Who is this letter addressed to? Do you think this is the most appropriate audience given the argument the writer is making? Why or why not?

Peer Review!!

For this second project, you are taking a stab at producing a persuasive text of your own. Doing this requires thinking about who you are writing to and determining the best methods to use to persuade that particular audience. You should be making choices about which persuasive strategies to use based on who will be reading this letter. One of the best ways to tell if you’re on the right track with the methods you chose to use is to have someone else read your letter. Someone new looking at your letter can tell you which strategies stick out to them the most and whether or not they think you’ll have the desired effect on your audience.

As such, for your peer review this week, you will be performing a rhetorical analysis of someone else’s letter, focusing on the persuasive strategies you see them using in their writing and thinking about whether or not you think those tactics will work to successfully persuade the letter’s audience. In 2-3 paragraphs, I’d like you to answer the following questions for the letter you review:

• Who is this letter addressed to? Do you think this is the most appropriate audience given the argument the writer is making? Why or why not?
• What rhetorical strategies or other methods of persuasion do you see this person using in their letter? Did they go for a more logical appeal or an emotional one?
• How does this writer make themselves credible? Why might the reader find them trustworthy or believable?
• Do you think that the methods of persuasion this writer used will work successfully for their intended audience? Why or why not?