Links to rhetorical artifacts for essays

As you begin thinking about your essays you'll want to quickly select a rhetorical artifact for contextual analysis.  I strongly encourage you to read over the directions again, but I've excerpted a small section here: "Identify a rhetorical artifact (or a closely aligned set of artifacts) that is interesting or complex.  This may be a speech, essay, ad campaign, website, building, art installation, memorial—you name it."  (Note that you should not just  re-analyze the same ad you're using in the speech.  If you broaden it out to an entire ad campaign, that would be acceptable--so there'd be some conceptual overlap--but it might be fun to pick something entirely new.)


Speeches make great fodder for rhetorical analysis, so I'm linking to a couple of really good sources for speech texts, audio, or video.


American Rhetoric - Definitive source for the most significant American speeches.  Start with the links at left, or search for something specific.
Famous Speeches - History Channel's speech archive includes presidential, war, civil rights, sports, and space exploration speeches.
Gifts of Speech - Women's speeches from around the world.


If you do elect to analyze a speech, I recommend avoiding speeches from movies.  The artificial nature of the rhetorical situation as constructed within the film will hinder the scope of your analysis.

Silko essay, as referenced in chapter 7

Here's the essay referenced in Friday's reading assignment.  It might be worth taking a closer look to further clarify the difference between textual and contextual analysis:

Silko Essay

Swagger Waggon (by Toyota)

This YouTube video is part of a series made by Toyota to market the Sienna minivan.  As you watch, consider audience, commonplaces, and ideology, as well as how ethos, pathos, or logos may be used.

Organization PPT

Here's the PowerPoint I used in class to talk about organization.

Organization PPT

This American Life - #1 Party School

Last year the radio show "This American Life" did a report on Penn State's #1 Party School status, among other things.  At some point next week we'll be looking at this recording in terms of audience, exigence, constraints, kairos, and the like.  I hope to at least listen to the first segment in class, but I think you'll find the whole thing... provocative.  At the very least, as a Penn State student you probably should know the perspective of others.

Click here for the broadcast.

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