#1 of 2: Presidential townhall "debate" assignment and what to watch by checklist

Your homework assignment tomorrow is to drop everything and watch the "townhall debate" in this election cycle. Almost certainly, this event will qualify in your lifetime as one of those "Where were you and who were you with when <this event> took place?" events.

Organize your life to get other assignments done, and try to focus on the interactions.

If you can, remove yourself from a circus atmosphere, and make it a learning process that can help you in your career in science.

How is this possible?

The answer involves rhetoric and persuasion, as well as logic.

Make a checklist for yourselves and for each of those watching with you, and draw upon what you know about rhetoric, especially the three main rhetorical appeals and its three "flowers" that you should be learning and using in your work.

{ Rhetoric in science? Is there a need to learn rhetoric in science? }

How do you persuade a reader to read beyond the title or first sentence of your next scientific article?
How do you persuade a study section that you deserve a fundable priority score and an award to do your next big study?
How do you approach a skeptical department chair when you approach with a request for a new or renovated lab space?

Yes, Virginia, there is a need for rhetoric in science.

I do not have time to write up what I know, but others have done it for you, better than I could.

To create your checklist and use it to rate the "debate" elements with your fellow viewers, turn to this webpage created by Professor Kip Wheeler at Carson-Newman, or to something like it:

https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_rhet.html
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/resource_rhet.html

And use it to create the checklist for you to evaluate the utterances of the candidates.

If you wish, make it a game between teams to see who can correctly identify the rhetorical element being used ( but skip the impulse to make it a drinking game http://www.debatedrinking.com/ ).

By completing this homework assignment, you'll increase your mastery of an important set of tools for science writing, a set that Socrates described as the "cookery" of our transactions ( Gorgias ).

Sometime later in the year we can compare notes and try to polish up our collective understanding of what should prove to be both an educational and entertaining event.

Have fun with it!