Exercises — Week 5: Week 5 — Point of View, Purpose, and Rhetoric
1 hands-on tasks. Do them in order; each one feeds the Canvas item it names.
30 min · written
1. Rhetoric Audit: The Late Bus Speech
- Read this short speech by an invented student, Jordan Mitchell, to a county school board: 'Every afternoon, forty of us stay after school for robotics, tutoring, and band. Every afternoon, the last bus leaves before we do. Some of us walk two miles along a road with no sidewalk. You fund the programs because you believe in them. I am asking you to believe in getting us home.'
- In one sentence, state the speaker's point of view and main purpose in your own words.
- Identify two rhetorical choices in the speech (for example, repetition, an appeal to pathos, or direct address). Quote the exact words for each.
- For each choice, write two to three sentences explaining how it helps the speaker achieve the purpose with this specific audience.
- Finish with one sentence naming the single most persuasive line and why it works better than the others.
Turn in / bring: A one-paragraph rhetoric audit (150–220 words) that states the purpose, quotes two rhetorical choices, and explains how each one works on the school board.