Writing Assignments Guide

To understand what a Rhetorical Analysis is, we must first break it down to "rhetoric" and "analysis".

A "rhetoric" in this situation is often described as "the art of persuasion". (Miami University) In essence, rhetoric is about using language purposefully in an attempt to make a change or get something done. Then, with "analysis", you are looking at how the author used language in their work and whether or not it worked. A good rhetorical analysis, not only describes and analyzes the text, but evaluates its effectiveness. (Miami University)

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So what is the Rhetorical Situation and how does it apply to understanding this kind of assignment?

"The rhetorical situation identifies the relationship among the elements of any communication--audience, author (rhetor), purpose, medium, context, and content." (Miami University)

• Audience - Spectator, listeners, and/or readers of a performance, a speech, a reading, or printed material. Depending on the author's/writer's perception, an audience may be real (actually listening or reading), invoked (those to whom the writer explicitly writes) or imagined(those who the writer believes will read/hear her work)
• Author/Rhetor/Speaker/Writer - The person or group of people who composed the text.
• Purpose of the Author - The reason for communicating; the expected or intended outcome.
• Medium - The delivery method, which varies by type of text:
  • Alphabetic Text (for example, written speech, newspaper editorial, essay, passage out of a novel, poetry)
  • Images (for example, TV commercials, advertisements in magazines or on websites)
  • Sound (for example, radio or TV commercials, a website advertisement, speeches)
  • Multimodal texts (YouTube videos, performances, digital stories)

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Other situation considerations can include:

*Rhetorical Analysis- Writers Workshop. University of Illinois. https://writersworkshop.illinois.edu/resources-2/writer-resources/academic-writing/rhetorical-analysis/*

• Exigence - The text’s reason for being, such as an event, situation, or position within an ongoing debate that the writer is responding to.
• Message - The content of the text, the key point(s) the author is communicating to the audience.

 

A few other concepts to be aware of are "Context" and the "Rhetorical Triangle".

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Context

Consider the context of the work when you are analyzing it. This, of course, is "The time, place, public conversations surrounding the text during its original generation and delivery; the text may also be analyzed within a different context such as how an historical text would be received by its audience today." Sometimes your instructors will assign a piece of historical text and other times something more recent. So you need to take into consideration the time in which the text was created. There may have been an entirely different societal point of view than what we currently have. If anything, be sure to think about what was going on at the time and how the general population felt and how the probably received the work.

Claim

Now, consider the claim or the point of the text. This is "the main idea, thesis, opinion, or belief of an argument that the author must prove. The claim should be debatable and answer the question, "What's the point?""

Support

Next, consider "The statements given to back up the claim. These can take the form of facts, data, personal experience, expert opinion, evidence from other texts or sources, emotional appeals, or other means. The more reliable and comprehensive the support, the more likely the audience is to accept the claim." What kind of information can you find in the text that support what the author is trying to say.

Warrant

And finally, think about "the connection, often unstated and assumed, between the claim and the supporting reason(s), or support. The warrant is the assumption that makes the claim seem plausible. More specifically, warrants are the beliefs, values, inferences and/or experiences that the writers/speakers assume they share with the audience. If the audience doesn't share the writers'/speakers' assumptions within the text, the argument will not be effective."

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Rhetorical Triangle

Another concept to consider is the "Rhetorical Triangle". According to the Howe Writing Center at Miami University: "The elements of the rhetorical situation interact with and influence one another. In learning to write an analysis, it is thus helpful to think about the relationship among these elements within the rhetorical triangle. By doing this, writers will be able to better understand how the elements of each text come together (often overlap) to make an argument or persuade an audience."

So let's look at a few Greek terms to help us understand the "Rhetorical Triangle" concept a bit better.

Ethos

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defintion of ethos is: the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution (Merriam Webster - Ethos) But in the context of a rhetorical analyasis we can think about is as the author's credibility or general authority. It can often refer to "the actual character of the speaker/writer, the character of the writer as it is presented in a text, or as a series of ground rules/customs, which are negotiated between speaker, audience, and specific traditions or locations." (Howe Writing Center)

How can you analyze the "ethos" of the author? You can look into their their experiences or claims to authority. You can also take into consideration their credibility and moral character. You may also need to consider what the text, itself, looks like. Does it look professional or sloppy? What kind of person do you think the author might be based on how the text visually appears? This can say a alot about the piece and the author, so take some time and critically think about the ethos involved.

Pathos

Within the Merriam Webster Dictionary, pathos has two meanings: 1: an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion and 2: an emotion of sympathetic pity (Merriam Webster - Pahtos). In the context of a Rhetorical Analysis, the pathos is the emotional appeals made by the author to the audience. Whether that is pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow. It can also be attempts to have the audience feel angry, fearful, courageous, happy, sad, or even feelings of love. When analyzing a text for the pathos, think about the author's appeals to your emotions as the audience. What kind of bond is the author trying to establish? What kind of strategy is in place to establish this bond? Are there specific scenarios used to evoke an emotional repsonse? What about the use of other mediums? Are there certain sounds used or colors? What about images, do certain images within the work elicit an emotional response from the viewer? Think about how movies use soundtracks to build upon the emotions of a scene or how artists use colors to present certain "vibes" to a piece. Such as how blue often "seems" sad, cool, or even regal in some cases. Or how red often "seems" heated or angry and vibrant. All of these can be used in addtion to specifc wording to try and provoke some sort of emotional repsonse and bond between author/ creator and audience.

Logos

The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of logos also has two meanins: 1. the divine wisdom manifest in the creation, government, and redemption of the world and often identified with the second person of the Trinity and 2: reason that in ancient Greek philosophy is the controlling principle in the universe (Merriam Webster - Logos). But for the purposes of Rhetorical Analyses, it refers to "the means of persuasion by demonstration of the truth, real or apparent" (Howe Writing Center). This could also point to what reasonings or supporting information gets used to support the claims of the author. Basically, it's the use of logic or reason to make arguements more persuasive. This concept can often include facts, statistics, events, or any other form of evidence that can potentially support the author's claim.

So, when you are analyzing this concept, look at the author's use of facts, statistics, or other evidence and think about how they use it. Consider the logic of the author themselves,are they realistic or unbelievable? Are there any alternatives that could have been used? These are all important concepts to consider during your analysis.

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Other Concepts

Kairos - a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action : the opportune and decisive moment (Merriam Webster - Kairos) This concept takes into consideration the time in which the text was created, for example, consider when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech. Would it have had the same impact if it was given today, versus during the height of the Civil Rights Movement?

The key to writing a good Rhetorical Analysis, is making sure that you understand many of thhese concepts. In the next section of this page, we cover some strategies that you can use to write your Rhetorical Analysis and understanding what you should discuss within the analysis itself.

*Rhetorical Analysis- Howe Writing Center. Miami University. https://miamioh.edu/howe-center/hwc/writing-resources/handouts/types-of-writing/rhetorical-analyses.html#:~:text=A%20rhetorical%20analysis%20considers%20all,an%20argument%20about%20that%20communication.*

Tips for Writing

1. Gather Information - you can use a technique called SOAPST to identify components of the work and then prepare a plan for your analysis. This acronym stands for: Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, and Tone.
   • Speaker - this is the writer or the "voice" narrating the work. Things like who they are or implied to be.
   • Occasion - this is the when and where the work takes place, also consider the context around the work itself
   • Audience - this is who the work was written for
   • Purpose - this is the reason for the work, or what the writer was hoping to achieve
   • Subject - this is the topic of the work
   • Tone - this is the seeming attitude or "vibe" that the author has toward the subject or even the overall attitude of the work
2. Examine the Appeals - examine the persuasive strategies that the author uses, these are often to elicit some form of response from the audience.
   • Ethos - these appeals establish the author's credibility, often represented as credentials
   • Logos - these appeals are represented by evidence and data used to backup the argument
   • Pathos - these appeals represent the emotional effects of the work.
3. Identify Style Choices - by examining the style choices, you will want to look at things like word choice, word order, tone, repitition, imagery, analogies, and any figurative language being used throughout the work.
4. Build an Analysis - now that you've collected the information, you need to build an analysis. you can do so by asking yourself a few questions, using the information gathered to answer them. This will help to determine the author's reasons for their choices, as well as how well those choices support the arguement presented.
   • What is the writer's intention?
   • Who is the intended audience?
   • What is the argument?
   • What is the writer's strategy to make that argument? Why?
   • What appeals does the writer use to persuade the reader? Why?
   • What kind of style does the writer use?
   • What effect does this work have on the audience?
5. Write the Introduction - when writing your introduction, remember it should be clear and concise. The purpose of an introduction is to state the main ideas that you will be discussing in the analysis.You should also consider providing a brief background about the author, the relevancy of their work, as well as their message.
6. Write your Thesis - a thesis statement should be a part of your introductory paragraph. This statement should be at the end of the paragraph and summarizes your arguement regarding the choices and strategies used by the creator. The thesis statement can also serve as an anchor point that you can always refer to throughout the rest of your essay. One trick to writing a thesis staement is to remember this format: "My Topic/ Argument" is/contributes to "my position on the topic" because of "reasons 1, 2, and 3". It might be best to consider each section of this staement format before piecing it all together. So take some time to ensure that you have the information you want.
7. Write Your Body Text - The body of your analysis is the majority of the assignment. Here you will go into details about your analysis of the work. Depending on the assignment instructions, your body should at least be a minimu of three full paragraphs. Now, again, it depends on your assignment instructions, so it is very imporatnt to review those instructions to make sure you know how much you need to write. For example, so assignments may require you to write up to 3 pages for your analysis. As such you will need to discuss the information, appeals, strategies, context, and everything else that would be benifical to include in your overall analysis of the work.

   One way in which you can organize your paragraphs is by following the Ethos, Logos, Pathos layout. You can also organize your paragraphs chronologically, by going through an analysis of the work in order, or you could organize it by discussing the techniques. No matter which way you organize the information, make sure that you provide supporting information such as data, examples, facts, quotes, as opposed to just stating opinions or emotions. An analysis is not merely how you view the work, but instead by taking a critical view of the piece and discussing facts about it. Then make sure that each paragraph has a way to tie back to your thesis statement.

8. Write Your Conclusion - the last step is to write your conclusion. In this paragraph, you should restate your thesis or at least, re-word it in a way that fits. Then you should explain why your reasonings were what they were and include some other point of note that may be necessary for concluding your analysis.

How To Write a Rhetorical Analysis in 8 Simple Steps. Indeed Career Guidehttps://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-a-rhetorical-analysis