https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/26/recline-tilt-seat-air-passenger
The purpose of rhetorical analysis is not to respond to the argument, nor is it to evaluate or to analyse the argument. The purpose is to examine how the author is attempting to persuade. This can involve an evaluation / assessment of the attempts, though this is always secondary. The goal is never to say that the attempts at persuasion fail or are successful. The goal is to identify those attempts and discuss how important they are to the argument. We are examining a basic element of communication, but one that is quite complex.
Rhetorical analysis for this course
I really want you to focus on persuasion in your rhetorical analysis: this is really what rhetorical analysis is. You are not analysing the text from a general perspective; you are analysing how the text attempts to persuade. The rhetorical appeals are very useful to accomplish this.
It is not sufficient to say an essay uses pathos. It is not even sufficient to point to a sentence and say that the sentence uses pathos. With rhetorical analysis, you need to explain how the pathos works and you should attempt to decide how important that pathos is to the overall persuasiveness of the essay’s argument. This should ideally be independent of whether or not it is persuasive to you personally. Try to keep a removed perspective in your analysis. Again, the purpose of rhetorical analysis is not really to say that the rhetoric works or does not work: it is to examine how it attempts to work.
Also, rhetoric is not that involved with capturing the reader’s or the audience’s attention. It is not about “hooks.” Rhetoric is about persuasion, rather than captivation. Of course, one cannot persuade anyone of anything unless one has that person’s attention; however, do not focus on “hooks” when thinking about rhetoric.
Do not feel you must examine the pathos, ethos, and logos of an essay for your rhetorical analysis. However, these are very useful concepts for guiding your rhetorical analysis. Do not feel you need to talk about all three. You might want to focus your attention on the most dominant or the most interesting: you can safely ignore one or two of them to focus on the others. You might get a better grade if you plan your analysis rhetorically: acknowledge, perhaps with a quick sentence, that the essay uses logos as the most dominant rhetorical appeal (if it does), but that your analysis will focus on the more interesting though less dominant appeals.
You will be asked to write one paragraph of rhetorical analysis for the exam-period short essay assignment. If there were more time in the course (and I did not have to spend all my time grading), I would get you to write another assignment: a rhetorical analysis assignment. In its place, the fourth participation exercise is meant to help you prepare for the final assignment.
Sample statements
Here are a variety of statements one might find in an essay. I have identified whether the statement is a summary statement, response statement, assessment statement, rhetorical analysis statement, or an inappropriate statement (at least, for a university essay).
Keep in mind that responses can include some summary statements, but should avoid assessment statements. Rhetorical analysis can include a limited number of summary statements and assessment statements. Of course, both responses and rhetorical analyses will contain a lot of statements that explain and defend the response statements and rhetorical analysis statements.
The following is meant mainly to illustrate rhetorical analysis statements. It assumes you have a reasonable understanding of the difference between summary, response, and assessment statements. You will notice that there is overlap between response and rhetorical analysis: rhetorical analysis is a type of response. Many of the examples here will depend on the context in which the statement appears.
| summary | response | rhetorical analysis | assessment | inappropriate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The essay makes a good point. | ✓ | ||||
| I agree with the essay’s argument. | ✓ | ||||
| The essay’s argument is persuasive. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The author is correct. | ✓ | ||||
| The author is agreeable. | ✓ | ||||
| The author is persuasive. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The essay is funny. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The argument includes an amusing anecdote. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The author includes a funny anecdote to help get us on pers side. | ✓ | ||||
| The author argues that vaccines are important. | ✓ | ||||
| I agree with the author that vaccines are important. | ✓ | ||||
| The author convinces me that vaccines are important. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The author uses extensive medical research to attempt to prove that vaccines are important. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The author attempts to convince us that vaccines are important by pointing to extensive medical research. | ✓ | ||||
| The essay’s argument relies on the opinions of experts. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| The author achieves persuasion by referring to many expert opinions. | ✓ | ||||
| The author uses a lot of data to convince the readers of pers authority. | ✓ | ||||
| The author uses many quotations. | ✓ | ||||
| The author gains authority by including quotations from well-known experts. | ✓ | ||||
| Because the essay makes the reader feel sad about the plight of the people involved, the reader is more inclined to agree with the author’s call to do something about the situation. | ✓ | ||||
| I don’t agree with Smith’s quotation of Wang. | ✓ | ||||
| I disapprove of Smith’s use of Wang’s statement. | ✓ | ||||
| Smith uses the statement from Wang to attempt to convince us of Smith’s argument, but Smith misuses the statement. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Singh’s essay fails to consider the opposing arguments. | ✓ | ||||
| I disagree with Singh’s failure to consider the opposing arguments. | ✓ | ||||
| In ignoring the opposing arguments, Singh tries to convince the readers that there are no other options. | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Because Singh’s essay ignores the opposing arguments, I am less persuaded by its argument.
|
✓ | ✓ |