Luckily, I stumbled upon a very cool article relevant to this year's curriculum in AP English. The article I found, In Public ‘Conversation’ on Guns, a Rhetorical Shift, discussed the frequency of use of different terms for gun control and related it back to the societal and political implications of the changing usage. Nate Silver, the author, is well known for his aptitude at statistics and applying it to social issues. He predicted the outcomes of the 2008 presidential elections almost entirely correct, and correctly predicted the winner of all 35 senate elections that year. He is a pretty qualified guy to be writing this article. The context of the article is the recent elementary school shooting in the last week, which prompted many people to talk about the issue of gun control. His purpose is to suggest that the connotation of the terms now used for gun control (which has now turned to "gun violence" or "gun rights") implicates a new surge of political charge behind the statements made on the issue. The audience is a mature and unbiased audience who is interested in the rhetorical analysis of the conversation on the issue instead of focusing on what should be done about it. It was interesting to see such an insightful perspective without trying to sway someone one way or the other. The most effective rhetorical strategy was arrangement, because having arranged it chronologically really emphasized the change in the views of gun control over the years and how divided our country has become on the rights on own a gun versus the risk of giving those rights to everyone.
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