Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis

Definition: A rhetorical analysis is an evaluation of how well or how poorly a communicator persuades a particular audience. It is the process of examining how successfully a communicator uses rhetorical appeals, strategies, language, arguments, and evidence to influence a particular audience.

• In a rhetorical analysis, evaluate a communicator's rhetorical effectiveness by analyzing the topic, purpose, situation, appeals, structures, language, devices, claims, evidence, and arrangement used to persuade the intended audience.

  • Evaluation of rhetorical effectiveness should be the overall topic, primary content, and major focus of a Rhetorical Analysis Essay. Analyze the effectiveness of persuasion. Do not merely summarize content or report facts. Analyze. Do not summarize. Answer the question "How?" rather than "What?"

Procedure of Rhetorical Analysis

 (How To Analyze Rhetoric)

In a rhetorical analysis, evaluate the effectiveness of a persuasive piece by analyzing its rhetorical situation, appeals, structures, language, devices, claims, evidence, and techniques to persuade a specific intended audience. Conduct a rhetorical analysis by completing the steps below.

1. Evaluate the Topic 

   • • 1. • Topic: Analyze the main topic, controversy, or issue addressed in the text. This includes its exigence and historical context.  

          • Sides or Positions: Identify and analyze the various sides or positions that exist within the controversy.

          • Stakeholders: Identify and analyze the controversy's stakeholders. Evaluate the passions, interests, factions, or paradigms that compel stakeholders to take one side of the controversy.

2. Understand the Purpose 

   • • 1. • Purpose: Identify the communicator's primary goal. What is he or she trying to achieve? What is the speaker trying to persuade the audience to think, feel, believe, or do? (Evaluate the effectiveness of a communicator's persuasion in the context of what he or she is trying to achieve.)

3. Analyze the Rhetorical Situation 

   • • 1. • Audience: Analyze the demographics and characteristics of the intended Audience.

            • • Consider demographics such as age, gender, education, socio-economic status, cultural background, and interests. These factors shape the audience's perceptions and responses to the message.

              • Evaluate the audience's beliefs, values, and attitudes. These include their political leanings, religious affiliations, preconceived notions, and fears. Effective communicators tailor their message to resonate with an intended audience's perspectives.

              • Evaluate the passions, interests, factions, and paradigms that motivate the audience. Is the audience hostile, amenable, or indifferent to the subject? 

          • Communicator: Analyze the credibility and authority of the author. Evaluate the communicator's qualifications, background, and presentation of the topic.

            • • Does she have any special training, experience, or knowledge on the subject?

              • Does the communicator concede her opponents' positions and present the issue fairly without intentional obfuscation, bias, trickery, or deceit?

              • Does the communicator actually want to solve the issue or only to win the argument and persuade the audience irrespective of truth and potential consequences? 

          • Message: Evaluate the substance or knowledge transmitted from the communicator to the audience. Understand the claims, arguments, and evidence presented. 

          • Context or Exigence: Consider the circumstances that prompted the rhetorical act. Describe and analyze any specific Context or Exigence pertinent to the text.

          • Format: Determine if Modality, Circulation, Medium, or Genre influences the effectiveness of the communicator's persuasion considering the target audience. 

4. Analyze Rhetorical Appeals 

   • • 1. • Ethos: Examine how the author establishes credibility and trustworthiness: expertise, reputation, character, & fairness of presentation.

          • Pathos: Identify the emotional appeals used to connect with the audience. Analyze the language, stories, and examples that evoke emotions.

          • Logos: Evaluate the logical arguments and evidence presented. Look for facts, statistics, logical reasoning, and examples.

5. Analyze Style & Techniques 

   • • 1. • Tone: Determine the author’s attitude towards the subject and audience. Is it formal, informal, serious, humorous, etc.?

          • Language: Examine Diction, Syntax,  Imagery, Figurative Language. How does the language used to enhance or detract from the effectiveness of persuasion regarding the target audience?

          • Devices: Analyze the Rhetorical Devices used within the text and their related impact on the quality of persuasion regarding the target audience.

6. Examine Claims & Evidence 

   • • 1. • Claim: Identify and analyze the primary and secondary claims made by the speaker. What is the author primarily trying to prove? What assertion(s) are made?

          • Evidence: Analyze the type and validity of evidence the speaker uses to support her claims. 

7. Examine Arrangement & Delivery 

   • • 1. • Arguments: Consider the types of arguments presented. How do they affect the speaker's success or failure at persuading this particular audience?

          • Text Structures: Analyze how the text and specific paragraphs are organized and how this affects the speaker's overall persuasive effectiveness. 

8. Evaluate Rhetorical Effectiveness 

   • • 1. • Evaluation: All things considered, how well or how poorly has this communicator persuaded this particular audience to think, feel, believe, or act in the manner intended?  Has the speaker achieved her goal? Has her rhetorical strategies achieved their purpose? Are her appeals persuasive to this audience? Why or why not?

* Evaluation of rhetorical effectiveness should be the overall topic, primary content, and major focus of a Rhetorical Analysis Essay.*
** Analyze the effectiveness of persuasion for a specific audience. Do not merely summarize content or report facts. Analyze. Do not summarize. **

8. • • 1. • Audience Reaction: Consider how the audience is likely to respond. Are the arguments compelling and convincing?

9. Formulate a Thesis

   • Thesis: Based on your evaluation, formulate a thesis statement that encapsulates your evaluation of the text’s rhetorical effectiveness.

• Rhetorical Analysis Template (Multiple Articles): [Author 1], [author 2], and [author 3]'s rhetoric for/against [subject/controversy] is effective/ineffective due to [adjective + element of rhetoric 1], [adjective + element of rhetoric 2], [adjective + element of rhetoric 3]."

  • • • Example: Smith, Garza, and Appleton’s rhetoric against COVID-19 vaccinations is ineffective due to its reliance on flawed studies, emotionally charged partisan bandwagon appeals, and anecdotal exceptions claimed as evidence for all cases.

Elements of Rhetorical Analysis  

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Resources of Rhetorical Analysis  

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