Rhetorical Analysis – Open Letter

Mar 28, 2019 | Composition Concepts, Quick Tips

by Mackenzie McGee

Objectives:

  • Practice identifying rhetorical strategies in a piece of writing
  • Practice identifying specific passages in a piece of writing that demonstrate rhetorical strategies
  • Practice close reading

 

Key words: rhetorical analysis, analysis, in-class reading, close reading, group discussion, class discussion, think-pair-share, lecture, discussion questions, open letter, values

 

Materials needed:

  • Each student needs access to Blackboard via a laptop
  • Printed copies of document for students without laptops
  • PDF of open letter (text can be found on: https://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/)
  • Slideshow presentation (to project questions)

 

Time for activity: 25-30 minutes, depending on length of discussion

 

Procedure:

 

  • Reading the document: 5-10 minutes

    1. Give students time to read through the document on their own quietly.
    2. Project the following discussion questions on the screen:

 

Identify specific passages in the text that answer the following:

1. What is the author’s exigence? Why is he writing this letter?

2. What are the author’s values and beliefs? What about the Kansas School Board’s?

3. Who is the intended audience for this piece of writing? How is the author appealing to this audience? (Hint: It’s an open letter)

4. What specific information does the author gives us about the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? How does the logic (or lack thereof) of this belief system illustrate his point?

 

 

  • Small-group discussion: 10 minutes

1. Number students off 1 through 4. Have each group answer one of the above questions.

 

  • Class-wide discussion: 10-15 minutes

1. Have one member of each group state the group’s answer to their respective questions

2. Make sure they read off specific passages from the letter to illustrate their points

 

  • Final question: so what?

1. As a capstone to the discussion, ask students the following question: Why would the author go through the trouble of writing this letter, making up a whole mythology about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, instead of writing a strongly-worded essay stating what he means? What’s the point?

2. There isn’t one right answer to this question, but students should be getting at the value of entertainment, of creativity, imagination, and humor when it comes to standing out from the crowd and making sure your voice is heard

 

Reflections:

  • Many students today haven’t heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but that’s okay. It’s worth it to do some background research and let them know how big it was in 2005-2010, like how 2 books have been written by the creator. Fun facts can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster. Basically, you want them to get a sense that this letter, that was just a silly blog post, became a cultural phenomenon.

 

  • Students need to have a working knowledge of exigence, audience, and rhetorical strategies before attempting this activity. After having gone over these concepts several times in the beginning of the semester, I did this activity in the middle of the semester and it worked great.

 

  • Most students pick up pretty quickly that the letter is using satire and parody. Make sure to push them to identify specific passages where these concepts are illustrated.

 

  • Keep track of whether or not students are done with the reading by keeping an eye on the students with paper copies.

 

  • If your class is talkative, you may not need to number students into groups to get them to answer all the questions. I resort to numbering off for my quieter classes.

 

  • This activity is good to get students thinking about values because the issue of faith vs science is so central to this document

 

  • The capstone question helps demonstrate why it’s valuable to make interesting rhetorical choices rather than just writing an argumentative essay—this activity may encourage students to make bolder choices with genre in the future

 

  • This activity can easily be tied into a discussion about constraints. I did this activity after students read Grant-Davie’s “Rhetorical Situations and their Constituents” and for the last question, we talked about how the interesting rhetorical choices helped this letter to get the attention of the public and have a lasting impact. This demonstrates concretely the idea that it’s worth it to use creative rhetorical moves, because it makes the writing stick with people.

 

Mackenzie is a first-year MFA studying fiction. Having lived in Minnesota and Texas, she has a deep appreciation for cold lakes and good brisket.