Write an essay that is a type of research work that some scholars of communication do—it is called rhetorical criticism.

Assignment Question

The Assignment: Lesson 10 and Assignment 10 conclude Unit 3 and conclude the course of study in Communication 202. For Assignment 10, you write the third of three required major essays for Communication 202. The major essay counts for up to 20 points toward your course grade.

Your Task: Your specific task in Assignment 10 is to write an essay that is a type of research work that some scholars of communication do—it is called rhetorical criticism. Write an essay in which you do a descriptive and critical analysis of the five short speeches that comprise what is known as the Wiley-Harvard debate as portrayed in the feature-length film The Great Debaters.

• https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdebaterswileycollegevsharvarduniversity.html

Note: The transcript shows seven turns of speaking, it is up to you to discern the five speeches.

Essay Parts: The core of your essay should be five separate sections, in which you examine each one of the five speeches in the debate. For each of these speeches, you should distill the key argument in the speech, answering such questions about it as: What is the key claim in this speech? How is the claim supported in the speech? For example, what type of argument is used in the speech to support the claim? Or, what type of persuasive appeal is used in the speech to support the speaker’s claim? Having stated the claim and described the major form of support or persuasive tactic used in the speech, comment on the reasoning of the speech, and, specifically, comment on the presence of one or more fallacies, if any, that you can find in the speech.

You should label the fallacy using the terms presented in Lesson 9 for classifying fallacies. How does the speech function in the debate as a whole? That is, how, if at all, does the speech respond to a previous speaker in the debate? Does this speech effectively answer a previous speech? And how does the speech work to support the affirmative or negative side of the proposition being debated? Each of the four aspects of the speech stated above should be written in one to three sentences. In addition to presenting your analysis of each speech—claim, support, fallacies, and contribution to the debate as a whole—you should write a conclusion and an introduction to your essay.

The conclusion should be a synthesizing comment. For example, you could compare and contrast the various speeches, discussing the variety of different types of arguments that were used. You could discuss the various fallacies you detected. General guidelines 1,250 to 1,500 words total. You should make extensive use of words and phrases from the article assigned for the Lesson. The quoted material should be should be short quotations that report terms and phrases, not long passages. The essay should demonstrate concretely your mastery of the key analytic terms and concepts of the Lesson. The essay should provide explicit line of reasoning from claim, to support, to fallacy, and function of the speech in the debate. The essay should be written, with complete sentences, correct spelling, and correct grammar. The essay counts 20 points toward your course grade.

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