For the Comparative Rhetorical Analysis (CRA) paper, you will focus in on one point of argument or contention currently up for debate within your topic area represented in a non-text source. While our ALR paper wanted to cover a wide breadth of the ongoing conversation, the CRA paper will pay very close attention to just one particularly contentious thread of that conversation. This should be a specific aspect of the debate around the topic you chose (for example, pro- versus anti-abortion is too vague; we’re looking more for those who believe a fetus counts as a human versus those who do not).
What rhetorical strategies are used within that thread? Are they working? How do different media outlets represent this aspect of the argument? How is the argument presented in congressional hearings? Are different voices representing the same truth in completely different ways? Are there several different “truths” among advocates of your chosen issue? How is each side attempting to convince the world that their truth is the truth? You will conduct a comparative rhetorical analysis of two to three sources discussing one of the main arguments within your issue topic of choice.
This paper is still five pages, and you’ll only be analyzing two sources instead of six. Thus, the rhetorical analysis involved in this paper will be much more in-depth and much closer. To make your lives easier, make sure the visual sources you choose to conduct your close comparative rhetorical analysis are ripe with rhetorical content.
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