“Funny how students have unlimited data, but no bandwidth left for paying attention in class…” That’s the joke I start with in this workshop, where we dive into writing a rhetorical analysis of Angela Duckworth’s Bates College commencement address about cellphones.
If you’ve ever felt the stress of figuring out how to teach rhetorical analysis, this video is for you. I’ll show you how to paint the essay the way Bob Ross paints a landscape. But instead of his famous wet-on-wet technique, we’ll use writing heuristics: a declarative thesis to shape the introduction, and the syllogistic method to layer the body paragraphs. Think of it like brushstrokes building a picture—only now your students’ essays take form with clarity and flow.
By the end, you’ll see that teaching rhetorical analysis doesn’t have to feel intimidating—it can be just as creative, structured, and (believe it or not) fun as painting “happy little trees.”
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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