Final Project Options

Option 1: Rhetorical Analysis

For your Final Project, I’m asking you to think of a particular, contemporary issue (and preferably the one you've been working with all semester long) and then analyze how other rhetors seek to persuade audiences over to their side of this issue. Thus far the minor analysis projects have been scaffolded so that they will feed into this final, larger project. You will, however, want to revisit and revise those earlier papers with considerable attention given to making them speak to one another.

This assignment requires you to do the following:

1. Pick an issue to explore (many of you will already have done this)
2. Identify one specific group of people (maybe two, but no more) that various rhetors are trying to persuade by about your issue and discuss the rhetorical strategies those rhetors use.
3. Pick a minimum of three/maximum of five “texts” that you can examine in a 7-9 page essay
4. Analyze how these “texts” use the rhetorical concepts of ethos, pathos, logos, kairos, and commonplaces in order to persuade
5. Produce a well-written, concise final product that has a controlling idea, short and extended examples from various “texts” as proof of your thesis, and proper citations in text of your various sources.

Now, much of what you do for your final project can involve a reworking and incorporation of previous Minor Analysis Projects – if you have already chosen an issue to analyze. If you have not, you will need to get moving on this final project. If you do not, you will find it overwhelming, far too much work to get down effectively. Be sure to observe the following guidelines about formatting and due dates:

Guidelines

This project should be typed or word-processed in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and please number your pages, as well, so that I don’t get them out of order.

Deadlines

April 27--Peer Review of First Draft. May 4--Peer review of analytical coverletter and project presentations.

Final Draft

(in portfolio with all work completed this semester, all responses to peers projects, all revisions, and analytical coverletter) due by 5:30 on May 11th.

In order to get credit for this project, you must show up to class with your reader drafts and finished drafts on the assigned days. Not doing so jeopardizes a large percentage of your course grade.

Option 2: A Rhetorical Performance

This is a "creative" option in the sense that it invites you to act more directly as a rhetor. That is, rather than analyzing someone else's rhetoric, you are to create your own rhetoric to achieve some purpose on a particular issue. (As part of this, you'll need to do some analysis, but more on that later.) Don't think of this option as a "research " or "term" paper. Instead, imagine an audience for this project and how best to reach them. You may decide this is through a conventional piece of writing. Alternatively, you may think other media are more useful and effective. For example, your final project for option 2 may take the form of a Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign (television, web, radio, posters, etc), a web page, a documentary, a collection of music you write yourself, a play, a photographic exhibition, a television news program devoted to your issue, a radio broadcast, a magazine article, a newspaper feature section, a comic book, or an underground publication (one or more of these combined). You may also wish to write a series of speeches (or power point presentations), articles, and/or editorials.

What?

What might these projects look like? Well, we'll see. I will not provide you with an example of a final project simply because I want to leave you free to discover what a multimedia "paper" or, more appropriately, project might look like, what forms it might take, what work it might do, what audiences it might reach. Of course, this means that you'll want to keep me updated on your project throughout the latter part of the semester, to get my opinions and the opinions and insights of your classmates who will be doing the same type of work.

Length

This project must be as long as it needs to be to perform the kinds of work you want it to perform and to demonstrate a significant investment of your effort and expertise. I don't mention length in terms of page numbers here since we likely are not dealing with traditional papers.

Research

You'll need to research your issue thoroughly. You'll also need to analyze that research and provide some of it (in whatever form is the most effective) as support in your project. You will document that research in the text of your work-where/when/if in-text citation is appropriate-and all sources (audio, visual, verbal) will be cited in a separate piece of the project (4).

As with Option 1, the second part of this assignment is to write an analytical cover letter that discusses the choices you made and the problems you solved (or didn't) in writing this assignment. What do you think went well? What did you learn? What aspects of the paper do you particularly want me to see? What would you do if you had more time? In particular, why did you make the choices you did; what was it about your analysis of the issue and audience that directed your choices? This should be at least a page long-and longer if that's what it takes to demonstrate how thoughtfully you approached the project.

The deadlines for this project, peer review, and presentation are the same as with option 1.