Burke Identification Paper

In A Rhetoric of Motives, Kenneth Burke claims "you have the characteristic invitation to rhetoric" when you "put identification and division ambiguously together, so that you cannot know for certain know just where one ends and the other begins" (25). In this 500 word essay, you will choose a speech/declaration that states a strong opinion to analyze the terms used to create idenfication and/or division. (Think of Don Draper's stand against cigarettes or Jerry Macguire's famous memo). While the artifact you choose may feature a dispute with two sides at an impasse, your goal in pointing out key terminology is to show where mergers and divisions are taking place.

Burke further elaborates in his work Language as Symbolic Action that "even if any given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality; and to this extent it must function also as a deflection of reality" (45). Your claims in this short essay should not only argue what the key terms are for your chosen speaker/writer but also make the case for how these language choices persuade through identification or division.

Due: Friday, March 28th

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