Title: Rhetorical Analysis by Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Charles Paine
1Rhetorical Analysisby Richard Johnson-Sheehan
and Charles Paine
- Purpose to determine how and why texts are
influential, or not. - Advertisers, marketing analysts, and public
relations agents use rhetorical analyses to
understand how well their messages are
influencing target audiences and the general
public. - Political scientists and consultants use it to
determine which ideas and strategies will be most
persuasive to voters and consumers. - Historians and rhetoricians use it to study
historic speeches and documents to understand how
and why they were influential in their day and
perhaps still influential today.
2- The ultimate objective to show why a text was
effective or persuasive. - By studying texts closely, we can learn how
writers and speakers sway others and how we can
be more persuasive ourselves. - Any time you are asked to analyze a nonfiction
text, you are most likely writing a rhetorical
analysis. - In your career, your supervisors may ask you to
closely analyze your organizations market
materials and messages to determine their
effectiveness. - Thus, these critiques are rhetorical analyses,
too.
3- A rhetorical analysis requires you to step back
from a text and consider it from multiple
perspectives. - Writing a rhetorical nalysis can give you a
heightened awareness of a text and better
appreciation of what the author accomplished. - Understanding how communication works or fails to
work is a worthy goal by itself, but rhetorical
analysis has other benefits.
4- It enables you to think about a text in more
depth. - To help you better understand the arguments the
artifact makes - To appreciate how the artifact was put together.
- In turn, this knowledge helps you in writing your
own texts. - You have a much better sense of what has been
said and written about your subject, and where
you have opportunities to contribute your own
ideas.
5Analyze the Context and the Text
- Select a text that has significance for you,
either because it was important when it was
written or it is about a subject that is
important to you. - Think of your analysis as running on a continuum
between considering the context (the relationship
between the piece of writing or speaking and the
larger society surrounding it) and the text
itself (what it is about and how it is designed.
6We can think of the context, which lies at one
end of the continuum, in two senses
- First, the immediate context refers to where
the text was written and read or heard. - For example, Abraham Lincoln delivered his
10-sentence, 272-word Gettysburg Address on
November 19, 1863, at the dedication ceremony of
a national cemetery, where he followed a speaker
who had talked for two hours.
7- Second, the broader context refers to the larger
cultural and historical circumstances in which a
text is produced and read. - The broader context was, of course, the Civil
War, which had taken thousands of lives and was
far from over when Lincoln spoke. - Lincolns brief remarks have been immortalized
because he could envision an end to the war and a
healing process.
8- At the other end of the continuum lies the text
itself. We can consider a text as if it were a
piece in a museum, where we closely scrutinize
it. - For example, if you look carefully at the
language of the Gettysburg Address, youll begin
to appreciate Lincolns tactics and skill. - He says of his purpose We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final
resting place for those who here gave their lives
that the nation might live.
9- But then he immediately turns this purpose on its
head But in a larger sense, we can not
dedicatewe can not consecratewe can not
hallowthis sacred ground. The brave men, living
and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated
it, far above our poor power to add or detract. - Lincolns words become powerful because they defy
expectation we cannot consecrate the field
because the field is already consecrated.
10- Lincoln does not once refer to the enemy in his
address. Instead he says, The brave men, living
and dead, who struggled here. - Even though the cemetery was a burying ground for
Union soldiers, Lincolns language invokes the
heroism and sacrifice of both sides.
11- Often in the back and forth movement between text
and context, we gain surprising insights about
how a text achieves certain effects. - These questions will help you get started in
composing a rhetorical analysis
12Analyze the Immediate Context
- Examine the author
- What is the authors purpose To change beliefs?
To inspire action? To teach about a subject? To
praise or blame? To amuse? - How did the author come to this subject?
- What else did the author write?
13Analyze the Immediate Context (continued)
- Examine the audience
- Who was the intended audience?
- What were their attitudes and beliefs about the
subject? - What were their attitudes and beliefs about the
author? - What does the author assume about the audience?
14Analyze the Broader Context
- Examine the larger conversation
- Why did this text appear at this particular time?
- What else has been said or written about the
subject? - What was going on at the time that influenced
this text?
15Analyze the Broader Context (continued)
- Examine the larger society
- What social, political, and economic influences
can you find in the text?
16Analyze the Text
- Examine the kind of text
- What kind of text is it speech? Essay?
Letter? Editorial? Advertisement? - What is the medium print? Web site? Voice
recording?
17Analyze Text (continued)
- Summarize the content
- What is the authors main claim or main idea?
- How is the main claim or main idea supported?
- How is the text organized?
- Examine the appeals
- Ethos How does the author represent
him/herself? How does the author build or fail
to build trust? - Logos What kinds of facts and evidence does the
author use? - Pathos How does the author appeal to values
shared with the audience?
18Analyze the Text (continued)
- Examine the language and style
- Is the style formal? Informal? Academic?
- Does the author use humor or satire?
- What metaphors are used?
19Organize and Write a Rhetorical Analysis
- Before you write
- Take stock of your initial analysis
- If your selected text isnt working for the
assignment, find one that works better. - Look at your notes on the author, the audience,
the circumstances of original publication or
delivery, what other texts the author was
responding to, and what else was going on at the
time. - Spend some time think about how to organize your
analysis.
20Organize and Write An Analysis (continued)
- Think about your readers
- How much do readers know about your text? The
author? The events surrounding the text? Other
texts like it? - What will readers gain from reading your analysis?
21Write an Introduction
- Begin your analysis by giving the necessary
background - Inform your readers about the author and why the
author selected this particular topic. - Tell readers about the original audience and the
conversation about the topic that was going on at
the time the text was written. - Make a claim
- Make a claim about how the text you are analyzing
used rhetoric for particular purposes.
22Organize and Write the Body of Your Paper
- Support your claim with your detailed analysis of
the text and context - Give examples from the text to show how the
authors builds credibility with the audience,
appeals to their values and beliefs, and
convinces them with facts and evidence. - Analyze the authors style, tone, and language,
including metaphors. - Analyze how the author responded to the immediate
context and to the broader context.
23Organize the body of your paper (continued)
- This is a researched paper. Therefore, you must
find additional sources to support your claim - Apply theories, viewpoints, argumentative
strategies (that weve learned about this
semester) from other writers, experts, and
examples, and from other similar texts to support
your claim. - Use 3-5 credible sources. Use APA in text and as
a Reference Page.
24Write a Conclusion
- End with more than a summary
- Draw larger implications from your analysis.
- End with a vivid example from the text.
- Finally, revise, revise, revise!
- Evaluate your draft
- Make sure your analysis meets the requirements of
the assignment. - Consider where you might provide more information
about the context. - Consider where you might provide more evidence
supporting your claim about the text. - When you have finished revising, edit and
proofread carefully.
25Class Exercise
- Public speeches are usually intended to persuade.
You can find many examples of public speeches on
the Web. Many politically oriented Web sites
contain transcripts of speeches and often the
audio and video. (For example, go to
www.whitehouse.gov for speeches by the president,
or to a history site, such as the History
Channel, for other famous speeches). - Select a speech to analyze and answer the
following questions. - 1. What is the rhetorical purpose? What did the
speech indent to achieve? - 2. Where was the speech given? How does the
speaker connect with the beliefs and attitudes
of the audience? - 3. What appeals does the speech rely upon the
rational appeal (logs) the emotional appeal
(pathos), or the ethical appeal (ethos)? - 4. How is the speech organized?
- 5. How formal or informal is the style? Is
humor used? - 6. Does the speaker use any metaphors and for
what purpose? - When you have completed your analysis, formulate
a thesis about the speech.