Message Analysis

This course, titled "Message Analysis," teaches basic premises of rhetorical analysis as a means by which students can engage with and critically analyze their world. Based in a variety of rhetorical theories, the course centers on three major speeches and a wide variety of low-stakes opportunities to practice public speaking in front of an audience of classmates. Topics include Public Address, African American rhetoric, feminist rhetoric, narrative theory, and visual rhetoric, as well as numerous others. Students write, revise, and perform three speeches: a rhetorical analysis of another speech, a rhetorical analysis of a cultural object or phenomenon, and an opportunity to select an element of their own present or past for rhetorical analysis.