Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
In 2014, I recorded a simple video for my rhetoric & writing students at Rockford University with a simple goal: to help them understand what I mean when I talk about "rhetorical analysis." I talked quickly over a PowerPoint, added some Creative Commons-licensed music, and moved on.
Since then, a few things happened: 1) it racked up a bunch of views, 2) one of the musical artists asked YouTube to remove the music from the video, resulting in my not-great audio getting even worse, and 3) I got better at recording my voice. So even though I like the ideas in the original, it was cringey for me to watch.
This new version of the video solves the audio problems by replacing the original voice-over with a new recording (though I'm saying almost exactly the same thing as before) and by leaving the music out (since many people commented about how much they didn't like it anyway). The visuals are still just an old PowerPoint, so they're just as cringey as ever. Oh well. (Call it a rhetorical failure?)
The original is still up at youtu.be/9s0LqAdqkV0, but I'll be directing my students to this version now. You do what you like.
Thanks for watching! It means a lot.
In 2014, I recorded a simple video for my rhetoric & writing students at Rockford University with a simple goal: to help them understand what I mean when I talk about "rhetorical analysis." I talked quickly over a PowerPoint, added some Creative Commons-licensed music, and moved on.
Since then, a few things happened: 1) it racked up a bunch of views, 2) one of the musical artists asked YouTube to remove the music from the video, resulting in my not-great audio getting even worse, and 3) I got better at recording my voice. So even though I like the ideas in the original, it was cringey for me to watch.
This new version of the video solves the audio problems by replacing the original voice-over with a new recording (though I'm saying almost exactly the same thing as before) and by leaving the music out (since many people commented about how much they didn't like it anyway). The visuals are still just an old PowerPoint, so they're just as cringey as ever. Oh well. (Call it a rhetorical failure?)
The original is still up at youtu.be/9s0LqAdqkV0, but I'll be directing my students to this version now. You do what you like.
Thanks for watching! It means a lot.
