Rhetorical analysis of text

Essay Two – Outline

Introduction: Think of the introduction as an inverted triangle, starting out broad, and whittling down to a specific point: your purpose statement. Your introduction should HIT (Hook, Information, Thesis) your readers.

I. Hook

· Make a general statement about the topic of the text you are analyzing. Create a “hook” or an attention getter, which briefly explains the broad aspects of the topic. Remember, the hook often does not discuss the text you are analyzing specifically, but addresses the topic of the text more generally. Below is a list of different types of attention getters:

· Ask a question

· A quotation from a different text

· An interesting or shocking fact or statistic

· A pertinent example

· A personal anecdote

· Vivid description

· Definition

II. Information

· Introduce author’s name, brief personal background, and the title of the text

· What is the author’s purpose? (Use a strong verb: investigates, researches, explores, presents, demonstrates, employs…)

III. Thesis

· What is the author’s overall thesis? Try to use templates such as:

· (…persuades us to believe…)

· (…makes us think about …)

· (…confronts us with …)

· (…challenges us with …)

· Make a clear “Purpose Statement”

· Explain what YOU are going to talk about in this paper.

· Define your paper so as to guide you as the writer as well as your audience (Use “metadiscourse” such as “I will examine…” “In this paper I intend to…”).

Body: During this section of your paper, you must present your central analysis. All paragraphs should be highly structured and focused. If necessary, briefly summarize information that may be unfamiliar to readers, but more importantly, analyze the author’s text.

I. Claims

· Identify 3 to 4 major claims the author uses to support the argument. For each claim, do the following:

· Identify the claim, in your own words, that you will discuss in this paragraph

· Use an example/evidence from the text to illustrate this claim (Remember to create a “quotation sandwich” as stated in They Say/I Say, pages 39-49. Useful templates are on pages 166-67.)

· Briefly identify the type of example/evidence the author presents to the readers

· Quote or paraphrase the example/evidence

· Explain why the example is important/relevant/useful.

· Comment on how the example is related to the claim under evaluation

II. Strategies

· Identify 3 to 4 strategies the author uses to support the argument.

· Interpret these strategies in terms of the overall argument. How does the author organize the text? What filming techniques are used? What other visual, written, and auditory strategies does the author use?

· Use metadiscourse, i.e. language like: “for example,” “It seems that,” “Here, X implies,” “Apparently, he is interested in,” “It appears as if,” “One notable strategy used often is,” “As is evident when he,” “According to X,” etc. (See They Say/I Say templates, page 165)

III. Appeals

· Examine how the author uses ethos, pathos, and logos (See “Ethos, Pathos, Logos” document on ANGEL).

· Evaluate the effectiveness of each appeal in regard to the overall argument.

Overall, remain OBJECTIVE as possible. You are creating an analysis of someone else’s argument, not an argument of your own.

Conclusion: If your introduction is an inverted triangle, your conclusion is a triangle—you start at the end of the evidence/strategies and then branch out to the larger implications of your analysis. Your conclusion should be approximately 1-2 paragraphs and should TIE (Thesis, Ideas, Extension) everything together.

I. Thesis

· Reestablish your “purpose statement”

II. Ideas

· Briefly restate the key ideas you examined in your essay

III. Extension

· Discuss the overall significance of the text. There are a few things you should emphasize in this section:

· What is the significance of the text – why does it matter (at this moment/in general/to you)? Or why is it irrelevant? Explain.

· Consider the effectiveness of the text – has the author impacted your thinking/views on this topic? Does the author make it work? How and why did he or she attempt to persuade you? Did it open your eyes or change your mind about anything? Were there any elements that you found particularly powerful? Particularly weak? Was it the evidence? Was it the emotional connection? Was it the credibility of the author?