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Rhetorical Analysis: Writing

This handout discusses the organization of a rhetorical analysis paper for English 150. Keep in mind that it is only a guide; your essay will probably vary from this outline.

Introduction

Begin your essay by addressing the text’s context. Ask yourself questions like:

• Why and where is this argument happening? What is the rhetorical situation?

• Who is the speaker?

• Who is the specific audience?

• What is the speaker’s purpose? (What is he trying to convince his audience of? What are his goals for the text?)

• How does he achieve this purpose? What tools does he use?

When you combine these essential elements, your thesis may look something like this:

“(The author) uses (these tools) to effectively/ineffectively convince (the audience) that (his argument).”

It is important to think about possible connections between tools. This is how you examine what is happening in the text as a whole (rather than just writing a formulaic list of tools). For example, some tools may build the author’s ethos, while other tools may follow this up and give a logical argument that the audience might not have believed otherwise. Or perhaps each of the tools contributes to an emotional appeal that the audience will find convincing.

Body Paragraphs

Once you have identified some tools the author uses to make his argument, you are ready to begin analyzing how and how well he uses those tools. Remember that to analyze well, you’ll need to use several specific examples from the text, often direct quotations, for each tool you are analyzing. You may be able to address them all within one paragraph, or you may need to give each example its own paragraph. Decide on an organization that works best for your argument.

• Begin each paragraph with a sentence that answers the question, “What does this tool contribute to the author’s argument—how does it help him achieve his purpose?”

• Give the quotation and explain how or why it is a good example of the rhetorical tool you’ve described.

• Analyze the quote’s effectiveness.

o Explain the effect that the tool has on the author’s specific audience.

o Explain what this effect has to do with the author’s argument (connect the tools to the author’s purpose).

Remember, the tools are not the appeals and vice versa. The appeals are 1) Pathos, or the emotional appeal; 2) Ethos, or the appeal to the author’s credibility as a source; and 3) Logos, or the appeal to logic. Some examples of tools include word choice, humor, statistics, examples, analogies, anaphora, metaphors, etc. The tools may have an emotional, authoritative, or logical appeal depending on the way they are used, and some tools can be used for more than one appeal.

Conclusion

To conclude your analysis, echo your thesis statement by summarizing your main points. Now that they have heard all this proof, let your readers know, “So what?” Why does this matter? This is a little tricky to do in a rhetorical analysis because, frankly, it isn’t the most interesting paper to write or read. However, you should have some insights—what are the implications of your claims about the rhetoric the author uses?

Lina Cabesa-Vanegas, Lori Dixon, & Cathryn Jeffs, Fall 2007

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The Writing Center

Brigham Young University

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