Alejandro Salcido
English 102
Ordover
10/20/08
Research Proposal
The cognitive mind had continually been a victim of the rhetoric used in political campaigns. With the increased use of rhetoric in politics, it is important that people discern between what they are being persuaded to believe and what they actually believe. The purpose of the documented argument is to make undecided and swinger voters aware of the things they are exposed to during political campaigns. People often find it difficult to make decisions because they can not figure out the differences between candidates. In an effort to make better overall decisions, voters must figure out what they believe instead of joining the band wagon.
In order to reach the intended audience, the paper will use political blogs from major newspaper as evidence, as well as scholarly articles. The political blogs will be used to understand the perspectives of undecided voters and how they made decisions. Blogs will provide an undecided voter’s voice and opinion during the selection process. The scholarly articles will be used to explain the reasons why undecided voters make their decision. The article will help support the effects of rhetoric used in campaigns. Both sources will explain how and why voters base their decision.
I.
How do voters make their decisions?
II.
What others things affect voters during an election?
III.
What will be the effectiveness of my argument considering everything involved in politics?

IV.
What about subliminal messages?
I have researched a decent amount of evidence on the effects of rhetoric. I have evidence to support my claim of why undecided voters vote based on rhetoric. The evidence I still have yet to find is the political blogs. I have looked at the New York Times and other well-organized blogs for evidence. In my search, I only found reasons for why people should vote a certain way and why. I need to find evidence on the initial thoughts and the final thoughts of the voters to analyze the effectiveness of rhetoric.
At this point in my research, I plan to research more blogs for what I need. I have also decided that it is best to ask people. I know a lot of people that have watched the political debates and have found a lot of information for their decisions. I think it is a good idea to analyze subliminal messages behind speeches and politics to show how people are persuaded. For this information, I think I could do a survey or interview and use that as evidence for my essay. I will use popular sources or general sources to appeal to my audience better considering they read this material to make their decisions.
The importance of the paper is that people are not aware of the rhetoric that affects their decision. I will prove that rhetoric plays an active role in the decision making for undecided and swing voters. Voters can only make valid decisions if they can distinguish between what they believe and the rhetoric from politicians.