Unit Two: Rhetorical Analysis Essay
In this 4-5 page essay you will perform a careful rhetorical analysis on a single essay, speech, or advertisement. Choose a short essay, speech, or advertisement and analyze its rhetorical appeals (proofs). The aim of the paper is to make an argument about how rhetoric is working in the text in question. What sort of ethos does the speaker, writer, or advertisement convey? Does it use logical arguments? Does rhetoric operate visually in this instance? Are there appeals to pathos or emotions at work?
All the texts in question depend on their “audience”—their participants—for effectiveness. To begin your analysis, some important questions to ask about audience and rhetorical situation include: where did you encounter the essay, speech, or ad? To whom might it be directed, and how do you know that? If you are working with a speech from one of the online speech banks, where and when was the speech originally delivered?
As you write your paper, use concrete details to support your claims. Consider quoting directly from the text under analysis, or using detailed language to describe the setting (in the case of a speech), or, in the case of an advertisement or text, images, colors, layout, etc. The paper need not address every aspect of every proof—if the whole paper focuses on one proof, that’s fine.
The aims of this assignment are threefold:
- demonstrate a working understanding of the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos)
- develop facility with analysis
- plan and write a formal essay that argues and supports a main point