College Writing

Exercise 1: Defining Rhetoric for a Friend

Now that you have read the introduction to Chapter 4 and Doug Downs's "Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making," it's time to think about what rhetoric is—or, as Downs says, what rhetoric "does" (459).

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your understanding of what rhetoric means by defining it for a friend or a family member who doesn't know much, if anything, about rhetoric. You will therefore need to explain rhetoric in your own words. You should imagine that you are actually addressing your friend with this assignment.

Directions: Define and explain rhetoric for a friend or a family member. You have two options for completing this assignment (choose one):

1. You may write a letter or message of 250-350 words (about one double-spaced page) to your friend or family member. It may be a hypothetical letter that you don't actually deliver, but it would still be as if written to your friend or family member.

Rubric:A successful explanation will include the following traits:

• It is written casually, as if to a friend rather than to your instructor. (3 points)


• It demonstrates a basic understanding of what rhetoric is or does. (8 points)


• It has sufficient length. (4 points)

Total possible score: 15 points

Exercise 2: Identifying motives, values and appeals

For this assignment, you will write two brief reports about various texts. (Here, "text" means "something that can be 'read.'") The first text is chosen for you: the homepage of the Andrews University website. You will choose your second text. Here are some ideas:

• A short YouTube video (such as a Super Bowl commercial)


• A brief news report or editorial


• A post from your favorite blog


• An infographic


• A brief comic strip


• Others (consult with your instructor)
  
  
  
  

Be sure to provide a link to or scan of your chosen second text. Also, please distinguish which text each part of your report is responding to. (That is, label your reports.)

For each of your two texts, write a brief report that identifies a few of the elements of the text's rhetorical ecology (as outlined by Downs in "Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making"). You won't address all of the rhetorical ecology; you will only need to identify the motivation, values, and appeals of the texts. Answer the following questions, including reasons for your answers:

• What are a few of the motives the creators of this text seem to have?


• What values does this text seem to appeal to?


• Which of the three traditional appeals (to pathos, to logos, or to ethos) do you think is most prominent or relied on in this text in order to appeal to the values you've identified?
  
  
  
  

Rubric:

A successful explanation will include the following traits:

• It answers each of the three questions. (6 points, or 1 point for each question for each of your two texts)


• It includes reasons for your answers. (6 points, or 1 point to answer "Why?" for each main of the main questions)


• It demonstrates your understanding of the texts and of the concepts of motivation, values, and appeals to those values. (3 points)


• It includes a link to your chosen second text or some other way of accessing it. (1 point)

Total possible score: 16 points