Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis

English 3

Objectives

• We will evaluate the author's purpose, audience, and message, how the use of text structure to achieve the author’s purpose, how the author's diction and syntax contribute to the mood, voice, and tone of a text, and analyze the effects of rhetorical devices and logical fallacies on the way the text is read and understood.

• We will plan, draft, and compose a rhetorical analysis essay using genre characteristics and craft.

What's the difference?

Literary Analysis vs Rhetorical Analysis

The difference between a Literary Analysis and a Rhetorical Analysis is...

• Literary analysis often concerns the ideas and themes in work.

• Rhetorical analysis is a way to examine other aspects: the elements involved, the techniques used, the context for the writing, and the author's overall stance.

Rhetorical Analysis Introduction

All authors write for a purpose. An author’s purpose may be to persuade, inform, entertain (easy as PIE), or some combination of reasons. An essay that analyzes how an author achieves that purpose through the use of language, or rhetoric, is called a rhetorical analysis.

How do you write a Rhetorical Analysis?

When you write a rhetorical analysis, you will identify one or more rhetorical strategies the author uses and explore the possible effects those strategies have on the reader. To do this, you will need to provide examples and evidence of rhetorical devices (such as repetition, allusion, or analogy) and rhetorical appeals (logos, pathos, or ethos) from the text. These examples and evidence can be used to evaluate how effectively an author achieves his or her purpose.

Multiple Choice

"Research compiled by analysts from NASA, as well as organizations from five other nations with space programs, suggests that a moon colony is viable with international support."

This is an example of which type of rhetorical device?

• Ethos

• Logos

• Pathos

What is the purpose of a Rhetorical Analysis?

Writing a rhetorical analysis allows you not only to examine the ways in which an author achieves his or her purpose, but also to take the opportunity to consider the ways in which language can have an effect on an audience. 

Vocabulary

• purpose - the reason for or goal of doing something

• rhetoric - the art of speaking and writing persuasively

• rhetorical analysis - an essay that analyzes how an author achieves his or her purpose through the use of rhetoric

Checklist for Rhetorical Analysis

Take Notes

In order to prepare to write a rhetorical analysis, do the following:

• Determine the author’s purpose

• Identify the author’s central argument or idea in the text

• Identify rhetorical appeals, or types of persuasion - logos, ethos, pathos

Preparing to write a Rhetorical Analysis Continued...

• Identify rhetorical devices that the author uses to strengthen his or her argument (metaphors, analogies, irony, sarcasm, repetition, rhetorical question, summary, paraphrase)

To write a rhetorical analysis, use the following questions as a guide:

• What is the author’s purpose? How do I know?

• What is the author’s central argument or idea? Where does the author present that idea?

• How does the author try to persuade the reader? Where does the author include appeals to logic, emotion, or values and beliefs?

• What devices does the author use to strengthen his or her argument? How do those devices strengthen the argument? How are they effective or ineffective in persuading the reader?

Practice

Using song lyrics

Song Analysis

https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/5abc0d88a8b98a00196ca84c

If this link does not work for you, the quiz can also be found in Google Classroom.

The Wrap Up

How does this all work together?

So far we have covered...

• Organizing literary analysis

• Making inferences

• Commentary (in relation to argumentative text)

• Author's purpose and message

• (2nd 9 weeks) - Poetic Devices

• (2nd 9 weeks) - Literary Device

What do we do with this info?

Use it as we continue to cover different types of literature, poetry, and other text.

Our next book...

Reading

The Bluest Eye

By Toni Morrison