Materials of Assignment

• Laura Bolin Carroll – “Backpacks vs Briefcases” (in week 3 module)
• ONE of the following commencement speeches (in week 2 module):
  • Viola Davis’s speech https://speakola.com/grad/viola-davis-barnard-comm…
  • Oprah Winfrey’s speech
  • Atul Gawande’s speech

The Writing Task

Copy/Paste the following tasks into a word document. In the spaces between the numbered tasks, write your answers. Once you have completed all questions, upload your answers here.

1. Write a VERY brief summary of your selected commencement speech – by this I mean the one you have decided to write your essay on. (include important contextual information in your summary [author, title}). The summary should focus on the central message, NOT your opinion or reflections on the message. [1-3 Sentences]. You can go back to your summary exercise from last week and refine it for this. Try and focus down even more than last week and really use this as an introduction to the source and its one main point (it’s thesis).
2. Describe the rhetorical situation of your selected commencement speech. Provide evidence from the speech to help support your answer. Be brief but focused, again, a couple sentences.
3. Describe briefly a moment in which the speech is utilizing ethos and explain the impact of this appeal on the overall persuasiveness of the speech.
4. Describe briefly a moment in which the speech is utilizing pathos and explain the impact in the selected commencement speech. Explain the impact of this appeal on the overall persuasiveness of the speech.
5. Describe briefly a moment in which the speech is utilizing logos and explain the impact in the selected commencement speech. Explain the impact of this appeal on the overall persuasiveness of the speech.
6. Explain overall the rhetorical effect this speech had on you as a reader.

*An important note: a skillful rhetorician will include persuasive moments in a txt that use one or more of the appeals all at once. The key to questions 3, 4, and 5 above is that you can explain why a particular moment in the speech was appealing in a particular way, even if it is technically appealing in several ways.