UWRT 150 Writing Seminar (Ide): Introduction

This InfoGuide will assist you with research on your topics related to media influence on politics and voting. For your assignment, you will analyze rhetorical strategies and apply them to your political campaigns and candidate research. You will examine pathos, logos, ethos, audience, voice, and tone in campaign materials. A description of rhetorical strategies is listed: 

• Pathos: Discuss how emotional appeals are used in campaign materials. Integrate examples from speeches, ads, or social media, and use research to support our analysis (e.g., studies on emotional persuasion)
• Logos: Analyze the logical arguments and evidence presented. Use research (e.g., data on augmentation strategies) to discuss the effectiveness of these arguments. 
• Ethos: Evaluate how the campaign builds credibility. Discuss the candidate's image and credibility, supported by research on public perception and credibility.
• Audience: Identify the target audiences and how the rhetoric is tailored to them. Integrate research on audience segmentation and targeted messaging.
• Voice and tone: Examine the campaign's voice and tone. Use research on rhetorical tone and its impact on persuasion.

You will evaluate campaign materials such as speeches, advertisements, and social media content. You will integrate research throughout your analysis to provide context and depth (e.g., historical context, campaign strategies). The assignment asks you to use scholarly and journalistic sources to support your analysis and demonstrate information literacy by effectively finding, evaluating, synthesizing, and integrating sources. 

Next, you will focus on your conclusion by summarizing the main findings of your analysis, reflecting on the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies, and discussing the implications of understanding political rhetoric and its impact. You will use MLA format for in-text citations and the works cited page.

Using this InfoGuide will assist you in finding articles, using selected databases and websites, and providing search tips related to this topic.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me, Joan Naturale - I am the NTID and Deaf Studies Librarian and am happy to help.