Most of you might be familiar with literary analysis from high school: you had to write an essay about what a poem, book, or short story means. A rhetorical analysis is similar (in that you have to break something down), but different in that you are focusing on what something does, or on what and how it works orhas effects for a specific audience in a specific context. We use rhetorical analyses to examine and explain how an author attempts to influence an audience.
Purpose: Find a visual image or short (~one minute or less) video clip that makes an argument, that you deem to be interesting, and that has a persuasive aim. By “interesting,” I mean that the image/video in question should have some sophistication about it: it should be tantalizing and potentially effective at reaching its audience. (There is no point in analyzing the obvious; pick something that makes an interesting argument that readers might be resistant to.) Then write an analysis that will help your readers understand how the text works to persuade its audience.
The object you choose is entirely up to you. Here are some general ideas, but you’ll want to choose a specific image or video:
- poster or series of posters
- advertisement, either print or television
- political/campaign poster/commercial
- short YouTube clip that makes some kind of persuasive argument
- photograph or piece of art
- public art/graffiti
- comic
Note Well: Your analysis should not simply paraphrase or summarize what the creator portrays or says. The reader (your audience) has already viewed the image/video and knows what it contains. Your purpose is to provide a way of understanding how the image/video persuades its audience.
Invention: The following basic questions may help you as you plan and draft your analysis. These questions are not meant to provide an outline for the paper; rather, they simply help you to think about the rhetorical aspects of the text.
- What is the rhetorical situation? Who is the image’s/video’s audience? What is its purpose? What is it responding to or trying to address? What does it hope to accomplish? Also, think about where the item originally appeared and when: this may help you to determine the purpose, audience, and scope of the argument. Think of the rhetorical situation as the image’s/video’s “problem”: what specific attitudes, beliefs, and values of the audience must the creator appeal to or counteract in order to succeed?
- How is ethos established? That is, what can you apprehend in the image/video about the creator’s character, ethics, reliability, and overall credibility? “Ethos” speaks to trustworthiness. Those who employ ethos to persuade say this: “Believe me, identify with me, because of the kind of person I am.”
- How would you describe the logos of the text? “Logos” speaks to the logic of the argument being made. More specifically, think about how the supporting claims and the implied claims of the image/video reinforce the overall thesis. How are they linked together? Also, how does the creator use evidence, data, to support the thesis? Those who use logos to persuade say this: “Believe me because what I say is reasonable.”
- How would you describe the pathos of the image/video? How does the creator appeal to emotions? “Pathos” means “feeling,” and it speaks to the desires, attitudes, and deeply engrained values of a person. Pathos is frequently communicated through vivid descriptions, images, details, and examples; pathos, like ethos and logos, is also communicated through the style and tone so pay attention to word choice, image choice, metaphors, and other stylistic features. Those who use pathos to persuade say this: “Believe me because X feels good, bad, fearful, joyful, admirable, (etc.) at the very cores of our beings.”
- How does the argument’s structure work? Why are the elements of the image/video arranged as they are? Could the creator have organized things in another way, and if so, why did he or she pick this arrangement?
- What is the role of style and tone? Style is one of the most important aspects of any rhetorical argument. Style speaks to the overall shape, mood, and atmosphere; it has to do with decisions at the sentence and word level, and is revealed through visual appearance.
- What seems to be the creator’s dominant strategy? Each of questions 2-6 addresses a particular kind of rhetorical strategy. All of these aspects are more than likely present in the text at issue, but in most cases, one strategy is dominant. If possible, identify the dominant strategy that the writer uses to solve the rhetorical problem that he or she faces.
Audience: Write to a specific audience that will benefit from your analysis. You may write to a friend, to a group of undergraduates, to members of an organization, to me as your teacher, to citizens in a particular area, or to any other specific person or group of people—but in any event, have in mind a particular way of reaching your audience as you write. Your audience will have seen your image/video, so assume a certain amount of knowledge on their part. Your goal is to enlighten a particular audience that needs your tutorial.
Length: 3-5 pages