1. King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
Rhetorical Analysis
King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”

2. Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical analysis is the systematic examination of strategies an author uses to achieve his or her purpose.
These strategies include:
Rhetorical situation
Means of persuasion
Rhetorical strategies
We’ll go through strategy type in detail.

3. Rhetorical Situation Strategies: Read headnote Clues in essay: Google
Author information
Historical context
Background information
Information about the issue
Essay’s structure
Clues in essay:
Word and phrase choices reveal preconceptions, context, expectations of reader.
Google
Research author
Research essay’s topic
Useful strategies for analyzing the rhetorical situation include:
Looking at the essay’s headnote, as many of the essays in our book have.
The headnote will often have information about the author, historical period of the piece, background information, information about the issue being discussed, notes about the essay’s structure, etc.
Looking for clues within the essay.
The author’s use of particular words and phrases can sometimes provide information about his/her preconceptions and/or the cultural context of the essay. From this, you may be able to deduce what knowledge he expects his/her reader to have.
Does the author repeat any words or phrases? To what end?
Google and research
Use Google to do some quick, preliminary research about the author and the author’s topic. You can find background information and biographical materials, as well as look up references you are not familiar with.

4. Rhetorical Situation: Triangle
Rhetorical triangle and pentagon:
Writer. Audience. Purpose.
Medium.
Where did it originally appear?
Are there pictures, images, graphs, charts, etc.
Context.
You remember all this.

5. Rhetorical Situation: Audience
To determine audience, look at:
Language
Evidence
Allusions
To analyze audience, ask:
Who is the author’s intended audience?
How does writer see audience? friendly, approachable, hostile, confrontational, intelligent, neutral, open-minded, etc.?
What values do you think the intended audience possesses?
Does the author assume the audience is informed or uninformed?
Is the writer being friendly, confrontational, or neutral toward the reader?
Are there places where the author and reader share anything in common?
To analyze the writer’s audience, ask:
Who is the author’s intended audience?
Does the writer see the audience as friendly, approachable, hostile, confrontational, intelligent, neutral, open-minded, etc.
What values do you think the intended audience possesses?
Does the author assume the audience is informed or uninformed?
Is the writer being friendly, confrontational, or neutral toward the reader?
Are there places where the author and reader share anything in common?

6. Rhetorical Situation: Purpose
To determine author’s purpose, ask:
Is purpose stated or implied?
Is purpose to convince or to persuade (encourage action)?
Is it to inform, explore, make a decision, or a form of meditation? Or a mixture of some?
Does the author primarily rely on pathos, ethos, or logos?
What does author rely on secondarily?
Does the writer have a hidden agenda?
To determine author’s purpose, ask:
Does the writer directly state his/her purpose or is the purpose implied?
Is the purpose to convince or to persuade (encourage action)? Is it to inform, explore, make a decision, or a form of meditation? Or a mixture of some?
Does the author primarily rely on pathos, ethos, or logos?
What does he rely on secondarily?
Does the writer have a hidden agenda?
What is King’s purpose?
What does he rely on? Pathos, ethos, or logos?

7. Rhetorical Situation: Influences
The author
Has author’s background influenced argument’s content?
Look at education, experience, race, gender, political beliefs, religious beliefs, age, experiences, etc.
To analyze author, ask:
What is the author’s background?
How does their background effect the content?
What preconceptions does the author have?
Determine, if you can, whether the writer’s background has influenced the argument’s content. Background items may include: education, experience, race, gender, political beliefs, religious beliefs, age, experiences, etc.
To help analyze the writer ask:
What is the writer’s background?
How does his/her background effect the content?
What preconceptions does the writer have about the subject?
What is King Jr’s background?
Pastor. Led boycotts, protests, marches, other non-violent protest movements. Author. One of the leaders of the Civil Right’s Movement.
Where can we find this information?

8. Rhetorical Situation: Topic
To analyze topic and content, ask:
What is the argument’s topic?
Why did the author write about it?
Is the argument fully developed?
To analyze the topic, ask:
What is the argument’s topic?
Why did the author chose to write about this topic?
Is the argument for the topic developed fully enough?

9. Rhetorical Situation: Context
The situation that creates the need for the argument.
To analyze the context, ask:
What situation, or situations, set the stage for the argument?
What social, political, and cultural events triggered the argument?
What historical references situates this argument in a particular place or time?
The context is the situation that creates the need for the argument
To analyze context, ask:
What situation, or situations, set the stage for the argument?
What social, political, and cultural events triggered the argument?
What historical references situates this argument in a particular place or time?

10. Rhetorical Situation: Medium
The medium is the delivery system of the message.
Is the medium an essay, a movie, a book, a review, a letter, a song, etc.?
How does the medium affect the message?
If it’s mixed media, such as text and images, how does that affect the message?
The delivery system of the message.
One additional consideration is the medium or the argument.
Is the medium an essay, a movie, a book, a review, a letter, a song, etc.?
How does the medium affect the message?
If it’s mixed media, such as text and images, how does that affect the message?
What is the medium of King’s essay?
How does a letter change the message as opposed to an op-ed piece?

11. Means of Persuasion To analyze logos, pathos, and ethos, ask:
Where does the author make these appeals?
Why do you think he chose one appeal type over the other?
How effective is the appeal?
Could another appeal have been more effective?

12. Means of Persuasion: Ethos
Ethos – appeals based on character, credibility, and reliability
Where does King make appeals to ethos?
page 1: ¶2.
Page 2: ¶3
Page 4: ¶1 and bottom ¶
Page 6: middle of bottom

13. Means of Persuasion: Pathos
Pathos – appeals based on audience’s needs, emotions, and values.
Where does King make appeals to pathos?
Page 1: ¶3
Page 3: big ¶
Page 4: ¶4-6
Page 6: middle of bottom ¶ and a bit later
Page 7: ¶1 and last full ¶
Page 8: ¶3 and bottom of ¶4
Page 9: ¶3

14. Means of Persuasion: Logos
Logos – appeals based on logic or reason.
Often depends on:
Inductive reasoning.
Supplying evidence for conclusions
Deductive reasoning.
Reasoning from premises to reach logical conclusion.
Where does King make appeals to logos?
Page 6: middle of big ¶
Page 8: ¶3

15. Rhetorical Strategies
Strategies include:
Thesis statement
Organization
Evidence
Stylistic techniques
Rhetorical strategies that writers use include: thesis, organization, evidence, and stylistic techniques

16. Rhetorical Strategies: Thesis
Thesis – the essay’s main argument.
What is King’s thesis?
Thesis – the essays main argument. The position the argument supports.
What is King Jr.’s thesis?
He is “confined here in the Birmingham city jail”
His “present activities” have been determined “unwise and untimely.”
To the point: “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”

17. Rhetorical Strategies: Thesis
King’s thesis:
He is “confined here in the Birmingham city jail”
His “present activities” have been determined “unwise and untimely.”
To the point: “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”
Thesis – the essays main argument. The position the argument supports.
What is King Jr.’s thesis?
He is “confined here in the Birmingham city jail”
His “present activities” have been determined “unwise and untimely.”
To the point: “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”

18. Rhetorical Strategies: Organization
Organization – how the writer arranges ideas, thoughts, evidence, etc.
How does King organize his letter?
Organization – how the writer arranges his/her ideas, thoughts, evidence, etc.
How does King organize his letter?
King begins by addressing the charge that his actions are untimely. If anything, says King, his actions are not timely enough – after all, African Americans have “waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights” (3).
He then addresses the issue of his willingness to break laws, and he makes the distinction between just and unjust laws.
After chiding white moderates for not supporting his cause, he discusses the fact that some people have accused him of being extreme. According to King, this charge is false. If he had not embraced a philosophy of non-violent protest, the streets of the South would be “flowing with blood” (6).
King then makes the point the contemporary church must “recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church” (8). He does this by linking his struggle of freedom with the “sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God” (9).
King ends his argument by asserting both his humility and his unity with the white clergy.

19. Rhetorical Strategies: Organization
King’s organization:
Begins by addressing the charge that his actions are untimely.
He claims his actions are not timely enough – African Americans have “waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights” (3).
Then addresses his willingness to break laws.
Makes the distinction between just and unjust laws.
After chiding white moderates for not supporting his cause, he discusses the fact of being accused of extremism.
According to King, this charge is false. If he had not embraced a philosophy of non-violent protest, the streets of the South would be “flowing with blood” (6).
Then points out that contemporary church must “recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church” (8).
He links his struggle of freedom with the “sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God” (9).
King ends his argument by asserting both his humility and his unity with the white clergy.
How does King organize his letter?
King begins by addressing the charge that his actions are untimely. If anything, says King, his actions are not timely enough – after all, African Americans have “waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights” (3).
He then addresses the issue of his willingness to break laws, and he makes the distinction between just and unjust laws.
After chiding white moderates for not supporting his cause, he discusses the fact that some people have accused him of being extreme. According to King, this charge is false. If he had not embraced a philosophy of non-violent protest, the streets of the South would be “flowing with blood” (6).
King then makes the point the contemporary church must “recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church” (8). He does this by linking his struggle of freedom with the “sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God” (9).
King ends his argument by asserting both his humility and his unity with the white clergy.

20. Rhetorical Strategies: Evidence
Evidence – the use facts, observations, expert opinions, and other methods and devices to convince the audience.
What evidence does King use?
Evidence – The use facts, observations, expert opinions, and other methods and devices to convince the audience.
What devices does King Jr. use?
King references many historical events and persons, such Jesus, Socrates, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, etc.

21. Rhetorical Strategies: Evidence
King’s evidence:
References historical events and persons, such as:
Jesus
Socrates
St. Paul
St. Augustine
Martin Luther
Abraham Lincoln
What devices does King Jr. use?
King references many historical events and persons, such Jesus, Socrates, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, etc.

22. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Stylistic techniques include:
Simile
Metaphor
Allusion
Parallelism
Repetition
Rhetorical Questions

23. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Simile – compares two things using like or as
“Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured” (5)
Compares a the method of curing a boil to exposing and uncovering injustice. At the same time, he is comparing medicine to human conscience (an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior).

24. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Metaphor – compares two things without using like or as. It also suggests that two things share a quality.
“Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation” (3).
“When you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society” (3)
Compares segregation to a disease, but by not using “like” or “as,” he makes seem like an actual disease.
Compares poverty to an air tight cage, but by not using “like” or “as,” he makes it feel like an airtight cage – it suffocating and imprisoning.

25. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Allusion – refers to another literary work or passage or references an historical event, cultural event, political event, or other event, or even to a tv show, movie, art work, song, speech, etc.
“I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all’” (3).
“Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar” (4).
Allusion refers to another literary work or passage or references an historical event, cultural event, political event, or other event. Or something like a tv show, movie, art work, song, speech, etc.
References St. Augustine, a famous Christian writer.
References Nebuchadnezzar, from the Book of Daniel in The Bible, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego disobey Nebuchadnezzar.

26. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Parallelism – the use of a similar structure in the repetition of pairs or series of words, phrases, or clauses. It’s usually used to emphasize an idea or position.
“I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation” (9).
“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection” (5)
In the first passage note the list at the end of the sentence, it places the desired qualities (“courage,” “suffer,” and “discipline”) in the same spot in the list – a few words after “their.”
In the second, the parallelism comes from opposing words: “understanding” with “misunderstanding” and “good will” with “ill will” and “acceptance” with “rejection.” There’s also another parallel, of sorts, with “shallow” and “lukewarm.”

27. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Repetition – involves repeating a word or phrase for emphasis, clarity, or emotional effect.
“‘Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?’ ‘Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?’” (2).
This about words and sentence structure.

28. Rhetorical Strategies: Style
Rhetorical Question – a questions that is asked to encourage the reader to reflect on an issue, though they need not answer the question.
“‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’” (3).

29. Rhetorical Strategies: Assessing
Assessing the argument strategies:
Begin with assessment. Then support it.
Does an overall argument work?
Show how it does or does not.
Discuss the rhetorical strategies. Then assess their effectiveness.
Point out rhetorical strategies, means of persuasion, and rhetorical situations and analyze their effectiveness. Then make an overall assessment of the argument.
When you write a rhetorical analysis, there are many strategies to use. Two of these include:
Begin with an assessment and go on to support it.
Does the overall argument work? If so, show how it does or does not.
Begin with a discussion or the various rhetorical strategies the writer uses and then end with an assessment.
Point out rhetorical strategies, means of persuasion, and rhetorical situations and analyze their effectiveness. Then make an overall assessment of the argument.

30. Review This PowerPoint is on Blackboard.
Review it while writing your rhetorical analysis essay.

31. Homework Read “Locavore’s Dilemma” (703-06)
Write a draft rhetorical analysis of one of the following essays:
“Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?” (660-64)
“A Diversified Farmer . . .” (691-93)
“The Locavore’s Dilemma” (703-06)
Bring a copy to class
Typed and printed copy
Copy on laptop
Not a copy on your phone
It needs to be in a format that someone can interact with and leave notes.