My Rhetorical Action Plan

In this post I will answer the the three questions and their sub-bullets from the "Developing a Rhetorical Action Plan" portion within Writing Public Lives, in order to figure our the most effective way to make my argument in Project 3.

Robinson, Teresa, "Right Brain Planning {elements}." 6/21/2008 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

1. Audience: Who are you going to try to persuade with your public argument? Describe the following aspects of your audience in a few sentences:

I am trying to reach young adults within the ages of 18 to 35 as the main audience of my public argument. I feel that this target audience will be the most effectively persuaded into believing that legalization is a good idea for America.

• Knowledge: What does the audience know about the topic, text, or idea? How do they know the topic (where do they get their knowledge from)? Do they have certain predispositions or opinions about the topic that you will need to address?

I would assume that the ideal audience for my argument will have a decent amount of knowledge on the topic of legalization, due to the fact that the issue of legalization has been under debate for quite a few years. Thus, my readers could have gained their knowledge about legalization from speeches by politicians, news reports, articles, or just conversations among their peers and elders regarding marijuana legalization. A lot of the time the topic of legalization is presented from a negative viewpoint, thus my readers could potentially have biased opinions about the downsides of legalization, however I plan on directly addressing and disproving a lot of the preconceived notions about marijuana that my readers may have been exposed to including the fact that marijuana is more addictive than alcohol and tobacco, and that if cannabis were to be legalized it would have more negative health effects on Americans.

• Values: What do you know about the values, ideals, principles or norms (standards of conduct) that members of the audience might hold?

Due to the fact that younger individuals tend to be more willing to accept change than Americans who are older than my target age range, it would make sense for my audience to have liberal beliefs. However, some of my audience members may have conservative ideals regarding marijuana legalization, but I feel that my argument, which will go into detail about how most of the thoughts and beliefs that Americans tend to have about marijuana legalization being harmful and immoral are unjust, will effectively make enable my audience to see the benefits of legalization, despite their prior feelings about the issue.

• Standards of Argument: What type of research or evidence do you think will be persuasive for your audience? How might you have to translate this research for them?

I feel like including scientific facts about how marijuana has been proven to be less harmful than legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, in addition to including support about how legalization will help America's economy, and by mentioning the reasons how marijuana prohibition came about would really help to persuade my audience. I will directly quote articles with this information and provide links for further reading regarding this support to my argument.

• Visual elements: What visual elements might your audience respond to? Why?

I think that providing my audience with visual representations of graphs and other statistical findings would be really helpful in making my audience see legalization in a better light. For instance if I include a screenshot of a chart that I found online about the major reasons why Americans are against legalization which includes the percentage of Americans that share those beliefs, and discuss how a majority of those justifications that people give for keeping the ban on marijuana in effect are based off of incorrect reasoning. Therefore, an image of this nature will allow my audience to further understand the validity of my overall argument.

• Purpose: Why is your audience reading or listening to your argument? Are you trying to expand their understanding of an idea, encourage them to take action on an issue, challenge a long-held tradition or viewpoint, etc.? How likely is your argument to motivate your audience?

They want to know what to be more informed about the issue of marijuana legalization and the reasons why the ban on cannabis should ultimately be put to a stop. I want to challenge the highly regarded conservative values that many Americans have about marijuana, by providing my audience with new knowledge on the topic or by presenting it in a new way, which would, or at least I hope, consequently inspire them to take action regarding legalization. This desire for action could encompass simply reading more about the issue, or educating people who they come across who express the beliefs that my public speech disproves, or going out and participating in protests, or having a voice and voting on legalization when given the chance, either on a state or national level.

2. Genre #1: What form of writing will you use? After identifying your genre, list your answers for the following questions:

I think that writing an editorial for my public argument (like ones found here and here). 

• What is the function of the genre? What is it designed to do for your readers? Or, why did you choose it?

The function of an editorial is to share an author's opinion about a specific controversial issue. Written works within this genre are intended to inform their readers about the topic at hand. I chose to look further into this genre because I feel like being able to express my own thoughts and opinions about legalization, but still being able to teach my readers about legalization with facts from varying sources will allow them to formulate their own conclusions regarding the issue.   

• What is the setting of your genre? Where could you see it being used? 

There are a lot of settings for this genre. However I could really seeing an editorial of this nature to be posted on The New York Times or The Huffington Post, because these would be good publications for my intended audience to learn about the issue of legalization.

• How might you use the rhetorical appeals we have studied--ethos (character), pathos (values/emotion), and logos (logical argumentation) in this genre?

I intend on appealing to my audience's logos by providing support to prove how most of the justifications that people have for being opposed to legalization are illogical, based on facts that I have found while doing research. Also, I could appeal to my audience's ethos by possibly providing a small personal narrative to illustrate to my audience that I am a part of the age group that is of great importance regarding the issue of legalization. 

• What type of visual elements, if any, will you use in this genre? 

I will probably have a picture at the beginning of my editorial to graph my readers' attention and then I will most likely have images or graphs placed throughout my editorial to further support my claims and reasoning.

• What type of style (formal, informal, conversational, academic, etc.) will you use in this genre?

In editorials, authors tend to use a conversational and rather informal tone. This helps to make an author seem more relatable to their audience, thus I plan on following this convention.

Genre #2: What form of writing will you use? After identifying your genre, list your answers for the following questions:

I am also considering making an informational video pertaining to the reasons legalization should be put into effect (see here and here). 

• What is the function of the genre? What is it designed to do for your readers? Or, why did you choose it?

The function of this genre would be to present all of the same support that I would include within an editorial, however an informational video would allow my audience to see my reasoning in support of legalization in a visual way with effective music selection, in order to make the audience more emotionally invested in the topic.  

• What is the setting of your genre? Where could you see it being used? 

The work made within this genre could be first made on youtube and then shared and published on a site like Reddit, which is commonly viewed by my intended audience.

• How might you use the rhetorical appeals we have studied--ethos (character), pathos (values/emotion), and logos (logical argumentation) in this genre?

I would appeal to my audience's logos by providing them with a lot of facts including ones about how marijuana has been proven to be less addictive than a lot of other drugs and numbers and figures about how America's economy will benefit from legalization. Also, I will appeal to my viewers' pathos by using powerful images and influential and intriguing music.

• What type of visual elements, if any, will you use in this genre? 

The whole video would be constructed of a variety of images and video clips. These could range from ones about protests that are occurring surrounding legalization, segments from public speeches regarding marijuana, or graphical evidence about studies done about marijuana's health benefits and lack of addicting qualities.

• What type of style (formal, informal, conversational, academic, etc.) will you use in this genre?

The style of this genre is informative and conversational, much like an editorial. The facts are presented in a casual fashion so that viewers can see their relevance and importance, without being overwhelmed feeling overwhelmed by an overly aggressive presentation of facts.

3. Responses/actions: Explain the possible actions that you would like your audience to take after they read or view your argument. 

Positive reactions:

• agreeing that marijuana should be legal in the U.S.
• acknowledging that the idea of prohibition is outdated and ineffective
• recognizing that the major reasons opposing legalization are illogical or decided upon based on incorrect facts
• feeling informed enough on the issue to stand up for legalization if someone is using faulty logic to justify keeping the marijuana ban in effect

Negative Rebuttals:

• Legalization will only benefit people who want to use marijuana regularly
• Marijuana is a gateway drug and if it is legalized Americans would be more willing to try other drugs
• The prohibition of marijuana must have been started for a good reason, thus it should stay in effect

Possible Response to Negative Rebuttals:

• Illustrate how legalization will benefit many sectors of the economy, which will consequently benefit a lot of people
• Provide facts about how some people who try marijuana do tend to experiment with other drugs, but there is no proof that marijuana is the cause of that experimentation
• Explain how in early America marijuana production was required to help the economy and helping to make other goods. Then go into detail how prohibition only came about during the Great Depression to further a flourishing anti-Mexican immigrant sentiment, and to make sure people didn't turn on the government, these facts would show how the ban on marijuana was put in place for reasons that would not benefit U.S. citizens.