1. Rhetorical Analysis

2. What is rhetoric? The study of effective speaking _______________
and _________________ in order to persuade
Rhetorical Analysis

3. What is rhetorical analysis?
What it’s NOT:
A _________________of a literary or scholarly work
It IS:
Requiring you to apply your critical reading skills in order
to “_________________________” a text
The goal is to articulate _________ the author writes to achieve their purpose, reach their audience, argue their position, and establish their persona.
Rhetorical Analysis

4. How does this differ from literary analysis?
In literary analysis, you are analyzing a different set of literary elements that help to shape the story’s
______________ or __________________.
Characterization
Plot
Setting
Simile, metaphor, personification
In a rhetorical analysis, we are examining the author’s
________________ for writing the piece in the first place
and the argument he or she is trying to make
Some of the same devices are examined (as well as new ones)—but for different reasons
Instead of shaping the story, we look at how these devices
___________________________________________.

5. Sample Rhetorical Analysis Prompt
After reading “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr., write an essay in which you describe the rhetorical purpose of the letter and analyze its stylistic, narrative, and persuasive devices.

6. How do I analyze rhetoric?
Analyze the strategies the author uses to achieve his or her _____________ or ____________ of writing their piece
Different authors have different goals
As a result, they will use different writing
__________________ to achieve those goals.
Rhetorical Analysis

7. Step #1
Read the article carefully and __________________ what you have read.
Use a highlighter to identify key passages or important facts
Rhetorical Analysis

8. Step #2: Rhetorical Analysis Questions
1. What is the author’s ________________ or overall argument that he or she is presenting?
2. What is the writer’s _______________ (to inform, to persuade, to instruct, to criticize)?
3. Who is the author’s intended __________________?
4. How does the author arrange his or her ideas? (Chronologically? Cause/effect? Problem/solution?)
Rhetorical Analysis

9. Step #2: Rhetorical Analysis Questions
5. How does the writer use _________________? (Word choice, arrangement, accuracy, formal vs. informal, technical vs. slang)
6. Does the writer use ___________________? Quotations? Why?
7. Are important terms ____________________?
8. What is the sentence structure of text? (Are there fragments, run-ons? Is it declarative, imperative, exclamatory? What effect does this have?
9. Does the writer use _________________________ to create an effect? (Italics, underlining, parentheses? Which ones are used and how?
Rhetorical Analysis

10. Step #3: The ultimate question
Once you have answered these questions, you must be able to answer the following question:
__________ does the author choose to write the way he or she does?
What ________________ does it produce?
Why would that effect be important to the writer?
How might it help him or her accomplish their goals for the piece?
Rhetorical Analysis

11. Goals The goal of any rhetorical analysis is to: How is this done?
Demonstrate your _________________________ of how the piece communicates message and meaning
How is this done?
Break down the piece into parts
Look at how each part works together to contribute to the overall argument

12. “Everything is an ______________”
Whenever humans communicate with other humans, they seek to elicit any number of responses ranging from understanding to emotional reaction to agreement to enlightenment or any one of almost limitless reactions.
You aren’t ____________________________________ when you are conducting your analysis
You are looking at HOW the author accomplishes his goal for writing the piece
You then choose a few of these methods to analyze and prove through textual examples

13. What does that mean for me?
You will explore all four elements using a PAPA square:
Purpose: What is the purpose of this piece?
How does author establish this?
Argument: What is the thesis? Is it
stated or implied?
Audience: Who is the intended
audience?
How does author establish this?
How does author establish this?
How does author establish this?
Persona: What public image is the writer giving?

14. Author’s _________________
Authors have specific purposes that guide their actions in communicating; what to write, how to write it
An author’s purpose in communicating could be to instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate, startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console, etc.
Authors have specific attitudes, which affect what and how they communicate
The attitude is the emotion the author communicates.
Consider if an author communicates with a flippant attitude as opposed to a serious attitude, or with drama as opposed to comedy, or calmly as opposed to excitedly
Any of these attitudes could either help or hinder authors in their efforts to communicate depending on the other factors in any given rhetorical situation.

15. Author’s Purpose (con’t.)
Specific backgrounds affect the nature of an author’s communication
Many factors affect authors’ ________________________.
Age
personal experience
Gender
Location
Ethnicity
political beliefs
Parents
Peers
level of education
Authors’ backgrounds affect what authors assume about the world, their audiences, what and how they communicate, and the context in which they communicate.

16. ____________________
Like authors, audiences are unavoidably human beings whose particular activities are also affected by specific purposes, specific attitudes, and specific backgrounds.
Audiences also have
A purpose for reading, listening, viewing, etc.
Attitudes they possess while reading
Backgrounds that influence them

17. __________________
The persona can be separate distinct from the author
It is the _______________ chosen by the author for a particular artistic purpose.
The persona may be a character in the work or merely an unnamed narrator; but, insofar as the manner and style of expression in the work exhibit taste, prejudice, emotion, or other characteristics of a human personality, the work may be said to be in the voice of a persona.

18. ______________________
An author’s argument is the opinion or belief that he or she wants to persuade readers to believe
How do you discover the argument?
Locate the thesis, whether it is directly stated or implied.
What are the author’s assumptions? What is he or she taking for granted?
What kind of support is being used? Is it relevant to the argument?
Is the author biased?

19. How does the author establish all four?
In the center of the PAPA square, you will make note of the types of arguments and devices used to persuade”
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
Rhetorical devices
Literary devices