I agree with Aimee’s recent blog post as I have been experiencing much of the same hesitation in posting to this blog. I’ve been tossing around a good amount of ideas about this paper, but I’m either afraid they will not be “good” paper topics or I find them boring. (And as she said, no one wants to write a research paper that they think is boring… even though we unfortunately do it too often.)
Operating from the project guidelines (The project should think about the connections between rhetoric, science, and technology. It should think about the connections between all of these things and writing in professional/workplace settings, which ties back to the program you are in.) I keep coming up with ideas having to do with rhetoric in journalism, then having to do with rhetoric in politics (original, I know) — particularly in the area of political speeches (I’m thinking along the lines of those from the most recent Presidential election). My goal isn’t to write a partisan paper, however, throughout the campaigns involved in the most recent Presidential election I couldn’t help but notice the specific types of rhetoric being employed by the various candidates and parties. The rhetoric used by each “side” (and candidates within each side) had very different tones and persuasive goals. I’m kind of interested in unpacking the rhetoric used during this election (since that is a very broad topic I was thinking particularly in the Palin speeches, etc.). I think that this relates well to the kind of writing I’ll be doing in a workplace setting since my career goals are largely in journalism. However, I am not sure if this idea is hitting the aim of the project on the head or not… Thoughts?
