The Secret To Creating A Great English Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Rhetoric is the art of persuasive writing and speaking. Thus, rhetorical analysis lies in breaking a particular speech or piece of writing into parts and determining the strategies used by an author to achieve certain goals. If your task is to analyze a book, film, speech, or an article in terms of its influence on the target audience, use the following tips to write an excellent rhetorical analysis essay.
- Read the object of your analysis carefully.
- Write the introduction.
- Develop a thesis statement.
- Organize the body paragraphs.
- Write in chronological order.
Firstly, you should get a clear idea of the author’s purpose, or in other words, what he or she wants from the audience. Then, try to understand a kind of audience chosen by the author. After that, find and underline the strategies employed in the text that make it effective and persuasive.
You should let your reader know from the start that your essay is a rhetorical analysis. Give the context that will lead them to a better understanding of the matter for analysis. You need to provide a brief summary of the text you’re going to scrutinize. You don’t have to describe everything in detail because you’ll have an opportunity to do this in the body. It’s necessary to identify when, where, and why the text appeared and at whom it’s aimed.
A thesis statement is the main sentence of the introduction. It’s an assertion of your opinion and a concise statement of your purpose. Frequently, students get the prompts from their instructors that contain the questions to be answered in your essay. An answer to one of those questions can make a good thesis. Generally, you should claim whether the author’s strategies have an effect on the audience or not. Another way to state your thesis is to choose a specific perspective from which you’ll analyze the author’s rhetoric.
There are three rhetorical appeals (means of persuasion): logos, ethos, and pathos. You can dedicate each of your body paragraphs to analyzing a particular appeal. Present a major claim and assess whether the amount of evidence is sufficient in the paragraph dealing with logos (logic). Analyze how the author takes advantage of his reputable status in the ethos paragraph. Your pathos paragraph should analyze how the text appeals to the reader’s emotions and how it enhances the argument.
Start analyzing your object from its beginning and up till the end. Present examples and evidence from the source in that order they appear there. This way you’ll make the content of your essay more logical.