Assignment: Rhetorical Situation Analysis Report
Overview:
Just as you completed a report on one piece of rhetoric last week, we will do the same report for an additional source this week before we begin comparing the two sources. Completing this rhetorical situation analysis report will help you continue to understand the rhetorical situation for which a text was composed, identify the writer's intended audience and rhetorical purpose, and consider how effective his or her strategies are for accomplishing that purpose. Completing this report will help you complete your Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Essay due in Week
Text
Yoshua Bengio on "The catastrophic risks of AI - and a safer path" (YouTube video)
Note: Ted Talks have accessibility options that include a transcript of the talk as well as captions that can be turned on to play during the speaker's presentation. The transcript may be helpful when referencing the talk while completing this assignment for quicker access.
Task:
Listen to the text assigned for this report and then answer the questions below. Write your responses in the form of short answers to each question. You will later use those responses to develop your Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Essay.
1. When and where did this text originally appear?
2. Is there a context for this text's publication? What was going on in the world at the time? What event, situation, or argument is the writer responding to? (Hint: Think about both the immediate context (like the live audience and event setting) and the broader, ongoing conversations that might have influenced the speaker. Remember, TED Talks are not just for those present but for an online global audience over time. This one may take some basic research!) Need Assignment Help?
3. How would you describe the discourse community in which this text is operating? Who is part of the discourse community, what values are important to them, what do members of this discourse community consider credible evidence? (Hint: Consider the layered audience here: the people physically present, the speaker's awareness of a digital audience, and the wider community of viewers and thinkers who will engage with this talk afterward. How might these different groups shape what counts as "credible" or valuable?)
4. Who is the writer's intended audience, and what textual clues help you name that audience? Remember that the rhetorical audience is always more specific than anyone who reads the text.
5. What is the writer's message, the key point(s) he or she is trying to convey? What is the writer trying to say?
6. What is the writer's rhetorical purpose? What does the writer want the audience to feel, know, believe, or do as a result of reading this text?
7. What rhetorical appeals does the writer use to accomplish his or her rhetorical purpose?
Describe the writer's constructed ethos. How effectively does the writer construct himself or herself as credible, trustworthy, and knowledgeable?
Describe the writer's appeals to logos. What types of reasoning does the author present or use? To what values, beliefs, and assumptions does the writer appeal, and how likely is the intended audience to be persuaded by appeals to those values, beliefs, and assumptions?
Describe the writer's appeals to pathos. How effectively does the writer elicit an emotional response from the intended audience, and how effectively will those appeals to pathos help achieve the writer's rhetorical purpose?
8. How appropriate do you think the text is for its rhetorical situation? How likely will the text achieve its rhetorical purpose?