My Rhetorical Action Plan

For this blog post, I will be answering the extensive list of questions provided in Writing Public Lives in order to develop a very clear rhetorical situation in which I can effectively argue my view. I will be including links to genre examples, as well as analyzing my audience thoroughly and anticipate responses

Walker, Samantha. "Screenshot from my computer" 

Audience: Who are you trying to persuade with your public argument?

          I am trying to reach out to groups of liberals who are interested about education but may not know much about it or have a strong opinion. 

• Knowledge: The liberal audience knows the general views of liberal politicians in regards to what they want in the education field. They are not well versed in the more detailed areas, such as specific legislation or specific funding situations. They have a liberal standpoint, but are not particularly opinionated about the topic. 
• Value: They value liberal ideas, such as student and teacher support, racial equality, equal opportunity, and higher funding of the more domestic areas of life. 
• Standards of Argument: High, impressive numbers and first-hand accounts tug at the heartstrings of my audience and will likely have a stronger influence because they would otherwise be overwhelmed with incomprehensible logistics and complex information. 
• Visual Elements: They would likely respond to more human visuals, such as actual schools that are suffering, protesting students and teachers. This is because it shows a human aspect of suffering that will spark a response in them. 
• Purpose: My audience is reading my argument in an attempt to gain more understanding of a topic they are curious about but have little knowledge of. They want to be given as many views on the topic as possible so that they may chose their opinion. My argument, as long as it is not biased and addresses both sides, will likely sway my audience.

Genre: What form of writing will you use?
         I will be writing in the genre of a news article.

• Function: This genre is meant to be informative and argumentative, but more relatable for audiences who are wanting to learn about something quickly and stay up to date with it. It's meant to be both a source of new knowledge, as well as offer opinions from credible sources. 
• Setting: The setting is a news site that will, in a perfect world, be on a more liberal news site that strengthens my arguments and reaches my intended audience easier. The setting for any news article is meant to be easily accessible for the audience it is written for. 
• Rhetorical Appeals: Rhetorical appeals of this genre are vast. You can apply all three to the genre, though some are more extreme or applicable to the topic, depending. Ethos is a rather applicable appeal since the readers are trusting a more human persona and must be convinced of their credibility. Pathos is useful in this genre because, again, the human-focus content. News articles are usually about how things that are happening are influencing people and that makes for a powerful impact on emotion. Logos will be used lightly because it could be overwhelming for readers who don't know much about the topic. 
• Visuals: Since this is a broad style genre, I have the possibility to use both human images, such as protests, as well as graphs, which will have more of an impact on the audience's liberal feeling. 
• Style: The style that I plan to use is semi-formal informative. That is to make it more down to earth and understandable for my readers and it allows for some variation in tone and word choice, which will generate a different argument. 

Response: 
       Positive Support

• Strengthen the opinions and confidence of liberals who already have an opinion of the matter
• More people will step forward to argue against legislation or actively call out its negative influences. 
• Gain new support for those who didn't have an opinion beforehand. 
• More people will stand by the argument because they have many people supporting them
• Provide strong support so that others may argue my standpoint.
• Again, empower people to speak up because they have confidence in the evidence I've provided. 

      Negative Rebuttals

• The evidence provided is biased due to the passion of the students.
• Conservative legislators are more aware of the implication of funding legislation than I am (I'm not credible)
• Conservatives invalidate the argument based on possible loopholes and justifications of their own legislation. 
• The opinions of liberals that differ from mine could be very negative.