It is important to understand what a piece of rhetoric is asking of you, how it tries to persuade you, and whether that persuasion fits within the context you encounter it in. Rhetorical analysis helps you answer those questions.
Questions to ask when writing a rhetorical analysis.
In order to perform analysis, you must understand the context and then you must carefully study the ways that the discourse does and does not respond appropriately to that context.
First it is important to understand where the arguments are coming from to be able to analyze what effects it will have.
Rhetorical analysis asks how discourse functions in the setting in which it is found.
Rhetorical analysis looks at how the arguments are working to convince in certain situations.
The tone of the writing and whether that tone is appropriate for the context helps build a writer’s ethos, as does the accuracy of the information or the visual presentation of the rhetoric.
The tone of the writing can give the writer more ethos along with accurate information.
Ethos refers to the credibility of the rhetor—which can be a person or an organization.
Ethos uses a person or group with a credible background to persuade their audience. Like a toothpaste commercial will have a dentist in it.
but are very powerful when used in conjunction with the other two appeals.
Pathos is not very effective when used alone. It needs to be used along with logos or ethos.
it is difficult to get us to act unless we are also persuaded in our heart. This kind of appeal to emotion is called pathos.
Pathos uses peoples emotions to convince people about their ideas.
Logos is commonly defined as argument from reason, and it usually appeals to an audience’s intellectual side. As audiences we want to know the “facts of the matter,” and logos helps present these—statistics, data, and logical statements.
Logos is using facts backed up with evidence to convince a person their argument is true instead of just opinion.
Aristotle articulated three “artistic appeals” that a rhetor could draw on to make a case—logos, pathos, and ethos.
A rhetoric needs to have one or more of the three logos, pathos, or ethos.
what the rhetor wants you to believe or do and how he or she goes about that persuasion.
It is important to know what a rhetoric is trying to convince its audience is true and how are they going to convince people.
An analysis using the rhetorical triangle would ask similar questions about audience as one using the rhetorical situation, but it would also ask questions about the writer and the purpose of the document.
You could also look into the writers background and what might be the goal of the writers' document.
Constraints limit the way the discourse is delivered or communicated.
You have limits on the way you can communicate your reasoning or persuasion.
Audience can determine the type of language used, the formality of the discourse, the medium or delivery of the rhetoric, and even the types of reasons used the make the rhetor’s argument.
The rhetoric has to match the audience it is being used on. If it is not relevant to the audience, then they will not listen.
Understanding the exigence is important because it helps you begin to discover the purpose of the rhetoric.
If you don't understand the situation or event, then you can analyze the purpose of the rhetoric.
In other words, rhetorical discourse is usually responding to some kind of problem. You can begin to understand a piece’s exigence by asking, “What is this rhetoric responding to?” “What might have happened to make the rhetor (the person who creates the rhetoric) respond in this way?”
A situation has to start for rhetoric to start or have a justifiable reason to exist.
exigence
An urgent need or demand.
“wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric. And wherever there is ‘meaning,’ there is ‘persuasion.’
Whenever there is something trying to persuade us, there is also rhetoric.
If we refuse to stop and think about how and why it persuades us, we can become mindless consumers who buy into arguments about what makes us value ourselves and what makes us happy.
We need to actually think before we act or the persuasive people can make us believe anything.
Understanding rhetorical messages is essential to help us to become informed consumers, but it also helps evaluate the ethics of messages, how they affect us personally, and how they affect society.
We need to better look at the messages we are consuming in order to be able to tell if it is real facts that actually have effects.
Rhetoric—the way we use language and images to persuade—is what makes media work.
Media is always trying to convince people their way of doing or thinking about something is the only correct way.
The more we know about how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become about making savvy judgments about the people, situations and media we encounter.
If we analyze and come to conclusions, the more we better understand the situations we have every day.
We have, of course, heard that you “can’t judge a book by its cover,” but, in fact, we do it all the time.
It is a habit many people have to judge on apperence no matter how many times we hear "Don't judge a book by its cover"
You have become able to analyze quickly what people are saying about themselves through the way they choose to dress, accessorize, or wear their hair.
Most people look at the way people appear and connect it to a certain personality type.
. The ability to be (or at least appear) unbiased carries quite a bit of weight in many types of written communication in our society.
Most people don't want to read about someones opinion on a topic. They want to be informed about the topic or event based on facts.
Word choice is one way that we set the tone for our readers.
Writers use specific words to convey different emotions in any essay.
Another filmmaking technique to establish tone is the reaction shot. Here, a director shows the audience how they should interpret the actions of the actors in the scene by having the background actors react in a certain way.
Showing the background characters reaction shows the audience how they should be reacting to what the main actors are doing.
When we communicate in person, we use our body language as well as the sound of our voice to convey meaning.
We tell what type of emotion and mood a person is in by their body language.
Tone is how we let the people we communicate with know our attitude about our topic or even about the reader.
The tone tells the audience what type of mood the writing will have.
By changing small things in the sound of our voices, such as the pitch, the volume, or the length of the sounds, we can convey a wide variety of meaning,
The way you speak can convey a certain emotion to the audience.
It’s not true that paragraphs are “one size fits all,” and it’s not true that “anything goes”: you need to adjust your paragraphs to connect your ideas to your readers’ brains.
Not all paragraphs have to be the same length. It depends on what you are writing and what your audience can handle reading.
but once again depends upon a rhetorical negotiation between the writer’s needs and the reader’s needs.
The paragraph length depends on what type of writing and what audience you have.
Good writers blend argument and evidence as they write, so that readers get both elements together all the way through.
You have to have a balance of arguments and examples in order for your writing to be readable.
But the core idea—beer: sports car—needs to appear early and often, using the same key words, even, as an anchor for all the complex ideas and examples you’re connecting to it, as a place for the audience to recognize the main idea and find a way to “sing along.”
The main idea of the writing has to get repeated through the essay not every little detail.
(Who do you suppose are the specific primary and secondary audiences for this essay? How does the writing adapt to those audiences?)
You need to think of your exact audience when writing and not just people in general.
But in all these cases, you won’t be practicing forever. It helps to imagine another primary audience—sometimes called a “target audience”—outside the classroom, in order to gain experience tailoring your performance to a “real” audience.
People don't just have to write for classes forever. One day you will have to write to people other than in a classroom.
the primary audience is the director or coach who decides whether you’ll be first clarinet or take your place in the starting line-up.
I know this feeling.
but you also need to think for a minute to be sure your message is adjusted for the needs of your secondary audiences.
It is different to write to one person than multiple different people.
nothing has changed but the audience, and yet you’ve quickly created a whole new message, changing both the content and the language you were using.
Everyone has different opinions so you have to change your explanations to match what each person will view your message.
you need feedback from a real, live reader to help you gauge how your audience will respond.
If you get feedback from another person the writer can see what others seeing and not just what the writer is seeing.
If an idea is important, give an exact one-time snapshot with as much detail as possible.
If the writer wants to get an idea across they need to use a one specific example to go with the idea.This will create that idea in your readers head not just the writers.
In my head, I’m filling in “some people” and “their business” and “sometimes” with very specific, one-time-only examples.
The writer can think of very specific examples that come to mind. If they don't show that in the writing itself it will not come to the readers mind.
But the more I care that you know exactly what I’m thinking, the more the details matter to me, then the more information I need to give you.
If the writer wants the readers perception to be the exact same as theirs the writer was to give more descriptions.
two different versions of “green”? three versions? five? In the twenty-five minds in a classroom, say, we might have at least twenty kinds of little, and maybe a hundred kinds of green, and we haven’t even discussed what kind of “ball” we might be talking about.
Everyone has a different interpretation of the same writing. We all have our own perspectives and opinions.
Already there’s some possible disagreement, even though it seemed so clear what “little” meant.
Everyone has a different idea of what something means even if it seems obvious. Everyone knows what little means, but little is to vague of a description.
If you can confuse your best friend in the whole world, even when he’s standing right there in front of you, think how easy it could be to confuse some stranger who’s reading your writing days or months or years from now.
Even if your friend who knows what kind of person you are doesn't understand your writing, a stranger never will.
Since the telepaths can read the storyteller’s mind, they don’t need any other written details: they know the whole story instantly.
Most people can not read the writers mind. That is why it is important to show not tell. That way everyone can read and understand the point the writer is trying to get across.
If you tell without showing, your reader might not only be confused but might entirely disbelieve you. So you’re two strikes down.
In writing you have to give examples instead of just explaining everything. This way the readers can visualize and is easier to believe your point is true.
But if you write from those three principles, and use some of the strategies listed below, your writing will finally have a fighting chance of being real, not just rules.
If people follow the strategies listed it will actually readable essay rather than a template.
Make clear points early so that your audience can spot your expertise or passion right from the start.
It is important to put the main point of the writing towards the beginning of the essay. That way they will know what to expect with the rest of the essay.
(Unless you do a good job showing what you mean, your audience will not understand your message. You will not meet their expectations or accomplish your goals.)
Making clear examples will help the audience understand and relate to your points. If you just explain everything it can make the audience bored.
we pay attention to the needs of the author and the needs of the reader rather than the needs of the teacher
I think students get so focused on what they think the teacher wants rather than what will work for the writing. I know that is what stresses me out when I do a writing assignment.
Write about what you know about, are curious about, are passionate about (or what you can find a way to be curious about or interested in). Show, don’t just tell. Adapt to the audience and purpose you’re writing for.
I think these rules are a lot more simple, but still help with writing.
When we write to the rules, writing seems more like a chore than a living process that connects people and moves the world forward.
This is definitely how I feel when writing. It also stresses me out with so many rules I am afraid that I will not do them right and my writing will suffer because of it.
Always have a thesis. I before E except after C. No one-sentence paragraphs. Use concrete nouns. A semi-colon joins two complete sentences. A conclusion restates the thesis and the topic sentences. Don’t use “I,” check your spelling, make three main points, and don’t repeat yourself. Don’t use contractions. Cite at least three sources, capitalize proper nouns, and don’t use “you.” Don’t start a sentence with “And” or “But,” don’t end a sentence with a preposition, give two examples in every paragraph, and use transition words. Don’t use transition words too much.
Everyone learns these rules in English class for writing assignments. I think even after learning it multiple times it is still hard to follow.