Rhetorical Analysis essay
This essay will give you the opportunity to applyyour critical thinking skills as you analyze various aspects of an author’s argument and make ajudgement about its effectiveness.
Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to analyze andlearn from the rhetorical moves of another writer. Inwriting this paper, you’ll judge how persuasive theargument is and, through careful analysis, show howan author makes their point.
Let us begin by discussing what a rhetorical analysis is not: a rhetorical analysis is not asummary orsummary/response, nor is a rhetorical analysis an analysis of a text’s topic. Arhetorical analysis is also notan analysis of a literary text. Rather, it is a systematic analysis of anargument’s components, how and why theauthor writes, and how the various elements of theirargument work together to persuade…or not. A rhetorical analysis also considers context and awriter’s intended audience. A thesis statement in a rhetorical analysis is an evaluation of whetherthe argument is effective/persuasive. The foci for advancing that evaluation/thesis are the rhetorical strategies/devices you analyzed that led you to this evaluation. Each of these foci will then be main ideas for your essay’s body paragraphs. The conclusion should begin with a restatement (not repeated or regurgitated) of your evaluation and a summary statement of what was effective and what was not. End with possible suggestions for making the argument more convincing or perhaps re-iterate something that was particularly convincing (or not).
First, you need to figure out the author’s purpose: what are they trying to accomplish: info? Then,identify the author’s thesis. Next, examine the essay closely for rhetorical strategies they’reutilizing to accomplish this purposeand advance the thesis. Refer to Everyone’s an Authorchapter 14, specifically page 265.
Here are some suggestions to make this process a little easier:
- Read the entire article carefully once or twice and understand what you’ve read. Identify theauthor’s thesis, or themain argument(s) they’re advancing.
- Once you’ve picked apart your ad/text and understand the author’s overall argument(s), you shouldstart analyzing it forrhetorical features. Take a closer at your source and do third and fourth“readings,” but this time, keep the followingquestions in mind and record your answers so youcan keep track:
- What is the thesis, the overall argument the ad presents?
- What is the ad’s purpose?
- Who is the ad’s intended audience?
- How are ideas presented? Chronologically? Order of importance?
- If it uses and text, how does the ad use it (word choice, arrangement, accuracy, is it formal,informal? Technical versus slang)?
- Does the ad feature any dialogue between actors?
- Are important terms repeated?
- Is there any music or sound that creates some sort of effect?
The key idea here when answering these questions is understanding why and how the authorchooses to present the way they do. So, when you answer the question “Who is the intendedaudience?” make sure you also think abouthow they use rhetorical techniques to engage thisparticular audience. Do the samefor the other questions. Please note these questions are simply a starting off point. If you think ofother ideas and strategies the author is using, consider those as well. You need not—andcannot—touch on everysingle question in your analysis.
Guidelines: Papers are to be typed in size 12 Times New Roman font with double-spaced lines, a header and page number in the upper right-hand corner of each page, and an original title (not the title of the essay you’re responding to) written in Title Case; please see syllabus and Brightspace for examples of what this should look like. Papers are to be a minimum of 1,000 words. Anything less than 1,000 words will not be eligible for a passing grade.
Submissions:
- A rough draft will be due for in-class peer revision on Wednesday, November 4.
- A final revised and edited draft will be due by class start via Brightspace on Monday, November 9.
