Topic: Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Order Description

Read this article. Examine a sample of the language used in a community you belong to, you will think how communities create themselves by using arguments and how arguments are shaped by communities. Write an essay 5 pages, in which you analyze a single argument made in a text of your choice. A single text can be seen to make many arguments which can change depending on the audience and their interests. The circumstances of the texts transmission, available information about the author, available information about the subject matter, and numerous other factors. Your task is to identify and analyze a single argument only, the one you find most important or interesting. In your argument which you will introduce in a clear thesis statement, you’ll have to demonstrate how the text makes its argument. Justify your selection as part of the argumentative task.

Analyze the context,

1. Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials and authority for making the argument? What is their argument?

2. Who is the audience? How does the occasion or forum for the argument affect the way it is presented? How are the needs, interests, or desires of the audience reflected in the argument? What is the audience’s relationship to the community in question?

3. What is the larger conversation? When did the argument appear? Why did it get published at that particular moment? What event-or other argument- is it responding to? How is it participating in an ongoing conversation within the community in question?

Analyze the text

4. Summarize the argument. You should assume that your audience is not necessarily going to have read the text you are analyzing so you’ll need to highlight the following
a. What is the main claim being argued?
b. What reasons are given in support of the claim?

5. How does the argument develop? What strategies does the author use to organize the argument and direct the audience’s attention?

6. What is the medium? Written text only, How does this particular medium contribute to the effectiveness of the argument?

7. What is the genre? Editorial, narrative, polemic? What are the audience’s expectations for this genre? How does the argument fulfill or surprise those expectations?

8. What rhetorical appeals are used?
a. Ethos: How does the author represent themselves?
b. Logos: What kinds of facts and evidence does the author present?
c. Pathos: Does the author attempt to provoke an emotional response, or appeal to values shared by their audience?

9. How would you characterize the style and tone? Is the style formal, casual, personal, satirfical, or something else? Is the tone friendly, indignant, urgent, somber, or something else? How do choices of style and tone affect the argument?