Rhetorical
Analysis Essay
The objective of this assignment is to enable you to
write a well-constructed rhetorical analysis that makes a claim regarding the
rhetorical tools exhibited in a text.
The subject of your analysis will be a rhetorical article (editorial)
approximately 1-2 pages long.
Suggested sources: The New York Times, The
Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the London Times, the San Francisco
Chronicle, your city’s newspaper’s editorial page, etc..
You can use any editorial writer. Suggested writers include: Richard
Cohen, Ellen Goodman, Maureen O’Dowd, William Raspberry, Anna Quindlen.
Sample Websites from which to harvest editorials:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/editorialboard.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/
please remember to approve the topic by me before starting to work on it
In a rhetorical analysis, you should:
1)
Make a
clearly stated, complex claim about the text’s rhetoric and its effectiveness
(thesis)
2)
Contextualize
the text using the Rhetorical Triangle (author, audience and purpose)
3)
Discuss
rhetorical appeals of the text (logs, ethos, pathos)
4)
Observe
proper MLA quotation and citation formatting requirement
5)
Observe
proper MLA paper formatting requirement
6)
Choose a
clear organization for the paper that clearly aids understanding (think about
your audience the whole time you are writing)
7)
Create
interesting and functional introduction and conclusion paragraphs
Your essay should include the following parts:
Introduction:
this is where you introduce the text you will analyze and let the reader
know what your standpoint on this text’s rhetoric will be. Be sure to
include an explicitly stated thesis.
Write in the third person throughout, and use an
authoritative tone.
Body:
*Contextualize: who is the author, who is
the audience, and what is the author’s purpose in this piece of writing?
*Identify and discuss each of the
rhetorical appeals—ethos, pathos, logos
*Make sure each paragraph has a main
point, evidence from the text to support that point, and explanation of the
evidence
*Remember to keep your analysis as
objective as possible; discuss the text’s rhetoric, not its subject
Conclusion: this
is where you restate the claim you have made about the text and explain
why your analysis supports the claim. You should also use a recognized
concluding strategy; a formal conclusion, an implied conclusion, a broader
point made of the thesis.
Minimum length: 750 words
approve topic first
