Before completing my rhetorical analysis of Adam Foss’s TED Talk, “A Prosecutor’s Vision for a Better Justice System,” I mostly thought about rhetoric in terms of ethos, pathos, and logos. I understood that speakers use credibility, emotion, and logic to persuade an audience, but this project helped me see that rhetorical analysis involves much more than identifying those three appeals. The biggest thing I learned was how much the rhetorical situation affects the way a messag

For my Rhetorical analysis project, I plan to analyze Adam Foss's TED Talk "A Prosecutor's Vision For A Better Justice System." As a Criminal Justice major, I chose a text directly related to my field. Foss delivered the talk at TED2016 and speaks from his experience as a prosecutor in Boston. His main argument focuses on whether prosecutors should always pursue the harshest consequences available or consider alternatives that may give young offenders an opportunity to improv

Before reading about the different theories of writing I would have defined writing as the ability to put your thoughts into words clearly. I now see writing as a process of making choices based on a particular situation. My emerging theory of writing is that there is no single formula for good writing. Instead writers become better by learning how to recognize what a new situation requires, reflect on what they already know and adapt that knowledge.