Rhetorical Analysis
Explain how writers use rhetorical choices to achieve purpose for a specific audience and situation.
A lesson of English 11, in Rhetoric and Argument, about 10 minutes.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to write a full rhetorical analysis essay that examines how a speaker uses specific rhetorical strategies to achieve a purpose for an audience.
What Rhetorical Analysis Is (and Isn't)
Rhetorical analysis is NOT:
- A summary of what the text says
- An argument about whether you agree with the author
- A list of rhetorical devices with no connection to purpose
Rhetorical analysis IS:
- An analysis of HOW a speaker/writer uses language to achieve a specific purpose
- An argument about the effectiveness and meaning of those choices
- A close reading of specific strategies in relation to context, audience, and purpose
The Central Question
"How does this text use specific rhetorical strategies — choices of evidence, tone, structure, appeals, diction, and syntax — to achieve its purpose with its intended audience?"
Every claim in a rhetorical analysis must answer this question.
Analyzing Specific Strategies
Appeals (ethos, pathos, logos): How does the speaker establish credibility? Appeal to emotion? Present evidence?
Diction: What word choices reveal the speaker's attitude? What connotations do key words carry?
Syntax: How does sentence structure create emphasis, pacing, or rhythm?
Structure: How is the argument organized? Why does this order work?
Tone: What attitude does the speaker project toward the subject and audience?
Evidence types: Anecdotes? Statistics? Analogies? Historical examples?
Example: Analyzing King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Context: King writes to eight white clergymen who published a letter criticizing his methods. His audience is both those eight clergymen (directly) and a broader white moderate audience (indirectly). His purpose is to justify direct action and refute the call for patience.
Ethos strategy: King establishes credentials early — he is not just a preacher but an academic, a student of theology, responding to "fellow clergymen." He invokes Augustine, Aquinas, and other authorities his audience will respect.
Pathos strategy: King describes the experience of explaining segregation to his young daughter — "the answers you give her when she asks, 'Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?'" — forcing the intellectual debate into the lived, embodied experience of a child.