Week 6 — Readings & Resources · Rhetorical Analysis

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective covered: Objective 4 — Compose in multiple rhetorical modes, using the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos, kairos) to analyze how a real text persuades.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week, like Week 2, has a real text we all read closely — but this time we're analyzing how it persuades. Start with the speech. Then do the short readings on the appeals (ethos / pathos / logos / kairos) and how to build a rhetorical analysis. Total time is roughly 45–60 minutes if you do everything — most of it the speech itself (read it once, then again with the appeals in mind).

Reading order that matches the lecture: ① read and listen to the speech (our analyzed text) → ② the appeals: ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos → ③ how to turn the appeals into an analysis (claim about strategy → evidence → effect).

A habit to start now: read the speech with a pen, hunting for moves, not just meaning. Where does King build credibility (ethos)? Where does he reach for emotion (pathos)? Where's the logic or evidence (logos)? Why is this the moment (kairos)? Mark one spot for each — that marked-up text is the raw material for your essay.

① The Text We Analyze This Week (read AND listen to this first)

Maps to Lecture Segments 1, 2, 5 & 6. This is the real text you'll analyze in the tutorial, the discussion, the assignment, and the studio. It's short — read it once for meaning, then again for strategy. You may also listen: hearing the delivery is part of the analysis.

Read / listen — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "I Have a Dream" (Aug. 28, 1963 · Lincoln Memorial, March on Washington)
🔗 Text + audio (American Rhetoric): https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
🔗 Full transcript (NPR): https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety
Why it's assigned: it is, for good reason, one of the most analyzed speeches in the English language — short, dense with strategy, and built on moves you can name and point to. King establishes ethos by invoking shared founding documents and a tone of moral discipline; he builds pathos through soaring imagery and the famous anaphora "I have a dream that one day…" repeated to lift the audience; he uses an extended logos-flavored metaphor (America has given Black citizens a "bad check… marked 'insufficient funds'"); and the whole thing is steeped in kairos — delivered "five score years" after the Emancipation Proclamation, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, at a march for jobs and freedom. Read it at the link (and listen to the audio if you can); we never reproduce it here.
⏱ ~16–17 min to listen, or ~12–15 min to read

Note on quoting (the load-bearing habit): when you cite a phrase from this speech, copy it exactly from the archived text above — word for word, in quotation marks — never from memory, and never from a chatbot. A summary or paraphrase of King's point needs no quotation at all. (This is the citation-integrity habit we build all term; it gets its sharpest test this week.)

Want a second real speech to compare or choose instead? John F. Kennedy, "Inaugural Address" (Jan. 20, 1961) is also fully archived at American Rhetoric 🔗 https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm — another short, intensely rhetorical text (famous for its antithesis "ask not what your country can do for you…"). Some of you may analyze it instead of King's for the essay; if you do, the same rules apply — read it there, quote it exactly. Optional, ~14 min.

② The Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, Logos & Kairos

Maps to Lecture Segments 2 & 3. The toolkit: ethos = credibility/character; pathos = emotion; logos = logic/evidence; kairos = the right moment/occasion. The line to carry: naming an appeal isn't analysis — explaining how it works and to what effect is.

Reading — "Ethos," "Pathos," and "Logos" (Excelsior OWL — Modes of Persuasion)
🔗 Ethos: https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/modes-of-persuasion/modes-of-persuasion-ethos/
🔗 Pathos: https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/modes-of-persuasion/modes-of-persuasion-pathos/
🔗 Logos: https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/modes-of-persuasion/modes-of-persuasion-logos/
Why it's assigned: the cleanest plain-language tour of Aristotle's three classic appeals — ethos (believability/credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic and evidence) — from a free, college-run writing lab. Read all three short pages; they're the vocabulary you'll point at the speech.
⏱ ~10 min total

Reading — "Aristotle's Rhetorical Situation" (Purdue OWL) (includes kairos)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/rhetorical_situation/aristotles_rhetorical_situation.html
Why it's assigned: the standard overview that places ethos/pathos/logos inside the rhetorical situation and adds kairos — the opportune moment or occasion that makes an argument land now — from the most widely used writing lab in the country. This is where the fourth appeal gets its proper definition.
⏱ ~7 min

Want to see "I Have a Dream" analyzed by the OWL itself? Purdue OWL's "Example 1: 'I Have a Dream' Speech" walks the speech through the rhetorical situation. 🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/rhetorical_situation/example1.html Optional but excellent, ~6 min.

③ Turning the Appeals into an Analysis

Maps to Lecture Segments 5 & 6. The whole week in one line: don't list the appeals — make a claim about strategy, prove it with a verified moment from the text, and explain the effect on the audience.

Reading — "Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/establishing_arguments/rhetorical_strategies.html
Why it's assigned: a compact, practical guide to ethos/pathos/logos in action — how writers actually deploy the appeals and how you name those moves in an analysis. Notice the emphasis we lean on all week: an appeal is a strategy you describe and evaluate, not a label you stick on.
⏱ ~7 min

Video — "The Elements of Rhetorical Analysis | Rhetoric & Composition | Study Hall" (ASU + Crash Course)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngrR1UhedpM
Why it earns the click: a lively, first-year-composition-specific tour of what a rhetorical analysis actually does — reading for strategy and audience, not agreement. It gives you the exact lens you'll point at King's speech. From the Study Hall Rhetoric & Composition series we use all term.
⏱ ~12 min

Want the how-to-write-it companion? "Writing in Action: Creating a Rhetorical Analysis" (Study Hall) 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj3_2AeJMpE walks through building the essay itself — thesis about strategy, evidence, analysis of effect. Optional, ~12 min, and genuinely useful before Assignment 6.

Optional one-stop reference (free online text)

If you'd like one optional reference to skim all term, the OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook keeps its full text free to read online — a reputable, currently-available college writing reference with chapters on rhetorical analysis and the appeals (plus the argument and MLA sections we'll use later).
🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/writing-guide
Why it's here: a free, returnable reference for the whole course — entirely optional this week. (Linked as a free reference; this course makes no open-license or copyright claim about it.)

Pick-one quick path (≈30 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Read (or listen to) "I Have a Dream" — our analyzed text (group ①). This one is not skippable.
2. Read the Excelsior "Ethos / Pathos / Logos" pages and Purdue's "Aristotle's Rhetorical Situation" (for kairos) (group ②).

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails — especially the speech links — tell Prof. Lindgren and use the alternate (American Rhetoric ↔ NPR transcript) or the Purdue OWL example in the meantime. Nothing here is hosted by our course — these are all external resources, linked, not reproduced — and we make no copyright or open-license claim about any of them. And the rule that matters most this week: any quotation you use must be copied exactly from the archived speech, never from a chatbot.