Section A–Rhetorical Analysis–

Please refer to the link, Basic Questions for Rhetorical Analysis. 

Apply the nine questions to the article, "Radical Life-Extension Is Not around the Corner." 

1.What is the rhetorical situation?

• What occasion gives rise to the need or opportunity for persuasion?
• What is the historical occasion that would give rise to the composition of this text?

2.Who is the author/speaker?

• How does he or she establish ethos (personal credibility)?
• Does he/she come across as knowledgeable? fair?
• Does the speaker’s reputation convey a certain authority?

3.What is his/her intention in speaking?

• To attack or defend?
• To exhort or dissuade from certain action?
• To praise or blame?
• To teach, to delight, or to persuade?

4.Who make up the audience?

• Who is the intended audience?
• What values does the audience hold that the author or speaker appeals to?
• Who have been or might be secondary audiences?
• If this is a work of fiction, what is the nature of the audience within the fiction?

5.What is the content of the message?

• Can you summarize the main idea?
• What are the principal lines of reasoning or kinds of arguments used?
• What topics of invention are employed?
• How does the author or speaker appeal to reason? to emotion?

6.What is the form in which it is conveyed?

• What is the structure of the communication; how is it arranged?
• What oral or literary genre is it following?
• What figures of speech (schemes and tropes) are used?
• What kind of style and tone is used and for what purpose?

7.How do form and content correspond?

• Does the form complement the content?
• What effect could the form have, and does this aid or hinder the author’s intention?

8.Does the message/speech/text succeed in fulfilling the author’s or speaker’s intentions?

• For whom?
• Does the author/speaker effectively fit his/her message to the circumstances, times, and audience?
• Can you identify the responses of historical or contemporary audiences?

9.What does the nature of the communication reveal about the culture that produced it?

• What kinds of values or customs would the people have that would produce this?
• How do the allusions, historical references, or kinds of words used place this in a certain time and location?

• 25-word minimum per response. (9 replies total)
• Each answer is worth 5 points

Section B–

1.The article, "To Count Our Days: The Scientific and Ethical Dimensions of Radical Life Extension," is separated into eight sections. 

• List and summarize those sections. 
• Worth 20 points

2. Do you consider this article to be informative, persuasive or both? Use textual evidence to support your response.

•  Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 5 points

3. Find one example of the author utilizing logos. 

• Use textual evidence to support your response. 
• Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 5 points

4. Find one example of the author utilizing ethos. 

• Use textual evidence to support your response. 
• Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 5 points

5.Find one example of the author utilizing pathos.

• Use textual evidence to support your response. 
• Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 5 points

6.Refer to the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the article. How does the writer define their thoughts on the human life span? Are they utilizing a stipulative definition, an ostensive definition, or something in-between?

• Use textual evidence to support your response. 
• Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 5 points

Section C:–Please refer to the article, "Americans are wary of enhancements that could enable them to live longer and stronger."

• Apply the Toulmin Model to the article. The Toulmin Model can be found on pages 77-79 in the textbook. 

1.What is the overall claim of the article? 

• Use textual evidence to support your response. 
• Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 5 points

2.Refer to the third and fourth paragraphs of the article.

• Find one piece of data in this section. Why do you consider it to be data? Textual evidence is required. Explain your reasoning. 
• Find one warrant in this section. Why do you consider it to be a warrant? Explain your reasoning. 
• Find one example of the authors using a qualifier. What is it? Why do you consider it to be a qualifier? Explain your reasoning. 
• Worth 15 points

That's what you have to read before you do the essay:

1. Radical Life-Extension Is Not around the Corner. (By Michael Shermer on October 1, 2016)

2. Radical Life Extension Is Already Here, But We're Doing it Wrong. (by ROSS ANDERSEN MAY 21, 2012)

3. To Count Our Days: The Scientific and Ethical Dimensions of Radical Life Extension. ( AUGUST 6, 2013)

4. Americans are wary of enhancements that could enable them to live longer and stronger. ( BY DAVID MASCI  SEPTEMBER 13, 2016)

5.  106. The Toulmin Method of Argumentation | THUNK (VIDEO)