3 Rhetoric Essay Questions (Argumentative essay format)

Please answer the following in a well-developed, argumentative essay. Use quotations from the speeches to support your claims whenever possible. Please send them as a Microsoft Word attachment. Email subject should read “RHET 128 Midterm.”

1.     Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson both spoke about the issue of civil rights on momentous occasions during their respective terms of office. Using Bitzer’s notion of the rhetorical situation as a framework, compare and contrast their approaches to this subject in Eisenhower’s “Serious Situation in Little Rock” speech and Johnson’s 1965 speech on the Voting Rights Act.

2.     Language is a powerful resource for orators who wish to influence the way that audiences understand and react to events, ideas, and policies. Choose at least 3 different speeches we’ve encountered so far this semester (except for the speeches by Eisenhower and Johnson) and discuss how the respective orators used language to shape meaning and evoke an emotional response from their audiences.

3.     How does the location of a speech shape the message? Use JFK’s “Berlin Wall,” MLK’s “I Have a Dream,” and Fulton Sheen’s “Role of Communism” speech to illustrate your points.