Write a rhetorical analysis of a persuasive text of your choice.
Start by analyzing all aspects of the rhetorical situation, including the author, audience, purpose, topic, message, medium, genre, and context. Then analyze how the author attempts to influence their audience through their uses of language. What rhetorical techniques do they employ, and what are the effects of those techniques on their target audience(s)? How effectively do they use ethos, pathos, and logos to achieve their purpose?
Ethos: Is the author qualified to address this topic? How do they convince their audience that they are credible, authoritative, and/or trustworthy? What shared values do they establish with their audience?
Pathos: What specific emotions does the author evoke in their audience, and how?
Logos: What evidence does the author use to support their argument? What types of reasoning do they employ? Is the argument logically sound? In other words:
Are their premises warranted?
Do they address alternative arguments or viewpoints, and make a reasonable effort to consider all relevant information?
Is their argument deductively or inductively valid?
Objectives
to read rhetorically and discuss a text in depth
to uncover the different layers that are a part of that text
to situate a text within its social, historical, and cultural contexts
to understand that w'riting is always a response to a larger conversation within a community/society
to see how author, subject, purpose, audience, and genre function together dynamically in a w'riting situation
to discuss the complicated ways that texts communicate meanings to particular groups of people