Exploring purpose and topic

Exploring purpose and topic

find a text

Make a difference. Done right, rhetorical analyses can be as important as the texts they examine. They may change readers’ opinions, open their eyes to new ideas, or keep an important argument going. They may also draw attention to rhetorical strategies and techniques worth imitating or avoiding.

When you write an angry letter to the editor complaining about bias in news coverage, you won’t fret much about defining your purpose and topic —they are given. But when responding to a course assignment, particularly when you can choose a text on your own to analyze rhetorically, you’ve got to establish the boundaries. Given a choice, select a text to analyze with the following characteristics.

Choose a text you can work with. Find a gutsy piece that makes a claim you or someone else might actually disagree with. It helps if you have a stake in the issue and already know something about it. The text should also be of a manageable length so that you can explore it coherently within the limits of the assignment.

Choose a text you can learn more about. Some items won’t make much sense out of context. So choose a text or series of texts that you can study and research. (plan your research) It will obviously help to know who created it; where it first appeared; and when it was written, presented, or produced. This information is just as important for visual texts, such as advertisements, posters, and films, as for traditional speeches or articles.

Choose a text with handles. Investigate arguments that do interesting things. Maybe a speech uses lots of anecdotes or repetition to generate emotional appeals; perhaps a photo-essay’s commentary is more provocative than the images; a print ad may arrest attention by its simplicity but still be full of cultural significance. You’ve got to write about the piece. Make sure it offers you adventurous things to say.

Need help deciding what to write about? See "How to Browse for Ideas."

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Choose a text you know how to analyze. Stick to printed texts if you aren’t sure how to write about ads or films or even speeches. But don’t sell yourself short. You can pick up the necessary vocabulary by reading models of rhetorical and critical analysis. Moreover, you don’t always need highly technical terms to describe poor logic, inept design, or offensive strategies, wherever they appear. Nor do you need special expertise to describe cultural trends or detect political motives.