Types of Rhetorical Analysis Prompts
Analyze the Rhetorical Strategies a Writer Uses to Characterize a Subject
What do you read for and think about when a prompt asks you to characterize a subject?
1. Identify the subjects in the text.
2. If the subject is a group of people, what traits, qualities, behaviors, thoughts, beliefs,
values, and morals do they have? What choices do people in this group make?
3. Are there similarities and differences within this group? Does the writer compare and
contrast subjects? What categories do they belong to, if any?
4. What problems does this group face? How do they seek solutions?
5. What questions do they ask? Do these questions have an answer?
6. What inanimate subjects are characterized by the writer?
7. What are the traits, qualities, and behaviors of this subject?
8. How does the writer use figurative language to characterize the subject? Consider action
verbs, personification, simile, metaphor.
9. What are the idea associated with the subject? What are the traits of this idea? What
effect does this idea have on another subject that is characterized?
10. What is the relationship between subjects? How is that relationship characterized?
11. The discussion’s focus is on the speaker and the subject.
Analyze the Rhetorical Strategies the Writer Uses to Construct Her Argument
1. You must state the writer’s argument. If the writer states the argument directly in the
text, quote it. If the writer does not state the argument, you must state in your own
words. You may borrow key words and phrases.
2. Stem: “The writer argues that…”
3. Remember that you must consider the writer’s purpose.
4. Construction has to do with structure – the ordering of ideas in a way that attends the
reader’s thinking. Think of a blueprint to build a house. Structure is the house, the
building materials are the rhetorical techniques, and the rooms are the subjects.
5. Identify the subjects the writer discusses.
6. What is the writer saying about each subject?
7. What is the writer’s claim about each subject?
8. What language choices is the writer making?
9. What is the writer’s intent?
10. How does this part help construct a meaningful whole?
11. What is that meaningful whole (central argument)?
12. Think always: What is the writer doing (content, subject)? How is the writer doing it
(language choices - rhetorical techniques, structure) Why is the writer making these
choices (intent and purpose)
13. Also consider the occasion for writing. What is the context that inspired the writing?
Think time and place.
One last thing until the next last thing. Sometimes an element of the rhetorical situation is not
that relevant to the analysis. If you notice this, don’t force the discussion. For example, if the
discussion’s focus is on the speaker and the subject, and the audience is not considered or is not
apparent in the passage, don’t force a discussion about the audience. You may infer the identity
of the audience and discuss, but the focus of your analysis might be on the subject