Analyzing a Text Rhetorically

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Analyzing a Text Rhetorically
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Definition of a Text

• A set of symbols that communicates or means
  something. A text can be read and interpreted.
• From the Latin root, texere, meaning to weave

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Significant Texts in our Lives Can be Analyzed

• Religious texts
• Political texts
• Legal texts
• News articles
• Advertisements
• Songs
• Poetry
• Photography
• Personal experiences
• Dreams

• Historical documents
• Academic articles
• Memories
• Speeches
• Films
• Books
• Video games
• Performances
• Bodies
• Clothes

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Textual Analysis

• What does the term analysis mean to you?

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Analysis

• Breaking something down into its essential parts
  to understand how and why those parts work
  together to accomplish something (what how and
  why)
• Versus summary (what)
• Importance of structure
• Looking at the relationships between the parts
• Challenging binary oppositions

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Step 1 Breaking down into essential parts
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Step 2 Determining how parts work together
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Step 3 Determining what is accomplished when
parts work together
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Analysis Involves Interpretation

• Analyze To break something down into its
  essential parts to determine how those parts work
  together to accomplish something.

We can all see the same parts of the same text
working together in the same way, yet we each see
it accomplishing something different.
Or perhaps we all see a text accomplishing the
same thing, but see it doing so in different
ways.
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There are no wrong or right interpretations
of a text.
Its a duck!
Its a bunny!
But there are supported and unsupported
interpretations (quotations).
Its a tractor!
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Rhetoric

• What does the term rhetoric mean to you?

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Defining Rhetoric

• The language both written and visual that
  speakers and writers use to communicate or
  persuade.
• The study of that language, human interaction,
  and communication.

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Analyzing a Text Rhetorically

• Breaking down a text into its essential parts to
  understand how those parts work together to
  accomplish something
• Rhetorical analysis involves looking at the
  context, or the rhetorical situation, in which
  the communication takes place.

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Parts of a Rhetorical Situation
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Reading Rhetorically

• Reading like a writer reading the text as a
  series of choices.
• Understanding how the author(s) constructed the
  text and why the author(s) made certain choices
  about the text.
• Understanding context as well as content.

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Questions for Rhetorical Analysis

• Who is the author/speaker?
• What is the purpose of writing? What is the
  occasion that gives rise to the writing?
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the main argument?
• What does the nature of the communication reveal
  about the culture(s) that produced it?

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Lets Practice!
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Schools of Thought or Theories

• Formalists (symbols)
• Gender theorists (gender, sexuality)
• Marxist theorists (social class)
• Race-based theorists (race)
• New Historicism (history)
• Post-colonial theorists (nationality, empire)
• Psychoanalytical theorists (unconscious)
• Disability theorists (disability)
• Happiness theorists (happiness)
• Rhetoricians (rhetorical situations, language)

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Different Schools of Thought or Theories

• Importance of close reading, quoting, and
  explaining your interpretation of the quotes
• Ex. We hold these truths to be self-evident,
  that all men are created equal, that they are
  endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
  Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
  the Pursuit of Happiness (Declaration).