Rhetorical Analysis by 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.

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 organization’s market materials and messages to determine their effectiveness. Thus, these critiques are rhetorical analyses, too.

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.

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.

Analyze 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.

We 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.

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. Lincoln’s brief remarks have been immortalized because he could envision an end to the war and a healing process.

At the other end of the continuum lies the text itself 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, you’ll begin to appreciate Lincoln’s 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.”

But then he immediately turns this purpose on its head: “But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this sacred ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” Lincoln’s words become powerful because they defy expectation: we cannot consecrate the field because the field is already consecrated.

Lincoln does not once refer to “the enemy” in his address 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, Lincoln’s language invokes the heroism and sacrifice of both sides.

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:

Analyze the Immediate Context Examine the author: What is the author’s 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?

Analyze 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?

Analyze 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?

Analyze the Broader Context (continued): Examine the larger society: What social, political, and economic influences can you find in the text?

Analyze 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?

Analyze Text (continued) Summarize the content: What is the author’s 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?

Analyze 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?

Organize and Write a Rhetorical Analysis Before you write: Take stock of your initial analysis If your selected text isn’t 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.

Organize 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?

Write 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.

Organize 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 author’s style, tone, and language, including metaphors. Analyze how the author responded to the immediate context and to the broader context.

Organize 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 we’ve 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.

Write 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.

Class 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.