The Rhetorical Framework
(terms and definitions)
Rhetorical analysis (reading or writing) is an effort to understand how people within specific
social situations attempt to influence others through language. The specific features of texts
that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a given
situation.
THE WHATS
(summary)
1. What is the text about?
2. What does the text mean?
3. What is the author’s purpose or intention?
4. What effect do you think the author wanted to have on the audience?
5. What compelled the author to write the piece?
6. What people (audience) is the author writing for?
Subject:
the general topic, content, and ideas contained in the text
Occasion:
the time and place of the piece, current situation, context that encouraged the
writing/why it is important study for the academic reader or writer? Why should
we care?
Audience:
the group of readers to whom the piece is directed (one person?
small group? large group?) what do they know? What do they need to know?
Purpose:
the reason behind the text – to inform? To explain? To persuade?
(consider subject and audience) How is the thesis involved?
Speaker
the voice telling the story – not synonymous with the author as
authors may choose different points of views. Consider tone= author or
speaker’s attitude toward the subject.
THE HOWS (analysis)
1. How does the text mean what it means?
2. How does the text realize its purpose?
3. How does the text impact the audience?
4. How does the text announce its intentions?
5. How do all the PARTS (appeals, stylistic devices, etc.) work together to achieve the
authors meaning or purpose?
Structure:
how a writer organizes the text. What comes first, second, third….. and WHY? Organization:
intro, body, conclusion(transitions) Modes of Discourse (i.e. methods of developing ideas): define,
compare/contrast, divide/classify, cause/effect, process.
Appeals:
logos (logic)
a clear, reasoned central idea (thesis) developed with appropriate
evidence to appeal to an audience’s sense of logic.
ethos (personal credibility) evidence that the writer/speaker is credible – knows important
and relevant information about the topic at hand and is a good, believable person who has the
reader’s best interest in mind.
pathos (emotion) appeals to the emotions and interests of the audience so that they may be
sympathetically inclined to accept and buy into the central ideas and arguments
Style:
language that is meaningful, purposeful, and effective
Figurative
Language:
Simile – comparison using like or as
Metaphor – implied comparison
Rhetorical question – a thinking question which does not require an answer.
Parallelism – balance within a sentence between words, phrases, or clauses.
Antithesis – form of parallelism in which words, phrase, or clauses are juxtaposed.
Living to die and dying to live.
Anaphora
- (form of parallelism) repetition of same group of words at the
beginning of successive clauses. Exercise builds stamina in small children; exercise builds stamina in
teenager; exercise…
Asyndeton –( form of parallelism) no conjunctions between related clauses.
I skated, I shot, I scored!
Allusion – a reference to a historical, literary, cultural person, thing, or event.
Sound devices – alliteration, assonance…
Imagery - Appeals to five senses
Diction:
word choice, the complexity, simplicity, sophistication, implication, etc.
Connotation – the meaning the word implies
Denotation – the dictionary meaning
Syntax:
Sentence Structure = simple, compound, complex, compound-complex sentences
Variety in sentence beginnings = starts with preposition, gerund, participle
Repetition of key words, phrases, or clauses
Transitions btwn ideas, sentences, or paragraphs (in addition, next, finally…)