This document summarizes a lecture on approaching a rhetorical analysis writing assignment. It begins by defining key terms in the prompt like "rhetorical", "exigence", "motivation", and "aim". It then uses examples and analogies to explain how to analyze a text's context, reasons for being written, and intended outcomes. The lecture emphasizes reading the prompt thoroughly, finding a relevant text to analyze, and producing a one page summary as the first step. The goal is to walk students through the process of completing the assignment as a professional writer would.

1. MAJOR ASSIGNMENT 3:
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
OF A SCHOLARLY ARTICLE
Lecture One: The Prompt

2. BEFORE YOU READ THIS LECTURE, BE
SURE TO READ THE PROMPT FOR
MAJOR ASSIGNMENT 3.
You can find it on Blackboard in the “Major Assignments” section or
on page 501 of your textbook.

3. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LECTURES
• Because I, too, find myself a little at sea regarding this assignment—I’ve never done
a rhetorical analysis like this, either—I’m going to take you through the steps I
would take if I were writing this essay. That way, you’ll get to walk through the
process of a professional writer, and perhaps pick up some tricks for addressing
other writing contexts you encounter as you move through your college experience.
• This first lecture deals with reading the prompt, because that’s obviously the first
thing you should do when you approach any writing assignment.

4. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LECTURES
(CONT’D)
• I’m going to take you through the
various parts of the prompt, modeling
as I go my own thought process as I
encounter each piece of instruction. The
text of the prompt will appear on the
left side . . .
• . . . And my thoughts will appear over
here, on the right side. Ready?

5. THE PROMPT: TITLE
• “Rhetorical Reading Analysis:
Reconstructing a Text’s Context,
Exigence, Motivations, and Aims”
• The first things I’m thinking about
have to do with vocabulary. I’m
thinking, I understand what these
words mean, but will my students? You
may not know what “rhetorical” or
“exigence” mean, particularly in this
context, and you might also not know
the difference between a motivation
and an aim. Let’s break a few of these
words down on the next few slides.

6. DEFINITION: “RHETORICAL”
• Rhetorical: expressed in terms intended
to persuade or impress
• When you read rhetorically, you ask
yourself, “Why would someone say this
thing? Why would someone say this
thing this way, in this format, in this
place, to these people?”
• If you’ve ever looked at someone’s outfit
and thought, “Why in God’s name are
they wearing that?”, you have
performed rhetorical analysis.

7. DEFINITION: “RHETORICAL” (CONT’D)
• Think about what happens next, in this outfit analogy. You see someone wearing
something you view as strange or inappropriate to the occasion. You start asking
yourself a series of questions—where did they even get that thing? Do they think it’s
cool? Is it all they had to wear? Is it laundry day? Did they lose a bet? These are
rhetorical analysis questions. You’re trying to figure out what someone is trying to
say with their outfit, and why they’re trying to say it. Rhetorical reading asks you
to do the same thing with a piece of writing, in order to become a savvier consumer
of other people’s writing.

8. DEFINITION: “EXIGENCE”
• Exigence, or exigency: an urgent need or
demand
• In rhetorical reading analysis, we try to
figure out exigence—why someone wrote
something—in order to help us
understand their motivations.
• To return to the outfit analogy: if you
remember, as you’re staring at someone’s
crazy outfit, that it’s Halloween, then all
of a sudden the situation is clearer,
because you’ve figured out the exigence
(it’s Halloween).

9. DEFINITION: “EXIGENCE” (CONT’D)
• Exigence is what prompts writers to write something. You’re writing this essay
because I told you that you had to in order to earn an A in this class, because you’re
interested in the idea of rhetorical analysis, because you enjoy learning in general,
because you’re a college student and that is your job. That’s your exigence. This is
different from, though related to, your motivation. I’ll cover that in the next slide.

10. DEFINITION: “MOTIVATION”
• Motivation: the reason or reasons one
has for acting or behaving in a
particular way
• If exigence is what prompts you to do
something, then motivation is the
reason you choose to respond. Exigence
can exist with no one acting on it—for
example, this essay prompt exists, but
if you have no motivation to respond to
it, then you won’t.

11. DEFINITION: “MOTIVATION” (CONT’D)
• A writer’s motivations are related to the exigence to which they respond, but there’s a
difference. Let’s go back to the outfit analogy:
• So you’ve remembered it’s Halloween, and all of a sudden that person’s outfit (let’s say
it’s a Pikachu onesie) makes a lot more sense. You now understand that they’re
responding to the exigence of Halloween. Thing is, they could have responded to the
exigence of Halloween in a million different ways, but they went the Pikachu-onesie
route. To understand why, you have to try to get at their motivations.
• They might just really love Pokemon. The onesie might be warm af, and Halloween a
convenient excuse to be extra cozy all day. They might be awash in the nostalgia of
childhood Halloweens. These are all different possible motivations responding to the
same exigence.

12. DEFINITION: “AIMS”
• Aim: a purpose or intention; a desired
outcome
• If exigence is the thing you respond to,
and motivation is why you respond to
it, then your aim is what you hope to
accomplish in responding.

13. DEFINITION: “AIMS” (CONT’D)
• Let’s take this Halloween costume analogy one step further. We know the exigence
(Halloween), and let’s say we know the person’s motivations (extra cozy onesie).
Their aim, then, is to be cozy throughout the day.
• Now let’s apply this directly to writing.

14. DOGGO BREAK!
This is my sister’s dog,
Rufus. He is a very good
boy.

15. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: EXIGENCE,
MOTIVATION, AND AIMS
Here’s the situation: a journalist has been told to write an op-ed (opinion-editorial) about
the current COVID-19 pandemic. The op-ed’s exigence, then, is the current COVID-19
pandemic. In understanding the exigence, you understand the wider context, the historical
moment, in which this op-ed will get written: a historical moment where social distancing
is a term we all know now; where you might see videos of Italian musicians playing
concerts on their balconies; where people are fighting each other in the TP aisle at Costco;
where college campuses have closed; where the world is experiencing an almost
unprecedented level of anxiety and upheaval. Not all exigences are this nuts, but
understanding exigence will always help you figure out what the wider context is of a piece
of writing. (We’ll get into why that’s useful in another lecture.)

16. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: EXIGENCE,
MOTIVATION, AND AIMS
• So our hypothetical journalist, understanding the exigence, can choose to respond in
any way they want. Let’s say they’re motivated by their horror and embarrassment
at the existence of that Instagram video where Gal Gadot and company each sing a
line of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Their aim might be to throw shade, or to suggest
these celebrities actually do something helpful, or challenge others to make a better
video. All of these things are different aims, supported by the same motivation and
responding to the same exigence.
• The next question you may be asking yourselves is: how do I know what this
journalist’s motivations and aims are without talking to them? That question takes
us to the subject of analysis.

17. ANALYZING A PIECE OF WRITING TO
DETERMINE MOTIVATION AND AIM
“It’s nice to see everybody come together in a
time of crisis. And for once, regardless of age,
gender, race, faith, or political party, we can all
agree: Gal Gadot’s video of self-isolated
celebrities singing “Imagine” is one of the worst
things to have ever happened.”
- Heather Schwedel, Slate.com,
3/19/20
From the article “A Video of Celebrities Singing
‘Imagine’ So Bad it Can Bring Us All Together
in Hatred: Twenty-two Hideous Performances,
Ranked”
This is the first line of an article that
appeared on Slate.com on March 19.
Its exigence? The existence of this
Instagram video. Its aim? Well, look
at the title: “Twenty-two Hideous
Performances, Ranked.” Its aim is to
mock these celebrities for having
engaged in what the writer sees as a
mock-worthy act. She’s motivated, in
other words, by her disgust at these
celebrities’ actions.

18. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THIS ESSAY?
Let’s go back to the prompt and see how all these definitions
and examples apply to the essay you’ll be writing.

19. THE PROMPT: PAGE ONE
• “This assignment asks you to practice the
rhetorical reading strategies that Haas
and Flower describe in ‘Rhetorical
Reading Strategies and the Construction
of Meaning’ (p. 432)
• “For this project, the object of your
analysis will be a scholarly journal article
or book chapter. . . . Your task is to
rhetorically read a text and compose a
four- to five-page piece that explains your
interpretation of what the writer meant
the text to accomplish, and why.”
• At this point, I’m not too worried about
these reading strategies described by
Haas and Flower. I have plenty of time to
go back and figure out what those are, so
I’m going to ignore that for now.
• At this point, I figure my first task, after
reading the prompt, is going to be to push
all other concerns aside and focus on
finding a scholarly article. My first
instinct would be to use an article from
the textbook, perhaps one I’ve already
read, or one I used in the synthesis essay.

20. THE PROMPT: PAGE ONE (CONT’D)
• “Select a Text. . . . You’ll probably be
more engaged in the project if the
subject is of interest to you, so be sure
to pick an article about something you
care about. Whatever text you choose,
you must be able to trace where it was
published, when, and by whom.”
• I figure I’ve got a pretty simple choice
to make here. Either I can choose an
article I’ve already read, or I can go
find one I haven’t read but that might
interest me more. If it’s all the same to
my instructor (note: it is; read what you
want), I’ll probably choose an article
I’ve already read.

21. THE PROMPT: PAGE ONE (CONT’D)
• “Summarize the Text. The first rule of rhetorical
reading is: read in order to first be able to write a
summary of about one page.”
This is where the sarcastic part of my brain pipes
up like: “The first rule of rhetorical reading is: you
do not talk about rhetorical reading. The second
rule of rhetorical reading is . . . ”
You know, like from Fight Club? No? . . .
Seriously, though: the first step to performing any
kind of analysis, rhetorical or not, is summarizing.
If I were writing this essay, this would make me
very happy, because I know that summary is a
thing I’ve done before, and if this five-page essay
calls for a one-page summary, then once I’ve got
that down, I’m one-fifth of the way done.

22. THE PROMPT: PAGE TWO
• “Historicize the Text. Along with
summarizing what the text says,
you’ll need to collect some basic
information on the text’s origins.
Most of this information is
contextual, meaning that it lies
outside of the text itself and you
can’t just read the text to find what
you want to know. As you look for
origins, try to answer these
questions . . .”
• This is the kind of research that will reveal
to you the text’s exigence, as well as its
wider context (of which the exigence is
part), which will then help you analyze the
writer’s motivation and aims. Answering all
of the questions in this section of the
prompt may look like a real revolving pain,
but if I were writing this essay, I might
think, “I can just add a heading in my essay
that reads ‘Historicizing the Text’ and put
the answers to these questions there. I’ll bet
I could get at least half a page out of that.
Add in the summary and I’m whatever one-
fifth plus one-half of a page is done
writing.”

23. THE PROMPT: PAGE THREE
• “There is no set format for your
rhetorical analysis, but you want to be
sure you do the following . . .”
• No set format. Fantastic. That means
I’ll have to figure out how all these
pieces fit together and make them flow
well.
• Or not! If you’re working with a bunch
of separate parts and you aren’t exactly
sure how they’re going to fit together,
you can always, always use headings to
separate sections out. That’s precisely
what I would do in this situation.

24. THE PROMPT: PAGE THREE (CONT’D)
• “Describe the writer’s main argument:
their central claim, the support for that
claim, and any major warrants that
readers must agree with in order to
build adherence with the argument. (If
any of this language is confusing to you,
read or reread Downs, p. 369.)”
• Yes. This language is confusing to me. I
haven’t read Downs. But, like Haas and
Flower (remember them?), I’m going to
ignore Downs for the moment, because
my first order of business is still
selecting a text. All other concerns, for
the moment: ignored.

25. TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
Hopefully, this lecture has demonstrated to you the following transferable skills:
• Reading a prompt carefully, more than once, and prioritizing the information
contained in it
• Looking up words you don’t know
• Making preliminary planning decisions about an assignment
• The magic of headings

26. THE PROMPT: FINAL THOUGHTS
• Once you have read the prompt all the way through, give it a day or so and go back and
read it again. Pay attention to what happens to your body as you’re reading this
prompt. Does it make you anxious? Excited? Bored? (Ngl, it made me a little anxious.)
• Whatever you feel in response to this prompt is completely valid. Let the emotions
arise, but try not to let your mind contract around them. Let them be uninteresting.
The interesting thing is: you’re going to try a new kind of writing, a new kind of
thinking, a new way of encountering a piece of writing.
• Remember, too, that some of this is new to me also, so I’m going to lead the way into
this new territory.
• Trust me.

27. WHAT’S NEXT
In the next lecture, I’ll talk about how I went about choosing a text.