For my final paper, I plan on engaging in a two-fold research project. The end result will produce a product that can hopefully be used in the composition classroom in order to educate students on various rhetorical strategies and how they are used in a medium outside of composition. I plan to look at and study the use of rhetoric within televised infomercials and sales pitches. These include, but are not limited to, late night television sponsors and shopping channels such as QVC or HSN. After analyzing these programs and making note of their rhetorical strategies, I will use these programs to develop a plan on how to use infomercials to teach composition students rhetorical structures and strategies, effectively placing infomercials within the composition classroom. I will look at their use of the rhetorical triangle, and how that can be transferred into the successful writing class.

I will begin this paper by doing extensive research on infomercials and any studies previously done on them. This will involve collecting examples of specific genres of infomercials such as exercise/weight loss, food products, health/nutrition, and tools. I will also look into previous research done on the rhetorical strategies of televised infomercials. My final step will include assembling the information I have found on the rhetorical strategies of infomercials and organizing it in a way that can allow it to be applied to the composition classroom in order to teach rhetorical strategies.