What is Being Assessed?
Annotating
Analyzing author’s rhetoric and its purpose
Identifying rhetorical devices in a text
Analyzing an author’s purpose for his or her audience
Writing an analysis of rhetoric in a text
Producing coherent and clear writing
How Students are being Assessed
Activities as appropriate
Reading and annotating
Using graphic organizers
Prewriting and writing
Peer-editing and revising
Writing task as appropriate (including prompt)
Write an essay in which you explain how Barack Obama builds an argument to persuade his audience. In your essay, analyze how Obama uses rhetorical devices to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant aspects of the passage.
Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Obama’s claims, but rather explain how the author builds an argument to persuade his audience.
Write an essay in which you explain how Barack Obama builds an argument to persuade his audience. In your essay, analyze how Obama uses rhetorical devices to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument. Be sure that your analysis focuses on the most relevant aspects of the passage.
Your essay should not explain whether you agree with Obama’s claims, but rather explain how the author builds an argument to persuade his audience.
Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, after winning the race for the White House Tuesday night [November 4, 2008]. The following is an excerpt of his speech:
1 As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
2 And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.
3 And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
4 To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
5 That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
6 This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
7 She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.
8 And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
9 At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived
