1. Rhetoric and the Reader
Using SOAPSTONE for a Rhetorical Analysis of Literature
Reading 2.5
Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration
Reading 2.8
Evaluate the credibility of an author’s argument or defense of a claim by critiquing the relationship between generalizations and evidence… and the way in which the author’s intent affects the structure and tone of a text
Literary Response and Analysis 3.9
Explain how voice, persona, and the choice of narrator affect characterization and the tone, plot, and credibility of a text
Literary Response and Analysis 3.11
Evaluate the aesthetic qualities of style, including the impact of diction and figurative language on tone, mood, and theme
Literary Response and Analysis 3.12
Analysis the way in which a work of literature is related to the themes and issues of its historical period

2. What is Rhetoric? The art of communication…
Analysis and comprehension of how a writer has influences or persuades his/her an audience.

3. So what does this mean to you?
Analysis
Being able to recognize HOW other people are trying to get you to do something, buy something, believe something
Comprehension
Being able to use rhetorical strategies to get what YOU want
Advertisements
Try to get you to BUY something
Songs
Try to get you to BELIEVE something
Trying to persuade your parents to buy you a car
Trying to persuade a girl/guy to go out with you
Trying to persuade your teacher to give you more time on an assignment
“He who does not study rhetoric will be victim of it.”
–found on a Greek wall from 6th Century B.C

4. The Rhetorical Appeals
Of what is the author trying to persuade the audience?
Ethos
How does the author demonstrate his credibility
Why should the audience believe what the author is saying?
Pathos
How does the author use the audience’s emotions to help persuade them?
Logos
What facts and evidence does the author use to support the argument?

5. Rhetorical Appeals

6. Ethos The Author Credibility
If the audience is going to buy into the argument, they need to trust the author
The author needs to demonstrate he knows what he is talking about
Personal experience
Credentials
Research

7. Pathos The Audience Emotions
It’s important for the author to understand who his audience is
Their interests
The values
Their culture
One way to help persuade the audience is to get them emotional involved in the topic
Make them feel something

8. Organization / Evidence
Logos
The Text / The Topic
Organization / Evidence
In order for an argument to be believable, it needs to make sense
The author needs to provide evidence in order to persuade the audience
Facts
Examples
Research

9. What does rhetoric have to do with reading?
As a reader, it is important to look at
who is the AUTHOR
what is his or her PURPOSE for writing
HOW does he or she get the point across to their audience
SOAPSTONE
Subject
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Speaker
Tone
Organization
Narrative Style
Evidence
“Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

10. Rhetorical Appeals and soapstone
Ethos
Speaker
Tone
Pathos
Audience
Logos
Subject
Occasion / Context
Organization
Evidence
Narrative Style
Purpose

11. Subject
Each of these elements work with one another to persuade the audience
THE TOPIC
The general content and ideas contained in the text.
Logos
The subject of a text will determine the most logical structure the author must use
The Subject
(Logos)
The Audience
(Pathos)
The Rhetorical Triangle
The Writer
(Ethos)

12. DEFINITION: how society impacts the subject of a text
Occasion / Context
DEFINITION: how society impacts the subject of a text
Authors know how to refer to context to help the audience understand the position he or she takes and to connect positively with this or her argument.
Logos
The context helps to create a need for the subject of the text
Context =
Vietnam War

13. Occasion / Context What’s Happening? Rhetorical Analysis
The larger occasion = the broad issue which is the center of ideas and emotions.
The immediate occasion = the issue that catches the writer’s attention and triggers a response.
Where and when did the story take place?
In what historical context?
How does this context impact the message of the story?

14. Audience Rhetorical Analysis Pathos Toward whom is the text directed?
Primary?
Secondary?
What assumptions can be made about the intended audience?
How does the author utilize the audience’s emotions to persuade them?

15. purpose What the writer or wants to happen as a result of the text
what he or she wants the audience to believe or do after hearing or reading the text.
What is the purpose of the text? Is it…
To persuade
To call to action
To entertain
To inform

16. purpose Rhetorical Analysis
Considering the purpose is important so that the reader can examine the writer’s argument and the logic of it
What is the message?
What is the speaker's reason for writing the text?
In what ways does the author convey the message of the purpose?
How does the speaker try to spark a reaction in the audience?
How is the text supposed to make the audience feel? What is its intended effect?

17. speaker Credibility Rhetorical Analysis
The speaker and the author are NOT the same thing
How does the author make the speaker a reliable source?
What can we tell about the “character” of the speaker?
If we don’t know the author, then we have to look at his/her text
Persona
Is someone identified as the speaker?
What assumptions can you make about the speaker? (e.g., age, gender, class, emotional state, etc.)
How does the writer present his/her narration?
What is the character of the speaker?
How does the speaker’s credibility help to persuade the audience?

18. Why is it important to understand persona?
What is Persona?
It is the “mask” or character the writer or speaker creates for him/herself
Don’t get fooled by the author!
The writer creates a persona to make himself or herself more believable and trustworthy so that the audience will buy into what he or she is saying

19. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary”
tone
Rhetorical Analysis
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary”
Ethos
What is the author's attitude toward the subject?
How does the diction (choice of words) point to tone?
How does syntax create a specific tone?
How does imagery create a specific tone?
How does the tone help to persuade the audience?

20. organization Rhetorical Analysis Logos How is the text organized?
How does the writer arrange his/her content?
Stylistic and Linguistic Elements: syntax, language, literary devices, imagery, diction, detail.
How does the organization help to persuade the audience?
Chronological
Cause and Effect
Flashforwards / Flashbacks

21. Narrative style Rhetorical Analysis Logos
How does the writer tell the “story”?
What does the writer reveal? Conceal?
Evidence
What does (s)he invert/subvert? Is the writing “dramatic, almost play-like in its use of dialogue or theatrical conventions?
How does the writer treat time?
How does the narrative style help to persuade the audience?

22. evidence Rhetorical Analysis Logos How the argument is supported
Facts
Statistics
Examples
What kind of diction dominates the text?
What is the source of the images (e.g, nature, weapons, law, science, theology, love, architecture, etc.).
What do sound devices contribute to the work?
How does the evidence provided help to persuade the audience?

23. Works Cited
Banks, William P. “A Short Handbook on Rhetorical Analysis.” Web. 27 Feb Roskelly, Hephzibah & Jolliffe, David. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing. Pearson Longman, New York: Print. “SOAPSTONE: An Acronym for Analyzing Texts for Point of View.” Web. 26 June