Frederick Douglass: Rhetorical Analysis

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Dear Mr. Maertens

Junior year is finally coming to an end! Although students and parents have warned me about Junior year being one of the hardest years in High School, I find it to be quite maintainable. In particular, I believe it is the environment and grading system of our AP lang class that made my Junior year less of a hassle. Unlike most of my classes, our class has helped me to focus on my learning skills rather than worrying about an A+. The way our class operated allowed me to freely write and try out new writing styles without the fear of being graded solely on how I write. Furthermore, the various writing prompts and examples we worked on in class greatly contributed to my learning goal of utilizing different genres to enhance …show more content…
These different perspectives of writing aided me in writing comprehensive and rhetorical essays. I have learned how certain rhetorical questions may denote a key point that the author is trying to convey. For instance, in Frederick Douglass’s What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, Douglass employs philosophical questions such as, “Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?” and “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national justice.” (Douglass 1). Douglass uses irony to underline that he is not qualified to be the spokesperson for independence, since he was once a slave who had to obtain his freedom. I have applied Douglass’s statements in my own writing about the Civil Rights Movement in my writer’s notebook, often relating the challenges African Americans face today to how effectively activists like Douglass convey their ideas. The different genres of literary writings enhanced my creative juices, guiding me to write thorough on-demand essays. At the start of the school year, it would take me more than thirty minutes to write or even craft two paragraphs because of my lack of knowledge. After experimenting with different genres and learning how to manage my time, I can now write by hand without the need
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