proposal memo for rhetorical analysis

By Laura Michael Brown, September 2, 2014

Your proposal memo is due in class on Friday, September 5th. The purpose of preparing this memo is to make sure that you all are making significant progress on selecting a topic–in this case, selecting a text to analyze and beginning to think through your thesis about that text.

Please bring in one or two texts that you propose working with for this assignment (do narrow it down to two choices at most). Prepare answers to each of the following questions for each text that you bring. You should be able to begin to answer these questions about your text–if answers are not coming to you, you might look for a different text that is more fitting for the assignment. Thinking through these questions might also help you decide between different texts that you are considering.

Briefly identify:

1) Why you chose this text. What do you find interesting or compelling about it?
2) The rhetor. Who created this text? Who is delivering this message?
3) The argument you think the text is making–what is its message and purpose? What does the rhetor hope the audience will do or think after receiving the message?
4) The audience you think the text is trying to reach
5) The rhetor’s exigence. Was there any reason in particular that they needed to communicate their message at that time?
6) Any elements of the surrounding context that might have influenced the creation or reception of the text
7) Whether or not you think the argument is effective in communicating its message to that audience
8) The most interesting or significant rhetorical strategies at work in the piece (based on what we have learned so far)