2.7 Option Writing Assignment: Composing a TEDTALK Rhetorical Analysis
Writing Prompt
Select a 12-18 minute TED Talk of internet to you and write a formal academic rhetorical analysis essay using a structural rhetorical analysis approach, that is the analysis follows the speaker’s presentation organization. Make an overarching claim about the effectiveness of the speaker’s TED Talk. Support this claim by taking your reader through the major sections of the talk and presenting your supporting evidence (the rhetorical appeals and rhetorical language that most supports your claim) in that section of talk. You will also touch on other rhetorical elements used in each section such as images, sounds, speech techniques, and physical actions if they contribute to the rhetorical success or effectiveness of the TED Talk speaker’s argument or point. Ask yourself: What does the speaker want us to think, feel, say, or do and why? Finally, if you want to offer a critique from an audience perspective on a few points, you may embed it within the relevant discussion points.
Exercise 2.8: Analyzing and Annotating Your TED Talk
CONTENT INVENTION, ANALYSIS, AND PLANNING EXERCISE
This two part exercise asks you to create a rhetorical “play by play” analysis of your chosen TED Talk and create annotations on the TED Talk transcript. First, you listen and view carefully, jotting down a few notes about
Purpose: To learn how effective speakers use rhetorical strategies, organizational structure, and language to inform, persuade, and/or entertain others.
Objectives:
- To understand how a speaker’s structure, content, and rhetorical choices engage their audience.
- To analyze the speaker’s multimodal means of emphasizing or highlighting key points.
- To critically read the transcript and note rhetorical moves and language choices the speaker makes.
First, generate the content for the paper through notetaking and analysis.
- Select a 12-18 minute TED Talk using the drop down menus on the TED page like the screen shot at left.
- Copy the transcript of the document into the the Google doc.
- Take notes through both a rhetorical, audience-centric lens (highlight the text and use the comment feature for taking notes)
- At the end, make a shorter list of the rhetorical appeals, language, and evidence from the TED Talk that you found most compelling to listeners?
- Reorganize this list to align with their use in a particular part of the speech (i.e. introduction, key points, conclusion)
- Create discussion points around the rhetorical elements and level of effectiveness for each part of the speech. These discussion points will become the body of your paper.
Second, plan the structure of your essay.
- Based on the invention work above, create an overarching thesis statement about the effectiveness of the rhetorical elements the speaker employs in this TED Talk.
- Use your discussion points in a listing or outlining exercise. Remember, for this analysis, track the rhetorical events through the organizational order presented and experienced by the audience.
- Talk over your ideas for organizing this essay in peer groups, if possible.
- Begin drafting!
Purpose
The purpose of this essay assignment is to develop a greater awareness of the structure and rhetorical strategies that support a main idea and/or an effective argument, demonstrate the ability to analyze and critique a popular form and context of speech delivery, and demonstrate your expanding critical reading, writing, and analysis skills.
Audience
Your audience for this assignment is your instructor and your classmates (as we will conduct peer reviews). Provide background, explanatory, and or contextual information as needed, especially in the intro so your readers can follow the paper whether they have viewed the video or not.
Assignment Criteria
- Identifies the rhetorical context: title, venue, date and its “speaker” ethos
- Identifies the speaker’s intent or purpose and identifies the speaker’s argument
- Identifies exigence or relevance of the issue and how it is related to the audience’s wants, values, and needs). Consider if any of these constraints the speaker to some degree.
- Identifies the structure and sense of content or argument evolving in the message (usually a beginning, middle, and end)
- Delivers the rhetorical analysis in the organizational order delivered (as the audience would experience it. (This is a different approach than organizing by appeal as we did in the articles analyses.)
- Contains analysis of how the speaker uses rhetorical appeals to build/support the argument
- Contains analyses of how the rhetorical language choices the speaker makes connects the audience with the talk’s message and creates the tone for the speech (shifting tone, formal/informal/figurative language).
- Questions to guide you in your language analysis:
- How does the author use diction/word choice to advance his argument, engage the reader, and convey tone (attitude toward the topic)?
- Is the word choice highly connotative, even biased, hyperbolic, or “loaded?”
- Does figurative language provide sensory imagery, create tone, create a feeling, or elicit emotion in the reader? How does language affect the reader’s view of the argument?
- Embeds critique (positive or negative or both) to counter an exception (qualification) to the overarching thesis statement (sometimes you will want to note a shift or where the message or argument breaks down).
- Reflects standard academic writing conventions (written in a more formal tone in the third person)
- Demonstrates careful attention to syntax (sentence structure and variety) and diction (word choice, variety, and phrasing)
- Contains a Works Cited page and is formatted in MLA format. Cites quoted information in-text from the time stamp in the video.
- Consists of approx. 1200-1500 words
