Background
Rhetorical analysis involves critical thinking about how—and how well—an author presents an argument and persuades his or her audience. This week, you are going to practice analyzing rhetoric by examining the rhetorical appeals an author has used to persuade readers and by determining whether or not they were effective.
Directions for the Discussion Question Response
Be sure to review the Rhetorical Analysis Resources in this week's module prior to beginning this discussion. These resources will help you identify rhetorical appeals and analyze how they are being used.
Using the famous “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., identify at least two rhetorical appeals he uses to persuade his readers of his argument. To show your understanding of these rhetorical appeals, clearly explain how the appeals are being used by paraphrasing or quoting examples directly from the text. Refer directly to the appeals by name; for example, you might say, “King uses logos by including . . . to appeal to readers’ sense of logic.”
After you have explained how King uses two rhetorical appeals, analyze how effective you think he is in persuading his audience with these appeals, and why or why not. For example, “The . . . he presents works well to persuade the audience because . . .” Whatever argument you make about King’s use of rhetorical appeals, whether effective or not, you need to support your points with evidence from the article.
Your response to the discussion prompt must be a number of well-developed paragraphs.