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Rhetorical Analysis and All the Terms That Come With ItRhetorical Analysis: genre, audience, rhetor, rhetorical appeals, rhetorical moves, exigency, purpose, arguments, and constraints. Now, you are probably looking at this paper and thinking, "What the heck do those words mean?" But don’t freak out yet; take a big deep breath and get comfortable because you are about to learn how to successfully rhetorically analyze a piece of text. Some authors have developed very effective ways of using rhetoric, while some may still need some practice. It is still important for us to know what rhetoric is in order to identify it in a work. All of the terms listed above are all a part of rhetorically analyzing a text. When I first heard these terms, I thought I had registered for the wrong English class. Throughout the class, I had come to learn that the terms may sound complex, but really, they are very simple and are used to dig deep into the meaning of a text. Throughout this essay you will learn the definitions of the words regarding rhetorical analysis, understand an example of a rhetorical analysis on the article "Women and the Negativity Receptor" written by Aimee Lee Ball, and come to realize that the terms listed above all connect to other terms and help display the social issues in today's world. The first step in understanding rhetorical analysis is understanding the definitions of the different terms and how they connect to a rhetorical analysis. I have learned all of these definitions from "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rehtorical Analysis" by Laura Bolin Carroll and "Navigating Genres" by Kerry Dirk. After understanding the basic terms, I will connect the terms to an example of a rhetorical analysis. Analyzing the rhetoric behind the essay can help someone come to the conclusion of if the text is effective or not. It is also a great way to dig deeper into the social issues that the author of the text is trying to portray. To start things off, we will start with the umbrella term rhetorical analysis. Like an umbrella, it is the larger concept, and all other terms fall under this umbrella. The author of "Backpacks and Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis" Laura Bolin Carroll states that, "Rhetoric is everywhere: ' wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric. And wherever there is meaning there is persuasion" (47). Because this term is surrounding us, it is important that we learn what it really means. The point of a rhetorical analysis is to truly understand the text. It allows the reader to understand the reasoning behind the different decisions the author chose to develop a more effective text (Carroll 46). Carroll and I both strongly agree that, "Individuals who understand rhetorical analysis and act to make change can have a tremendous influence on their world" (57). This is why rhetorically analyzing is such an important skill to learn. So, buckle up my friend and get ready to learn all the other terms that fall under rhetorical analysis!Up next on the agenda is to learn about the terms genre, audience, and rhetor. These terms are important to learn first because they are the basic concepts many of us have learned when we were little, and they allow us to build off of our prior knowledge. If you are like me, then you probably think that genre is an easy concept you learned in elementary school. But, guess what? There are actually a lot more layers to genre then you think. Everything has a very specific genre. Look at it this way, as much as our society hates to admit it, we all have stereotypes for all different types of things. For example, country music. All country music tends to have the same key components. Kerry dirk, the author of "Navigating Genres" states that "Country songs tend to tell stories...have characters who are developed throughout the song...have choruses that are broad enough to apply to a variety of verses" (249). These stereotypes help us decide which genre the text belongs in. We use previous knowledge from other texts that we have read that are similar to help develop our own opinion on the genre of the text (Dirk 252). Genre connects to the term audience. Audience is who the authors intended readers are. The author may decide that because the audience is targeted at a certain age group, the genre may have been selected based off of the likes and dislikes of the intended audience (Carroll 49). Here is another curveball. Are you ready? I bet you did not know that another word for author is rhetor. I can tell you I had no idea that rhetor was even a word. There can be multiple rhetors in a text. Any person that is a part of the text or has worked on the text can be considered a rhetor (Carroll 51).The next terms are rhetorical appeals, rhetorical moves, and constraints. The term rhetorical appeals are also known as ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos refers to the credibility of the author, pathos tries to connect to the readers emotions, and logos is the intellectual part of the arguments (Carroll 52). These terms are designed to connect to the audience in different ways. Rhetorical appeals can make one realize the credibility and severity of the issue being developed, it can tug at one's heart strings, and it can make the brain process facts that support the argument. They are developed by the rhetor and they help connect the audience to the social issues the author is trying to display. This term connects to rhetorical moves. The definition of rhetorical moves is the decisions of tone, style, structure, and any attributes to the essay overall. These rhetorical moves can help support the rhetorical appeals the author is trying to display. These rhetorical moves can cause constraints though. Constraints are the things that hold the rhetor back or may cause some obstacles. This could mean a limit of how long the text can be, how much it costs, who the audience is, and any other factors that can cause obstacles. These terms connect to one another because they all give support to one another. When one term is struggling or lacking something, the other half is able to jump in and give a little support to make them more developed. Just like the role of a best friend. The last terms are exigency, purpose, and arguments. The exigency ties all of these terms together in one pretty little bow. Exigency refers to the "circumstance, or condition that invites a response" (Carroll 48). This ties to the purpose and arguments of the text. All things in the essay should tie back to the exigency. The arguments should support what the rhetor is trying to say on the issue. The purpose is similar to exigency. When thinking of exigency and purpose, I remember the saying: so what, now what? Now that the rhetor has a reason or has found inspiration to write the piece, it now needs an overall end goal. The purpose is the "now what?" of the saying. It is the part of rhetorical analysis that is driving the response to the exigency. Now, in order to have a strong purpose, there needs to be reasonable and strong arguments. The arguments job is to build up support for the purpose and to help achieve the overall goal of having an effective text. Learning these definitions are key to understanding rhetorical analysis. Now that you know what the terms of a rhetorical analysis mean, I will now show an example of an analysis to help you learn how to do one and more importantly what a rhetoric analysis is. I believe that in order for a person to truly understand anything, they need to understand the basics. The text I will be analyzing is called "Women and the Negativity Receptor" written by Aimee Lee Ball. I found this article on Oprah's website. In sum, this article is about how a woman's self-esteem is affected by others, and how the brain plays a role in a woman's self-esteem. Through this example, I hope that you start to piece together what a rhetorical analysis is and how to determine if a text is effective or not through the analysis.The first terms I am going to analyze are rhetor, genre, and audience. There are many rhetors that are present in this article. Aimee Lee Ball is the most obvious rhetor, but there are always some hidden rhetors that most people don’t think about. For example, Oprah could be considered a rhetor because it is on her website. She contributed to the making of this article. This article belongs to the genre of articles, self-esteem issues, magazine, science, public service announcements, and maybe television considering its on . The last term is audience. This is broadly targeted at women of all ages because as Aimee Lee Ball states no matter the age, women still struggle with having a good self-esteem (Ball). But more specifically, this article targets teenage girls. Teenage girls tend to struggle with low self-esteem more than older woman. In the article, Eric Stice a researcher states, "Up to 50 percent of adolescent girls have body image concerns," says Eric Stice, PhD, lead researcher on that study. "Up to 70 percent of girls say they would take a pill to lose five pounds;" (qtd. in Ball). This proves how teenage girls tend to struggle more with self-esteem then others. The next terms I will analyze are rhetorical appeals and rhetorical moves. Throughout this article the rhetor really connects to ethos, pathos, and logos. The author references many researchers throughout the article to help support her argument and ethos. This makes her seem credible and supports her work. The rhetor also connects the rhetors to real life situations to events that have probably happened to many women throughout their lives. For example, Aimee Lee Ball gives an example from her life explaining that she "… was consistently the last one chosen for volleyball, and to this day I regard myself as a person with zero athletic prowess. I always seem to be the least graceful person in yoga class." (Ball). Many females can relate to this example because they have experienced the same thing. This means that the rhetor is connecting to pathos because the reader is either feeling sympathy or having flashbacks to the awful times of PE classes. Gross. Finally, there is logos. The rhetor does a nice job of explaining how the brain and a women's cycle plays a huge role on their self-esteem (Ball). The rhetor would not be able to be as effective with the rhetoric appeals if the author did not use rhetorical moves. Aimee Lee Ball intertwines real life examples with facts that have been proven by scientists. The structure of the essay and how the rhetor brings in both her commentary and other perspectives commentary equally is very effective because it allows the rhetor to connect with the audience through the rhetorical appeals.Finally, the last terms we have left to analyze are exigency, purpose, arguments, and constraints. The rhetor has experienced low self-esteem before. She understands what women are going through and she wants to bring awareness to the negative thoughts that flow through a woman's brain. This connection, and personal knowledge of having low self-esteem was the rhetors exigency. The purpose of this article was to help bring awareness of the science behind a women's self-esteem, but to also emphasize how one's actions can impact how a woman thinks of herself for a very long time. This connects to the arguments because the rhetor wants to find arguments that will support their purpose the most. All of these terms connect to each other. Now, I am going to take you on a little adventure, okay? So, stick with me and visualize what I am telling you. Imagine the rhetor is the spider. The creator of everything in the article. The spider is trying to make a web: it is different intricate parts together, and making one large web. Each string of the web connects to another part of the web. This web resembles a rhetorical analysis. Each concept connects to another. They build off each other to make a more effective paper. For example, this article that I rhetorically analyzed in this essay is a very effective text. The rhetor made purposeful decisions that led to an overall effective essay. The rhetor connected to pathos by giving real life examples of when the author had low self-esteem. This pathos was developed more because of how the rhetor structured the example. She brought humor into the moments she felt the worst. Many women can relate to the feeling of being less than perfect. Sometimes, when low self-esteem truly kicks in, women may feel less than average. Aimee Lee Ball truly succeeded in writing an effective essay that brings awareness to the issues of a women's self-esteem in today's society.Overall, I know most of the students reading this essay will probably forget about seventy-five percent of everything they just read. But, to conclude things, I thought that I would leave you some tips for the future. Remember that knowing the definitions lead to a successful rhetorical analysis. There is a great importance to understanding the definitions. Without them, many people will have different assumptions of the terms with no agreed meaning of the words. Also, some authors may be effective with using rhetoric, but most likely some may need some practice. You can still learn from both types of authors. You will know what to do and what not to do in the future. Finally, I would like to leave you with this quote; "Each day we meet different people, encounter unfamiliar situations, and see media that asks us to do, think, buy, and act in all sorts of ways.... The more we know about how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become about making savvy judgements about the people, situations, and media we encounter." (Carroll 46) In conclusion, rhetorically analyzing is not only important when looking at a text, but it is important in our everyday lives. It allows our society to thoroughly think through something before saying yes to the proposal, or yes to buying something new. It develops a new way of analyzing that can drive our society to thinking before deciding, which leads to successWorks CitedBall, Aimee Lee. "Women and the Negativity Receptor." The Oprah Magazine, Aug. 2008, . Accessed 19 Oct. 2017.Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward a Rhetorical Analysis." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemilaski, vol. 1, Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 45-58, h. Accessed 19 Oct. 2017. Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemilaski, vol.1, Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 249-262, , Accessed 19 Oct. 2017. ................
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