Introduction to Rhetorical
Analysis
Rhetorical Situation
• Every day, you are surrounded by rhetoric and
rhetorical opportunities.
• In fact, you’ve been participating in rhetorical
situations for most of your life.
Daily Rhetorical Situations
• Take a few minutes to list the kinds of writing
you do every day.
• Include all instances when you write down
information, type or word process (whether
on paper, white board, or computer screen).
• Beside each entry, jot down the reason for
that type of writing.
• Be prepared to share your answers with the
rest of the class.
Consider three of the types of writing you
identified in the first activity.
• Who is your audience for these different kinds
of writing? In other words, to whom or for
whom are you writing?
• What is your purpose for each kind of writing?
• What do you hope to achieve?
Choose two of the following situations and write down their
similarities and differences in terms of speaker (author or
writer), purpose, and audience.
Be prepared to share your answers with the rest of the class.
1. It’s time for you to talk with your parents about how to
pay for college—you are going to need financial help.
2. You’ve forgotten to complete a major assignment for
class—without which you may fail the course.
3. Your boss needs you to draft a letter to an upset
customer.
4. You’ve decided to join a competitive club at school and
need to complete an application to be considered.
5. You want to apply for a job with a local restaurant.
6. You want to invite several of your friends to a large
birthday celebration.
Rhetorical Situation
• A rhetorical situation is the context a speaker
enters in order to shape an effective message
that can resolve an exigence (call for change)
and reach an intended audience.
• A rhetorical situation creates the call for
change (an exigence).
• But that change can be brought about only
through the use of language, whether visual,
written, or spoken text.
Working with a group of classmates, create a
narrative story based on a rhetorical situation
that your group generates.
• First, you’ll need to think of an exigence (call or need
for change), then include a speaker, a message, and an
audience.
• Then, you’ll express these elements (exigence, speaker,
message, and audience) in the context of a story told
either graphically (through photos or images clipped
from magazines or newspapers, graphics from other
sources, or your own drawings) or verbally (through
words).
• Be prepared to share your graphical or verbal narrative
with the rest of the class and to explain it in terms of
the elements of the rhetorical situation.
• A rhetorical exigence is a problem or need for
change that can be resolved or changed by
discourse (or language).
A rhetorical exigence is a problem or need for change
that can be resolved or changed by discourse (or
language).
Decide whether each problem listed below is also a rhetorical
exigence. Be prepared to share the reasoning behind your
responses with the rest of the class.
1. Your high school library has just sent you a letter fining you for
several overdue books, all of which you returned several weeks ago.
2. During Eid-al-Fitr, the celebratory feast after Ramadan, your
brothers and father resume their ongoing argument about the political
situation in the Middle East.
3. In the student seating at the football stadium, some fans throw
empty soda cans, toss beach balls, boo the opposing team, and stand
during most of the game. You’re quickly losing interest in attending the
games.
What is the Rhetorical Situation
• There are 4 key relationships (to the text) you
should consider when analyzing a rhetorical
situation.
– The speaker
– The audience
– The message
– The exigence
• The context in which the writing occurs
• The culture in which the writing occurs
• To the board…
– Speaker
– Audience
– Message
– Exigence
What is the Rhetorical Situation
• There are 4 key relationships (to the text) you
should consider when analyzing a rhetorical
situation.
– The speaker
– The audience
– The message
– The exigence
• The call or need for change
• Identifying the Rhetorical Appeals in a
Document:
http://www.savethechildren.org/
Analyze for:
– The speaker
– The audience
– The message
– The exigence
• The call or need for change
• How does the writer develop ethos?
• Does the writer employ a logical appeal in
this? If so, where?
• What assumptions are made?
• In what ways does this employ pathos?
• How does it address the audience?
• What is an emotional appeal?
• Now I will pass out a magazine advertisement to
each group.
• Take about 10 minutes to address each of the key
elements for rhetorically analyzing this
document.
• When you are done, send your group’s recorder
to the board to post your findings. We’ll review
them as a class and see what we agree on and
what else we might want to consider.
Rhetorical Analysis
• Explore the rhetorical situation in this
commercial.
Analyze for:
– The speaker
– The audience
– The message
– The exigence
• The call or need for change
• What is the rhetorical situation?
• How does the writer develop ethos?
• Does the writer employ a logical appeal in
this? If so, where?
• What assumptions are made?
• In what ways does this employ pathos?
• How does it address the audience? What is
the emotional appeal?
• What argument can you make about this ad?
Rhetorical Situation?
• What is the rhetorical exigence?
• Who is the speaker? Audience? Message?
• Are there embedded stereotypes in this
message?
• Is the message ethically delivered?
• Does this image create an argument?
• Write an academic argument with your group
based on this Dove advertisement.
• Work together and write to create a short
paper using the academic argument you have
chosen.
– Why is the argument you are making important,
how will the reader follow the your logic, and, at
the end of the argument, question whether the
reader will be convinced of the argument your
group has made.
Homework
• Bring an advertisement from home
Rhetorical Situation
• View Nike ads
• Analyze the rhetorical situation
• Write a thesis--a thesis statement should
trigger discussion between at least two
perspectives.