Writing Exercise Find one paragraph from the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that makes a particularly compelling argument. Record its page number. Sentence by sentence, analyze the strategies King employs in constructing his argument in this paragraph. Consider rhetorical appeals, arrangement, and style. Your response should be written in paragraph form. You may submit on Canvas if you wish to type. It will be collected at 11:15.

Day 3: Rhetorical Analysis 30 June 2017

Practicing rhetorical analysis with MLK’s “Letter”

Rhetorical Analysis Identify the elements of the rhetorical situation. Analyze how the rhetor has constructed their message. Consider these strategies appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos arrangement and media style Once several compelling strategies have been identified, figure out how they function and why they are included in the argument. Remember: What? (classify strategy) How? (explain how strategy works) Why? (argue for how strategy affects the overall text)

Example: Analyzing arrangement & Medium What? (classify strategy) Culmination of MLK’s letter in a prediction just before he concludes: in the future, the heroes of the integration movement would be the lowly yet strong protestors (page 9) How? (explain how strategy works) King prepares the reader to accept his prediction by preceding it with a far-reaching overview of history and justice, from Biblical prophets to US democracy. Why? (argue for how strategy affects the overall text) By conveying this vision of future triumph at the end of the essay, King motivates readers who feel like “the disinherited children of God” to hope for the “goal of freedom” in America (9).

EXAMPLE: ANALYZING STYLE Find a stylistic strategy (consider tone, juxtaposition, repetition, parallelism, irony, contractions, pronouns, vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph length). Focus on Paragraph #4 on page 9. What? (classify strategy) How? (explain how strategy works) Why? (argue for how strategy affects the overall text)

Your turn! Identify the elements of the rhetorical situation. Team A: pathos Team B: ethos Team C: logos Team D: pathos Team E: ethos Team F: logos Recall: Types of pathos: An array of possible emotions; desire, humor, fear, pity, and anger are commonly evoked Types of ethos: reputation; trustworthiness and credibility; authority; honesty about motives Types of logos: hard evidence (facts, statistics, surveys and polls, testimonies and narratives); reason and common sense (degree, analogies, precedent) Identify the elements of the rhetorical situation. Analyze how the rhetor has constructed their message. Consider the appeal your team has been assigned Once a strategy has been identified, figure out how it functions and why it is included in the argument. Remember: What? (classify strategy) How? (explain how strategy works) Why? (argue for how strategy affects the overall text)

More practice! Exchange PE #2 with a partner. Take a minute to read it. Now, explain to your partner exactly how their appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos work. What? (classify strategy) How? (explain how strategy works) Why? (argue for how strategy affects the overall text)