Computer Writing and Research Lab | University of Texas at Austin

The 2008 Election????

Submitted by SarahJett on September 24, 2007 - 12:55pm

The title of this post is pretty vague. In fact, its haziness reflects my knowledge (or lack thereof) of the 2008 candidates in the ring so far. As someone who's trying to figure out which candidate to vote for myself, is there some online resource (or print resource, I suppose) where I can refer my students who are curious about these hopefuls? I mean, is there a specific place where reliable information can be quickly obtained? (I mean, obviously the best advice is to be well informed in general and to get news from many sources, but is there some kind of organization that helps students particularly to know more about voting in this particular upcoming election?

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Campaign Rhetoric

Submitted by gavinbenke on September 29, 2007 - 8:01am.

I do think that teaching a rhetoric class in the middle of a presidential campaign presents a number of opportunities. What immediately springs to mind is to look at the ways in which candidates tailor their messages for different audiences, contexts - in short, each rhetorical situation.

For example, here's a link with the Democratic candidates reading taped messages before a debate hosted by the AFL-CIO.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20122802/

If anyone has managed to use the campaigns - Republican, Democrat and third party - in the classroom, I'd love to hear about it.

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In office hours the other

Submitted by SarahJett on October 16, 2007 - 10:51am.

In office hours the other day, one of my students showed me the site ontheissues.org. Although I've only looked briefly, it seems very useful to me. I'm wondering if others know more about it or can think of any particular reason why it might not be as trustworthy as it appears.

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league of women voters

Submitted by Ljones on September 26, 2007 - 1:53pm.

The league of women voters voting guides are very awesome: they ask each candidate a series of questions (all the same question) and the candidate writes his or her response. However, I couldn't find anything on 2008 election right now. Maybe next semester, or certainly next fall, they will have it. Right now they are more concerned about the 2007 elections.

http://www.lwvtexas.org/

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