The First part of the analysis is to clearly state the central argument of the documentary. You may want to break this section into four parts or paragraphs. This section should be between 1.5-2 pages.The Second part of the analysis is the actual rhetorical analysis and the bulk of the assignment.To begin building the second part you will need to re-watch the documentary with these questionsin mind:1. What kinds of arguments (e.g., classical oration, Toulmin, Rogerian, etc.) are being used here? Does the kind of argument being used affect the effectiveness of the overall thrust of the documentary?2. What did the author choose to study? Why?3. What is the writer’s purpose? To inform? To persuade? To criticize?4. Who is the author’s intended audience?5. How does the writer arrange their ideas? Chronologically? Philosophically?6. How does the writer use diction? (Word choice, arrangement, accuracy, is it formal, informal? Technical versus slang?)7. Does the writer use dialogue? Quotations? Why?8. Are important terms repeated? What are the top three terms of the documentary9. What is the effect of the text and the visual rhetoric. Does music feature? What impact does having interviews have?10. What is the role of the logos, pathos, ethos, and kairos in the text?11. What other rhetorical devices are at work in the documentary? Does the presence of these devices make the argument more or less compelling?12. What is the overall effect of this documentary on you, the audience? Do you think the author achieves the effect they sought? Do you find the documentary compelling? If not, why not? What audience would find it compelling?From these questions you are to answer in a 6-8 page analysis the basic question, “What is the role of rhetoric in the documentary and is it effective?”Again, the key idea for this assignment is to focus more on HOW the argument is being made rather than WHAT the actual argument is. Obviously, you will have to know the WHAT for the first section but that only forms one small part of the assignment.The whole assignment should be 8-10 pages with standard fonts, margins. Feel free to use timestamps from the Youtube video with inline citations.
