In Class Free Write: Rhetorical Analysis

The term rhetorical analysis has come about in about every single Literature and English class I have ever taken, but the exact term is not always defined correctly. When I first hear the phrase rhetorical analysis I begin to think of research papers. One must take information and research and go even further with it and truely pick apart the meaning of the information and what it means. Rhetorical analysis means taking all the parts of an argument and piecing their meaning together to see if it is effective in persuading the audience. An argument has many different piece and appeals behind, which we learned in our last chapter and using rehtorical analysis takes it even further. A good way to begin this process is to take the parts that are interesting to you or that are unique. This allows you to start unfolding the argument and analyzing it piece by piece. There is always an agenda to an argument, meaning there is always a reason the author wrote the piece whether it was to persuade or just for enjoyment there is always an idea behind it and information the author is trying to get out. One you analyize the parts that are obvious you can then look more at the detail of the work. You could examine the language the author uses and try to decide why they chose the words and style that they used. The style and word choice of a paper creates an overall sense and feeling of the work so it is often the most important aspect of a work.