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What Is Rhetorical Analysis?

If we think of rhetoric as the art of persuasion, rhetorical analysis is an appreciation or critique of that art. When you do a rhetorical analysis, you’re systematically examining the choices a writer or speaker makes and the effect of those choices on the intended audience. These choices may include big-picture strategies, such as structure, as well as choices at the sentence level (such as parallelism) and word level (such as strongly emotional language).

Just remember that this is an analysis. It is not a summary of the argument. It is not a simple listing of terms and strategies. And most important, it is not an argument about whether you agree or disagree with what the speaker is saying. Even if you are doing a rhetorical analysis of an argument on a controversial subject such as climate change or the death penalty, your view on the subject is irrelevant. Your analysis should focus on how the writer uses rhetorical strategies to achieve his or her purpose.