Earth mess

Your assignment is to do a rhetorical analysis of Al Gore's award-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. That is, analyze the purpose of the film, the audience to whom it is geared, and the strategies that are used to reach that audience. Keep in mind the rhetorical triangle, and the evidence sheet we completed in class. Your 3-5 page essay is due by class time on 25 March.

Here's a sample outline to get you started:

Thesis: In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore wants to reach a large audience, particularly nonscientists, to stress the urgency of responding to global warming.

1. He establishes the ethos of a public servant whose concern stems from ethical and moral rather than political motivation.
2. He provides an enormous amount of technical information by taking advantage of a multimedia format.
3. He appeals to pathos by juxtaposing what was or is with what might be--and, in fact, is likely to occur.
4. Gore acknowledges several counterarguments, but he refutes them with humor or alternative explanation.
5. He uses his personal experiences as a father and brother to stress the deep commitment he has to this issue

Conclusion: An Inconvenient Truth effectively sounds the alarm for global warming by offering an accessible explanation that blends scientific information and human interest.

The brain's fundamental secret will be laid open one day

Its rousing climax left behind in chapter four, Saturday's dénouement forces us to reflect on the limitations of both the sciences and the humanities. Operating on Baxter, Perowne thinks, "Just like the digital codes of replicating life held within DNA, the brain's fundamental secret will be laid open one day. But even when it has, the wonder will remain, that mere wet stuff can make this bright inward cinema of thought, of sight and sound and touch bound into a vivid illusion of an instantaneous present, with a self, another brightly wrought illusion, hovering like a ghost at its centre. Could it ever be explained, how matter becomes conscious? . . . He knows it will come, the secret will be revealed--over decades, as long as the scientists and the institutions remain in place, the explanations will refine themselves into an irrefutable truth about consciousness" (262-63).

Do you agree with Henry's faith in science? In terms of the problems presented in Saturday, what can science solve, and what can it not? Can the humanities step in where science is limited? You must give at least two examples from your reading.

Your post of no less than 400 words is due by 11:59PM, Thursday, 21 February.

Extra credit post

So you know those links to the right that offer wonderfully insightful information on the texts we're examining? Well, I'm inviting your wonderfully insightful comments on a couple of them for extra credit. For a one hundred point quiz grade, either read "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero," or listen to the KCRW interview with McEwan and post a 200 word response. In your response, please focus on McEwan's description of the media coverage following 9/11, paying particular attention to the way in which he describes and imagines the effect mass images had on individual psyches. Can you relate anything McEwan says to Perowne's experiences in Saturday? To receive extra creidt, post your response by 11:59PM Sunday, 17 February.