Final Paper Assignment Details

Assignment Overview: 7-9 page academic essay closely examining the
rhetorical features of a speech by one of the speakers we are studying this term.
You may select a speech we have read this semester or select a speech from some other source (or one in Reid that we didn't read in class). This essay should be an argument. Due December 4.

Process

Select a topic for your analysis by November 4 and turn in the topic form.
Read the text carefully.
Read from at least two good secondary sources. This would be in addition to any brief introduction to the speech that you find in the text where the speech is reprinted and in addition to general encyclopedia type information (like you typically find on the web or on Encarta or Britannica) What you want is strong historical or biographical material surrounding the speech, a newspaper account of the speech, or perhaps a journal article or book chapter by a communication scholar concerning the speech or speaker.
Select a critical approach that you think will best help you discuss the most interesting features of the text. Refer to the introduction to Reid to help you do that. You will need to narrow your goals for the essay. The paper is too short, for example, to do a complete "intrinsic" or "extrinsic" analysis. But you could:

focus on the way the arguments and the emotional appeals work together.
Or how the speech adapts (or fails to adapt) to the variety of audiences that saw the speech.
Or how the stylistic devices in the speech help it to accomplish its goals.
You could use a social movement approach by looking at the role of the speaker, the speech and its ideas within the context of the movement.
Or you could compare two speakers within a social movement and account for their different approaches.
You could do a genre study. I could, for example, refer you to a study about Presidential Inaugural addresses and you could see if the inaugural you are interested in looking at fits what scholars say an inaugural address should do

I will be happy to talk to you about ideas for papers. [And I am willing to talk to you about developing an alternative, less traditional assignment that would still allow you to demonstrate your learning in the course, but in a different more creative way: such as a social movement newsletter or website or perhaps your own persuasive speech calling for social change given for a real audience.]

Draft your essay. Be sure that you:

Identify the speech and speaker clearly in the first paragraph of the paper even as you invite the reader into the essay.
Also in the first or second paragraph you should make clear the point of the paper. What is your thesis? What are you trying to prove about the speech? And you should preview the paper: "I will look at x, y, and z in order to show m." State your purpose and the main points of the paper.
Identify the parts of the rhetorical situation necessary to our understanding the content--but you should spend no more than 1.5 pages on background material--the point is to get to the text and use it to demonstrate your claim.
Base the analysis on evidence provided in the text, but avoid just stringing quotes from the speech together. Your paper should do more than "explain" or clarify the content of the speech.
When possible evaluate the text and explain its consequences.
Cite your sources in the body of the paper using footnotes or parenthetical references (see the writing guide) and include a clear full bibliography at the end of the paper.

Revise your essay and prepare a final draft. I usually read my papers out loud to someone to help me with this process. Proofread to find the problems the spell-checker misses.

If you have selected a speech other than one we have done in this course, please include a copy of the text of the discourse along with your paper.

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