Rhetorical Analysis
IntermediateRhetorical analysis is the systematic examination of how a text, speech, or visual work uses language, structure, and strategy to persuade an audience. Rather than asking what an author says, rhetorical analysis asks how and why the author says it and to what effect. This discipline is central to the College Board AP English Language and Composition course.
The foundation lies in the rhetorical situation: speaker, audience, subject, purpose, and context (SOAPSTone). Analysts identify Aristotle's three appeals -- ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) -- and evaluate how the writer orchestrates them.
Beyond the appeals, rhetorical analysis examines diction, syntax, figurative language, rhetorical devices (anaphora, chiasmus, antithesis, parallelism), tone, and structural choices. The ability to move from identification to analysis of effect is the hallmark of strong rhetorical analysis.
In academic and professional contexts, rhetorical analysis equips individuals to read critically, write persuasively, and evaluate arguments in media, politics, advertising, and public discourse.
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Learning objectives
- •Analyze how writers deploy ethos, pathos, and logos to achieve specific purposes for specific audiences
- •Evaluate the effect of diction, syntax, and rhetorical devices on meaning and persuasion in nonfiction texts
- •Apply SOAPSTone and rhetorical situation analysis to systematically examine any persuasive text
- •Construct written rhetorical analysis that moves beyond identification to analysis of effect and purpose
Recommended Resources
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Books
Everything's an Argument
by Andrea A. Lunsford & John J. Ruszkiewicz
Thank You for Arguing
by Jay Heinrichs
The Elements of Eloquence
by Mark Forsyth
They Say / I Say
by Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein
Words Like Loaded Pistols
by Sam Leith
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