It is great so see so many posts about the election campaign. I have been wishing I was teaching a rhetoric class right now with all the talk of rhetoric, plagiarism, etc. in the media. I wanted to offer this piece to the conversation, a pretty solid (B/B+) rhetorical analysis of an Obama speech in The Washington Post. Lots of talk of audience and it addresses Obama's direct appeal to our shared "young voter" demographic.

Watching the Democratic debate last week made me think this primary has been a potential goldmine for rhetoric instructors.

Throughout the debate, Clinton argued that "actions speak louder than words," while Obama insisted that "words matter."

Beyond this, Clinton's big attack was over plagiarism:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/21/videos.21feb.debate/

Here's a link to an article that looks at language and the Democratic primary a bit more:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/25/foreman.raw.politics/index.html

This weekend, I saw the movie I'm Not There. Afterward--actually also during--my sister complained, "This movie is too long! It's hard to follow! And why is Richard Gere even in it? I don't get that part. They should have made a normal biopic and had Cate Blanchett play Bob Dylan the whole time."

Praxis announces CFP for Fall 2007 Issue: Diversity in the Writing Center

Praxis: A Writing Center Journal welcomes submissions for its Fall 2007 issue. We especially encourage submissions on this issue’s theme: Diversity in the Writing Center. Articles on this topic may deal with the numerous ways in which writing centers foster and accommodate the diversity of their tutees and tutors. We invite contributors to interpret the theme broadly; however, some possible applications include

• Issues of power and authority relating to race, gender, class, etc. in tutorials