Assignment Part A:
Journal - Thinking about Rhetorical Context
Introduction:
To complete this journal assignment, first you will choose one of the following speeches that interest you. You should listen and watch this speech closely because you will be discussing the speech's rhetorical context.
- "What Streaming Means for the Future of Entertainment" (opens in new window): a speech by Emmett shear, co-founder of Twitch about why so many people watch other people play video games online
- "Are Athletes Really Getting, Faster. Better, Stronger?" (opens in new window): a speech by David Epstein that attempts to answer questions about why contemporary athletes break so many records
- "My Identity is a Superpower--Not an Obstacle" (opens in new window): a speech by America Ferrera, an actress famous for roles in Ugly Betty, Real Women Have Curves, and Superstore about her early struggles to get cast as a Latina in Hollywood
- "Work Is Not Your Family" (opens in new window): a speech by Gloria Chan Packer, a mental health advocate, about the dangers of blurring lines between our professional and home lives
- "How Video Games Can Level Up the Way You Learn" (opens in new window): a speech by Kris Alexander about what educational design can learn from video games
- "When AI Can Fake Reality, Who Can You Trust?" (opens in new window): a speech by Sam Gregory, an expert in Artificial Intelligence, about the social challenges we face because of advanced generative AI.
Provide a brief analysis of your chosen speech. Specifically, you might address the following points of discussion:
Q1. Who is the specific intended audience of the piece? Discuss everything you can discern about the audience of the piece based only on the content of the piece. How old are they? What is their worldviews? What are their education levels? Note that the intended audience extends beyond the people in the room.
Q2. What agenda/ message/ purpose does the writer/ speaker have? Can you locate a single sentence in which the writer/ speaker articulates their overall purpose?
Q3. What are the limitations of the medium of this piece? In other words, what limitations exist in the fact that this is a speech delivered with the option of including visuals?
Q4. What might change if the speech were, instead, a magazine article or even a podcast? In other words, what would this same message look like if it were being communicated in another medium?
Assignment Part B:
Journal - Thinking about Rhetorical Context
Introduction"
To complete this journal assignment, first you will choose one of the following speeches that interest you. You should listen and watch this speech closely because you will be discussing the speech's rhetorical context.
- "What Streaming Means for the Future of Entertainment" (opens in new window): a speech by Emmett shear, co-founder of Twitch about why so many people watch other people play video games online
- "Are Athletes Really Getting, Faster. Better, Stronger?" (opens in new window): a speech by David Epstein that attempts to answer questions about why contemporary athletes break so many records
- "My Identity is a Superpower--Not an Obstacle" (opens in new window): a speech by America Ferrera, an actress famous for roles in Ugly Betty, Real Women Have Curves, and Superstore about her early struggles to get cast as a Latina in Hollywood
- "Work Is Not Your Family" (opens in new window): a speech by Gloria Chan Packer, a mental health advocate, about the dangers of blurring lines between our professional and home lives
- "How Video Games Can Level Up the Way You Learn" (opens in new window): a speech by Kris Alexander about what educational design can learn from video games
- "When AI Can Fake Reality, Who Can You Trust?" (opens in new window): a speech by Sam Gregory, an expert in Artificial Intelligence, about the social challenges we face because of advanced generative AI
Assignment:
Provide a brief analysis of your chosen speech. Specifically, you might address the following points of discussion:
1. Who is the specific intended audience of the piece? Discuss everything you can discern about the audience of the piece based only on the content of the piece. How old are they? What is their worldviews? What are their education levels? Note that the intended audience extends beyond the people in the room.
2. What agenda/ message/ purpose do the writer/ speaker have? Can you locate a single sentence in which the writer/ speaker articulates their overall purpose?
3. What are the limitations of the medium of this piece? In other words, what limitations exist in the fact that this is a speech delivered with the option of including visuals?
4. What might change if the speech were, instead, a magazine article or even a podcast? In other words, what would this same message look like if it were being communicated in another medium?