LEAP: Issues of Life & Death + War & Peace

What is Rhetoric?

Any situation in which people consciously communicate with each other.

Individual people tend to perceive and understand just about everything differently from one another.

Rhetoric is the set of methods people use to identify with each other—to encourage each other to understand things from one another’s perspectives.

The capacity to understand or modify another’s perspective is one of the most vital abilities that humans have.
Gagich & Zickel. A guide to rhetoric, genre, and success in first-year writing. MSL Academic Endeavors. 
https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/  

Rhetoric Research:
search for anything, really, and put in the keyword(s): rhetoric OR debate OR argument OR discourse

Good Library Databases to Start:
Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography
Academic Search Ultimate
JSTOR
Marriott Library Catalog
 

Open web rhetoric searching:
rhetoric:(keywords go here)
rhetoric:snowboarding vs. skiing
rhetoric:black lives matter

debate:(keywords)
 

Other questions to ask:
taken or adapted from:
Veach, Grace. Teaching Information Literacy and Writing Studies. 2018. Print. Purdue Information Literacy Handbooks. Page 143.
and
Gagich & Zickel. A guide to rhetoric, genre, and success in first-year writing. MSL Academic Endeavors. 
https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/  

1. AUTHOR/RHETOR
   1. How did the author formulate the main question/thesis? How does the way it is expressed describe the values your discipline operates by?
   2. What is their experience or authority on the topic (who are they?)
   3. What values do they have (related to the article topic especially) what's their reputation?
2. SETTING
   1. What is going on that prompted the creation of this article? Is there a current debate, or public controversy, or ?
   2. What was the motivation in writing this paper?
   3. What can we learn about your discipline from the way the data is presented, how it was developed, and what evidential value is has
3. AUDIENCE
   1. How does the author interact with other scholars? What does this say about the nature of discussion that is carried out in the discipline?
   2. Who is the author talking to? (what is the intended audience?)
   3. What does that audience typically look like? (gender, background, values, etc.)
   4. What does the author want the audience to do once they're read the article, take action?
4. APPEALS
   1. Appeal to ethics: 
      attempting to tap into the values or ideologies that the audience holds, for example, patriotism, tradition, justice, equality, dignity for all humankind, self preservation, or other specific social, religious or philosophical values
   2. Appeal to emotion
      trying to tap into the audience’s emotions to get them to agree with the author’s claim. An author using pathetic appeals wants the audience to feel something: anger, pride, joy, rage, or happiness.
   2. Appeal to logic
      using logic, careful structure, and objective evidence to appeal to the audience. An author can appeal to an audience’s intellect by using information that can be fact checked
   2. Note:
      there are a couple more; appeal to purpose (or problem) and appeal to timeliness (we have to act now!)
5. MEDIUM/MESSAGE
   1. What does the paper reveal about the nature of good evidence? What is the difference between legitimate and illegitimate evidence?
   2. Does the article appear in a respected site (unbiased) or a polarized site (leaning towards a specific bias)
   3. What does the message omit (other opinions, glaring omissions, etc.)?
   4. Is the medium respected (twitter vs. facebook vs. major newspaper vs. ?)

Searching the open web for resources.

Many worldwide governments would like you to know what they're working on related to policy as they're actively working on sustainability problems (maybe poverty, communications, health, pollution, etc.).  Companies and engineers will look for large or small jobs by searching for these and then offer solutions on a wide scale from very small to country wide.
Search for "your technology" and RFP (or "request for proposals") on the open web for more.  
Note: it may help to search for a specific country/government/company if you want to narrow down the search.

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Searching governments for resources.

Many governments also are legally obligated to put their policies (and policy considerations) online for the world to see -like the United States.  Some typical starting places are:

USA.gov (first place to visit -contains everything below)

Department of Energy
Environmental Protection Agency
National Nanotechnology Initiative
Department of Transportation
Bureau of Reclamation -primarily about water, but take a look for your specific tech too.

OR
Search for "your technology" and "government policy" on the open web for governments outside the U.S.
Search for "your technology" and a specific state/nation for a more focused search (California has a ton, for example)

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Global resources.
Other online groups at an international level working on sustainability and policy research:

The World Bank

The United Nations

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Very local resources.
​Other online groups at an international level working on sustainability and policy research:

SLC Green (local policy)

Also note that since states are responsible for enforcing EPA standards, most cities/states will have some sort of environmental/sustainability office (hopefully online).  For example, here is the one for Utah: http://www.deq.utah.gov/ 

Part of automobile safety is the technology and design that go into a vehicle, but another part is the government policy on what is acceptable in a country.  For example, seat belts, air bags, strategic frame reinforcements, etc. were around long before they were required in new cars in the U.S. -and they're still not universally required in other countries:

Example of current models sold under the safety policies of different countries:
"2015 Nissan Tsuru vs. 2016 Nissan Versa." [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85OysZ_4lp0. 

And the video below is and example of a current model vs. a much older one:
"IIHS 50th anniversary crash test." [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHp1GAFQzto.