Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Let’s make it simple. A rhetorical analysis essay demands the writer to apply his critical reading skills to break down a particular text. Rhetoric is the way you use, manipulate, and negotiate the language to achieve your purpose of writing. Say, for instance, if you are writing a children’s book, though you may keep the choice and sentence structure simple, but they would be full of color and dialogues. Analysis means breaking down something into very small parts with the purpose of assessing or monitoring the overall piece. This generally requires a person to have an adequate knowledge of rhetorical devices, persuasive appeals, and logical fallacies. After you have gathered all the requisite information and have analyzed the entire piece, it is time to present it to your audience. This is done through a persuasive strategy called essay. After you have defined your purpose for writing, you must determine who your audience is and explain it through a rhetorical analysis essay. In the following lines, learn how to draft and write a rhetorical analysis essay.

 

 

Pick up two articles addressing the same issue for a better comparison. You can pick up articles from two different sources so that you get sufficient material to distinguish and compare the two. Go through the material and generate ideas for specific topics that are close to your major topic. Do a little research to find topics so that you have enough specific issues to deal with. Visit the library and finalize a topic for research that gives you the maximum information. Thereafter, start picking up your related topics. Consult the librarian if you are unable to find relevant database. Go through different magazines to find the latest information. Avoid reading short articles as they offer very little to extract from.

 

Often referred to as audience analysis, you have to evaluate rhetoric keeping your audience in mind. Whether it is a print magazine, journal, or an online resource, go through the entire publication in which the article has been published. By reading other articles, editor’s page, graphics, and advertisements, you will get an idea about the likely demographics, values, and personal and political interests of the audience reading the article. Probably, after you are done with the entire publication, you will be able to find out what the article is trying to accomplish. While you are reading every article, question yourself about what the writer is doing and how his choices affect you as a reader. By just noticing the emotional impacts of the article on you, you can figure out the rhetorical aims of the writer.

 

Read each text and article thoroughly. Read them several times and jot down notes on them highlighting the author’s rhetorical strategies. Do not be comprehensive in your analysis; instead, try to comprehend what rhetorical devices have been used in each article. While one article may rely on emotional appeals, the other may focus on communicating ideas through attention-grabbing slang. To clarify and simplify your thinking and observations, make a chart, write down the analysis of each article, and find out the differences between them.

 

If you have not been given any instructions about how to draft a rhetorical analysis essay, then start off with an introduction that includes a description of the topic that has been discussed in the articles you are analyzing. Include the titles, authors, and source of publications of both the articles. State the overview of the two articles and list down what the reader can expect from your paper. For the body of the essay, you can opt from any of these two methods. First, you can form subtopic sections from the rhetoric strategies you have deduced. List down how each article has made use of the devices. For example, if you are writing about the language of the article, you can compare the two articles by deducing how one has used heavy slang while the other is very formal and includes academic jargon. Second, you can alternatively divide the body of your essay in two halves indicating the analysis of one article in one paragraph while the other’s analysis in the second. In such a case, make sure that you create a connection between the two articles and exhibit comparison at the end.

 

After you are done with drafting your rhetorical analysis essay, do not forget to include a conclusion by summarizing your discussion and indicating the importance of the issue. Since your conclusion is the last part of your essay, it should be powerful and apt.