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Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies

Healing Through Hope: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama’S National Eulogies, Victoria West Apr 2015

Healing Through Hope: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama’S National Eulogies, Victoria West

Hollins Student Conference (2012-2016)

This paper analyzes President Barack Obama’s rhetoric in three of his national eulogies in order to examine how Obama consoles the nation following various tragedies and how his strategies differ from past presidents. These three addresses include President Obama’s responses to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the West, Texas, plant explosion. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components of this genre criticism were drawn from Robert Dennis and Adrienne Dennis Kunkel’s (2004) framework concerning national eulogy rhetoric. The results of this analysis …


Healing Through Hope: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama’S National Eulogies, Victoria West Jan 2015

Healing Through Hope: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama’S National Eulogies, Victoria West

Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper analyzes President Barack Obama’s rhetoric in three of his national eulogies in order to examine how Obama consoles the nation following various tragedies, and how his strategies differ from past presidents. These three addresses include President Obama’s responses to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the West, TX plant explosion. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components of this genre criticism were drawn from Robert Dennis and Adrienne Dennis Kunkel’s (2004) framework concerning national eulogy rhetoric. The results of this analysis …


A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of President Barack Obama's Inaugural Addresses, Victoria West Jan 2014

A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of President Barack Obama's Inaugural Addresses, Victoria West

Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper analyzes President Obama’s rhetoric in his two inaugural addresses in order to determine how his presidential rhetoric conforms and violates current rhetorical traditions in inaugural addresses. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components for this genre criticism were drawn from Vanessa B. Beasley’s work on presidential rhetoric in her book You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric. Results of this analysis will showed that President Obama’s presidential rhetoric is more secular than previous presidents and focuses more on shared American ideals. The results …


Playing Politics With Rape: Republican Apologia In The 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, Kelsey Deforest Apr 2013

Playing Politics With Rape: Republican Apologia In The 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, Kelsey Deforest

Hollins Student Conference (2012-2016)

During the second half of 2012, heightened scrutiny was applied to Republican politicians’ discussion of sexual assault. This wave of interrogation, though, began too late to affect the debates over the 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. This paper will problematize these debates by analyzing the rhetoric of self-defense used by Republican legislators in the House of Representatives to defend their VAWA Reauthorization bill. By applying a feminist critical discourse analysis to the final VAWA Reauthorization debate held on May 16, 2012, this paper shows that the actions of the Republican legislators are rooted in a desire to protect the …


A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama, Victoria West Apr 2013

A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama, Victoria West

Hollins Student Conference (2012-2016)

This paper analyzes President Obama’s rhetoric in his two inaugural addresses in order to determine how his presidential rhetoric conforms to and violates current rhetorical traditions in inaugural addresses. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components for this genre criticism were drawn from Vanessa B. Beasley’s work on presidential rhetoric in her book You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric. Anticipated results of this analysis will show that President Obama’s presidential rhetoric is more secular than previous presidents. The results will also illustrate that President Obama’s …


"Kissing For Equality" And "Dining For Freedom": Analyzing The Ego-Function Of The August 2012 Chick-Fil-A Demonstrations, Jill M. Weber Jan 2013

"Kissing For Equality" And "Dining For Freedom": Analyzing The Ego-Function Of The August 2012 Chick-Fil-A Demonstrations, Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In August 2012, thousands of Americans traveled to their local Chick-fil-A restaurants to participate in the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and the National Same Sex Kiss Day, two demonstrations designed to show support and opposition, respectively, to the company’s public endorsement of the “biblical definition of the family unit.” This essay draws upon Richard B. Gregg’s theory of the ego-function to analyze the important persuasive functions the protests served for the participants involved. An analysis of the messages shared among members in the groups’ respective Facebook pages shows that the participants promoted a message of victimage, virtuousness, importance, strength, and unity. …


James Danforth Quayle, Iii, "Murphy Brown Speech" (19 May 1992), Jill M. Weber Jan 2009

James Danforth Quayle, Iii, "Murphy Brown Speech" (19 May 1992), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In his "Murphy Brown Speech," Quayle assessed the 1992 Los Angeles riots and discussed the Bush administration's plans for addressing social and economic inequalities. His brief critique of a fictional television single‐mother, however, overshadowed his message and became the focus of intense criticism from the media. After the controversy died down, Quayle's assertions inspired a debate over the family, welfare policies, economic opportunity, and the role of government in social policy that continues today.


Gloria Steinem, "Testimony Before Senate Hearings On The Equal Rights Amendment" (6 May 1970), Jill M. Weber Jan 2008

Gloria Steinem, "Testimony Before Senate Hearings On The Equal Rights Amendment" (6 May 1970), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In her testimony before the Senate ERA hearings, Gloria Steinem refuted sex‐based myths about women and championed the ERA. Situating the ERA within the larger civil rights movement, Steinem called on Congress to acknowledge women's oppression as a serious political issue. She also worked to make women's rights issues more appealing to a mainstream audience by talking about the ERA's benefits for men and women and by emphasizing the democratic principles it embodied.


Minister Louis Farrakhan, "Million Man March" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber Jan 2007

Minister Louis Farrakhan, "Million Man March" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

An examination of Louis Farrakhan's controversial speech at the Million Man March in October, 1995.


William Jefferson Clinton, "Racism In The United States" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber Jan 2006

William Jefferson Clinton, "Racism In The United States" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In "Racism in the United States," President Bill Clinton acknowledged racial differences and called upon Americans to "clean our house of racism." Maintaining that the discussion of differences was the first step in alleviating racial tension, Clinton made dialogue a centerpiece of his race initiative. Clinton's approach to civil rights and his emphasis on dialogue marked an important step in the ongoing debates over civil rights in America by illustrating a president's role in shaping such debates.