Rhetorical Analyses

Chapter Opener

8

examine in detail the way texts work

examine in detail the way texts work

How to start

  • Need to find a text to analyze?
  • Need to come up with ideas?
  • Need to organize your ideas?

Rhetorical Analyses

Rhetorical analyses foster the kind of careful reading that makes writers better thinkers. Moreover, they’re everywhere in daily life, especially in politics and law. In fact, they’re hard to avoid, especially if you spend much time reading new media.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS You’ve seen too many slick TV spots touting smartphones that do everything but wash dishes. Your own new phone doesn’t work quite so well. You decide to write a rhetorical analysis of the ads to explain why consumers (like you) fall so easily for questionable claims.
CLOSE READINGOF AN ARGUMENT For an assignment in a writing class, you do a close reading of an argument a politician makes in an important campaign speech. You want to discover exactly how and why he manages to sound so much more persuasive than most Washington pols.
CULTURAL ANALYSIS Management has heard that the mostly blue-collar customers of a clothing store where you work don’t like its Web site. You understand the problem: The models online all frolic at expensive resorts while looking ridiculously thin, young, and upper class. You write a brief cultural analysis of the situation, suggesting changes to align the store’s online presence to the diversity of its actual customers.