Rewriting the Rhetoric

Lesson 1 – How to invent an argument by analyzing an artifact

An artifact can really be anything, anything created by humans that is. They may be pleasing to the senses or they may make you think, but it is through these artifacts that some of the most interesting ideas and thoughts come out of people. Ranging anywhere from paintings, to speeches, to poetry, to a church group, the potential for analysis is huge because these artifacts have all come from other people. Often times, artifacts can be considered as rhetorical artifacts, or an artifact with the intention of communicating to and persuading an audience. That is, the artifact was created to send out a message or call for a certain change through itself.
When we consider these artifacts and dwell on what they mean to us, we call it analyzing them. Specifically, to analyze something like this means to first break down the artifact, look at how the parts are related to each other to have an effect, and then focus on the stranger parts to bring out the most interesting ideas in the artifact. By looking more carefully at the out of the ordinary pieces of an artifact, the most original and interesting ideas will come out, which is in essence, the point of this lesson.
When I say artifact, I again mean anything created by a human, which is an extremely broad topic. So for this lesson, let focus on something a bit more specific, something that I think is the most effective way to express an idea: art. Because of its potential to be strange and abnormal, art can be interpreted many different ways, leaving the analysis of it up to the audience. While most art may have a certain message or exigence to it, it can definitely be looked at differently through different people. And when I defined analyzing as picking out the odd parts of an artifact, art is a perfect example of something to do this one. While art is mainly classified as pictures, drawings, and paintings, art can be music as well. The fact that pictures are so visually pleasing and music is pleasing to the ears (and to the eyes too if seeing music live) makes analyzing art that much more entertaining.
From my personal experience, I was lucky enough to go to the Santa Fe Art Show one night and spend a few hours walking the down Santa Fe Avenue, looking at all the pictures I could imagine (and couldn’t imagine). But it was because of this abundance of artwork that I was unable to pick out just one and analyze that one. Similarly, I couldn’t even analyze one stop of the art show because there were simply too many. So instead, I chose to analyze the idea of the actual pictures vs. the idea of the art walk itself. While the pictures and paintings were truly amazing and completely original, I was unable to come up with a distinct purpose or exigence for many of them. To me, many of the works looked like eye candy with price tags on them. But the idea of an art walk put on by the city of Denver struck me as a very different idea, with the clear exigence of bringing together a city of 600,000 people into a tightly knit community who can come together to appreciate something simple in life. So while my analysis may not have been as direct as a traditional art analysis, it was still about art nonetheless.
So to get a better understanding of analyzing a piece of art, I’d like you to choose from either a concert or a presentation of art in the next month or so. I encourage you to go an artistic event that you are interested in and that you’ll enjoy. But also, it could be more interesting if you get out and see say a band you’ve never heard of before. With little to no idea of what to expect going into these artifacts, your original ideas on the subject will have the potential to be more original and creative. I want you to then break the event down as carefully as possible and to analyze these pieces as I’ve explained to you, looking for the odd parts that wouldn’t normally meet the eye. Once you’ve properly analyzed your artifact, I’d like you to put your thoughts down on a few sheets of paper, telling me what you did, what you what it meant to you, and what you think the purpose of it was. You may very well come back with not a clue about what the art’s meaning is, but feel free to come to me and we can examine the artifact in order to find something you wouldn’t normally see. Again, I encourage you to get out and be creative. Good luck.


Lesson 2 – How to use your rhetorical imagination to change a community through writing

Here at the University of Denver, us students know that the school is far from perfect. There are countless things that can be improved and as students, we can actually bring about change in our community. By a community, I mean a very specific group of people, such as workers at a certain office or students of DU. Either way, the community must have one thing in common, and more importantly, it must have the potential to bring about change. As I stated, here at DU there are many things that aren’t perfect. For example, there are things like the treatment of the Sodexo workers, or the fact that we have a smoking ban that’s completely unenforced on campus. In order to bring about change, we can use persuasive writing in which we target a certain audience with a plan for change. This plan must be very thought out and detailed in the areas of what you’ll be brining about change in, and the sources needed to research your project. Also, you must consider the audience you will be communicating with. For a specific change, there are going to be certain people who won’t care or who will even try to prevent this change. You must take all of these into account when writing your plan.
So for this assignment, I want you to pick out a problem you see here at DU and think about it thoroughly. First, come up with a plan for how this problem can be fixed. In this plan be sure to include the research you’ll be doing as well as the audience you’ll be speaking to. For the audience, choose people that are easy to convince but also those that will take some persuading. This way, you’ll have a well-rounded presentation that appeals to everyone. Look at the problem carefully enough so that you can formulate a speech to present on what the problem is, why it truly is an issue, what we can do to fix it, and what the benefits of fixing it will be. This will surely take research and analysis on the issue you present but the more in-depth you look at it, the better your argument will be.
While my example isn’t exactly what you’ll be doing, it’s still very similar and can be connected to your assignment. I wrote a speech and put together a presentation on how the city of Denver (and specifically the DU dorms) can go greener and be more environmentally friendly. For this, I first generated a concrete plan to install solar panels on the roofs of Centennial Halls and Towers. Also, I looked at the small-scale things we can do prevent more global climate change in our places of residence. With this, I had to research how we could install solar panels on the roofs of the dorms here in addition to some smaller more personal things we can all to do reduce our carbon footprints. With a solid plan as well as a specific audience targeted, I constructed a speech to give at Davis Auditorium. So again, for you guys I’d like you to pick a specific problem here at DU, generate a plan for how it can be fixed, target an audience to strengthen your plan, and make a speech to be given to this audience in order to convince them that your plan will be effective.