English 1C
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Melissa Gunby
Rhetorical Analysis
CHAPTER 5
What is Rhetorical Analysis?
• Rhetorical analysis is to perform a close
reading of a text to find how and whether it
works to persuade the intended audience.
Composing a Rhetorical Analysis
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Purpose
Audience
Appeals
Type of argument
Author
Appeals to Authority
Facts/Logic/Evidence
Context
Language
Purpose
• To understand how well an argument works,
you have to know what its purpose is. To sell
shoes? Advocate for Social Security reform?
• Purpose isn’t always self evident; have you
ever taken a telephone survey that turned out
to be trying to get you to change your long
distance service?
Understanding Who Makes an
Argument
• Knowing who is claiming what is the key to any
rhetorical analysis.
• Remember “I’m George W. Bush and I approved
this message” from the last campaign? Federal
law now requires disclosure so that viewers know
what ads are paid for by candidates and which
are paid for by lobbying groups or PACs.
• Sometimes analysis requires deeper digging than
just knowing the author’s name.
Funny, offensive, or both?
Does this bumper sticker have a different
interpretation upon deciding who the author is? Why
or why not?
Audience
• Most arguments are composed with a specific
audience in mind.
• Consider Wal-Mart. How do they appeal to
the following audiences:
– Single parents
– Lower-income households
– College students
Readers and writers in context
writer
Readers
existing in
writer’s mind:
intended/ideal
readers
text
Readers
represented
in the text:
invoked
readers
readers
Readers as
they actually
exist: real
readers
Mission and Vision
Latino culture
College
culture
Mainstream
culture
Pathos: Playing on Emotions
• We’ve already talked about pathos, or appealing
to emotions.
• None of us are really fooled by ads that portray a
fantastic life if we drink one brand of soda over
another, yet that’s how advertisers work.
• Your task in performing a rhetorical analysis is to
study the author’s words, the emotions they
evoke, and the claims they support and then
make a judgment about the effectiveness.
Pathos
How is this ad more effective than
simply saying “don’t drink and drive”
and why?
What about the one below?
Ethos: Arguments based on
Character
• We’ve already talked about ethos, and its role
in establishing the credibility of the author for
the audience.
• When conducting a rhetorical analysis, pay
specific attention to the details, right down to
the choice of words, or colors and shapes.
• Things to consider: are the claims qualified
reasonably? Does the author have authority or
experience? Is the evidence presented in full?
Are the objections noted? Are sources
documented? Does the writer sound
trustworthy?
Logos: Fact and/or Logic and
Reasoning
• When analyzing arguments, you’ll have to
decide whether the argument makes a
plausible claim, and then, whether or not
you agree/believe it.
• Not all arguments will have an explicit
thesis.
• Look for how the claims are supported by
good reasons and reliable evidence. Longer
arguments may have a series of claims.
• In a rhetorical analysis, identify all the
separate propositions/claims and examine
the relationship(s) between them.
Examining the Arrangement and
Media of Arguments
• Arguments have a structure just like essays
and human anatomy.
• Aristotle narrowed it down to two parts
– Statement
– Proof
• Despite that structure, there is not formula or
patterns that fit all arguments.
• When writing a rhetorical analysis, you have
to assess the organization of a piece based on
how it is effective, or not, overall.
What to look for
• Things that are missing
– Editorials about a new sports stadium that don’t
address feasibility questions
– Movie reviews that don’t reveal criteria
• Transitions, headings, subheadings,
documentation sources, tone of voice
• Use of media
– Does a spoken argument translate to print or vice
versa? Are the images necessary or distracting?
• Non-traditional structures
Style
• Even a coherent argument can be
disconnected from the readers if it lacks an
element of style.
• In a rhetorical analysis, you can explore many
different styles. Why does a formal style work
better for one subject rather than another?
Topic/Message
(logical appeals)
Rhetorical Triangle
It’s important to read any rhetorical
situation as dynamic, since each
element has the potential to affect all
the other elements. A change in
audience, for example, can lead you to
reconsider all of your appeals.
You’ll find yourself habitually viewing
any topic from a number of
perspectives and hence develop
greater critical engagement with the
issues and ideas important to you.
Such a rhetorical fame of mind might
even lead you to challenge the title of
this textbook: is everything really an
argument?
Audience/Readers
(Emotional Appeals)
CONTEXT
Speaker/Writer
(Ethical Appeals)
Visual Arguments
CHAPTER 14
What argument does this visual make?
The Power of Visual Arguments
• We don’t need to be reminded that visual
arguments have power. What are some vivid
images that are embedded in your memory?
Influence
• Images are influential; think about all the ways
that we encounter images in our daily lives.
• Today, we’re used to being bombarded with
visual documentation, from the internet to
television to magazines.
Shaping the message
• Images make arguments of their own.
• A photograph isn’t a faithful representation of
reality; it’s reality shaped by the
photographer's point of view.
• Those who produce the images shape the
messages that those images convey, but the
“readers” aren’t passive either; human vision
is selective.
• People don’t se things the same way
Analyzing Visual Elements
of Arguments
This ad was created by the Campaign
for Tobacco-Free kids.
They work together with the Academy
of General Dentistry and American
Federation of Teachers, with the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints and the Sierra club.
Whose view of big tobacco does the
image represent?
Questions to Ask:
Some of the following questions can be great
guidelines to consider as you encounter visuals.
About the Creators and Distributors
• Who created this visual text? Who distributed
it?
• What can you find out about these people and
other work that they have done?
• What does the creator’s attitude seem to be
toward the image?
• What do the creator and the distributor intent
dis effects to be? Do they have the same
intentions?
About the Medium
• Which media are used for this visual text? Images only?
Words and images? Sound, video, graphs, or charts?
• How are the media used to communicate words and
images/ How do various media work together?
• What effect does the medium have on the message of
the visual text? How would the message be altered if
different media were used?
What role is played by the words that accompany the
visual text? How do they clarify, reinforce, blur or
contract the images' message?
About Viewers and Readers
• What does the visual text assume about its
viewers and about what they know and agree
with?
• What overall impression does the visual text
create in you?
• What positive or negative feelings about
individuals, scenes, or ideas does the visual
intend to evoke in viewers?
About Content and Purpose
• What argumentative purpose does the visual text
convey? What is it designed to convey?
• What cultural values does the visual evoke? The
good life? Love and harmony? Sex appeal? Youth?
Adventure? Economic power or dominance?
Freedom? Does the visual reinforce these values
or question them? What does the visual do to
strength the argument?
• What emotions does the visual evoke? Are these
the emotions that it intends to evoke?
About Design
• How is the visual text composed? What’s your
eye drawn to fist? Why?
• What’s in the foreground? In the background?
What’s in or out of focus? What’s moving?
What’s placed high, and what’s placed low?
What’s to the left, center, and right. What
effect do the placements have on the
message?
• Is any information highlighted or stressed?
More design
• How are light and color used? What effects
are they intended to have? Video? Sound?
• What details are included or emphasized?
What’s left out or deemphasized?
• Is anything surprising about the visual text?
• Is anything repeated, intensified, or
exaggerated?
• How are you directed to move within the
argument?
Using Visuals in Your Own Arguments
• Pages 451-463
• I’m just going to go through these quickly,
since we will mostly be working with written
arguments in this class (and if we do visuals,
we’ll come back and review this).
Look at question number 2 at the end of chapter 14 (page 464). In groups
of four, please complete this activity. You do not need to turn in a written
paper, but be prepared to share your analysis with the class.
ACTIVITY!
Homework
• Dbd: Proverbial Beans (ch 6) Nuclear Winter
(ch 7), Ground Zero (ch 8), Tower (ch 9)
• GZ: "The E-Dead" pg 194-205
– 1 page response. This one page my discuss part or
all of the readings.
• Please bring a magazine to class on Monday