Rhetoric & Public Culture with Dr. Elif Guler

Due by the class period on Friday, September 2

For our meeting on Friday, create a new post in your own Course Blog which presents your own example of discourses from the presidential race (in the form of a speech or another genre that is available online, like a campaign video) that can be analyzed through narrative criticism. Provide a link to the rhetorical artifact of your selection (speech video or transcript, YouTube video of a campaign piece, etc) so we can access it during the class period. Your posting should also provide a preliminary assessment of the narrative in your selected rhetorical artifact:

• How does the construction of this narrative direct our interpretation of a situation? What are the consequences of that interpretation?
• What does the narrative reveal about an individual’s identity (either the author or the intended audience)?
• What does the narrative suggest about the values of a particular culture?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXV4fG33Zk

On Wednesday, August 31, we will consider another speech from the different sides of the 2016 US presidential race. This time, we’ll look at the rhetoric of Paul Ryan’s RNC speech through the lens of narrative criticism.

Watch the speech, and respond to the following prompts. I’ll later include some of your responses in this posting.

Due by the class period on Monday, August 29

*Please follow the in-class instructions to create your own Course Blog. You will find the writing prompts for each blogging assignment in this blog. Follow the guidelines for each to make your posting accordingly. Please title your posts in the same way I title mine (e.g., Post #1: Personal Introduction, and so on) so that I can clearly identify your respective posts for evaluation.

Post #1: The main purpose of your first blog post is to clarify why your blog exists and other related questions that your readers might have upon stumbling upon your blog. Therefore, create a blog posting in your own Course Blog, which clarifies the “rhetorical situation” for your blog (which is a rhetorical artifact): writer, purpose, message, audience, context.

-Who is the writer/blogger (brief info about you)?

-What is the writer/you writing about? What is the purpose of your blog (include the course information but you may also include a purpose of your own)? Who is your intended audience (write one or two sentences about who might make use of this blog or would like to check it out, etc)?

-What is the context for this blog (you can think about the classroom and beyond)? Since you will want to mention our Rhetoric and Public Culture course, it is also appropriate to give some information about your reasons for taking the class, any past rhetoric/writing classes you have taken, etc.

Be flexible and use your creativity. Feel free to make your posts more colorful and interesting with media (images, video, etc); cite your images and try to use ones that are in the public domain (not copyrighted), but you should be fine sharing any YouTube videos. You may also create your own images (take photos, etc) and add them to your blog, too.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZNWYqDU948[/youtube]

On Friday, August 26, we will consider the ways in which First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention tackles with issues of national and global significance. This will be one of the several speeches from different sides of the US presidential race that we will consider this semester, as we also explore an effective global leadership rhetoric in cross-national texts.

Watch First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech, and respond to the following prompts. You may also follow the transcript online, and copy paste parts of it to support your points.

1. First, make a personal list of the issues of national and global significance that Ms. Obama’s speech touches upon. Then, reflect on how these issues are related the Bill of Rights. Identify the amendments in the Bill of Rights that Obama’s speech builds on. Write down the number of the respective amendment, and explain the relevance of her points.
2. Do you find this speech effective? Give a few examples of characteristics that make the speech effective.

Transcript of the speech: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/26/politics/transcript-michelle-obama-speech-democratic-national-convention/

Welcome to the course blog for Rhetoric and Public Culture: Presidential Debates in a Global Theater! This blog will serve as a medium for us to communicate about our course, which will provide you with the rhetorical tools essential for global citizen leadership. Our class will allow you to delve into classical and contemporary rhetorical principles within a featured segment of public culture. In light of the Vice-Presidential debate here on campus this fall, this offering of the course centers on US Presidential Debates. By studying a variety of political discourses from different national cultures and rhetorical traditions, we’ll consider how presidential debates are or might be perceived by the international community. How can global leaders use rhetoric for good or bad? You will contemplate this question through empirical research practices, gathering data and analyzing findings, for dissemination of results to a public audience. The purpose of this analysis will be to understand the rhetoric of political discourse aimed at the common good.

Looking forward to working with you!

Dr. Guler