21 Rhetorical Analysis Essay – One Text

You will provide a rhetorical analysis of a single text by responding to its arguments, evidence, and effectiveness. The text may be an article, essay, speech or other work provided by your instructor, or your instructor may ask you to choose a text yourself.

Your rhetorical analysis should focus on examining how effectively the text persuades its intended audience through the rhetorical appeals of logos (logic/reasoning), ethos (writer’s credibility), and pathos (emotional appeals).

The purpose is to demonstrate your ability to carefully analyze rhetorical strategies used in the text and provide an evaluation of their effectiveness or ineffectiveness through reasoned critique. The key is providing an insightful examination of the text’s rhetorical strategies rather than just summarizing its content. Your analysis should demonstrate thorough comprehension and a reasoned critique.

Introduction

Open your essay by introducing the text you are analyzing and establishing the issue or argument it addresses. Provide brief background information to orient the reader. End your introduction with a clear thesis statement that previews your overall evaluation of the text’s rhetorical effectiveness.

Body Paragraphs

Each body paragraph should focus on a different rhetorical strategy, appeal, or area of critique regarding the text. Possibilities include:

• Evaluating the logic, reasoning, and use of evidence (logos)
• Assessing the credibility and authority of the writer/speaker (ethos)
• Analyzing emotional appeals and persuasive techniques (pathos)
• Examining the text’s assumptions, underlying values, or ideologies
• Identifying effective or ineffective use of style, tone, examples, etc.
• Strengths, weaknesses, or limitations in the scope of the argument

Develop each point with specific examples and quotes from the text to illustrate and support your analysis.

Conclusion

Synthesize your main points by reiterating your overall evaluation from the thesis. You may also reflect on how well the text achieved its purposes for its intended audience, what could have made it more persuasive, or how it challenged or reinforced your own perspectives.

Work Cited

Don’t forget to provide a full citation for the text you’re analyzing! When you just have one source, you’ll call this your “Work Cited.”