Rhetorical Analysis of Project 3

I decided to pick my topic before I began the blog posts because for me I found that that would be more helpful to me and the process of getting a good start with this project. That being said, I decided my topic to be about the UA Alert system here on campus. This blog post will pertain to how I came to pick that topic.

Author.

1. How will you draw on any or some of the following for Project 3? Be specific about how your plans for Project 3 connect to some previous, current or burgeoning interest of your own, such as...

• other subjects of interest you have encountered here or elsewhere in your recent studies: I have personally encountered the issue of the UA Alert system by trying to get the ball rolling in reforming the system and feel very strongly about this topic.

       2.     What are the preconceptions, previously held opinions and/or potential areas for

               personal bias that you should be aware of for Project 3? What about any of the

               following?:

• I don't think that any of my preconceptions/personal biases influence my opinion on this topic. People that are completely different of me feel the same.

Audience.

Based on your plans for Project 3, answer the following…

1. How are you thinking about your audience for this project? Who are you going to make this for? I'm making this argument for the students and faculty of the University of Arizona. This is because this issue (UA Alerts) affect these people directly because UA Alerts are sent out to any student or member of faculty that signs up.
2. What beliefs and assumptions might this audience already hold? What position are they likely to take on this issue? How will you respond to that position? Many people agree with me on my position about this (that UA Alerts have been useless and need change). For anyone that disagrees, I will be presenting information about things that have happened on campus that we (students) should be notified about in order to attempt to change their stance.
3. How might they react to your argument? I think (and hope) that most people that listen to my argument will agree with my position and feel the same as me.
4. How are you going to relate to or connect with your audience? Are there any specific words, ideas or ways of arguing that will help you relate to them in this way? This topic is fairly easy to relate to people my age here at the UA because it relates directly to them. I will bring it words such as "you" "your" etc., to make more of a connection with my audience.

Think of one specific person or a set of people you know personally or professionally who fall within the definition of ‘target audience’ you’re using for Project 3. What could you tell them or say to them in order to convince them of your perspective? What would need to happen for them to agree with you? In order to convince someone I know personally, I would tell them about how a reformed UA alert system would heighten safety for everyone around campus.

Purpose/Message.

1. What do you want to accomplish with Project 3? What affect do you want it to have on your intended audience? For instance:

• What might you want your audience to do after reading/watching/listening to my project? After listening to my project I would hope that people also take a stance on this issue in order to help get it reformed into a better alert system.
• What might you want your audience to consider after reading/watching/ listening to your project? If people do not specifically take action with this issue, I would hope that they would support someone taking action with it.
• What might you want your audience to believe after reading/watching/ listening to your project? I would like the to believe that I am correct because I will be giving factual information rather than just personal opinion.

      2.    Now that you’ve done all your research and figured out what you think about the

             controversy you’ve chosen, what still needs to be accomplished? For instance:

• Is there anything that the people arguing about this need to be reminded of or made aware of? People that disagree with this (mainly adults) need to understand that many students, unlike them, live on campus or very close to campus in apartments or dorms with little security. The UA Alerts are more important to us because we do not feel safe having no information given to us about crimes or things that are happening.
• Are there any perspectives on the issue that still need to be expressed? Yes, there is a position for why the UA Alerts are fine how they are (even though they're wrong) so I will be sure to mention (and rebuttal) that position as well.
• Are there any persons who we still need to hear from? Yes, I have sources that will be mentioned in the blog post about sources.

Context. 

What are the particular circumstances surrounding this assignment? Since the beginning of the year, students have been complaining about how the UA Alerts only notify us about power outages. But what really sparked this need for change (from a students perspective) was the shooting that happened recently. The shooting was directly off campus and the shooter was still at large and not found for quite a while after it happened. Students were scared and unaware of what was happening.

What genre?

1. What course genre will you be writing in for Project 3? I will be doing a standard college essay for this project.
2. What kinds of audience expectations come along with this genre, generally? Text-based but still an interesting and engaging read.
3. What is your history working in the genre you have selected for Project 3? Because most English assignments all throughout high school were essays, I have quite a bit of experience with writing effective essays.
4. Describe your comfort level and general feelings about the genre. How will they affect your work on Project 3? I feel very comfortable with this genre so I don't think I will have any problems.

What are the two most effective conventions in this genre, in your opinion? Why? Interesting content. Because essays are, well, essays, there are no pictures or anything like that to engage the audience. The text itself must be interesting for people to want to read it.

When?

1. Are there any historical events that might impact how your audience perceives your argument or the kind of background information or evidence you need to include?

• Because this is a local issue only pertaining to the U of A campus, there are no historical events that pertains to this issue.

       2.    Who else is talking about this topic? Provide us with working hyperlinks to coverage of the controversy on FOUR different media outlets. There are only a limited amount of sources talking about this issue that I could hyperlink too. One is the U of A school newspaper, the dailywildcat, which has had a few articles about the alert system. Another source I will be using is the actual UA Alert page which tells what the alerts will be used for. The other two sources I will be using will be interviews with people that I will conduct as well as twitter posts that I have found pertaining to this.

       3.    What are the three or four major counter-arguments you’ll have to respond to, based upon what people are saying in the press/media? Be specific and cite your sources using working hyperlinks. There are only two major arguments for this topic I'm talking about. The first is the stance I'm supporting. Which is that the alerts should be reformed. The other side to the argument is that the alerts are fine how they are. Because this is such a narrow topic there are not many different sides to the issue besides those two.