English 101

The following is an e-mail exchange between a student and me. I posted my response to her question on the listserv for everyone to see and to possibly respond.  My response is a reiteration of information for the rhetorical analysis required for essay 3, the persuasive project.

At 11:30 PM 11/23/97 -0700, you wrote:
> Danika~
> I'm having the hardest time trying to write a rhetorical analysis of my persuasive piece. I know exactly what I'm doing with my persuasive part-I'm going to do the presentation to my classmates to persuade them to write a letter to Mattel concerning the new Barbie body. I will have poster board with pictures of barbie throughout time and some overhead pictures of how Barbie is indeed convincing children that "SHE" is what they are supposed to look like. My only problem is how do I write a rhetorical analysis of this. I feel like my essay #2 was basiclly the rhetorical analysis of this. \

I'm writing this to you because I can't organize my analysis, I have answers to the "Certain Questions" that is asked in rhetorical pieces such as "Who is my target audience", "What are my stratiges", "what is my >side" and so on. I just do know how to put this into a rhetorical essay. > >

My response:
Your rhetorical analysis is an essay which is designed to convince me that

1. The issue is a problem which needs to be addressed
2. YOUR CLAIM: what you hope to persuade people of
3. Why you chose the particular method you chose to achieve that goal (#2)
4. The strategies you used in your persuasive piece to appeal to the particular audience of the piece (in this case, you are presenting to your class and they have certain values that you need to keep in mind when you are persuading them)
5. Any other information I need to be persuaded that your persuasive project is indeed an effective approach to your issue and achieves your goal.

If you are thinking in terms of your 2nd essay, that essay addressed the issue and looked at ways other people are using persuasive strategies. This analysis must address the issue and how/why YOU are using the persuasive strategies you are to achieve a very specific goal.

In terms of organization-- what makes the most sense? How do you present this information to someone you haven't discussed this issue or project with before? You might try writing a brief version as a letter to someone you know but whom you have not talked about this project with before. See how the information comes out the most effectively. You want to cover the material naturally and not have to keep going back and correcting yourself or adding materials. How would you persuade someone (me--you do need to keep my teacher/audience values in mind) that you have chosen wisely?

Keep working on it. danika PS: Anyone who has additional advice, please post it! You are all at the point now where you have the information and can help your colleagues out. Don't depend on me to tell you what to do--in rhetorical situations there are never "right" answers--just wise decisions.

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