential concepts and terms of rhetoric, then use them to take apart a particular piece of communication and see how it ticks.

The Analysis

The analysis will be of information on the suspected link between thimerosal, a preservative that has been used in some vaccines administered to children, and autism. The information might be a brochure, public service announcement, website, or similar; it should be provided by a respectable organization and made available to the public.

The Components

Your analysis will consist of the following components:

• Toulmin analysis. As described in Chapter 8 of Everything's an Argument, identify the argument's components: claim, reason, warrant, backing, and qualifier.
• Analysis of appeals. As described in chapters 4-7, identify at least one of each kind of appeal: to emotions, values, character, and facts/reason.

Your analysis will evaluate how well the argument is put together, not the merits of the argument or the organization. Our object in this assignment is to analyze how the argument is constructed, not to judge its worth.

Specifics

Length: 3-4pp double spaced

Due date: 07/22/2005