Rhetorical Analysis Rough Draft

Click below to view the rough draft of my analysis of George W. Bush’s 2001 inaugural address.

Caggiano_RoughDraft (PDF)

To watch the original speech, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXzgMdj5urs

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Brainstorming

The first speech that came to my mind while I was reading the assignment was George W. Bush’s first inaugural address (transcript), a speech that was referenced with considerable liberal bias on our text, Rhetoric & Civic Life. In his address, former President Bush offered the nation his definition of civic engagement, of what it means to be a citizen of our great nation. But our text derided his words because they described the model citizen as one focused on the good of the nation, not the individual. It seems that, in the opinion of the authors of our text, the individual liberties provided for within the context of our democracy are much more important than the common good. I took some offense to the at times arrogant tone employed by the author in his interpretation of the speech. Writing an analysis essay on George W. Bush’s first inaugural address, I feel that I could address its meaning from a different angle and possibly include references from our text to show how words can be interpreted in entirely different ways based on the individual audience member’s ideology and pre-conceived beliefs.

 

Another possible option for the topic of my essay could be the famous “got milk?” advertising campaign and the background surrounding it. This advertising campaign advocates for civic engagement in a different way altogether. Whereas George W. Bush’s speech focuses attention directly on what civic engagement is and what duties being a citizen entails, the “got milk?” campaign targets a more indirect facet of the definition of civic engagement: staying healthy. I realize, however, that the “got milk?” campaign would be a bit of a stretch for an essay about civic engagement. However, the TV ads have been largely successful in increasing consumer milk expenditure, demonstrating the rhetorical power of the campaign. I would have to ponder this subject more intensely in order to come up with a framework for an essay, but nevertheless I think the “got milk?” campaign would be a quite interesting subject for rhetorical analysis.

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