Problem: During your reading and challenge questions, you learned about the art of persuading others, and you can use rhetorical appeals to convince your audience of your position. Before you begin writing your own persuasive content, it would be beneficial to analyze the effectiveness of another writer.
Using what you have learned, create a rhetorical analysis on the effectiveness of an article. Choose one of the following texts that interests you and that you would enjoy writing about. You may want to skim each before choosing.
Elie Wiesel - "The Perils of Indifference"
Barack Obama - "Yes We Can"
Martin Luther King, Jr. - "I Have a Dream"
Hillary Clinton - "Women's Rights Are Human Rights"
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - "Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation"
Why speeches? A speech operates much like an essay: there will be an introduction, a body, and a closing. In addition, many speeches are given to persuade an audience: citizens, voters, etc. Some of the most memorable lines in history -- even a few that we discussed in our tutorials -- come from persuasive speeches. In each of the texts below, we can really see how powerful persuasion and rhetoric can be in the hands of a gifted writer and speaker.