By the time you begin working on this assignment you will have
read Burke’s essay on Hitler’s use of persuasive language as well as
several short articles comparing President Trump’s rhetoric to that
of Adolf Hitler. These articles, which have been written in popular
news media formats by scholars with expertise in related areas,
focus on the language strategies utilized by these figures and take a
variety of positions, some arguing for the comparison and some
arguing against it. In this paper you will take a position on the issue
of whether Trump’s rhetoric can be compared to Hitler’s. In
considering this, you should be asking questions like: how is it
similar? How is it different? Is the comparison productive? What
does the comparison highlight, or, alternately ignore? You may
utilize the news articles you read, but you may not simply rehash
these author’s arguments. Instead, your essay should
synthesize/be inspired by this information. You will need to cite the
Kenneth Burke article, “Hitler’s Battle” as well as at least two other
outside academic sources. Please note, these sources do not need
to be academic analyses of Trump’s rhetoric; they may just as likely
be articles you find about political rhetoric and persuasion
strategies that help support your arguments.