Composing a Rhetorical Analysis
You perform a rhetorical analysis by analyzing how well the components of an argument work together to persuade or move an audience. You can study arguments of any kind — advertisements (as we’ve seen), editorials, political cartoons, and even songs, movies, or photographs. In every case, you’ll need to focus your rhetorical analysis on elements that stand out or make the piece intriguing or problematic. You could begin by exploring some of the following issues:
What is the purpose of this argument? What does it hope to achieve?
Who is the audience for this argument? Who is ignored or excluded?
What appeals or techniques does the argument use — emotional, logical, ethical?
What type of argument is it, and how does the genre affect the argument? (You might challenge the lack of evidence in editorials, but you wouldn’t make the same complaint about bumper stickers.)
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Who is making the argument? What ethos does it create, and how does it do so? What values does the ethos evoke? How does it make the writer or creator seem trustworthy?
What authorities does the argument rely on or appeal to?
What facts, reasoning, and evidence are used in the argument? How are they presented?
What claims does the argument make? What issues are raised — or ignored or evaded?
What are the contexts — social, political, historical, cultural — for this argument? Whose interests does it serve? Who gains or loses by it?
How is the argument organized or arranged? What media does the argument use and how effectively?
How does the language or style of the argument persuade an audience?
In answering questions like these, try to show how the key devices in an argument actually make it succeed or fail. Quote freely from a written piece, or describe the elements in a visual argument. (Annotating a visual text is one option.) Let readers know where and why an argument makes sense and where it falls apart. If you believe that an argument startles, challenges, insults, or lulls audiences, explain why that is the case and provide evidence. Don’t be surprised when your rhetorical analysis itself becomes an argument. That’s what it should be.