If so, it may be a rhetorical analysis.
The rhetorical analysis focuses on how a text is written, while the literary analysis looks at the meaning of the text.
The goal of rhetorical analysis is to look at a non-fiction work to determine how the material tries to influence the audience. The main body of your essay is where the discussion is presented and where you argue for your thesis. Whatever you bring up in the body of your essay should refer back to what was presented in the introductory section. Typically the body has three paragraphs but if you are making a more complicated argument as part of an in-depth academic discourse, then you’ll need more paragraphs to flesh out your stance. The more deeply you study the text and the more likely you study the rhetorical analyses of others, the more likely you can come up with insightful or interesting commentary. The concluding section of your rhetorical analysis should restate your main argument and whether the text achieved its purpose. You may also want to consider the broader implications of the text and its place in history. Like all essays, the analysis starts with an introduction that informs the reader of what to expect. It should lead the reader straight to what text is being analysed. Make sure to present compelling background context that sparks the reader’s interest and take the time to compose a solid thesis statement that can anchor the analysis. Choose your thesis statement wisely! It is important for the thesis statement to be narrow, concise and make it clear to the reader what you are arguing for without unnecessary exposition. The introduction sets the tone for the remainder of the essay so make sure to get all your substantive thoughts in this paragraph. For example, the literary analysis might examine the use of symbols in a book, while the rhetorical analysis would look at how the author uses language to convey their message.
A rhetorical analysis essay should consist of the following:
Finally, write your rhetorical analysis. This will involve synthesizing your thoughts on the text and presenting your conclusions in a clear and concise manner.
To write a rhetorical analysis essay example:
Next, draw conclusions about the text based on your rhetorical analysis. This involves considering the overall effectiveness of the text and determining whether the author achieved their purpose.
What does it show or how does it demonstrate rhetoric?
Start to zoom in on the actual text in more detail, break it into parts and study how the parts combine to create an effect. To do that successfully, you will need to go over the work you are analysing more than once. Investigate its purpose and goals. Identify and discuss the different appeals, literary devices and supporting evidence used by the author. Provide examples of these and determine whether or not they were effective in getting the point across. Determine and discuss if the author was successful in creating a persuasive argument for his stance. Once you’ve done that, you can start forming an analysis.
A thesis statement for rhetorical analysis has three main objectives:
The claims, support, and warrants are the key components of an argument, and understanding them is essential to your rhetorical analysis.
The rhetorical analysis essay outline:
Your task is to produce a rhetorical analysis of one of the pieces (or pair of pieces) listed below. Your goal is to show how the essay, debate, or story's structure, rhetorical appeals, and strategies attempt to persuade us of its/their point of view. In your essay you should have a clear thesis of your own about the piece (or pair of pieces) you are analyzing and supply strong textual evidence to support your thesis. I would suggest that before you begin you read the guidelines below and the Evaluation Rubric that we will use to assess essays in this course (in the Course Materials section of the web site). There you will find the six principle criteria for a successful essay.
You want to be a better writer, but analyzing rhetoric is hard.
A rhetorical analysis is an examination of how a text persuades us of its point of view. It focuses on identifying and investigating the way a text communicates, what strategies it employs to connect to an audience, frame an issue, establish its stakes, make a particular claim, support it, and persuade the audience to accept the claim. It is not, as we have noted, an analysis of what a text says but of what strategies it uses to communicate effectively. You must, of course, begin your analysis with what the text says—its argument—but the work of the essay is to show how the text persuades us of its position. You might think of the piece you choose to analyze as a particular kind of engine whose machinations produce particular results. An analysis of the engine examines all the parts, how they work in isolation, together, etc. to see how the engine does what it does, or makes what it makes.