Rhetorical Analysis Assignment

Rhetorical Analysis Assignment

As you begin, remember that your ultimate goal for this assignment is to analyze or examine how a text convinces/persuades the reader of an argument, a claim, or particular point of view.  You are not analyzing what the text simply says but rather what strategies it uses to persuade the audience of the argument made, the position of the author.  Note how this analysis is like the analysis of an engine, where you “examine all the parts, how they work in isolation, together, etc. to see how the engine does what it does, or makes what it makes” (  ).  Then discuss whether or not it was done well.

GUIDELINES:

Write a rhetorical analysis of Gladwell’s Outliers: the Story of Success.  Show how the text, utilizing rhetorical appeals and strategies, attempts to persuade us of its argument/point of view/claim regarding success.  Develop an original thesis (1-2 sentences) and provide strong textual evidence from the text to support your thesis.

Refer to the reading material on Rhetorical Analysis when constructing your essay.

Follow the guidelines below.

(Adapted in part from Jonah G. Willihnganz, Stanford University)

The Form of the Essay:

There is no set form, no five-paragraph standard, for writing essays such as these. But since your goal is to convince your audience of an argument, you need to use the best strategies to do so. Persuasive writing, we have seen, gains the attention and establishes a connection with its audience, provides a context for the argument it will pursue, and pursues that argument (often declared near the beginning of the essay, but not always) by building the strongest case possible. So in your first paragraph or two you will probably want to capture the attention of your audience, provide the context of the analysis you are making, and provide either your claim or your purpose.

The form of your essay will flow from the thesis you invent, so constructing a strong one is crucial.  Your thesis needs to be an argument, concrete and specific (vs. abstract and vague), and of appropriate scope (defensible within the constraints of the essay). An argument is something with which someone might conceivably disagree. Your goal here is to show us how a text works, what strategy or strategies it uses. Therefore a general statement such as “This story has very powerful rhetorical strategies ” does not qualify as an argument, but “This essay’s consistent use of war analogies encourages the audience to emotionally identify with its position” does.

Be sure to give your essay a good title, one that signals the slant and/or value of your analysis. In this essay, the only citations you need to provide are the page numbers of directly quoted passages of the text you are analyzing [since Gladwell is the sole author of the text and the only source for this analysis. See MLA for in-text citations.]

Some suggestions about the process of writing this essay:

Successful essays are approached in stages. Writing is a process of thinking, and so to produce a piece capable of persuading others we almost always need to write in stages. The first stage is pouring out our first impressions, our “first take” on a text or subject. [Outline and notes] It is important to recognize that this then needs to be transformed in a second stage into something that is much more like a “performance”—something carefully calculated to persuade a particular audience of the position we have developed. Make sure you submit for scrutiny this second stage.

When we write essays that try to perform a clear but sophisticated analysis, it is sometimes helpful to approach the task in discrete steps.  When producing a rhetorical analysis, you might try the following. Take notes at each stage of these stages and write out full sentences as often as possible so that you begin to make your formulations early-on.

1. First, describe for yourself as fully as possible what you take to be the general meaning/message of the piece. [You are not writing about the meaning but should have an understanding of it.] Then begin your examination the piece’s strategies by looking at whether/how the work signals in any way its audience, purpose, and context.  Begin with what the work [does and/or communicates to] you—that is, start with your experience.

[You will not write the essay in first person, but noting first how the text has persuaded you is sometimes helpful in early drafting.  You will then write in third person point of view, providing an analysis that is formal and objective.  If you incorporate how you have been persuaded or impacted by the rhetorical strategies used, you will need to convert statements that are subjective into objective statements that are then supported by textual evidence.  See me if you need clarification.)]

2. Second, identify the most prominent strategies the work uses to produce the meaning/effect you have described. Look in particular for any patterns that are developed by the work.  Finally, decide what seem to be the most important elements of the work—that is, identify [what you deem] the most striking, meaningful effect(s) of the work and [the] methods used to achieve it/them.  This will help you hone in on a thesis.
3. Third, craft a few sentences that explain why, in your view, the piece works the way it does. Try to craft these sentences so that they set up, first, a description of what the meaning/effect of the piece is, and, second, what strategies, elements, etc. help produce that meaning/effect. Then isolate the textual evidence you will use. [This is a good time to place textual evidence into your outline in appropriate sections.]
4. Fourth, write the draft. Make sure you give us your thesis or an indication of your thesis early.  (You can give us the whole argument right up front, pose a question you’ll explore, whose answer will be your thesis, or give us a general version of your thesis that you’ll refine for us by the end of your essay.)