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The overall inquiry for this assignment begins with reading many authors, deciding which authors to critique, finding a good example of that authors slanted writing, taking notes, and finally coming up with a strong claim to support in your essay. The authors may be found in a number of ways: --books on reserve at the library (usually a single chapter of a book will be enough); --books which you possess or find on your own; ( ) --web sites of authors you feel slant their views; --government web sites, such as Department of Defense, White House, Department of State, etc.; --articles in journals or magazines which slant their views; --documentary movies which you feel give a one-sided view of an issue; --radio or television shows or broadcasts (in this case a tape [or typed transcript] of the show must be submitted with the essay); --speeches by politicians either in the newspapers or on the web; --political candidates web sites; --Republican National Committee (RNC), DNC, Libertarian, Communist, or other parties web sites; --speeches by political figures around the world such as Gadhafi, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, etc, or other foreign political figures; --Hate Groups web sites, articles, or pamphlets --Letters to the Editor or editorials in newspapers --Sports blogs, articles, or taped shows that seem unfair to an athlete, team or coach, etc. 2. List three possible passages/sources/articles to critique, then choose the best one and write a paragraph on why you chose the one you did. The purpose of todays class on Limbaugh and Moore is to help you get started on the search. Links or copies of the other two viable articles must be submitted with the final draft. For my inquiry project, I chose to analyze Barack Obamas Nobel Lecture. He won the Nobel Peace Prize and this is the speech he gave following his victory. Within the speech, he uses multiple examples of slanted writing. President Obama, in this particular dialogue, is guilty of pretentious diction. Starting in the third paragraph, he uses words and jargon that the Average Joe would not understand. 3. Write a paragraph on which of the four author(s), Orwell, Wood, Lutz, and McClintok, that you will use as authorities to back up your critique of the passages bad language. Using several is okay and even desirable, but not required. Why did you chose them? In criticizing this speech, I used Orwells essay to back up my claims.

4. Write a list of fallacies, verbal swindles, kinds of doublespeak, or propaganda techniques that you see in your passage. Then consider whether there are any other ones that you see that are not mentioned in the articles that we read (exaggeration, sarcasm,

over-simplification, etc.)? If so, list them as well. Then choose the best ones to present as your sub-claims. Obama uses pretentious diction and he also tries to appeal to the general public by stating whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence. He is trying to prove to the public that he is not a bad guy because with 5. A list of outside research sources that you might use to check facts and broaden your points as you try to show and prove your points about the fallacious language and ideas in the author you chose. There must be at least three to five sources. http://morris108.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/the-2009-war-israel-and-the-us-against-iranand-syria/ http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/ I did not use any other sources to prove the fallacies that I found in Barack Obamas Nobel Lecture. 6. Finally, what is your tentative or working claim, along with any possible sub-claims? Though Barack Obama is a tremendous public speaker, he does use propaganda and slanted writing techniques to get his points across. These techniques include pretentious diction and his ability to make the horrible wars (that were happening in 2009) sound necessary and good.

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