whatHOWwhy
Your role in rhetorical analysis is to infer why an author chooses to use certain rhetorical strategies. Therefore, your job is to identify the strategy, explain how it is used, and then determine why that strategy was selected.
WHAT STRATEGY DOES THE AUTHOR USE?
Seriously, what? Anything, literally anything, an author does with his words is a strategy. Notice a bulleted list that feels important - it's a strategy. See a metaphor in paragraph three that stands out - it's a strategy. The author uses subsections to organize the information - guess what, it's a strategy. As are all of the schemes, tropes, diction, and syntax that we've studied.
HOW DOES THE AUTHOR USE THE STRATEGY?
This is where you need evidence. So the author uses figurative language - how? So the author uses powerful diction - how? You need to ensure you tag, embed, and explain the minimum amount of the author's text as possible while ensuring your explanation makes sense. DO NOT slap a quote into a paragraph randomly. DO NOT feel obligated to use an entire sentence when all you need are two or three words from the sentence. Your explanation of how an author uses a device should be more prevalent in the paragraph than the example from the text you provide.
WHY DID THE AUTHOR CHOOSE TO USE THAT PARTICULAR STRATEGY?
Sometimes students will say "so the audience will understand his message" to answer why an author chooses and uses a particular strategy, but this is very weak analysis. Essentially EVERYTHING is about the author trying to get his message across, so you're not wrong, but you also lack the specificity needed in explaining why a specific strategy was used. Consider the following whys:
WHAT STRATEGY DOES THE AUTHOR USE?
Seriously, what? Anything, literally anything, an author does with his words is a strategy. Notice a bulleted list that feels important - it's a strategy. See a metaphor in paragraph three that stands out - it's a strategy. The author uses subsections to organize the information - guess what, it's a strategy. As are all of the schemes, tropes, diction, and syntax that we've studied.
HOW DOES THE AUTHOR USE THE STRATEGY?
This is where you need evidence. So the author uses figurative language - how? So the author uses powerful diction - how? You need to ensure you tag, embed, and explain the minimum amount of the author's text as possible while ensuring your explanation makes sense. DO NOT slap a quote into a paragraph randomly. DO NOT feel obligated to use an entire sentence when all you need are two or three words from the sentence. Your explanation of how an author uses a device should be more prevalent in the paragraph than the example from the text you provide.
WHY DID THE AUTHOR CHOOSE TO USE THAT PARTICULAR STRATEGY?
Sometimes students will say "so the audience will understand his message" to answer why an author chooses and uses a particular strategy, but this is very weak analysis. Essentially EVERYTHING is about the author trying to get his message across, so you're not wrong, but you also lack the specificity needed in explaining why a specific strategy was used. Consider the following whys:
- a strategy is used to build the tone (so the audience will understand the message)
- a strategy is used to establish pathos (so the audience will understand the message)
- a strategy is used to logically organize the logos (so the audience will understand the message)
REMEMBER!
WHAT = SUMMARY (1/3 OF WHAT YOU SHOULD DO)
WHY + HOW = ANALYSIS (2/3 OF WHAT YOU SHOULD DO)
WHAT = SUMMARY (1/3 OF WHAT YOU SHOULD DO)
WHY + HOW = ANALYSIS (2/3 OF WHAT YOU SHOULD DO)