Our first major formal assignment in ENGL 400 was a rhetorical analysis of an artifact of our choosing that addressed an important public issue in today’s society. For my rhetorical analysis, I chose to analyze Meghan Markle’s address at UN Women’s conference in 2015. By completing this assignment, I accomplished several of the course learning objectives. As seen in the first objective, I learned how to “engage in the process of citizen leadership” by examining and analyzing Markle’s use of the Aristotelian appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos as well as other rhetorical devices within her argument for women’s equality and political participation. The rhetorical analysis also allowed me to expand my understanding of public discourse and the use of rhetoric in order to make a persuasive argument (objective 2). Before this course, I had never written a rhetorical analysis. I learned how to format and structure a rhetorical analysis as outlined by the fourth course learning objective. Additionally, I learned how to “analyze the effectiveness” of my own written work through the peer review process (objective 4). Before submitting the final draft of my analysis, I had the opportunity to peer review two of my classmates’ papers and provide helpful feedback and two of my classmates reviewed mine. The peer review process allowed me to not only give and receive constructive feedback, but to take the feedback and new ideas from my peers in order to strengthen my analysis. Overall, writing the rhetorical analysis taught me how to analyze another individual’s rhetoric and how writing can be used to promote action or change. The final draft of my rhetorical analysis can be seen below.
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