University of Arkansas 1 #32) Rhetorical Analysis A rhetorical analysis assignment usually asks you to read two articles and write a paper that accomplishes three things: 1) identifies the ideas each author is trying to communicate; 2) analyzes the techniques each author uses to accomplish his or her purpose; and 3) compares and contrasts the authors’ approaches. The assignment is based on the premise that all writing is aimed at a specific audience for a specific purpose. This handout provides suggestions to assist you in the process. Topic Selection and Research Students are typically asked to select a topic and two articles that address that topic. Select a topic related to your area of study or that you find especially interesting and brainstorm related issues. Take care not to make your topic too broad, and then follow these steps: Search the library databases to find a good selection of articles on your topic. Don’t waste time! Ask for help if your searches yield no results. The research librarians provide valuable assistance. It will be to your advantage if the articles you select come from sources with distinctly different readerships (e.g., Forbes and The Nation; Audubon and The Washington Times). Ideally, the writers of both articles should make clear, assertive arguments. Research reports, clinical studies, or other informative writing will likely be less useful to you than more persuasive writing, as the authors of the former tend to utilize fewer obvious rhetorical devices. Avoid shorter articles, as they offer little for analysis. Determining Each Author’s Purpose Once you have selected your two articles, you are ready to begin your pre-writing activities. The following suggestions should help you begin. Audience analysis: For each article, examine the entire print or electronic publication. By scanning the other articles, editor’s page, graphics, and ads, you will be able to make an informed judgment regarding the demographics, values, and personal and political interests of the audience. Determining the overall aim of the publication should help you consider what the article itself may be intended to accomplish. Read with rhetorical awareness: First, read each article all the way through without making notes or annotations. Ask yourself about the writer’s intentions, and how the writer’s choices affect you as a reader. Often you can determine the rhetorical purpose of an author by gauging your intellectual and emotional reactions to the presentation. If you are angry or upset, for example, the author has achieved an effect through the use of particular rhetorical devices. Identify the rhetorical tactics: Next, read the texts closely and make annotations with the aim of highlighting examples of the authors’ rhetorical strategies. The University of British Columbia’s website has a useful list of critical reading questions for a rhetorical a ...

1. University of Arkansas 1
#32) Rhetorical Analysis
A rhetorical analysis assignment usually asks you to read two
articles and write a paper that accomplishes
three things: 1) identifies the ideas each author is trying to
communicate; 2) analyzes the techniques each
author uses to accomplish his or her purpose; and 3) compares
and contrasts the authors’ approaches. The
assignment is based on the premise that all writing is aimed at a
specific audience for a specific purpose. This
handout provides suggestions to assist you in the process.
Topic Selection and Research
Students are typically asked to select a topic and two articles
that address that topic. Select a topic related to
your area of study or that you find especially interesting and
brainstorm related issues. Take care not to make
your topic too broad, and then follow these steps:

2. Search the library databases to find a good selection of articles
on your topic. Don’t waste time! Ask for
help if your searches yield no results. The research librarians
provide valuable assistance.
It will be to your advantage if the articles you select come from
sources with distinctly different
readerships (e.g., Forbes and The Nation; Audubon and The
Washington Times).
Ideally, the writers of both articles should make clear, assertive
arguments. Research reports, clinical
studies, or other informative writing will likely be less useful to
you than more persuasive writing, as
the authors of the former tend to utilize fewer obvious
rhetorical devices.
Avoid shorter articles, as they offer little for analysis.
Determining Each Author’s Purpose
Once you have selected your two articles, you are ready to
begin your pre-writing activities. The
following suggestions should help you begin.
Audience analysis: For each article, examine the entire print or
electronic publication. By scanning the other
articles, editor’s page, graphics, and ads, you will be able to

3. make an informed judgment regarding the
demographics, values, and personal and political interests of the
audience. Determining the overall aim of the
publication should help you consider what the article itself may
be intended to accomplish.
Read with rhetorical awareness: First, read each article all the
way through without making notes or
annotations. Ask yourself about the writer’s intentions, and how
the writer’s choices affect you as a reader.
Often you can determine the rhetorical purpose of an author by
gauging your intellectual and emotional
reactions to the presentation. If you are angry or upset, for
example, the author has achieved an effect through
the use of particular rhetorical devices.
Identify the rhetorical tactics: Next, read the texts closely and
make annotations with the aim of highlighting
examples of the authors’ rhetorical strategies. The University of
British Columbia’s website has a useful list of
critical reading questions for a rhetorical analysis assignment:
http://www.writingcentre.ubc.ca/workshop/tools/rhet1.htm
http://www.writingcentre.ubc.ca/workshop/tools/rhet1.htm

4. University of Arkansas 2
Organize your observations: As you begin to identify the
rhetorical devices in each of the articles, it may be
helpful to organize them in a chart. Creating a chart as a pre-
writing task will help you identify differences
between the articles. One possible arrangement for charting
your observations:
Author’s Purpose Audience
Analysis
Tone Language Evidence
Article I
Article 2
Drafting Your Paper
If your instructor does not specify how to organize your paper,
you might consider the following suggestions.
Your introduction, which you might want to draft after you
write your body paragraphs, should
include a description of the topic or issue

5. list the titles, authors, and source publications of both articles
briefly identify arguments and apparent aims of the authors
briefly forecast the organizational arrangement of your analysis
Your body paragraphs might follow one of the two
organizational strategies that follow.
1. Form subtopics based on the rhetorical strategies identified.
In each section, you compare and contrast the
ways in which the authors make use of the devices. For
example, a section on language might describe how
one author makes heavy use of the slang and diction of young
adults, while the other uses more formal
language and academic jargon.
2. Organize the body of your paper in major sections, analyzing
one article in the first half and the other
article in the second. If you structure using this strategy, make
sure that you include discussion across the
sections comparing and contrasting the rhetorical considerations
under analysis.
Conclusion
Remind your reader about the importance of the issue, perhaps,

6. or about the persuasive power of rhetorical
devices in the media. Remember to consult your instructor’s
assignment sheet for possible instructions
regarding the conclusion.
WEEK 5 ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW AND NOTES:
RHETORICAL ANALYSIS PAPER
IN THIS DOCUMENT I WILL DESCRIBE THE WEEK 5
ASSIGNMENTS. YOU MIGHT PRINT THE DOCUMENT
FOR REFERENCE AS YOU WILL USE SEVERAL OF THE
COURSE TOOLS THIS WEEK.
This week we write and submit of the rhetorical analysis paper.
Your final paper should be focused,
vividly described, clearly structured, and well-executed. This
paper will be evaluated on a 100 point scale
using the criteria listed below. The final draft is due on Monday
at 11:59 pm. The final submission
should be typed double-spaced, include an appropriate heading
(the student essay on p. 104 shows the
appropriate MLA heading), and should be two to three pages in
length approximately.
ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK 5 (this week)
1. Carefully read this complete document.
2. Watch the Rhetorical Analysis Video posted in the Week 5
Learning Module.

7. 3. Draft a complete version of your rhetorical analysis.
4. Go to the Week 5 Learning Module and click on the Week 5
Peer Revision Discussion Board. You
will see your name in a pre-created thread. Click on that thread
and post your rhetorical
analysis. Your draft should be posted in the board no later than
Thursday. This peer revision is
NOT an optional. Posting your draft and providing feedback to
your peers is a 50 point
assignment.
5. After your group members have posted papers, answer the
following peer revision questions
about each of your group members’ drafts. Try to complete your
reviews by Saturday so that
your peers (and you) can make revisions to your drafts.
a. Does the introduction include all the required elements (hook,
author/title, summary
thesis, critique thesis)?
b. In the analysis sections, does the student review and evaluate
several of the article’s key
points?
c. Are the points that the student makes about the article well-
supported with analysis
and examples?
d. How well does the student sum up the article’s strengths and
weaknesses in the
conclusion?
e. How well does the writer use transitional words, phrases, and

8. sentences to lead the
reader from the section the paper to the next?
f. Does the student properly and accurately paraphrase, quote,
and cite the information
from the article?
6. Take your peer comments and revise your rhetorical analysis
paper. When you have completed
the revision and editing process, submit it for evaluation.
Papers should be submitted using MLA
style paper format. Please see p. 626 in Writing: A Guide or pp.
251-262 in the Brief McGraw-Hill
Handbook for models of papers formatted in MLA paper style.
Please note that papers should
have 1” margins, be double-spaced, and use a professional font
(Times New Roman, Arial,
Calibri, etc). When submitting your documents for final
grading, please save them as Microsoft
Word documents (.doc) or rich text files (.rtf).
7. Go to the Week 12 Learning Module and click on the Week
12: Final Draft Submission. Attach
the document you created and submit it using the course
Assignment tool on this link. This final
draft should be submitted no later than 11:59 pm next Monday.
8. If a student fails to submit the final draft on the assigned due
date, the paper will be subject to
the late work policies outlined on the syllabus.

9. NOTES FOR WEEK 5
This week we will draft the analysis, introduction, and
conclusion of your paper of the rhetorical analysis
paper and submit the final draft of your paper. You will also
give and receive peer feedback.
Writing the Analysis
In Week 4, we summarized a written article from our textbook
and began brainstorming for a rhetorical
analysis paper on that same article. Now we will turn those
notes into a full draft. Most of Chapter 9 in
Writing: A Guide is devoted to strategies for developing a good
analysis of the article’s strengths and
weaknesses.
Remember too that the student example at the end of Chapter 9
is a rhetorical analysis of the Mark
Winne article we read last week. The student sample paper at
the end of Chapter 9 is doing exactly with
the Winne article what you are assigned to do with the article
you have chosen, so you have a very clear
model of follow.
Drafting the analysis
Once you have a good set of notes about the article, you can
then draft body paragraphs. Follow the
step by step process outlined below. You do not have to analyze
every part of the article, but you should
write 3 or 4 solid paragraphs for this part of the body.
In essence, an analysis of your article evaluates the strengths
and weaknesses of it. Chapter 9 suggests

10. that you consider the following:
and weaknesses of those
strategies
Questions to help guide your Analysis
Although you are not required to formally answer and submit all
of the following questions, answering
them on your own to create a good set of notes to build upon.
You have much freedom in deciding what
you want to focus upon in your analysis, but you should provide
a thorough and insightful breakdown on
the article. Follow the process in Chapter 9.
Questions for evaluating logical arguments
convincing evidence?
responsibly by presenting them in context
and by avoiding half-truths and incomplete evidence?

11. either/or situation?
basis of too little evidence?
ter makes comparisons, do they emphasize relevant,
significant similarities, or are they
false analogies that focus on irrelevant or insignificant
similarities?
-effect relationship, is it
clearly causal as opposed to merely
temporal (related in time of occurrence only)?
Questions for evaluating emotional appeals
—terms that needlessly
and irresponsibly evoke negative
connotations?
ponent’s character rather
than focusing primarily on the
issues?
one step will inevitably lead to
another and ultimately result in some type of disaster, thus
evoking the fear of the slippery
slope or domino effect?
either/or situation (the America—
‘love it or leave it’ approach)?

12. over?
Questions for evaluating the credibility of a writer
background to be considered a
legitimate source?
tify
sources clearly?
association?
him or her?
Completing the draft
then add an
introduction and conclusion. In a
rhetorical analysis, you have a two-part thesis. The first part is
a summary thesis that captures
the main idea in the article you are analyzing. Remember, this
sentence should reflect the
author’s main idea, not your own. After you have completed the
summary thesis, you should
draft an analysis thesis. The analysis thesis should offer your
overall evaluation of the article
and should reflect the questions you addressed in the body of
your rhetorical analysis: is the
article well-written and do you agree with it? After you have
completed these two theses, you

13. now have most of your introduction written. What you still
need to add is an attention-getting
device—sometimes known as a hook. Good analysis essays
always begin by grabbing the
reader’s attention and by introducing the topic. What I have
always done is copy, or emulate,
openings that I like or think are effective. Generally, I try to
incorporate humor into my hooks—
though often it is satirical or biting humor rather than light-
hearted humor. Why? Because I
respond to humor myself. So it might not be a bad idea to look
at the opening paragraphs of
several of the essays in the books to get some ideas for how you
might open. It is also a good
idea to make your hook match the tone of your essay and
subject matter. After you have
written the hook and two theses statements, put it all together
into one coherent introduction
section. I say section on purpose; you might find that your
introduction needs to be longer than
a single paragraph—its length will likely depend upon how
involved your hook is. Also,
remember to accurately give the author’s full name and the
article title in the introductory
section.
the introduction, you can now draft the
conclusion. In a rhetorical analysis,
the overall purpose of a conclusion is to emphasize and
complete your overall evaluation of the
article. Just as you’ve started strongly with a “hook,” you also

14. want to end your essay
powerfully with a “closer.” Though it is not absolutely
necessary to do so, connecting your
hook to your closer is a good idea. This coming back to where
you began gives your reader the
sense that something has been completed.
you have completed your introduction and conclusion,
it is time to put everything you
have drafted into a single essay. Your complete draft of the
rhetorical analysis paper should
have three parts: an introduction, an analysis, and a conclusion.
Feel free to make any changes
necessary to your draft to make it work.
and do it in huge blocks. Set
yourself small, manageable goals. You also need to remember
that there are certain basic
organizational and content requirements of the assignment.
Your goal is ultimately to offer a
fair, thorough analysis of the strengths and weaknesses OF THE
ARTICLE, not the author, not the
issue, but the ARTICLE itself.
are several ways your piece can be
structured—below are a few examples.

15. Choose the structure that works best with what you want do say
about the article, and once you
choose a pattern, stick to it. Remember too that you need to
offer both strengths and
weaknesses to establish your own credibility (though you can
certainly lean more one way than
the other), and that you need to avoid falling into inappropriate
logical and emotional appeals in
your own analysis
Organizational Options for the Rhetorical Analysis
OPTION A
I. Intro
a. Hook; author/title
b. summary thesis: article’s main idea
c. analysis thesis: your overall evaluation of the piece
II. Body (Analysis of the article)
a. Point one of the article
i. restate point
ii. offer an analysis of its strengths and/or weaknesses

16. b. Point two
i. restate point
ii. offer an analysis of its strengths and/or weaknesses
c. Point three
i. restate point
ii. offer an analysis of its strengths and/or weaknesses
III. Conclusion
a. overall evaluation of the article
Option B
I. Intro
a. Hook; author/title
b. summary thesis: article’s main idea
c. analysis thesis: your overall evaluation of the piece
II. Body
a. Analysis of credibility of the author/article
i. authorial background
ii. tone/language

17. b. Analysis of the logical appeals in the article
i. valid logical appeals
ii. use of evidence
c. Analysis of the emotional appeals in the article
i. tone/language
ii. valid emotional appeals
III. Conclusion
a. overall evaluation of the article
Option C
I. Intro
a. Hook; author/title
b. summary thesis: article’s main idea
c. analysis thesis: your overall evaluation of the piece
II. Body
a. Analysis of author’s background and intended audience
b. Analysis of article’s structure and clarity
c. Analysis of article’s tone and language

18. d. Analysis of article’s use of evidence and reason
III. Conclusion
a. overall evaluation of the article