E 309M Computers and Writing

Project 2

The second major project of the course will be a paper which performs a rhetorical analysis of a particular newsgroup, MUD or IRC.

If you are writing about a MUD, then the paper might define the audience for that particular MUD and evaluate the ways that the MUD environment has been built to suit that audience. You can also think about the kinds of messages that are shared in the MUD in terms of the audience.

If you are looking at a newsgroup, the paper should analyze the audience for a particular newsgroup. It also might discuss the movement of an argument as illustrated in an extended "thread" of conversation. How does the grounds of the argument shift over the thread? What strategies do verious messages employ to make their case?

Whatever forum you choose to analyse, you should consider the basic rhetorical situation as a way of approaching the paper.

The graphic above illustrates the rhetorcial situation for most communication. It may be easiest to begin by thinking about the messages in the situation, as they can be used to draw conclusions about the speaker and the audience. You might cite one or two interesting messages and begin analysing the forum rhetorically from them. You could also look at and discuss various strategies for argumentation that are employed in many of the messages.

The paper should be three pages in length, typed and double spaced. it should have a title page and make use of citations from the forums that you use. You should use the internet citation style guide to document your sources at the end of the paper. If you have any questions let me know.

For now you might want to work on

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