RIP Walkthrough

Due Tuesday by 11:59pm

Points 100
The RIP Essay is basically a rhetorical analysis of the text you created for your RIP project (and presented
for the other class at our seminar). It is a bit of a mash-up in terms of genre, because it is both a narrative
(tells a story/explains a process) and an analysis (rhetorical analysis of the choices you made based on
your texts rhetorical situation).
All quarter long, weve been focused on doing assignments that help us understand the horror genre's
characteristics and tropes. We used several texts as our models and analyzed how the well-known
conventions of the horror genre were expressed differently depending subject matter and message. Why
do the conventions look different in different situations? Because communication never happens in a
vacuumit is always situated. In other words, it is formed by the elements of the rhetorical situation
such as the authors purpose, the target audience and what they expect, the genre in which it is
composed, the medium in which it is delivered, and the cultural and historical time period in which it was
created. Your RIP essay is a place for you to show what you have learned about these ideasor in other
words, about how rhetoric works within texts and how texts are formed by their rhetorical situations.
My advice is to break your essay into three (3) main parts:
1. The Introduction of your Text and its Rhetorical Situation (this is the set-up for your analysis)
Describe (with as much specific detail as possible) the rhetorical situation for the text (presentation,
video, horror movie)

Audience: 2 classes big crowd

studying the genre of horror and fairytales diverse knowledge
college level, spent 9 entire weeks of studying thorough, comprehensive research and

understanding of the topics presented

high stakes major part of final grade, lots of effort and preparation put into the presentation
time limit six minutes long in depth but succinct; nervous excitement
group projects noticeable group camaraderie; competition/comparing to see who had the

better presentation
our text PowerPoint presentation went after a series of well-made, entertaining videos and
horror movies was not as entertaining to watch but was informative, scholarly

genre generational horror: applicable to current events, relatable and therefore instantly

o
o

pertaining to the concerns of the current generation; although not as immediately

identifiable for fairytale class, the relatability of the topic allowed for a nearly immediate
bridge of understanding with the entire audience
interactive element: handouts created for the audience
outcome like a typical, informative, somewhat bland PowerPoint presentation

you createdjust walk through a description of each point in the rhetorical situation (the fishbowl image
we look at in weeks 1-2, in ch 1 of AGWR)

The Audiences: Our Class, the other Class, and the Scholarly audience in general

The Text: The controlling idea, the genre and medium

The genre/medium for the texts we did: informational (or edutainment) videos, live scholarly
presentations with visual accompaniment, a live performance of an adapted tale with visual
accompaniment, a music video (a mash up of a known song with original lyrics and a video mash-up
of film scenes), an original rap song (with accompanying lyrics via video)

The Rhetors purpose for communication (information, edutainment, to show understanding of

rhetoric and the fairy tale genre, to communicate across media)

The Cultural context: In a college setting, at culturally diverse UCI, in southern California, USA

The Historical context: 2015, the 21st century, with all the values and attitudes that come along
with that

was able to relate the topic to modern horrors and make it applicable to college students
generational fears, incorporated a call to action by relating context to the issue of our topic
2. The Analysis of your Text: (This should be the longest section of the essay this is your analysis)
Tonight we explored the way that horror in film reflects the issues and fears within its generation. There
are countless other issues that will affect us for a long time. For example, terrorism covered by various
mediums such as TV shows, movies, and news channels. So what does this mean for us? Well, in
identifying our fears, we can choose the way we respond to these fears, that choic says a lot about
ourselves and what our future will look like.
We could choose, for example, to respond to terrorism with islamophobia. We could choose to perpetuate
habits that cause detrimental fuel emissions, we could chose to perpetuate societal inequity surrounding
race and gender. But the better response to those fears I think, is best summarized by the following quote:
the most common way people ive up their power is by thinking that they dont have any. We could choose
to live our live so that one day, our world could make art that reflected a different reality one that
promises environmental sustainability and social equity. Its a challenge but it isnt impossible. We see that
in the fact that our world has changed so much since William Friedkin directed The Exorcist back in the
seventies. Our world will continue to transform just as art will continue to reflect.

In this section, you will choose specific moments from your text and analyze/explain how these moments
grew out of your rhetorical situation and how your group, as rhetors, made rhetorical decisions based on
your situation.
A moment could be a particular slidewhat is on it and how it is arranged, a particular line of scripting,
an image, a moment in the video that is a combo of script/image, an element in the video like the music or
transitional slides, the content or positioning of a particular photo taken, a specific piece of content
(evidence for a claim made, evidence that helps the audience understand a point, a definition necessary
to the audiences understanding, a summary necessary to the audiences understanding), etc.
You can consider your text just the thing that you created and presented, or you can extend text to
mean both the thing you created and what you said and did before you presented it to the other class.
When you analyze, remember your purpose is to explain how this particular moment--or element within
your text--grew out of your situation. You dont have to discuss every part of the situation with every
element you choose to analyze, but run through the list and jot down your ideas and some specifics and
this will be a good way to start before you draft:

How did it appeal to the audience? (UCI, college student, scholars) What specific references do
you make that only someone from UCI might understand? What specific elements did you include
that cater specifically to scholarspeople who are academically interested in the content?

How did it meet their expectations? (audiences expect certain elements (conventions/tropes) as
part of a particular genre or medium) How did you arrange visuals, for example, on a slide, to make
sure they would appeal to your audience?

How did it grow out of the need to meet the conventions of your particular genre/medium? What
elements were necessary because of your genre and mediumfor example, if its a song, its
conventional to have a stanzas and a chorus, rhyming, rhythm, etc.

Why was a particular piece of information important to include in the content because of your
purpose?

How does it reflect your cultural situation? Or what element did your group intentionally include so
that it would reflect this situation and speak to it? (what element, if it were seen/read/heard by
someone from a completely different culturea different location, different age, different culture and
country entirelywould make no sense? If you can identify elements that way, you know they grew
out of your own cultural context)

How does it reflect the historical context of the 21st c? (what element, if it were seen/read/heard
by a 17th c audience would make no sense? If you can identify elements that way, you know they out
of your 21st context)

3. Your Contribution to the Creation of the RIP Text (this is the narrative part of your essay)
This is an important part, because it allows me to discern who did what in terms of contributing to the
overall group effort of your RIP text. Make sure that you are extremely detailed and specific in this section

dont write: I helped write the script. Describe exactly what parts of the script you wrote, and even
quote a line or two that you think were especially important (perhaps a line that you analyze in that
section). Dont write: I edited the video. Explain exactly how you did that, the process you went through,
what software you used, what you got from your groupmates and what you supplied yourself, etc.
Its not easy to toot your own horn, but in this section you need to do just that give an honest and
detailed account of what you contributed.
4. Your group interaction
How was the experience of working with your group members? What challenges did that experience
present and did anything stand out as particularly positive or negative?
Bring a rough draft of this essay with you to class on Tuesday the 1st. The rough draft should
be at least two full pages long.

FINAL DRAFT REQUIREMENTS:

Minimum of 4 pages, maximum of 6 (not including the Works Cited page)
MLA Format (double spaced throughout, 10 or 12 pt font, MLA header and pagination style)
The use of at least 3 sources that are cited within your text using MLA in-text citation format

Your sources can be sources you used to create the RIP text or sources you used as models to
make sure you understood the genre/medium in which you were creating a text.

MLA-style Works Cited (for your RIP and the RIP essay