Rhetorical Analysis Outline Worksheet
Please use the following worksheet as a rough guide for helping plan your essay. This template is not meant to
stifle your creativity, so feel free to play around with things and add your own unique voice to the layout.
1. Introduction:
Pick
something
shocking: a
startling fact,
observation,
or statistic
a. Attention Grabber Sentence:
b. Brief summary of essay with author intro:
Choose one to
start with: you
can argue that
it’s both
ineffective and
effective, but
you will need
to pass overall
judgment too.
c. Thesis Statement: The excerpt from Steven Johnson’s book is effective or ineffective at
convincing the audience
to/of____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________ because:
What does
Johnson try
to convince
readers of?
i. Reason 1:
ii. Reason 2:
iii. Reason 3:
iv. ADD MORE IF YOU HAVE THEM. BE CAREFUL NOT TO GO TOO CRAZY, OR
YOUR ANALYSIS COULD LOSE FOCUS.
2. Body:
a. Support Point 1 (reason 1):
i. Evidence for Support point (quote/paraphrase/summary):
Be sure the
first thing you
write for each
point is a
potential topic
sentence.
ii. Explanation of how evidence proves thesis:
b. Support Point 2 (reason 2):
i. Evidence for Support point (quote/paraphrase/summary):
ii. Explanation of how evidence proves thesis:
c. Support Point 3 (reason 3):
i. Evidence for Support point (quote/paraphrase/summary):
ii. Explanation of how evidence proves thesis:
d. Support Point 4 (reason 4):
i. Evidence for Support point (quote/paraphrase/summary):
Once you’ve got a
good idea what
these support
points are going to
be, spend a few
moments locating
the relationship
between them and
take some notes
about potential
transitions.
ii. Explanation of how evidence proves thesis:
3. Conclusion
a. How do all of these support points work together to support your thesis?
b. What might the author have done to make their text more effective (even if you argued that it
was effective, how could it have been better?)