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Rhetorical Analysis

End of Semester Reflection on Political Rhetoric

Students consider an ostentacious example of political rhetoric, then consider the other side's analysis of said rhetoric.

In-Class Group Evaluations of Short Videos

Eminem looking at marquee saying "Keep Detroit Beautiful"

For an entire class period, groups of students are tasked with evaluating a short video. Each group is assigned a video and a category of evaluation that they will use to evaluate their assigned video. They will work together to come up with criteria, evidence, and an evaluative claim for their video.

Twitter in the Classroom: Observations and Analysis

My class used Twitter for a few general purposes & for two specific assigments

My class used Twitter for a few general purposes and then for two specific assignments. For our general goals, we used Twitter to share resources among one another and to familiarize ourselves with various conversations that are important to people in the digital humanities.

Procedural Rhetoric: Analyzing Video Games

Screen shot of September 12 Video Game Instructions

This activity asks students to practice rhetorical analysis with reference to Ian Bogost's understanding of "procedural rhetoric." This mode of rhetoric focuses on the ways that procedures, processes, logics, and rules can be expressive and persuasive.

How to Advocate a Course of Action via Excel

Spreadsheets can be a useful tool

Students will use a combination of rhetorical analysis and Microsoft Excel formatting to brainstorm and write a two-page policy proposal that advocates a particular course of action.

Essay Revision with Automated Textual Analysis

This assignment uses Voyeur to analyze of word frequencies and word distribution

This assignment uses Voyeur to analyze word frequencies and word distribution in student writing to help students see the paper’s thesis and how the argument progresses without reading the paper.

Introductory Rhetoric Course - Final Multimedia Presentation

Cartoon image by Ben Sargent titled "Academic Assembly"

A five-minute multimedia presentation showcasing skills developed over the entire semester: summary, analysis, and refutation/rebuttal of a position in a student's chosen controversy.

Chronological Annotated Bibliography Using Dipity

Annotated Bibliographic Timeline of The UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident

Using the free digital timeline website, Dipity, students can organize and annotate their sources chronologically.  This enables students to visualize the sequence of events and better address how particular texts interact with or talk past each other.

Procedural Enthymeme with Inform7

Screenshot of Inform7 Interface

Even though we use enthymemes in our everyday speech, teaching the concept presents difficulties. By making enthymemes in the interactive fiction design system Inform7, students develop a deep understanding of implied reasoning.

Introducing Analysis with "Texts From Last Night"

Texts from last night offers a short and pithy introduction to analysis

Using samples pulled from the popular website, Texts From Last Night, this exercise introduces students to textual analysis in a fun and (most likely) funny way.

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