Comparative Rhetorical Analysis Subject

            The subject that I chose to write about is an issue that is very controversial. Should the death penalty be legal? There are a few reasons that I chose this subject, the first is that I do not have a personal opinion one way or the other on the topic (I don’t believe I have enough information on the subject to make a final decision over something so important) and was hoping to have a final opinion on the matter by the end of the assignment. Another reason is that many people have very strong opinions one way or the other, which I think will make the assignment more enjoyable in that it will be more interesting to read the reasoning from the writers and to find their voice. The third and final reason is that I believe there will be a huge range of discourse for this topic. It has always seemed to me that in this issue there has been a few in the middle that can see it from both sides and most that have made up their minds and have a straight opinion one way or the other even to the point where there are some extreme views- I at one time had a teacher that expressed his belief so strongly in the death penalty that he told the class that, “those people should be tortured first.” Because of the amount of people that have an opinion on either side it is likely that I will be able to find media on the issue in many places.  Social media sights such as twitter are a good way to get the viewpoint and reasoning of a more common everyday person. The problem with this is that there purpose and voice may not be very developed as most tweets are very short. Another place to go would be the news, which debates about this issue every once in a while. The arguments on this issue coming from the news would be another good way to get people’s opinions on a less broad scale, but at the same time the argument is likely more developed and the voice more clear than in the social media sites. Debates on the subject would also be a good form of discourse so that professionals could get their opinions on the matter out there and hopefully provide a very clear cut voice, purpose, and audience.