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Rhetorical Analysis
We are surrounded by thousands of messages that are designed to persuade or inform us. In many cases, the author or creator intentionally crafts the message with careful attention to rhetorical elements such as language and diction, tone, images, and the types of persuasive appeals used. Your job is to explore and analyze the effectiveness of the elements and techniques used, by following the prompt below.
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In a 4-6-page essay, write a rhetorical analysis that discusses the persuasive techniques one of the authors we have studied uses to convince an audience.
In this essay, you will analyze the rhetoric of a text – specifically the purpose, audience and the effectiveness of the rhetorical strategies used. Examples of effectiveness would be whether or not you are convinced by the author’s arguments.
Choose ONE of these texts from Everything’s An Argument
Marjorie AgosÃn, Always Living in Spanish and English
Firoozeh Dumas, The F Word [
Lan Cao, The Gift of Language
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
Some ideas to think about in crafting your essay:
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who the intended audience for the message might be – you, your family, fellow students, or others. TIP: If you or your peers are not the intended audience, it will more difficult to decide if the arguments are effective.
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language, diction and tone of the message. Simple vs. complicated words, familiar vs. rare words make a difference in how a message is conveyed. Test can sound like speech can be more forma, or a tone can be serious, humorous or even didactic (Look it up
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in a text with a visual appeal, such as those with specific word placements, consider how items like layout, juxtaposition, and choice of images contribute to the rhetorical message. An essay using photos of dressed-up monkeys is portraying its message differently than one where the images shown are of college teachers.
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persuasive appeals – how ethos, logos and/or pathos come into play in the author’s message.
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credibility – how you might judge the author’s expertise or position of authority. Establishing how you know this author is a credible source.
A successful essay will take a stand on whether the author/creator of the message used rhetorical techniques effectively – How were you convinced? Which strategies did the author employ? How did those strategies work together to contribute to the author’s effectiveness in crafting the message? Or was the message less effective because of they strategies used?
Consider the choice for your rhetorical analysis carefully. Remember that you are NOT explaining what the argument is, or discussing whether you agree or disagree. Your task in this essay is to discuss how the message is crafted – the techniques and strategies used – and whether or not the approach was successful. is.
One famous ad for Quizno’s Subs had to be pulled off the air right after it premiered because patrons were disgusted by the singing rodents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG042nkReBA
If you were to analyze the rhetoric of this ad, you wouldn’t be writing about whether Quizno’s subs ARE tasty, you’d be writing about what types of appeals the ad was using to convince you to buy a Quizno’s sandwich, and were the appeals effective in making you want to buy one of these subs.
Conversely, a convincing use of pathos might be an emotional appeal to get you to donate to the Children’s Fund. A good rhetorical analysis will explore how the author used sad stories about hungry children to get you to donate to the Fund. In evaluating thisappeal, you’d be considering HOW these appeals were or weren’t effective in achieving the author’s purpose.
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