The assignment requires a 12-15 page paper (double-spaced). It requires that I select a social movement and point to a specific object that was (or is) important to the rhetoric of that social movement.

See, Blair, Dickinson, and Ott’s definition of rhetoric. The object may be a speech, interview, documentary, photo series, social media account, person, protest event, tactic, etc. (as long as we can make the case for its rhetorical characteristics as meaningful, legible, partisan, consequential, and public).

MLK delivered the speech “Our God is Marching On” – in Selma, Alabama, on March 25, 1965.

In my opinion, the speech shifted the civil rights movement from focusing mainly on legal and political rights to include economic equality.

The final paper should include:

–    (1)  An introduction section that sets up the object we have chosen and the social movement it appears in. (1-1.5 pages).

–    (2)  A clear, sound thesis statement that lets prof know what we’re arguing about our object and what rhetorical perspective we’re drawing on to do so. ***This is the heart and soul of the paper.***

–   (3)  A section setting up the historical and/or situational context a reader needs to understand your chosen object. For this, we may edit your context paper and drop it in. (3-4 pages)

–    (4)  A section setting up the rhetorical perspective or theory you’re using to analyze your object. Here, you may want to synthesize sources from the class or sources you’ve found on your own to explain whose ideas you’re pulling in. Remember that this should be grounded in rhetorical ideas, but you may integrate some other sources from outside this specific field. (2-3 pages)

–    (5)  A final section diving into the actual analysis of your object. This is where you should be pulling together the context and the theories, and applying them to specific elements of your object. If your object is a speech, this is where you point us to specific lines. If your object is an image or event, this is where you point us to the characteristics of that image or the practices employed at that event. This is the brunt of the workload for this final paper, but it’s also the most interesting part. (*The meat of the paper, 5-6 pages)

–    (6) A conclusion paragraph that re-states the argument and re-traces some of the steps in your analysis to concisely remind the reader of all the good work you’ve done. (1/2 – 1 page) 

In total, the paper should be 11-15 pages.