RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Strategies for
success
BEFORE/AFTER REFLECTIONS
 What ef fect is this text trying to have on me? What kind of
change does the writer hope to make in my view of the
subject?
 Before reading this text, I believed this about the
topic:______________. But after reading the text, my view has
changed in these ways:_________________________________.
 Although the text has persuaded me that _________________,
I still have the following doubts:_________________________.
 The most significant questions this text raises for me are
these:________________________________________________.
 The most important insights I have gotten from reading this
text are these:_________________________________________.
INTERVIEW THE AUTHOR
Brainstorm questions you might ask the
author.
By doing so you identify the text’s “hot spots”:
Places that you want the author to clarify
something;
Places that seem to need to be expanded;
Places that the author should address
objections or counterarguments.
Asking these questions helps you determine
how effective the text is.
THE BELIEVING AND DOUBTING GAME
 The believing game—”Try to look at the world through the
text’s perspective, adopting its ideology, actively supporting
its ideas and values. Search your mind for any life experiences
or memories of reading and research that help you
sympathize with and support the author’s point of view or
ideas.”
 The doubting game—”Think of all of the problems, limitations,
or weaknesses in the author’s argument. You brainstorm for
personal experiences or memories that refute or call into
question the author’s view.”
STRATEGIES FOR RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
 Write a summary.
 Remember to find the keywords and concepts.
 Make a descriptive outline.
 What does the text say? What does the text do?
 Write a rhetorical précis.
 Sentence 1: Name of author, genre, and title of work, date in
parentheses; a rhetorically accurate verb (such as claims, argues,
asserts, suggests); and a “that” clause containing the major assertion
or thesis statement in the work.
 Sentence 2: An explanation of how the author develops and supports
the thesis, usually in chronological order.
 Sentence 3: A statement of the author’s apparent purpose.
 Sentence 4: A description of the intended audience and/or the
relationship the author establishes with the audience,
ETHOS
Writers want to seem
 Knowledgeable
 Fairminded
 Trustworthy
Questions to Ask
 Does this writer seem knowledgeable?
 What does this writer like and dislike?
 What are this writer’s biases and values?
 What seems to be the writer’s mood? (Angry? Questioning?
Meditative? Upset? Jovial?)
 What is the writer’s approach to the topic? (Formal or informal?
Logical or emotional? Distant and factual, or personal?)
 What would it be like to spend time in this writer’s company?
LOGOS
 What are the writer’s main claims and assertions?
 What evidence is used to support the claims? (Facts,
examples, statistics, personal experience, and expert
testimony are examples of evidence.)
 How relevant and valid do you think the evidence is?
 How sound is the reasoning?
 Is there any claim that appears to be weak or
unsupported?
 What would others say in response to the writer’s
claims?
 Do I share the assumptions that the writer holds?
PATHOS
Strategies to Engage Readers
 How does the writer hook and keep your interest?
 How does the writer make you care about the subject?
 How does a writer tweak your emotions or connect an
argument with ideas or beliefs that you value?
Writers engage readers at an emotional or imaginative level by
using IDENTIFICATION
 Identification with the writer
 Identification with the topic/issue, including people
mentioned in the text
 Identification with certain groups of fellow readers
 Identification with particular interests, values, beliefs, and
emotions
DICTION/WORD CHOICE
Remember that writers consciously
choose their words.
As you read, ask yourself,
“Why did the writer choose this
particular word?”
IDEOLOGY
Another way to question the text is to identify its ideology or
belief system—”a coherent set of values and concepts through
which we interpret the world.”
“We sometimes think that ideology applies only to other
people’s worldviews, perhaps those of zealots blinded by a
certain rigid set of beliefs.”
However, we all have our own ideologies, shaped by family
background, religion, personal experience, race, class, gender,
sexual orientation, etc.
To a certain extent, we are all “blinded” to our ideology; we find
it dif ficult to see how anyone could see things dif ferently.
IDEOLOGY
To become astute readers, we must look for
signals that reveal the ideology informing a
text. One way to begin doing so is to look for
patterns of opposites or contrasts in a text
(sometimes called “binaries”) and see which of
the opposing terms the writer values more.
TERMINISTIC SCREENS
“Even if any given terminology is a
reflection of reality, by its very
nature as a terminology it must be
a selection of reality; and to this
extent must function also as a
deflection of reality.”
—Kenneth Burke
VISUAL ELEMENTS
 How does the visual element (photo, chart, font,
color, etc.) relate to the writer’s overall point or
argument? Is this relationship explicit or implicit?
 How important is this visual element to the author’s
argument?
 What kinds of rhetorical appeals does the visual
element employ? How does it work rhetorically to
influence the intended audience?