Short Assignment #1 - Rhetorical Analysis (Restaurant Review!)

So far in this course, we've established a working understanding of rhetoric, the rhetorical situation, and how our purpose in writing is affected by situational contexts, audiences, and goals. We've also begun to critically examine the nature of food, its framing as a rhetorical situation, and read a few different pieces talking about food in different rhetorical situations. In this assignment, you'll be asked to apply this knowledge towards a rhetorical analysis in the form of a restaurant review. 

In this short paper, you will do a rhetorical analysis of a restaurant/food establishment of your choice. You'll be doing the following:

• Pick a restaurant of your choice, preferably one you haven't tried yet (doesn't have to be fancy or expensive, choose within your means). There's countless places on the Ave and I encourage you to explore and find your own tastes. If this isn't feasible, you can choose the dining hall/HUB food court as a last resort, however.
• Order a meal and note the flavors, plating, and presentation. This is mostly secondary, as the main focus should be looking at the actual establishment rhetorically, focusing on the rhetorical situation, claims, assumptions, types of arguments, and rhetorical appeals. Think back to the work we did in class together on for a model of rhetorical analysis.

This paper will help us understand how arguments are made about food as a cultural artifact, our relationship with food and cooking, and how food transcends cultural boundaries as a fluid form of innovation and tradition. Here’s a way to approach the assignment:

1. Focus on the restaurant's physical space, noting particularly strong, interesting, confusing, or troubling aspects. Was it easy to get to? Is it accessible to all? What can you deduce about how the tables are arranged? Was it packed/empty? How do you order? 

2. What’s going on in the moments you noted above? Are there rhetorical appeals present in the restaurant's aesthetic?(Emotional, logical, ethical, etc.)

3. What is the restaurant's main audience? (think about the menu here: what can you extrapolate from what's offered?)

4. Does the restaurant make and claims about food and our relationship with food?

5. What type of argument is the restaurant making, if any? How does the restaurant present itself as somewhere people should eat at? 

6. Does the restaurant claim any authenticity? If so, does it make those claims through aesthetic appeals, the menu, dish names? And do you believe it can claim authenticity? 

Ultimately, you're analyzing the rhetoric of a restaurant by reviewing all aspects of it and tying those into the ideas of rhetoric we focused on in class. As opposed to breaking apart a text and finding quotes, you're focusing on aesthetic features and appeals made in the space of a restaurant to construct your analysis. Refer back to the Vinh restaurant piece for general structure and to see how it handles writing about both a restaurant space and food items. 

The goal is focused around Outcome 1: To compose strategically for a variety of audiences and contexts, specifically focused on:

• recognizing how different elements of a rhetorical situation matter for the task at hand
• coordinating and experimenting with various aspects of composing-such as genre, content, and conventions-for rhetorical effects tailored to a given audience

Format

• 2-3 pages
• 12pt. Times New Roman
• MLA format
• Submitted as a PDF or Word Doc