We looked at a number of advertisements today in order to wrap our heads around this “rhetoric” concept. Here’s the slideshow:

We asked a few questions of each piece:

• What does the author want the audience to do/believe?
• How does the author help the audience trust him or her?
• How does the author help the audience to care?

These questions correlate nicely with the three rhetorical appeals we discussed later:

• Logos: an author’s appeal to the audience’s sense of reasonableness or logic
• Ethos: an author’s appeal to the audience’s trust/sense of credibility
• Pathos: an author’s appeal to the audience’s emotions or desires

We’ll discuss these at length throughout this session. If you come across an excellent argument, send me a link in the comments or via email. If you’re looking for written arguments (we’ll begin discussing these next week), here’s a list of places to look.

Unfortunately Google Reader is no longer around, but you can find a list of good alternatives here. I use Feedly, but find one that suits your needs.

You received your first graded article analyses today ((Unless you’re in fifth hour, in which case some of this post will refer to your future….)). I was glad to see some very strong writing samples–this will be a good year.

You may have noticed that there were no grades on them–only corrections and suggestions. I want to emphasize that nearly everything you do in this class is practice, so don’t hesitate to take a chance. I won’t hesitate to let you know when you rocked it.

We’ll discuss an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” tomorrow, but feel free to click the link to read the whole article.

Here’s the plan we worked out in class today. Tuesday will give us a chance to take more time in discussing the articles on Monday, or provide me with more time to explain concepts and such. All of this is subject to change with prior notice.

Here’s a copy of the “Formatting Your Paper” handout I mentioned in class. If you notice anything that is misleading or incorrect, let me know.

We’ve been reading/discussing Orwell’s “Politics in the English Language” ((PDF download link via UTDallas)) for the past week, and it’s about time we cut it down to the essentials. Your assignment this weekend is to reverse-engineer an outline of Orwell’s work. The outline should be in standard format, just like the outlines for your first arguments. The goal of this assignment is to clearly lay out the progression of his points and lay bare the skeleton of his points.

We will be returning to our regular schedule of Tuesday/Thursday article analyses next week as well.

I was a bit startled that most of you are unaware of the health care debate raging around us, but that’s what this class is for, isn’t it?

I mentioned OpposingViews.com in class today, and while I haven’t had a chance to explore it thoroughly, they have a section on the health care debate. Might be worth thumbing through, as the people writing the arguments must meet one of the following criteria:

• They are a recognized leader in their field
• They have a significant following or constituency
• Their views have been widely published or broadcast
• Or they have a unique personal experience in a specific area

I mentioned TED.com as well. We are watching a video on the morality of liberals and conservatives in my senior English class, so pop over there if you’re interested. We’ll discuss articles tomorrow.