Blogging Pedagogy

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.

You have probably heard about the recent leaking of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign "playbook". This text would be a great way to discuss audience with students. The playbook was for insiders, but it got in the hands of some outsiders. What happens when an argument leaks?

However, in addition to this, Joyce Purnick of the New York Times presents an interesting (rhetorical) analysis of Giulian's website. She points to what the site says, but she focuses on what it doesn't say (no mention of his first two wives or his children, and no mention of his ties to Bernie Kerick.

Here's a column from a recent World Net Daily titled “Soy is Making Kids Gay.” The headline isn't a joke - that's actually the argument the guy is making. I think it’s hilarious, but it's also really creepy and would make a good exercise for a 306 class. You could use it to talk about ethos and logos. In particular, this guy’s ability to make his claim that soy milk is medically indistinguishable from birth control pills look scientific is pretty remarkable. I’m still waiting for the punchline about eating Irish babies, though.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327