Rhetorical Analysis assignment (07)

ENG3UI Power and the Art of Discourse November 2007

J. Rice Rhetorical Analysis Assignment

Saint Joan and Antigone

In using a rhetorical analysis framework to analyse a text, we ask ourselves the following questions about the speaker’s methods:

Appeals – these define the overall strategy of the piece

• • Ethos: How does the speaker establish him or herself as an authority on the subject or as a sympathetic figure that the audience should listen to?

  • Logos: What kinds of arguments or claims does the speaker make, and what facts, examples, or chains of reasoning does he or she call upon to support those arguments?

  • Pathos: How does the speaker try to capture the audience’s heart? What emotions does the speaker want the audience to feel, and how does he or she use language, imagery, and detail to achieve that emotion?

Techniques – these contribute to the ways in which the appeals are developed

• • Organization: How does the speaker organize his or her speech overall? How does he or she organize individual sentences, phrases? What does that organization emphasize and how?

  • Methods of development: Does the speaker use any of the expository methods of development to make his or her speech interesting or to illustrate his or her ideas with anecdotes, definitions, descriptions, analogies, etc.?

  • Patterns: What patterns emerge in the selection of words, sentence structures, sounds, images? What ideas do those patterns emphasize and how?

  • Figurative language: How does the speaker make use of stylistic devices to make his or her language more appealing: metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, etc.? What connotations do these figurative touches evoke?

Using these questions, we arrive at our thesis – a conclusion about the speaker’s purpose in speaking and the methods he or she uses to achieve it.

Assignment:

You will sign up for one of the speeches selected from either St Joan or Antigone (no more than 3 people/class/speech). You must use the Fagles translation of Antigone for this assignment. If you do not have this edition, please ask me to photocopy your speech for you.

CHOICES to be made by November 21 / November 22.

Read your speech carefully, annotating and taking notes using the framework above. Then write an essay that explains the speaker’s purpose and the methods he or she uses to achieve it. Your thesis will make a clear statement about the purpose, and will characterize the methods.

Use specific examples from the text (with line references in parenthetical citation). DO NOT go outside the passage for examples – you may briefly mention story elements that provide context, but your analysis is of the lines themselves. Hand in a photocopy of your annotated speech with your assignment.

Length: approximately 1-1.5 pages

Formatting: 1.5 spacing, 1-inch margins, 12-point Times font (no exceptions – please see the document on Blackboard under Course Information about expectations for formatting a submitted assignment)

Due: Monday, December 3 / Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Instructions for submitting: submit a completed e-copy of the final essay to Assignments before the start of class on the due date for work to be considered on time. Hand in your annotated speech in hard copy on the same date. Late or incomplete work is registered against your work habits and earns a 2% deduction / school day.

Speech choices:

Saint Joan

• • Scene II: JOAN: It’s no use, Charlie, thou must face what God puts on thee. [. . .] Art for or against me? (Joan’s lines only)

  • Scene VI: JOAN: Perpetual imprisonment! Am I not then to be set free? [. . .] That is my last word to you. (Joan’s lines only)

Antigone

• • Lines 451- 489: SENTRY: Here’s what happened. [. . .] That’s the way I’m made.

  • Lines 499- 525: ANTIGONE: Of course I did. [. . .] accused of folly by a fool.

  • Lines 712-761: CREON: Fine, Haemon. [. . .] never be rated inferior to a woman, never.

  • Lines 764-809: HAEMON: Father, only the gods endow a man [. . .] with good advice.

  • Lines 1101-1144: TIRESIAS: You will learn [. . .] it’s pure gain

This assignment addresses the following Ministry of Education expectations for ENG3U:

Reading and Literature Studies:

1.1.  read a variety of student- and teacher-selected texts from diverse cultures and historical periods, identifying specific purposes for reading

1.2.  select and use the most appropriate reading comprehension strategies to understand texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts

1.3.  identify the most important ideas and supporting details in texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts

1.4.  make and explain inferences of increasing subtlety about texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, supporting their explanations with well-chosen stated and implied ideas from the texts

1.6.  analyse texts in terms of the information, ideas, issues, or themes they explore, examining how various aspects of the texts contribute to the presentation or development of these elements

2.2.  identify a variety of text features and explain how they help communicate meaning

2.3.  identify a variety of elements of style in texts and explain how they help communicate meaning and enhance the effectiveness of the texts

Writing:

1.2. generate, expand, explore and focus ideas for potential writing tasks, using a variety of strategies

1.4. identify, sort, and order main ideas and supporting details for writing tasks, using a variety of strategies and selecting the organizational pattern best suited to the content and the purpose for writing

1.5. determine whether the ideas and information gathered are accurate and complete, interesting, and effectively meet the requirements of the writing task

2.4. write complete sentences that communicate their meaning clearly and effectively, skilfully varying sentence type, structure, and length to suit different purposes and making smooth and logical transitions between ideas

3. applying knowledge of conventions (spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, grammar) in drafts and revisions