Rhetorical Analysis

Q: How do I write a rhetorical analysis?

A: First, find an article that takes a stance on an issue. One way to find a useful article is to read the opinion sections of a newspaper such as The New York Times or USA Today.

Once you find an article, you can begin to analyze its strengths and weaknesses in terms of artistic appeals (ethos, pathos, logos).

Introduction: Mention the article’s headline, source, and date. What do the two (or more) sides think about the issue that is presented in the article? What is the author’s claim? Is the author’s argument effective? Why? Regarding the author’s rhetorical situation, what are his audience, purpose, and artistic appeals? How does he respond to or ignore other positions? How does the article’s topic relate to or interest your paper’s reader? What is your thesis? The thesis statement is a generalized version of your paper’s main point.

Ethos Paragraphs: How does the author establish his moral character or knowledge of the subject? Does he take advantage of his morality and knowledge? Who is the author – what is his background? Do the readers accept his credibility? How does he gain the readers’ trust and belief? Does he use real or invented reputation? Does he use attractive visuals, celebrities, authority, experience, witness, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, or age? What common ground does he have with the readers?

Be sure to look for the two types of evidence: overt statements, which are explicit to the reader, and implied attitudes, which are the less obvious tone, style, and choice of evidence. Also, in your paper be sure to include effective passages from the article!

Logos Paragraphs: What are the author’s claims, reasoning, support, evidence, and implicit assumptions? What does he use to make his argument seem rational? Does he use comparisons, analogies, examples from history, or quotes from experts? Does he say that it’s “only LOGICAL to support this”? What assumptions does the audience already have? How much do they know and how well? What types of reasoning will they respond to? What does the author do to get the audience to accept the reasons and evidence? Again, include specific effective passages!

Pathos Paragraphs: Does the author identify his cause with the readers’ interests? How does he use emotions or values? What are the readers’ responses? How does the author connect emotionally with the readers? What reaction does he evoke (anger, sadness, etc.)? What emotions are appropriate (anger/calmness, love/hate, fear/confidence, shame/shamelessness, compassion, pity, indignation, envy, joy, hope, etc.)?  How does the author gauge the emotional sensitivities of the readers (so he can counteract or exploit them for his persuasive purpose)? How does he change the readers’ emotions? Does the author tell a story that makes the audience feel like witnesses or participants in the issue? Again, include specific effect passages!

Conclusion: Summarize previous paragraphs and avoid new ideas. Make sure your conclusion matches your introduction’s thesis.

NOTE: Not all three appeals are always used. If you find only one or two of the appeals in an article, write only about the applicable appeals.

Furthermore, you may organize your rhetorical analysis in a number of ways. This page suggests a paragraph by paragraph ethos-pathos-logos organization that freshman composition students usually find to be easy and, therefore, usually use. You may, however, decide to arrange your paragraphs chronologically, spatially, emphatically, etc.

Whatever organizational style you decide to use, be sure to include a clear thesis at the end of the introduction, supporting paragraphs that have transitional words both between and within them, and an appropriate tone for your audience.

You establish your tone with sentence structure, word choice, and other elements of writing. Tone also includes “rhetorical distance,” which is based on the topic, audience, and type of writing (whether the writing is a letter, paper, speech, etc.). Also, if you use first person “I” or second person “you,” these pronoun choices close the distance between you and your reader, and they might seem unprofessional is some situations.