Jackie Mohan
Assignments & Activities Archive
Assignment Description
In this major assignment, students conduct a rhetorical analysis of one text (an advertisement, speech, essay, article, book, film, album or song, social media post, etc.) of their choice from within the last ten years. “Text” here is defined as an instance of communication, with a speaker, audience, and message. Students choose a text that they believe is culturally representative of and relevant to America today. Students present their analysis in the medium of a podcast with an accompanying transcript, both to match podcasting conventions and for accessibility. In their podcast, students introduce themselves and name their podcasts then explain which text they chose to analyze and why, including context and background information, with special care to what the audience needs to know in order to understand their analysis. They explain why they chose the text, then break down the rhetorical triangle of speaker, audience, and message in great detail, ultimately relating back to the text’s sociocultural context and how it is reflects the surrounding world in which they live, exploring ideologies, values, privilege, and power in our society. Completing this project as a podcast, in which students become podcast hosts with their own target audiences, helps them additionally grapple with their own rhetorical situation, as well as opening up discussions of how to adjust their communication for an audio-only medium, including considerations of tone, organization, and the necessity of describing visuals and emphasizing connections clearly. Students utilize conventions of the rhetorical analysis genre and podcasts, as well as consider how they can transfer and use the skills and genre conventions from previous assignments, such as narrative or descriptive.