Writing Public Lives From Personal Interests to Public Rhetoric (2012-05-03)

The same tools that we have used to analyze rhetorical texts and controversial issues can be used to size up the public audiences of our own writing. What do you want your writing to persuade your audience to do, think, feel, or say about your issue? When we analyze the purpose of our public arguments, we often have to analyze the possibilities of persuasion. This means thinking through the types of audiences we might persuade to consider our position and the plausible actions that they might take after being persuaded by our rhetoric. It is important to remember that your goal is not to formulate a simple pro or con summary of a public issue, as there are often many more than two perspectives on the issue. At the same time, you do not want to try to cover every single perspective. You are looking for those perspectives that are the most prevalent in the debate.