Monday, February 8, 2016

Thesis Proposal for a Rhetorical Analysis

Now, instead of making the argument, I will be analyzing the arguments of others to decide which is created the best. Here we go!
Of the four speeches that we read in class, I feel that I am most intrigued by the speech given by Barack Obama as well as the speech by Mitt Romney. I have decided to analyze these two speeches because they were given around the same time. Obama and Romney, being from two different political parties, have some very different views concerning religion and politics. This causes me to believe that they have similar jargon and background knowledge, thus making their speeches more similar in that sense. I want to find the rhetorical devices used in each speech and determine which rhetorician is the most effective. Since the audiences were religious leaders, I want to decide who makes a better appeal to his audience.
In order to do this, I plan to first analyze what the writer did well. Romney enhanced the overall flow of his speech with repetition and rhythm. Obama made an appeal to his ethos by relating personal experiences. These, among others, were things that each author did to strengthen his argument as well as improve the quality of his speech.
After this analysis, I want to point out mistakes that each one made. I don’t mean that they spelled incorrectly or used a semicolon instead of a period in the wrong place (although I will point out those if I find them). Both are effective, but they did use devices that weakened their arguments. I want to find these throughout both speeches and decide which made the most grave of mistakes.

In analyzing these good characteristics as well as bad ones, I think that it will help me to determine which made a better appeal to his audience. Thus, I will decide which is most effective. I plan to focus more on the rhetoric used rather than the arguments made. 

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