Each student will have the opportunity to analyze a piece of persuasive material and present their findings to the class. Projects will vary in nature but all will entail the student being able to classify the artifact as propaganda or rhetoric, and support their position using the concepts covered in the course. Project will be presented briefly the last four classes of term. Projects not presented and/or submitted on their assigned day will be subject to a 10 point-per-class meeting penalty.
Project Options:
Individual Option 1: Transcript analysis
Select a PERSUASIVE Ted talk from https://www.ted.com (Links to an external site.)and confirm your selection with Professor Michaud before starting on your project (no matter how last-minute! I want you to have something solid to work with).
Your final submitted project will be a discussion of rhetoric in action: how a Ted Talk contributes to public discussion about issues that are important to us as a society. Your final project should address this larger question and include 1) a summary of the talk and provide background on the speaker, the exigence for the subject and purpose of the talk, the constraints associated with the subject, and the findings from your analysis; and 2) a notated transcript of the talk that highlights 2a) the anchors on which the argument hinges; 2b) the emotional, credibility, and logical appeals employed by the rhetor—including any genre-specific appeals to reason; and 2c) stylistic assessments based on Aristotle’s rules of good rhetorical style.
Your 5-6-minute presentation to the class should include elements from your summary as well as to highlight examples from your analysis for the purpose of highlighting rhetoric in action.
Individual Option 2: Analyze a campaign
Select any advertising campaign and confirm it with Professor Michaud. Ideas can be found at AdAge’s top campaigns* (Links to an external site.), also listed below, or other advertising or public relations campaign.
(Your final submitted project will be a persua
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