Format 5-6 double-spaced pages, not counting Works Cited. Use MLA format and citation style.  No additional

Format

5-6 double-spaced pages, not counting Works Cited. Use MLA format and citation style. 

No additional research or source material: you should not use any sources beyond the text itself. 

Please title your paper (no title page, just center your title on the first page) and number your pages. In the right- or left-hand corner of the first page, write your name, the date, the course and section numbers, and instructor’s name (single-spaced). 

Description

Your task in this assignment is to use rhetorical principles and terminology to analyze how a particular text makes an argument. This analysis involves summarizing the most important point of the text, and identifying the author’s intended purpose and audience. Furthermore, you will examine the rhetorical appeals and elements used in the text. The goal is not only to determine the author’s purpose, but also to examine the tools they use, and the choices they make, and ultimately how those choices fulfill that purpose. 

Sinéad Burke’s TED talk, “Why Design Should Include Everyone.” 

https://www.ted.com/talks/sinead_burke_why_design_should_include_everyone?language=en

Details

The intended audience of your paper is educated readers who have not read the text or seen the video you are analyzing. Therefore, your paper should summarize the text (the video or essay), but only briefly – no more than one paragraph, after your thesis paragraph. 

The bulk of your paper should analyze (name, explain, and evaluate the persuasiveness of) the rhetorical choices made by the author in the writing of the text. Note: in the case of Sinéad Burke’s video, you may want to analyze not only her language choices, but also her tone of voice, her body language, etc. 

One great way to organize your paper is by rhetorical choices or strategies used, but it’s not required. Keep in mind that it’s not enough to label the rhetorical strategies used – you must discuss how that strategy might work, its effectiveness, how it relates with other strategies used in the text. 

Thesis

Your thesis should make a statement about which rhetorical choices or strategies the writer/ speaker uses, the effectiveness of those choices, how those different strategies work together, and/or how they are organized. 

I do want to caution you against being too critical of the author’s/speaker’s rhetoric. Burke is well-known and highly-respected professionals in their respective fields. While it is theoretically possible that an undergraduate student has a better grasp on writing and rhetoric than one of these professionals do, it is unlikely. Generally, when a student chooses to critique a professional writer or speaker too severely, what’s happening is a misreading or lack of understanding of what that writer/speaker is doing. If you have questions along those lines, please don’t hesitate to ask me before you turn in your paper.