Rhetorical Analysis and Proposal

E-15 – Fundamentals of Academic Writing

Rhetorical Analysis & Proposal Project

Length: depends on your analysis & proposal/fitting discourse; we will discuss this together

Due dates: first draft ready, 4/6; full draft, 4/12; final submission, 4/29

This assignment requires two parts: the first, a rhetorical analysis—an analysis of a rhetorical situation of your choosing—and the second, a proposal towards the creation of rhetorical discourse that fits your chosen situation. The analysis of the rhetorical situation will take the form of a multi-perspective situation description and analysis, the details of which are below. The proposal will try to address the exigence of that situation by putting forward an idea or action to alter the situation. In other words, the proposal is a plan for (or the actual construction of) “fitting discourse” for the situation.

A thorough analysis and convincing proposal usually takes 6-10 double spaced, typewritten pages. We will work through how to construct a rhetorical analysis together and will do several readings to guide us in constructing the project.

The Requirements:  

Situation Analysis, which can be a written and visual document, should consist of a brief summary and account for 3 specific items:

•  
  • The Context of the Situation
  • The Rhetor’s Perspective
  • The Audience’s Perspective
• You may use visuals to help support your situation analysis
• The analysis should follow our discussions on the rhetorical situation and include your thinking on all applicable parts of the rhetorical situation.

Proposal, which can be a written and visual document, should build from the situation and suggest “fitting discourse” for the rhetorical situation of your choosing.

• The text should be addressed to the primary audience in the rhetorical situation but should take into account any secondary audiences.
• The text should take the form of whichever genre best reaches your audience.
• If your text is a proposal, it should make a persuasive argument for whatever fitting discourse you are proposing.

Audience:

• Primary audience, secondary audiences, and gatekeepers are defined by your analysis and will be relevant to your rhetorical situation and the research that you find.

Possible Kinds of Situations

You do not have to pick a business/workplace rhetorical situation to analyze, though given the focus of the class, it is a productive idea to do so.

• Addressing an issue in your community, city, church, or school etc.
• Increasing efficiency or effectiveness of a program or initiative in your field work.  
• A difficulty or opportunity in the workplace, e.g. proposing that your company sponsor a charitable event or a community group in need, etc.

Your chosen situation requires my approval before you get fully started.

Evaluation

You’ll need some background information about your chosen type of situation in order to write the analysis, so you may have to do some research on it. In some cases, you also have to imagine some aspects of the situation. The point of the proposal part of this project is for you to demonstrate your understanding of the genre, and how it should be organized as a document.

Your project will be assessed based on your ability to:

• Cogently and clearly imagine and describe various aspects of the rhetorical situation.
• Use that description to make an argument for your proposed “fitting discourse,” including the genre in which that discourse appears or would appear.
• Create a proposal in accordance with the conventions appropriate to the genre.
• Make and implement effective writing choices and attempt careful editing. (Think style, syntax, punctuation, spelling, and formatting.)