Tips on Writing an Excellent Rhetorical Analysis

Students often receive a task to write a rhetorical analysis. In most cases, students are required to conduct an analysis of a particular article, book, text, film, artwork, TV Show, or any other work, which contains some information and arguments.   

Rhetorical analysis refers to a written criticism, which includes the rhetoric study fundamentals. They help to identify the connection between the work, the author, and the readers. Rhetoric is considered to be the reasoning art. This study teaches correct ways of informing, convincing, and motivating the opponents in a particular situation. 

In case you do not know how to properly start writing a rhetoric analysis, it is recommended to identify the author presents his arguments and find out whether you agree or disagree with the author’s arguments. After that, it is better to identify certain approaches used by the author for convincing the readers in his views.

Usually the rhetorical analysis is comprised of three components. They are as follows: the potential readers, the author, and the message. When you write a rhetorical analysis, you should identify these three components and understand how they relate to each other.

In order to properly organize your rhetorical analysis, you need to write your essay in a five-paragraph format. For example, a 4-8 page rhetorical analysis of some literature work may be structured as follows:

• Introduction part: the literature work can be discussed in brief and a thesis statement can be provided in the end of the introductory paragraph.
• Logos: an important statement of the selected literature work should be defined. Then three reasons should be provided to explain its importance. 
• Logos: assess the main evidence in the literature work, which provides support for three main reasons.
• Ethos: conduct an analysis of the ways the author proves the credibility.  
• Pathos: review whether the author uses emotions in his work in order to create the emotional appeal.
• Pathos: analyze whether certain visual aspects appeal to the aesthetics of the literature work.
• Conclusion: conduct an analysis of the main arguments and their effects on the readers. Evaluate whether the targeted readers are ready to understand and accept the proposed arguments and deal with the consequences upon their acceptance.

You can write a rhetorical analysis using a few ways:

• Make a summary of the major argument.
• The main argument can be divided in shorter parts.
• Indentify every point that makes a contribution to the thesis.

Or:

• Indentify the main thesis.
• Determine the main argument and its subject.
• Choose the text parts related to the main argument.

In the above-mentioned approaches, it is recommended to conduct an analysis of the ways the author makes the main argument and provides details in its support.

Remember that you should use a concise and brief style for your rhetorical analysis. A formal tone is recommended to be used in case you need your rhetorical analysis to be strong, informative, and convincing.