Rhetorical Analysis

how an author argues rather than what an author argues?

focus on“rhetorical”features

• Author’s situation
• purpose for writing
• intended audience
• kinds of claims

show how the argument tries to persuade the
reader

analyze both “with the grain” and “against the grain”

“with the grain,”you “believe” everything the author tells you

simply and neutrally present the author’s main points

making note of the features and Mark examples

“With the Grain”

construct a short summary of the author’s main argument to orient the reader in points you will make in your analysis

“against the grain”

you pose challenges to the author’s claims and techniques

Angle of vision

• How does the author control what the reader sees?
• where does the author use words with certain connotations or create a certain tone or style?
• How does the author reveal her point of view?

EXAMPLE
Tompkins attempts to make her research process look objective: she shows the reader how she systematically consults a wide range of historical accounts, from primary sources written by colonists to analyses by historians trained in differing schools of thought. Ultimately, however, the reader can only see her research process through Tompkins’s own perspective—which is the point she implicitly arrives at in the end of her essay. The unusual use of first-person in this academic article highlights this insight. For instance, when she writes, “I did not care to have any real exemplars interfering with what I already knew” (101), she draws attention to the fact that her personal feelings influenced how she approached her research.

Example

Tompkins cannot completely escape her academic persona, however. Her use of terms like“antifoundationalist epistemology”(103) shows her academic training and works against her attempts to be accessible to the general reader.

Purpose or Rhetorical Situation

1. What is motivating the author to write this piece?

2. Does the author want to...

• -express a certain idea or opinion?
• -respond to a particular occasion or another text?
• explore a topic or inquire into a problem?
•- inform the reader about a topic that is misunderstood?
• -analyze, synthesize, and interpret data?
• -persuade the reader of an argument?
• -reflect on a topic?
• -advocate for change?

Example

Tompkins has multiple purposes in writing this piece: she is responding to the problem of finding the “truth” in historical accounts, informing the reader about how history is constructed, reflecting on the problems of escaping a single perspective, and trying to persuade the reader to be more skeptical in the research process.

Audience

To whom is the author writing?

Example

Tompkins is writing to an academic audience familiar with the process of historical research, though her simplified language and use of first-person experience make the essay accessible to a broader audience that might include undergraduate students and the educated general reader. The author is reflecting on the process of how historical knowledge is formed and wants the audience to think about what might seem to be a straightforward process in a new way.

Claims

What kinds of claims is the author making and where?

Claims of fact

based on objective facts but are sometimes interpreted by the author for the purpose of argument

EXAMPLE
The author may be emphasizing a statistic that seems to support her argument but could be used equally well on the other side.

Claims of value

present an evaluation or judgment of a situation. They often use value-laden words
like variations of “good,” “bad,” “moral,” “immoral,” “beautiful,” “ugly,” etc.

EXAMPLE
“Developing the natural wilderness in Alaska would irreversibly mar the beauty of the land.”This statement suggests that the author values the beauty of the natural wilderness over the potential energy sources that could come with development

Claims of policy

often call for action and use “should” or “must” statements

EXAMPLE
“As a state-funded institution, the university should stop outsourcing jobs to overseas companies and hire in-state employees to bolster the local economy.”The claim advocates for a change in current policy. Tompkins’s main claims involve her analysis of how other authors have interpreted facts. Her essay ends with a major claim of value regarding the necessity of moving beyond moral relativism to making truth claims based on the best possible reconciliation of different points of view

Rhetorical appeals

Ethos
refers to an author’s creation of a credible persona
How does the author establish credibility or authority?

EXAMPLE
Tomkins systematically lays out her research process in narrative form, showing the reader how many different sources she consulted in writing the article, establishing her professional credibility

refers to appeals to logic
How does the author establish the logic of his argument?
EXAMPLE The logos of Tompkins’s argument is established in a similar way to her ethos: her systematic explanation of her research process creates a logical sequence for the reader to follow

Pathos

refers to appeals to emotion
Where does the author try to emotionally engage the reader in the argument?

EXAMPLE
Unusually for an academic essay, Tompkins begins with a personal account of her childhood impressions of“Indians” and continues to narrate the rest of the essay in first person. This narration establishes a more personal bond with the reader than most other academic writing, which generally avoids personal anecdotes

"with the grain"

Summarize briefly what the speaker's main argument is in one short paragraph

"Against the Grain" Questions

1. How does the speaker control what the audience sees? In other words, where does the speaker use words with certain connotations or create a certain tone or style? How does the speaker reveal her point of view?

2. What is motivating the speaker to write this piece? Does the speaker want to express a certain idea or opinion?
• respond to a particular occasion or another text? explore a topic or inquire into a problem? inform the reader about a topic that is misunderstood? analyze, synthesize, and interpret data? persuade the reader of an argument? reflect on a topic advocate for change?

3. evaluate for ethos, pathos, and logos