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The meaning of rhetorical essay or rhetorical analysis essay can strongly be related to the term “rhetoric,” and its use can be traced back to Ancient Greece during the days of Aristotle. It was a period when influential people saw how it could be used to shape societies and effect change. They primarily utilized the appropriate rhetorical techniques during this period to make people believe them or hold onto their standpoint.
For more than two millennia, people have continued to employ the word “rhetoric” as a persuasion technique to influence and appeal to people, especially through writing. This technique helps connect the audiences and convince them to believe a specific message or point of view.
What is a rhetorical analysis essay? A rhetorical essay or rhetorical analysis essay does not deviate from this idea. It is a distinctive form of writing that enables the author to use effective and persuasive methods while looking analytically at the topic in greater detail and proving a specific perspective. In this form of essay, you analyze a text for its rhetorical writing or use of rhetoric, determine the techniques used and their effectiveness generally. You are not expected to add your opinions on the provided topics or dive into your point of view or standpoint on the subject. Your goal will specifically be to analyze the use of persuasion by the author.
A rhetorical analysis essay demands critical thinking; you may find oneself holding one’s pen with a blank page or sitting right in front of the computer for hours thinking how to go about it. This implies that it may sometimes be exhausting based on the fact that it is "a whole new ball game“— one should know that there is a clear difference between knowing what rhetorical writing is and delving pragmatically into it.
Nonetheless, with appropriate guide and adherence to the step-by-step way of writing a rhetorical analysis essay, you will come up with impressive content.
One of the important questions to ask in this area is “how to write a rhetorical analysis essay?” There are several steps one can take to ensure a high-quality essay:
Point out the persuasion strategy
Aristotle provided three elements that should be found in any written or spoken communication that aims to persuade the audience. These elements include ethos, pathos, and logos. Knowing these elements can aid one’s analysis and also assist in identifying the rhetorical appeals used by the author to convince the audience.
Ethos deals with ethics (used to convince the reader of the credibility of the author); pathos deals with emotions (evokes an emotional response in the reader); logos deals with logic (helps convince the reader via logical reasoning and facts). There is a possibility that the author may engage in more than one mode of persuasion. Your goal will be to determine the specific ones used by the author, explain the reasons, and identify if such an author was in any way effective in persuading.
Read multiple times actively
Reading actively the text to analyze is one of the most important steps under how to write a rhetorical essay. To make it easy, you can adopt the SOAPSTone strategy that will help you remember the elements to find and identify in the text. Reading multiple times will help with an effective analysis of the text.
Write a well-defined thesis statement
It is important to formulate a thesis statement that shows both your position and interpretation of the text. Your goal will be to provide a clear answer to how the writer was able to convince the reader effectively and/or how such a writer’s goal is met. The thesis statement leads the way the writing will go. This is why it must be precise and arguable, as there will be a need to prove and justify it in the succeeding paragraphs with various evidence and instances from the text.
Arguable thesis means that it can be argued. It must either state or refute an argument about your topic. To be debateable, a thesis must have some possibility of being true. However, the thesis should not be universally accepted as true. Instead, it should be something that people can disagree with. A thesis can be both an observation or an opinion.
observation + opinion (the "why") = thesis
Seeing if your thesis creates a powerful antithesis is an excellent approach to determine how strong it is.
Common thesis pitfalls:
Create an outline
Creating an outline is integral for a rhetorical analysis essay. The outline will assist with the logical flow of arguments through the paragraphs of the essay to come without missing anything out. It will contain every important step in the writing process showing the idea to be presented in the essay to explore.
Engage the appropriate writing style
Every great and perfect essay contains sentences that obey the rules of grammar and use the right register to make the reading interesting. The tone is expected to be objective, and the expressions ought to be in the third person with present-tense usage. The text must be analyzed using sufficient evidence and not just summarizing your point of view.
Proofread and edit
Ensure you leave enough time for proofreading and editing after writing. Take your time to check if all necessary points are covered, if the flow through the paragraphs is logical, and to see if it is free from plagiarism or grammatical errors.
The proper organization of a good rhetorical analysis essay is attributed to how it is structured. The way this form of essay is structured is somehow different from other forms of essays as it adds one important section to its structure. You can check an example of a rhetorical analysis essay to see. The structure is the following:
The thesis statement is the summary of the arguments to be presented about the techniques of the author. Use a statement to sum it up, covering every method adopted by the author and their general effectiveness.
Try as much as possible to make the introduction attractive. In the introduction, the author presents the idea that’s going to be analyzed. Besides, it is a section where any relevant or necessary background information is uncovered.
The body paragraphs must be well-organized. You can section the paragraphs by technique (one paragraph for each of the elements — ethos, pathos, logos, or other prominent technique the author may have used). Using quotations and paraphrasing is also helpful to back up the arguments.
The conclusion is the summary of the analysis. It will be wrong to include new information in this section. In conclusion, restate the thesis in other words, give the summary of the stated points, and close it out with a line that leaves the reader with something to think about.
The most important thing when writing a rhetorical essay is ensuring that the specific demands of the writing task are properly addressed. Because there are many ways to start a rhetorical analysis essay outline correctly, it is therefore not obligatory to adhere to any standard essay structure. It is advisable to follow the following rhetorical essay outline:
Read, analyze, and form notes before starting
your outline
Besides, the rhetorical analysis essay outline template is an easy way to write a paper. Follow the intro-body-conclusion format to get the work done.
The best way to cut down the time spent on researching how to write a rhetorical analysis essay is to get rhetorical analysis essay samples. A rhetorical analysis essay sample (such as an AP rhetorical analysis essay sample) offers explicit and easy-to-follow outlines and format. When writers use the sample of rhetorical analysis essay, they get quickly get the idea of the proper approach, format, and structure and. So, if you need rhetorical essay samples that could help you with your work, you’re at the right place.
There are numerous rhetorical analysis essay topics; however, their complexities may differ. So, to pick a topic, you need to focus on your interest,
pick a topic you are familiar with, do background research, and ask for an instructor’s advice. Besides, it’s advisable to find a rhetorical essay example to know how a rhetorical essay topic can be written. This, perhaps, may enhance your preparation.
The following are some of the examples of rhetorical analysis essays:
1. Rhetorical analysis essay examples (High School Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics)
2. Examples of rhetorical analysis essay (Easy Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics)
3. Rhetorical essays examples (2020 Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics)
4. Rhetorical analysis essay examples (College Rhetorical Analysis Essay Topics)
5. Other essay topics
