1. 8.30 Thurs. Objectives: Discuss the purposes of rhetoric.
Rhetorically analyze texts.
warm-up: Baseball speech
activity 1: Analyzing speech
activity 2: Intro. to Rhetoric
activity 3: Rhetorical Triangle
close: Browning and the Triangle
HW DUE: Turn in your student survey
HW Tonight: Summer assignment fun extravaganza (bring in a manila folder)

2. 8.29/8.30 housekeeping: HW tracker
HW will be checked (quickly—usually this means reading one selected question or portion from each student’s HW) during class (either at the beginning or when an opportunity presents itself later in class).
HW is checked via the HW tracker.
Let’s take a look at it and figure out how it works.

3. 8.30 housekeeping: HW tracker
Grades for individual HW assignments are broken down as such:
10 points: complete and on time
7 points: insufficient work (questions not answered completely, annotations too brief, lack of effort), complete and on time
All incomplete assignments are late. You have two options from here.
5 points: complete and late
2 points: incomplete and late
And of course zero points for no submission.

4. 8.30 housekeeping: HW tracker
NOTE 1: Handwritten (not printed) HW trackers that are turned in on the day the tracker is collected will be docked ten points.
NOTE 2: If you were absent for an assignment, see me during office hours to get the assignment tracked (I keep a list of all tracked assignments on the main AP Lang tab of my weebly).
NOTE 3: If you turn in assignments with your tracker on the day it is collected, you will be docked ten points. See NOTE #2 above.

5. 8.29/8.30 housekeeping: HW tracker
Ten spots with a maximum score of ten points per spot (or 100 total points).
Informal grade.
Typically, we fill three trackers a year.
You should note at the beginning of each class if an assignment will be tracked, retrieve the assignment and your HW tracker, and fill out your HW tracker in preparation for tracking.
Today’s HW wasn’t trackerized.

6. 8.30 warm-up: baseball speech
Let’s read a speech by a man who played professional baseball.
Some of you may be familiar with this speech. If you are, please do not spoil it for anyone by revealing the speaker’s name (or trying to guess it, either).
As you’re reading, focus your analysis on four basic areas:

7. 8.30 warm-up: baseball speech
Who is the speaker? I’m not looking for his name. But what kind of person is he? How would you describe what he believes?
To whom is he speaking? How does his audience influence his message?
What is his specific message? What is he trying to convey to that audience?
Finally, what is the context of his speech? What is happening that has prompted him to deliver this speech? How does this context influence his message?
Five minutes to read and annotate as you see fit.

8. 8.30 activity: analyzing the speech
For reasons you’ll figure out, let’s go backwards through the questions.
Pick an answer, and write down the number. We’ll review at the end.
CONTEXT
The player is retiring after a long career and is taking a job in the front office.
The player is being traded to another team.
The player is retiring because he has developed a life-threatening disease.
The player suffered an injury on the field and will not be able to play again that season.

9. 8.30 activity: analyzing the speech
MESSAGE
Baseball is America’s past-time and should be cherished.
Life in and out of baseball has been good for the player. He has many cherished memories.
The player regrets decisions he’s made that have led to this moment.
The player is upset at the decisions others have made that have led to this moment.

10. 8.30 activity: analyzing the speech
AUDIENCE
A packed stadium moments before a game
A press release printed in the local paper
A taped message viewed on the local news
An interview given to local reporters.

11. 8.30 activity: analyzing the speech
SPEAKER (choose any that apply)
Humble
Rueful (full of regret)
Vindictive
Grateful
Gracious
Angry or upset
Unwilling
Hopeful

12. 8.30 activity: analyzing the speech
Let’s watch the speech before we get the answers. It’ll probably give you several of them . . .

13. 8.30 activity: analyzing the speech
CONTEXT: (3) The player is retiring because he has developed a life-threatening disease.
MESSAGE (or SUBJECT): (2) Life in and out of baseball has been good for the player. He has many cherished memories.
AUDIENCE: (1) A packed stadium moments before a game
SPEAKER: (1, 4, 5, 8) Humble, grateful, gracious, hopeful

14. 8.30 notes: Gehrig’s speech
Lou Gehrig delivered this speech in He died in 1941 of ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Why is this an effective speech?
Because Gehrig’s syntax and diction are richly developed?
Because Gehrig was noted public speaker?
Or was it effective entirely because of the situation? Because of the interaction between speaker, audience, message in a given context?

15. 8.30 notes: What is rhetoric?
Historically, as noted in The Language of Composition (or, what we’ll call Shea’s), the word rhetoric has a negative connotation in our society.
When someone hears the term, “[t]hey assume an advertiser is trying to manipulate [them]” or “a politician wants to obscure a point” (1).
This may be true (certainly ads are manipulative, politicians evade answers—both employ rhetorical techniques), but rhetoric needn’t have a negative connotation.

16. 8.30 notes: What is rhetoric?
Rhetoric, as defined by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle ( BCE) is “the faculty of observing in any give case the available means of persuasion.”
Studying rhetoric means you know how to analyze how others create persuasion as well as being able to employ your own means of persuasion.
Inherently, then, there is nothing negative about rhetoric.
In fact . . .

17. This guy studied and employed rhetoric:

18. And he did, too:

19. Hey, check out my sweet earring.
And also this guy!

20. 8.30 notes: What is rhetoric?
Our greatest speakers, politicians, moral and religious leaders, poets, playwrights, writers, artists and musicians are all using rhetoric (whether they know it or not).
Of course, this is also rhetoric:

22. And this . . .
Now I’m really going to buy it!

23. And, well, technically this, too:
Oh, sorry. You don’t know who I am. I’m Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and I’m totally going to send Napoleon a letter. I promise.
Letter? From Elizabeth? Never gonna happen . . .

24. 8.30 notes: What is rhetoric?
Any text (speech, letter, ad, image, song, poem, novel, story, dance, book, etc etc etc) designed to persuade—and they’re all designed to persuade in some way—uses rhetoric.
The rhetor is the person who has created the text (eliminates the confusion of saying “the speaker” when nothing was spoken or “the writer” when nothing was written).
Aristotle realized all those years ago that the rhetor enters into a relationship with an audience every time he creates a text (or delivers a message).
He represented that relationship thusly:

25. 8.30 notes: Rhetorical triangle

26. 8.30 notes: Rhetorical triangle
The rhetor (or speaker or author) is the person or group who creates the text.
Don’t think of this solely as the person’s name.
Don’t think, either, that you need to know everything about the rhetor in order to understand what she believes.
Everything you need to know about her is right there in front of you.
When analyzing the rhetor, it’s important to put yourself in the audience’s shoes: How will they perceive her?

27. 8.30 notes: Rhetorical triangle
The audience (or reader or listener) includes the rhetor’s intended audience (or audiences).
(Unintended audiences may receive the message, but they will not be as likely to be affected by it.)
When analyzing the audience, it’s important to put yourself in the rhetor’s shoes: How does she perceive them?

28. 8.30 notes: Rhetorical triangle
And finally the subject (or message or thesis)
This, however, should not be confused with the purpose, why the rhetor is rhetorizing.
Gehrig’s purpose in his speech was to show his gratitude.
His message was that life has been good to him.

29. 8.30 notes: Rhetorical triangle
All of these elements influence each other to look something like this. . .

30. 8.30 notes: Rhetorical triangle
And, finally, none of these elements exist without the context (or exigency or occasion), the urgent needs or demands that shape the text (if it helps you to visualize all this, the triangle itself is the text).
All together, it looks like this:

32. 8.30 close: Browning and rhet. triangle
Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle (or the Aristotelian triangle) is the most basic graphic form of analysis.
It’s at the center of everything we do in this class, and we’ll be adding to it periodically (including bringing in some elements you’ve already learned).
It’s easy to see the triangle in Gehrig’s speech.
But . . .

33. 8.30 close: Browning and rhet. triangle
Can you identify the parts of the triangle in Browning’s letter to Napoleon III?
Remember, you have to go beyond just naming the speaker and audience.
For each element (including context) bring in textual evidence (quotes, passages) to support your analysis.

34. CLOSE and HW
HW1
Bring your completed summer assignment.
Please bring a plain tan file folder to put the assignment in.
HW2
Read and answer the questions for Browning released essay 1 (posted online).
8.31/9.4: summer assignment due 9.5/9.6: Browning essay due (1st revision) 9.11/9.12: vocab. 1 due 9.13/9.14: Browning essay due (final revision) (formal grade) 9.26/9.27: Orwell seminar 10.4/10.5: grammar 1 due 10.8/10.9: TEST 1 (rhet. triangle / SOAPS) (formal grade) 10.16/10.17: rhetorical analysis FRQ (formal grade) 10.18/10.19: vocab. 2 due